[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>It is still amazing to me, given that I am a last minute Lucy to the line, how many times Tango and I get stuck waiting. Its is not a ton of times, but at least 3-6 times per agility season.

Yep – the agility gods have an evil sense of humor. And the dogs that need more time? They always get rushed to the line. And the dogs that are perfectly fine with added waits? They never have to wait. Sigh.

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>She actually prefers food to toys. But, I can try food.

I think food will be more ‘boring’ (and therefore efficient and helpful :)) because it predicts stopping and coming to you more, and toys predict running and chasing. Since we want collection, food might be the winner here even though she likes it more than toys because she is less likely to jump long away from the food 🙂

>> I’m not sure adding more distance will help. In a grid, she jus5 takes off earlier if she has a ton of room. But, I can try. Soft turns are hard!

Totally agree, soft turns are the hardest! This should be different than a grid, because of your position and because you are stationary. And if she still wants to take off early, then this is a great set up to help her NOT do that. I think she will be fine with adding collection strides, though, because in the last session she was already on her way to sorting it out.

On the video – She is totally getting the idea!!! Good timing on the toy drops! For now, lower the bar to 4 or 8, since the toy drops are so close. Even with the bar at this height (12″ ?) she had to think too hard about getting over it with the toy drop being very close to it.

Your line of handling was really good, only one rep where you turned your shoulders away too soon (:20) – otherwise you maintained the connection til she was committed. NICE! And the front side balance was easy and she went right back to the backside on the next rep at the end. Perfect!

So for the next session, you can add more motion! Move the start wing further away so you can now move more up the line, at a jog building to a run.

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Lordy, I forgot to put in my notes about the countermotion, pass the coffee!! She definitely wanted you to stay on the landing side and I think that can be fixed with a connection shift. When releasing, you are looking at her a bit too directly and need to shift your connection from her eyes on the release, to the landing spot. That is why at 1:01 and 1:09 she didn’t take the jump and on the other side, you had to stop motion to help her. So, as you release her, make a big dramatic connection shift away from her eyes and to the landing spot, pointing to the landing spot too (all while you keep walking forward and drop the toy in on the landing spot too) I think it will be easier if you put the toy in your opposite hand for this, so you can dump it in behind you while you make the big connection shift and so she doesn’t look at it.

This can totally be done indoors if you get more rain coming 🙂

Let me know how it goes!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Bummer about the rain, hopefully you get clear weather soon!

>>Also wondering if there was any luck finding my “old” classes – was hoping to get access to the running dogwalk class that Didi took.

Check your email – I just resent them to your comcast email. There are 2 emails with attachments. Check your spam if they don’t show up, they might have ended up in spam when I sent them previously.

>>Question about Max Pup 3 – how much of the teeter process does it cover? Just the beginning steps? I was thinking about doing the independent study teeter class during the downtime (like there’s downtime with a puppy – haha). She’s going to be 18 months old has been exposed to the teeter when younger, had no problems, but it’s time to start doing some actual stuff and my window is small to try to get things done (if the weather ever improves). Can any of the beginning teeter games can be done inside?>>

MaxPup 3 just covers some basic baby level teeter games. The independent study teeter class covers every detail of teeter training so you will have a ‘finished’ teeter by the end 🙂 You can do some of the beginning level games indoors for sure!

On the backside video – thank you for the bloopers! A couple of tweaks to make to the session and then I think she will get it.

For the next session, angle the jump a little so as she approaches the backside wing, the bar is right there. The jump will be on a 45 degree angle from the wing- move the entry to the backside towards the start wing, and the exit wing away from it to set that up.

Also, lower the bar. I know it is only about 12 inches here, but that was still a lot to process with the new skill so it was easier for her to run past it 🙂 I would lock it in at 4 inches for now, it will be easy to raise it when she knows to look for it.

