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Good morning! Hope you had a lovely holiday!!!
Lots of good work here, she is doing really well!
Turn aways:
>.Tried this again, it’s still a bit of a struggle especially when she comes in at a canter since she kicks her rear out, at a trot she comes in straighter. Not sure how to adjust to help her come in straighter?>>I want her to be able to canter, so slow yourself down (not her, just you 🙂 ) And for now, always feed her for coming into you – then turn her away, then feed her again. LOTS of cookies happening, she will be happy 🙂 Feeding her for coming in will help her drive in straight and not anticipate turning away.
So you will be moving pretty slowly, she comes in, gets a cookie, then you turn her away. I think she was a little wider in anticipating of being turned away, so we can build value for driving in and that will get her to come in straighter.Tunnels – She is also doing really well here! When shaping, start closer so she is sure of what she should be interacting with, she wasn’t always sure. You might need to shape different tunnels in new places, so you’ll want to start up close to it. And good job switching to a reward that is clearly visible – the first couple of reps were harder because she didn’t see the reward but then things got MUCH easier for her and she did great!
One thing I see here (and in the other videos):
She was not a huge fan of being moved around by the collar (like at 1:08) so you can reward her for walking with you and then when you are in position, take her collar then send. We don’t want unhappy collar feelings to bubble over into tunnel games (or any games) It was hard to see the transitions from the reward back to the starting point on these but in the other games, you were moving her by the collar. There is also a lot of great self-control we build in by having her walk away from the reward without holding her collar, then touching her collar to start the game will raise the value of the collar grab 🙂2nd video & 3rd video had more angles and sending, not just shaping:
She did really well here, especially on her easier side. If she has questions on the sends, make it easier after a failure or two by going to an easier start position. She sorted it out nicely on your home tunnel, so I am thinking ahead to when you are able to get to different tunnels in new places.You left a few transitions on these where you move her back by the collar she definitely does NOT like it (mouthing and looking away) – so have her walk without you holding her, line her up the way you want her without physically moving her (you can use hand cues or a cookie lure) and then gently take her collar to start the game when she is already in position.
You can teach her to enjoy being moved by the collar separately, with lots of food rewards and you sitting on a couch so that the collar doesn’t lift her at all and so you don’t have to bend over.Lots of hard angles here And she did well – you tended to stay at one angle for multiple reps, so you can both change your angles more frequently and add in easier angles so she can drive straight too.
Threadle side work is also going well – there were some visual distractions, I think, when she was on the side of the tunnel closer to the camera but she Worked through them nicely. I think that was where you mentioned she was looking at the wobble board? LOL! Good girl!
So – have you decided on what you want your tunnel threadle word to be? If tunnel means “take the tunnel on your line” then we need a word to mean taking the other end of the tunnel. She is ready for you to add it, starting on easier angles as a warm up then adding the verbal.
Handling combos –
>> I need to get more distance from the barrel so I can actually try to get the blind crosses in decently and then the decel (haven’t even tried that yet), just finding it a bit hard to get her to commit to the barrel as I try to add distance. >>
To add more distance and be able to get the handling in, these sends should be legit sends now like you did on the prop. When you did the prop sends, you gave an arm & leg cue to indicate it. So, the same goes with the barrel – start with her next to you, with your dog-side arm/leg at your side or a bit back – start with engagement and then use your leg and arm to send her. You were starting super close to the barrel and with your leg forward and you were holding her… which makes it harder to do the sending With distance, and harder to do the handling.
Plus, using a send step/arm will get rid of errors where she goes the wrong way around the barrel, like at 1:04 on the 2nd video where you stepped out sideways and it pulled her to the other side of the barrel. Be sure to reward that because it was a handling error, not a dog error. Even if it was possibly a dog error, I would reward a puppy anyway because she made a good effort to go around the barrel. You’ll also be able to clrify commitment with the send and be able to get up the line better – at :24 on the 3rd video, you never really sent and just stepped back so she didn’t commit and drove to the reward.
