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Good morning!
>> T I tend to start to make them all sound the same. I also get loud when I use any verbals. So it was a challenge for me but something “I” really need to be more aware of.
I totally feel this pain, which is why I have gone to verbals that are a little weird. I was tending to just yell ALL THE THINGS. So I chose verbals, especially for wraps, that are impossible to yell LOL! That has really helped. Plus, using some verbals as questions (left? Right?) also helps because the dog does not perceive them as questions and I don’t yell them LOL! Training ourselves is the hardest part indeed.
This session looked really good! Part of it is just getting the baby dogs trained, and that comes with experience 🙂 I heard a definite difference in the verbals here 🙂
All dogs have preferences about tunnel exits – he naturally produces a soft turn that is pretty perfect for a dog his size (we don’t want a lot of collection with the littles, he was rocking it). And his wing wraps and commitments looked great. So we can add more balance on the RUN exits by rewarding them more specificaly:
– on the run heading towards the wing, you can throw the reward long and towards the wing, no need to actually cue the wing for now. The more he learns to accelerate away from the tunnel exit, the easier it will be for him to find the wing (because it will be right there. In front of him LOL!)
Also, I think you can trust his tunnel commitment enough to let him see you accelerate as you are saying your run cue for the tunnel. You were a bit stationary or decelerated, and letting him see you take off like your pants are on fire will help support the run run run cue 🙂– the other place to put more value on the run is on the last tunnel of each sequence. Rather than use a ‘get it’, you can cue the run run run and throw long (the get it can happen after the run, but the run cue should also predict looking ahead for the toy).
Your left and right race tracks looked really super connected! You can try rotating your upper body back to him a little less, I think it was causing your feet to rotate. Because he us little, you can play with dipping your dog side shoulder down to see if it gets the same connection? Handling little dogs with connection requires a bit of experimenting to find the sweet spot – I am sure you have done this with your other dogs, so now we find the sweet spot for him!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! She is a lovely mover!
She was doing this cavalettis-style, trying to produce a balanced trot and not jump. I’m betting it was because of the Treat n Train: it slows the dogs down as they prepare to stop to eat the cookies 🙂
So, go back to the 4 foot distance and use the moving target 🙂 Start with the toy being stationary for a rep to make sure she is cool with it, then go to the sloooooow dragging toy as you release her. I think it will make all the difference 🙂
>> I did slow mo just so I can see. I’m not sure what you prefer.
I am happy either way – I can either watch it already in slo mo or I can use YouTube settings to get it in slow motion if I need to see something specifically.
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
Snow in your shoes is in the funny – not funny category LOL! Come on snow, go away!
The moving target looked good! You can add it to the set point. 🙂
On the Wind In Your Hair game:
Great job with the verbals and she was fabulous about finding the jump and accelerating! Wheeeee! She is a speedy pup!!!!
>> just want to see where I’m going…this is great practice. I definitely have to connect with her.
Yes, this game will help get your connection where it needs to be. With young dogs in particular, we need to make very direct eye on tact (keeping your dog-side arm back) as you move up the line.
With that in mind: if she ends up on the wrong side of you, that is handler error not doggie error, so reward her each and every time it happens. It can be a reset cookie as she comes back but she was reading you correctly (or taking a good guess) so she needs to be paid every time. If the dogs don’t get rewarded, the rate of reinforcement drops, they don’t know what they didn’t get the reward… and then they get stressed. So if there is even the slightest chance it was handler error? Reward her 🙂 For example, she ended up on the wrong side of you at :16 and :56 – both were disconnections so she read them as spins. She was correct so you can reward that 🙂
Same thing about reset rewards if you try to send to the start wing and she doesn’t go – for now, add a step to the wing to help support the start, especially as you add more distance. She was perfect when you stepped to the wing, like at 2:03 and 2:10. But when there was no real step, she was not quite as sure – so if that happens, you can use a reset cookie or toy then take her collar rather than grab her collar and move her back into position – that keeps it cleaner and happier for her.
Speaking of connection: try to have your dog-side arm a bit further back, pointing to her nose/eyes, rather than at your side. That way she can see your eyes more clearly which will help get connection as you get further ahead.
Also, great job with your reward placement: when it was easy to do, you tossed the reward and got it there early enough that she didn’t have to look back. And with the big distance, using the placed reward was perfect. Well done!
Great job here! Fingers crossed for no more snow!!!
TracyGood morning! Congrats on the success in the ring. THose courses are why we train the verbals, because I am pretty sure we cannot outrun Sly down those lines LOL!!! Good boy to get it done in the face of really exciting distractions and a lot of speed!!!!!
You’ve done a great job with him – see ya in the next class!
Tracy
Good morning!
He is definitely doing well with the backsides, both the circles and the slices!The circles all looked really good here – you can put them on the back burner til you can run awgain – right now you are on landing side and he needs to see you passing takeoff side.
For the slices versus front – I agree, he did well with working tight to you with the friz! Yay! Be super careful of mechanics on this game to minimize error – all of the errors were because of the setup mechanics making things harder than he is ready for.
