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Good question! A couple of options:
You can try dropping it onto your shoe, so he doesn’t try to intercept it 🙂
Or you can use your hands out to the side of you
And, since he is fast with going for the cookies – you can try tossing it to him! I use the word “catch” and toss the treat for the dog to catch – that might be a nice alternative For him!
TracyHi! I hope your mother continues to improve!!!! I hope all of her numbers are heading in the right direction and she is feeling better.
Overall, I would say Grady did really well here!
The pre-run games looked really good – his pop ups, hand touches, barking, etc – all really strong! He was focused and engaged and that transferred to the start line.
He offered engagement each time you took the leash off at the start line and that is WONDERFUL 🙂
Two little suggestions for those pre-run moments:
– try to move into the ring with a loose leash, maybe giving that last cookie to him when you are walking to the entry gate
– – maybe keep him further from the ring during the pre-run tricks and games. He was right at the ring edge before he standard run, and he was a little sticky there with not wanting to move away from it and then again at the start line.The FAST FEO run looked great, even if he didn’t get the toy in the ring – he was happy to run and did really well! That was an ‘international-style’ teeter LOL!
The JWW link has the same run as the FAST link does. The 2nd FAST was also really strong, even without the toy!!!
And looking at his two distraction spots:
Yes, in that 2nd JWW something DEFINITELY caught him even before he got into the weaves – there was one sound that he heard, then I totally hear the sound you mentioned while weaving. Yep, it goes on the Kryptonite list! Start first with proofing it on jumps, then add it to weaves.
He was a little more distracted during the standard run as you mentioned. He was stickier in his warm up, when he as next to the ring – then sticky on the start line. He could not ‘speak’ on the start line, perhaps you had too much learning towards him and it was too much pressure? It is also possible he is an all business type of dog when getting to the start line – and you can definitely play with the Volume Dial/ Cartoon Mashup game that I posted last night, as that can help him explode off the start line if he is sticky.
I gotta mention the BRAVE BLIND CROSS OFF THE RUNNING DOG WALK (amazing!!!) . WOW!! This course had two moments that turn the dog towards the exit gates, and the dogs might think they are finished – after the dog walk, that hard turn to the table right by the gate, then again after the frame. It looks like he thought he was finished after the frame – took himself right towards the exit gate. So that also goes on the Kryptonite list for training – moving past the exit gate and turning back towards the course. You can start it with easy games like pattern games and tricks but then definitely add it to course work in classes and training and FEO runs, so he get a lot of reinforcement for ignoring that exit gate 🙂Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! It looks like my original reply never made it – I probably didn’t click submit LOL! Oops!
I htink the goal is an “any toy, any time” approach so there is no one single APDB or tennis ball that is more important than the others. You can put them all in a pile, pull one out, and play with it (tugging, throwing, etc) then switch to the next one, and the next one. My guess is that she finds the more recent one to be the most valuable one because of the association with the game? But that is just a guess – and we can change things up by having several available and all get used and thrown around. If one is more valuable, having her play with the other one (even if it is identical :)) will help! And mixing in super high value food will help too.
>> Posh is an enigma for me 🤪. She is my fourth agility mini poo to train. And yes, sometimes I over analyze and get too caught up in details. But the details and nuances seem to matter to her. Ish…>>
yes! But that is what makes it fun 🙂 each dog is truly an individual and we have to train as such 🙂
Tracy
Congrats on being caught up, that is impressive!!! This is the zig zag video. Can you repost the get out video? Looking toward to seeing it!
Tracy
Ah yes, she did well here! And leaving the deer is AWESOME!
Changing hands seems to have done the trick and she found the jumps really well. Now that she has the idea, you can play around with using lower hand – more at waist level – because that is more of what she will see when you are running fast. The high hands made things obvious to get the game started, so now we can lower them a bit.Your best placement of reward was the 2nd to last rep, where you tossed it past the jump but closer to your position, so she sliced that jump. That will set her up really nicely as this games builds into more and more slicing. So keep throwing the reward on that slice, parallel to the bar on the landing side, so she can jump on the slice.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
The single lap turns looked really good, and so did the FC into the lap turn! The timing and footwork was good 🙂 At first I think she was watching your hand a lot to help her go around the wing – but then later in this session, she was much better about doing it on her own, so your hand didn’t have to help her as much.When you added rocking horses/several front crosses, I think you added some extra dance moves 🙂 but it worked! You can totally send her to the wing for the FC more, so you don’t have to run backwards to the lap turn (the running backwards definitely gets all of us discombobulated!) That will solidify the send AND the lap turn. And you can also do more sending on the race tracks, getting a little ahead of her to be at the lap turn wing a step or two sooner (she will like the added speed too :))
Great job!
