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Hi!
The teeter session went great!!! He was happy to drive up the board, adding a little more speed from the wing wrap before it. Since this is going so well, you can add two things:
– walking past the end of the board as he arrives at the top. Walk 2 or 3 more steps after he stops so he doesn’t need you at the end of the board.
– add in tugging between reps, so he learns this in a higher arousal state so he can still do the teeter even when he is really excited like at a trial.Looking at the straight line game:
> we took breaks to get thru this game.>
Each handling game has a lot of variations, so it dosn’t need to be (and shouldn’t be) all tried in one day. That is a lot on a young dog (he did about 45 jumps here which is too much for a youngster), and the hardest stuff comes when they are tired (he was fried by 8:15). Split these up across 2 or 3 days or the course of a week, so breaks aren’t needed 🙂
On all of the variations, going straight looked good! And your wrap timing was really good too, starting with the decel on the jump before the wrap. His commitment looked strong!
> My RC mechanics need a lot of work but I trying to be mindful of where my feet are pointing because the one time I got the back side.>
For the rear crosses, you are actually getting too far ahead which is why they were hard (and you pushed him off the line at 1:29 – reward the dog there!) To be able to run forward to the center of the bar, you can tuck in close to the jump after the tunnel and as he is catching up, you can run forward to the center of the bar. That will cue him to pass you AND turn the new direction.
>However,I am amazed at his backsides because I haven’t done it since the game in Max Pup 2!>
Yes! Those looked lovely! You were running to the correct line and had big connection, so he had no questions. Super!!
>This was the first time he responded to “tunnel” without hearing “break” first. Yay!>
That went well! Looking at him instead of looking at the tunnel made a big difference and he sorted it out really well.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
The fluffy blinds went great! There is some serious teamwork happening now 🙂 You are emphasizing connection and it is making a big difference!
He did a great job finding the lines! On the 2nd rep where you added the blind – he found the side change then on the next jump, you were facing straight so he went straight to the tunnel.
On the next rep after the FC, you turned a bit and he immediately read that as a turn and not the tunnel.Small blooper on the line up and send at :49 – you wanted the front of the jump but you had him on your left and stepped to the backside of the jump so that is where he went. Good boy! He found it easily starting on your right side.
Small connection break at 1:32 and 1:51 on that middle jump – good job continuing and increasing the connection on the next reps!
The blind at 2:08 was my favorite! It was the most on-time to start & finish it, so he had a great line there! You started it early enough that it was finished before he took off for the middle jump: perfect!
His only real questions were when you stopped moving along the line – he was not sure if he should decelerate with you or carry on past you to the obstacle. For now, you can overrun the line a bit, accelerate more than needed as he learns to commit to lines. Then with a bit more experience, he will be very comfy passing you as you decelerate.
>I need to stay organized, because by the end, he was more flat.>
That might have had more to do with your motion – when you slowed down, he slowed down. When you ran – he was still very zippy and fast. A sound caught his attention towards the end but he was really engaged through the session!
>It seems like he’s listening nicely. I need the practice more – saying the correct word and being in the proper position are a challenge for me.
He is totally listening! And you are not alone in feeling that it is challenging to always spit out the correct words and get in the right spot and keep your arms down AND look at the dog LOL! Agility is hard 😂
He was great with his mountain climbers!!! Yay! Fearless 🙂 The next step is to put a reward at the very top of the board so he runs up it without you and gets rewarded. I have used a tiny dab of cream cheese at the top or squished a dog treat on it (so it doesn’t fall off). That way he can run to the top and not need your motion at all 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I mentioned that we’re definitely seeing a shift in tugging during training thoughts and that he tugged as play and as reinforcement this past weekend at the trial. He also tugged nicely in his little in-person class last night (the one that he almost never gets to go to since we travel so much).>
Yay! This is great!
>I haven’t actually worked on that with Vibe yet but he’s seen Ripley do it and my hands/position also helped.>
Good mechanics plus social learning for the win!
>Ripley is NOT a good wingman.
If we were in a bar together he’d be the prettier, funnier, more charismatic friend who’s a horrible choice for that.>This is hilarious! I can totally see Ripley out at a bar. He’d definitely be telling the best stories and have a circle of people around him having a great time.
Big Mack looked exactly how I look at a bar: trying to pleasantly hang out, sometimes engaging, but preferring to be in pajamas eating takeout and watching cooking shows hahahahaha I see you, Swissy!!!
I think Vibe wanted to play with him but he is just so big (Swissy head is larger than half of Vibe LOL) that there is some fun puppy behavior to watch here (changes in posture, face licking…) – and good job Big Mack for that big play bow and getting low to see if Vibe would play.
