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Hi!
This looks great – his commitment to the ‘job’ of getting the toy is fabulous (even when he bobbled it a little, he made sure to get it and not just chase you), and his speed both directions looked great: driving to the toy and chasing you with it. Yay!
He only had 2 questions:
on one question, the first advanced level with Karena, the higher pitched ‘get it’ made him ask if he should release or not LOL but then he was fine after that.The other question he had was on the advanced levels where ideally he would turn to his left… but he turned to his right (:15 and :42). He did that for both of you so it is not handler error. Plus, based on how he approached the toy in the right turn reps: it is just a side preference (nice rounded turn, he would also be a great flyball dog!)
Since he is an agility star in the making, we need to convince him that left turns are just as cool as right turns LOL!! So, 2 ideas:Add in more left turn reps on the basic reverse retrieve – they were all right turn reps except for the very last one, and his turn was off camera so I *think* he turned left but I am not sure. Starting him on on your right to send to the toy and doing a FC as he is going to it should encourage the left turn.
Using the reverse retrieve when the left turn is the turn towards you (toy in your left to drop, you run away to your right) – start him nice and close to where you are dropping the toy so he does not rush (rushing will get him choosing the easiest mechanics) and just walk away. And you can walk away on a line more directly back towards where he started which might encourage left turns too.
Let me know if that makes sense! Great job here!
TracyHi!
Rocking horses look great! It is really nice to see a high drive herding dog be able to ignore the cars and bus that went by – so many herding dogs get overstimulated and chase cars but he was a rockstar and ignored them. Nice!Great job with your connection on the rocking horses on each rep! He committed with confidence on the forward sends – you can leave sooner on the turn-and-burn exits, as soon as he is passing you to get to the barrel. You were waiting til he was almost done wrapping the barrel then taking off, so he was pushing the barrel a bit to get to you. I think leaving sooner will get you out of the way so he doesn’t touch the barrel.
He seemed to think the backwards sending was harder (which is true, it is harder LOL!) especially to the right. I think more exposure to that will get this really smooth, plus you can spread the barrels out more and add more motion – that way you can run forward for a couple of steps then decelerate then rotate to send him backwards, so there is more motion to support the commitment. Doing it without motion is harder for sure, but also getting the deceleration right is hard (for the humans haha) so you can totally add that in too.
Great job! See you tonigh!!
TracyGood morning!
Her backside sends are looking good! I love that you were able to get all the way across the bar (and the bringing of the toy to hand is a big moment!!! YAY!!) So now we add more clarity:
– especially now that you are all the way across the bar, you need to use your backside slice verbal and not your general release verbal. I use “back back back as I move forward when I want the backside, and ‘break!’ )Or jump) When I want the front side. Otherwise, the dogs ask questions (and you can see some questions here. Add the backside verbal now starting on the closer line (position 1) and gradually work you way over to position 3.
-Also, to get the default of taking the jump when she arrives on the backside – don’t do any more front crosses as you drop the toy – the motion of the FC is bringing her in and we want her to come in no matter what motion she sees. Keep dropping the toy in the same spot, but serp across the bar (moving close to it and parallel, on a 90 degree line from where you moved towards the backside). If you run out of room, you can keep facing her or keep moving towards the back wall (which adds some of the countermotion she will see on the fancier backside slices) and continue to drop the toy on the landing side of the bar, even if it is behind you.
Threadles are looking really good too. I am glad the Great Grudgement Age is over. Good job releasing with the in in verbal. I also use my cross-arm for threadles, and my highly scientific way of adding it is to… just add it 🙂 Just show her the exact same setup and scenario you had here, and put the cross arm up before yo say in in. 99% of the time, the dogs have zero issues understanding it (I would be shocked if she had any questions, which is why we get away with basically just slapping the cross arm, into the picture LOL)
The reverse retrieve is also going well – you might need 3 udders so you can leave the first one on the ground LOL! The speed of the reverse retrieve will come even more when you have even more running room – I think this is a good start and she was definitely faster. She just doesn’t seem like the type who is going to run full speed into a wall. Ok, Dellin, that is valid LOL!!! Do you have a long carpeted hallway in the house? Or you can save this for the next time you are in a training facility. I also got more speed in the retrieves by adding obstacles (send to the ball, I run away, he picks it up, I cue a tunnel or a jump – he LOVED that!) Granted, I did that for flyball-specific reasons (carrying the toy over a jump was something he simply didn’t understand but needed too) but a really nice side dish to it is that the speed of the retrieve increased dramatically.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning – so much good stuff here!!! Bummer about the yard 🙁 It is mud season.