>>Plus all the bending is hard on the back.>>
Well, easy answer here – no more collar holding 🙂 It is not helping and she doesn’t like it 🙂 She wasn’t chewing on you here but she looks away a lot when you move her around by the collar, which is another sign for not liking it. 2 ideas for you:
– like with the tunel games, don’t move her by her collar. Instead, reward her for walking with you even with the treats out there on the target (or use a toy). That is part of how we teach this real life self-control.– without holding her collar, line her up next to you. Engage, then give the big send.
I think this will all really help get the sends, which sets up the distance which sets up the blinds.
The other thing that will help is handling the send like the turn and burn handling: send and face forward til she is at the barrel, then turn and go. As you add more distance, you will still be able to get the blinds in and the decels. And using the turn and burn game, you can add leaving earlier and earlier, which makes this game easier too (but don’t add leaving earlier AND distance simultaneously, that will be too hard).
So adding the sending will help the other details you ran into on these videos:
Being a bit further away will allow you to make better connection on the exit of the barrels. On the 3rd video in particular, you were trying to go really fast but didn’t quite get the connection so she didn’t pick up the new side (like at :53). So make a really strong, direct eye contact as you exit the wraps will help – which will be much easier with sending and more distance away from the barrel. Adding the toy in your hand in front of her helped her make the connection, but it was too much in front of her for when you wanted her to drive ahead. You can help make the clear connection using the toy in the arm across the body like we did with the blind crosses early on in the class, that can get connection and keep you nboth moving up the line 🙂
>>Question – any concerns about her tending to connect with the barrel? It’s certainly wider than a non-wing but not a wing so a bit concerned that this could transfer to a wing.>>
No concerns 🙂 This is why we train this on a random barrel and not the actual wing, so we can work out all the mechanics. She was hitting the barrel whenever you were too close and in her way, or when you were showing her the toy as you were turning and right at the barrel. Getting more distance so you are off her line will help her not touch the barrel. When you were out of the way, she did not touch the barrel.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Hope you had a great Christmas! I wish a had a private jet – our weather here is stunning so I would just fly you all out to tire those pups out haha!
This is going really, really well. He definitely asks little questions when you leave earlier At this distance – he still commits but he gets ‘hoppy’ (stride bounces up rather than extends out). But as you worked through the reps, he was digging in more (which means extended stride) because we can hear it on the carpet (sorry, carpet LOL!) And that is why we use barrels and not wings – to help him sort the questions so when this goes onto wings or jumps, he can drive and not ask any questions. You were able to leave pretty darned early and his commitment was super strong. I expect some questions at this age and he was great about maintaining commitment!
Since his question was along the lines of “am I really supposed to go that far while you leave?” you can have the barrels closer for now as you add more and more early rotation – eventually you will be rotated enough that you will be sending backwards as the main variable, so reducing the distance helps at first.
Separately, you can have the barrels wide apart like you did here, and with more running towards them, using the deceleration then FC to cue the turns. Running towards them a little more at a big distance will support his forward drive to the barrel. The barrel itself creates the turn, so the decel is more about practicing the mechanics of rotating earlier and earlier.
And with all of these options: throw in a turn and burn on every sequence. The opportunity to chase you out of a turn like that will continue to cement commitment because for most dogs, the turn and burn is the MOST fun (and he really really loves tugging with you).
Also – great job with the wrap verbals! Keep going with those, it will be 2nd nature soon if it is not already.
>> switched to toy,
He was terrific with the toy here – the toy is stimulating so he was working in a different state of arousal. He was faster and more excited but never lost his thoughtfulness. That is a BIG happy-dance moment because it is the best of both worlds: fast & excited, but still processing thoughtfully. YES!
>>trying had to give “bite” get the toy LSM first and then the praise chatter (better but not always doing it).
You were pretty darned good! On a couple of exciting moments, you did pop in a little “yes” and praise but most of the reps were LMS-then-party 🙂 So keep focusing on that because it gets easier and easier to do.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Hope you had a lovely holiday!
