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Good morning again :)
This is a good game to refresh now because she is at the age where we will move things along pretty quickly. She did super well with both the treats and the toys…. so onwards to adding the upright was the correct next step.I think she liked the game with the upright in even more, wow! She looked great! She picked up the speed (doesn’t surprise me at all) and was eating the treats so fast I had to check to see if she was even eating them LOL! (She was eating them – eating fast is fine, NOT eating is a problem). And she did a great job leaving the cookies in your hand to go do the wrap, which is great. She had a strong food motivation (yay!) so this game adds some good self-control too!
Next step… try this same thing with the upright and bowls, but with you sitting in a chair. You should start the session with the upright a little closer to you because putting you in a chair might make it harder. But I am confident that she will be fine with you in a chair. This will help us work our way to getting you standing up!
Great job :) Tracy
Good morning!
This is definitely accomplishing our goal of getting her to drive ahead!
Note how on the first several reps she was flanking a bit – I think she lost the visual of the toy and was watching you more, so she had some questions. The video doesn’t show how/when you threw the toy, but my guess is that the toy was on the ground for too long before the game started, so she ended up looking up at you more than looking at the toy. Even 5 seconds is too long 🙂So since it appears that Brad is willing to join our crazy games here, we elect him to be one who does the countdown to the start:
He holds her, you lead out, just like here.
brad yells “ready!”
Then he says “Set” and when he says that… you throw the toy.As the toy lands, he says “GO!” And that’s when you begin running (and saying go) and that is when he lets her go as well.
It all happens really quickly but that way the timing of the toy landing and the running starting will be very quick, so she will be more focused on the toy. That will help her go straighter and flank or look around less.
Let me know if this description makes sense or if I need more coffee. It is fun to add variations for her; she is doing GREAT!
TracyHi!
>>I always feel weird stopping my movement (such as in rally) which I think came through in this exercise, so again a mechanic I need to work on more. >>
You didn’t look weird at all! I never would have guessed it felt weird if you hadn’t mentioned it. You looked great, and her response showed it. My only suggestion is to try to get the cookie hand just below your knee, so her head and chin is in a neutral/forward position or tipped slightly down, rather than up. The higher feeding position produces a lifted head, which is good for rally or obedience but for agility, the lower head helps more.
>>However, I’m thrilled with how Rogue was reading the decel>
Yes! Rogue was great, maybe thinking it was the easiest game EVER Lol!!!! Good girl!
You don’t need to stop her at your side anymore, you can go directly into the pivot on each rep, doing it just like you did here (letting her get almost all the way to you, then pivotong slowly). The only tweak is to have your hand lower.Great job!
TracyHi!
>>Can’t remember when this course ends.
End of November! But I am going to send out info for a December extension because a bunch of of folks have asked. Stay tuned!
>>Zig zags are going to be a tight fit in the winter training space, but the Organizers fit.>
Yes, I think the ZZs might end up being in a ring rental but the organizers fit nicely!!
Looking at the wraps: he did well figuring out how to do the sit then go over the bar to the PT. You can now have the beep beep of the PT happen as soon as you see his butt hit the sit position, so he can release without looking at you. He was definitely focusing down more!!! I think you will be in the fading stages of the wrap pretty soon!!!
>>Apparently having the PT sitting there makes it hard to sit
I see his sticky questions more on the slice stuff, mainly after the threadles. I like that you did the threadles! I think his sticky stuff came when he got confused about the threadle cue: at :46, 1:27 and 2:08 he didn’t sit and just did the threadle over the bar. I believe it was because you gave the come cue for the threadle, which does indeed mean to come in then go out over the bar. So he did, especially because the sit cue was not super early. Good boy! When the sit cue got added to it, I think he got confused: “wait, does come mean take the jump or not?” so his brain was steaming up a bit LOL!!! And then towards the end he didn’t quite release from the stay – you were saying ‘come’ so he was not sure if he was going to be asked to jump or to sit.
So the best thing to do? Use the physical cues but not the come verbal – the come verbal can come back into the picture when we go to the fading stages.
