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Good morning!
I totally love this game 🙂 I am a big fan of changing the line up if he one we have been using is not working all that well 🙂 And this between the feet line up is also a fun trick!
>> Also I think it will prevent him going wandering/ sniffing and make him feel more secure in a strange environment. So here is a little we did in the side lane and I think you’ll agree he looks very happy with this. i say ‘legs’ he goes to middle and then I take the leash offf.>>
Totally agree! So the next steps on this game are to add the weird thing in front of him (some random thing) and the weird thing behind him (from the Package 2 Line Up games Part 2). And to take it into all sorts of different places 🙂 We will be building on the line up tonight!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Congrats on a great weekend!!!!!!
>>. In this video, when I was asking for the bark, my posture looked a little like personal play and he looked like he was about to spin, so I Immediately went over to the remote reinforcement station. There was no grass eating!>>
Hooray for no grass eating!!! Good for you for making a very smart training decision in-the-moment. You can get yourself to back up as part of the cues, stepping back or leaning back to help draw him to you and to also convince him that it is not personal play, especially as part of the barking on cue.
>>I used the bark on cue during rally league last week before our run. He looked like he was going to bark at the judge, so I cued him to bark. He did and then got right to work. He was not worried at all and got a perfect score!>>
Brilliant! That is an awesome redirection that seemed to accomplish two things: redirects his focus away from the judge and onto you, and changes his arousal state (higher!) so that he could get that perfect score. Congrats!!! Barking at the judge is an anxiety behavior. Barking at you on cue is a trick based in positive reinforcement – two entirely different behaviors 🙂
And I see you used a bit of a “go for a run!” moment in the video – that is GREAT!! I release my dogs into the wild all the time LOL!!! I am not sure if you ever got to meet Export, but he got released to go for a run all the time in his early training, and that created more “want to engage” and less running off. The joy of the running gets transferred quite nicely to the joy of playing with us 🙂
>>Here is our RR+ tricks and our leash off games.
These look good! You can add in more distance from the reward station now. We will be adding more to this in the games coming tonight! He looks ready 🙂 One detail: For the remote reinforcement – make the reward marker very salient by saying it, giving the cookie… then praising like you did at :30. When you are putting the marker in the midst of all of the praise like at :47, it gets lost and also he didn’t seem to love the bending towards or touching when you were praising.
Keep working in the stepping back from him and leaning back during the reward and praise moment, he is not a fan of you leaning in or touching him. Some dogs (most dogs :)) just don’t love to be touched while working and that is perfectly fine. I don’t love to be hugged while working either LOL!! I was teaching a seminar last week and someone stopped in during the middle of it and wanted to give me a hug… I was all like ‘ewwwww not now’. It made me think of Riot and all of the dogs who don’t appreciate the physicality of that type of play when they are in work mode.
>> Can I use the target stick for instant focus? I can put it on a stand so that I am not holding it.
Possibly, but definitely not from your hand. We want you to not have to hold it at all – so if the stand is something that you can put into the environment that is separate from you – then yes, you can totally use it 🙂
>>Where are we going with the IF behavior ultimately? Is it something we will use before running?
it is a concept game – teaching the concept of finding ‘work’ without needing to first assess the environment or first see cookies present. It is a brutally challenging concept! But a critical one: when the dogs enter the trial ring, they have to find ‘work’ and they cannot assess the environment or see cookies. So the prop needs to be something that can be used in different places but it is not something we would need to put into your toolbox before a run.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Looking at these 3 videos, I don’t think you need to start over – I think the prop needs more value 🙂 Even in the home session (1st video) he was not offering a lot on it – he was tending to offer a little on the prop and offer a lot of looking at you and barking. So then when you took it on the road, the value was not high enough to break through the distractions of the environment. When you had cookies in your hand, that helped him a little but we don’t want to show him cookies to get the focus.
So, to build value – you can use your DVD 🙂 and maybe elevate it, tape it to a big bowl or something so it is very obvious in the environment. Do several more sessions at home to build value to the point that he immediately goes to it and doesn’t look at you as much – and then add some ‘clutter’ to the environment, where he has to find the prop.
