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  • in reply to: Kathy and Shelties, Buccleigh and Keltie #28544
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Thanks! I see what you mean! This is also a remote reinforcement issue – note how hard it was for him to move away from the reinforcement (outside the ring) in the beginning – that was really worrying him! He would get faster each time the course turned towards the exit.
    And he totally picked up speed when he thought it was the real ending!
    And this course was interesting too in that he was not fast on the slower section (the first half) where there were a lot of turns and a lot of stops (teeter, table) so the two of you never got to just run full out. As soon as you were able to run full out? He got really fast too. Interesting!!! So as part of the value building and remote reinforcement, and in classes – build in a lot of value for when you have to do a lot of turns and stopped obstacles in a row, so he goes fast even when you can’t go fast.
    Le me know what you think! See you tomorrow in the Zoom!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Ruth and border collie Leo (6.5 mo when class starts) #28543
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi! Happy Thanksgiving!

    He is so fun! This was a lovely session!!!! And he was really very focused in a pretty distracting area!!

    He did really well here! Just a couple of suggestions:
    in a high distraction area, you an let go of him as soon as the toy hits the ground, so he doesn’t have time to look away. Eventually you will be able to extend the duration of the focus forward with distractions but the immediate “giddy up” of letting go will help him not want to look away ๐Ÿ™‚

    And be sure to work both sides so he is balanced turning left and turning right.

    The toy play looks good! He seems very engaged with it and is bringing it back really well! There was one rep (first one with you running) where he looked like he was considering a victory lap with the toy but then he didn’t so it is possible the excitement of all the motion stimulated him ๐Ÿ™‚ One of the things you can do is fade out running away to get him to bring it back – start with a bit of walking away, or backing up, all while encouraging him to bring it back – then have a big party when he does (you can have a big play with that toy or whip out a 2nd toy ๐Ÿ™‚ ) That way we can build to having you stationary and he will drive back to you with it. in the situations where you are not running (not this game, there is a lot of running in this game LOL!!)

    He did really well with you standing still and with you running. Yay! I think he is ready for more of the races now (posted last Tuesday) to get him to leave you in the dust even more ๐Ÿ™‚

    Great job here! He is terrific!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Lori and Beka (BC, 16 wks old at class start) #28539
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi!

    >>we are past week 1 but there are a couple of week 1 things I havenโ€™t had a chance to apply your suggestions (like the Send & Committment and wrap foundations in particular) and video tape. Can I still post short vids of those for feedback?>>

    Yes, you can post as you train, you don’t have to be in any specific week.

    >>She has seen this disk before but not in isolation. I had it surrounded by a bunch of my other disks and fit bones to just get her on them as she has a definite tendency only put her front feet up on them and then stretch across them rather them put her back feet up on them.>>

    That was a smart way to start!

    On the goat video – look at her happily working for stationary food! Yay! You can continue incorporating the tug early and often.

    The disc is rather tall for a 16 week old pup to easily get her back feet on and then she doesn’t quite have the core strength to stay on it long (she is a baby dog) – do you have something flatter/easier so you can mark & isolate the back feet? I love that she offered her whole body on it, and we can keep looking at ways to make it easier and fun!

    Plankrobatics:
    Looking great! And she was a happy girl, working for food even if it was not moving. And yes, bringing the cheese out was really hard
    You can also use get its on this, tossing the cookie rather than feeding in position so she gets her back feet on it without even realizing (as she trots across to get the tossed treat)
    And you can release to tug rather than use food at all – when she gets back feet on, release to tug

    Any Toy game:

    Probably easier on your back if you sit on the floor LOL! Or do you have any super long toys? Most were pretty small so your hand was right there – that red bone shaped one had your hand all right there so it was hard to find where to grab it – the one after it was much better! Nice and long with a big crunchy toy element. Stick with longer toys for now especially as she starts to teeth more.