He did really well when he did sit, so I don’t think it was an organization question at all. He looked good!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
She definitely liked this toy, and it looks like she jumped everything really well!!! So the next step would be to have the toy on the ground before you release her, rather than bring it out as a reward after she is doing the jumps. Think of it as a target for her to look at the whole time. At first, the toy can be stationary and if she is fine with that, you can be dragging it as you release her and you move forward.
If she is happy when the toy is on the ground, you can start the make the angles of the jumps a little harder, by flattening them out (moving the outer wings out away from center by an inch or two at a time, over the course of several sessions).And I am glad you like the resilience games, I am finding them super fun and helpful! 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
I am so glad you had a great vacation!!!!! And maybe the snow will all melt and it will be a warm, clear winter? Haha, a girl can dream LOL!!!I am putting together a December extension because people have asked the same question you asked 🙂 Stayed tuned!
>>Should I continue to work on occasional platform sits & indoor stuff as exercise/maintenance activity a couple of times/week? I’m assuming it doesn’t hurt to revisit that stuff, as long as I’m not overdoing it?>>
Yes – it is all built directly off of conditioning exercises, so even if she does not actually jump, she will still get some great fitness workouts in!
Have fun!
TracyHi!
Sounds like you had a blast at the seminar!!! You can Ripley are doing amazing things together!!!!>>Rip did some great independent push/backside work on some big, fast courses,>>
How did he do with the jumping efforts on those? Looking at the backside zigzags, I think he is doing a great job! Yes, he was having to sort things out a tiny bit each time you made it harder, in terms of that stride before takeoff as he rounded the entry wing. He didn’t struggle, just needed to make the adjustment in organization. But then he did, and it looks pretty easy for him on the next reps. Even with you way ahead and running like mad: no problem. YAY!!!
So with that in mind… I think the bars can start to come up on this zig zag track. Some dogs do get the bars all the way to full height, but that is not important. Close to full height is fine! So going back to the front side zig zags, you can raise the bars 2 inches each session, starting with slightly easier angles then going to harder angles. . When he is happy with the bars at 16 on the front side zigzags with 2 and 3 jumps, you can go back to the 2 jump backsides and have the bars start to come up. I think he has the strength and structure to get the bars to full height, but there is really no rush to do it.
Great job!!!!!
TracyGood morning! Great job with your week one games here!!!!! Nothing egregious happened here at all LOL!
Decel to handler: he is driving in beautifully to the daddy. Yay! Because he has so much power already (but a puppy body) we don’t want him to swing his butt out at all – and always doing the pivot loop will help that. The pivot loop is what you did at :12 by showing the nice decel, getting him on your hand (which was nice and low) doing the slow pivot, then tossing the treat out ahead so he drives out of it.
Any time you tried to reward him straight or after a pivot by stopping, his butt swung out. So, always using the the pivot loop will prevent that and also gets us closer to the tight turn goals 🙂 Plus, you can throw the reward and immediately go into the next rep! That way he is moving in with a lot of speed and you don’t need a stay.Great job going back to this after the toy races, assuming these were edited in the order you did them.
Toy races: On normal toy races… you’re gonna lose. Ha! This is good. So as soon as you see him winning and arriving at the toy, you can turn and go the other direction (front cross) so he can grab the toy and run back to you. When you were moving towards him after he grabbed the toy, he was pushing away from that pressure so having you turn and go the other way will help him bring the toy back more.
Also, we can add a variation! Yay! This variation is designed to get him to drive past you when you are ahead of him but cuing him to drive forward. Picture the ending line of a course, you are a little ahead but there is a 3 jump line straight to the finish… your acceleration and GO GO GO cues should cue him to smoke you and leave you in the dust. This involves passing you! Here is how to add this:
We will need Suzie’s help 🙂
* Start with Suzie about 10 feet behind you.
