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Good morning! I agree, this went really well 🙂
He turns beautifully, especially for such a big fast dog!
Small details to consider here:
One thing to add is letting him see you accelerating up the line as he exits the tunnel. At :13 & :38, you were walking so he checked in, so the decel, and decelerated to the next jump adding a lot of strides.
Compare that to 1:01 when you were accelerating as he exits the tunnel, so he accelerates too and had lovely speed on that line!
You had really good timing of the wrap cues: starting them when he was at the jump before the wrap, and he set up great turns.
As you add more acceleration on the line before the wrap, you can face foward more and you can decelerate as you start the cue (like you did at 1:05) rather than rotate when you start the cue (:16). If you rotate too early, the rotation might pull him off wrap jump.
You can also repeat the verbals rather than say them once. Repeating them can also help you make them sound different. I dno’t think you need to repeat your ‘over’ cue, but you can repeat the tunnel cue several times, really loud 🙂 That will be a good contrast to repeating the wrap cue a few times but very quietly. The quiet cues indicate turns while the loud cues indicate go go go on the line 🙂
How old is he now? We can start raising the bars!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Luckily he’s looking like commitment, confidence, and distance are going to be similar to Ripley which will make my life easier.>
Totally yes! You will be able to switch back and forth really easily 🙂
Looking on the wrap starts: He is still in the young dog learning phase of “where are we going next?” and was checking in a bit. That is just lack of experience for the most part. And you can also consider a bit of backwards sending for the start to help him see the next line even sooner! Then he will gain experience and you can choose whatever works best for him.
>I think I did 2 post turns on the wrap after the blind and 1 spin (which would typically be my preference to keep that turn tight and get my feet heading the right direction sooner).>
Yes – I also prefer the spin unless it is too tight and bleeds off speed. He was still sorting it out (young dog stuff) so the turns were about the same with the spin, so the jury is out about which will eventually be fastest 🙂 He will learn very quickly what the decel/brakes mean and what the spin means in context of sequences, so he will automatically tighten it up.
>My timing and position will need some work.>
Overall, really good so far! The hardest part of this sequence is strategizing where to be when the dog has good commitment. Getting too far ahead can make it harder because then it might feel like there is no place to go. I think that was happening a bit on the first wrap sequence (dog on left) – you had no place to go so you were decelerating early. You can drive into the wrap to show big decel, as long as you don’t go past the wrap wing. Getting in close to the wrap will will set up an easier send to the jump after it and ultimately keep you further ahead. Or, if you wanted to not get to the wing and handle with more of a send, drive in more to the tunnel so you don’t end up too far ahead with no place to go. The final decision would depend on what the rest of the course needed 🙂
You got in closer to the wrap wing on the 2nd run at :26 with him on your right, so that also showed more acceleration cues on the line before it (yay!).
The timing going into dog-on-right wrap was harder – you can hit the brakes more & sooner (as he is approaching takeoff to the middle jump), and stay there for a heartbeat to set the line to the next jump. You moved away really fast so he didn’t see the transition as well as he did on the other side, and it put you a bit laterally away from the line so he had to push back through to it.
Adding the fluffy blinds:
He is reading the blinds really well! Your timing is good – looking comfortable and confident like you trust him 🙂
This blind cross sequence on your left is also good place to run in towards the tunnel for an extra step or two, so you can then be in accelerated motion as you move through the blind. At :57 you didn’t have a lot of motion (no place to go!) so even with good tiiming of starting the blind, there was an element of acceleration as you did the blind which powered him a little wider. Subtle detail, but he is looking great so we can add subtle details 🙂On the 2nd side, just like with the wraps: you moved through the line better with him on your right. Super nice timing of starting & finishing the blind at 1:23 & 1:41! One small detail: keep moving forward towards the wing after the blind rather than sideways towards the trees to clear the line – that caused him to follow the line there for a slightly wider turn.
Doing that might mean you need to be more lateral from him as he is approaching the jump after the tunnel exit, but he has that commitment level so it would be fun to try! You were further away laterally on the last run and he had no questions about committing the line after the tunnel. SUPER!
