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Good morning!
His pounce on the lotus ball was adorable on the first rep! When it was really moving, he was good about not moving properly and not pouncing, especially when you used it on the jump.Since it went so well, you can add it to the zig zags with the 2 jumps! The zig zags are complicated from the dog’s perspective, so use an 8 inch bars as he learns to sort himself out 🙂 And since he has a long stride, lead out 10 feet past the 2nd jump and start to move as soon as you release.
>>Consistent desire for toy play is something I definitely need to build with this boy. Some days he’s a tugging fool and then the next day it’s hell no. I don’t want to do that – something I need to figure out>>
I agree that consistent interest in tugging is a helpful thing for training! Have you seen a pattern to it – will he tug at home but not in class? Will he tug when food is around? Also, will he tug more when you throw the toy or drag it for him to chase? A pattern will emerge and then you can get it figured out 🙂
Great job here! Onwards to zig zags!
TracyHi!
She is doing well on these! It is a challenging skill and se is sorting it out nicely!!! I like her head position and also that she is NOT taking any extra strides anywhere.>>She’s landing really close to the first jump and while she’s bouncing, it doesn’t seem well-centered. Does that matter?>>
Yes, and no LOL!! She is learning to power off her rear, so she might take a slightly different landing spot on jump 1 and it is fine. Also, you can change a couple of small details to help her power more:
– move her start position further back, so she shoulder is right next to the wing, more like where she was at :06 (her other starting positions were a bit too far forward).You can go to the moving target reward, so the toy will end up being further from her landing point and you will be facing forward & moving forward.
You can also overlap the wings by another 6 inches but I think we don’t need to do that yet – I bet she sorts it out as the toy starts moving and the angles flatten a bit more too 🙂
Let me know how she does in the next session! Then we can add even more challenge 🙂
Great job!
TracyOMG Pneumonia! That is definitely NOT slacking! I am glad you are feeling better!
He has figured out the line for the zig zags very nicely! Now, we need a target on the ground to get his head down that he will look at – when your arm is up, he is looking up and that inverts his jumping form. You did have a target… but he wasn’t targeting to it LOL! So either leave it open so he can just grab the treat from it, or use a toy or something he will want to drive to without looking at you. That will take his form to a whole new level 🙂
>> I tried one with me moving and he did drop the bar so we stopped.>>
As you add moving, especially the moving target, lower the bars to 6 or 8 inches so he doesn’t need to think about height at all for now. An 8 inch bar will allow him to focus on form and then we can move the bars up.
Lead with the head: This is going better than you are giving yourself credit for! Your hands are correct (sending and turning away with the same hand, reward with the other).
The one thing you can add is turning him away sooner, so your turn hand is right in front of his nose as he finishes that first wrap, then you can immediately turn him away.In this game, we also want to get his head down (that is the main focus for him: get yer head down, Alta! LOL!). He is looking up, and maybe that is why it feels weird to you. The easiest way to convince him to lower his head is to have you sitting in a chair (or on the ground, but not in the snow :)) Your hands are automatically lower when you are sitting, so he will build the habit of looking down. So try it sitting and feel free to try it with a wing instead of an upright, and see how it foes 🙂
Motion override: he did well with the frisbee – he was a little surprised at first but was able to respond. Yay! Remember that your goal is that you are moving away from him, not towards him, when you ask for the sit, so it might be easier for you to hold the frisbee while you walk forward. That way there is a good visual distraction and you won’t be tempted to turn to face him or move towards him.
Since he loves that frisbee so much… you can use it as a moving target in the zig zags! Tie it to a line and drag it on the flat at first and see how he does, then add it to the zig zags 🙂
he did well with the platform sits here – yes, this is a great platform for him and he was organizing a lot better – some really good tuck sits happening there!!!
The plank was much harder, it is narrow! he was figuring it out though, yay!
>>So much hand watching. We will work on this with the clicker and maybe treats off my body. He can’t even think. It was at the end of the session too. I might have done too much for his boy brain!>>
He looked good on the reps on the videos – were there reps where he was unable to do it? Feel free to include those 🙂 I think he is waiting for the hand cue, which is fine to start and then we fade it. This on both the platform and plank here, you can do a session or two of each while you are sitting so he realizes it is “get on the thing and sit” rather than watching your motion or hand cues as much. Yes, you can still give a verbal sit cue and a little hand cue, but it is primarily shaping. Then you can click and toss the treat for the next rep to start. At this stage, I am not concerned about where he is looking so it is fine for him to look at you hand/cookies as long as he is able to get on the thing and sit.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Looking at the wraps with the bar: This was a cool session! He totally got the hang of if, it was an easy concept transfer for him. Super!! I don’t know if he wraps better to his right… he certainly wraps differently! He was a little more organized into the sit on the left wraps – but then had to think harder about the push off from the sit for the first few reps but then he was really strong.
