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Hi! Thanks for all the videos!!
For the most part, I love love love what she was doing on course: wicked fast, good jumping, strong commitment, and resilient to fixes – she got right back on the line without any further questions. 🙂Her arousal needle has moved to the “hot” side a bit – that helps her course work but has hurt the start line a bit. Two ideas for you:
– on the first run, it looks like you tapped her to get her engagement because she was looking away. In that moment, just wait for a second or two or three longer, so she can offer engagement, and then you can reward. That can help center her.
– for working the stays: rather than reset the stay position if she breaks, you can reset the process! Bring her back leash goes back on. Take a breath, leash comes off, cue the stay again. And you can play with what works better: leash off, get engagement and then cue the stay? Or, get engagement, get the sit, leash off. She will let you know what works best 🙂 My youngsters all prefer the leash-engage-stay order of festivities. If they break in practice or at a trial, I reset the entire procedure not just the stay.
Resetting the procedure helps the dogs understand each step being linked to the other steps… and also resetting the entire process provides a pretty massive response cost to a dog that wants to go go go! Starting over, on leash, is the LAST thing they want but it is the prize they win by breaking the stay LOL!! Plus, that response cost is always available at the start line because the leash is always involved 🙂
Everything else is looking SO GOOD that we are really getting close to what you want in the ring!!!
The engagement game looked pretty fabulous too 🙂 I tried playing it at half speed to make it look more normal but that only kinda worked LOL!!!
What is coming up on Lanna’s training and trialing calendar?
TracyHowdy! This session looked really good, bummer about the session that was not on video!!!!
You can try dragging the leash/toy to get engagement when he is hot? He probably grabs it right away when he is not hot, but dragging it like lure coursing might help when he is hot 🙂The Cartoon lead out looks fun 🙂 One thing to add, to build the tension (in a good way) before the release: look at him more, a little sideways glance of “do ya wanna….?” And slow down your movement: tight muscles, tip toe walk and slow inhales like breathing in through a straw can really be enticing and get a lot of engagement 🙂
Find My Face looked much better here, even with him already being hot! You can do this near a jump (really close to it) and reward him for taking the jump – stay just connected enough to see what he is doing. I really want to get working on more front-side-of-jump commitment in training and trials, and this game will help 🙂 Just have your treats already cut up so you can be quick with the rewards (I am also guilty of just ripping pieces of cheese off and it delays the reward).
Great job!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I am glad you like the 2o2o class!!!
This session looked really good! She is GREAT at finding the backside on your left side, very smooth and confident! She is not as sure about it when she is on your right side. I don’t think it is anything you are doing, I just think she is better turning to her right than too her left (she has shown us this in other contexts too, if I am remembering correctly :)) So when she is on your left, you can a more distance on the backside but to help build up her skills on your right – don’t add any distance yet til she is as smooth on your right as she is on your left.
When working backsides without the bar, you would still reward her for coming in as if the bar was there (it is easier to get the pups to the backside without the bar because taking the front of the bar has a lot of value and can be distracting :)) You had racetracks going here with her going around the 2 wings, so you can still have her come in as if the bar is there during the backside session. And then, in a different setup, you can cue the racetracks so she still gets lots of value on the bar for the backside.Great job here! Have fun at the trial this weekend!
TracyGood morning!
This session looks lovely!>>We tried hard to be early with the directional before he enters the tunnel. Pretty hard to get it in! I>>
Yes, your tunnel verbals can be sooner and I think you are going to need more (and heavier) tunnel bags as he continues to get more powerful 🙂
You can make your life easier for earlier tunnel verbals by adding more distance between the wings and tunnel – the tunnel verbal can start as soon as he turns around the wing, and then draw a line in the sand so you can anticipate the timing and change to the exit verbal.
He read the threadle part really well, and there was a hesitation after it on the first rep. It looked like you were surprised at :10 – then scrambled to keep going LOL!! Watch his head: when you see he has turned his head to the threadle, assume that he has committed and keep moving through and start the next verbal. You were more prepared for his brilliance at :30 and that looked lovely! Remember to stay connected after the threadle, maintaining eye contact, so he can drive ahead to the next line without looking at you.