And, drop the reward in a lot sooner. The timing of the reward being dropped is as soon as you think she is arriving at the outer edge of the backside wing, rather than waiting for hre to take the jump or get past the entry wing. That way she sees the reward as she rounds the entry wing and will look for the bar more. It will be easier to drop it in early if you keep it in the non-dog-side hand, so you don’t have to rotate to throw it – you can just plop it in 🙂

To help her get to the backside, 2 ideas so you don’t have to push your running line into hers as much (you were moving yourself to the line she needed to be on):
– put a line on the ground to where the wing and the bar meet, and don’t let yourself go past it 🙂 And… move more. I think your motion will set the line more than the connection at a walk will. Moving more will keep you further ahead to set the line, so she can’t squeeze past you.

And, when using a lot of connection, be sure you are not rotating at all – feet still go forward and your outer/opposite shoulder should be a bit forward of your body (like a get out cue) and not pulled back or leaning over. I think with the walking and extreme connection, there was some rotation and shoulders pulling back which was pulling her in to the front side of the jump. So more motion will reduce the next for that much connection and help her stay on the line to the backside.

– also, start this without the bar and the 2nd wing – just use the start wing and the entry wing, and still drop the reward in as if the bar was there. Do this on the angle I described above – it won’t make a huge difference with the single wing but it will make a big difference with the bar. This will help her understand to stay on her line to the outer edge of the wing. After a couple of successful reps, you can add a bar (but not the 2nd wing). One end of the bar can be in the jump cups, and the other end can be on the ground – and see if she can still find the backside. When that it all good? You can add the 2nd wing, maintaining your line and motion and placement/timing of reinforcement.

Building things up like this usually takes on session, maybe 2 sessions – she will have a big “A-HA!” moment 🙂

Nice work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

OK, will try it out for the straight exits, not fully convinced though 🙂>>

I wasn’t convinced on a lot of these types of things either until the evolution of course design kicked my butt too often LOL!! That is why I added a ‘get out’ verbal, and all sorts of different threadle verbals and backside verbals LOL!

>>I actually tested her retrieve outdoors today (she was very happy!). It is good, up to the 5 or 6 feet before she gets to me. She likes to play with the toys at that point, shaking them and bounding around with them, especially the milker, which I want as my goto reward eventually. Haven’t got the “put it in my hand” part installed yet (SIGH). It’s shaping and, while she is better at that, it’s still difficult so I admit to not having done a lot of work on that part with her. Need to commit to doing a little bit every day on it.>>

This is great! You can ask for the ‘out’ on the retrieve toy while she is still on the way back to you and then reward by throwing the next toy the other direction, past you: the early ‘out’ helps eliminate the shaking/bounding play, and throwing the reward past you helps her keep driving towards you and not stopping to anticipate the out. Eventually the reinforcement for the out will be tugging on the toy in your hand.

>>– OK to drop as soon as it looks like she is committed to the backside?

More than OK – this timing is preferred. The toy should be dropped no later than her nose arriving at the entry wing and even earlier if possible. The timing of the reinforcement is as a big thank you to her for choosing to go to the correct side of the wing, and placed to encourage looking for the bar.

>>– Best hand to have the toy in, dog side or other? Dog side feels right given the exit line after the wrap but wanted to check. And maybe it depends on what stage we are at regarding getting around the exit wing?>>

For dropping it on landing side – use the non-dog-side hand, so it can be a quick stealthy drop and she does not look at you while you do it (or at the toy on the way to the jump).

The reinforcement placement when this going into sequences will depend on what handling move is used, but that also relies on complete understanding to take the jump, so it is not on the radar yet.

>>Supposed to get a bunch of rain this weekend but by end of next week temps will (hopefully) being shooting up to around 70F>>

So winter will go right into summer. Fingers crossed for a long, lovely spring!

>>Max pup 3 question – Since that will be getting into sequencing and we are only using jump bumps so far do you expect by then we can start using low bars or still likely bumps? I only have 4 jump bumps and it might be hard to get the 8″ pvc so if we might need a couple more probably need to start looking now.>>

Yes to being able to use low bars on some of the things – for new concepts, I start the dogs on bumps and/or low, locked in bars so they can learn the concept without also having to think about jumping mechanics. Then we can go to jumps, which will be introduced in grids first. She will be about 10 months old when we start MP3? I think she is perfectly on target for what we want 🙂 So no need to go find more PVC bumps, 4 is plenty 🙂

Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! All sorts of good stuff here!