Rocking horses went really well! She seemed to not have much of a problem generalizing to the cones or adding the speed/excitement of the toy (there was definitely more speed and excitement, which is good!) I think this was perfect, in terms of her questions (slightly wider turns and the one rep where she didn’t commit). For. The slightly wider turns, no worries at all: she was going fast and bending without losing her mind. Fabulous! To help promote tight turns without losing the speed, add in lots of turn-and-burn exits as well as lots of chasing you for the toy (rather than a stationary strike). The motion will give her a reason to drive back harder to you, which will also give her a reason to tighten up the turns. Also bear in mind that her turns do not need to look like spaghetti noodles wrapping the cone, because speed is very important and as long as she knows where to go and turns her head and sets her turns up: she can do what she likes 🙂 My 16” tall Hot Sauce is a good example of that – she knows how to set her turns up and they don’t look tight – until you look at her course time and yards per second, which is almost 8 yards per second on a jumpers course, fastest of any dog in my house (or at the trial LOL). So – as long as she knows where to go, we will let her sort out how tight she needs to make the turns.
She had one commitment question at :21 – I think you might have been a bit too far from the cone to give a backwards send cue without motion or decel into it. I don’t think the first little error there was toy-induced (it matches the error in the reverse retrieve) but then she was not sure what to do and jumped for the toy. You broke it down after that and she got it really nicely! As you add more distance, you can also add more motion of moving forward then decel then rotate, to help set up the backwards sending.
Backsides – yes, she is finding the backside really well. SUPER!!!! And also yes – I see what you mean about her not seeing the bump til you help her either with turning or with presenting the toy. Since the default behavior of taking the jump is key, we can approach that a couple of different ways to help get the behavior going:
First, we can change the setup to make the jump bump more salient to go over. 2 ideas on that (I suggest both for now, because we really want the bump to pop out to her more and be easier to go over) –
You can add the 2nd wing so it look more like a jump and she will hopefully focus on going between the wings when she arrives at the backside. And, rotate the whole set up about 45 degrees, where the entry wing is closer to her (so it is both easier to get to the backside and when she arrives on the backside, the bump is right in front of her). The exit wing is further from her (and from you) but that is fine for now.Second – her questions are not about placement of reinforcement, they are about value of reinforcement. The toy here is valuable when you have it and it is moving. It does not draw her focus to it and to the bump when it is placed. A tossed cookie is hard to see. So, changing the type of reinforcement so you can place it (and never have it come from your hand) should help get her eyes on the bump and off you. The 2 options for that are an empty food bowl (but you would still have to toss food to it, unless you can place the food in it in advance) or the Pet Tutor. The PT will be the best/easiest option. The placement point can be tucked in next to t he exit wing for now, on the landing side. Then we can move it over to the entry wing, but I don’t want her to have to run past it to the backside entry for now. Let me know if that makes sense.
Reverse retrieve – looking great! Her drive to the toy seemed faster than her drive back to you, so you can get her to drive back harder with a 2nd toy as a reward – when she makes it almost all the way back to you – Boom! Whip out the other toy. And you can start her closer to the toy you drop for now, so she is closer to it when she passes you, and has a shorter distance to drive back to you (sometimes the longer distances are not compelling).
Her question at the end when she didn’t commit to the toy behind you was identical to her question in the rocking horses at :21! It was basically a backwards send and she was also turning to her right. That is why I don’t think her rocking horse question was toy-induced at first, because the toy was on the ground here. So it is probably a slight right-turn-Countermotion weakness (very slight). So definitely on the right turns, start both of you closer to the toy and don’t move as fast on these for now – then you will be able to build it back up to full on speed and distance.Great job!!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Good job carving out time for puppy videos! Her toy play here was great!
The barrel videos both looked really good. You can give her more of an arm/leg send to get her started (step to the barrel with your dog-side arm and leg) – I think she was not sure how to start (especially on the 2nd video) so you can totally send now that you are past the offering stages and getting further away from the barrel. On the 2nd video, you ran lengthwise (parallel ot the tunnel) and that was grea – gavey ou more room to run! Yay!