One thing that you have added which is GREAT is that little bit of deceleration going into the turn away moments for the in in: you can see it really clearly at :45: you are taking big strides, then you go to smaller steps as you start the verbal, then the turn away cue. Note how well he reads it!!!!
And you had GREAT connection there – you can really see your connection on the lines that are closer to the camera – click/treat for you because connection is so critical.
Karena – your reps were excellent too! The only thing to add is more connection to his eyes after the in in turn away cue. You were looking forward, so he looked at you for a heartbeat. If you maintain eye contact after that turn away (and start the verbal for the next line as soon as you see his head turn away for the threadle jump) you will see him read the line of your shoulders and stay out on his line.
A dog training thing you can do to help this, because he had that little question after the threadle for both of you: after the in in threadle, throw the reward straight ahead immediately (don’t worry about the next wing) so he gets into the habit of driving out of the turn aways and out of the habit of checking in :))
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, crazy windy, I hear you are having tornado warnings out there too! Eek! I turned the sound off because I could only hear the wind, so we will assume all of your verbals were perfection 🙂>>I found myself without one of the wings needed for the Starfish and so since I was losing light fast I just threw in a jump instead.>>
Putting the jump in is fine, this one needs a lot of wings 🙂 Put the jump in a spot where he doesn’t have to rear cross or turn away, because that is much easier on just a wing than with the bar (there are so many options for turns on a bar, and with the wing, there are fewer options so he is likely to be more successful reading the turn away cues).
I thought he did well here in terms of speed and focus! We can use some placement of reinforcement stuff to help get even more:
The starfish has a lot of those rear crossy/turn away things, so for the smaller dogs I highly recommend a lot of thrown reinforcement for driving straight mixed in with all the rear crosses. The throws should be as long and far as possible, so he accelerates to the lotus ball (like you did at 1:30 :)) That will help to build more speed and confidence running past you! And for the rear crosses, try not to stop him for the reward – drag the reward on the ground and keep moving til he catches up – yes, some extra running for you (sorry!) but that will both build even more speed AND help eliminate the tasty grass distractions 🙂
He did really well on the sequences here – his commitment is looking really good and he was turning really well too! Yay! Looking at some of his questions:
>>The rep where he skipped the tunnel…it looked like he missed it because I may have been really crowding the entrance too much but not sure.>>
A little bit of crowding, a little bit of baby dog stuff where he was not quite fully focused 🙂 He did great on all of the other reps! So no worries about the miss on this one at the beginning of the session.
On the rear cross handling: Your rear crosses do NOT suck!!! He is reading them and we can move your line over a little bit: try to run more directly to the center of the bar, rather than pull to the other side of the jump and then push in later like at 1:18 and 1:37. He is reading it well, and he did well on the rear cross on the blue wing too! And balance those with multiple go go go reps because the go is more important than the rear crosses for the small dogs 🙂
He missed the white wing before the tunnel because of a little connection break/shoulder turn too early at 1:01. You were more patient and connection was much clearer at 1:15 and 1:34 – very nice!
You were a step too early with your FC at 2:03 – rMainly because the transition was missing the decel to commit him (the decel is the commitment cue). Remember to decelerate until he is pretty close to the jump, then you can turn and run the other way You accelerated then turned so he didn’t commit fully and went with you when you turned.
The only other question he had was at 2:12 when he ended up in the wrong side of the tunnel from what you wanted – your line of motion presented it. As he exited the wing, he saw both a bit of motion towards it as you stepped back, and a bit of connection to get him to your right side. He looked at you to confirm – then you closed your shoulder forward, which told him to NOT come to the right side, so he went with the motion and took the tunnel, good boy. He read it correctly as a threadle on the last rep. For the FC, you can run a similar line you did on the threadle, keeping your dog-side shoulder open so motion and connection both support going to the other side of the tunnel.
Great job here! Fingers crossed for more good weather and no tornados!!!!
TracyIt sounds like MN is having a CRAZY spring! It needs to calm down before June LOL!!!