He seemed “looser” on the right turn sits – notice how he was shifting his weight onto his left hip, rolling onto it to the point where it was almost sliding off the edge of the plank LOL! So he was lifting from his front more on those rather than pushing from the rear. Why was he doing that? Could be that he was looking at your hands more, could be that he was a bit fatigued because it was the 2nd part of the session, could be he is a little looser on that side.
The next session will give us more info about that – you can make 2 adjustments:
Do the right turns first, because that will let us know if fatigue was a factor (this game is a lot more tiring than it looks!).
And, you can add a food bowl as a target as he comes around the wing, to provide a focal point so he looks at your hands less. It will be interesting to see how those tweaks change things.
Zig zags are looking REALLY strong – big improvements for sure! Good boy! He looked like the almost-flat angles were easy!
>> He does much better when he jumps to his left over the first jump. So that probably his stronger side for this exercise.>>
He did well on both here! And noting that the jumping to the left better here is good to keep track of for future conditioning and handling challenges 🙂
A couple of suggestions to build on with the 2 jumps here:
Change his start position slightly, so he is a bit further back by the wing (his shoulder will be right next to the wing) – he was center of the bar here and that doesn’t give as much room for the power slice as being right next to the wing does.You can also move the reward even further away – make it 15 feet or so from the 2nd jump – and you can add more of your motion now. You can also add the moving target at long as it doesn’t upset his belly.
At some point this week, you can also go to either the 3 jump version of this, or the 2 jump backside version (it is totally your choice!). When you move to those, open the angles back up so the line is easy to see. For the 3 jump version, use your lead out and a moving target. For the backside version, the placed target will work because you won’t be able to send to the backside AND get far enough ahead to drag the moving target 🙂 unless you have someone there to help out with it 🙂
Great job!!! Let me know how he does on the next steps.
TracyOh no! Poor Street! I am glad he is feeling better.
He is sitting so nicely now! You can really see it on the reps where he is facing the camera – lots of great foot positioning! He definitely had the flow and was beginning to understand that it would be approach, organize, release – only one moment of anticipation LOL!
When you are in the position that faces him, reward then toss a treat back to the camera so he doesn’t loop back round to get on the plank sideways. We want him to be approaching straight to add more speed and challenge to the organization like he did when you were on the ‘takeoff’ side of the wing.
If you train indoors again, you can add a bit more spice to this with toy play between each rep, or exciting tricks for cookies – then back to the organization game. By adding some arousal, we are beginning to transfer his learning to the state of mind he is likely to be in when he is running courses.
I see you have a video of it with the bar below, onwards to those videos!
Great job!
TracyGood morning! I am glad you had gorgeous weather on your birthday weekend!!
The skills are progressing very nicely 🙂
The organizers are going well in terms of hind end use. after the first rep from the wing where he was looking at your hands and almost fell off LOL! He did really well with the food bowl and also with the distraction of the moving target for the most part 🙂 You can wait to present the moving target til after he is taking off for the bar. The 4 inch bar was a good intro (“oh hey, now there is a bar”) and the 6 inch is perfect for the next steps.I think on the next steps, we can add even more flow. You were already doing the flow of: sit – release – reward. Now add on more actual handling that he would see, which is you would be rotating away before he takes off. This will rely on some serious motion override 🙂 so move slowly at first: Move forward like you did here, cue the sit, and as he sits: You release and rotate to finish the FC as if it was a ‘for real’ handling moment. He might need a food bowl target on the landing side to help him get the idea at first that he needs to take the jump.
And you can also start the slices!
The zig zags look really good! Only one suggestion:
You can lead out further before releasing him. when you are just a step or two past the 2nd jump, he ends up shortening a little – you can see it when he landed on the foot of the 2nd jump at :14 and touching the bar at :33. So, go a full 10 feet past jump 2, start dragging the toy… then release 🙂There are 2 different “next steps” you can add:
– you can stay on the front side and tighten the angles more
– you can open the angles back up the tiniest bit and go to the backsides. I know the backsides are actually step 4, but they can be done before the 3 jump game. With the US Open coming up, I’d want to take a look at these and then we can always go back to the 3 jump game when the 2 jump version is tighter (almost flat). When you do the backside, you will want to have a reward placed out front or someone else dragging it, because he is likely to catch up to you very quickly LOL!!