Instant focus: It was a challenge for her at the beginning, partially because she wanted to look around but I think it was more about the head halter. Maybe head halter plus new environment equals “take this thing off!” Ha! I don’t know how much experience she has with wearing it while training and also how well she can take it off by herself (mine were amazing at getting those off LOL).

Resetting and trying again in the new spot helped – and so did taking the head halter off. So, that is good to know – it would be interesting to she what she would do when entering the environment without the head halter. And, if head halters are allowed in AKC (I think there was a rule change and they are allowed now?), you can get her playing these games more while wearing the HH. And her engagement with the prop was better in the next part of the video, and she did really well with it in the remote reinforcement scenario too! This is so good!

It is definitely something to keep working on because it helps her isolate a trained behavior in the midst of all sorts of distractions. My only suggestion other than keep playing with it is to remove the prop when doing other things so that it retains value and she doesn’t ignore it – that might be confusing because then she won’t know when to offer behavior on it versus ignore it.

The line ups look good – the next steps are to put this into a remote reinforcement context, in front of a jump 🙂

Off leash engagement looks good too, she is happy to get the head halter off LOL!

Thinking about putting all the pieces together:
With the new start line games posted last Monday – I cannot imagine a situation in a trial where we would want to pump her up more on the start line LOL! So no need for the cartoon games in a trial, she is going to be ALL BUSINESS 🙂 But you can use the cartoon crazy games in training to put her into a trial-like state of arousal, and work on the start lines, the focus, etc. So definitely play them for training purposes (and for some laughs :)) but I doubt we will use them in a trial.

Pattern games – nice sirens as distractions in the beginning LOL! These are going well with food only. And the toy definitely pumps her up – you can use a treat after the toy to help balance the arousal and so she gives the toy back quickly. The process can be a cue to get the toy (strike!) and then a cookie for the release all as part of the reinforcement process. Bear in mond, though, that we don’t need to get her jazzed up in pattern games, just engaged and ignoring the distractions. So in quieter environments, food will be perfect. In more challenging environments, you can see if the toy is a better choice.
In environments without much distraction like on this video, you can start to move, walk around, etc. And definitely play this when there are more challenging distractions (like Fever running a sequence) to see if she can offer engagement with you – this is great for outside the ring at a trial, using the cookie drops on your shoes 🙂

Engaged chill at the end is both hilarious and going relatively well 🙂 Both of you look NOT comfy with it LOL! but it is good to have a moment where you both breath. Have you played the take a breath game yet? That might be a better way to chill for you both: you take a long deep inhale of the cookie, and when she air scents for it, you give it to her.

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
The zig zags looked great! I think she likes the tighter spacing and quicker movements – she was QUITE zippy!! Yay! And she did well with the jumping challenge of it. If you want to play with this more, add another wing and bar to it 🙂

The lap turns are looking good! You were not flinging, your arm was fine 🙂 But what will help is if you keep your am extended towards her and your feet together til she is very close to your hand (3 inches here in the States, so about about 8cm for the rest of the world, I think!) The only errors were when you moved your arm and leg back too early, she was a meter or more away from you at :20 and :36 so she correctly thought it was a cue to go to the other side of the jump.
On the other reps, I think the timing of your hand motion was really good but you were stepping your leg back too soon, which might be why it felt weird. The rep at :47 was the best rep in terms of great timing of both arm and leg movement, and the last few reps were strong too! Keeping your feet together for longer will really make it feel smoother 🙂 it will feel late and weird waiting that long, but it is correct!

>>Can I just say how satisfying it was to do a couple of tandem turns on courses on the weekend in a couple of tricky spots. They worked so well I impressed myself.

I am glad you got to use them! They are useful moves for sure!!!

