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Hi! This was an interesting video, thank you for posting it!
I think there are a lot of good things here – the biggest thing I see if that the area by the people and noisy dog was worrisome, so we can approach things differently:
All of the handling/sequencing where you want to work on sequencing should be done moving away from the people, towards her comfort zone.
And, on the part of the course that moves towards the sights/sounds she is not comfortable with, the focus shifts to easy agility (lower bars there, simple skills) and TONS of reinforcement for going past them – like doing the tunnel towards them, then chasing you away from them and reward. Then tunnel to the jump, turn to you, reward. You were doing a lot of that which was great! My suggestion is to do even shorter bursts and lower bars so she can go super fast and doesn’t have to think about it 🙂
>>She did disconnect to check out the cat hole on the far door, but reconnected when I used our nibble-walking treat.>>
That was no worry, you were disconnected a little by talking to the instructor about what to do, so she took a moment to explore 🙂
Will she play frisbee or chase balls at all there? If so, I would definitely incorporate that in the ‘ignore the people’ sections 🙂 Or, save the the higher value food for that.
It looks like you were then the demo for one of the CU pattern games, and that is great! What went wrong here was that Keiko was being asked to learn the game while also approaching the trigger – so she was over threshold and tapped out after the 2nd rep. The magic in the pattern games is that we teach them without the triggers first, then very very gradually add the triggers in – definitely work the game, but do it much further from anything worrisome for now 🙂
>> this row twice, and Keiko seemed quite comfortable with it. Then we had our third turn – and Keiko had really had enough. When I see that she’s had enough, should I even try to do something successfully before we leave or should I just maybe ask for a sit or a spin and leave on that note?>>
If she says she has had enough, the first thing to do is move away from the trigger or whatever the difficulty is. So in this instance, you can put space between you and the dog in the covered crate, maybe 20 feet. And then see what she says – if she offers engagement, cool! You can cookie that or ask for a trick. If she doesn’t want to offer engagement – also cool, you can be finished.
There is nothing in the science of dog training that says we need to leave a session by finishing with a success – and in fact that can do more harm than good. So if you end a session where she says ‘no thanks’ you can go for a walk, give her a break, then plan the next session so she can be super successful.
Let me know what you think! There is so much good here that you and Keiko are really on the cusp of feeling confident in the ring!
Tracy
Good morning!
I thought this was a really good session. I didn’t really see much distraction in the in-between moments, just kinda a “what’s next” relaxed expression.
The only thing I would change is where you dropped the leash. Throwing the leash near the wing was a discrimination, too hard at this point because it is right on his line and the differences in the cues might not be clear enough. So, throw it away off to the side and then it will be clearer. He was really good about ignoring it and the pattern of
‘Leash on strike throw’ was super fun 🙂He had a little error due to a little disconnection on the 1st run,
and kept going like a champ. He was happy on the 2nd run with the wings too! And this was one of the longer sessions he has done, which is a big win too!
I like how you did easier stuff later in the session, smart! It looks like that was happy-making too 🙂>>I’m really starting to miss sequencing with him. It’s been several weeks and I’ve just been working to keep all this clean. These last few weeks have been rough for me with staying encouraged and motivated>>
You don’t need to abandon sequencing, you just need to plan it 🙂 the wing stuff is just a microcosm of sequencing, so plan your reinforcement on sequences, then go for it! The reinforcement should not be only remote reinforcement, it can be stuff like a bite for a tight turn, or throwing a reward on a big line. Or a catch thrown back behind you to him for committing to a backside bar. So you can do all of this but just plan each session for a high rate of success 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Congrats on the leash being a Top 5 now!!! He was a tugging fiend!
The session looks really good, so many small pieces coming together to the bigger picture.
One thing to consider is leash off THEN line up cue. That reduces the finagling of the leash off, then getting rid of it, then moving away… there is a lot of disconnected moments during that and that is when he wants to move his feet. So you can noodle around with that – leash off, get rid of it, line up cues then immediately lead out – that makes for a really smooth transition, especially at trials. I am at a trial this weekend and that is what I am playing with: enter ring, leash off on the way to the start line, verbal engagement, get rid of the leash, line up, giddy up!
Everything else looks great, I also really loved how he was able to turn away from the leash when you asked – brilliant!!!
Great job, let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Mmmm tortellini, great idea!! Or little bits of cold cheese. Sounds yummy!!
