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Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi! Happy Mardi Gras (this is today, right?)
This is looking really good and it was also a really good session in terms of structure, reinforcement, criteria, etc.I am glad you started to add your movement earlier – that was a “just right” amount of challenge. You had a really good transition back to the start after the one error – it was a legit error, there was more pressure on his line (which is correct for this game). You can deliver the reset cookie as part of also lining him up but that is just a little nitpick.
2 other details – your timing of the reward toss was really good so now alter the placement a little by getting it to land on the landing spot (not near you when he exits the wrap). That will get even more independence – you’ll be throwing it behind you as you move up the line 🙂 And, try to say “get it” then “yes” not “yes get it” – I am trying to get myself to NOT say yes first as well, such a hard habit to break!
I think he is ready for the more speed here – start your next session on the easier side for him (left turns, I think, like you did here) and do a couple of reps with the motion you had here. If that is all good, add jogging then running 🙂
>>when I come in like the meme of Jason Momoa to the backside.
Well, our goal is that you are literally running behind his tail, so he will get used to the Momoa-ing 🙂
“”I keep trying to make this holee roller a fun toy but I think he gets bored with it. We played fetch after so hopefully he keeps feeling it’s fun. It’s just super easy to place.””
Try flinging it further – when you throw it to te landing spot, you can really toss it rather than plop it. He likes to chase it!
>> I’m still bad at switching is collar to hand while tugging to restart.
Do you mean getting your hand on his collar while still tugging? I don’t think you need to, and I think it dilutes the play a bit. On the last rep, you did play-out-cookie-line up -collar – cue. I think it was clean and smooth and he was a very happy critter who then nailed the response.
>>I feel like I’m leaving over too much to start but that may just be me nitpicking
yes, just nitpicking- you have to lean over to hold his collar and he didn’t seem sad bout it 🙂
Great job here!! Le me know how the next session goes!
TracyTracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi!
>>>> After last week’s live chat, I was really trying to keep this in mind, but it’s so hard of a transition for me when I spend Sundays teaching Puppy Kindergarten, Good Dog 101, and Jump Start Puppy and we’re using “Yes!” (or a click) to mark behaviors. Eventually, I got a bit more regular with it, but definitely still need a lot of work!
True, it is a hard transition when you spend a lot of time just getting folks to use their clicker or say yes and reward in puppy classes 🙂 Not gonna lie, I don’t teach people to say yes anymore but I still have a hard time stopping myself LOL!
>> I tried a bit of handler motion this morning, but I didn’t record it, so no video to share. I was trying to be clear with left/right handler motion, but she was still going straight. Any specific tips for what handler motion might look like for this? Do I try starting her way back from the jump/wing so that I can be far enough ahead of her that I can turn while she can still see me?>>
Yes, it is possible that she needs to see it sooner – so starting way back and then letting her see you move away on a right angle can help. You can also add a little more space between the 2 jumps – if they are 6 feet, try 8 or 9 feet and see how she does. Is she able to do it on a wing, but goes straight when there are 2 jumps?
>> I have worked so hard for her to focus more on me, less on cars/squirrels/scooters/skateboards/motorcycles/trucks/manhole covers (weird I know)/other things that she has been reactive towards or wants to chase so that she can be a calmer/more balanced dog. At this point she stares at me any time I’m at home and I can’t shake her from looking at me. So hard to get her to focus on something else these days! Should I just wait her out until she’s looking at a jump or some other obstacle?>>
Ah, the joys of Border Collies and herding dogs in general LOL There is a lot of “Don’t Look At That” game LOL!!! You can start some focus-forward-on-‘work’ by holing her collar and tossing a ball or toy: when she looks at it, let her go to get it.
Then apply it to a jump: hold her collar and when she even glances towards it, you can release her and toss the toy past it.
Speaking of where to look – have you ever done the Look At That game with her? It is a Control Unleashed game that helps produce calmer behavior in the environment, but also helps her learn that it is OK to look at other things and not just at you.Keep me posted! Let me know what you think1
TracyTracy Sklenar
KeymasterUnfortunately, Zoom doesn’t have any way to transcribe the video or get text of the conversations 🙁
T
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterFound a bunch of videos for training the over-the-bar distractions!! Now to get the get out videos too 🙂
T
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi! I think this went really well!
You esablished a very different tone between the louder, more urgent “GO!” and the quieter, more chill left nd right verbals. And you had your ‘get it’ markers too! Yay! He seemed to process everything pretty independently from physical cues, which is great! I don’t think you need to revisit this game – it builds in to the week 4 Fast Lines Challenge – so try this with the exit line challenges first like in the week 2 Exit Criteria Combo game then the week 4 Fast Lines Challenge 🙂Great job!
TracyTracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi! Looking good here!!! Hope the great weather holds!
The backsides are going well. For the next steps:
– have the toy in your hand so you are ready to throw it. The goal is that it lands on the landing side of the jump, pretty close to the bar, so he doesn’t look at you at all. With it in your pocket, he gets all the way back to you so it is building in looking at you too much.
– Keep moving forward for longer, and faster 🙂 You were stopping your motion as soon as he was arriving at the backside wing, but you will want to stay in motion moving forward, as if getting ready for a backside serp or a German turn (backside serp to blind).– if that goes well, move to step 3 (front side versus backside)
The serps also look really good – you were a little too quiet, though. I heard your verbal for the start wing, so now remember to use your soft turns verbals for the serpentine. That will get especially important as we add the Serps Part 2 game – I think he is ready to see that!
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyTracy Sklenar
KeymasterThank you for the great questions!! Keep ’em coming!!!!
T
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi!
Great questions!
