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Hi!
At only 11 months, he doesn’t need to see this every day – every 3 or 4 days is perfectly fine 🙂 And I think you can also add 4″ bars and see how he does!Tracy
Hello! My terrible country internet has messed up the sound on all of your videos, so I am going to assume that all words were perfect LOL!!
Really nice work on all the games here!!!
Wing proofing – I really love her tug drive!!! And I am glad you were tugging for the wraps too, we want the wraps to be just as exciting as the tunnels. She was strong on these – she needs a little bit more help with the wing wraps, in terms of adding more of a physical cue: ignoring the toy in your other hand is hard so you can totally step to the wing with the dog-side arm and leg to get a smoother approach without any toy feelings involved 🙂 Her other question was at 1:49 – she skipped the wing there. I think it was partially your position, you were a bit sideways with your dog side leg back – having your leg more forward will totally help that. And in the interest of not getting frustration barking, if something goes wrong: use an instant reset cookie rather than a collar grab to line her up.
Next session: move the wing closer to the tunnel, and if that goes well, you can add more motion and the advanced game 🙂
Tunnel turns – these were great!
For the GO lines, you are going to need to cheat to get further ahead to show them to her – for now, send her from as far up the tunnel as you need to be to be ahead and connected when she exits, if you are trying to get the wing wrap after it. She is a speedy beast! And if you just want to work on the go, you can throw the toy as soon as she enters so it lands before she exits and then you won’t have to out run her LOL!
On this game – resist the temptation to fix something if she doesn’t quite get the wing, or resend or not reward after an error. She gets frustrated. So to teach her how to work without that frustration or barking, use the instant reset cookie. She will know the difference between a reset cookie and a reward for the behavior, and will be happy to work through it without any cussing 🙂Both the right and left soft turns looked great!! I think her barking on the right turn line was “run faster, mom!” LOL!! You were being a bit too helpy and not moving very fast, so you can try pushing for more speed as long as you stay connected 🙂
Minny pinny – my sound on this one was weird too, I think my internet is being icky! She looked really good, both turning towards you and away! Yay! You can lock in the bars or use bumps so she won’t rehearse hitting a bar if your are rewarding in a less that perfect moment. For the rewards, you can be facing the the wings (belly button to the wings) to draw her across your like at :58 – when you were rotated, she pulled the bar more frequently but did not touch the bar when you were facing the wings.
On the harder angles, you can toss a reward away from you between jumps 2 and 3 (like on the right turns at 2:28 where she started but then wasn’t sure and hesitated) to help confirm that she was correct to turn away from you. But overall, this is going extremely well! You can keep working towards being in the center, facing the wing, and challenging her to find the left or right turns without handling or position help.
Great job!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Next trial is tomorrow not expecting much the environment is challenging for me on my best day because the floor is less squishy but my medical team said I could go so why not it was too late to pull. Hoping to run feo if the judge will allow.
Ewww! Be careful on the floor! But is good that you are going 🙂
>>I want to review the volume dial with Merlin because I do feel like once he’s gone sniffing or whatever especially off leash getting him back feels like a challenge that I don’t want to have.>>
the volume dial is designed to get him to not go off sniffing 🙂 It will help get him more engaged so you can trust he will stick with you better.
>>He’s definitely the super sleuth for oh her pockets are empty.
He is a smart boy LOL!
>>Really trying hard not to verbal vomit I think I may put duct tape over my mouth. Thanks for pointing out he’s always right and I’m always wrong keep it up seriously! If I use the reset cookie with that be returning or just a game of volume dial? >>
If it is a handler error like he goes past a jump – you can just give him a cookie for trying. Kind of like saying, “sorry, my bad, here’s a cookie”. With my oldest dogs, I would drop the f-bomb (in training) and then hand him his toy LOL! He thought the f-bomb was like a click 🙂
And then you can give him another one for resetting into the line up for the next rep. He won’t be sad about that 🙂
>>Side note my teacher still believes in using those markers even though I’ve tried to use them less any good articles I could sneak to her to bring her more into your realm.>>
I believe there is an article or study somewhere about what people call “no reward markers” (which are actually punisher markers :)) I will find it! I mean, you can totally tell him oops and then give him a reward and he will be fine with the oops word 🙂
>> By the way if you want to geek out Linda P case has a new book out that is a fun and interesting read especially about what science tells us for what treats dogs prefer.>>
Ohh yes! I love geeky things like that!!