Nice work here! It is really cool that we can look at the little details because everything else is so strong 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>Very enthusiastic hungry puppy!!!>
This reminds me of something for the food versus tugging stuff: you can try to get her tugging in the presence of food when she is *not* hungry. She has a high baseline arousal for food rewards, so we can lower that by having her less hungry during training. Maybe an hour or two after a meal, bring out the best toy and more boring treat and see how it goes! If she is actually hungry, she will be too food-focused to consider the toy. I can relate, I can’t focus on anything if I am hungry haha
Her threadles are looked fabulous, even from crazy hard angles on the right!
The dog on left reps were harder but that might be because she has done more dog-on-right reps? She was much smoother with those by the end of that part of the session.
The 2 next steps here are:
– for the threadles, you can isolate the finding the bar after she comes to the threadle side by delaying the click of the TreatnTrain. Don’t click when she comes to the threadle side – wait til she comes to the threadle side and looks at/moves towards the bar, then click to reward finding the bar.Good job getting lots of rewards in for just standing still on the pivot object, poor starving dog hahaha
The hardest part about training small drivey dogs is how fast they are with their movements! So to get the cookies in rapid-fire for the beginning of this (for the standing still), you can sit on a low chair or something (like a donut inflatable) so your cookie hands are right there at nose level without needing to bend over or try to be quicker than her 🙂
She was happy to do the pivoting following your hand! Being lower will help that too. And when she is more familiar with it, you can stand up again because you won’t need to be as fast to get the rewards in to her mouth 🙂Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
She thought this was pretty easy, so adding your motion was pretty easy too! You were in a small space, so this was more of a send to the backside (you only had room for 2 steps). Since this went so well, the next step is to add more parallel line motion to get both up you moving up a line and teaching her independent backsides. You can take it outside while we still have decent weather 🙂 and that will also allow you to add lots of independence.
>Is it ok to use my verbal?
>Totally yes! She was highly successful and you were pretty sure you were going to get the correct behavior, so it was great to add the verbal.
She only had one blooper at 2:04, when you were further across the bar but there was no real motion, so she guessed. That is why you will want to move to a bigger space where you can walk or jog along the line for 8 or 10 steps, so you can set the line from further across the bar.
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
She is doing well sorting out the pivoting and definitely thinking about her foot placement! It is a really cool piece of fitness equipment! But I wonder if the bars are a bit too tall for the beginning stages with a really small dog. As you said in the video – it is hard work! She was getting the idea but I think we can try a lower thing to step over: maybe a thin biothane leash if you have one? That can teach her the concept while making the physical effort easier for now. Then you can gradually add back the poles one by one, to increase the physical effort when she understands the setup.
She is doing really well with the threadles! Your position is good and she seems to really understand the concept. You can add jump wings to this now instead of the wingless upright (she will really only ever see threadles with wing jumps).
>Am I releasing too soon and with too much movement? Or am I supposed to remain completely still until she reaches my hand? >
A little bit yes, and yes 🙂 And also yes 🙂 Ideally, the release comes after your hand is in position (it is simultaneous here) so she is releasing on the hand cue. That will set you up nicely to be able to add movement on course to this cue.
>It’s a little hard to stay completely still when you have to reach down to reward the smalls. >
This is true! For the reward, we can change the delivery to a placed reward target so you don’t have to move to get the cookie out there: you can use a manners minder or you can have a cookie in a bowl, so she can go directly to it without you needing to move to put a treat there.
The reason we don’t want you to move to put the treat there is because we don’t want to accidentally teach her to wait for movement to cue the bar after she comes in on the threadle. We want her to zip to it on her own, so having a reward target out there already will really help that.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
Rocking horses: This is going well!!
>I also think because of trying to use my hand to get her into position to start and how close the barrels were she thought I was doing weird rotated sends a couple of times, so I need to adjust there a bit.>
I see what you mean! On some of the reps, you were using a ‘touch’ verbal so you can keep using it as a clarification. And you can also use a cookie lure when the barrels are really close like that – but she is ready for the barrels to be moved further apart, so you might not need to do the cookie lure.
