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Good morning!
>I love the way you describe Kashia’s little brain and attitude towards these games. It’s so spot on, I think! LOL! She has such a funny personality!>
Ha! She is a BIG personality who makes her opinions known LOL!
>I really like blinds! This has been really fun so far! >
That is great! You are a really fast runner so you will be able to do a lot of blinds on course – your dogs will love it!!
> In fact, I’ll admit, one of my last trials, I was late on my blind, so Kastella was still on the “incorrect” side of me and totally bypassed the jump! My fault, though, because I thought she was on the other side>
That happens sometimes 🙂 The more we show them the blinds, the more they save us when we are late 🙂
>.I was able to fix my mistake when it was Kashia’s turn, so she got it flawlessly. 🙂 Sorry, Kastella, that mama handled you more poorly. It just depends on the trial day for which dog is my “guinea pig” for handling errors on the first run. ha ha>
Yay for you, fixing it for Kashia!!! You won’t need a guinea pig dog for much longer – I am sure you will be able to run them both flawlessly no matter which dog is first.
>I don’t know how to describe this, but for the one jump advanced game and two jump game, it was really cool to see the almost U-shaped line the girls ran because of the connection I had with them. >
TOTALLY agree – it showed a really cool level of understanding and teamwork. You’ve worked hard to teach them commitment and you are doing a great job with connection too!
I am so glad you are having fun! And it is really fun to see both dogs doing so well. Someday it would be fun to get to see them run in person 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
The discrimination session went really well!
After a tunnel rep or two you can help him see the wrap but adding a little movement or the toy being visible.
To help fade out the physical cues entirely:
Since he did really well lining up with collar holding you can totally use that moment to begin fading the physical cues. Hold him until you have said the verbal 4 or 5 times, then let go. That gives him extra time to process the verbal before moving. You were releasing pretty immediately after starting the verbal so he was moving before fully processing (figuring it out on the fly LOL!). That was when you got a couple of mistakes. So letting him hear it for longer can help eliminate the mistakes because he will know what you want before he moves 🙂Nice work here!
Tracy
They look like little armadillos to me – I don’t think you have armadillos there which is good because they are kid of gross LOL!
Good morning!
Yay for the tunnel!
>apparently Rou said WTH is that thing, I can’t possibly go through a curved tunnel.>
Interesting! She might be out of practice with the tunnel and taller than when she did it last. She figured out how to duck down to get into the straight tunnel, so you can gradually start curving it again. Good job shaping it!! I bet she sleeps on it and it is once again super easy for her.
The dig on the wing then the line into the tunnel went well! Because she is tall, she has to work pretty hard to get low into the tunnel. You can move the MM further away so she can explode out of it 🙂 that will make the tunnel even more fun!
>We have an issue I’ve ignored for way too long and I left a short clip of the leaping and grabbing at me.>
Thank you for leaving it in! She definitely loves the ball so we want to be able to use it, but we also don’t want her leaping/grabbing so we will definitely address it.
>She can wrap and do the rockinghorse exercise with wraps and use the ball. She can’t do the smiley face with wings or the wrap to tunnel.>
My guess is that the tunnel means she can’t see the ball, so she can’t do it – then gets aroused/frustrated when asked to work without seeing the ball (then leaps/grabs). With the single wraps and rocking horses, she can see the ball the whole time.
So a couple of ideas:
You can shape the tunnel and let her offer it in order to get the ball. It is basically a puzzle: figure out how to get the human to throw the ball. You can take out your movement – walk or stand still – and see if she can look for the tunnel and not at the ball.
When she gets that, you can add more and more of your movement building to running towards the tunnel (with the toy in your hand). You can shorten the tunnel and keep it straight for this.
Then when she can do it, I bet it will be easy to add back the wings – just be sure to maintain big connection to her eyes so she has no questions about how to earn the ball (by going to the wings and tunnels :))
>am I asking too much of her puppy brain using the toy for this right now?>
There is a fine line 🙂 For anything new and hard, introduce it with a lower arousal reward (treat or a less stimulating toy). When she has the game figured out, bring the ball out in the next session. The arousal regulation needed to ignore the ball will take up a lot of brain energy, so we don’t want to try to teach her something new while also asking her to NOT leap/grab for the ball.
Let me know what you think! Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The ‘don’t hit the handler’ game went well – they both looked at you like you were a little nuts 😂 😆 but they did not hit you. Super!
I was going to write down which reps had good timing but it turns out ALL of the reps (except one) had great timing! Yay! You were nailing the timing of seeing both girls exit the wing then starting the blind, then showing the great connection on the exit.
The one rep that wasn’t perfect: You were early at 1:42 – the blind was finished before she exited the wing so she correctly did not take the jump (your connection told her not to, oops!) I think you felt it in the moment and she got rewarded, so all good 🙂 And it is nice to know she is paying attention and not just doing what she did before!
My only suggestion is that after the blind and seeing they are on your new side, when sending to the next wing, you can drop the cross arm that you used for the connection on the blind exit and go back to the dog-side arm for cueing the next line.