>>BTW if you use a manners minder for the running footwork I’m assuming you bring them back to the same start each time. I like to go back and forth where possible, but you’d need two MM to do that and be lbs to figure out which remote triggers the correct one.>>
Bearing in mind that RDW training is complex and there are a lot of ways to do it: I do a little back and forth with a Manners Minder for the running contact stuff – the MM on one end and I throw a treat or toy on the other end. There is only a little of the back and forth in the grand scheme of things. When we get things going one direction (for driving ahead and to change handler position, and then on the plank) – I set it up so the dog drives through the mat to the MM, then back to me for a toy or treat so I can then reset for the next cue. So if you are considering an A-B-C loop for it, the drive back to me after the MM is the transition moment between the C and the A because we can’t always line up the C and the A in the same spot when working sending or using the plank.
I have never used two Manners Minders because… eek! LOL!!! Too many hands and remotes and the MMs misbehave half the time anyway. I much prefer having the dog come back to me between reps after the MM for another reward (which helps keep arousal where I want it), and then a clean reset into the new rep. I have found that with the emphasis on clean loops, people end up rushing the all-important reset with too much immediate back and forth, and it actually gets messy in many scenarios.
On the out video – this is going really well! I think the main thing to make it feel less weird is to keep moving. You can travel down to approx where you toss the cookie then turn and start moving up along the leash line – so you are in motion before, during and after the cue. Then when you toss the reward, keep moving towards it as she does, then turn and begin moving the next direction (rather than toss and stop moving) That should both keep you moving relatively straight and also you can cue sooner because you can be moving so as she finishes the tossed treat, you can cue the out and have room to stay in motion.
The back and forth worked fine here and I think heading down to the treat spot more will help it feel a little smoother. When you were standing still, it was hard to send and keep your feet straight – moving will smooth that out. Her understanding is looking good, there is only one time where she didn’t quite do it but that was more about the cue being late and she was already passing the prop.Her balance reps looked great! I like that she had no questions on those and was not considering the out until you cued it. NICE! We really want the dogs to default to chasing your line even if something is tempting out there, and only head out to the tempting thing when cued to do it. She was great!
Well done here! When the weather is better, you can take this outside so it is easier to keep moving. A food bowl on each end can help you toss the treat someplace where they are easy for her to find. The placement of the food bowls would kind of be an arc, or a banana: the food bowls at each end would be on your side of the leash, next to your starting points. And her out line to the prop would look like the curve of a banana, with the prop being at the furthest point of the curve. Let me know if that makes sense!
Tracy
Hi! Hope you had a lovely holiday!
Her stays are totally coming along nicely here, especially when she is on your left! Your handling mechanics for the lap and tandem turns all look really good. YAY! I think the hardest part was convincing her to come to you and not the prop when she was on your right 🙂
When you lined her up on your left, her stay was stronger (being in front of the prop is like a start line stay) and also you had her a little further from the prop and angled away from it – so she was really pretty perfect about coming to you and not the prop, and the lap turns and tandem turns looked great. I love how well she can turn!
Her stays on the right are not as strong yet so keep rewarding, especially with the prop right there. When she was on your right, the first reps had her lined up a closer to the prop and a little angled towards it, so it was hard to resist. She did a good job of coming towards you but she took little detours to the prop first 🙂
At around 5:30 you moved her away from the prop and she still drove to it! With confidence and enthusiasm! LOL! So I think her question on your right side is more about value for working on your right side – if you have been working obedience lately, maybe the value of being on your left is higher which would be why her left side reps were so strong. So keep starting her further from the prop on your right side, and angle her a little away from it. You can also give her cookies for coming directly to your right side (before the lap or tandem turn) to increase the value of driving to you.
>> I’m happy with the turns, but then once she’s in handler focus it’s hard for her to leave to drive to prop.>>
I agree, the turns looked great – The lap and tandem turn mechanics all looked fabulous so she was nice and bendy on her turns. You made it look easier than it is with a big dog (or any dog)! I am not worried about her return to the prop after it – you can add a little more distance away so you can move up the line more, like the parallel path game. You’ll see her lightbulb go on and she will go smack the prop. It will be even easier when we resolve it with a wing or jump 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Hope you, Karl and the dogs had a lovely Christmas!