She sometimes grabs your hand when tugging, and that is tug mechanics that we can fix: Keep your hand lower so she and moving back and forth (rather than up and down) so she can grip and pull back. Moving your hands up and down doesn’t allow for a good grip, so she tries to get one and sometimes gets flesh instead. When your hands stay low and move back and forth she doesn’t grab for it like after the last rep here (except when you lifted your hands at 1:57, she came up with the toy) she doesn’t grab flesh 🙂
She is committing nicely and turning well! Try not to do more than 2 in a row or 2 then a turn and burn. When the humans get past 2 sends in a row, mechanics get weird and we end up messing it up and pulling the dog off the barrel… then we end up rewarding for not going the barrel (this is what happened at :57 on send #4 when you reached for your toy).
You can add more distance between the barrels and add the advanced level, with more motion and earlier rotation 🙂
>I didn’t video but we did a bit of work with sits near the barrels too as practise.>
Smart! How did she do? That is definitely good to help build the love for start line stays.
Retrieve:
She brought the toy on the first rep pretty well – maybe she needed the hand verbal? But also, if this happened after the turn and burn training, she might have been a bit stimulated and the option of the food reward was not as motivating for her (I am pretty sure she checked out the reward when she brought it back to you that first time :)). So can reward with another toy! That might be even more motivating when she is really excited.
Strike a pose:
>I opted not to use the toy or the food bowl for the serp since I was adding in the sit to limit the changes in one session.
Yes, it was smart to add only one impulse control challenge (the stay).
Try not to deliver a food reward for the sit after the lineup – it looks like you did at :47. Dogs often perceive that cookie as the end of the stay, so the move with us like she did there.
> Tried to reward the sit and then do a release. >
Yes, the stays need lots of rewards when added to releases – great job with that! You can add in getting into the strike a pose position, hand in position, then throwing the reward back for the stay. That will help her not release when the hand moves into position. At 2:34, she was moving when the hand got to position and before the verbal release, so rewarding the stay when your hand is in position will help her understand that the hand is not the release 🙂
>I stopped after doing the one side as I thought asking form more sits would likely be too much for one session. >
That was smart! Take the wins and come back to it a different time 🙂
>I’ll do the other side next session then try adding the bowl in.>
Perfect!
>Well, apparently I cann’t walk in a straight line all the time – didn’t even realize it when I was doing it.>
Ha! Everyone posts the same thing that the walking in a straight line is the hardest part here LOL! You can put a line on the ground (like a leash) to help with that. You were pretty straight though!
This session went really well! She seemed to have no question on your left side about the out versus going straight.
It is not surprising that it is harder to shift to one side (to her right) than to the other. We really see side preferences on this game, for both the dog and human 🙂 So on that side, you can be closer to the prop to make the lead change easier for her. Then it will all even out and she will be good at it in both directions.
>I feel like at times she is watching my off arm looking for the treat to be thrown from it.>
I thought that was more about watching the cue to process it – and she did really well! There are a lot of things that our hands do, so the youngsters do have to get it all figured out 🙂 But with more experience, she won’t have to watch nearly as closely.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
This was so fun to watch him play in and out of the crate! And you were great about adding the delay for the release to build it into a stay: I think Benny was actually enjoying being stationary with the toy on the ground. That is GREAT! We really want him to like stays 🙂 And he was great about moving away from the toy on cue, that concept of leaving something fun to go do something else fun will be very useful in the future.
And the stay with the toy on the ground is also going super well. He is able to hold the stay while you drop the toy – and eat the cookies! His food drive has come way up lately and that is great for being able to train so many different things.