Also, you can do these in alternating sessions: for example, on Monday you can do the 2 jump tighter front sides. On Wednesday, you can do the slightly more open backsides. Then on Friday, back to the front sides, and so on.
Great job! Let me know how the next steps go!
TracyHi!
This was a fabulous session!
Your mechanics were spot on, from the line up to the reward to the next line up. She nailed it – great lead changes and weight shifts. When the wings were closer, she responded by being quicker without losing form – truly excellent!How close together did the wings end up? They looked to be 4 feet apart. If so, you can go down to 3 feet to really challenge her 🙂
Also, based on what she did here, she can definitely move to the next step, the 2 jump game. Have you had a chance to look at the moving target reward game? That will be useful for her as you add the jumps.
Great job! Let me know how the 2 jumps game goes 🙂
TracyOmg I love her!!!! And her wagging tail!
This was a good session! And I loved the look on her face when you wanted to take a break in the middle – she was in her good sit and didn’t want to leave LOL!!!I think this platform is a good solution – my only suggestion is to try it standing, or feeding her with your hands higher (up by the center of your chest). I suggest this because a higher head position for her will help tuck her hind end under even more. She was experimenting with where to put her feet (especially that right hind :)) and by the end she was doing a great job! A higher feeding position, so her chin is tilted upwards, should make it perfect 🥰
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Looking at the zig zags – the jump setup is really good (angle is good, distance between the jumps is good, but one of the bars was too high or now, both should be at 8″), and her striding is going to be GREAT! The only adjustment is to move you and the reward much further away – the reward was so close she had to land and stop all in one motion. So, using the stationary reward – you can the reward should be a minimum of 12 feet from the second jump so she can land in extension and power out to the reward.
If she is fine with that… go to the moving target reward 🙂 She likes that and it will add even more challenge here 🙂 You would lead out about 12 feet past the 2nd jump put the toy on the ground. For the first few reps, release her and don’t move the toy. If she is organized, you can release then start dragging the toy. If that is fine and dandy? Drag the toy *then* release 🙂
Head turning is looking strong! She is happy to make the bend but she really wants to watch the cookie 🙂 I think you noticed that and your hand got lower and lower during the session which was GREAT! That brought her head down and really helped the turning. Super! So you can do this on a wing with a low hand (or sitting in a chair so you don’t have to be bent over the whole time 🙂
>>getting organized plank – I have tried to get a “sit on the plank” however, she sees it as a contact board. I have started out reminding her that the sit is valuable on the plank. after that, every time she should go into a down just as if we were training our 2o2o. how important is it that she use a plank for the second step?>>
The organizer is really important, so we can do some problem solving to help her out. Does she sit then go into the down after a reward? If so, you can cue the sit (verbal and hand signal or anything else she needs to get the sit) then you can release and throw a reward, rather than feed in position. So basically, it would be get on the board, sit, release, reward. No stay on the board because she might then offer the contact behavior.
Also, we can find something that is nothing at all like her contact board. Looking back at your step 1 video from October 15, she did well with the smaller square platform. Can you make a slightly bigger version of that? Big enough to sit easily… but still square and different than the 2o2o plank. I think a different looking organizer and releasing instead of rewarding in position will help 🙂
Let me know what you think! Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
He is doing this really well and yes, I agree – he is pretty natural with the head turns. He had no trouble adding the wing to the game after doing the upright. So with that in mind, a couple of ideas for you for the next session:
When you send him to the wing, stay close and your other hand to flip him back around it to get the 2nd wrap in a row – that will really get him leading with his head and bending through his midsection, to be even tighter 🙂 You might have to slow him down the first time to do it but then when he has the idea, you will see him bending even more!
And separately- on the wing you used here, you can start further away from it, maybe 10 feet away, to send him. That way you can see the moment he turns his head on the ‘takeoff’ approach side of the wing, and then you can click that moment. He was making good head turns when he arrived at the wing, so now we can do some shaping to get him to do it on the approach side – which will result in even better turning and jumping skills.
Great job!! Let me know how the other games are going!
Tracy
Whoa a jacket! I have never seen you in a jacket! LOL!
She did really well here! The sits were well organized but the tiniest bit sideways turning towards you. You can keep her straighter with a reward target out front of her so she doesn’t look at your hands as much (like a Manners Minder or empty bowl).
Adding the challenges also looked good: She did well coming in with more speed as long as you didn’t move to fast yet 🙂 And when you add the wing wrap before it, try to eb sure that the line to the organizer is straight so she doesn’t get on it from the side.
At this stage, you can drop the clicker and just use praise/releases, so you can delay a tiny bit more to be sure she is fully in the sit and not moving her feet anymore. That will help her be even more snappy with it!