For the wing in position 2, your line of motion should be parallel to his line, directly from the edge of the wing to the center of the bar. At :14, he pulled off the backside because with the wing at position 2, you were pulling away to position 3 which is too hard for now. You moved up a better one at :24 and he got it 🙂An on the wing wraps – they can be post turns or spins but not front crosses 🙂 At 1:00 (and then also at 1:45) you did a front cross which put him on a direct line to the center of the bar (rather than moving around the outside of the wing to see more of the backside line) so it was too challenging and not quite enough room to get to the backside. In those oopsie moments, always reward and reset – that keeps him happy and also it gives you a moment to decide on the next rep. You kept going here so on the next rep, he had the same line up and you used handling to step in. That got the backside but doesn’t help the verbal.
So to help build it gradually and minimize failure, the start to each rep becomes critical in terms of where he exits the wing (always facing a relatively clear line to the backside) and you can just move forward (then hop out of the way as he gets to the bar hahaha). I have put a leash on the ground to help me remember where to move .
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
On serp versus go – I am still glad she wants the go go go 🙂 On this setup, she isn’t ready for you to eliminate the serp handling with the closed shoulder yet (which makes the handling look the same as go handling. The setup is plenty challenging, so you can use handling to help her differentiate. How do you normally handle serps? I think most of us open our shoulders to the jump, swinging the arm back.You can add this to this game: use serp upper body (shoulders rotated to face jump and keep moving, rather than decelerating or rotating feet or pulling away). And you can close your shoulders forward on the Go Go Go reps.
On the 2nd side, you had a little more serp upper body like at :50 and I think it made more sense to her.>>Backside wraps- more like what you were describing?
Yes to the starting point, she could totally see the wing and that really helped. But no to the reward placement LOL! You are throwing it ahead of you, which encourages her to get to you as fast as possible which can cause her to skip the circle wrap when you are running.
So picture a bar on the circle wrap – and toss the toy behind you as you run through, to where her front feet would be landing from the jump (more back to where you started). She doesn’t complete the circle with this placement, because it emphasizes commitment 🙂Nice job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>>> I * think* your hand was empty as you were cuing it? but watch him reach for the hand with an open mouth
Yes, my hands were empty. I saw his air snap which is probably from magic hand where I drop the food for him to catch. I was able to use my empty hand to keep his focus walking in during training and run thru but didn’t work at trial. I did notice in walking in he tends to jump on my legs so maybe would work better.>>When we build on the tricks and remote reinforcement, he will display preferences for which tricks he likes so you might find that the jump up and circle and middle might all come into play!
>> we would like for him to run agility and there are no cookies! So I think the games will build up to where he can do all sorts of things with no cookies present
I do use different process in agility. I wear training pockets with toys, food, and treat dispenser loaded with cheese. I was running him in training with no rewards and my trainer said something. He loves the obstacles and agility. I was using the food to keep him quiet in between. So I use the cheese on contacts to reinforce stopping as that goes out the window in trial. At the end I toss the clam loaded with cheese over the last jump.>>I think that we are going to start planning to use reinforcement differently in classes at trials – he loves the obstacles, yes, but he doesn’t necessarily love the “in between” spaces so he gets distracted or stressed. So for now, use the reinforcement early and often in class, especially for tricks at the start line and for handling and jump sequences. And we will also work on fading out the training pockets and the clam, while maintaining value for running with focus, even with distractions around.
>> At home, I use remote treat dispenser for agility. It’s unreliable so he gets a lot of standing in front of it with head cocked to side wondering where’s the reward. >>
Ah, must be a Treat N Train, mine does the same thing LOL!! It can indeed be unreliable for precision rewards but can be useful for end of run jackpots. Does he seem happy to patiently wait for it to spit out treats?
>>For fitness, it was mainly luring and slowing him down with food in my hands. For his daily meals, I use training games so it’s tossed or comes from hands so I can leave that on table or in pockets.>>
Perfect! I see no reason to change any of that.
>> feel free to try this with toys
I will try some sessions with toys. Should I try different toys to see what works? Is it ok to use the clam with food? I was able to connect the clam to the flirt pole so he got excited (too excited to go to bed).>>Yes, you can totally use different toys so we can sort out a hierarchy of value for the toys. And of course, keep me posted – he is a great little dog so I am asking a ton of questions, so we can start putting all the pieces together 🙂
When is your next agility class?
Tracy
Good morning!
Hey I have that shirt! Love it!So I know that you couldn’t get a lot os success on the soft turns here but I am actually excited by this session: when we started this class, wasn’t your MAIN goal to get more go go go in your world?
Well, it has arrived hahahaha And I want it to stay 🙂 So unless you think you have a problem getting soft turns on course – do more GO reps than soft turn reps. And when you do a soft turn rep, help with handling a bit more. If she is all spicy for the go go go now, I LIKE IT! And I will take some extra off courses as we balance back and forth a bit to find perfection. I am confident that if you simply turn, she will turn (like you did on both the soft turns and the serps) so keep up the excitement for the GO!Let me know what you think 🙂
TracyGood morning!