Next step here with the crate or on the flat:
When the toy was on the ground and you were standing, he was looking up at you. We are happy he was holding the stay! He would look at it when you’re with the toy so now he can learn to hold the stay AND focus forward while you are not next to the toy. The goal is to build up to forward focus on a jump, for a lateral lead out (for example). Here is the game:
Because the stay is newer for him, you can experiment with what works better: asking him to sit when the toy is already on the ground, or putting the toy on the ground after he sits. I think he might need it to be already on the ground. Then wait til he looks at and not at you, then release. You can eventually add a hand cue and verbal cue, but for now we just want the stay and forward focus without you near the toy.
He is getting the idea of the backing up really well – he was wanting to back up a bit sideways (he is very locked onto the reward hand). So keep switching up which hand the cookie comes from: you can have both hands holding cookies and down low, and reward from a different hand each time. You can take the clicker out if you need to free up the other hand 🙂 As soon as he is very straight in his backing up, we can add it to the narrow board.
For the tight turns: you are ready to move on to the advanced level (360 degree turns like backside wraps). Be sure to start him at your side for each rep, because that will allow you to add your motion forward as he is working the harder wraps. I think he got a little made here (and was chewing on the upright) because he didn’t start at your side each time, so he was not entirely sure of what you wanted. That line up will make things very smooth 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>On tunnel threadles, because I do mainly AKC I’m not sure I need the same level of skills. >
At this time last year, I would have totally agreed! Then threadle skills (including a threadle wrap) showed up at AKC nationals and on a ton of local courses, so we have moved threadley stuff up on the priority list for AKC dogs 🙂
>I’ve taught my previous dogs a “me” which means come to the side of the tunnel closest to me, while out – is obviously the other side. Should I do this game still with my cue of “me” to come to my side of the tunnel? It isn’t quite the same, but not sure I’ll encounter the other version.>
I think the “me” is similar enough that it will work, and then it will apply nicely in the AKC-style of tunnel discriminations. If the tunnel entry I want is on the dog’s direct line, I say tunnel. If they have to move away from the line to get it, it is an out. If they come to the slide closer to me (and ignore the tunnel entry on the obvious line), then it is the tunnel threadle cue which I think your ‘me’ cue matches.
>On slice, I’ve introduced working>
The rest got cut off, please repost when you get a chance 🙂
T
Hi!
>he has started retrieving by crashing into me instead of stopping.>
I admit to laughing when I read this LOL I get gut punched by Ramen all the time when he brings the toy back. Boy dogs…….
You can do ‘flip backs’ which is basically as he is running towards you, you are moving away (but connected) and ready to get the toy he is bringing. Kind of like a flyball run back… Then surprise him as he gets close with a front cross and run the other way, encouraging him to chase you. That is a fast & fun way to keep encouraging the retrieve, encouraging him to decel into you, while discouraging the body slamming. And you don’t do the flip back all the time, just often enough to keep him guessing. And sometimes you can surprise him and whip out a 2nd toy as the reward for retrieving the first one to you.
The decel games are always good to work on too, but this sounds like it is more of a retrieve-specific thing.
>He comes around the wing and towards my hand and as soon as I move at all he backs around the wing and comes from the other side (serp). >
So if he does come to the correct side, he doesn’t remain on that side and goes back out to the other side, if I am reading this correctly? And you have to move to get toy engagement but then he goes out to the other side?
Two suggestions:
– be further away from the jump wing/bar setup. Make it 2 arm-lengths away for now, so there is plenty of room to come in. And break it down more to specifically reward coming to the threadle side of the bar. When we did this on the flat in strike-a-pose part 1 (without the jump at all), we were rewarding across the body with the other hand. For now, do that even with the jump there. That will isolate squeezing in to that side.
– since he thinks dead toys are dumb and you can’t yet move to make it alive: use a food bowl or Manners Minder. For the food bowl, you can reward him for coming in to the threadle side like described above. Then toss a treat into the bowl. I bet after a couple of reps or a session or two, he will figure it out and head directly to the bowl or MM.
Let me know if that makes sense, and how it goes!
Tracy
Hi!