TracyHi! Good session here!
I agree that the closer set up to jump 1 helps him, and I also agree that at 11 months old, we aren’t seeing his full strength or power or coordination yet. It will percolate over time, as these grids go into the training rotation of once or twice a week. Honestly, with my young male dogs, I don’t see them fully developed physically til they are closer to 3! So we have plenty of time here and he already looks great.
At the 24s mark, I think he is trying to sort out how to both jump and prepare to stop, thus that splitting and carrying of back feet: the toy and the fence are pretty close to the last jump so he was multi-tasking. So you can turn the grid so he has about 15 feet before the toy and no fence to help him stop. It was a nice split rear foot hit between the last jumps, good for future running dog walks!
The first rep of the angled jumps was hard (knocked bar) – because he is already a confident jumper, you can do one more rep exactly the same, to see if he can change something. It is like asking questions: wrong answer on the first rep, so I ask the same question (with motion) again. I’m betting he will be fine – but if he still can’t answer it correctly, then you can simplify it by changing something like taking out motion. He did really well on all of the following reps 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I personally am a big fan of barking as a trick, as a tool to get more engagement 🙂 I might be in the minority on that but it does work! And since she likes shaping things ringside, you can shape the paw-to-foot trick ringside, a little training session before the run! It is an odd approach, perhaps, but she loves it!
Keep me posted 🙂
TracyGood morning!
It is great to have all of this video! I got to watch Ripley TV with my morning coffee 🙂 So many indoor and outdoor opportunities, that is great with young dogs. It is like you were able to get him into almost every type of trial environment all in one weekend. The facility just needs to add an indoor turf ring and you will be all set LOL!I like all of your goals and how you emphasized the procedures – reinforcement procedures before & after, pre-run, post run.
1st day is where it seemed all about establishing reinforcement procedures in the ring, so important! It looked like he was an engaged happy dog playing and chasing especially in the “in between” moments when he didn’t have a toy in his mouth or wasn’t doing a trick.
2nd video – the outdoor ring is definitely stinky! Something caught his nose but you got him back, the toy play overrides the good smells. You can use the good stinky grass ring to add in pattern games since cookies were allowed – perhaps not tossed treats in the ring but can be from your hands. That can help him assess the distractions and return to engagement without you needing to ask for it with the toy.
Day 2 – Reality TV action thanks to your partner! Yay! On that first run, I think you were moving too fast so he had trouble picking up the lines at first. It hard to know how fast/.slow to move with the youngsters but his focus was lovely and he seemed really comfy in the ring – no worries about missing the obstacles at first and happy to play with the toy!
2nd video – LOTS of other dogs barking outside the ring an heseemed fine with it. Good work on the jumps and end of contact, and going past the people to his leash then happily moving into it. YAY!
Tricks outside the ring looked strong in the waiting area – you had engaged semi-chill with the heel moments just before you went it, where you could look at the ring but the little heeling cues helped him stay engaged nicely! Good job showing him that pesky 2nd jump LOL! It was visually challenging to see with all of the other stuff in the environment and you running.
He was lifting his head on the jumping lines – ‘are you sure, human?’ – this is normal young dog behavior which will go away soon as he gets more experienced running the bigger sequences. I saw it in the outdoor ring too but his commitment was overall really strong in both rings.
Outdoor ring – Definitely smelly in that ring, he sniffs that same spot on the way in but immediately engaged with the toy when asked. The added distraction of a leash runner was no problem.
We got a glimpse into the Ripley future on the big long line of jump tunnel tunnel jump jump – WOW!In the next runL Toy placed at end – good to show him that to develop a reward station – it was a brain bender for a moment (“um, you forgot my toy, you left it over there”) as he was walking to the line, then he was fine and happy,y played with the other toy. Developing a reward station – YAY!
Good job staying in motion even if he ran past things – the running past things will go away with more training experience and more in-the-ring experience, so it is better to let him run than it is to stop and fix.
3rd video. Grass sniffing is the hardest part for him in this ring, must be REALLY interesting smells! Or maybe clearing his head a bit, lots of dogs do that on the way to the line, which is fine. It is a great opportunity to ask him what helps or what he needs: Is he all business? Need a trick? Tugging on his leash on the way to the line? A pattern game? He will let you know as he gets more experienced.
TUNNELERS SO FUN – 2 rounds of tunnelers! What a fun thing for youngsters (and all dogs!)
He was great here too! He investigated the fence line in the 2nd run – it happened after a fix. Could be related or unrelated to the stop & fix. Mental fatigue might be part of it, the fix could have ‘popped’ the focus bubble, the distraction might have been really interesting, or all of the above? No worries though, it was just interesting to note. The Find My Face game added last night will help you be able to fix things and he will know what to do, in case the fix is hard in the moment.This is a great video journal of his first big weekend – he did beautifully and great job to you for setting up the big successes 🙂 What is his next big adventure?