Also, she is ready for the next step, seeing this in front of the wing 🙂
Gerat job! Let me know how it goes with the wing added 🙂
TracyGood morning!
The zig zag flatwork looked great – the 5 foot distance definitely got him thinking, so keep working that distance til you see the same quickness we saw him do at the 6 foot distance (cantering/galloping rather than trotting). Then… you can move it to 4 feet then 3 feet 🙂 The quicker he gets himself making these changes, the easier the slice jumping will be.
But in terms of progression – as soon as you see him cantering more in the 5 foot distance (probably in the next session), you can go to the 2 jump zig zag game and getting the flatwork down to 4 feet then 3 feet can be something you do later on down the road.
Looking at the leading with the head video:
Both sides looked really good, and when you did the sends and single wraps, we can see him approaching the upright with his head turned to drive into the wrap, especially on the right turns. Yay!
>> This time I thought he looked more comfortable turning to his left and less comfortable turning to the right…the opposite of last time
I think this had to do with how quicky you got your cue hand out of the way: on the left turns, you cued and the hand was not in his way. On the right turns, he had to wait til you moved your hand which was in a more “in your face” position LOL! So that is probably what you felt in the moment: that slight hesitation so he wouldn’t run into your hand 🙂
>>Should I move this to a wing?
Yes, you can definitely move this to a wing. And get the organizers going to the wing too, so we can meld the organization for the turn with the head turn at the wing.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>> I know it’s not recommended doing both on the same day, but I figured this would be the one time I could get away with it since there is no actual jumping involved,>>
In these early stages, the stuff without actual jumping can be done on the same day, with rest days in between because there is a definite hind end workout happening 🙂 The hunting weekend provides excellent rest breaks LOL!
Excellent work on the zig zag flatwork! Nothing to change in terms of how you were facing him or lining him up, that all looked great. You can cue the in-and-out faster for him, more like what you did at :39 – giving the 2nd cue shortly after he released to start moving. The later part of the session where the wings were 6 feet apart had the earlier cues and that looked good – the quicker he can make the lead changes, the better!
He is a big dude, so I also recommend you play with this flatwork game with the wings 4 feet apart and even 3 feet apart, for quickness and for getting him used to shifting like that in smaller spaces. And he will probably see 4 foot bars on jumps at trials or in training, so we want him to be comfy with that short distance.
When he returns from his weekend adventures, you can definitely start the 2 jump zig zag games 🙂
Great job with the platform!
>> my ahah moment was when I took half a step back giving him a bit more room to get on the platform.>>
yes, that totally helped him! Yay!
I notice that he loses his form a tiny bit when he reaches up for the 2nd or 3rd cookie – you can see his right leg slide off the side towards the end of this clip LOL!! My guess is that he was thinking “COOKIE!” in that moment and forgetting to hold himself tight in the sit. So you can add more time between each cookie, and deliver justa tiny bit lower so his chin is high but he is not leaning upwards to get it. You can also deliver one cookie then release, so he can get that fabulous first sit into his muscle memory.
Planks with wing:
When you are facing him and on the ‘landing’ side of the wing, rewarding him across your body as if he was doing a serpentine if great, then you can toss the treat back to the starting point for the next rep. What you did on the 2nd video (the right side) was more efficient: you rewarded for going all the way around the wing as a wrap, which also conveniently set him up for the next rep 🙂 He needed a moment to get organized on that first rep of the right side: the treat is stimulating and he forgot the organization on that first rep, but then recovered it and was brilliant on the rest of the reps. Super!I think that throwing the reward all the way back around the wing the best way to do it when you are facing him – but on the next session, you can change your position so that you are on the ‘takeoff’ side of the wing (same side as the plank, as if you are cuing a front side wrap). When you move to there, the reward definitely gets placed for coming all the way around the wing – almost identical to how you were tossing it in the right side plank video here.
Based on his progress here, my guess is that he will only need one session of you on the ‘takeoff’ side of the wing, then you can add the full jump to this. That will probably happen early to middle of next week, based on his busy training and hunting schedule 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I hope that you test negative for the icky you-know-what, or at least have an incredibly mild case like I did if you end up testing positive,It took her a moment at the beginning to realize she needed to get all 4 feet on the plank, but then she was really quite organized! Yay Changste! You were helping her with body position (facing her) and stopping with her when you added the wnig wrap before it. That is all fine, and she got the concept. On the next session, you can still give her your verbal cues but try not to face her to get the sit. If that works, you can move the plank to the “To The Wing” game to add in the wing wraps.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
