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Hi! I am excited about Zanee Camp!!!!!! That will be so fun!
You can take the game away from the running contact mat for now and train the toy-grab cue more. You can put it on the ground, ask her to do a behavior she already has a good history with (like hitting that prop with her feet, from the very first MaxPup class :)) with the toy on the ground, and then using your get it cue to tell her she can have the toy. That might clarify things very quickly for her, and then you can bring it back to the running dog walk mat 🙂 Let me know how it goes!
TracyOh wow, the race tracks look great! She seemed pretty balance in both directions now and really speedy. The commitment looks much stronger – and great job to you for rewarding after the wings and not after the tunnel 🙂 I think she is ready for the Diamond game!!! Great job!
TracyHi!
The serps and front crosses went really well!! Yay!
All of the FCs looked great. She had only one question on those, at :48 – on that rep, you were running sideways towards the jump, so she didn’t see the connection as well and was reading the line of motion. O the others, yo were running forward out of the wrap FC more so she saw the line and connection better 🙂
Serps are looking really strong in terms of commitment and also taking the jump. She was finding the backsides REALLY well!! You helped a little more than she needed on the first backside rep by holding position – you can keep moving on those like you did on the other reps.
Since the backsides are going so well, we can add one more detail: On the push cue, you can have your shoulder back like a serp because it is a serp when she gets to the backside, and have the MM out on the serpentine line to help support that 🙂You can replace the bump with a bar, too! That will give her more room between the uprights and a different visual on the jump.
Good morning! Bummer about the bad weather coming 🙁
Finding the jump after the tunnel looked great! Lovely connection no matter what your position was relative to the line and Tali was FLYING. YAY! Great job with the reward throws! When the tunnel can come back out, you can run even closer to it so when she exits you are either parallel to her or behind her, so she drives forward. And, you can add in your Go verbal too.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
About the classes – In 2019, we changed to different software here – all of the active classes at the time were downloaded, so I can see what you had active and email it to you.
On the video:
The rear crosses are going well! At the beginning you were getting closer and closer to the line and she did really well reading it! Same with the other side – high success rate with reading the rear crosses. Yay!!
Two details to be careful of:Don’t get on the line too early in terms of trying to cut your feet across behind her, as that might look like the backside cue. You don’t pattern the Rear cross line then pressure on it too early (like at :17) as that will cause her to not read the backside skill
And I will keep bugging you to be further from the bar on the Go lines 🙂 Plan your go line to be a lot more lateral, so you don’t end up with pressure on the line similar to the backside pressure. You can see it more heading towards the camera like at :51. Your path there at :56 was further away which is good 🙂
She was looking at you a little on the tunnel exit on the reps coming towards the camera, but I think it is because the tunnel was turning her to the right, so the GO was not a straight line necessarily and Dellin was checking to be sure. That will go away when she is more experienced.
Great job here! Those rear crosses will be a strong tool in your handling toolbox!!!
TracyHi!
It is possible that if she went around it, she was reading the backside cue and your line was pushing her to the backside. This is a tricky exercise 🙂 You can warm up her up with multiple Go Go Go lines in a row, then get on the rear cross diagonal and change the placement of the toy. When you do this, don’t worry as much if she nails the rear cross, it is more so you can get more comfortable with the RC diagonal 🙂
TracyHi! This is a GREAT update! It is pretty awesome that you are seeing changes in behavior, even though she is a little older than a puppy LOL and she has a longer history 🙂 I think it is really cool!!!!!
>>Second run on Saturday, she entered the ring happy and we were standing waiting to go when something caught her attention behind her, she looked over her shoulder and her ears went down, head went down and she had a hard time starting.
Yep, probably some noise or something. Do you think she would be able to respond to a cue for a goofy tick in that moment? I have a new game coming tonight that might help too, the cookie-free pattern game. Let me know what you think after you see it!
Tracy
Hi!
>>Yes, I just tossed one cookie and it got him more focused. The distractions of music and people were behind us but he was looking off into the woods and trails.
This is GREAT because it means the pattern games are kicking in!!!
>> Do you have class tonight?