>>Question on Max Pup 3 – I saw you posted that it was full. I have not signed up yet – I wanted to do basically what I’m doing now as the live dates mostly don’t work for me- so I’d watch those on video and then post my video for you. Is that still available?>>
The LIVE classes are full, but the regular online working option (like this :)) has room for everyone from this MaxPup who also wants to do the next one 🙂
On the single lap turns, it is a good warm up – and it will be easier if you start her in a sit so she can see the cue before she is moving, otherwise she will guess (and you will have to move backwards to get her unto the lap turn).
>>She has some serious wide outruns around those wings which is unusual for her – was my arm flinging all over??
I see what you mean! I think part of it was that you were pushing into the line, so she was pushing away from you (like at :37-:41)
You were also doing these as race tracks (post turns) so you can add in a ton of FCs/rocking horses to keep her tighter and I think that is also easier to send her away to the far wing to set up the lap turns. In fact, the more I watch – the more I like the FC option better for her because with the race tracks, I think she was just border-collie-ing and doing wider and wider loops, anticipating the lap turn and toy throw. So the FCs will keep hr nice and tight to you 🙂She is responding beautifully to the lap turns, so you can also try these with the tandem turns! I think she will do well with those too : )
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
She is going to need to buy you a few more udder tugs!!
The tunnel game looks great! Easy peasy. You can add in connecting with her closer to the exit of the first tunnel and then doing the tunnel threadle (so you can be in motion the whole time) and you can also call her out of the first tunnel and run – NO bypass cue, can she resist going back into the tunnel as you run past it? Start as far as needed to get success, of course 🙂Here are some core strengthening ideas – these are not the greatest examples of form because they were done as part of pre-hab/rehab but you can see the general idea. Posture of just standing in stack is really useful! And the positions changes are good too (2 different types of sits)
Single legs lifts are great and very hard.
Somewhere I have a video of my Export doing the down-to-stand-to-down behavior while I help up one of his front legs – incredible core strength! I can’t find the video but I will keep looking.
Note how these are all on stable surfaces, no need to do them on unstable surfaces yet.
Posture
Posture and leg lifts
Posture
Down to stand to down
Kick back stands to sit to stand
Roll back sit to stand to sit
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I think she did really well with the 5 foot distance and 12″ bar! Were both jumps at 12″? I think the first one was still lower which is good, but it was hard to tell.
For the 2nd jump: No, don’t lower it again. There are 2 things you can do with this set up now:
– keeping the 5 foot distance, make the 2nd jump into an oxer (double) – of the 2 jumps in the oxer, the first should be 8 inches and 5 feet from the real first jump. And the 2nd oxer jump can be 12 inches, and 6 inches behind the 8 inch jump. Let me know if that makes sense
🙂– in a separate session, keeping the 12″ jump as a single, do a warm up rep at 12 then show her a couple of reps at 14.
Let me know how it goes! It is fun to add more challenge for her!
TracyHi! Both of these videos look great – she is really quite brilliant! And fun!
She dd really well with the lateral lead out! The stays look lovely and that really helps. She was nice and close to the jump, to start, which also helps! Remember to use your dog-side leg to step to the jump – you were using it on the first couple of reps at the beginning but when you got to the landing side of jump 1, you were using your arm only. When she was on your left, you kept your feet together. The movement of the step will help her commitment when she gets further away, and helps you push off better to do the Front cross, for example, after it. When you revisited the dog-on-left at the end, you did use the step to the jump and I looked great.
When she was on your right in the 2nd part, you did use your leg on the takeoff side and landing, and it worked really well! She committed beautifully, you were able to add more distance and also push off really well too (the throwbacks looked good here and when you revisited the dog-on-left at the end!).
On the accordion grid:
The first interval between jumps 1 and 2 looks consistently lovely.