>>Don’t tell the red squirrel but I started parking in the driveway again so I can have room to train in the garage. It’s not perfect but more than in the livingroom.>>
Definitely more room! Lots of good stuff here! The red squirrel will forgive you 🙂
>>Training space is hard to come by. Everyone is desperate for it here.
Ugh! Maybe a bunch of MaxPuppers can get together 🙂 Covid makes things harder too.
>>Our toy skills are basically non-existent. It’s been a struggle with her. With food too but that has gotten alot better. Toys have too but so far from where I want to be. We keep making progress. It’s just as a snail’s pace.>>
I am glad you left in some of the toy play! We can add some things to get it where you want to be 🙂
>>At what point should I consider the lesson completed – when we have the Advanced skills down?>>
When you have done 2 short sessions of the Advanced level at about 85% success or better. The games don’t need to be perfect, they just need to be pretty good and she has to be happy to play them 🙂
On the video:
>>I used string cheese – easy to see and quick to eat.
Yum! It is a very easy food reward to use.
Get it for cookies at the beginning looked good! Remember to let go pretty quickly so she doesn’t look up at you, and also switch sides so she is great on both sides.
And idea to make the food games a bit more exciting: I also use food for driving ahead differently than toys! Toys are so visible that we can just toss them. I like to have the food either on a plate or mat or some type of super visible target. It is hard to reliably get cookies to land there so you can start really close to the target, holding her harness, let her see you put the delicious thing down… then slowly move her back away from it (using her harness or hands on her chest) so she is basically pulling towards it when you release her to drive to it. That tends to get the driving ahead for food as driven as it is for a toy.
Barrel wraps – she is showing good commitment here!!! Instead of backing up to feed – do a front cross and have her chase you to get the reward. Dogs will slow down when we face them (even if we are moving backwards) but they will speed up if we run away from them. So when she started on your left, do a FC as she is committing and then reward from your right hand.
When you switched to your right at about :55, I think you were too far from the barrel and also too quiet – you can give her a little ‘ready, ready…’ then step with your leg and swoosh a little (think of it as bowling) with your right hand.
Check out the difference in her commitment and speed at 1:07 when you did a little ready moment – BOOM! Very nice 🙂Turn and burn – commitment looks good here too! The cookies as rewards are de-burning her because she has to decelerate to get the cookies. And, since dogs are exquisitely efficient… she is not going to blast for a few steps to then have to slam the brakes. You did it with the toy at 1:48 and she was already much more interested! Do turn and burn only with toys now – we have the turn and now we will get the burn too 🙂 You can throw the toys to get engagement or you can use a really long toy like this one so you can get it moving away from her so she can chase it.
At about 2:00, you have some toy play going – yay! One thing I notice is that as soon as she gets a hold on the toy, you lift it up pretty high. It is not a comfy neck position for her, so she either tugs very lightly or she lets go of the toy. When the toy was lower, like at 2:15, you were not really tugging, it was kind of hanging there. She did seem to like that little bit of smack da baby that you did there! And she definitely liked when you were moving the toy… but you need to let her grab it LOL! Every time she tried to grab it, you whipped it away or lifted it – so she opted out (2:30).
So I think you can get more tug drive by changing your mechanics and being a lot less clean about it all LOL! It is easy to put control on the toy play, but it is harder to *get* the toy play. The best way to get it is to just be dirty with mechanics for now 🙂 Here are two old videos of how I built tug drive with Matrix – the main difference between Matrix here and Saphira is that Matrix didn’t mind that head position with her chin tilted all the way up – bIt Saphira does not like it at all. So stick to the lower positions with the toy, let her pull back, let her win by pulling it out of your hands, make it a squirrel but let her grab it, etc.
She did the drive-to-handler for the cheese, but it puts her totally into chill mode. So you can file that away from now (her drive to you looked great) and we can focus on the faster, dirtier stuff like toy play going into these games. One other thing – what else does she like to play with? Balls? Frisbees? Paper towel rolls? You can add toy play starting with anything she likes and we can build from there!