When the prop is basically magnetic at home and he draws to it immediately, probably after 3 or 4 more sessions – then take it on the road to a less distracting place than you had here – maybe your driveway to start? And then when he comes out of the car, put it down and see what he does. Getting him to be able to find “work” in new places without seeing the treats in your hands is going to be SUPER useful for his trialing.
Let me know what you think!
TracyOMG that story is SO FUNNY!!! You will look back it at happily some day and remember the panic fondly. I am glad your village set you up with all sorts of good stuff 🙂 I, too, would work for an Egg McMuffin.
And yay for the reality-TV videos LOL! Love it!
The practice jump warm up looked great, she looked pretty relaxed in all that dirt and as the other dog went past her at the end! the pre-run games looked good, and it was so funny hearing everyone freak out LOL!!! At least you know they like you 🙂
Promise was a pro during her run. She came in and acted like she was at home. You set up huge success and I think she had a great time!!!
>>I didn’t get your response before I went into the ring. I did just a little more than wash, rinse, repeat lol! I was like, well Tracy told me I could possibly do a stay lol! She was EXCELLENT. Thankfully, running is just as much as a reward to her as the toy :).>>
As I was writing it, I was thinking that it wouldn’t arrive in time LOL! No worries, thiswas a good plan and she did a great job. Her debut weekend was a big success!!
What is next on her calendar, in terms of training or trials?
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
What a bummer about the run through!
But it looks like you got plenty of training in!The first instant focus video looked great – VERY interesting that you noticed the difference in the behavior, that is good to know that even in your driveway, the environment is challenging. But, he was a super good boy and did the job! Yay!
The upper deck session was also great 🙂 And yes, he did seem snappier with the behavior – my guess is that part of the difference is because the deck is a place where he has trained before, and he associates it with training and cookies 🙂 The driveway? NOT a normal training place hahaha! It is a ‘get in the car’ place, right? So he had to overcome a different association to get right into ‘work’ – and he did. YAY!!!
Ewwww Sleet! When will it truly be springtime!!!
He did well with his engagement when the leash came off. yay! So now you can wait one more heartbeat before reaching for reinforcement: leash off, toss it aside or put it down… then if he is still engaged, the cookie comes out to play 🙂 That will help with the leash being a distraction, especially when the leash runner comes to take it away.
At the park – he hit it the first time REALLY well!! But then yes, he noticed the environment. You can do step 1 instant focus in the park, which is to bring him out of the car and then put the prop down – that can help make the prop more salient and get better success in that very first moment.
The last video was after the pattern game? This is a really nice difference! The park is distracting (I think there was music playing too) and also the park is not really associated with training, which makes this game so challenging!!! He is doing really well, though, great job getting him to new places.
Do you have class tonight? Definitely work the various games pre-run (pattern games, some engaged chill, some volume dial tricks) and set your reward station. Walk into your first run with nothing in your hands, take off the leash, put it down…. and see what he does. If he offers engagement? YEAH! Jackpot!! Woohoo!
And you can keep playing with that, adding in a stay and a lead out, etc.Have fun! Let me know how it goes! Great job here 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>>They are the wrap cues. The left/right cues just feels wrong here because she is doing a lot more than a basic soft/90deg turn overall. It seems to me once it is more a serp line than the left/right would make more sense.>>
Visualize a bar on the jump instead of just the wing there – we are basically sending the dogs to “jump 1” of a serp line, then serping jump 2, so it is not a wrap. I would use the wrap cue it I was threadling the dog to the threadle side of the jump, or doing a FC.
>>Do you decide on whether it is a wrap cue vs left/right verbal based on the turn they make after taking the jump regardless of their approach to the jump? >>
Yes – so on this one, even though we have an angled approach, the dog does not have to come right back around the wing and through the gap, the dog sets up the “L” shaped turn – so it is a left or right for me and not a wrap.
>>Some approach angles tend to make me wonder which verbal is correct to use because sometimes the approach angle is so acute it seems like it should be a wrap verbal even if the exit doesn’t have them crossing the plane of the jump.>>
It all depends on how your personalize it, of course, but the exit element is critical in my definitions: not coming back around the plane of the jump pretty immediately? Then it is not a wrap. If the dog knows how to exit, then they are free to set themselves up with the collection needed to create that exit, regardless of angle of entry.
