[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

I really like that facility! I am jealous that it is so close to you!

She did really well here – she is absorbing the new skill really easily. YAY!!!
two ideas about structure of the sessions to help get immediate success (she fails the first time of the new challenge and that is more due to the structure of the session):

When you start each session, start with a slightly easier rep of wherever you left off on the last session. In this session, I think you started with a higher level difficulty and criteria here which set up the failure on the first rep – tunnel nearby, lots of motion, really high bar on the distraction jump. So, she started with an error. Have your first rep or two be a bit easier than how you left off successfully on the last session, as a warm up – it is better to dial up criteria than to dial it back, especially because getting the first rep correct sets the groundwork for getting the first rep correct in the trial ring too! I prefer to keep the distraction bar low the whole time anyway, as it is actually more difficult that way: a low bar is easier to pop over than the high bar is 🙂

Same thing when adding something new to the setup, like with adding the tunnel… start with an easy angle to the wrap wing, like starting from the exit of the tunnel with you walking, then when adding the tunnel, be sure to use a turn cue on it before she enters (and still have less motion from you so only one variable changes) – she was not wrong on the first tunnel rep to exit on the line she took, but she didn’t see the wrap wing so she had a failure.

It is definitely a balancing act LOL!! Think of it as going back and forth between an easy rep and a hard rep and an easy rep and so on, so that she can be successful immediately and also when you add more challenge.

Good job getting the placement of reinforcement generally back to her at the wing! That really helps! Keep trying to remember to use a ‘get it’ marker instead of yes there – I know I am a pain in the butt hahahaha but that will really help to keep her from looking at you on course when you say “yes”.

This game can go on the back-burner til next week when we add to it a bit 🙂 New games posted today 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>OMG! I think you need a class on throwing toys!!! Sly says PLEASE!!!!! Spent most of this session trying to figure out throwing a toy..timely, right spot, etc. etc I left of few of my ‘finer” throws in for your viewing pleasure but figured you had better things to do with your time than watch them all!!!>>

Ha! They were not too bad, I did like the cussing though LOL!!!! I figure at this stage, it is better to sometimes have a crappy throw than to place the reward or to only reward from hand. As long as Sly is happy, it is all good LOL! And he seemed happy here, as well as fast and accurate. Yay!

>> this was a good learning session…more for me than Sly

I’d say this is true about most of the training sessions – more for us than for the dogs!

And you can warm up your mechanics without him – do the pattern of movement and toy throw a few times before he enters the room 🙂

>>Totally forgot my Get It cues and only in the last couple of reps did I remember to try a different tone/cadence with the Gos.>>

Perfect – that was going to be my only suggestion, add the ‘get it’ and let the GO have more urgency. He seemed to do really well with all of it so you can handle even less – stay at the start wing until he exits it then jog forward the whole time, just straight, no decel, no acceleration – and he will be driving ahead and responding to verbals. It simulates what happens on bigger courses. Ad you can totally move the start wing further away in case you don’t have enough room to do this without running into the wing of the first jump 🙂

Great job!! You can totally switch sides for left and right within the same session, I think he will be fine with that.
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! (or is it night there?)

Oh no – computer crash and no phone? That does make things harder! But this camera got the job done 🙂

Fusion’s left and right looked really good! I think the errors early in the video were line up errors: you did not have a clean start like at :09 where she was facing you and you cued right, so she didn’t really look at the setup before moving. I couldn’t see the other line ups but the correct reps were probably clean start lineups. You can add in the start wing before this setup now, so both of you have more motion (remember to keep moving, no standing still :))

Veloz also did well – getting him to start properly lined up is important but also we don’t want to fight with him about it – so for him, also add in the start wing about 3 metres away. You an wrap him around the start wing, then move forward to the turn wing for the left or right. That will get the clean start without him getting angry about coming close or ding collar holds.

Fusion serp’s look good too!!! On the first part of the video, the position of the start wing made things harder which is probably why you felt like you were behind and not getting enough turn: you can move the start wing further away parallel to the jump so you can send to it more and get further ahead – it was far from the jump but a bit too perpendicular which made it harder for you to be past the jump on the first part. Compare that wing position to the wing position on the 2nd part – you had a much better position for that start wing so you were further ahead and she was great. Also great job with the verbals! So for this game – move the wing further away and add more of your running (new game using this concept was added today as well).