    In this game, you can also plan the order of toys to build value for the less exciting toys. Interaction with a less exciting toy can be followed (rewarded!) with more exciting toy. For example:
    The leash was a definite buzzkill, she totally looked at it like “what the actual is this” LOL!!! So if you are going to whip out a boring thing like a leash, go right back to a super high value toy to build the value of the boringness haha!

    Backing up:

    >>She is alo not much into using her back feet independantly yet, one of the reasons we have some issues with getting on things and especially doing the getting into boxes games.

    Well, 16 weeks old… we are happy they are pooping outside at this age LOL!!! And hind end awareness is most easily built with food reinforcement that is a little ‘boring’ in presentation, so between her being a bit older and the food getting more interesting when it is not moving as much, I think she is now reaching the point that you will see more progress with hind end stuff.

    On the video – this was all about placement of reinforcement! First couple of reps were really spot on, she backed up, head low. But the placement of reward had your hands a little high so by the time you got the reward tossed, it ended up being over her head and late so she turned around. And then… turning around got built into the behavior. She is smart and efficient: I mean, why back up when clearly the reward is for turning around!

    In your defense: she is small and quick so you didn’t have a lot of time. We just need to adjust your mechanics. A couple of ideas (in no particular order):

    – drop the “yes” marker and replace with a quieter get it – I think the yes is too stimulating and draws her attention up to you and your hands, which is part of the turning around. A quiet get it will help keep her head down and locked into the food being thrown low
    – Your hand should stay low, at her nose level below your knees, the whole time. Don’t raise them back up to your knees, you don’t have time ๐Ÿ™‚ And this will help buld in self-controL!
    – with your hands staying super low, drop the first cookie between your feet with one hand, toss the reward cookie low and towards/between her front feet with the other to keep her head low and NOT have her turn around to get it – multiple treats in each hand will help this. By the time you drop then reload, it is too late – she has offered the backing up then you ended up throwing high so she turned around. You don’t need to throw the treat behind her, think of her front feet and the area under her belly as a hockey goal: toss the treat into the goal so she has to back up and not turn around to get it.

    Great job here! Let me know what you think!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Wendy and Pearl (Bernese) #28537
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    >> Sheโ€™s fun and the first of my Berners to be able to transition from food to tug and back again. Hope I can keep that going! I expect the more running I add, the more she will focus on me.

    I love that she can go back and forth from food to toys! You can reward her tug release with a low value cookie, so she is quicker on the ‘out’ but that is not a high priority – keeping the tug drive really strong is a higher priority for now.

    If you think she might look at you more when you are moving faster, you can go to a higher value toy and let her go as soon as it lands. And check out the game where if they look at us and we get to the toy first, we win! If you win, I bet she stops looking at you on the next rep LOL!

    T

    in reply to: Wendy and Pearl (Bernese) #28535
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi again!
    Another great session here with the Decel and turn. Berners have so much power that we need to teach her how to control it as she decelerates into a turn – she did a great job here!
    She also has great food drive, I love it! Is she able to go back and forth between food and toys? If so, you can use food to help reinforce the out of the toy (she was not sure fast about giving it back in the previous video) but if the toy drive reduces when food comes out… then don’t introduce food into the toy games, we can build up the out by using toy rewards.

    The decels and pivots look super strong. She works so beautifully and is so physically coordinated that I had to keep checking that she was only 6 months old. She is so cool!!! 2 suggestions for you:
    For the agility pivots, you can get your cookie hand lower (more down at your knee or just below your knee) to keep her head lower. This will translate to better turns and focus forward on the obstacles and not as much looking up at you (if you also train obedience where we would want her looking up more, you can feed higher).

    Her pivots looked awesome, very bendy!!! This was especially nice when she was on your left side (bending to her right) also really good without the cookie in your hand. Super!!! She is not quite as bendy to her left – she is good to the left and GREAT to the which just means she is a righty ๐Ÿ™‚ and might also mean that you have worked her on your left side (turning to her right) more. So when pivoting to her left (she is on your right) go more slowly so she can work the bending mechanics, and be sure you are doing plenty of reps on that side. When she is in your left to turn to her right, your speed was really good and you can try to go a little faster on that side too!