>>Re-using the leash at the line with no food like it a trial he’s all business and has no interest so I’m not sure I’ll get that in ring benefit…
Do you mean bringing him to the line on leash? You can re-start it like you are outside the ring on each one, with a cookie or two, just to reset the rep so he practices the off leash engagement stuff.
T
I think he is ready! Don’t over do anything tomorrow or Friday – rest is actually a really important element of success!!!
T
Hi! These are going really well!!! She is SO FAST and also pays attention really well – and I am excited for your future adventures!
The Go reps from the tunnel to the jump all look great. Wheeeeee! I am loving her speed and form! The Go at 3:05 when she was on your left was harder because you were not ahead but she found the jump nicely. You can also say Go sooner (before she is in the tunnel) and repeat it a lot :))
On the rear cross reps – she has a BIG stride and she goes fast, which means her jumping decision is made pretty early… which also mean you can get on the rear cross line sooner. At 1:08 (to the right) and 4:30 (to the left) you were getting onto the RC pressure near her as she was lifting off, so she turned left at 1:08 and landed on the bar at 4:30.
On the rep that started at 1:41, you were right on her tail as she was exiting the tunnel and almost fully done with the RC before she took off at 1:43 – this was my favorite rep 🙂 You can totally get right on her tail, very close to her line, to show the RC pressure super early like you did here 🙂
3:51 was also good but you were still a bit far from her line for longer than you needed to be – I know the right turns are harder for her but the rep at 1:41 is my favorite 🙂
The rep at 5:23 was off camera, but it sounds like it went well LOL!
So overall, you can set get even closer to her lines on the RC and drive towards the center f that bar even sooner – if she had a longer tail, you’d feel it brush against your legs LOL!
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
Sorry to hear about the eather, sounds gross LOL!!! Fingers crossed for sunny skies ahead 🙂He did well here! It is fun to watch young dogs sort out jumping skills. Interestingly, as he got further into this session, he changed his form – he was more ‘centered’ on the bars (landing in the middle of each gap) early in the session and was ‘shorter’ (landing clsoer to the bar) later and as the jumps angled. Could have just been a bit of baby dog fatigue, or him trying to sort out his striding to the MM. I think it might be a bit of ‘hopping’ to the MM, which is something I have seen my own dogs do 🙂 He didn’t seem to mind the straight versus angled jumps, but maybe landing shorterwas him trying to read the angles. We will see how he does with more practice.
So – since he did well with the toy dragging in previous sessions, let’s do the same here and see what he does. Have the toy start where the MM was in this session, then drag it for a foot or two, then release him 🙂 And depending what he does there, we can either change the distance or leave it where it is. It takes some fine tuning to find the sweet spot with young dogs 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Don’t worry, be happy song in my brain now!
HA! I was actually going to type that but figured I had too much coffee on board LOL!
The other thing is that the picture of that centered jumping form is based on specific structure (found in one or two breeds). No ta single on of my dogs has that structure LOL! They move differently across grids – the Whippet mixes and terrier mixes will move very differently than a BC, for example. But they get the jumping done beautifully! So I don’t worry about trying to make the picture match for every breed or individual – as long as the form is strong and the dog is powering through, then we don’t need to obsess 🙂
Also bear in mind that she is young and not moving as fast as she will be moving, yet. I look back at the videos of Contraband at her age, and he is all legs going every which way LOL! Sprite already looks really organized and powerful, and she is still really young! Wow! It is going to be a fun adventure!!!