>I think my timing of the blind was terrible but my girls read it correctly sooooooo…??? Are they just forgiving or was my timing better than it felt and seemed in the video? I wasn’t ready to commit to the blind when they exited the tunnel because I wanted to see commitment on the jump! >
Yes, it is a fine line with commitment! With the blinds, our motion along the line also helps commit to the jump.
Looking at your timing:
I think your timing with Kashia was really good! She was maybe a stride out of the tunnel when you started and you finished all the blinds with her before she took off, so she had no questions. Maybe it felt weird because she was not moving that fast. You can get more speed from her by running in closer to the tunnel – she always thinks really simple setups are silly LOL so you can run more to get more speed.Kastella was happy to run fast even on a simple setup, which challenges your timing more. The first blind could have been a step sooner but then you locked in: at :54 and 1:03, you saw her exit the tunnel then started the blind immediately after that. Great timing!
Looking at the 2 jump games:
Kashia liked these better LOL so she ran 🙂 And your timing as lovely! Same with Kastella – your timing was spot on! You saw the girls exit the wing, you started the blind, and was finished with the blind before they took off. Your connection was super clear with both, so they had great turns! Super!
Maybe it felt late because blinds in general can feel weird? LOL!! But you were spot on with all the elements of getting in and out of the blind. Click/treat to you and the girls responded brilliantly 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
I am really excited to see that he seemed to have no environment issues with playing outside! He was perhaps even faster because the grass is easier to dig into.
All of the wing/tunnel sequences looked great!! Wow! Commitment to the tunnel and the wraps/FCs? Fabulous!
And the rear crosses on the easier approaches looked strong, he seemed to have no questions about which way to turn. SUPER!!! You can start to move the wing before the tunnel on the RC reps to gradually harder angles to see if you can till get the RC info to him nice and early like you did here.
>He thought we could go into the building for round 2 after we were done in the field,>
Ha! That is funny! But also really nice that he can switch to outdoors so easily. It has been a while!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
The set point is going well! His best stays were when you stayed connected as you walked away and were very clear about the release: talking or putting the toy down were a little confusing to him unless you were repeating the wait cue. So to help him hold the stay, you can totally repeat the wait cue a bit so he understands that it is not general talking that is the release, and not the toy moving as the release.
For the actual jumps: they should probably be a little further apart. You can try 1.5 meters and see how he does. And you can add a a low bar on jump as well – I think he is ready for that.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Yes! Hands in back pockets works like a charm to show connection and keep your arms from flying out 🙂 That is something to revisit for sure!
Tracy
Hi!
>We do have weta…. which are huge and aren’t cute.>
I had to google weta: they are NOT cute LOL!
This is a pillbug:
Looking at his video:
This is on a big slope! I guess it makes sense for the way your city is built, I remember walking many hills!
He did really well following the handling – great job showing him the connection so he could find the line. He was able to pick up a lot of speed which didn’t make it easy for you 🙂 and yes, the slope was hard. That resulted in some of the blinds being a bit late especially when you were trying to run uphill: you can use that use your connection to make even more eye contact which will help even if you are a little late. Keeping your arms in tighter to your ribs will help make showing the new connection sooner too.
Nice work here 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
First two reps looked really good: Strong connection, great timing, clear line of motion! Yay!
When you switched sides – the timing and line were still good, but the connection was not as clear so you can see him slowing down and looking up more. You were looking forward or at your side more (like at :21) rather than back to him so he was looking at you more.
The same held true when you switched back to the other side, even when you changed the angle of the jump: great connection going away from the camera but then not as much connection coming towards the camera. Interesting! So keep the timing and line the same on all reps, but be sure to connect more on all reps so he sees connection coming back towards the camera too 🙂 That will get even more speed.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
Overall this is going really well! The mechanics of the blinds are looking good, especially the connection you are showing him as you finish the blind. Super!
>but he still knocked many down – mostly due to lack of speed I think. >
Most of those were the bar of the blind cross jump after the tunnel (like at :36, 1:23, and other moments when that bar came down). What was happening when that bar came down was that you had stopped moving and were sending to the jump. That caused him to think it was a tighter turn – then he had to make an adjustment when you moved forward into the blind cross.
Ideally, staying in motion and moving past that jump will set the line and help keep that bar up. Staying in motion rather than sending is what you did at 2:24 and you both nailed it there! Then later in the video on the 2nd sequence (at 4:26-5:04 for example) you kept moving past the jump and the bars stayed up AND your timing was really strong!
He had one other question, on seq 2 – at 2:55 and 4:12 you were on his line so he ended up on the wrong side of the jump after the blind. Good boy! On the other reps, you ran a great line so he did really well and had no questions.
>In watching these, I realized I need to pay attention to my verbal cues as well. I accidentally called a simple jump an “out” and a “back” more than once
>You can totally give yourself a walk through with the verbals before you run him to make sure the right words come out 🙂
>We head to Europe on Sunday (next weekend), >
OMG! I am jealous! So fun!