>> I am not sure about waiting longer to leave the wing to get on the RC line given I felt late at least partly because I was so far behind her already when I was doing the RC in this session.>>
As you move away from the wing, you will be on the RC line immediately, from the very first step – so you won’t be that far behind. You will be further behind if you leave sooner and run towards the ‘go straight’ side of the wing, because there will be more yardage to cover as you then have to come back to the RC line.
Great job with the serp/tunnel game! Very clear positions, very clear verbals, very clear reward markers. Yay! It is a really hard game and she was super successful! She didn’t see to have trouble with the motion at all until you went to running – so as you add running, be sure your upper body is very clear more like how you did it at 1:50 and after that.
Adding threadles to the mix on the next session:
This is going well, it is a super hard game. As you noticed, keep rewarding the stays 🙂 And you can also have your body position fully set before the release – show the physical cue, then 2 seconds later, add the verbal. That will help protect the stay and she will process the cue better. For example, she had an error at :24 when the arm and release came at the same time – doing the arm cue and then the release will help her in the face of the tempting tunnel 🙂And then yes, the threadle line up was too hard for her to also see the serp – dogs (especially BCs) tend to get into threadle vortexes where they threadle ALL THE THINGS after one successful threadle rep. I think that is what happened here 🙂 So changing her position slightly when you want the serp was the right move and will help for now, and eventually she will be able to handle both from whichever position you start her in 🙂
On your threadles – do you plan to turn your feet as part of he cue? If so, carry on 🙂 although I will try to talk you out of foot rotation on threadles. If not – be super careful with the foot work here, try to keep your lower body on the threadles identical to your lower body on the tunnel and serp reps: toes facing straight to the tunnel 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
There are plenty of ups and downs in agility training, that is for sure!! I have found that we can avoid those deflating downs by slicing the behavior very thinly, especially when something is not going as planned.So after watching the video here:
>> also Ronin didn’t make the rear cross attempts easy because he was not driving ahead of me to the jump. I fear there is not yet enough value for that jump, especially to drive ahead of me to get it. Should I go back and work on that first?>>
You are correct in tha there is not enough value in driving ahead… because in this session, he didn’t get asked to or rewarded for driving ahead 🙂 Every GO rep had you sending and leaving way ahead on the line, so he was behind you. And that went well, he has plenty of value for that! But then when you wanted him to get ahead of you, he didn’t understand it because it was different than the previous reps – suddenly you were hanging back and waiting.
So, to help solidify the RCs – the most important element is the driving ahead as you noted. You can build it up across a couple of sessions by first revisiting it as toy races, but with the jump out there: starting near where the start wing is, you hold his collar, and throw the toy as far as you can past the jump. Then get him wild, let go, and run run run. He should accelerate ahead of you on that.if he can do that a few times, you can add in the next step (see below) If he doesn’t accelerate ahead? Go to a better reinforcement, something that he really loves! I also suggest if yo uare using food, having this be the first session of the day so he is especially wild for the cookies 🙂
If he is happy to accelerate ahead, toy-race style, you can add the wing wrap before it (it recreates the earlier maxpup combo games where we wrapped a wing or barrel then raced to a toy). Because we eventually want to set up the RC, you will want to stay super close to the wing wrap like you did with the RCs, then accelerate (the toy is still on the landing side of the jump here).
After a couple of sessons where he leaves you in the dust, you will mix in throwing the toy rather than placing it out ahead, so sometimes it is placed and sometimes it is thrown. Throw as soon as you see him looking at the jump.It will take a couple of short, high reward sessions to get the driving ahead going, probably over the course of several days or a week… and then you can throw in a rear cross or two. But after each and every rear cross rep: do at least 2 ‘go straight’ reps to keep that value very high. And you can totally place the toy reward out in the correct spot on the rear cross reps, to help encourage him to take the jump rather than turn before it. And when you do go to throwing the toy on the RC reps, always throw it pretty far past the jump to help encourage him to take it on the RCs too.