You can probably still use tight and right if you changed the delivery:
Riiiiight
TTTTT (for tight :))The in in comes next week 🙂
And for a connection verbal- a soft noise is great! I use my dog’s name – depending on which dog and which situation, it might be a soft name call or a loud urgent name call or a full name: first, middle and last 🙂T
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi! Great seeing you last night!
I agree, motion is the biggest thing for him. Rewarding that start wing will help him have more value, which should also increase thoughtfulness while you move 🙂
And using a start wing instead of a collar hold or cookie toss is probably the best thing, so he is happy and calm and not angry. 🙂
TracyTracy Sklenar
KeymasterYes! The start of each session will set the tone – start each session a couple of steps easier than where you left off. It is better to be able to immediately increase difficulty than to have to immediately dial it back or have an error.
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHopefully the weather cooperated!
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterMap check verbal and draw
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterGood morning!
>>I moved doing the running contact foundation downstairs where we have more room to do it and she can run more but I can’t get her out of a trot in a way that isn’t adversely affecting her inteeraction with the mat (ie running across it).
Don’t worry about it 🙂 She doesn’t need to run any time soon – I believe she just turned 7 months? So we don’t want any speed until she is more grown and has more coordination and a couple of other foundation games under her belt. The RC methods all increase the speed naturally when planks and other things get involved, but she is still a solid 5 or 6 months away from that. The only thing she needs now is to just enjoy trotting across her mat 🙂 We do have more games coming, but there is no rush at all. This is about the age of puppyhood where I turn off social media so I don’t have to see same age puppies doing contacts or sequences 🙂
>>On the good news side of things – she is backing up almost 10′ to a mat. YAY!
YESSSS that is a more important RC foundation that running across the mat is!!!
>> Looking forward to the next one although I am going to have trouble with space I think so might not be able to do some things.
Fingers crossed for great weather ahead for all of us!!
Tracy
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi! I will be getting video with the toy dragging so folks can see the mechanics – I have plenty of video without the toy dragging but no agility videos with the toy dragging. Stay tuned!
T
February 28, 2022 at 10:10 am in reply to: Cindi and Ripley – Border Collie (will be 9 months old when class starts) #32216Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterGood morning!
Happy birthday, Ripley!!!! It is going to be a great year 🙂
>>When I saw Ginger’s thread I realized I hadn’t done much with jumping drills for a few months and that the last time I was doing setpoint I didn’t let him jump more than I think 12″.
Yes, it is hard to do any real jumping skills with baby dogs. If have found that if we do all the other baby dog stuff and wait til they are grown, coordinated and strong before introducing jumping skills – the results are fabulous 🙂 I think he is a good age to begin learning these concepts!
>>I like your suggestion to Ginger to drag the toy and walk. I do feel like getting the head down and not having it rise too abruptly at the end of the second jump in anticipation of stopping is hard with the dead toy or treat.>
I stole – oops, I mean *transferred* – that from my flyball work hahaha. I needed to get my 2 year old’s dog head down on the jumping while carrying the ball because we were working on very specific striding to chop of a 1/10th a second (yes, obsessive hahaha) so I decided to play with the toy dragging. Immediate results there, which also transferred immediately to his agility jumping too. More speed, better organization, better form, no slamming shoulders into the ground trying to stop, more power because he knew he didn’t have to stop. A win-win! I changed my tune a LOT when rehabbing a dog from patella surgery – the rehab vet made it super clear that the mechanics of stopping were as important as any other mechanics involved with jumping or running, and setting up the stopping was super important for form and safety. Flyball sets up the stopping very carefully from the very first moment because the dogs are coming in so hot and I certainly did not pay enough attention to that in agility. It has been a big eye-opener for me!
Looking back over the years, I am not entirely sure why we agility people decided that jump grids should be done to a ‘dead’ reward – my guess is that originally we assumed that a moving toy would be too distracting and they dogs would develop poor form. But in training lately, I think we have all ‘upped’ our game in terms of toy play, etc and by the time the dogs are old enough to be doing jumping grids, they know how to organize themselves in the face of a moving toy without getting overstimulated (yet another reason to NOT start jump grids with baby puppies!)
>>And, check, check on minimal “jumping days”.>>
Yeah – I try to follow orders from the sports vets and rehab vets. They are very specific about what to do and when to do it, and since I am just a dog trainer and they are the body experts – I just do what they say, when they say to do it. LOL!!! I also subject them to videos of the training concepts to make sure that it is safe.
This was a good session wiht the oxer! A lot of these early sessions are about figuring out what elicits the best form – you were playing with different placement of reinforcement, jump height, etc. He started off a bit ‘hoppy’ over the oxer when hte toy was close (definitely better than looking at you on the first rep) and I think he was definitely better with the toy moved much further out so he had a solid 2 strides or so to land then go to the toy. I would definitely be interested in seeing how he did with a dragging toy, like a hollee roller on a line that is dragging the whole time so it is moving before the release. I believe he has the understanding to hold the stay while the reward is dragging until the release. You can warm up the concept on the flat and then start it on the low oxer.
The other thing I see here is that he taps his front feet on the ground before the first jump rather than just taking off from his rear. That changes the mechanics over both bars so it would be interesting to see what he does without the tap. The closest he came to not tapping was at :53, so it will be interesting to see what happens if we set up no tapping by starting him just a couple of inches away from the first bar (first bar set at 4 or 6, or can be a bump). That will mean an immediate push off from the rear followed by immediate organization to push off again! You can start it without the moving toy an then try the moving toy.
here are some visuals without the tapping – on a couple of them, I use cross bars to get the no-tap form. These were all from before the toy-dragging got added in, I need to get videos of what it looks like with the toy dragging so you can see the difference in mechanics.
Let me know what you think!
Tracy -
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