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning! Hope you had a good holiday!
She is doing well with the sending, lots of good value for her prop already! Yay!
Little tweaks to the mechanics –
– after the sends (forward, sideways or backwards), be sure to bring your arm and leg back when you feed her (with the same hand that sent). You were tending to leave your leg back at the prop rather than stepping out of it, which might be why it felt a little awkward. The leg coming back underneath you will help you get ready for adding countermotion too!– in between each rep, add in a bigger moment of engagement to get her set up and ready. You will want to do a big ready dance til she looks at you, and you can even feed her for that. That will make the sends very crisp, and she won’t start without you LOL! Also a bigger ready dance moment will avoid errors like at :20 whre she ended up between your feet LOL and also at 1:27 where she was at your side (we want the pups in front of us for he sends). And it will help you be able to be more upright and benind over less – you were bending over to keep her focused on your cookies, but you can work on more engagement so she looks at you more before the sending.
Keeping in mind that she is just 14 weeks old… you can end this session at about 1:45 on the video, where she was playing. You did more after than and she was able to do more reps… but her mind was definitely wandering by about 3:09. Set that timer to be done before she is done.
Driving ahead – This looked really food! The walking was a really good start here, she drove ahead and went directly to the toy, and didn’t try to run off with it, and she didn’t seem to feel any handling pressure. Yay! You added a bit more speed and that was fine – stay at this level for a few more sessions til she is totally leaving you in the dust 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
>> She had trouble on the “easy” angles coming around rather than take the jump. Thoughts on helping her with that? She didn’t do that on the most extreme angle.
About the 2 bloopers on the easy angles –
I think on the first rep where she did a threadle, she might have just be on an angle where the jump was less salient and your hand target has more value, so she just chose to go directly to the hand. You fixed it by adjusting the angle perfectly. The blooper on the easy angle on the other side was more expected, because it is easier for most dogs (especially herding dogs) to want to run parallel to the jump in this setup – but you got her going really nicely and then she seemed to have the idea 🙂
The extreme angles are actually easier if the value for the hand target is high, which it is 🙂 She did really well bending her body on those!!>> Also, I started getting drive by nose touches towards the end. I know you ultimately get rid of it, but when do you decide that’s ok?
We decide it is ok when we start to see understanding, aka drive by nose touches LOL! Basically, she was saying ‘got it, come in got out’. So now you can start marking and reinforcing sooner – as soon as she is coming in and turning her head to go back to the new line.
And part of fading the hand touch is getting the reward to the ground – you can use a food bowl with the cookie in it (or the Pet Tutor) so that now she comes in and lowers her head, which will help her drive the lines.
>>I tried with Gemma and a toy on the ground. She knows a serp behavior, but couldn’t do the nose touch. Interesting info!
Could she do it without the toy on the ground? The toy on the ground is a nice distraction/discrimination that we add in very early. I’ve trained a lot of my dogs to do serpentines… the older generations all had trouble coming in on the serps when there was a tunnel out ahead as a distraction. The youngsters have no problem because we added in this distraction so early. This has become really useful because jump-tunnel discriminations are very stylish right now on course!
>>Also, I struggled with the out exercise. Keeping hips and feet straight are hard for me. >>
I feel that pain, that out prop is almost magnetic and draws me to it LOL!! So that is why I put a leash on the ground so I can move along it and not get drawn across it 🙂 I didn’t see any outs on the video, feel free to post!
Great job on these! Have a lovely Christmas! Things are very quiet here too 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>> Pearl has clearly told me that stationary exercises require food, while moving exercises can use a toy.
That is fine for now, no worries! She is getting a lot happier with the stationary toy in the handling combos, so I am sure her love for toys in stationary exercises will continue to build.
The cheese balls were a big hit! And she has high value for the jump already, that is great! The food-in-hand reward session looked great. If she spends too long looking for the tossed cheese ball, you can call her back. She did really well on all the angles here – and just as I was about to write the that you can get closer… you did! Fabulous! She had no trouble making the bend when you were closer so yo can stay closer on all the reps now.