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
I agree, this is looking really strong!!! I think she was 100% correct in responding to the get out versus the go straight cues.
She ended up on the other side of you at :09-:10. It looked like a blind cross starting so she was not being naughty about the toy 🙂 be sure you connect with your arm pointing back to her and leave it there so she doesn’t see your shoulders start to rotate. You probably saw her peripherally but she saw the change in connection starting, so she switched sides. Your connection and arm back to her was much clearer at :19!

>>On your demo video you were turning so fast for the blind! Can you share some tips for that ? Footwork or ?..

About those quick blinds… part of it is early timing, and part of it came from the sheer panic of running a dog that would bite me if he could catch up to me LOL!!!

Some things that will help get reallyquick on those:
– keep your arms in tight to your ribs, so that all you need to do is turn your head. The closer you keep your arms, the quicker you can turn on the blinds. If you are using your get out arm, the other arm can be nice and tight to your ribs because eve one arm being closer will help make the blind quicker.

– try to stay further from the jump on the get out cue and don’t run to the jump when adding the blinds. Being further gives you more time to finish the blind so you look quick but you don’t have to be quicker than the dog.

– and, with you further from the jump, you will have more time to start & finish the blind . Start it as soon as she looks at the jump rather than when she arrives at the jump. That takes strong commitment from her and a lot of trust from you, but I see it already happening on your FCs at the end of this vide, like at 1:15. Those were nice and early!

She also did really well with the transitions!!!

>>In watching the video I see myself stopping on the wraps. Not sure this was correct ? I was trying to avoid rotating too early and apparently can’t do two things at once. Lol…>>

Ha! Yes, there is a LOT happening when doing this with a young dog! I think you were watching commitment and *then* rotating, and ideally you would be watcing commitment *while* rotating – easier said than done.

One thing that might help is putting cone markers out – your decels were generally good, in terms of timing them and her response to them. So you can put out a cone or something off to the side about 2 feet from the jump – when she arrives at that zone, you can assume she is committed and finish the FC and run the other way. Ithink the best example of that was the rep that started at :15 –

you ran forward until she got to about halfway between the wing and the jump, passing you (:16) and you then decelerated. And then when she got to within that 2 foot zone in front of the bar (:17) you rotated away before she took off. Note her tight turn and awesome drive around the wing.

At :34, you decelerated and rotated all at the same time so she didn’t commit, and I think that oopsie was causing you to then wait for longer on the next reps. You can decelerate and face forward til she is at that 2 foot mark before takeoff, then rotate and see if she still commits (I think she will!)

>>Also, I tried to keep moving forward more on the go, go, go, and throwing toy earlier, I think more successful in last reps. I’m really excited about Fritzi’s understanding of these excercises.>>

Yes! It looked really good!! I am very happy with how well she was able to balance driving forward with wrapping on cue. Happy dance!!

>>When is the last day we can submit videos?>>

May 20th is the last day, hopefully that takes some of the time pressure off of trying to do all the things 🙂

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>Trying Releases Part 1 here. Getting into the swing, I call these ‘Funky Town’ Releases, and dressed for the part. All my dogs have a song or two and Posh’s is ‘Simple Irresistible’, Robert Palmer.>>

Perfect!! Great outfit! And great song choice!!

>>True confessions…at night I sing and dance before bed to 70s-80s music, some dance with the dogs. 🤪.

Yay! Same here, although I mix in a lot of show tunes and some 90s music too LOL!! Singing and dancing is a critical element of dog training!

>>I tried incorporating singing/dancing softly with pink panther type moves. And it drove Posh, and one of my other girls, coo coo crazy town. Posh got SO aroused she started barking at me, so this may be the way to get her barking with me as a trick. Then when released, Posh ran to me, jumped up and caught my arm, blood, bandaids…wowzers. A bit too much??>>

Yes – too much when there is bloodshed. It is like Goldilocks and the 3 bears: we are looking for the ‘just right’ level and need to see what is ‘too cold’ (all business might be too cold) and ‘too hot’ (dance party plus pink panther = bloodshed, too hot).