* You throw the toy as far as you can and look at Bob
* As the toy is landing, you start to yell GO GO GO (or get it, whichever he responds to better is fine for now) and you start to run forward. As you run forward, maintain a little connection back to him so he knows which side to be on
* It is important that you keep running til he passes you and then when he is almost at the toy… turn and run the other way.Let me know if this makes sense! I think he will have no problem passing you, but let me know if he has any questions. Or if you have any questions 😅
Prop send -also looking good! He has good commitment already! One suggestion: don’t start this from a stay, start it from that ready dance moment when he is moving around in front of you. The reasons behind this are that it helps teach them to move from handler focus to obstacle focus, by very clearly showing the cue without needing any type of release to process. Also, the ready dance is more stimulating. 🙂 so we are immediately teaching commitment when the pups are in higher arousal (which is what he will be in when running courses 🙂 )
I think he only had 2 questions on this game:
At 1:25, it looks like your arm & leg were already back before the release, so he was confused. Doing the ready dance with your feet together and hands in front of you, then giving the big step back, arm point, and transfer of connection will give a clearer cue.He had a little trouble leaving your left hand when you were doing the sideways send at 1:50 – add a little more room between you and the prop, so he has to choose between your hand and the prop. It is possible that the hand was a little too close so he was trying to do both 🙂
Next session, you can add in the ready dance with the cookies rewards. If that goes well… do everything the same but use a toy reward instead of cookies. That adds a little more excitement and definitely more self-control to the commitment, because he will have to leave the toy to get the toy.
Excellent job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I think this is the same video as the one above it.
>> . I just couldn’t keep track of which hand to have the toy in to start – sooo confused. LOL I think I should work on this without a dog for a while. >>
When doing one blind, the toy starts (and stays) in the hand on the same side she is starting on. And yes, you can totally do that without the dog 🙂 And by using the toy like that, your shoulder naturally goes back like it would on course, so she was able to see the connection clearly 🙂
T
Hi!
The blinds are looking really good! Yes, the whole “where does the darned toy go” is weird at first but your last 2 reps here were particularly perfect! What you did so well there was you got the blind and the connection REALLY well, great toy placement with the correct hand but also tight to your body so she was tight too. And, on those last 2 reps you kept running and that is ideal (on the first couple, you stopped as you rewarded).
So keep running and rewarding as you did on the last 2 reps! And you can also have Brad hold her so you can have even more head start for more running room.Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Yeah…. you won’t be winning this game any time soon hahaha!
One tweak for you: ask Brad to hold her 10 feet behind you. You will throw the toy ahead like you did here (as far ahead as possible). When it lands, you start to run and you say GO (or get it). As soon as you say that, Brad releases her to drive to the toy. You should be connected to her (looking at her a little) as you run run run.
The reason I suggest this is not because I think you will win (yes, *try* to win but you probably won’t win), but more about teaching her to drive past you. Picture the ending line of a course – you are a little ahead and then as you run and yell GO GO GO, she should drive past you. So having Brad hold her is a good first step to getting that! Let me know if this makes sense!
Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>> I would love to build on her toy drive, but I am much more comfortable in my timing and response when rewarding with food, so the toys are a lot of thinking for me!
I totally relate LOL!! I feel like I need 3 hands sometimes with the toy. We will keep working on ways to feel more comfortable with using the toy, and using toys and food together. The pups also give us feedback because most pups require toys and food to be a bit more separate in the early stages as we balance the value. It is extremely rare that a pup has equal value for both food and toys, and can go back and forth easily.
>>In response to your question about what she enjoys playing with, it tends to be any toy that another dog has or wants (she’s a very submissive girl, but will stare for hours while another dog has a toy and be ready to grab it right when they leave),
This is good! You can entice and engage her with a ‘stolen’ toy from another dog 🙂 Does she love to chase it around if you attach it to something long? Does she like frisbees or toys?
>>and socks. If I have any doubt of if she has toy drive, I just have to see her pounce and pick up and shake a sock and I’m reminded that she really does have the potential.
Ha!!! Ok, you might need to get some long cheap socks, wear them a bit so they get that good sock smell, and try to play with her with socks 🙂
>>I tend to work my toy sessions by letting her pick the toy-I have a bag full of high value toys (lots of variation and fuzz) and bring it out only for toy specific sessions.
This is great! So fun! And you can just throw things around and play, without formal training with the toy. You can slide some ‘formal’ stuff in like the driving forward or toy races when she is jazzed up for a toy she chose.