Sorry this one is later than 4:30am LOL
>>Also my bar was locked in, he still knocked it.
No worries, he really doesn’t have a bar knocking issue so no need to really worry. There is not a lot of momentum in this game.
>>He wasn’t super excited for this session but we had also played frizz about 6 different times today so he may have been a bit drained.>>
For getting the most positive conditioned emotional response, try to do the agility when he at his freshest and feeling great, so it is all fun and giddy up. That way he never has any association of having to do it when he is tired.
>>I feel as though feedback on rehearsal will be given because I kept fucking up the wing wrap thinking so hard about the jump. Got it!
You were doing a spin on the start wing – for the backside slices he probably doesn’t need it but it certainly didn’t seem to hurt! His only real question was on the front side to the right, Iso think a spin on the wing can help to get him to come off the backside line on the first reps, then you can do a simple post turn to add more challenge on front versus back.
His “passes” are looking SUPER good both in getting to the backside and in jumping the jump! I noticed they looked good in the Dudley videos too 🙂
Circle wraps are hard without running but you were good with your mechanics reward placement! And he looked good.
He had one more question, at the end – when you dropped the toy, he started to go for it, then you said strike and he said, “HUH?” I think strike is for toy-in-hand , right? So he was confused and that is why he looked at you sideways LOL
When your nose is happier, add more motion. While you are waiting for a happy nose, move the start wing to position 2 🙂 Great job!
TracyFor some reason, the forum is not letting me answer your question in the previous post. So:
– When I video the set point one (after your feedback on this one), is it better for a straight on or a side, or both?
On the side is best so we can see the full picture of her striding.
Great job here!!! Looking forward to the set point!
Tracy
Good morning! That toy is awesome!
She did well holding her stay but more importantly the more the toy moved, the more she got her head low and powered to the toy. LOVE IT! She looked good on the flat and on the jump too. You can play with adding more speed to the dragging toy on the flat for more fun and excitement with the toy 🙂
Onwards to the set point!!
Good morning!
Good boy for working with horses in the field! And you were smart to use food, the higher value reward worked well in the face of big distractions.
He did really well with the game here! He had a couple of questions and I think they were mainly about starts (or resets) –
When there is an error, reset at your side with a cookie then start over by taking his collar and/or making connection, then sending into the game. That way he doesn’t rehearse the frustration behavior of leaping up when you keep going after an error. And when you do reset him between reps, let him have the cookie, take a moment to connect and line up, then send. I think some of the starts and resets happened too quickly so he was not entirely sure when to start 🙂
In the next session:
You can totally use more handling here – motion will both help make it harder! You can stretch the tunnel out even more so you can meet him at the exit then move forward to the wing. More speed will add challenge for both of you 🙂Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
He did well on both of these! Here are some ideas for you:On the proofing game:
At the start of each session, you can move more for both the tunnel and the wrap cues so that there is handling help to get the game rolling. Think of it as helping (with some handling) then testing (with less handling) rather than testing then going back to helping if he struggles. And the handling can be pretty high action, especially some turn and burn running on the exit of the wraps 🙂
And if there is an error, give a reset cookie and start over rather than keep going because continuing might get more errors. The reset cookie gets a reward for lining up again, and gives you a chance to change plans for the next repSmiley face is going well! You already noticed that you needed to give the tunnel exit cues sooner and more often and by the end of the video you had them going. Yay! For those right turns, 2 ideas:
For a bigger visual for him, you can turn the angle of the wing so he can see the face of it – jump cups pointing to the tunnel and the entire set of white poles visible as he turns the corner from the previous wing. That can help!Also, I did not ice a difference in handling when you got it right versus wrong:
You had lots of motion and connection at 1:15 and 1:58 and you were pretty far ahead! When you are ahead and connected, he does better. On the other reps, when you stayed closer and decelerated, he collected and came into you, which made it harder for him! So tay connected like you did but send and run run run – he will let us know if my theory is correct or not 🙂
Emmett wanted in on the fun LOL Good boy!Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Sounds like she had a great day 🙂
She did really well here! Most reps were really lovely – one thing to add is the “toy is available” reward marker so she is not trying to track toy presentation to decide on the behavior. I think that is what happened at :37 – as she was heading to the tunnel, your movement was basically identical to the toy presentation when she was correct on wraps, so she came off the tunnel. At :49 I didn’t see anything that you did differently that caused hr to go into the tunnel – and you don’t have to reward the same way as if it was correct. You can use a rest cookie there to gt a reward in and line her up for the next rep. So a “strike” marker can mean “that is correct!!” and a “come for a second” type marker with a cookie to line up can be more of a nice try, let’s go again.
Let me know if that makes sense!You can also add more motion in this, doing a tunnel then meeting her at the exit so you can move forward up the line to the wing wrap 🙂
Great job! Have a great day!
Tracy