>>>So I evolved all that into a modified dance move, and softly singing ‘She’s So Fine..She’s All Mine…Simply Irresistible’. And this is what these videos are of. Cookies first with Goldfish, second with APDB. My new release word is HA! Or Huzzah!>>

They looked great! The first video was food had more barking, and the toy video had less barking. She is barely hangingin on to the stay in that first video, so be sure to release before she breaks. On the second video, note how she closes her mouth at 1:23 – that is a great time to release, it means she is VERY ready!

>>I haven’t tried calm yet. Funky town definitely keeps her attention with a powerful release, but I’m not sure how far I’ll be able to lead out with this. It’s been dicey getting distance on her with human kyptonite around.>>

For now, short lead outs are great if they lead to success with the kryptonite around! You can build to longer lead outs by leading out longer before starting the game.

>>With my first agility dog, I used to sing and dance waiting to enter the ring, put us both in the right frame of mind.>>

There is actually some human sports psychology that recommends this. I think it is GREAT for relaxing both human and dog, and totally recommend you keep doing it.

So for the dance party lead out… time to take it on the road. When is your next class? You can try a bit of this! She migh tbreak the stay, so if that happens, have a chuckle and reset her, and then release sooner next time (if anyone questions it, blame me and say it is mandatory homework haha)

And that will allow you to figure out what helps her! And you can add in some ring crew nearby, like she would see at a trial, and see if a dance party lead out helps.

>>On another subject, I’ve been playing fetch with 4 APDBs and then separately 4 tennis balls. I alternate 1-4 over and over. She has to get the one I throw before I’ll throw the next. With the DBs definitely has the CO that she wants. She even demand barks at me cuz I won’t give that one to her until it’s up in turn. The tennis balls seem to have more equal value.>>

Dogs are so interesting! I don’t know why she is like that but it is good to know 🙂 And I think it will be easier at trials when there is only one DB around 🙂 Keep bringing the balls and DBs to training and working on remote reinforcement with them, I think they are going to come in very handy 🙂

Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>Wow you hit me with a nice therapy session there.

Teehee dog training and agility handling requires a lot of therapy haha 🙂 For real – human therapy practices work very nicely in dog training as well.

>>🤯🤯🤯 thanks for the rational thoughts here. I know I should, but it’s been a struggle and not reinforcing for me but when you say it like that…>>

It is hard indeed – challenging in the moment for sure, but the long term benefits will be totally worth it. The key is finding reinforcement that is high value and convenient to use – BOTH of these. The pool is very high value but insanely inconvenient (it doesn’t fit in the RV that well, can’t be carried ringside, not easy to use near a practice jump, etc lol). Something that is high value but very inconvenient (or dangerous) turns into Kryptonite: a massive distraction that must be trained through.

On the videos – lots of good things here and ideas for next sessions! And what a nice new field!

Volume dial:
the volume dial started at about :47 with the heeling and tricks – he LOVES that heeling! You can be more active in the heeling and spin cues, so both of you are moving faster. That will work nicely to energize him before a run. He definitely liked it when you were able to do some of the leg-weave moments and get the frisbees involved.

You’re going to hate me a little (or a lot)… to develop the volume dial games into things that can be taken to a trial or training scenario AND be used to overcome the kryptonite, use tricks and games that can be done outside the ring… which eliminates long frisbee tosses just as it eliminates the pool/swimming. Short tosses that he can just pop up and grab in front of you? Sure! Vaults off your belly? Sure! Think about the AKC environment where you can’t take off his leash – so the toss would be 6 feet or less (which is still fun!). And he can do frisbee bites as heeling rewards. But the long throws are like the pool – incredibly reinforcing but also really inconvenient to rely on as reinforcement because we can’t use them in the situations we are building towards.

Instant focus – this was an insightful session! Yes, you can reward the approximations of the behavior (touching it a little) even if it seems incidental. This is a good session about value and saliency! The shoe was the instant focus object doesn’t have enough value yet, in terms of ‘seeing’ it in the environment – so wasn’t salient in the new environment plus I think he was looking at the cookies in your hand. This ended up being a shaping session, rewarding hits and him responding to the cue of you touching it with your foot. For shaping more value, I recommend putting the cookie right on the shoe and not delivering from your hand, as he was offering a lot of looking at you but not a lot of interaction with the shoe.