You can totally add your wrap verbals in now – say them as you send to the barrel.
>>We tried again with toy on the ground and she would not leave it – I decided to abort and do more tug and try a lower value tug next time.
Do you mean on the ground as a target for her to drive to? No worries! I want her to be wild for the toy, so you don’t need to worry about a toy on the ground for now if she can’t ignore it. You can throw it out ahead like you did at the end of video 2, or use a balance perch or something as the target and when she drives to it -throw the toy 🙂
Her backing up is also going well! You can add in being a step further from her target now and if that goes well, take another step so she can back up more and more.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> I’ll try to stay more connected on exits.
Think of it as having the fingers on your dog-side arm pointing back to her collar while you make eye contact. And if you want to cookie reward at your side, you can move the hand to your leg when she is arriving at your leg.
>>. But, with a toy I think you were dragging it on the ground. Do I want to drop it on her line or have her grab it from my hand? The line makes more sense to me. I’ll need to figure out which marker to use. That’s the issue with LSM words!>>
If you think the dog might mistake your flesh for the toy, or get lapy – you can have it on a line and dragging. I was using a pretty long toy so it was pretty low. I might not have had all of my markers in place in the demo video (the demos were all first-time sessions with the dogs being very young) but for moving-toy-chase-and-grab, I use a shhhhhhhh noise til the dog grabs it 🙂
On the video:
>>This would turn into my backside wrap cue eventually I think. Correct?
Yes – the start of this is mainly just about getting the pups to turn their heads as part of the game, to set up better turns. The advanced level that you did here is now the backside circle wrap – and you can add your verbal bause she has the behavior. I also suggest dropping the clicker from this (she looks up at your face when you click at the beginning, then looks up in anticipation of it towards the end) – you can move to a LSM depending on where you want to reward her. I recommend moving to a toy on this as the reward and using your ‘strike’ marker. You can also take this outside so there is a little more room so she can drive ahead of you, and also so you can add more motion: jogging then running. Wheeee! And as with the rocking horses – moving to a cone would be perfect too!
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
You did a great job of cuing the tunnel threadle without flipping him away as much! I think his questions had a bit more to do with the toy excitement and ignoring the toy in order to get the toy LOL!! He was ON FIRE for the toy. And that is good, we want him to love his toys! So you can reward the FC on the tunnel exit on the first part of the double whammy so he doesn’t come shooting out looking for the toy 🙂
Then when y uadd in the threadle, keep moving slowly and doing the cue, be super patient until he turns his head away – then use a toy marker like ‘get it’ if you trow or a ‘bite’ barker if you want him to come tug, rather than ‘yes’. The ‘yes’ was drawing him to the toy prematurely 🙂My only other suggestion is to take a moment between getting the toy back and starting the next rep – let him take a breath, you can set him up, ask him if he is ready, then cue the rep. If things move too quickly between getting the toy back and the tunnel send, he is more likely to not be ready and make a mistake.
I think he probably just needs one more session of this to hash out how to earn the toy and when to ignore it, then he will be perfect!
The tight turn game looks great, he is leading with his head and bending really nicely – he wants to lift his head more on the left turns which might indicate tat they are harder, you made and excellent adjustment on the last rep by getting lower ot hlpe keep his head lower. Yay!
>> can we transfer this to the collapsible barrel or a wing now?>>
Yes! He is ready for the barrel and also for the Advanced Level of the moving 360s (backside circle wraps).
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!!!
I figure since we are not exactly tall, we have the advantage of being closer to the dogs to deliver reinforcement easily, right? LOL!
>>I know you said not to worry about spinning the wrong way after getting to the prop, but Leo was pretty dedicated to doing just that most of the time, so am looking forward to your feedback so I can give better info to Leo >>
He was starting to figure it all out! I ask folks to reward the dogs even if they turn the wrong way, for 2 reasons:
first, it is possible that we might have been late with the cue… that is what was happening here 🙂second, the dogs need to learn that the rear cross ‘pressure’ predicts the placement of reinforcement on the new side after turning away – which is also what was happening here 🙂
To help explain, I grabbed some screen shots:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B3ks7V-vpLokyqfW_8Ka9asxzJcK0DXWElB_itCl31A/edit?usp=sharing
On the reps where he did not make the rear cross, you did not start the pressure for the RC cue early enough for him to make the adjustment. You will see this at :09, :33 and :43 where he was already very close to the prop and you had not started the RC info yet.