I train with raw, using a spoon 🙂 It takes some extra mechanics but totally worth it!>> Question: will I always need to bend low to cue this or is it just in training for the prop touch and will transition later (I’m always getting told to stand up and quit bending over, 🤦♀️).
When he understands the in and out, we start fading the touch to the target and get you moving so no – you will get to stand up and move freely 🙂
>>Going to take the week to work mechanics and train, will see Suzie Wednesday too. I was going to shoot a bunch of videos there, may not and just work mechanics for a couple of weeks?>>
Totally take videos! Videos are great for looking at mechanics and getting feedback from the dog 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi again!
This is looking really good! The beginning with the toy and food balance went really well (more on that below). You can decelerate a little sooner, almost immediately after the blind, so she can collect sooner. Otherwise, you are looking really good and she is responding nicely!!!
For the food versus toy – I think as the session went along, the food value came up and the toy value dropped. Then when you won the toy, she was fine with you winning LOL! I don’t think the session itself was too long, so you can do just the first 2 or 3 reps for a toy, then just do food for the rest. That way, you can switch away from the toy before she says “no thanks” 🙂 You can also put the toy on a longer line or tie it to a longer toy, so you can swing it around to get her into full chase da toy mode!
And one last thought – you can use more boring food for this 🙂 When tossing the treat, you can put out a big bowl or towel so she can see the treat land on or in it (boring treats are often hard to see!). Or, you can go to the handling combos which start with a barrel wrap, so you don’t need to toss food on the ground (you can use a bowl or plate at the end so you don’t need to toss treats on the ground).>> And actually while I was away, I did a TON of “any toy any time!”>>
Perfect! Now, mix in some boring food if you have not done so already 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Nice work here! The parallel path is looking good, you can add the bigger version of the prop when you try this again (especially on the rear crosses :))
Whoa she was AMAZING with the countermotion! I love how you started off easy, warmed her up with the sideways sending, the gently added the countermotion – she was able to drive away with speed with you moving pretty quickly in the other direction. Yay!
On the rear crosses – I think that all you need is more distance between your starting point and the prop. She is already very long-strided so by the time she saw you cutting in behind for the rear cross, she had already made a decision to turn towards you. So, if you start 10 or 15 feet further away, you will be further across her line before she reaches the prop and then she can turn the correct direction. When I get home, I will grab screen shots: when you were rear crossing, you were changing to the new side after she was at the prop. So, we need you to be fully on the new side before she arrives at the prop and then she will get the new direction.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
A few years ago, I would have said that one verbal was fine. But then the judges started putting jumps and tunnels close to each other, so the dogs didn’t know which obstacle the general threadle cue referred to. Darn it! LOL!!! So now I recommend a verbal for the threadle/slice on a jump, a tunnel discrim verbal, and then eventually if you want to do more international style courses… a weave threadle verbal 🙂Tracy
Good morning!
Bummer about the snow! Grab the motor home and come visit me in Virginia!All of the videos looked good! Some ideas for you:
Ladder back up looks good! Bearing in mind how difficult this is even for adult dogs, stick with just the last rung for a while so she gets really comfy and keep sessions really short (about this length). The conditioning element of it is why we want to keep it short.
Strike a pose looked great! Yes, she really did respond to where you were looking – very helpful! She is especially strong when she is driving into your right hand here (a right turn). She did well driving into your left hand, especially later in the session, but that side is still a little harder for her. But it is coming along nicely and she is making the turn to line up to go out perfectly on both. Yay!
So, next step – the goal is that the toy (or dish) is on the ground now and she goes to it without you having to move at all – you keep your upper body in that “open” position and just use your marker to cue the toy or dish. With the dish, I think you were moving because it was a brand new thing and she is still learning about food love 🙂 I bet she can go to the toy on just a verbal, though (and also she gets a gold 🌟 for not freezing when you put the toy on the ground!). The goal of getting her to do that without your shoulders indicating it is that it shows her what your serp & threadle shoulder position will be – the in and out behavior does not rely on shoulder movement for each step.The handling combos looked good! You were both so focused on the toy in your hand and the toy out ahead that she never considered going wide on the barrel LOL!!!! Problem solved. Ha! Your connection was also really strong on the barrel wraps – that is the source of the great turns there. And she was fabulous about never leaving to go grab the toy!