She gets hoppy going to the food target especially on the shorter distances (rep 3 looked the best because she had to extend on the longer distance and couldn’t really hop to the cookies 🙂
The ‘hoppy’ striding is NOT a jumping issue, it is a ‘yummy, cookies!’ response so there is nothing to be worried about – but we can change the reward to de-hop her striding 🙂 Two options are: put the reward plate with the cookies waaaaay far away, 15 feet from the last jump, so if she feels the need to do the joyous cookie hop, then she will do it well after jump 3 🙂 Or, you can use the dragging toy – she is looking great here so the dragging toy reward might be both a great option to get her to hop less, and a great challenge to se if she can remain balanced and organized even when she is more excited 🙂Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyThank you for the info! It is something about how Apple communicates with Google-owned YouTube, with WordPress in between in this case. Generally, it happens, then goes away (someone fixes something in the software, somewhere) and pops up again in a few months. It has never happened on a PC.
I also prefer Apple devices for all the heavy duty stuff, and the Android and PC are used to make sure everything works on all platforms 🙂 thanks for letting me know how susceptible Android is to hacking!!>>How awesome they can be used in both roles! Reassuring and a distraction😊.
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Thankfully she’s not rich strike 😳🤣!>Ha! She is TOTALLY not Rich Strike in terms of chomping her friends LOL! She is fast like Rich Strike, though 🙂
I have used the stable pony concept a lot, most recently with Voodoo (adult, replaced confident male) being stable pony for Hot Sauce who was nervous as a puppy. And Contraband had always been a relaxed happy dude, so he was stable pony for Covid puppy Elektra who was shy. This included walking together in new places so the happy dog could model behavior, and crating next to each other!
T
Hi!
>> I think part of the problem was me taking find my face SUPER LITERAL and waiting for EYEBALLS ON MY EYEBALLS. I will reduce my criteria and throws.
Yes, the full name of the game is “Find My Face-ish And Thanks For Not Sniffing, Biting, Barking, or Running Off.” 😀😃
Wow, this is a great update!!! You have a built-in Team Kryptonite (Potter and Annalise :)) to help train Promise to relax and engage with you. That is freakin’ awesome!!!!! And click/treat to you for NOT going too long or letting her get overcooked LOL!!! The weave pole game is impressive!!!
Does Promise really love Potter? Does being near him help her relax, kind of like a stable pony? If so, he can be her helper in arousing situations!
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
A couple of ideas for you on this one, because the FMF game is really helpful for young dogs in the ring!The main thing I see is that you can build up the pattern game more, tossing the treats closer and without find my face yet. I suggest that because of the the high latency (delayed response) here in the home environment, particularly at the beginning. We want the pattern game to be both immediately recognizable for the dog and also very stimulating in a good way, having the lowest latency possible with the immediate response of eating the cookie and then getting excited about re-engaging with you. This can be done at home to the point where it is really easy and fun – cookie toss with the search and then re-engagement within a heartbeat of getting to the cookie. You will see the speed of response, and no sniffing in between the grab of the treat and return to engagement.
Having that response in training will accomplish 3 things: it will transfer the skill very easily to much more challenging environments (trials, pools :)) and also it will bring that positive CER associated with the game to those environments too, which helps develop a positive CER for engagement in those environments too! And that all leads to the low latency instant engagement response we want when you take the leash off – it basically becomes a reflex for the dog.
When you are getting that low latency, instant response, you can add in more of the FMF game. You can keep a little more of an eyeball on him when playing it, because he doesn’t need to makefull eye contact to get rewarded – standing behind you and waiting patiently is rewardable too as an approximation of the behavior, because it is engagement without sniffing, leaving, barking or biting. So keep a tiny bit more connection so you can see what he is doing, and reward approximations.
You can also have several treats in your hands – by going to your pocket for the next treat, or leaving your hand in your pocket, he was focusing on your pocket 🙂 Now, that is still rewardable (looking at your pocket or at your hands) because it is still a good approximation and not sniffing, leaving, barking, biting. But that is also where a really strong pattern game comes in, because the look at my face element is in place from that when there is a super quick response.
>>Is there anything here you’d like to see more of from us or for us to revisit?
When the pattern games and FMF on the flat here are super strong, you can definitely take it to the jumps so you can reward a LOT for him finding jumps that you are near.
And then, it is mainly about bringing the games to new places, developing the toolbox so you see what helps the most, especially in the last moments outside the ring, to the line, and through the release. Planning those and planning lots of NFC runs where he gets rewarded for taking the things in front of him will really help!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