Instant focus is an important game for seeing trained things in a new environment (like weave poles in the trial ring) immediately, so before you take it on the road again: do a couple more shaping sessions at home so you don’t have to cue it by touching it, and til he is completely magnetized to it. And then, use exiting the car as the start point for the next instant focus session: have him come out of the car on leash, no cookies visible on you – the put the shoe down. You can reward him for looking at it and touching it. It is a one or two rep session, then he goes back in the car and you go someplace else 🙂

Remote reinforcement started off well, he was great on that first rep with the frisbee behind him! And I think the first rep is the most important. Yay! So now add in things like walking with you and tricks with you, rather than wing wraps – think of it as moving from the entry gate to the start line and all you have is yourself 🙂 Since that fast heeling is his favorite thing, I would make that the first thing you do as you move away from the remote reinforcement. And, in the “You’re Gonna Hate Me” department: work with reinforcement that you can conveniently use outside the agility ring, which eliminates the long frisbee throws 🙂

Pattern games – He is beginning to recognize these, which is what we want. Yay! Keep playing them in super easy environments so he recognizes them immediately as a cue to basically grab the treat off the ground and look right back at you. That will make it even easier in distracting environments! If he doesn’t want to ‘go see’, that is fine: you can add in the distraction such as walking past distracting things, or getting closer to Roulez barking. As you do that, be more consistent with the reward delivery. For now, have it always as a toss/drop on the ground and not from your hand, so he has the opportunity to rehearse looking down and assessing, then offering engagement with you. That will help make it reflexive so he can offer engagement pretty automatically.

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
NO MORE BAD WEATHER, I DEMAND GOOD WEATHER ONLY FROM NOW ON. (That probably won’t work, but it is worth a try LOL!!)

Good work on the lateral lead outs – it is a pretty hard skill in a lot of ways (the lead out, the send, the soft turn collection, etc.)

She did well on those right turns and you didn’t include any of the struggles on her left turns (on your right) – great job breaking it down to train the collection!

If I had to guess about why she struggled on that side – I think there wasn’t enough connection so she came off the jump and towards you. On the lead outs, she was looking at you. And on your right side, you were releasing pretty soon after arriving and looking ahead at the jump. That does tend to pull baby dogs off the line. So when you get to the jump, take an extra heartbeat to look at her, establish connection to her eyes, then send (while maintaining connection, yes, lots of mechanics :))

You’ll start to see her commit better and even focus forward on the jump!

Let me know what you think! You can add in the advanced games too, as you add more connection.
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>So, if I play all these games outside the ring or even on the training field at home most of the time, she is good. The question is what do I bring to the start line? >>

Normally I’d suggest experimenting to see what works best, in FEO runs with reinforcement in the ring (training in the ring steps 1 and 2).
But for her, this might be challenging because we don’t really have a guaranteed reinforcement to bring into the ring, and the history of being uncomfortable on the start line is longer than the reinforcement history of these games. So it might be best to use these to optimize arousal outside the ring, then in that moment: run in as late as possible and get her off the start line as fast as possible. Going in as late as possible adds an element of excitement as well as helping make sure there are no deflating last minute delays.

And maybe she will chase a ball in the ring, since USDAA allows thrown toys?

>We will keep building games at home during the summer break too. 🙂 So many games to learn to play that maybe I can just build a tool trunk big enough for her to be happy rotating through games>

Yes! They are all filled with reinforcement so you will be tipping the reinforcement balance in your favor. 🙂

Let me know what you think!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>> Also, Sprite hasn’t done well with backside sends. She holds the line, but doesn’t take the bar. Should I try the exercise without the tunnel first? She loves tunnels!

So she goes to the backside but then runs past it to the tunnel? Yes, definitely take the tunnel out to refresh the value of the bar. Two things will help make the bar more independent and automatic for her:
– drop the reinforcement on the landing side of the jump just before she gets to the backside wing, when you are pretty convinced she is going to go to the backside. That way the reward is visible as she arrives on the backside of the jump. The reward drop reinforces the decision to hold the line to the backside while using placement to develop the default looking for the bar.