And through it all, there was some lovely play with Vibe! I see what you mean by him bringing the toy up to your hands. And he was really pulling back on the toy, truly tugging, so fun to see!
>I love his little side-windy rubbing passes he does to try to entice Big Mack (the Swissy) to play in this video – so cat-like.>
Yes – that along with the quick face/mouth licks was just enough to try to solicit play without being super annoying to the adult dog.
>hey are pretty cute together so if you’re just bored and have nothing better to do (super doubtful knowing you) feel free to enjoy it all.>
Ha! Definitely not bored but it is always fun to watch appropriate, lovely dog behavior. There was some cool communication happening there!!
Thanks for sharing it!
TracyGood morning!
She did really well with the wobble board and the bowl here – it was in just the right spot to get her into the 2o2o position.
>Am I taking the purpose of the bowl away by putting extra treats in after?>
She was happy to get the extra treats as part of the reward! It was a good way to introduce it.
The next step is to swap the bowl out for a target (like a plastic lid) that can help get her into position, then you can put the treat on it. That leads us until all sorts of other fun teeter games 🙂
The backing up session looked strong! When you revisit this, you can have the towels gradually fading out so she is able to put her back feet on it while the board fully wobbles 🙂
Nice work on these!!
TracyGood morning!
Thanks for leaving the bloopers in at the beginning – it helps us illustrate what disconnection looks like versus connection.
I am pretty sure you saw her on the blooper reps but she didn’t see your eyes/front of chest mainly because you were using your arm to try to reconnect after the blind. That ‘closed’ your shoulder which blocked her video of connection. Young dogs in particular will not read the blind with the closed shoulder and new dog-side hand indicating the line.
I just posted this explanation in the upcoming blind cross class, it might give you more explanation:
I also grabbed screenshots for the blinds so you can see what she is seeing:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hU8nYOTDc5UkMNIUKL0z5uE9649-qOuFR-zQKYTCf20/edit?usp=sharingRep 1 was disconnected because she could not see your eyes and the front of your chest, plus your motion was forward to the tunnel in front of her.
Compare to rep 2: gorgeous, clear connection and no questions from Bokeh.
On rep 3, same thing as rep 1: disconnected with motion going to the tunnel. Making the same big connection you made in rep 2 will help.
She got the blind really well when you added the full sequence! 3 things made it very effective:
– nice timing! The blind started as she was landing from the middle jump so it was finished before before she took off. Perfect!
– connection was clear as she was over the bar! Remember to keep connected and not get your arm involved until she is past you
– motion towards the correct end of the tunnel was excellent.
The last rep at 1:07 was even better!!!! Perfect! Timing was great, line of motion to the tunnel was spot on and connection was gorgeous. Nailed it!!!!
I included the screenshots of the timing and connection of the blinds on the sequences as well.
Great job here!
Tracy
Great question – I ended up buying it because it was so useful. But I also have a lot of young dogs LOL!
But before you buy it… maybe put the word out and see if you can borrow one? I am sure someone in your area has one sitting in their garage that they aren’t using for now. You won’t need it for more than a few months. I can ask on my Facebook page if you like!
Or, you can use an adjustable saw horse type of thing from Lowes or Home Depot. That is what I used before the fancy devices existed LOL!
T
Good morning!
I loved her Speed Ears at the beginning: flipped back for extra speed LOL! So cute!
Super nice job here! The smaller spacing on these setups means both human and dog need to make quick adjustments and you both did great!
Great video of lovely timing on 2nd the rep. At :27 you were starting the blind as she was landing from the jump after the tunnel – this is important because it tells her what is next before she lands, so she was able to make the adjustment before takeoff for the next jump. That will be especially important when the bars are at full height and there is less room between the jumps.
At :28, she was still a stride away from takeoff and you were already connection on the new side. SUPER! You were already pretty quick here – you can be even quicker by keeping your arms closer to your torso – bending your elbows and keeping your hands low will make for quicker blinds than when your arms are fully extended away from the body.
Super nice timing on the FC too! The difference between the FC and the BC on these reps:
Because the BC doesn’t involve us having to rotate our feet, you were fully finished with the turn before she took off (:28).
With the FC, you started it with great timing but because there is so much foot rotation, you were facing her over the bar at :49 and 1:12 so she had t add collection to let you finish the turn. The BC is definitely the winner in this scenario! You executed them both really well in terms of connection and timing though 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Going across the board went well – she got pretty happy to slam it on the noisy floor! For now she is depending on you to help get her into the 2o2o position, so you can add a target at the end if you want to fade yourself out.