    Great job here! I think you can add more distance on this game too – throwing the treat even further away so she is coming at you with more speed and will have to work her deceleration a bit more.

    Have fun!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Wendy and Pearl (Bernese) #28533
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi! Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving!

    >>Just sending one to be sure I did this correctly. If not, Iโ€™ll need to rent a 5 year old!>>

    Ha! Totally relatable – My 5 year old niece is far more tech smart than I am.

    She is SO FUN and I love her toy drive!!! Great job here with this session, you structured it brilliantly:
    Great play, then you tossed it and watched her, and let before se looked back at you. PERRFECT! And your tugging with her is super fun, she is really engaged with you and the game.
    When you added motion on the 2nd to las rep, she looked at you a little but then was fine on the last rep, driving ahead of you beautifully – so keep adding your motion and throw the toy further so you can really run. She is ready for you to move to the next step (posted last Tuesday) where you get to race her a bit ๐Ÿ™‚ Also, this is a good game to take on the road – the more we can generalize it, the better! She seems pretty mature, mentally, for a 6 month old pup which is great because we will be able to add things really quickly.

    Great job here! Let me know what you think!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Joan and Dellin #28532
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi there!

    Goat games:
    Knowing a little more about Dellin now, I think there were too many cookies in a row here at the beginning of the goat games video – and I am pretty sure she did not swallow that first one LOL! She did swallow it when she swallowed the 2nd one.
    The flow of the session was much better when you got the toy involved! There is nothing funnier than watching a border collie chew to make sure they swallow the treat LOL! Great job with that and getting the toy involved more. Having the toy involved gets her really exciting for the goat games, so you can even have her get on and release directly to the toy. Her confidence seems perfectly fine and she seems very happy to put her feet on stuff, and she likes the action – so we can use this type of game to slide in more cookie value!

    >>I have been working on wing wrap foundation to get a system for rewarding. >>

    Perfect! And basically, everything we do involves finding a system for rewarding: we either apply existing reward systems to the behavior we want, or we install a desired skill into a loop or pattern of reward system. It makes training the beasts SO much easier ๐Ÿ™‚

    With the bowls and cone, she almost looked like she was enjoying the food! LOL! You didn’t have to spend as much time watching to see if she swallowed it haha! When she offers to go back to a bowl that has a cookie in it and eats the cookie: bring out the tug toy. She doesn’t need to do many in a row, but that offer of going back to a bowl with the – ewwwwww – cookie in it is HUGE!!! This can fit into the master plan of building food drive ๐Ÿ™‚ In that moment, she is choosing to offer behavior with and for food, so you can reward her heartily with the toy.

    And we can gradually slide the cone further away til it is about an arm’s length away (might take a couple of sessions) then we want to get you standing.

    >>And Iโ€™m letting her win the toy and playing a little differently. Iโ€™m thinking this would be a good place to use the hollee roller for chasing. I may try that next session.>>

    Perfect and perfect! What I am finding really happy-making here is that you are able to train with food and she is not looking sad about it ๐Ÿ™‚ It is not nearly as expensive to train with food as it was initially, you are doing an awesome job of raising value!!! It is progressing really quickly.

    If you have time and a place to do it – take one of these easy, action-type behaviors and go somewhere else so you can transfer the food value to new environments. Even if it is a different room in the house, it will be worthwhile to generalize eating as a reinforcement.

    Great job here! Let me know what you think!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Ginger and Sprite ( 9 mos old Aussie) #28531
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi! Thanksgiving here was nice and quiet ๐Ÿ™‚ Hope you had a good one too!