If you are doing this already and she is still running past the bar – you can use a more interesting reward (see below) or angle the jump a little. To angle the jump, pull the entry wing towards the start wing that you are wrapp and the exit wing out away from the tunnel, so as she gets to the backside she can see the jump bar on her line more clearly.

– the other option is to use a placed reward, in the form of an empty bowl or Manners Minder (or PT) onthe landing side of the backside jump. Place it on the landing side, tucked into the wing closer to the tunnel. That way, as soon as she gets to the entry wing, you can click the PT or MM, or mark the ‘bowl’ and toss a treat into it. That can help jump start the looking for the bar.

On the video:

>>I promise I walked line you said, but it was too much time to show in each rep.

Ha! Totally understandable 🙂 Her commitment looked GREAT so we can focus on the turning.

>>She took the jump, but had no idea there was a turn with me standing there. So much for lateral position being a natural turning cue. Gemma had the same issue, so it must be something I do.>>

I don’t think it is necessarily anything we do – it might be more that she is structurally similar as a member of the same breed, so we get similar responses in terms of how they move. I see it in my dogs too – the dogs with the same breeds move the same way (the dogs with a lot of terrier move similarly to each other and a lot differently than the dogs with a lot of whippet, and they are all stuck with me as the trainer LOL!!)

But no worries, she was already making adjustments and we can help her more. She is a smart girl, she does not like splatting herself, and she has a ton of good skills so I am conident she will sort it out in the next session.

Because her commitment looks so strong, we can work a bit on getting her to understand how to collect on these soft turns. There are 3 things we can do to help her:

– use food rewards for the next session. The toy was a little too stimulating, so we can go to the “boring” food for a bit to let her think about the striding.

– replace the jump with just a wing (remove the bar) so organize her stride without having to consider jumping as well. I bet she has a complete lightbulb moment on it – when you see her turning her head before arriving at the wing, then you can add the bar back. It will happen either in that same session, or the session after it.

– starting her pretty close to the jump requires her to make a decision at the release, and she happened to be choosing the wrong option 🙂 So, because you have an awesome stay and her comitment is terrific, you can start her further back so there is more room to organize the striding. I’d say 3 big strides back from the wing (at first) then the jump, so at least 15 feet – she might end up sitting at the base of your tree or up against the fenceline 🙂 But with 15 feet or more, she can release, move, make a choice then execute the choice.

Let me know what you think! She was beginning to get the adjustment at the end of the video, but we can help her more by showing it to her systematically. The soft turns are so hard because they are just less obvious to the dog, as opposed to extension or tight wraps.

Nice work! Keep me posted!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>> but for a straight exit is a ‘go’ really necessary all the time? Or jsut for certain situations. Eg, I only say something like a ‘go’ on jumps when I am trying to send Rayven a longer distance over the jump or down a line of jumps (actually that is more likely my ‘jump’ command), not if we are just running a basic line. Not sure why would a straight tunnel exit be any different?>>

Based on course evolution with all of the options we see now… I would give the dog the info before all of the entries at this point, so there are no questions.

>>Was thinking all three jumps, but ok will stick wither the jump bumps for now. When do you think we should start introducing actual bars? She turned 9 months this week but she is still figuring out her coordination when she is moving faster.>>

I would introduce a low bar in the set point when you can be outside on grass. She doesn’t have enough grip on the mats indoors so there is no rush. At 9 months old, she needs to learn that she can trust the footing and not compensate in her organization.

On the video:

HOORAY FOR OUTDOORS!!!!!

She did really well on the simple backside sends here and yes – when adding the wing before it, you need to move faster and be connected more 🙂 You can send to the start wing a little more so you can be ahead – it will be a sweet spot of a bit of a send so you can move forward with connection, and not so much send that you end up standing still at the jump.

She will need to sort out how to turn on grass, so don’t add a lot of running because she doesn’t quite have a handle on how to use her hind end outdoors yet.