Tracy
Hi!
>>So I probably did the 2 leash wrong,
Not wrong, but 2 leashes are really most useful if you think she is going to bolt to some kryptonite distraction 🙂 and I think the stash is very kryptonite-like for her. And rewarding for engagement as you removed a layer is ALWAYS good (for conditioning purposes too!!)
>>. Although it doesn’t really matter what she does on the way to the line, I feel like she starts looking at other stuff (or sniffing) and if it is good enough I have to work really hard to get her back and if I reward for a hand touch as we run (and build value there as distractions increase>>
I agree that in theory: it doesn’t really matter what they do on the way to the line. I mean, my Export would sniff on the way to the line and he never had any engagement issues… but the reality is that it does matter and it is very dog-specific. For some dogs, it totally DOES matter! Lanna is a lot like my Elektra – I like her to be up up up on the way to the line, spewing energy – not sniffing. That is when I get my best results in both agility and flyball.
A couple of tonight’s new games involve volume dial to the line and through the release, so we can incorporate that for her – prepare to be silly LOL!
>> I did a lot of walking from stash off leash and she is ultra focused but the behavior falls apart on leash so I may need to go back and work it on leash too?
Interesting! 2 questions come to mind:
– what was different, in terms of how you moved or indicated that she should move with you? Position of reinforcement, cue, etc? You might be asking her to move with you in a reinforcing way!– is the leash paired with the ‘real thing’ which produces stress? What I mean is that the ‘real thing’ does not have reinforcement immediately available and the task is difficult.
You might consider moving her to the line without a leash at all! You don’t play in AKC, right? It is legal to enter the ring without a leash in UKI and USDAA or take it off at the entry gate! It would be impressively brave but if she prefers it – you can go to the gate, take the leash off, and noodle to the line with some heeling tricks, or other silly tricks. I have gone to doing this when I don’t have to get to the line when the previous dog is still mid-course. If the trial is small and it is OK to enter as the previous dog is over the last jump, I take off the leash at the gate and hand it to the leash runner – and the dogs are sooo much more relaxed (so am I LOL!)
And yes, you can totally work the games on leash too, so they don’t fall apart on leash.
Looking at the videos – one thing I see on all three is the sniffing as you mentioned, and that you had to work pretty hard to get the engagement.
Also, when she is sniffing and you are trying to engage her, you were bending over – you can try tricks that have you upright and moving away from her, rather than bending towards her. Catching lightly tossed toys/treats/balls can be a good reward for that and get her looking up/jumping up rather than downwards.
I think the tricks and volume dial games where she is physically upwards (standing, leaping, fast heeling, etc) will be very useful for her – tricks and fun stuff at the stash, then moving quickly to the line with more tricks. My ideal tricks for Lanna would be tricks that are incompatible with sniffing, like standing on her back feet, front feet on you or in the air. Or waving, or spins, or barking (I know, barking… LOL!!!)
Hand touches and tugging low are not as incompatible as I would like them to be in terms of nose-off-ground.
>>. I liked 3 best currently, but please let me know if you think a combo or changing something makes a difference. >>
I agree, this is my current favorite. I think we can add some of the new games for tonight and find the sweet spot!
>>Oh, and I have been doing some of this with my reactive terrier and he has made amazing progress quickly. He may never compete, but he looks really good at home.
Wow! That is great!!!
>>> I left the pretty weave pole hit at the very end of session 3 in to show we did manage to learn something in your weaves class :).
Yay! Good girl!!!! let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
Which parts didn’t go as you wanted them to? I think this went well – the warm up games looked good (she did start barking a lot when the tug came out, but she didn’t lose her head over it. If she barks and can still respond to cues? Ok then, she can bark 🙂
For the stays – it is hard to get a lot of reps in when doing start line work, you had her really excited AND doing good stays! I think it was harder getting her lined up sometimes – I liked what you did on the very first stay in FASt, where you left her in a stay, went to your position, called her into the line up. That was nice! You didn’t do that on the others so the line up was a little more awkward. And she gets a gold star for holding the stay on the 2nd rep in FAST where you ran to the jump and indicated it… but didn’t give the verbal release, so she didn’t break. Good girl! And the stay in T2B was good too – I think a cleaner line up will be easier but she help her stay like a pro!I am happy with how she did! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>She’s taking more strides. I guess she’s supposed to hop it. I just wonder if it was closer she might not. The 1st part was 5′ the last was 6′.In the early stages of teaching this, it is fine that she is striding between the jumps – it is all about sorting out her lead changes in that side-to-side pattern. She will be able to bounce it when we ask her too, by shortening the distance. But for now – she doesn’t always go over the bar, so leave the distance the same (I think the 5 foot was a bit better than the 6 foot). She was 100% successful when you switched arms: cued the first jump with your left, for example, and then cued the 2nd jump with your right. So definitely switch arms like that in the next session. She had a lower success rate when you used the same arm – sometimes she got it, sometimes she ran past it. I think if you can get closer to 100% success with the switching arms, we can then move the jumps a bit closer to get the bouncing 🙂
Nice work! Have fun!