    For the toy play, you can do ‘all the wrong’ things like let her win, let her run around, let her try to grab it a little from your hands…. that builds toy drive and then it is easy enough to install markers, retrieves and out procedures on top of that. She was pulling really hard here!! And for the out, you can build the toy drive and get the out by giving the toy right back after a retrieve or out. If you take the toy away to get to ‘work’, you might accidentally de-value the toy play.

    My Contraband pup thought this video was FUN, he liked your noises and wanted to join. That is good!!! Normally he sleeps through everything, so it is a compliment that he liked your video lol

    For the baby goat work: easy peasy! SHe was great about getting right on the Cato board. Working on the Cato board causes her to compress because it is small, so you can make a bigger playing field for her so she can extend a bit – if you have 2 Cato boards, you can put two of them together for more space (or any two things – Cato board plus fit bone or something ๐Ÿ™‚ )

    One mechanics suggestion: get the cookies ready before you put the board in, so that you can click and then deliver the treats faster… mainly so she doesn’t sit. And if she does sit… toss the treat off to the side so she doesn’t think of this game as a stay game. We will want her to be standing on the planky and goaty stuff and not defaulting to a sit. Now, if the Cato board is intended to have her default to a sit – you can use something other than a Cato board for her to goat around on ๐Ÿ™‚

    The phone alarm was a little distracting at the end but I don’t think she was worried. Good job pairing it with treats!

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

    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning! Hope you had a good Thanksgiving!

    >> Now I just have to come up with the words. So, in context is it a compound cue with โ€œpushโ€ and the backside left or right wing wrap verbal โ€“ like โ€œpushโ€ + 1 of those 2 or is the new cue all inclusive, meaning, go to the backside of the indicated jump and continue in a wing wrap and chase me down the line?>>

    It is a different all-inclusive cue. I used to use a compound cue but my dogs told me it was ridiculously late LOL! And they were correct, it was very useful feedback from them. And I saw that in other dogs too. So now I say “back” for the slices and ‘digdigdig’ for the circle wrap. I like shorter chattered cues for collections, but that might just be a personal bias (certainly not rooted in science or anything LOL!) Since Push is your slice cue, you can consider something different like backbackback?

    >>Hmmโ€ฆI think you overestimate me.

    Not at all! Your mechanics and attention to detail are fabulous!

    >>I have been trying to reinforce more weight shift back lean back tug with him since heโ€™s pretty happy to do a more passive, head up tug or a shoulder/neck killing (for both of us) thrash. >>

    Ah yes, the thrashing, if feels like we are deep sea fishing and hauling in a marlin LOL! Do you have any bungee toys? It helps preserve the shoulders/neck of both me and my thrashers.

    >>We have done some of this gradually at first but he never showed any worry so we pretty quickly went to pretty loud front porch tile with him slamming the board around. I can do and video more of this to post if you want.>>

    Perfect! You don’t need to post videos if it is perfect and easy for him ๐Ÿ™‚

    >>So far weโ€™ve just been using a 2 front feet off the object behavior with the cue โ€œfeetโ€ without an actual physical target involved.

    That is fine to shape it – be hyper away or your position and motion, so you don’t accidentally build in your decel or foot position as the cue. Dogs are so brilliant are reading cues before we even realize we are doing them LOL!

    >> In the past I used a nose touch target for 2o2o but in his current puppy pre-agility sheโ€™s having us not use a physical target for the teeter and weโ€™re working on running for dog walk and a-frame. So far for teeter weโ€™ve just been doing bang game in class and some very early up plank stuff at home (some of that is in what we did today for planks). .>>

    All sounds good! I do admit, though, that I still use the old school nose touch target for the 2o2o on the teeter (but not for a 2o2o dog walk, although I do all running DWs now anyway). The results that the 2o2o nose touch target produced are so outrageously amazing that I have not changed that method (been using it since 2004 LOL!!!!) All other contact training methods have evolved and been updated, but the nose touch for the teeter is still the best imo (although I have evolved how I teach it :))

    >>Todayโ€™s sessions we did some wobble board, some tug on wobble and lots of planks โ€“ mini plank, middle of dog walk on the ground, middle of dog walk about 18โ€ณ off the ground and then just teeter up with no tilt.>>

    Great sessions here!