Since we ideally want to drop th reward on the landing side of the jump to create maximum independence… How is her retrieve outdoors? And if that is either an unknown or a work in progress, you can drop giant cookies or put the MM on the landing side of the jump tucked in near the wing

>>. I probably should’ve picked something a bit simpler but I did want something that allowed me to hold her collar rather then the grids that have to rely on her wait in a sit.

You can do the “wind in your hair” set up where she goes from a wing to a jump and runs straight 🙂 That doesn’t require a stay but it does require a thrown (or placed) reward. A MM can work for that.

Now that you are able to do stuff outdoors, do a bit of refreshing things like the retrieve, stays, etc so it will be easier to play the games 🙂

Great job! Fingers crossed for more clear weather ahead!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>Sigh, unfortunately my circle is really small here. I just need to get comfortable with him on my own.>>

Yes, you can goout on your own (come to NC!) or it is fine to train through the summer and go back out when Carrie can also go.

>>I think this is a double edge sword because I’ve used the pool so much to help his arousal when we were really struggling and if he just gets a quick swim, he’s much better about working. How much should I fight this struggle- it’s not super motivating to me to work through>>

Agreed, it is hard to work through because there is no simple answer. And it is a double edged sword, adding in the history of having a lot of “swim first, do other stuff later”.

So whether or not to fight with it and work it through? It comes down to whether it will have an impact on his ability to work/engage in different environments, particularly ones that have big distractions that you cannot give him in advance and do not want him to leave you for (there are swimming distractions at a lot of agility places, whether it is a pond or baby pool or something. He actually had 3 kryptonite distractoins in this video: the barking dog, the jolly ball and the pool.

So going back to my original question about whether it is important to work through it or not… a question to answer first:
what would he do if you just walked in and took off the leash (no games, no reinforcement in your hands or pockets, just enter and take off the leash) and waited to see what he did?

The answer to this would tell me what my next steps are:

Would he stick around and engage with you? OIf so, then no worries about the pool.

Would he take off and leave you for one of the distractions?
If yes… then you have to work through it. If he will leave “work” at the home base practice area, then you are guaranteed struggles in the ring and life skills.

The leash and the tricks/toys are management – and the first thing I learned in dog trainer school is that management always fails. If we have not worked on the underlying skills, then we will get undesired behavior when management fails or we take the dog off leash and don’t have reinforcement that is more stimulating than the distraction.

My Dalmatians proved this point to me, regularly haha! Lots of running off, not engaging, lessons learned.

And I think my greatest dog training achievement was recently when my Contraband (2 year old BorderWhippet mix) was off leash in the agility ring with me, his breeder, his mom and his half-brother. We were all standing there chatting, dogs off leash. The breeder suddenly tossed a tennis ball across the ring (what the? LOL!) and her two dogs (CB’s mom and bro!) took off after the ball… CB just looked at me and did not chase or run for the ball. I didn’t have any treats or toys on me, but he made an excellent choice. Huzzah!! It is because I had recognized his whippetty chase urges earlier on and worked through them, because leaving me and chasing other dogs and critters is a terrible thing for sports and life skills.

(Disclaimer – there are plenty of other things my dogs do that are nauighty and aren’t exactly crowning achievements LOL but I try to address the important stuff!)

So do I think it is worth working through? Yes indeed! I have seen the struggles with him not understanding how to ignore the pool in other situations! And I think you can make it easier on yourself and him by slicing the behaviors thinner – higher value reinforcement (he was jazzed for the jolly ball, and you can do the pattern game with 2 frisbees!) And start as far from the pool as possible. He was able to offer engagement and do the pattern games and do the heeling tricks he loves so much. I think more distance from the pool and higher value reinforcement will help! And controlling the environment in other ways – clear the field of rando jolly balls 🙂 and see if maybe Roulez can chew a bone or something so she disn’t barking? The pool is kryptonite enough, we don’t want to have 2 more for hi to learn to handle at the same time 🙂

It will be a bit uphill because of the previous reinforcement history, but it will be totally worth it! It will have a positive spillover (pun intended haha) in other environments too, and you won’t ever have to worry if he will leave you for a body of water 🙂

Let me know what you think!
Tracy

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