She was not quite as sure about backing up onto it – it is probably easier to control the tip with front end than it is with back end 🙂 The best reps were when you were letting her sort it out on her own and take small steps back – when you were feeding her and moving your hand back, she was not thinking about using her back feets 🙂 so ended up more sideways. You can add towels or blankets under the board to stabilize it a bit til she gets more certain of her back feet – then I think it will be easy to take them out because she is happy to slam it when moving forward.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The left side motion override looked great here at the beginning! And yes, he doesn’t have value for staying with you on your right side yet – that makes sense, because he probably has gotten a lot of left side cookies from his obedience training.
But even though the right side work is newer to him, I was very excited about how well he was responding to the sit cue! Super!!! And by 1:45-ish, he locked into right side heeling, which looked lovely. Yay!!!
You can start adding more of your motion to this game, going faster – but add it very gradually, so he can still be very successful.
Excellent job with the target & duct tape setup on the teeter 🙂 That should bring his front feet directly to the end of the board, which is ideal for a 4-on behavior. We will add more weight shifting as the board starts to move.
I know you’ll be training it with Jessica too, so if there is a variation on where she puts the target that is perfectly fine of course – I am sure she also wants him to go all the way to the end of the board.
This was a nice gradual introduction to the mountain climber and the full board. We want it to be slow and careful for now, so he doesn’t fall off and scare himself. He didn’t appear to be worried but he was certainly not used to being that far off the ground! You can see it by how he was stretching his back feet further down the board while eating from the target at the top of the board.
Then by 4:45 was like “I GOT THIS” and went directly up the board, no more stretching out to be careful. Yay!
This confidence means 2 things:
You can keep revisiting this game at home (I used meals for it to get them really loving it – rubber gloves for raw food :)) You can also re-do this game on as many different teeters as you can find. This is a MAD teeter, so add in the teeters he will see regularly as well: MAX200, Clip ’n’ Go, Galican. It is critically important that we get small dogs on different teeters because they feel sooooo different: I am sure you have already seen this with your other pups.
The other thing to do is block off access to the teeter so he cannot attempt it without you. We don’t want him to see it and get excited and run up it – then if it moves strangely, he might get concerned. So blocking it off with wings or chairs will prevent him from doing any unauthorized teeter runs 🙂
>because it was really challenging for him tolerating the height. >
He did great! Thought through it and figured it out!
>But he does seem to get past things like that fairly quickly.>
Yes – he’s a pretty confident dude that loves to move, which works in your favor here.
>I forgot to tell you that Jess put the dog walk down at the lowest setting and he was hopping off at first but after less than 3 minutes he was putting himself on it and trotting all the way across and down the other end. >
Perfect!! Very fun and it means that the running dog walk work can get underway too 🙂
>So much so that when I tried to get him to stop on the plank and do a turn around or a sit, he just wanted to buzz past me.>
That is why I suggest blocking off the teeter (and the DW if you have one at home). He totally seems like he would try to zip across them without you LOL!
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The countermotion wraps went really well! He committed nicely as you rotated the other direction. No worries about the barking: sometimes dogs just bark because it is exciting 🙂 He was barking but also being fast & accurate so it was probably just his version of saying “woohoo!!”
>In watching the video, I think I needed to turn further away from the wrap when I was sending him. My side was facing the wrap versus my rear. >
Yes, you were rotated sideways for the send. To get more backwards, you can start your rotation sooner so that you are already backwards before he is past you (and remember to look behind you to the wing and not at his cute face in this setup. :)) That is harder so you can warm up the concept on 1 wing, just sending him backwards, so he is not surprised by the amount of rotation.
On the connection video: yes, it looked a lot better! He is still looking at you when you are walking, so you can add more running. No need to repeat this particular setup – you can apply this to the next set of games.
>He dropped bars on his wraps but I think it was because I pulled off too soon, and not because of connection.>
I agree, the connection was good! The bars came down on the wraps because the cues were a little late, starting when he was already over the bar (so he dropped the bar trying to turn in the air). Running forward until he lands from the previous jump then slowing down will help it see the turn cues sooner, so he can adjust before takeoff.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>When I first get home, everyone is “excited” so maybe that’s the time to start a training session with play (no food on me)? >
Yes! A quick blast of training is great as long as it doesn’t cause too much madness 🙂
>Or should I mix it up start with exercise & then try toy play with no food on me?>
I like to mix things up a lot because dogs are very quick to catch onto our routines. If I always feed them at 5pm, they will be very demanding at 4:55pm 🙂 And if I always play when I get home, the arousal levels will get really high when I get home and maybe too high (and I don’t always want to play :)) Mixing things up is exciting in a good way and avoids the dogs expecting things to happen at certain times.