Veloz’s video – he was REALLY great about staying engaged here! Yay! VERY nice!
With him, the line ups are the hard part here on the backsides (as you already know LOL!) – he fights being held so you are sideways and not moving, and moving is important for the backside slices. You can get a clean start without holding him by throwing a treat for him to get about 2 metres behind you, on the line you will want him to move on. As soon as he gets the treat and turns back to the line towards the jump, you can start walking forward and say the backside slice verbal. that can get your motion involved while he is moving too, without having to fight with him about being held.

For the backside circle wraps – for now, don’t use a bar, just use the wing. He doesn’t want to do the full circle on the bar for now because he is not committing as you are moving past the wing – so he is shaping you to stay on the landing side of the wing. So, using just a wing will help him because you can keep moving forward (slowly) and tossing the reward behind you, without the challenge of the jump bar there. The goal is that you can be on the takeoff side while he is wrapping, not the landing side. When he will let you do that, you can add more and more speed.

Serps – because of his speed, try to start near the serp jump and send him all the way away to the start wing. You are starting very close to the start wing here so he is outrunning you to the jump (and not getting the soft turn). Starting with a big send to the start wing will help commitment with the verbal and will also help you be able to out run him past the serp jump safely 🙂

Great job! Both dogs are doing well! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! I am glad the Training Night Chats are helping!

>> I am pretty sure they are relying more on my body movement than the verbals but my understanding is that this is what we should expect in the beginning.>>

Yes, this is correct – mainly to teach the dog what the setup is about and to elicit the behavior. As soon as we can get the behavior going, we start to fade the body cues – you still move (no standing still) but you handle less. More below on that.

>.Both dogs seemed to have trouble with the go. I think they might be used to me moving faster with “go” which I guess means that they don’t really know the verbal.>>

Yes – they are still learning what Go means but also using it on this setup (wing and jump) is confusing. No need for a Go balance on the wing and jump, you can wait for that when you have 2 jumps. The 2 jump setup allows us to mark being straight over jump 1 (and throw past jump 2) but that behavior is really hard to get because there is just a wing here – and the wing is only for turning (dogs never learn a Go on a wing to just run past it). That is why you couldn’t get the Go unless you ran (but with the wing there the motion put rear cross pressure on the line so they turned the other way on the jump sometimes too).

So, no need for the Go in the wing and jump setup, you can revisit it when you go to the next step with 2 jumps.

On Keltie’s video:
She is doing really well!! I think the left turns where she had questions were because you were blocking the wing – you were line up facing the center of the bar of the distraction jump, so she couldn’t really see the wing and was either wide of took the jump. When you did the right turns, you were in a perfect spot, facing the wing, so she could see it the whole time and set up great turns. Yay!
The Go lines did seem weird to her because she didn’t want to ignore the wing, so you can try those when you go to 2 jumps.

I think the food toy is a good choice for her!! If you throw it and it ends up being a bad throw (for the incorrect behavior, for example) – it is OK to just let her have it 🙂 That gets filed into the ‘human error’ category and we don’t want to dilute her drive to the food toy by grabbing it before she gets there.

Buccleigh also did really well! Yay!

>> I was really proud of him because he was getting a little frustrated and starting to bark (with the go command) but I used some of the games you taught us in an earlier course and he stayed focused.>>

Yes! It looks like you were using reset cookies and helping him, so he was able to avoid getting really frustrated. The Go was frustrating him because it didn’t make sense to ignore the wing – so that will be a good one to revisit on 2 jumps.

His left and right soft turns looked really good here – he was tight and fast! Your position was good, it looks like he could see the wing really well and drove to it beautifully.

So with both dogs, you can go to the next step: adding a start wing before this wing and jump setup. That will build up more speed and also allow you to handle less while staying in motion. What I mean by that is – after you wrap the start wing – walk straight towards the turn wing, saying the verbal, but don’t turn your shoulders or move laterally to also cue the turn. Just go straight. If they are both fine with that with you walking, add jogging and running! And if they are happy with that – replace the turn wing with a jump 🙂 And at that point, you can add in the Go balance reps too.

Great job! Fingers crossed for more good weather!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>> I have visions of what things should look like, but my reality doesn’t always match!

that is because social media likes to show us photos of BCs and tiny shelties being spaghetti noodles around jumps LOL!! I blame a lot on social media LOL!!!