    Playing on the baby plank looks really good – do you have naything you can elevate it with while it is still stable?
    For more balance/coordination challenge, you can add turning him away from you with a hand leading him through it as a lure for now. The goal would be to get him to do a complete 360, degree turn. Also, does he know any tricks where he picks up an individual paw (high 5, shake, or isolations where he lifts just one foot)? You can add that in too!

    The wobble board work looked good too – good clicks for the decision to move it and you can start those clicks on the very first decision to move it when he jumped on (when he didn’t get that click, he went to offering other behavior, which it why there was a delay in moving it at first).
    He liked the weight shifted tugging!! Love than he offered backing up to it when you had the toy! Yes- it is all about that hind end, Ripley! Good boy!
    We can change how we let him win so winning is more fun for him – you can release him and throw the toy forward, I think he would like that!

    Plankrobatics looked really good on the low DW outdoors and also look great on the slightly higher one! Jumping on and off in the middle is so important for balance if they ever get in trouble with balance or footing while running – they will know how to balance and will know how to safely dismount if needed. As with the smaller plank indoors at home, you can add in turning away in a complete circle and any single paw-lift tricks he might know.

    Teeter games: The lower teeter plank where he drives to the end for a cookie is a game I play and really like! He was great! I loved all of the position and handling challenges you showed him! When I play this one, I don’t have the dog run off the target end because I don’t want to rehearse running over the spot where the board meets the ground (that is the sacred 2o2o spot LOL!) so after the dog turns around and gets past the pivot, I release off the side to chase a toy. The release verbal gives the permission – I know that it would theoretically give the permission to run over the end of the board but running through the end might create confusion when you ask him to stop and he has a reward history of running.

    >>Until growth plates are closed Iโ€™m not rushing to get the board moving a lot or very far

    So true! And plus all the foundation work makes it easier to get to the full teete rwhen he is all grown up ๐Ÿ™‚

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

    in reply to: Kristin and Ronin (Min.Schnauzer) #28526
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning! Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving! Mine was peaceful – playing with the dogs outside in the 65 degree weather followed by wearing pajamas, cooking, eating ๐Ÿ™‚

    First video – I really liked this session because it felt like you were working to sort out connection and timing while keeping it really fun for him, rather than just doing a few reps without thinking about things for each rep. Yay!

    On your blinds crosses: Being outside gave you both lots of room to run run run – the connection is the hardest part in handling in general and with blinds specifically, which is why we start them so early ๐Ÿ™‚

    To make connection with such a little dog, you can experiment with what works best – the goal is that you can see his cute little face and that he can see your cute face too ๐Ÿ™‚ So try these and let me know which one feels better and works better:
    – you can think of pointing your dog-side arm all the way back to his nose, like your fingers have magnets on them to his nose ๐Ÿ™‚ That means your arm will be extended back and downwards, elbow locked back.
    – or you can try ‘dipping’ your dog side shoulder down – your dog side arm will still be a little back but the dipped shoulder might feel and look better for connection

    >> thus I think he was anticipating he side change because he was never really sure in the first place what side he was supposed to be on>>

    I agree we can clarify the connection – you can pretend there is a jump between you and him if that visual helps!

    On the first rep, your left arm was kind of close to your leg and as he started to move, your closed your shoulder forward a little – so he started reading it as a blind cross (which is actually a GOOD thing!!!) If you freeze the video at :04, you will see what I mean about the closed shoulder even thought the toy was present.

    Compare it to the next rep at about :12 – you were more connected for longer and I think he knew exactly where to be at all times.

    Then freeze the video at :19, I really liked the connection there and the arm was further back to him so he again knew exactly where to be! You were a little late on the blind, probably because you were thinking about connection as the priority, and that is fine ๐Ÿ™‚

    The rep at :27 was perfect. Click/treat for you. And a shout out to the hubby for being helpful with holding and with feedback! Love it!