He is looking very confident moving across the wobble board setup here! To help get more backing up, starting with his back feet on helped (:31) now we need to convince him to lift his feet higher when moving backwards to get them on the board LOL! He was starting to do it by the end, and you had really good timing of marking the beginning of the movement. So you can revisit that here and there as we add more teeter challenges.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
Super session here – he is committing really well! You might get a chuckle out of this: the sends where he had some questions and looked at you were because you were actually too early 🙂 We humans are almost never early haha!
If the step send was finished before he exited the tunnel, he glanced up at you a bit. So you can let him see you stepping forward as he exits – those were the best reps (like at :51) There was one that was a little late (1:23) but the rest were either spot on or a tiny bit early.
And great job with the connection and all the different verbals! Super!
Tracy
Hi! All of this is looking really strong!
This was such a fun wobble board moment: he immediately got his front feet on (yay!) and the ball moved into the picture… so he tried to maybe get back feet on, kinda stumbled, and you were like “WINNER! WINNER!” And he got the ball. Super! It looked like he was maybe going to overthink the back feet for a moment but then the ball was in play, no thinking needed LOL! So keep going down this route. You can also do it with his entire meal, if he loves his meals. Interact it the board? Here’s dinner 🙂 We will keep slowly but surely building it up.
The timing game is looking good! Did he have any barking at the people/equipment in the other ring?
The timing is generally looking good – I think when he moves up to full height, you will want it to be earlier. It can be at takeoff from the previous jump, rather than landing. So you can start playing with that now! And I bet you can also name the whole line to the tunnel: when he is facing the jump before the tunnel, you can be telling him tunnel tunnel tunnel and that will include the jump on the line.
The looking ahead sequences also went well! You can tell him to go jump before he enters the tunnel (and several more times after that too 🙂 ), so he knows where to go when he exits (you can see him looking at you a tiny bit on the first few reps). And, you can add more distance between the jump & tunnel – and I think he would also really enjoy the option where you send to the tunnel and get way ahead: can he still find the line over the jump, or will he chase da momma?
Great job here!Tracy
Good morning!
This was fun to watch!
Interesting bar at :10 and on the mirror image bar at :56! He did the same thing on the first rep of both sides of not quite striding properly into it. That means his brain was processing *something* so he didn’t have bandwidth for the takeoff spot. My guess is that the verbal was a forward verbal (tunnel) but your motion was decelerating so he was processing the difference. And young dog brain processing often means the mechanics fall off for a moment 🙂
You went in a little closer to the middle jump on the 2nd and 4th rep, and that allowed for steady motion and he had no jumping questions.
I do like to teach the dogs that a forward verbal can override my decel, so you can revisit this and give the big tunnel verbal while you decel and see if he can sort out the striding. The timing was all good, so it was likely a processing question.
Something to consider as the bar height begins to come up is that he might need a soft brake arm for the middle jump, to get a collection before takeoff so he lands facing the next line. You can see t :07, for example, that he adjusted the line after landing there.
Wrap timing on the first wrap rep was GREAT! Because he is young, he added a little more collection than we will need coming into the wrap (he was thinking about it, which is good!) but the timing you did there at 1:33 (starting at liftoff to the middle jump) will be the grown up timing of the verbal and starting the decel. His wrap was awesome! And on a 20” bar at full speed and understanding: he will keep the fabulous wrap without needing to think his way through it.
The timing on the 2nd wrap at 1:58 was a shade later, in terms of starting the verbal and brake arms when he landed from the middle jump – but that is fine for baby dog timing (will be late for full height grown up timing). But what caused that left wrap to be wider was the decel was not as clear. You were slowing down and taking smaller steps, but there was still sideways movement toward the bar which got more extension over it. Compare to 1:33 when he was landing and you had a very clear right-foot-plant as you decelerated and no sideways movement into the jump. That was super!!
Great job :)
Tracy
Good morning!