Compare that to :28 and :38 and :48, for example – you started pressuring in sooner, so he was able to make the adjustment and do the rear cross. Yay! This was also working because you wer erewarding him in the new direction, even if the pressure was late: he is smart and quickly figured out that pressure means rear cross. Yay!
So to make it even smoother for him, we can get you pressuring in on the RC line and cutting behind him sooner. Think of the prop as the center of the bar of a jump, so you will be moving towards the prop very directly and then to the other side of it, all before he arrives at it. The goal is that you have changed sides behind him and you are on the new side before he reaches the prop – the prop is a jump replacement, so we would want to be fully finished with the RC before the dog reaches the jump.
Part of it is starting closer to him and not as far away laterally – that makes it easier to show pressure and get to the new side nice and early. You were nice and close to him on that very first rep – he didn’t get it on the first rep, but that might have been because you were a little late and he is new to rear crosses. Start him further away, maybe 15 to 20 feet away, so he has more room to drive ahead and so you can start moving forward and cut behind him while he is still about 6 feet from the prop (if he turns correct but doesn’t touch the prop, still give a big reward :))
You might feel like yo uare very close to him and almsot stepping over his tail 🙂 but that is correct and will help get the RCs going nice and early.On the screenshot document, I added 2 screenshots at the end of me cutting in behind my puppy – you can see I am just about fully on the other side of her and she is not yet at the prop, so she was able to turn the new direction on the RCs.
Rocking horses looked great – the forward send to the barrel looked good and the double FCs looked good too. He is bending really nicely!!!!! and he was almsot perfect too. I think he likes this games! He had a couple of questions:
at :19 he had a question and didn’t go to the barrel that smoothly it is possible that you were a little further away than he was comfy, so you ca ndo those one step sends starting a little closer then gradually adding in more distance, especially when you are not using motion.One detail to think about it try not to switch the toy from hand to hand during the FCs. That causes a delay in the rotation & connection (and he is speedy, so you don’t have any extra time :)) Also, he is seeing that toy movement and it confuses him as to when the toy is in play as a reward, versus when it is not – so it draws his focus up to you and away from the barrel. That is why, at :31, hr didn’t commit when you stepped back a little early and reached for the toy – a moment of confusion as to whether it was come to reward versus keep wrapping. So definitely leave the toy scrunched up in one hand for the whole rep – he will learn to ignore it til you present it as the reward. For example, at 1:31 you had the toy in the send hand, and he was a super good boy to ignore it and wrap the barrel!!
The other thing to add to the toy is a ‘take the toy’ marker. I added “bite” for my dogs, meaning that they could now grab the toy in my hand (and implying that they should ignore it til I say “bite”). You were saying’yes’ but that is a general word that we all say all the time, so it gets confusing 🙂His only other question was at :49 when ou wanted him on your right but he ended up on your left – that is because there was no “Hallmark Moment” 🙂 of connection/ eye contact as he exited the barrel. You were looking forward. You can see him look at you then based on what he saw, he took your left side then went to the barrel (GOOD BOY!) – you can totally reward that becauae even though it was not the side you intended, he still went and found the barrel. . When that happens (pup ends up on the wrong side), assume it was a human error, a connection mistake and reward especially since he went and committed to the barrel.
Adding motion on the last couple of reps was great, it really supported his commitment and allowed you to leave earlier. He was great and seemed to really have fun with all the speed!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>I dug a metal garbage can out of the snow in the backyard and brought it up on the porch. Perfect wraps! So I’m going to go get another one tomorrow so we can do 2 barrel things.>>
YAY!!! That is super exciting to hear! Yes, if you can get another one, you can definitely do more of the rocking horse games – I think she will really like the action 🙂
>>Here are some baby lap turns that we worked on tonight. Apparently they are hard for her brain and require string cheese and not pet fresh.>>
Ha! Lap turns are hard: the pressure of driving into you with you facing her, and then turning away (turning away is WEIRD for more dogs LOL!!!) So cheese is definitely a good paycheck for this skill 🙂 Plus, I like it because she doesn’t have to chew – she can swallow it and be ready for whatever if next.