    A side note is that we don’t want the dog locking onto the toy, we want them locking onto the handling so when he is looking for connection and not at the toy? Perfect! We want to be able to run with a toy in training and have him ignore it in favor of watching your handling ๐Ÿ™‚

    One other thing: From the restrained recall, you don’t need to release (he is not in a stay) you can just call his name on those.

    Drive ahead video:

    >>For this one, I tried the treat throw back and he could never find it, so that didnโ€™t really work.

    When you work on grass, you can try tossing a big, light-colored treat onto a big towel or into a big bowl so it is easier to see. He will get used to finding treats in the grass eventually then you can fade the towel or bowl.

    >>I am not sure if itโ€™s undesirable in this case to have a helper but I did it anyway because without being able to use the treat throw I wasnโ€™t sure how else to โ€œcheatโ€.

    It is always good to have a helper when you don’t want to use a stay and you need to cheat to win ๐Ÿ™‚

    On the drive ahead from the collar holding – try not to say OK – try to just say get it or go ๐Ÿ™‚ When you win – be sure to reset to start the race rather than just throw. It worked better when you had your helper ๐Ÿ™‚

    I love that he was smoking you on the bigger distances! Don’t give yourself as much of a lead out so he can begin to feel the wind in his hair and experience the thrill of leaving you miles behind hahahaha

    >> It was interesting on a few of these where he kind of blew by the toy at first a little bitโ€ฆI am glad he was moving that fast! But I think he has a bit to learn about self-induced decel and body awareness perhaps

    I think he was trying really hard but being a terrier, it was hard to get his head down, maintain enough speed to win, and not go ass-over-teakettle while picking up the toy. And we don’t want him to slow down on these and we don’t want him to tumble, so we can tweak the type of toy to something taller than he can grab without having to lower his head as much. Does he like a hollee roller? I love those for this game, because they sit high enough off the ground that the dogs drop their heads a little and thn can scoop it up to win without having to slow down much or run past it by accident. Or do you have any toys that have a higher ‘profile’ when they are on the ground?

    Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Julie, Min & Kaladin (Master the Challenge) #28524
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning!
    Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving! And hope you are enjoying today’s UKI trial – I would love an update when you have a moment!!!

    On the video: Wow, he did really well here! It is a really difficult challenge that most Masters dogs cannot perform successfully.

    He did exceptionally well turning to his right and also was perfect on all the balance reps. He had a slightly harder time turning to his left like at :37 and on the last turn away rep. It could have been that your arm was higher and the cue was later, or that he is not as good turning to his left (I kinda remember that he is a lefty but I am severely under-caffeinated so my memory cannot be trusted :))… or that the exit when he is on your left is weirder and he is using the last pole when he is on your right to wrap to the tunnel. So you can experiment: when he is on your left, give your cue sooner so he uses pole 5 to wrap to the tunnel! That will be interesting to see and might be clearer for him.

    >>He hasnโ€™t taken his toy into a tunnel in a very long time and he did it here after the last rep.

    Ha! Probably brain-tired ๐Ÿ™‚ This is a hard setup where he has to go fast AND think hard. Good boy!!!!

    Great job here!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Julie and Spot (guest appearance by Wager) #28523
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning! Hope you had a good Thanksgiving!!!

    >>t life kept me from sitting down and editing till now.

    Totally understandable – editing takes a long time@@@@

    >>At first I had trouble with him reading it as a back side cue, but he figured it out.

    I don’t htink it was him as much as it was you LOL!! You had a bit of Goldilocks (too late, too early, just right ๐Ÿ™‚ ) going on the first few reps:

    On the first 1st rep, your cues were really late – he was in the air when they started. Good boy for reading it when he landing!