She did really well here with the set point. I think I like her set point work slightly better with you are moving/dragging in the toy. I know, I know, conventional wisdom on set points/grids says for the owner to stand still and the toy should be stationary. But most dogs organize better with the owner walking (support the jumping effort) and the toy dragging (which supports the lowered head position). And with the toy moving, the dog only has to coordinate ONE thing – the jumping. With the toy ‘dead’, she has to multi-task the jumping AND the stopping. So the jumping is not as good because the dog is also preparing to stop. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂 Try the dragging the next time you do any jumping and see how it goes!

>. I’ll work on extension tomorrow.

She is of the age now that you’ll have to start a training calendar of jumping days versus non-jumping days. At most, do 3 times a week and a day off in between (or two days). That allows for latent learning and also any soreness to resolve – all those new muscles getting a workout! If we work the dogs and there is anything slightly off from the previous day, they compensate and change their jumping style. So if she jumped 3 times this week, give her a day or two then do the extensions, you’ll get better results 🙂

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
I am happy to see Wilder here! I am glad he is feeling better 🙂

Great list of verbals! Be sure to make tight and right sound different in terms of delivery style, keeping tighttighttight short and quiet for the wrap and extending riiiight riiiiight riiiiight for the soft turn.

The serps part 1 looked fabulous!!! He took the jump each time and you got faster and faster. The further ahead you get, the harder it is for him to sort out the jumping . He had one bar down so I tried to figure out what was different – that was the first time the toy was in your right hand (dog side hand) rather than the left hand (opposite) hand. It is amazing that the dogs see the little details like that! Having the toy in your right hand there changed your shoulder position so he couldn’t process that AND the jumping. But you repeated it twice more after that, slowly then with more speed – and he was perfect again. Yay! So keep adding more speed and getting ahead, but separately. For the more speed, you can start closer to the start wing so you are rushing across the serp jump more. For the further ahead challenge, position yourself at the center of the serp jump to send to the start wing, so you then be MUCH further ahead but without running. that way we only add one distraction at a time 🙂 And if he is fine with both? Merge them together so you are fast AND way ahead 🙂

Backside slices – these are really hard indeed! Baby steps are the answer for sure – putting the bar as low as possible will help, any element of height makes it harder. And, the line up/start will help: ideally the verbal starts and he hears it a few times before you both start to move. The reps here had the verbal and motion starting at the same time, so I think he was relying more on motion than on the verbal because he took the front when the angle was too hard.

Normally I would suggest holding his collar, saying the verbal, then letting go… but he is so small that collar-holding is HARD!!! So the help we can give him is maybe using a harness and light tab, so you can hold him by the tab, facing the line, say the verbals a few times, then let go so you both start moving. That can get us that time between the verbal and the motion to emphasize the verbal, without requiring you to bend over too much or kill your back (I pulled a muscle in my back yesterday so I am especially sensitive in to protecting backs today! Eek!

And as you do that, keep the line up angle pretty easy for a few sessions, so he is either facing the direct line to the backside or very close to the direct line, and he will get there without you having to help with motion towards it (you will be moving forward and straight) – that will help pump up the rate of success, and you can gradually move over (it takes me a whole bunch of sessions to be able to move over – note how I got out my 9 year old dog to do the harder demos LOL!)

The other thing that can help is to use the partial jump setup, just one wing and the angled bar – that can give a bigger visual to the backside wing without the visual lure of the full jump (because he has so much value on the front side of a jump :))

He did well on the big GO line! You can throw the reward sooner and use a ‘get it’ marker, so he doesn’t look back at you.

He also did super well with the circle wraps with the new verbal! YAY!!! You don’t need the bar on these, he will get the concept on the wing alone without the repetitive jumping. This particular jumping challenge is so hard for the dog’s body that we want to keep it really limited. Plus, you can throw the reward nice and early without worrying about him landing on the bar to get it (if there is no bar LOL!) You can challenge now, by starting on harder angles and also add more speed to this by starting further away.
The dig and tight looked good on front side too, no problems and super nice collection!

Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>I hear there are rumors of me forcing people to post footage. I’m sorry if that doesn’t align with the values of AU.

Ha! Don’t you know the “A” in AU stands for Accountability? Accountability University, that’s us LOL!