She was great here – you got quicker and quicker with being ready for the next rep after the tossed reward, and that really helped her know where to look as soon as she turned towards you. My only suggestion is to bend towards her more and fully extend the magic cookie hand towards her, elbow locked, in that magical “do you want a cookie?” position. That makes the cue hand even more salient plus it gives you more room to draw her back as you step back – and she is big so more room can help!I think she is ready for you to add the prop on the exit, so she learns that the lap turn also means “turn away and commit to a thing” 🙂
Great job here! Stay warm!
TracyGood morning!
he totally caught onto this very quickly, of course 🙂 Yay! Little suggestions to keep building it up:
Now that you have shown him the turn-away element of finding the tunnel entry, take the arm & foot help out entirely. You can still have your threadle arm visible, but keep it in threadle position until after he turns and finds the tunnel (and don’t turn your feet at all :))The only other suggestion is to have a mat or empty food bowl out past the tunnel exit, so you an toss the ‘search’ cookie into it. The only hard part for him in this session was finding the cookie, then trying to reset himself for the next rep. So having a clear “this is where the cookie is going to land” will help set up a clean reinforcement. And, you can also reset him at your side (after the search cookie) – he won’t be sad about an additional cookie in that moment, and it gives you a moment to then show him the in in cue while he is ready for it.
Speaking of ready: I think he is ready for you to add more motion. Set him up maybe halfway down the length of the tunnel, give yourself a 1 step lead out – then release with the in in verbal and arm as you move forward slowly. Your motion should be parallel to the tunnel, resist the temptation to turn to show him the entry. Then when he gets it = big party and throw the cookies 🙂
My guess is that he will catch onto this immediately when you add motion, and then you can do the double whammy game which involves the 2 tunnels in a row (he will also not be sad about that LOL!!)
>>hen watching the video, I realized I did not do the verbal the way I intended. Instead on one slow “In”, I meant to do a Short “In,In”.>>
No worries! I think the one in verbal had to do with basically standing still to get the behavior started. As soon as you start to move, you can repeat the in in in in with each footstep and I think repeating it will come very naturally when you are moving, especially if you bob the threadle arm up and down too.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>the ever present barking JRT was out.
OMG totally sounds like a JRT too haha!!!! Sprite was great, completely ignored the barking – good girl!
On the videos:
All of this looks fabulous on the ‘forward’ sending stuff, both with the rocking horses and the turn and burn exits. One handling detail is to have your dog-side arm a little further back so your shoulder is more open to her as she exits a wrap: that will keep you more connected. You were tending to close your shoulder to send forward or feed at your side, but we can that should to stay open for longer so she can see more connection as she exits the wrap. Her commitment looked great, and that is the plan: train commitment so well that we don’t need to rely on perfect connection as much as we did with prevoius generations 🙂The right turn wraps sideways and backwards were harder for her – she is a little stickier on that side when you are sending especially now that there is more distance, but she nailed it on that last rep!! Yes!!!!!! Also, you can add a little more motion into them for now, to help her out – spread the tables out so you can send to the first one, do a FC and take a step or two towards the next one to help commit her, then roate and send sideways/backwards.
Two other things I would add to this:
– toys! Wheeee! She is ready to feel the wind in her hair, either driving to you to tug or chasing you to tug after a turn and burn exit.
– A barrel or something rounder to go around (large cone?) so she can start rehearsing that body bending that we will put onto jump wings soon.Great job!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I like the beep beep cue for him and he seems to have a really strong grasp of doing the full circle wrap as you continue to move forward. You can use beep beep as the release cue (verbal directionals and obstacle names are valid release cues to help get the info flowing as early as possible).
You can add more motion here here, starting a little further back from the barrel so he passes you sooner and you can jog right in behind his tail, building up to running – starting further back might help him come in a little more directly to the barrel (he bends out away from it on the way to it, probably feeling the pressure of your motion when you motion starts). And you can add in a bump so he can see that the 360 is a backside turn and helps build default commitment to the bump.>>My LSMs are not as clean as I’d like. I just need to do a bit more of a walk-through of what I’m training with the verbal cues, body cues and then LSMs in place all before I start the exercise with him. >>
I think I did hear a couple of different LSMs? But you kept the rate of reinforcement super high so I didn’t see him get frustrated at all. You can also delay the marker and reinforcement for a couple more steps: let him clear the barrel before you mark and present the toy. When you were marking/presenting as he was still wrapping, he was pushing the barrel in his drive to get the toy. We don’t want to build that in, so the easiest thing to do is let him finish the wrap cleanly and then mark/reinforce when his tail has cleared the barrel (which is also a good next step because it marks completion of the behavior).