She also did really well with the food bowl reps. Do you think she would be successful if the food was already in the bowl? That would be the next step to begin fading out the actual target touch and getting the in and out in one smooth motion. The other option is to use a Manners Minder or a remote feeder of some sort if you have one. If you go with the food bowl and you think she will go directly to the treats without taking the jump: you can cover it was a lid resting on it so she can’t quite get the food until you slide the lid off with you foot.
She was sniffier on the tossed cheese balls here so you can definitely add her name to call her back after she gets it.Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> Second video – I’m not getting much distance on send to barrel (with lure of toy on ground). Is the lure of the toy why she’s ignoring my “side”? Or am I still not connecting enough? I’m thrilled with the drive to the toy…..thought we had lost that!>>
Yes! I loved her toy drive on these 2 videos, it was super high! That did have an impact on the handling but I have some ideas for you:
First video:
Nice long toy in that first video!!! Love it! OMG she was SO FAST on these reps! She did a great job of committing to the barrel on all of these even with the toy on the ground behind her.
On this video, the bloopers were connection bloopers: Freeze the video at :21 as she exits the barrel – you have turned your head forward so she think you are blind crossing to get her on your right, which she does at a million miles per hour 🙂 Same thing happened at :45 – you did try to reconnect with her but she was too fast.
Compare it to your connection at 1:05 as she exited the barrel – perfect connection! She then had her big victory lap LOL! You might need to use that 10 foot leash on the toy to prevent the big victory laps when she is this excited for the toy!2nd video:
On these, I think she was so excited for the toy that she was reading motion and not connection. There was a little connection blooper at the beginning: at
:14 almost had her til you looked forward then she read BC and cut behind you. Then I think those few bloopers and the joy of running fast made it harder for her to find the correct side even though you were pretty darned connected on the other reps – she was reading motion (you were running fast) and she thought it was just run to the toy as fast as you can. So even though you were pretty connected, you were moving really fast and she was only watching your feet and speed.
Then at 2:53 and 3:35, you stuck closer to the barrel and got the connection and the new side – then ran forward when she say “oh hi!” And came to the new side. Perfect! So one option is to keep doing that: stick close to the barrel until you have her on the new side then run run run to the toy.The other thing you can do is add more motion without the toy out on the line ahead of you. Instead, have it in your hand, the hand that is next to her when you send her around the barrel so it ends up in the opposite arm when you did the front cross. Then, as you run, show it to her across your body like we did for the blind cross exits – that can really open up the connection and help her to see the side change when you are running fast 🙂 Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I am glad the retrieves and rear crosses are going well!
She is so funny on the serpentine LOL! So joyously hopping to get a cookie 🙂 She did well on both angles and all start positions here. A couple of suggestions to build on this:
Change your setup slightly so the jump is rotated 90 degree – it will be parallel to the long plank on the ground instead of perpendicular to it. That will give you more room to get the reinforcement to the floor and also give you more room for when we add movement 🙂
Before adding movement though – she is hopping up a little to touch the target, so let’s start to fade the actual touch. We don’t want her to touch your hand when you are actually running a course, and I don’t want you to have to get lower to keep her form hopping up. The behavior is strong so we can fade the actual touch. As soon as you see her coming in over the bump to your target hand, give your reward marker to indicate that the reward is available in your other hand. I don’t think you had one going here, but you can start with the cookie-in-hand marker. Then you can move to a dish or MM on the ground on the exit line of the serp (and use your dish marker or just beep the MM :)) And then you can easily incorporate the toy, first in hand then on the ground. We are going to add movement (yours, not hers LOL) as soon as she is happy to serpentine with the reward on the ground.I agree, rocking horses are big super fun and we are only at the beginning! The single wraps on the warm up looked great (well done getting your verbals involved!) and then she really did well on the doubles too! Since this is going so well – add a toy. Cookies are nice and I am so happy that her food drive is looking strong… but toys in handling are the way to go 🙂 And since she is doing so well – do you have any access to footing where she can really dig in? I am guessing there is snow on the ground but maybe you can take this to On The Run or something so she can really enjoy driving around the cones.