>so I will send you a couple videos of Copper’s contacts by Friday.>
Great! I am looking forward to it!
Nice work here :)
Tracy
Hi!
The wrapping game went really well here!!He totally understood the forward sends and figure 8s/front crosses. There was a little bit of jumping up at your hand but that is usually puppy-speak for ‘more connection needed’. You can look at him more as you are sending him past you, so connection is emphasized more than the hand cue is.
The backwards ending went great too, both in isolation and when you did it as part of the figure 8s. Super!!!
He did have some questions about the sideways sends, like at 1:05 and also a bit later in the session. I think his question was also about connection: you were looking at him when the arm and leg sent. For the sideways sends, you can make eye contact with him then as your arm & leg step to the barrel, your gaze follows them so he gets more support on the cue to go to it.
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>**** No its when I open the door both coming and going or just open it to step out into garage and grab some sodas for the refridge. Its quite the habit. I’ll see if I can get some video.>
OMG!!!! Total teenager herding dog. I can see how it would be frustrating… sometimes we just want to grab a soda and not have a Sheltie assisting by biting the door!
>**** I have been using scatters and snuffles. But it happens in everyday life.>
Maybe have a journal or piece of paper or something on your phone to jot down each scenario it happens in, and we can make a plan. I usually have my phone attached to my hand 😂 so I have a document on it where I jot down a quick note to add to my list of ‘things that drive me crazy with the teenager’ so make a general plan. I keep telling myself that pushy teenagers make GREAT competition dogs and wonderful companions in the house too, so we just need to survive adolescence 🙂
I don’t know if this is the case for you, but I feel that if I am having trouble with my teenage dog in everyday life then it does indeed bubble over into training & play – I get more easily frustrated when they do goofy things like visit people or things go wrong, because there is existing frustration with other things in life. If this is at all the case with you and PoweR, I can TOTALLY relate and happy to support getting it sorted out. Thanks for the insight into what is happening!
The serp session went really well! He had a question early on about coming into you versus running parallel & past the jump. But after that clarification from you (no reward for passing, lots of rewards for coming in) he got it every.single.time. including when you were running at the end. Fabulous!!!
Since this went so well, 2 ideas come to mind:
– you can move to adding the next level of game, adding the other jump (keeping them angled as needed for success as you add more motion)– since he has challenges with other people/dogs and wanting to visit in class, you can add in more distractions in your home environment. Just random objects in the environment will be great to train his brain to ignore things, making it easier to transfer to his class setting too.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>When I get the head check and even the pulling off the wrap is when I’m in motion to start. >
I agree!
I think his send questions are all about knowing that the cues of decel & send have to do with turning to go back the other way, so he is predicting that and has trouble maintaining the commitment while you are indicating the new direction. But…. Cookies help a LOT 🙂
This sending session is going well! He definitely does NOT think of sends as his most favorite thing 🙂 but adding the value for it is really helping AND taking the pressure off of you having to be perfect with timing or feet or arm. Your cues were strong and the rewards definitely helped. You can also tuck a manners minder in behind the wing and trigger it sometimes for him to get rewarded for sending too.
For example – on the first part of the session, you worked on a couple of sends then put together the full sequence: and nailed it (1:30 – 1:36).
Then you repeated the process on the other side and it also went really well: I think the left turn wrap commitment might be the harder side for him because he had a few questions but still went and did the wrap on almost all of them. He didn’t do it at 3:00 because he felt your arm was just too high and too early, causing your hips to turn away from the line. But then he went and did it when you sent again – perfect!
>Do you think that I am on the right track to separate out the sends, and then do a couple reps with motion then go back to stationary start again?>
Totally on the right track! And you can even add in a bit more arm flailing in the general direction of the wing and BIG rewards for when he goes to it even when you are not perfect 🙂 It will probably be even easier when there is a full jump there, but training it on just the wing will make it easy to build tons of value.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning! It is indeed morning now 😂
>Weird question, on the wings for this game, are we supposed to be imagining where the bar would be if it were a jump or does that not matter for the purpose of the game?>
Great question – for this game, it doesn’t matter. You can use whatever is comfortable. The wing is just a way to get the dogs moving without using stays.
>I needed to work out my verbals for sending to the wing. Once I got the right one, she sent out great. I usually use a backside verbal for a wing send but I was using the wrap verbals.>
Interestingly, the backside verbal helped connect you better. When she was not going to the wrap wing, you were a little disconnected and pointing forward while she was still behind you (:24 and :35 for example). But then when you went to the backside verbal, your connection also got much clearer: 1:06 was good and 1:14 & 1:24 were GREAT! On those you had a clear connection and a low arm so she saw your face and shoulders easily. And sent beautifully to the wing!
The blinds overall went really well! There were a couple that I would say were good (like at :05, a step late perhaps) but most were LOVELY with my favorites being at :49 and 1:46. Super! And at 1:07 you were a tiny bit early (she saw you connected on the new side as she exited the wing wrap – but your line of motion (mouse line!) was really good so she was able to read the line.
Overall, great job! It will be fun to add these to trial runs!
Tracy