The ‘chute’ session also looks good! He is also showing strong understanding of this game. I think your first rep & 2nd rep were the best – clear arm cue, he found the tunnel entries independently, and you kept moving. The other reps were also strong but you were stopping more, so the motion of those early reps where you kept moving until after he was in the tunnel were my favorites.
I think it is safe to say he probably recognizes this game now 🙂 So, we can mix it up by habing 3 possible answers to the ‘puzzle’:
1 – just like you did here, the double whammy 🙂
2 – 1 tunnel send, FC on the exit like in option 1, and have him chase you past the tunnel entry but not go in it (name call but no threadle cue)
3 – add a ‘go’ exit to the double whammy game: as he is entering the tunnel for the 2nd time, give him your “go” verbal, as you turn to accelerate to the exit and throw the toy. You can do a ‘go’ exit on any of the tunnels, so he stays happy driving out of the tunnel straight when cued.Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>LOL! I didn’t realize that I was doing that. She does respond really well to me calling her with a higher voice and strectching it out though so she has propbably shpaed me to do that when I really want her to come to me.>>
I figured it was automatic and you didn’t realize it. it is perfectly fine for smaller spaces but at some point you will need to breathe LOL so getting her used to shorter name calls will help LOL!
>> <
It is definitely preferred that we use a marker, if the dog understands the marker and if we humans remember to use them 🙂 It is also important to understand that the dogs read context brilliantly and 100% know the difference between me dangling the toy, temptingly, in a game on position that builds off of the other games/contexts they have experienced versus me placing the toy on the ground for, say, the strike a pose game then getting into position. The contexts are super clear if we have built things up through the different steps and it will be no problem for the dog. Yes, ideally we have the markers going – but also, too much control or proofing or too many errors (or skipping steps) is where confusion comes from – so that is why teaching things in tiny slices and building up the steps with a super high rate of reinforcement is the most important element 🙂
>>can easily take the TnT out for now – she does REALLY like it.
Right – that is why it needs to come out, for now – she really likes it and does not yet understand all the slices of the behavior, so the Tnt in the picture creates too much failure.
>> I am hesistant to go to a toy only situation because of needing to call her out of the tunnel to get it both from the perspective of not wanting her to default that way and she is still a growing baby so don’t want a lot of tighter turns. I could end each session with a few straight runs through the tunnel to the TnT to rebalance, plus I won’t play with this very much because of her age.>>
This is definitely not an everyday game (none of these are, really). And you don’t need the TnT to balance for straight lines – throwing the toy will work wonderfully well too – throw it as soon as she turns her head to enter the tunnel so she sees it landing while she is still in the tunnel. That will get even more propulsion forward on the exit that the TnT will.
T
Good morning!
Look at you without snow and without wearing 55 layers of clothing! I am jealous LOL!!!!
Really nice session here! He was a tugging maniac 🙂 he it totally understanding the tunr-away into the tunnel for the threadle, so now we can build it into a more independent behavior. The skill has evolved a lot on course, so basically think of it like this: the verbal and threadle arm indicate the behavior you want… without actually indicating the tunnel itself. What I mean by that is you can have your arm and verbal going but you don’t need to use the arm to turn him away into the tunnel. He gets to turn himself away (and I am sure he will be happy to do that :)) That will give you both greater independence and speed on course, and he won’t need to rely on your timing of turning him away to the tunnel – he will just go do it by himself, on cue.
So now that you have taught him the turn-away behavior, we go to the next step of teaching him to do it without extra help from an arm cue (and without needing to wait for an arm cue to turn away): using the double whammy game, send him into the tunnel on a normal tunnel send. Then when he exits, pick him up on the inside and use your threadle arm and verbal – but keep walking slowly forward on the line next to the tunnel entry, kind of heading to the entry. Be patient, just keep the arm up and keep saying the verbal – when he turns himself away to go into the tunnel, have a big party and reward.
If he thinks you are nuts and doesn’t do it, waiting for you to flip him away to the tunnel, we can break it down and have you standing there cuing it, without motion and without flipping him away. I bet he figures it out quickly, though!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