FABULOUS job on these 2 runs. The happiest thing is to be able to look at a youngster beginning his trial career and only seeing “baby dog” things like not always finding the line on those big distances. He looked happy, he was FAST, he was correct with his behaviors, he looked pretty comfy in the environment. The rest comes with more experience on big wide lines. You were a connected momma who made GREAT choices for the baby dog, and I think he had a great experience. Ideally you can sneak in some UKI or USDAA so you can throw some toys on the big lines, so he learns to pick up those jumps that he missed here – but that can also be done in practice using big wide open spacing. I am so happy for you both!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We need to go out for oysters and beverages to celebrate!!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Wow, I think she was doing REALLY well here with both of these difficult skills!!!! Processing for sure!!! You were really great with your line ups, starts, reinforcement, etc. Click/treat for you 🙂

Backside slice:
She did a fabulous job here 🙂 It is probably the hardest game in this class so far.
It was hard to tell if you were starting the verbal and moving at the same time, or if she was leaving you the instant she heard the verbal LOL!!! As long as she tells us she is able to do it, keep going this way (if she starts to have errors, try not to let her leave you until after she has heard the verbal cue a couple of times).
To get even more independence on the backside slices, you can throw the toy a little sooner for the backside slices, as soon as you see her arriving at the outer edge of the entry wing, which will allow you to begin moving away even sooner. Your motion up the line to the jump looked good!!!

>>Still needs more practice before we can get more speed.>>

Yes, this is really hard, so you can add more speed very gradually, there is no rush 🙂

>Caught myself saying YES too, will work on saying GET IT instead.

I feel this pain LOL! It takes a lot of brain power for me to stop saying Yes LOL!

Your backside wrap session went really well too – it is a super hard skill because there is so much collection and countermotion without any real physical help from us 🙂 She was great!
She was highly successful here. Looking at the 2 errors –
the error at :33 was not a handling error in terms of the line you were moving on. I think you were just too speedy in that moment, for her current level of independence. You can move a little less fast but on the same line. She was happy to let you move at that speed when she was wrapping to her right on the other side, so it is also possible that the circle wraps to the left are harder for her.

The other oopsie was at 1:22 and I think that was more of the start angle – you were possibly blocking the line to the wing. You started on a better angle on the next 2 reps at 1:30 and 2:00, and she nailed it even with you running fast. YAY!!!

All she needs here, then, is a more practice on the circle wraps starting on your right so she is wrapping to her left, with you getting faster and faster. And you can add harder angles when she is on your left, wrapping to her right.

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi again!

Whoa, your wings look great!!!! Totally worth showing them off!!!

When I watched these individually, a few common themes emerged. If we work on those applied to the games, then all of the behaviors will get easier and easier. Yay!

One theme on all of these – she is staring at the toy and guessing about what you want. She is trying to watch the toy hand and go where she thinks it will be thrown, or wait til you move it. So two ideas to help with that:

– use reinforcement markers such as ‘get it’ (for a thrown reward) or ‘bite’ (for the reward in your hand) without a ‘yes’ or praise before it, so she learns when to look at the toy (after the marker) and when to ignore it (all the other times LOL!!) Using ‘yes’ or praise often causes the dogs some confusion because the placement gets muddy and they end up watching us and/or waiting for the toy to move. I learned that from my dogs and she is doing the same here. The reward markers provide 2 pieces of info: the ‘you’re correct!’ marker like a click, and where to look for reinforcement.

– you can use handling motion to get the behavior (more on that below) but resist all temptation to lure the behavior or throw the toy before she offers an approximation of the correct response. Luring is not increasing the behavior you are shaping, it is actually increasing the looking at the toy behavior. So… no more lures 🙂

So how to get the behavior more cleanly so you can throw the reward? You can use your motion and handling. When you did that, she was GREAT and you could reward what you wanted. When you were stationary, she struggled and watched the toy more as the source of info (thus the running into the wing).

And using handler motion is perfectly fine, because in agility you will be moving (she is fast, so you will be RUNNING :)) and it is easy to fade the handling help out as she gets better and better with the verbals. and for now, we are using the handling as the way to elicit the behavior so we can name it. No more standing still needed 🙂 You don’t need to move fast, but you will want to be moving the whole time.

