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Good morning! Thanks for all of the info, it is really helpful for planning purposes.
>>On course in Training, does well until we make a mistake or I ask her to repeat too many times, then she leaves me to sniff or run to bark at someone.
In training, when working on handling – work it thoroughly without the dog (run it with an invisible dog), get instructor feedback… then run it with the real dog 🙂 And if something goes wrong? Stay connected and reinforce her – even if you think it was her error (it probably was not LOL!). So you can reinforce her for taking an off course, or you can call her back and reinforce her for lining up and resetting. The sniffing and leaving to bark are behaviors that come up when the dog is stressed and the rate of reinforcement is too low. So reinforcing after handling errors and reset cookies will really help – and that changes the conditioned response to the entire environment as well!
>>On course at Trial, same, but I’ve learned to just keep going or make up my own course or circle a logical path back to where we need to be.>>
You did a brilliant job of that with your trial videos!
>>In training, toys are supreme, then treats. Her baby Tennis Ball is her absolute favorite toy.>>
This is good! It makes planning FEO easier. Will she tug on a tennis ball? Have you tried any of the Kong toys that look/feel like tennis balls but are bigger and the dog can tug on them?
>>What I’ve learned that helps: if I tug/play with Posh right next to the judge, photographer, leash runner, etc in the morning outside the ring where she can see them while she’s tugging or a judge measures Posh while I hold a pnut butter cup at her nose, she’s good with them for the rest of the day, trial, unless they change their appearance, new hat, sunglasses, jacket, etc. I may need to repeat this for someone new, change of appearance etc.>>
This indicates that assessing and a bit of counterconditioning really helps her. Yay! So you can play the pattern games near the new people and all around the ring, to generalize the behavior and help her understand how to relax herself. You can do the pattern games with food and also with 2 tug toys!
>> But it seems to me I may have chained a behavior…run to bark at someone, back to mom, get rewarded. ?? ish….
The barking is an anxiety behavior, so if we work on the root of that with the games, then we won’t have to worry about the behaviors that may or may not get chained into it 🙂 All of the games will help her learn to ignore the people and not feel the need to bark at them.
Onwards to the games! Keep me posted on how she does with them 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>>We’ve been off on border collie puppy adventures – road trip, hiking, herding instinct testing, crazy dock diving party with other crazy border collies – all the things.
He is living his best life! I love it!
Holy cow the mud is outrageous! I am glad it dried for class – he looked great!
he did a great job finding the jump after the tunnel here – such an important and underrated skill for youngsters!
The tunnel exit pointed him a little to the backside line so he was adjusting to come in for the jump which is good practice for sure! When you see the tunnel exit pointing to the backside line on a course, you can call his name before he enters the tunnel to get the adjustment before the exit (or say Go or a backside verbal to get the extended exit to the backside line). As for the various skills:
Finding it when you are running ahead looked strong!! That can be a hard one for young fast herdy dogs and he was lovely. And when you were parallel and a little decelerated, he was also finding it and preparing to turn (correctly!). The next thing to add is running all he way into the tunnel curve and then moving forward just before he exits, so he drives ahead. My guess is that the mud helped you decide to NOT do this yet LOL!!! I am sure he will find the jump easily.>>. I also apparently totally forgot my “Chase” LSM for the thrown toy. Oh well, next time we’ll get our act together.
My guess is was the distraction of staying upright in the mud LOL!!! No worries – dogs read context really well and there seemed to be zero confusion and tons of reinforcement 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! We don’t have one at this stage, but the teeter class covers a lot of the stopped contact behavior! I will be doing skills classes over the summer so can do one then!
TracyGood morning!
This video shows that the foundation is in place. HUZZAH! So we can ramp it up: the pool, and nearer to the ring at NAC.
Now before you start to sweat about it, we can do the 2 leash version so he can’t have a big error and so you can narrow the field of choices: engage or look away, as opposed to leaving or swimming being part of the list of options.
Use your trial leash as the on/off leash, and have a 2nd light leash clipped to his collar and looped over your wrist.