For the decel and pivots – I think some of her turns were wide because she was not sure if she should grab the toy or turn. The question she had was more about when the toy was available and not as much about your decel. She did decel a lot better when you stood up – and that also moved the toy less in her line of sight. Hmmm! You were using your strike on most of the toy grab moments but I think she was going to grab the toy anyway, based on how it was held. So a couple of ideas:
– for the strike permission, do a little separate game of pivots with the toy right there. When she is NOT trying to reach for the toy and is instead just turning with you, say strike and deliver the toy.
– when playing this game, have the milker scrunched up in your hand more so it is not in the same presentation as it would be if you were saying strike. Then you can decel, pivot, say strike… and then unfurl the toy.You can also decel with nothing in your hand (or a cookie!) and then drive out of it to the toy on the ground 🙂
That will allow us to train the 2 things separately, then merge them back together. And by training the strike separately, your mechanics won’t feel as strange because she won’t be looking at the toy.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>> I was getting weird offerings of spin, back up, lie down. Anything but a sit.
Interesting! It is possible that she associates offering moving behaviors with a clicker because shaping often relies on movement to start getting the behaviors.
>>Her sits are slower than I’d like in general and I was waiting for offered as it’s not fluent on a verbal yet.
I think she needs a clearer cue to move to the sit – if it is lack of motion or facing her, she might offer the down and since you didn’t give a verbal cue, I would accept the down and continue the game. But since we want the sit, you can use other cues – a hand signal like you did when she offered the down, or maybe a mat if she knows how to get on it and sit, or even the verbal cue – as long as it is in “pretty strong” shape and will get the behavior, you can use it because these games will strengthen it even more. Otherwise it takes her a long time to move into the sit if there are no contextual cues.
One thing about the tossed cookies or toys – for this game, the strength of the stay comes from the predictability of the placement. So I think the toy tosses (pitch!) being right back to here were the best placements. The cookie tosses had her having to move a lot forward or backwards to get them, which might cause her to offer sit less (if it is inefficient to sit, because she is going to have to move a lot again). So with the cookie tosses, toss it to her general location. She doesn’t have to catch them (I know my word is catch but it doesn’t mean the pups need to actually catch LOL!) but it is a fun game if she does.
And as you add the tosses back to her – move away more. You were doing this with the toy and it was great! Get the sit, walk away a little like a lead out, mark and toss back to her.
She did well with the toy play, especially if it was after all the cookies!
>>I can see that I lumped the distance part and probably should move around more rather than mostly face her.>>
I think you can add distance pretty quickly with the rewards tossed back to her. But I agree, you don’t need to face her as much unless you are working on competition obedience skills. For agility, you can be turning away and moving away pretty quickly.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>> Quick question….do you have a different command to get the cookies/toy from hand vs. throwing? For example, do you also use “bite” to get the toy when you throw it? Or with the cookie is it “snacks” to get from hand and something like “search” or “Get it” when throwing? >>
I do! Cookies in hand has a different word (snacks) from cookies being tossed (get it). And ‘bite’ is for toy in hand and I also use ‘get it’ for tossed toys. I have a few others as well. I think it is really helpful for the dogs!
>> maybe I missed it in a lesson somewhere!
That usually comes later in the class, but the pups are doing so well that I think I am going to move it up to next week 🙂 Everyone is ready for it!
The rear crosses look great! You were much earlier and he was able to turn the new direction so much better. Yay! And he is beginning to read the cue sooner – as soon as he is feeling you begin to cut behind him, he is processing the turn. And nice balances with going straight! The only times he turned the ‘wrong’ way on a rear cross was when you were late. But I think that only happened twice, the rest were great. After you finish cutting behind him, you can keep moving forward to the prop just to keep him hitting it a bit or closer to it – he is reading the line so you can change the line and move closer to the prop.
Strike a pose also looks great! He drove right to the target (nice job keeping it low and looking at it) and it was especially impressive because he really really liked that toy! The sit was harder with the toy in the picture, so you can reward some sits with the toy, to help him offer and respond to a sit cue even with the exciting toy right there 🙂
Going back to your question about markers for the reward – you were saying ‘yes get it’ – you don’t need the yes, you can just say “get it” which indicate that he was correct AND where to go to get the reward. “Yes” might indicate that he is correct but it doesn’t tell him where to look or where to go next, so the dogs end up looking at us 🙂 So, you can just use your toy marker here.
Great job!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Hope you had fun at the party!