So the bulk of the training should be the go go go lines – that is something I suggest for all small dogs 🙂 The smaller the dog, the better the commitment needs to be because they have to take so many more strides to get to the jump! The RCs will be much easier (it will be all about your timing at that point :)) when you add them back in.
Let me know what you think! No worries about creating a slow dog – he is just showing us where his value is, and where he needs more value.
Tracy
Hi!
This went well! She did have some questions but that is normal – it is a REALLY challenging game!
When you add motion to the tunnel and the serp cues, try to be at least halfway between the uprights before you release her. That is where she had the most success, which is fine because those were strong positional cues as well. When you released closer to the first wing Ike at :07, :33 and :36, she was not as certain and had an error. And when you are moving and serping, you can open up your shoulders back towards her more, that really helps her see the serp! When your serp arm was a little too forward, pointing to her landing spot – she was not as sure if she should serp or not.
The threadle at the end looked good too!!So yes, keep playing and adding more motion 🙂 You can also add challenge by changing the tunnel position: rather than having the entry parallel to the bar, you can move it so it is perpendicular to the bar and entirely facing her as she is in the stay 🙂 That will be harder but I think she can do it!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! The rear crosses are indeed a difficult handling move, especially because the verbals with these youngsters are not strong enough yet to save us if we are late LOL!!
First up – the GO lines and the reward placement and the verbals were all FABULOUS. Keep that up!!!!
You can revisit the minny pinny turning away, that is always a good thing – but it was not the issue here 🙂 What was happening was that you were showing the “go straight” info before you showed the RC info, so he was committing to going straight. Sometimes he could pick up the RC, sometimes not.
What I mean by the ‘go straight’ info is that the RC info about how to commit to the jump needs to be delivered simultaneously: take the jump and turn left, for example. Your info was subtlety different: you were cuing the RCs as a “take the jump, then turn left” behavior with your running line: you were moving forward for a step or two or 3 (which meant: go take the jump straight or on the lead you were on) and then you were cutting in behind him (which meant: turn left/rear cross). But because he had several steps of “take the jump ahead info” without the rear cross info, he was not always able to read the rear cross in time.
So to cue the RC – deliver the ‘take the jump and turn’ info simultaneously, by moving on the RC line the entire time as he is driving forward. He will feel the rear cross diagonal pressure the as soon as he exits the start wing so he has all of that room to make the adjustment to the rear cross.
To do that, start super close to the start wing, close enough to touch it 🙂 and stay at it til he is just about done wrapping it. And as he exits the start wing, your feet are facing he center of the bar on the RC jump and you will then start running up the line to the center of the bar. That also means you never turn forward to the go-straight side of the wing wing – being close to the start will will help prevent that.
That way, you will be facing and moving towards the center of the bar the whole time, so as he starts looking at the jump, he gets the info to commit to the jump and more importantly: how to commit to the jump!He is able to read the RC pressure – at :06 you were a little late, but :11 and :17 were better (these were the right turns).
Left turns were definitely harder – this might be his harder side and also there is less room on that side (plus he just had reinforcement for going to the right) so he is less likely to be able to save things if the info is late 🙂 Looking at the left turn reps: I like to freeze the video twice for each rep to see what he is seeing. I freeze it when he is exiting the start wing, and when he is taking off for the jump.
At :31 and :41, the RC info was too late for him to process on time because your position when he exited the start wing was pretty lateral, lined up with the ‘go straight’ or ‘turn right’ side of the jump, which made things too hard to show him the RC info before he had to make a jumping decision. yo started way lat
At :37 – he felt the pressure but still not quite soon enough. Being very close to the start wing to set it and moving directly up the RC diagonal will help him there.The head turn stuff is a great reminder! And it patterned the turn so that when you added the RCs starting close, he was able to get it nicely.
Then at 1:50 when you went back to the full line RCs – he got it but you can still get on the RC diagonal sooner 🙂 Freeze the video just before he takes off at 1:51 and you will see you are pressuring the diagonal for the RC but not cut across his line yet for the RC. And that is why on the last rep, at about 1:55, he turned left when you wanted a right turn RC: you were on the “go straight” side of the jump as he exited the wing wrap at 1:54, and then at 1:56 he is committed to the center of the bar for because you had not cue behind him yet so he turned to where the rewards were for the last few reps 🙂
And that is fine – it illustrates the power of reward placement and I love that!!!