>We have been getting unseasonable weather – high 80’s – that’s summer temps not April temps! All the dogs asre feeling it and human too >
Same here – 95 degrees today. What the heck? Hopefully things get more normal soon.
Looking at the video:
She seemed to really love that toy and was very into it at the beginning! She won the toy race but also turned to you to engage with the toy (and didn’t take it on a victory lap): that is awesome! Doing 2 reps was fast and fun. Perfect.
The rocking horses also looked great – nice job with the handling and the verbals, she seemed to have zero questions.
Since the barrel was nearby when you were playing tug, you can do one toy race and if she is into it: run to the barrel and do a bit of turn and burn. Or have 2 barrels nearby to do rocking horses for the toy as the reward.
Well done with the threadle wrap foundations! You nailed the decel – that allowed her to drive directly to you AND be ready for the turn away. Massive click/treat to you!
We build on this in the 9th games package, so you can add running then decelerating into it if you want, or shelve it for now to work on other games 🙂
>I think Sunnie did great despite the weather, we had no wind so no flying leaves to contend with! >
Totally agree! One thing my young dogs have taught me is that heat is a pretty big distraction! Their brains are like WHAT IS THIS so they have to devote a lot of brain energy to regulate body systems that they don’t ordinarily have to regulate when they are in our lovely climate controlled homes LOL! So you might see certain struggles outside in the heat because her brain is dealing with a whole new set of things to process. But it won’t take her long to adjust, especially because her breed & lines are bred to handle different climates and work hard outdoors.
Great job!
TracyGreat job with the games here! The opposite arm stuff can be weird for us humans at first but you did a fantastic job of applying it to help your girls. And I love hearing that you used it successfully at trials already ) Yay! Onwards to blind cross fun!
Tracy
Good morning!
The find-the-line game is off to a great start! Bummer about the video! If it all went as well as this, you can switch to the other side and add in 2 more elements:
– getting closer to the tunnel entry so she has to drive ahead of you to find the jump as you move forward
– sending to the tunnel entry from as far away as possible so you are past the jump when she exits the tunnel, to challenge her to still find the jump and not skip it to chase you 🙂
Aelfraed can add the same concepts to you can both use the same setups 🙂Was the mountain climber game her first introduction to the full teeter board, especially with it going all the way up? Great job rewarding each step of the way at the beginning – it looks like she was a bit doubtful about it on the first rep but then realized it was a super delicious obstacle 😂 By the 3rd rep, her tail was high and wagging as she got on. And you and Kyla were very generous with the yogurt, which made it as high value session. After lifting her off the board, you can also tug a bit to keep her pumped up.
When she sees this a few more times and starts to blast up it, we can place the reward on a target attached to the top of the board, so Kyla can be faded out. Aelfraed is going to get a pie crust holder (duct tape and deep spoons are usually perfect for that) and you can use that too for a yogurt holder 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
He did a great job finding the line to the jump on the first video! You can start throwing the reward even earlier – as soon as you see him lock onto the line, you can throw it so he keeps looking forward. When you were closer to the jump, he could easily find it while also looking at you to track the throw 🙂 when you were further from the jump, he had to look forward more because you were too far away from him to find the jump AND watch you. Super!
When you switch to the other side, you can add 2 things:
– going in closer to the tunnel so he drives ahead of you to the jump
– Sending to the tunnel more so you are past the jump as he exits the tunnel: will he still find it, or will he skip it to chase da momma?The mountain climber went really well! As soon as he realized that he could blast up the teeter for pie crust, he was a very happy camper! I think he was decelerating a bit because of the pressure of Auntie Pie Crust there holding the treats, so you can play with attaching something to the end of the board to hold the pie crust (or any bread reward LOL): a serving spoon duct taped to the end of the board so it sticks out just enough that he runs to the end and grabs his snack might be ideal!
He did well with the motion override game! He figured out very quickly that is had something to do with a stopped position – you can isolate the specifics of the position by moving very slowly, almost marching in place, and saying sit, down, or stand.
Using a ‘wait’ cue to let him choose his position is great. I use this concept at the start line: a stay cue and the dog gets to choose the position. It is very successful and gives the dogs a lot of agency in that moment. He was great with his stand here!! You can add more motion to this game using the wait cue.
>He was pretty confused as to why we weren’t doing equipment and ran away to do obstacles a couple of times.>
Motion towards the obstacle generally cues commitment, so I can see his argument here especially after the lazy games 🙂 He did well when you were moving but not towards any obstacle.
Great job!
Tracy