As you work through the games, pay super close attention to rate of reinforcement and do whatever it takes (without luring :)) to set her up for success. If she has one failure, change something for now to help her out. For her, that will most likely mean moving more but the reward markers will also totally help! And keeping criteria lower til she has a 90-100% rate of reinforcement in each level, for 2 sessions in a row 🙂

So now the specific of each game:

Go line versus left/right:
Gah I love the wings! So cool!!! And a really big visual! It think she did better when you worked this on just 2 jumps – 3 jumps was too big of a leap forward (pun intended LOL!!!!)
To help her with motion/handling, use one of the wings as the start wing so you can wrap her around it then move forward to the 2 jump setup using the verbals and handling. This will setup more learning for the verbals because as she exits the start wing, you can be using your GO! or left/right and also handling (run forward on go, turn your shoulders on the left/right). Then watch her head as she approaches the first jump and if you see an approximation of the behavior you cued, use a get it marker and throw the reward.
If she struggles with 2 jumps and the handler motion, you can go back to using the wing an one jump setup with the start wing as a reminder, then you can add back the 2 jump setup.

Minny pinny – this was a really good camera angle to see that she is totally waiting for the toy to move and guessing based on that. So…. you can use shoulder turns to help her come around the minny pinny – then a “bite” marker (some people say “strike”) so she knows that she was correct and to grab the to in your hand.

On the serp video – there were a lot of great examples of how your motion helps her get the behavior – each time she went out to the start wing, you did a lovely job of using just enough motion to get her sent to it – YAY!!!! That allowed you to get up the line nicely! She was taking the serp jump really well but looking at the toy a bit too much – so that is there a ‘get it’ marker will help, because she will pair the serp motion with the get it marker and stop looking at you.

As a side note: I 100000% understand how hard it is to stop saying “yes” or praising and replace all that with these reward markers only. It gives me more brain pain than the verbal directionals LOL!!! But it has really helped eliminate a lot of questions that my dogs have had, and she is asking the same questions 🙂

Backside – this is another game where you can use motion rather than trying to stand still. Things went best when you started her facing the outer edge of the backside wing (like at :36) rather than facing the jump bar. And it was also easier when you were holding her from the hand next to you and had the toy in the opposite hand (like when she was on your left). When she was on your right, you were holding her with your left which caused you to rotate and it was harder to move forward. Because she is young, you can also start her with just a wing and bar (not a full jump) like I did with my young dog – that makes the wing more salient and less lie a full jump, so she is more likely to go to the backside 🙂
And when you let go – you can move forward. You were really good about doing the verbal then letting go of her, so now you can also walk directly forward to the wing as she goes to the backside – that will really help her! You did have the ‘get it’ going and that is great, so now try not to mark with ‘yes’ (soooo hard, I know, the results will be worth it!)

Nice work on these!! I think the main thing she needs will be more motion for now – it is better to add the motion and get the behavior, because it is easy to fade the motion or show her different motion. Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>>> how does she feel about you holding her collar?
She’s ok with this…usually, unless she really wants to run or chase something. I’ll have to try mixing more of that in.>>

Great! She seemed fine with it in the videos below! It helps the processing because we can start the verbal before the motion, as well as line her up without having to worry about a stay.

>> If my memory is correct, she likes balls, right?
LOVES LOVES LOVES! balls! I’d almost be concerned that she would go into ball/herding mode and forget that we’re doing agility! I went for the sheepskin tug this week instead.>>

I think you can use balls for certain things, but they would be dropped more than thrown. She did really well with the tug toy on the videos you posted below, though! That worked nicely!

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
It cracks me up that Jamie made you post LOL!! It was not too bad, but you definitely want to change your start position. You should be right at the first wing of the serp jump, close enough to touch it – it looks like you were a little too close to the wing and laterally too far from the jump, so she smoked you. You don’t need to be running yet, but you can go faster than you did here and sending to the wing from further away will help too! Your placement of reward was good even when you creamed he jump by accident LOL! And your verbals were good too!!
So for the next session, give yourself a better start position and the session will be much easier:)

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! Lots of good work here!

On the backsides – I agree, he needs a couple more short sessions on this, no need to add step 3 (balance reps) yet. He was really strong on the easier lines and was getting it when he was center of the bar too on some reps. When you were past the center of the bar, nearer the exit wing – he did not compute that it was a backside (like at :06 and :26). So I figure one more session is probably all he needs, with getting his start position to be center of the bar – when he is finding that easier, go to the balance reps in the next session (can be the same day, just take a short break). I would do a balance rep first so he realizes that the front of the bar is in play and to listen for the verbals, and not just go on backside autopilot 🙂

One other thing to add is throwing the toy sooner – just as his nose arrives at the outer edge of the wing, use your marker and drop the toy in to the landing spot. If you wait til his whole body is around the wing, he is looking at you and not at the bar. So to convince him to default to the jump and not look at you (don’t take it personally haha), dropping really early will get the behavior – it is like rewarding his nose arriving at the edge of he entry wing with the toy on landing side 🙂 Feel free to anticipate that – and no worries if you end up being early which causes him to skip finishing the job and grab the toy (I would let him have it). It is better to develop the focus on the bar and landing spot than to be later and have him looking at you.