So the only tweak is changing your start position on the wing, which will change your running line (running to center of the bar til he is past you and committing to the jump). You will notice that you are closer to him, closer to the jump, and not all that far behind when he lands from the rear cross which is a GOOD thing, we don’t want to be left in the dust LOL!!!)
Let me know if that makes sense! Great job here!
TracyGood morning! This session went well, I have a little tweak for you to help the RCs be even smoother. RCs are REALLY hard with young dogs (and, in my opinion, smaller dogs) so overall he did super well here!
The run-jump straight lines and the left/li li turns looked great! Yo can definitely add more running into both of these – he will love it 🙂 And on the go lines in particular, add a bit more connection to his eyes as you say it and he exits the tunnel. You were looking forward on those so he was not entirely sure where to be til he got closer to the jump – you can see him coming into you then back out. A bit of connection (I don’t think he needs a ton there) will smooth that line out.
The rear crosses are coming along nicely – he is doing well. I don’t think you need to go back to previous steps of this – we can get you closer to the RC line and on it sooner, which should help make them perfect.
On the early reps, you were moving straight for a bit too long and were too far ahead, and then beginning the RC line after he has committed to turning left – At :42 and :52 and 1:09 you are on the opposite wing as you begin the RC cue and he is already having left turn thoughts.You had more accelerated and started the RC line a LOT sooner at 1:15 which is definitely helpful! Be sure your running line is to the center of the bar – your feet were on the backside wrap line there for a bit, which is why he considered the backside wrap.
At 1:25 we are starting to see you show the RC info sooner so he made the adjustment a stride before takeoff, good boy!
I think to really smooth it all out, you can combine the running line you did at 1:15 with the timing of 1:25 –
Run closer to the tunnel so you are not ahead of him or decelerated as he exits. Then as he exits, you will accelerate to the center of the bar until he passes you – then you can cut it for the RC. You will know you are on the right line when you notice 3 things:
– he has no questions and turns to the right immediately
– you feel like you are pretty darned close to the bar and to him when you do the RC
– you are very close and maybe a little ahead of him on the exit of the RC.Moving in closer to the tunnel rather than sending and leaving will really help – you can be lateral from the entry when you send him in, closer to the exit, but run in to the curve of the tunnel so you can then be moving up the RC diagonal to the center of the bar to set the RC line.
And keep up with those most excellent toy throws for each verbal – even when they hit the wing 🙂 they help solidify the understanding even if the handling is not perfect. The verbals are most useful when we are not perfect and when we need distance, so the toy throws here really supported what you were teaching him as far as the difference between go, left, and rear cross/right.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
All the videos from your part of the country have crazy winds in them! Eek!!!! Hopefully the weather calms down soon.
The GO reps looked great. – fast and super high energy. Love it!!! And the left reps looked great too – nice turns AND she stayed on her line to find the wing.
Rear crosses are one of the hardest handling moves – forget all that fancy stuff, I think rear crosses are harder LOL!!!
You do have enough space but you can also move the jump out another foot or two to give you more room. There is one little tweak that should help:You were cuing the RCs as a “do this then do that” behavior with your running line: you were moving forward for a step or two or 3 (which meant: go take the jump) and then you were cutting in behind her (which meant: turn right/rear cross). When you did it as she was taking off, she either didn’t get the turn (:19) or turned over the bar (like at :27 and 1:09). The this-then-that cue is causing a bit of an outside leg step to start cutting in that might also change how she reads decel for wraps & spins (she might predict rear crosses when we don’t want them) so if we change up your running line, that will not be an issue.
So to cue the RC – deliver the ‘take the jump and turn’ info simultaneously, so as she is driving forward, she already knows she is taking the jump. That means you never turn forward to the left turn wing, not even to cue her to take the jump: you will be facing and moving towards the center of the bar the whole time, and she should be seeing this as she is exiting the tunnel.