The ladder work looks really good! When you flipped it over, he had one moment of excitement where he didn’t trot, but you gave some feedback on that 🙂 and he resumed balanced trotting. Good boy! The bowls help with head position which helps with balance. Only one suggestion – he is kicking out his hind end at the end of the ladder when he is on your left (moving to the left of the screen). I think it is only because the bowl is a little closer so he is decelerating but the ladder makes it weird to do so. He doesn’t appear to do that on the other side, where the bowl is further away. So try moving the bowl on the left side another 4 or 5 feet away, so he can trot out to it.If you want added ladder challenge, you can have him back up! Start where his back feet are in the last rung and his face is pointing to the center of the ladder (you can be straddling the ladder) and cue him to back out one step over the rungs. That is hard! And then you can gradually move him further and further to the center of the ladder so he backs out through more of it. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! You should feel totally reinforced for videotaping her because she looked FABULOUS here! Hooray!
On the wraps – great job with the verbals! Her commitment looked great. I *think* she is slightly better at turning to her left, but her right side caught up and was pretty darned lovely too by the end of the session. Since her commitment was strong and she was letting you move away nice and early – move this to the turn and burn game where you exit on a 90 degree line – the barrel is at noon on a clock, you exit towards 3 or 9 o’clock. You were exiting towards 6 o’clock here and she is ready for more challenge 🙂 exiting towards the 3 and 9 o’clock lines will get even more independence and countermotion.
The lap turns look great too: your mechanics are super strong and clear, so she had no trouble on either side. Then she immediately went back out to find her beloved shoe 🙂 Yay! So since this is going well, move to the advanced level (tandem turns) which has more motion and a little harder because the arm cues are not as obvious.
You can also bring the magic shoe prop and the barrel to as many different places as possible, to play these little games. My shoe and barrel lived in the car for a while when my dogs were babies LOL!
Great job here!!!!!! Thanks for the video, looking forward to more when you get a chance 🙂
TracyHi!
The crate is a great idea! The stick distraction was hilarious 🙂 And great job working through it! He caught on pretty quickly that it was NOT the stick LOL! Eventually you will be adding distractions to the wraps… but he is an overachiever and wanted to add them right away LOLThis was a really good session. He seems a little better on his right than on his left – you were very patient with those left turns because you can’t leave as early yet (that is normal – one side will progress faster than the other).
So on the right turns, you can start to leave sooner and sooner – you were already doing that and you can keep challenging him 🙂 On the left turns, though, remain stationary so he can finish the left turn (which is harder) so he can think about the harder turn without the distraction of your moving away. The left turns will soon catch up to the right turns 🙂He had a little trouble leaving the toy in your hand at the beginning of the send when you moved a little further away – so for now, just stay closer til he is happy to leave the toy behind in favor of the wrap, then we will inch you back out 🙂
One last thought – have you decided what your wrap verbal(s) will be? If so, you can add them when you are up close to the crate/barrel 🙂 I think you were saying “go”, but the wrap verbal will be better suited for this so you can add it as soon as you are pretty sure you’ll get the behavior.Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! He always makes me smile with his training games 🙂
Ladder session: As I was watching it, I was typing that you could help him a little less with the pre-placed cookies… and then you did, and he bunny hopped through it LOL!!! Then he caught himself and trotted back to you perfectly. Aha!!!
So, since we want to fade the cookie lures, you can start him a rung or two away from the exit of the ladder, heading to an empty bowl as a target – so he only has to trot one or two steps and he is out. (You can totally lure him to get him into that part of the ladder :)) If that goes well, start him closer to the middle of the ladder, and have him trot out to the food bowl. And then eventually we will work our way back to the beginning. He seems to feel that going fast is a LOT more fun than being balanced, so we can help him feel the joys of being balanced 🙂 When he was trotting in balance, he looked amazing!Leg bumps – these were fun to watch! He was perfect to the left and it was harder for him to the right. That was when he was offering taking the longer route around your feet (he gets a gold ⭐️ for being clever!!). He did sort it out by the end – great job getting back on the toy too! Yay!
So keep working this ‘bending’ like you did here – and you can also add cookie tossing so he bounces straight through, over your knees, back and forth. And if you can enlist someone else, you can also get that person sitting down to provide 2 more legs – then you have a 4 bump puppy grid and he can bounce back and forth for cookies. It is also a great way to learn to ignore people 🙂Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