Yes, he has class tonight and next Monday. I did register for UKI trial on 4/24 so that will be the next chance outside of class. I will practice running a small dog tonight, reward jumps and work in all his games. Hopefully more people attend this time.>>Have fun tonight 🙂 And after you see the new games, let me know what you think and we will plan for the UKI on the 24th 🙂
Tracy
Wait, it is now a permanent rule that you can carry the leash in your pocket? What? OK then, let’s get him tugging on his leash! Time to buy a fancy new tugger leash!
>>Reeled him in like a fish, spun in a circle exactly two times and shoved cheese in his face. We were in management at that time
Management shmanagement, you were counterconditioning my shoving charcuterie in his face. SCIENCE!
T
Ha! He is a big personality, laying on the prop LOL!!! Yes, laying on it is fine 🙂 Keep me posted!
TracyThis upcoming calendar sounds good – session with Judy, maybe a trial in May – gives us plenty of time to plan. And yes, you would like life in Virginia! And Annalise can run plenty of my dogs, plus she can run them in flyball too 🙂
T
Hi! Congrats on a great weekend!
>> I must say I’m exhausted because I was at a super high anxiety level all weekend worrying about my red boy.>>
That should give you insight into how the dogs feel, in terms of depletion 🙂 More on that coming tonight.
>>Also why did YT default the thumb nail to me
bending over.>>HA! The YT algo is to find the worst moment and use it. I change them all the time LOL!
>> pre run is super long.>>
As Amy said at one point ni the video: Novice is super slow. And yes – work mor eengaged chill so that you don’t need to be as active and also, so you can watch the ring in case you and Amy are running too close to each other to be tour guides before the run 🙂
The ring vicinity was super active and he did great!
For the run – be sure to practice putting the leash down or tossing it away for when you are no longer allowed to carry it.
he did well on the run but if it is too hard to not fix things in standard… skip running standard for a bit 🙂 I know, I know – it won’t b efor elong. but keep your eyes on the BIG PRIZE of the focus, engagement and speed in the ring. And if you do fix, then don’t just walk back to restart the obstacle – I believe AKC allows a fix-n-go thing where you can run and fling him into the tunnel or something earlier on the line to get more speed 🙂>>Jumpers – I loved his energy here. >>
Woohooo!!!! He is relaxing in the environment and that is great!
>>Weaves- I shouldn’t have called him back but I really thought he was just like wahoooo long line to a tunnel>>
Yes, or keep it in flow – send him over the jump on his line and back to the weaves. Don’t break the flow! And over-connect 🙂 the little bloopers of him not taking the jumps were mainly baby dog disconnection moments – the connection got a little soft in both of those spots, so he didn’t take the jumps. Baby dog connection is pretty intense at first, as they get used to the trial environment.
He totally wanted food post-run, and that is fine 🙂
>>A male BC slammed his ex pen at him as we walked by and he reacted. It wasn’t Fever starting it but it hurt his feelings. Then the other two intact males behind him started barking and lunging too- lots of big dick energy happening.
It took me about 10 seconds of him barking on the end of the leash to redirect him but he was fine.>>Ugh poor Fever! What did you do to redirect him? We can work on things to get him to recover faster when that happens.
>>I’m really glad my whole village pushed me on this one, otherwise I wouldn’t have entered. This was probably one of THE hardest trial environments locally because the ring is so open and has so many visuals. I’m still naturally pessimistic and nervous, but I needed this weekend. Thank you. I am trying to sort out a few more trials before class ends but it’s looking the the last weekend in April or first weekend in May.>>
I am so happy that y’all worked together on this, like a team. That is exactly how flyball works (at least in my region) and so I am trying to encourage agility to work this way more too.
>>Carrie also really injured herself this weekend and still played support for me. I need to send her a fruit basket or something. Amy was also awesome as well as Antje. Before you suggested asking for help to me, I mostly just suffered in silence at trials and it really made quite the difference to just have people in your corner.>>
Yay for Amy and Antje but poor Carrie! Hope she is OK!!!!!! I think she will be happy to accept oysters or drinks 🙂 And yes- it is good to open up an let people in to help. That was HARD for me but oh-so-worth it (and 1000% why my 3 young dogs are enjoying early success in 2 sports – the community support). Not a single one of us got into this to suffer in silence. Let your crew lift you up when things are hard!