As she is exiting the tunnel, you are facing the center of the bar and moving towards it. Her role is to drive past you and on the flat shift her leads so she can take off turning to her right for the rear cross. When you see her committing to the bar – that is when you cut behind her to complete the RC. You will find yourself doing it a lot closer to the jump, which is GREAT because then you won’t get left in the dust on rear crosses 🙂
And one trick to be able to do that on a smaller setup like this: run in towards the center curve of the tunnel, then run out again, so you are in motion but not more than a step or two ahead of her. If you stop at the entry/exit of the tunnel, it is harder to show the RC line.
Let me know if that makes sense! She was already reading the RCs here, so having you get on the RC diagonal earlier will make them even easier 🙂 Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Sounds like you got a bit of the the crazy winds your part of the world was having! She seemed a little distracted at first bit came back to focus really quickly 🙂
On the set point – she was showing good form but not necessarily taking off or landing where we want her. I think that had to do with the start position – she was a bit too far from the first jump, so she was taking off from her sit (because there was not quite enough room to take a stride) and that landed her a little short on the first jump. So you can have her start closer to the first bump – probably having her front feet 5 or 6 inches away from it (I highly recommend a bit of cookie luring to get her there the first couple of times so she realizes that it is OK to start that close :)) That should allow her to move the way she did here but have comfortable landing positions between the jumps and after the 2nd jump.
I think the distance between the jumps was good for now – that might change at some point down the road but let’s see how a different start position helps her. And the toy can be a bit further before the release but where you started and where you dragging it to on the last rep was really good 🙂>> how do you teach the dog not to get the toy on the ground until you tell them to get it?>>
We taught that sneakily (the pups didn’t realize it was a self-control game too haha) in the early strike a pose games, where you had the toy in one hand and the target in the other, and had her ignore the toy (or cookies) and tap the target, then go to the toy with a verbal (like “strike” or “bite”). Then we went to dangling the toy… then we went to the toy on the ground. She did well here! Was she having difficulty maintaining her stay when you put the toy on the ground?
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I think if you gave him more distance, he would go faster LOL which means your timing would be the same or need to be even quicker 🙂 Try leaving it at this spacing for now and see how it goes 🙂
TracyHi! Lots of lovely work here!!
On the Wind In Your Hair: this is going well!! And you sorted out the question about the rear cross versus backside REALLY nicely!
On small detail: On your Go reps, you can be a little more outside of the jump wings to run past the jump so she doesn’t feel any rear cross pressure. You were tending to run toard the bar on those (like at 2:58, for example), which can be a bit similar to the rear crosses. So be sure to run outside of the jump wing, as if you are continuing on past it.When you send to the start wing, remember to use your dog-side leg to support the send, she was not sure if she should to it when you didn’t use your dog-side leg. (or she wasn’t going to it)
RCs are going REALLY well. YAY!!!
>>Saw some confusion when I switched to backside wrap
Yes, I see what you are mentioning! The value of the front of the bar has gotten higher now that rear crosses are introduced, which means the cue to the backside needs to be more connected. I think the main thing will be that on the backside cue: stay super connected to her eyes and don’t look forward ahead of her to backside wrap as it turns your shoulders and feet to look just like RC. That is what happened at 3:27 and 4:06 – that one moment of turning and looking ahead of her, pointing forward, made the upper body and feet look pretty similar to those shiny new rear crosses LOL! You got better connection at 3:37 and then after 4;14, you got the connection AND the smooth motion so the reps at 4:27. 5:14. 5:45 and 6:17 were perfect! On the next session, you can alternate the rear crosses and backside wraps more, to be sure you are showing distinctly different lines.
Ladder grid: She did well here too 🙂 The angled jumps were easy for her too. YAY!!
What was the distance here? You might want to add 6 inches between each jump for now – she is small but she seems to have a nice big stride! This distance looked a little small for her, for now.
>>>Seems like she looks up a bit still. I think I had a late reward delivery to bowl on the ground in first reps which caused her to question the reward placement >>
I think having you leaning over to put the food in helped keep her head down – you can also have it placed in the bowl before the release, so she can look at it and you don’t have to wrry about how fast you get it in the bowl 🙂 The empty bowl is not as exciting to look at as the cookie, so the cookie in the bowl might do the trick. You can also try a toy there instead of the cookie – she is making good choices so I think she is ready for the increased excitement of a toy target 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