>Very low-stress, low-key, low key and friendly environment, but very little time to walk the course and get your dog.>
It was pretty perfect for starting a young dog! And most importantly, it sounds like you both had fun 🙂
And yes some venues can rush the handler so just be sure you give her a good physical warm up before the walk through, so she doesn’t go into the run cold. And take your time, advocate for getting her engagement, don’t let them rush you in 🙂
OMG! Tunnelers looked SO FUN!!!! She was perfectly engaged and you were beautifully connected. Great job to you BOTH!!
>excuse the around the neck hold.>
One thing you can do is take the leash off and talk to her, ask for tricks, etc. If you can still enter a run with jumps or hoops, you can use that as a training opportunity: take the leash off, get her engagement so you don’t have to hold her neck… then whip out the toy to play. That is a good foundation for all flavors of agility!
>We ran into some TTMFJ issues in jumpers. The jumps didn’t have wings, and some silly handler had the fluffiest, most obvious toy in her hand. >
The trial environment is hard indeed, and her brain was probably not quite ‘seeing’ the jumps. If you can enter a training run next weekend, play with the toy at the line then tuck it into your pocket, get her to take a jump, then whip it out to help show her jumps in that environment.
You can also use the jump work in the yard to help her find the the jumps even with a toy in your hand: do this with a toy reward 🙂 And when we add sequences (posed yesterday), run with a toy in your hand (kind of a boring one, nothing too long and fluffy LOL) to help her find the jumps when there are other distractions around.
She did well with the lazy game. She missed a jump at :14 after getting a cookie. Don’t fix that or help her: keep moving. She will have a lightbulb moment of “aha, no cookie if I miss a jump!” And then she will be working on finding them no matter what 🙂
Yo can add the tunnel to this now, and add more of your movement. That will lead really easily into the sequences posted yesterday.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
I am glad you had already started some teeter banging! He was a happy banger here LOL! I also REALLY liked how he was offering getting his back feet on too – really thoughtful, deliberate choices to get his whole self onto the plank as it moved. SUPER!!! That was pretty impressive because he is not exactly a tiny dog 🙂
I think he was waiting on permission, so you can tell him to go smack it 🙂 He was keen to do it so I don’t think he was concerned, just waiting for a start cue (then was eating something chewy LOL!)
>I lost him in the middle for him to go check out something at the fence line but he came racing back on his own.>
Probably just lost his chain of thought, I can totally relate 🙂 You can use a bit more toy play mixed in – that will keep him more engaged. Cookie tosses in the grass when we humans are stationary can sometimes introduce distractions and a bit to toy play will help keep him engaged.
I think he really liked getting to run for real on the sequence! NICE!!! He is picking up SPEED! So fun 🙂
>I messed up a bunch of the right circles since I turned too much.>
Yes, that was at 2:01 & 2:45 you were too early on the shoulder turn. When he was taking the jump after the tunnel, you were saying ‘right’ and already turned, so he correctly did *not* do the middle jump. Good job rewarding him anyway, he was following the handling.
I think what was causing you to be too early was that you were looking ahead & pointing at the middle jump and not staying connected with him. If you look at him as he approaches the jump after the tunnel, and maintain that connection as you cue the middle jump, I think he will find the line to it easily.
You took one more step forward at 2:23 & 3:05, and he knew to go to the middle jump. Yay! Adding more connection there will also allow you to add more distance.
>I also realized I did a lazy version of this game. >
Ha! Yes, you can run more 🙂 but also don’t try to get to every single jump – I like that he is developing distance skills too.
>Did I do ok on the set up with the distance?>
Yes! And you can spread it out more sometimes, or make it a tiny bit tighter (like some AKC courses) sometimes too. Mix it up!
>I tried to keep session short due to the weather. >
The length was perfect. And if you want to do more reps, make sure to give him a long-ish break. Because he is so young and there is a lot of running AND thinking here, he might tire out pretty quickly. So a few reps, then maybe 5 minutes or so of a break, then a few runs of the next sequence.
And if you get a sequence right on the first rep or two, you can move to the next one. We don’t need anything to be perfect, and we want to change it up a lot to be sure he is following handling and not just learning the sequence/reading the numbers 🙂
Great job! Fingers crossed for good weather ahead!
Tracy