I think your orange cone is taller then the bucket, so you might want to use that so she has to bend her head more during the turns as we add speed.
And you can throw in some turn and burn exits to the wraps so she really drives out and bends on her turns.I agree that the get out is super effective. When I originally put it into the puppy training, I thought it would only get seen when the dogs were running masters. Well, I was wrong – my youngsters are seeing it in novice on jumping lines. Glad to have it available, they read the cues perfectly. Whew!
Sorry to hear the camera was off LOL! I hate when that happens and now I am obsessive about checking, double checking, triple checking 🙂
The video you got looked good, she was more than happy to get out! Good job balancing it – you will want to indicate the balance and reward as close to your leg as possible on the balances, so she doesn’t bend out in the hopes of being sent to the prop LOL!
On the get out cues – you can now add staying in motion and tossing the treats out ahead, to prepare her for staying out on the new line.Great job on these! Happy holidays to you, Terry and all the dogs 🙂
TracyHi!
>> think the issue is I’m starting sideways with Sprite and she’s not really lined up so I’m not either. It looks like a habit from this video. Hmmm….I’ll try to be straighter. Partly it’s the angle, but I’m not completing the hip rotation.>>
Actually, after watching this session – don’t worry about it too much 🙂 When we add more space and movement, it will all feel a lot better. Her commitments here were terrific so we don’t need to obsess about anything other than hoping Mother Nature cooperates soon to let you take this outside 🙂
The TV trays were very clever! Sorry about the rain and mud – the weather is crazy on the West Coast!
This session went well! Great job warming her up with just the one FC on each TV tray 🙂 She was really good with her commitments on both the forward sends that you started with and the sideways sends and also later on with the backwards sends! She only had one little question on the sideways sends at :44 but then she was just perfect on the rest. YAY! And you are doing it very precisely but also letting her commit on her own: fabulous! Our goal is that she commits on basically any indication to go to the wing, and she was great here.
Doubles looked great, both the traditional forward sends and all the variations! I loved the handler focus in the middle, she was perfect with that and more importantly – she left the cookies and went to the wing, oops I mean the TV table, when cued 🙂 That was a great transition from line focus to handler focus then line focus! You did a FC to a ‘throwback’ (backwards send) at the very en and her commitments were strong there too. I am very excited about this session!
And massive click/treat to you for also having your all of your verbals in place. At some point, the weather will clear and you can take this outside to add more speed and distance, as well as the turn and burn exits from the wraps.Great job here! Let me know what you think and I hope you have a lovely holiday 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>> I am not ready to add the threadle verbal yet as I don’t think he has the commitment to the tunnel yet that I am looking for. But when I do it will be “Heeerre”.
Sounds good! Based on how quickly he learns things, he is going to be ready soon. He is definitely like a sponge, absorbing things so quickly!!!
He was hilarious with the jump bump! Lots of success here, the session looked great. So fast and definitely loving the dish marker. He was focused, thoughtful AND fast – what a great combination!!
He had one little oopsie at :30 when he looked up from the cookie and saw your position and just came to you – he wasn’t ready for that rep, but all of the other reps had better mechanics before and after that so we will ignore the oopsie. And I agree – stop saying yes (SO HARD, I am a big YES-sayer too.) I have more about the markers coming on Tuesday.
You can add more challenge by double dishing it (one dish on each side of the jump) so you can send him to a cookie in one dish then start moving up the line so he can pick up the jump behind you, or you can start close to dish #1 and then move up the line so he drives ahead. I don’t think he will be sad if you have 2 dishes out there. If you think he will play with a toy, you can replace the dishes with early toy throws. Or use a treat hugger to use thrown food rewards, so we can then fade the dishes out.
He actually offered a sit stay at one point, so if he offers the sit, release the sit like you would at a start line.
Adding angles is good – if he is facing it, it is not a lead change away from you so you can face him straight and work the out skill with the lead change.