I agree, he did really well on the serps! Yay! When you had yourself lined up and sent from the first wing of the serp jump (like at :50 and 1:03), you were able to get way ahead and he did a great job maintaining the turns even with all of your speed. When you sent him to the start wing from closer to he start wing and further from the serp jump (like at :55 and :58) – he did make the turns from ahead of you but I was scared for your safety LOL!!!! So, for the next session, stand in the middle of the bar for the serp jump and send him miles away to the start wing… then run through the serp with the goal of being past the exit wing of the serp as he comes around the start wing. Give him his verbals super early for that as your body position and motion will be super challenging 🙂

Great job here! Keep me posted about how he does with his backsides!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Nice facility in the first video! It looks like she was really able to grip the turf!

>>Today we repeated the backside wrap game – this time with me increasing the speed, with the wing 6ft away from the jump. I was really happy with how this went, especially as this was not previously in Yowza’s verbal repertoire.>

Yes! It was great!! No questions from her, even when you ran. Perfect! My only suggestion is to use a ‘get it’ marker rather than ‘yes good girl’ so that she doesn’t learn to tune into you and look at you when you say yes or good. If we pair yes or good with reinforcement too much, then the dogs begin to just come to us (and off the line, or out of the weaves) when we say “yes!” on course. Ask me how I know this to be true LOL!!!! I’ve seen it in my dogs and in a whole lot of other dogs. Oops!!!!

>> Are we ready to replace the wing with a jump?

There is no need to use the jump at this point – this skill is a repetitive jumping action that the doggie physical therapists do not want us to do much of. So, rather than go to a jump, you can change the start angle more – you can line her up so she can see the inside of the wing and the distraction jump more than she can see the entry side of the wing. Looking at this video, it would be like lining her up from the tunnel exit, then running the same line – that is a lot of pressure on the line and it is a good challenge to see if she can still do it or if she will cut in front on the wing or take the distraction jump. That will get a ton of concept work done and save her body from the jumping repetition.

>>Will this also need to be “balanced” with frontside verbal cues?

Yes, in week 5 🙂 so there is no real rush to do a lot of these because she picked them up so quickly.

2nd video –
The check/dig versus the backside was challenging, in a good way! And she seemed pretty happy to have her harness held, which is great!
She did her best when she was lined up facing the center of the bar like at :52 and 1:28 and afterwards. When you were lined up at the center, it pushed her line more to the side, more making the front side wraps much harder because she had to cut in front of you more. So keep going with having her lined up and facing the center of the bar (this moves you more to the exit wing, which is perfectly fine too).
The backsides were all really good and your movement was good! Her left turns/digs were very struggle and I think she was 100% on those. The right turns/check were harder, but I think that is normal for her. She had to really think hard to process, adjust and get organized for the front and not the back. Nice save on the 2nd balance rep from her to come get the front side! We would see that same thing form her on other reps, the slightly later processing of the right wrap cue versus the backside cue. All she needs is some more experience with it and it will be as easy as the left wraps. You did a great job reinforcing the correct decisions and not worrying about the exact tightness of the turn 🙂 She will tighten it up by herself when she is more comfy with the right wraps versus the backsides (the left wraps were very tight).

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
The minny pinny is the game we use in the MaxPup program to begin teaching the soft left/right turns, because the setup teaches the dogs how to create the turns – and then we can easily name the turns. I think lots of folks had never seen the game or how to begin teaching left & right, so I posted it here to help jumpstart the behavior.

>>Is that why we reinforce them parallel to the 1st and 3rd jumps?

Yes – that helps teach the dogs what we want them to do in a fashion that is very easy to produce the correct behavior.

The soft turn games here are the next level – they challenge the dogs to process the cue and turn correctly, even without handling help and with the distraction jump 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

I play the piccolo, every band director wants more piccolos, right?!?!? HA!!!
Have a blast!!!

[Author]

Posts