>>The toy isn’t long enough to stand straight, but I’ll see what I can do.>>
I tie several toys together to I can be relatively upright 🙂
Thank you for humoring me with the virtual runs – I have found this to make a massive difference with handling skills as well as competition – from learning how to handle our baby dogs all the up through to international level (I kind of forced this concept on a friend/student while prepping for world team tryouts, and in the training session the walk though and the run with the dog were not even close, many errors. The handler fixed the walk throughs, had great rehearsals, and boom! World team spot! I find it even more useful for those of us bringing our young dogs into course work :))
Your virtual dog runs looked great!!! When you added speed, you started out without connection and then added connection – and made sure you also did the BC and not the FC. SUPER!!! So before you run her on it – run it again with your invisible dog so you can do it faster than you think she needs to go… then run her 🙂 If you can do it faster than she needs, then it will feel (almost) easy. Have fun!
TracyGood morning! These are going really nicely!!!!
On the rear crosses – he did well in both directions, I am super happy with it!!!
>> I had the jump too close to the wing for the first session and so I wasn’t really able to drive to the middle of the bar and then cut over. >>
Part of what was happening on that first session was that you were a bit far from the start wing, and as he wrapped it, you stepped back away from it nd then you had to get on the RC line. That made the RC line a bit late, which might be why it felt like you didn’t have enough room (you can see that step away from the wing then back to the RC line at :05, :19, :33, :39)
On the second session, you were closer to the wing and didn’t step back away from it as much at 1:14 and 1:55, and he was great on those! Note the early head turn to the new direction at 1:56 – hooray!!!
1:32 was not as strong- you were further from the wing and ran forward on the go line for a couple of steps before doing the RC line, so it might not have felt as good. I think 1:14 was my favorite rep, it had the least amount of stepping back from the line.
All the Go reps looked awesome! Only one blooper at 1:38, where you were saying Go but you didn’t connect or run towards the jump, so he was confused.
The backside wraps looked GREAT, really well-handled!!! Super!!! My only suggestion is to not call his name, juts use your push verbal. He was lovely on those!
Speedways around the diamond looked great! Wheeee! You might have been were holding onto the left and right verbal a little too long as he reached the middle of the diamond – you can start a GO GO GO as soon as he is turning his head for the middle wing of the diamond. The head turn will tell you that he is turning to his left or right and so you can then ‘name’ the next line GO TUNNEL or GO GO GO to get him to propel away even faster.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! These are all going really well!
Little details on each to make them even smoother:
For the RCs, she is reading them well! You can start closer to the wrap wing so you have more room to set the line for the RC sooner. Great job with your reward throws!!!
And also with the backside wraps, start closer to the start wing and be sure to run to where the wing meets the bar. try not to be too far ahead or block the wing, that was when she was going wide (on your left) you were great at :57 and she was nice and tight to the backside! Yeah!
And as you exit the wing wrap… connect less, stand up more 🙂 Be more casual with your connection, maybe that will help keep you standing up more? It will be easier to run when you are a little more upright.
Serp versus threadle versus tunnel is looking great!!!! Very few questions from Wish. Yay!
She was great on the serps! Nice upper body position! One detail on the serp: keep moving towards the tunnel entry (or to the blue tunnel bag when you changed sides) on the serp, don’t pull away from the jump. Staying really close to the jump will help get the 2nd turn for the serp (even though the tunnel is totally in the way :))Nice tunnel cues – all the tunnel cues looked great, she only had one question later in the session where I think you were a little rotated to her when you said the tunnel cue so she thought it wasthe jump for a heartbeat then fixed it. So just remember to keep your shoulders closed for the tunnel cue as you move and before you say the verbal.
Hooray for the great Threadles!
She only had one question: does Yay mean come get my reward NOW? on that first rep LOL! That is a common question for a lot of dogs – so try not to use Yay on course at all if it also means “reward coming” in training. It can be confusing for them (I see it in my baby dogs and other peoples’ dogs too). You can keep giving directionals and obstacle names, and save the YAY for when you are actually gong to reward.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>t’s pretty similar to the arena in Kiln so at least I have one positive experience to work with. I have asked Carrie to be my ring helper. For fast, we will run FEO with a frizz
Is FAST first?