TracyHi!
The zig zags are challenging and fun! They are good for him to learn to be quick with the lead changes, which makes it harder for you because you have to cue them all.
A couple of ideas: This distance is good, but you can angle each one a bit so he can see the bars more – so looking at he first rep here: the first and 3rd bars would be angled to point slightly to the tunnel on the right of the screen, the 2nd and 4th bars would be angled a bit to point to the trees on the left side of the screen. And you can start at wing 2 for a couple of reps, then go to wing 3, for a couple of reps, and if he is successful, go to wing 4.
The other thing that I think will help is keeping your feet together, so you can use your feet to step to the line you want a little more – that will allow you to have smaller/lower arm motions. Without using your feet, your upper body had to make really big motions 🙂 Adding a bit of foot stepping in (like small semi front crosses) should make it feel less crazy LOL!!
Nice work! As soon as Ronan recognizes the game, it all gets much easier 🙂 He is doing really well here and will be able to see this with smaller distances soon too. Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>We added speed.
I think he really really really REALLY liked that hahaha He was able to go faster, see you go faster… and not lose his head at all. Next session, you get to run. YAY!!!
>> Interestingly he kept missing the tunnel entrance when having to switch from left to right lead.>
Yes! It is pretty normal to see that with young dogs: that lead change is hard and it is easier/faster to do it while also running around the tunnel (or running on top of it).
So before the next session, isolate that skill: have him on your right side facing an easy line to the threadle side of the tunnel, doing your in in like you did here: start by holding him, saying in in, then letting go and moving, with you going pretty fast. Then you can change the angles gradually, so he has to work more on that lead change at speed to find the tunnel entry, getting to the hardest angle where he is starting near the tunnel exit and has to threadle to the correct entry. That should make the sequence here much easier for him while you run.
(The zig zag grids will also help this lead change stuff – it is a lot of coordination for baby dogs :))
he did SUPER well here in terms of responding to the different cues! he was a little wide on the wing wrap before the in in, but I think that is because you were using your soft turn verbal on the wing for both the tunnel send and the in in. So for example on the left turns: you can use the soft turn verbal (liii liii) for the go tunnel reps and your dig dig (wrap) for the reps of the threadle, to set up a tighter turn on the wing before the tunnel threadle cue.
You had one tiny disconnection at 1:32 as you were pulling away from the wing, but you fixed it instantly and the rest looked great!
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>. I came out with 2 leashes and dropped both of them >>
I think we humans all need 3 hands for trainng dogs LOL!! You only need 2 leashes if you are doig nth eoff leash offered engagement game, where you are taking on leash off but want to make sure he doesn’t leave for the distraction.
This was a good session! I have a couple of ideas about reinforcement for you, especially at the beginning of the session to get him into focus-mode:
I think the disc at the beginning was for instant focus – you can reinforce successive approximations, like when he interacted with it, even if he was not perfect: reward that initial interaction, because it was right next to the cookie smells and he got right to work with the disc. Was it perfect? No… but it was instant focus on work rather than cookie smells, so it should definitely rewardable.
The other thing to think about is the ratio of tricks/behaviors to reinforcement, especially at the beginning of a session when you want o get him engaged:
With the touches and spins, you started with a low ratio – 8 cues before a reinforcement, then 7 cues before a reinforcement. So that was actually a low success rate, and that was when he was leaving for the smells (I don’t think it was because you dropped the leashes, it was more because the sucess rate had dropped. Then after that, you changed the ratio: more like 2:1, or 1:1, or 3:1… and BOOM! He got very engaged and focused. That allowed you to, by the end of the session, get lots of tricks before the cookie, and he didn’t leave for the smells.So for the next session, start off with a ratio of trick:treat that is more like 1:1 (one trick to one treat) or 2:1 (2 tricks to 1 treat) to get him really engaged… and then you can start to ask for more behavior after he is engaged.
>> i’m afraid I can’t get to the chat tomorrow … very disappointed>>
We will be sad to miss you!!! Do you have any questions or anything you want us to discuss?
Great job 🙂
Tracy