    2nd rep and the others when he thought it was a backside – your feet were too early ๐Ÿ™‚ As soon as he was landing from the first jump, you turned your feet & pushed into his line and that is definitely a backside cue, so he read it as such. Good boy!

    Sarting at :25, your timing and cues were definitely more inf the “just right” zone – the hard part of these is that your feet need to face forward til he is looking at the correct side of the jump then turn to show the RC. So at :25 and after, you totally got the timing and rhythm of it so he was very very successful. Yay!

    You can definitely emphasize your upper body too – more arms use, like a tandem turn, will help him so your feet won’t need to be as perfect. Plus the upper body is easier to see as you add more and more distance.

    At :53 when he took the tunnel after the wrap – more connection was needed but also that is a good one to work the verbal because I believe it was your wrap verbal, not your turn left verbal. Good for you for going back to it and for rewarding it!!!!!! and showing the balance. Smart training!!!! I was going to suggest it but you were way ahead of me. Click/treat for you!!!

    When you added in the layering, he did really well!!!

    >> At 1:45 (I think thatโ€™s about right) I had done a rep and he did well when I said go over and then at this point I had just said over and he had a question. Not sure if I did something different with my body, timing or if I need the go there. Ideas?>>

    Yes, he was watching you a little there and at 1:45 you got reallllly quiet and weren’t moving so he asled a good question. Part of it was lack of experience with the big distance/layering and part of it was that you were not moving. So he was chekcing in to see if the verbals really were allowed to override the lack of motion.
    So as you work this skill, shout the verbals early and often ๐Ÿ™‚ and also keep moving because the motion will help support the verbals too.

    The staying in motion will really help – Wager is more experienced and also asked that question on his rep (it is always good to see Wager working!!! )

    >>How long is this class open for submissions?

    Til December 1 ๐Ÿ™‚

    Great job here! Let me know what you think!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Abby & Merlin #28517
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    hmmmm good point! Maybe…! I need to start sorting out what I want to do in Jan/Feb.

    T

    in reply to: Abby & Merlin #28516
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi!

    >>Is this face the way I want to go my back to him then turn back toward him and catch?

    Yes I prefer to lead out and then face him but Iโ€™m working thru that in a trial Iโ€™ve not been successful lolโ€ฆ I have a ring rental week after next will experiment.

    yes – I find that my speed on course is much better when I don’t rotate to face the dog on th release, then have to rotate again to start moving. I just keep moving the way I want to go the whole time, including the release – that keeps my butt moving better ๐Ÿ™‚ So I make sure the dogs understand the ‘catch’ in this situation too!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Deb and Cowboy (Aussie) #28514
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning! Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving!

    These are going really well – TONS of success!
    On the teeter, I think he is asking some questions about whether it is 4on or 2o2o. I think this reinforcement procedure will help clarify his 2o2o!!! To help get it started, you can use a small target so you don’t gt the 4on thenneed to use a 2nd cue to get the 2o2o then do the catch – and then yo ucan easily fade the target. Yo ucan also toss teh catch reward so it lands just in front of where you’ll want the 2o2o to be, so he is encouraged to step all the way into position in order to efficiently get the reinforcement rather than stop short in the 4on.
    Also, you can do the catch while you stay in motion as long as you are sure he has fully stopped in his 2o2o – this will simulate what happens on course when you are running hard ๐Ÿ™‚

    You cn also work this with a ball or tug toy… I am thinking ahead to bringing it into the ring for NFC runs in UKI where you can throw things (in UKI, you can also put a target on the ground in NFC!)

    The weaves looked really strong, so let’s add challenge to the 6 pooes here! You can do everything the same in terms of marker and reinforcement with get it, but you can add in varying your position to be behind him or way ahead or do a rear cross on the entry, with the get it still coming at the same time and place – that can help set up even more independent weaves! You might need to change the line of entry so it is easier to set up your different positions relative to the weaves. And of course you can add in 12 poles too, he is looking great!

    Nice work! Let me know what you think!
    Tracy

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