Can you bring in 2 frizzers so you can have one in hand and one down your pants (sorry but that is a good carry spot LOL!) in case he has trouble giving the first one back?>>For Jumpers and standard, Carrie will be at the exit with his toy. He seems to know his let’s go for leash and reinforcement well in practice so I plan to utilize that.
Perfect – just rehearse the leash-then-Carrie w/ friz before he sees it in the ring. And maybe Carrie can have a pocketful of cheese in case he wants food in that moment.
>>Of course, if I get him in the ring and it’s too much, I’m committed to leaving. No big plans for lead outs or stays, mostly just keep him moving and happy.>>
Perfect – short, fast, fun! And one of my mantras is: don’t be greedy LOL! We don’t want to have things going really well and then ask for one.more.thing and have it go wrong 🙂
Try to get is much as possible on video, particularly before the run!
Tracy
Hi! I actually saw him take an actual breath or two!! Yeah!
Yes, I think he was too hot here at the beginning – the deeper breathing will often also have the dog closing his mouth, but he was hot and panting so it was hard to do it. As he cooled off a bit, it was starting to happen! Like at 1:33 – you can see it there an da few times afterwards. Keep playing with it – I think it is a great grounding/mindfulness game for you both especially when you are using the mimic version!
I think the mimic might work best for him, keeping the cookie at your nose until you see him sniff for it – that can help him NOT offer other behavior or think he should do some tricks.
This is a hard one, but you are getting it and will be a GREAT engaged chill!!!!
T
Good morning!
This started with some nice barking on cue – yay! You can make the reinforcement more active because barking is pretty active – toss it or use the friz. That might be why he went to get the friz: barking on cue is really activating and cookies were not active enough for the moment 🙂 He can bark on cue to get the friz tossed or the ‘strike’ cue.Using the friz is great for the line ups! Be sure to also use it in the RR games because he needs to understand how to earn it (and that is it still a possibility) when it is NOT in your hands. I see below that Carrie will be outside the ring with it at the trial, so be sure that he has seen this before and understands this, before doing it during the trial run.
The stepladder was definitely a distraction for me – maybe not for him, but I was like “what the heck is she doing with that?” LOL!!! He seemed fine with it – the friz trumps everything here. So also try some line ups with food and distractions, to see how he does when the environment is harder and friz-less. Glad he could also do the strike on the friz happily because for AKC, you can only do the strike (that is why UKI is so nice, you can totally do big throws!)
You can also have him line up closer to the stepladder and have it behind him to simulate ring gate stuff.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>And yes, on seminars, I am not really interested in fancy handling-focused seminars which is pretty much all that’s going on around my area. All about getting commitment to sends and stuff, nothing on motivation or engagement so at most I audit. (until maybe some time in July, wink wink)>>
Yep – it is odd that so much emphasis in training is placed on skills that we just don’t need ay time soon (or ever LOL!!!)
On the video – I agree, she was really great! Super happy!!!
Carrying her in went nicely into off leash offered engagement!
Great reward at :29 for it too. The line up game went well in front of the jump – you might not need it if you carry her in, but it is certainly fun 🙂I liked how she almost broke her stay to start the agility game at 1:15 🙂 I want her to be twitchy for the game like that! At the end of that session when you wanted a sit (1:39) – it might have been too long of a session, or arousal shifted and the sit has a lower value, so she couldn’t sit – no worries, though, she can choose her position. Your ‘come to my side’ is the line up cue so you don’t need to make the sit position a part of it at all. If she is engaged and doesn’t want to stay, that’s cool, she can stand. She was working as your teammate there and we never want to argue with our teammates 🙂
2nd session – good remote reinforcement for engagement there! Her behavior looked pretty much the same as it did when the cookies were in the ring with you. You can add a little more challenge to the remote reinforcement by having her release to a jump or tunnel, then use your RR marker.
At the very end, she was really speedy off the line!!! Happy dance!
So now, for planning purposes… what is coming up in the next 10 days or so in terms of training, trials, etc? We can start moving all this to different places 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