If you do the out on a jump bump don’t balance it with NOT taking the jump (because that becomes a Backside threadle or bypass which we don’t want him to consider right now – we want him to love his lines and we will teach the threadley stuff separately.Cone commitment work looks fast and bendy. Your an hear him digging in on the turf, I love it! He really wants to dig in and drive around the cone, so you can let him do it because he is retaining his thoughtfulness even when going fast. You can do that by leaving sooner on the forward sending (turn and burn style) and letting him chase you for a few steps before you throw the cookie.
Be sure to take a moment to re-engagement (and maybe say a little ready ready) before each send. Two reasons for that: one is that he will be more ready for the cue. For example, he had an Oopsie at :15 where he was not fully ready for the cue so didn’t go to the cone.
The other reason is that the moment of engagement and ready ready gets him excited to drive to the cone. This has 2 purposes: it will get him running to the cone and get the behavior even snappier and fast (he will trot more if the loop does not have the engagement inserted into it after the search cookie) and it challenges the little guy to be able to commit with countermotion even when he is more stimulated like he would be in a trial-setting. Because he is so good at maintaining his thoughtful behavior as we add speed and excitement, I think he is ready for this and it will be a great layer to help build up to future trialing.I think he did really well with the cue hand also having a cookie in it!!! That is really hard because cookies are LIFE for him (for me, too hahaha) so I am very excited to see him learning to ignore the cookie in order to get the cookie. GOOD BOY!
And great job to you for working both sides, adding your verbals, showing him forward, sideways, backwards. Click/treat to you!
If he is super successful like this when you add a little more excitement, you can add more distance from the cone which will set you up nicely to be able to move the new direction even earlier.
Great job here! Have a fabulous holiday!!!
TracyGood morning!
>> So tried a new space to train in because my training room is occupied with kitties and I haven’t been able to get her to the building.
Perfect! New spaces are great!!!
She was all in for staying with me. All just good baby puppy stuff so I will make adjustments for her next time.
Drive ahead and focusing on the toy looks good when you were throwing it relatively close! Good girl 🙂 More on that below.
>> She was a little distracted so there’s some breaks In the video mainly because she was having trouble with tugging.
Yes, there were distractions in the new place there but you can also try a different toy so we can work out the tugging stuff – this toy looked a bit harder in texture and her tiny mouth didn’t quite fit the tennis ball (she was trying to get her mouth around it LOL!) so maybe there is something softer or has fur on it? With this toy, she wanted to chew it more than tug it, so experiment with different toys and see what fits best in her widdle mouth 🙂
And you can move your feet when tugging – so a longer toy for her to chase can help (and that gives your back a break from bending over LOL!) Get a long, furry toy and tie it to another long toy so the toy can swoosh around and you can save your back 🙂 She seemed happier tugging on the handle but also a crazier toy will help her tug – she seems to lose her focus on it when it stops moving or when she can’t get it in her mouth to chew on.
Back to driving ahead – for now, keep things closer and don’t run as much. There was a little too much distance at :40 and I don’t think she has enough understanding yet to add in you winning and teasing her.
She is also looking sideways at you when you really run for the toy – I don’t think she likes the pressure of all of the running and bending in to grab the toy (and note how she would like to grab the toy and leave because there is pressure but you are getting there quick enough that is doesn’t happen). So, do a couple of sessions with a toy that she really wants and a little bit of distance – and you walking. Let her win a LOT (it won’t be hard to get her to leave you in the dust when you run haha). Gradually add more of your motion but do it carefully enough that she doesn’t look at you when you move. When she is a complete crazy for driving ahead to the toy when you walk, you can add jogging then build to running 🙂
Great job here! Have a great Christmas!!!!!!
Tracy
Oops, I missed that note! Sorry! Was there another one, or are you referring to the one above?
2 file boxes would be entertaining if they are tall enough! You might have to weight them down so they don’t fall over if she brushes them. You can also use 2 wings for this. If you see any questions from her or frustration on the wings, back track to the barrel or the file boxes so we can sort it out before going back to the wings.
Have a great holiday!!!
Tracy