>>I definitely haven’t been great about bridging the gap between toy play and using toys as a reward, so I’m very excited to see how that develops throughout this class.>>
The first step will be to plan a toy session right before an official session with cookies… the way to do this is to have your cookies and training area set up with whatever you want to do. But separately from it, in a different room or outside or something: play with the toy she chooses or a sock 🙂 and after a super short play moment, you can run to the cookie training spot and do the cookie session. The toy play with then get even more exciting because it might predict the start of the cookie session. And you should keep it in an entirely different location for now, so she is not asked to play with toys yet when there are cookie smells or cookie-based training cues in the environment.
>>With that being said, I used only a toy (no food) for the focus forward game and am very happy with the result. She definitely is not retrieving the toy or anything close to it, but she was super happy to continue tugging with me when I grabbed it. I maybe let the tugging go a bit long-I cut much of the tugging to keep the video under 2 minutes-but for me it felt like a win.>>
TOTAL WIN!! This was a great session! And you can let her go drive to the toy even sooner. She wants to go grab it before it even hits the ground, so you can let her go when she is rarin’ to go for it. So for now, as soon as she is excited about the toy, let her drive to it.
And it was a perfect toy choice, long and crazy. She was tugging, she was pulling at it, perfect! I don’t think the tugging was too long – did she quit tugging or let go before you wanted her to? If so, then yes it went too long. But if you can take the toy to start the next rep before she lets go of it? Perfect!
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Super nice progression here with this game!!!
He was great with the double bowls! Because he chews, you might need to delay cookie drops til after he chews the cookie LOL! You don’t need to go back to this level, but it is good to know for future cookie games 😀
On the 2nd video, he totally had it, good job delaying the cookie tosses and he definitely had the rhythm of the back and forth. That made it easy to add the upright (see below)
Toys: He definitely liked this game, maybe better than the version with the cookies 🙂 One suggestion: Let him engage with the toy you want him to tug on for maybe a full 5 seconds so he can really tug… then let it go ‘dead’, then start tapping the other toy. You were super quick about tapping and wiggling the 2nd toy as soon as he arrived at the first toy, so he was not sure if he should engage or not. The longer tug moment, then the quiet ‘dead’ moment, followed by the tapping of the other toy should help clarify that for him. And, you can totally use a ‘get it’ marker, that seemed to help him
He was definitely ready for you to add the upright and he did really well. The back and forth from the cookie game transferred perfectly! For the next session, you can move to having yourself in a chair so it will be more comfy for you and gets us closer to him seeing this game with you standing. If he is fine with you being in a chair, you can also start to slide the upright further away a little bit – I bet he will have no questions about it and will let you add some distance between you and the upright.
Great job here! Let me know how the next session goes!
TracyGood morning!
>> I will start having treats in my hands. He is distracted by it , but will worked through.
Yes, he will work through it – use really low value treat to start with and a really easy skill. This is a good time in training to begin teaching him this little bit of self-control that if he wants the cookie, he has to leave the cookie to go do something, to get the cookie 🙂
>>For Blind cross with toy, he is not going for a toy at this spot. will change a place. He is toy and food driven. I learn that using high value food as string cheese – that you can see in grass – diminish his drive for toy. I am trying to start with toy, but was not successful today. Will try again
THis morning start with toy – no interest.>>I see what you mean about the tugging when food is present. And also when tugging without food, he does great! One thing that will really help is to use much longer toys that are wilder and crazier 🙂 because he is so small, you can either get a really long tuggie (4 or 5 feet long) or take your smaller/shorter tuggies and tie them together so they are 4 or 5 feet long. You can also get toys with fur or fleece and squeakers involved too. I use a lot of flyball toys because they are long and hairy and insane LOL!!! I can send you some links if you want to see what I mean.
The reason I suggest the longer toy is because he can then really chase it and get his prey drive going to chase and bite and tug 🙂 When the toy stops or when you bend over too much, he backs off a little especially if food is involved. The super long crazy toys should help that. Let me know what you think!
Tracy