>>Really sorry about the long pre run videos. I had the hardest time timing how soon to get him out. I think I got him out 6 dogs early for standard and 7 for jumpers and it still took forever.>>
Novice takes DAYS. And the only think missing is more engaged chill so the exact timing won’t matter. I honestly don’t know how long I need to get my dogs ready, because if I am too early, I’ve got he engaged chill. If I don’t have a lot of time, I reach into the toolbox to pull out the tools to ready them more quickly.
Great job here!! I think end of April/early May is perfect for the next trial.
Tracy
Good morning!
I totally love this game 🙂 I am a big fan of changing the line up if he one we have been using is not working all that well 🙂 And this between the feet line up is also a fun trick!
>> Also I think it will prevent him going wandering/ sniffing and make him feel more secure in a strange environment. So here is a little we did in the side lane and I think you’ll agree he looks very happy with this. i say ‘legs’ he goes to middle and then I take the leash offf.>>
Totally agree! So the next steps on this game are to add the weird thing in front of him (some random thing) and the weird thing behind him (from the Package 2 Line Up games Part 2). And to take it into all sorts of different places 🙂 We will be building on the line up tonight!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Congrats on a great weekend!!!!!!
>>. In this video, when I was asking for the bark, my posture looked a little like personal play and he looked like he was about to spin, so I Immediately went over to the remote reinforcement station. There was no grass eating!>>
Hooray for no grass eating!!! Good for you for making a very smart training decision in-the-moment. You can get yourself to back up as part of the cues, stepping back or leaning back to help draw him to you and to also convince him that it is not personal play, especially as part of the barking on cue.
>>I used the bark on cue during rally league last week before our run. He looked like he was going to bark at the judge, so I cued him to bark. He did and then got right to work. He was not worried at all and got a perfect score!>>
Brilliant! That is an awesome redirection that seemed to accomplish two things: redirects his focus away from the judge and onto you, and changes his arousal state (higher!) so that he could get that perfect score. Congrats!!! Barking at the judge is an anxiety behavior. Barking at you on cue is a trick based in positive reinforcement – two entirely different behaviors 🙂
And I see you used a bit of a “go for a run!” moment in the video – that is GREAT!! I release my dogs into the wild all the time LOL!!! I am not sure if you ever got to meet Export, but he got released to go for a run all the time in his early training, and that created more “want to engage” and less running off. The joy of the running gets transferred quite nicely to the joy of playing with us 🙂
>>Here is our RR+ tricks and our leash off games.
These look good! You can add in more distance from the reward station now. We will be adding more to this in the games coming tonight! He looks ready 🙂 One detail: For the remote reinforcement – make the reward marker very salient by saying it, giving the cookie… then praising like you did at :30. When you are putting the marker in the midst of all of the praise like at :47, it gets lost and also he didn’t seem to love the bending towards or touching when you were praising.
Keep working in the stepping back from him and leaning back during the reward and praise moment, he is not a fan of you leaning in or touching him. Some dogs (most dogs :)) just don’t love to be touched while working and that is perfectly fine. I don’t love to be hugged while working either LOL!! I was teaching a seminar last week and someone stopped in during the middle of it and wanted to give me a hug… I was all like ‘ewwwww not now’. It made me think of Riot and all of the dogs who don’t appreciate the physicality of that type of play when they are in work mode.
>> Can I use the target stick for instant focus? I can put it on a stand so that I am not holding it.
Possibly, but definitely not from your hand. We want you to not have to hold it at all – so if the stand is something that you can put into the environment that is separate from you – then yes, you can totally use it 🙂
>>Where are we going with the IF behavior ultimately? Is it something we will use before running?
it is a concept game – teaching the concept of finding ‘work’ without needing to first assess the environment or first see cookies present. It is a brutally challenging concept! But a critical one: when the dogs enter the trial ring, they have to find ‘work’ and they cannot assess the environment or see cookies. So the prop needs to be something that can be used in different places but it is not something we would need to put into your toolbox before a run.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