Working this at the pool is great for getting the behavior in a more stimulating environment with happy feelings. And near the ring will open up possibly some concerned feelings but with the opportunity to pump him full of positive reinforcement 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyThanks for the videos! She does really well everywhere except for when she has to run past people or stuff. So definitely take the pattern game on the road, going past people and stuff, that will really help her learn to ignore all of these distractions!!!
T
Hi!
She is doing well with the pattern games – now take them on the road to play around people and dogs (with her on leash). When you play the pattern games, stick to one mode of reinforcement per game – either tossing the whole time, or on your shoes the whole time, or from your hands, rather than mixing them all up – that is because we want her to know exactly how earn the reinforcement, very predictably.
That is a good instant focus prop! When you added the distractions: I think you were moving too much so she thought it was to follow you or offer on the object nearest to you. Stand still for now! To prepare for the next set of games, put more value on the instant focus prop for now and if she gets caught in a different behavior, break off and reset the session by picking up the prop and moving it to a different spot.
Remote reinforcement:
>>I slightly modified the remote reinforcement game to align a little more closely with what I have been doing in my lessons with Perry. Before I let her go get the reinforcement I asked for a hand touch so she knows that she can’t just go and get it (like she did at the trial…). It adds one more layer of connection/slash behavior.>>
My jury is still out on the added hand touch – I like lots of criteria, but it also has to be criteria that will be maintained and I am thinking the touch will not. More on that below 🙂
For this game, clarify your marker, you had a few variations of it so I am not sure what it is. Make it super specific!
The MOST important thing here is to not ask for a ton of behavior. For now, just reward walking away for a step or two. You were doing a lot of steps, and then a touch – she was fine because she was home. As we are trying to build and isolate a specific marker, keep the steps simple and very clear. If you focus on the that, she won’t leave you for the cookies and also she won’t need a hand touch.The reason my jury is out on the hand touch behavior is partially because I think it might be a bandaid for something that we can train (and have to train) and also because I think the criteria will un-maintainable which will lead to stress. For example: she does a sequence with the rewards outside the ring. She was amazing. You ask for the hand touch before running for the cookies and she gives you a weak hand touch. What will you do in that moment? Nag her for a better one, being a buzzkill for her excellent work in the ring? Or drop criteria and just run to the reward? My guess is it will depend on the situation and that is stressful: sometimes she doesn’t have to touch (like after a great run at a trial, I think it would be really hard to maintain a hand touch criteria for the reward) and sometimes she gets in trouble (told she is wrong and the reward process is stopped) if she doesn’t touch or the touch isn’t good.
So rather than set yourself and Skipper up for MORE stress, why not just do something easy and maintainable like run to your leash first, you pick it up, then you give the specific marker?
I am bugging you because the remote reinforcement game is critical for her (for all the dogs) so I don’t want it to add any stress or uncertainty 🙂 Let me know what you think! Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>patterns along the way,
When use say patterns, which do you mean? I use ‘patterns’ to mean the pattern games where the dog assess the environment, then offers engagement back to the handler.
>>> But someone said I overuse “Ready”,
Ha! I say “ready” ALL THE TIME and my dogs love it 🙂 It is a word that really jazzes them up 🙂 It is possible you are not using it too much and she likes it!
>>so now I wait for her eye contact, if I’ve lost it, and release her to go. If I wait too long to release her, or if she looks at the obstacle and I take too long to release her, we have a disconnect. >>
We may or may not want to include eye contact at the start line for her. My most accomplished dog never made eye contact – he sat and stared at the line. Eye contact was too much pressure and that is fine! She might feel the same way.
>>As you said last night, she just wants to get it done and go. It seems she doesn’t want to be fussed with.
We will know in coming weeks if she needs engagement at the line or is more of an all business type of dog. Either way is fine!
>> If she won’t sit at all or she will sit but only if she sits toward a person, or sits staring at someone, there is a chance she will leave me.
Makes sense – those behaviors are indications that the environment is worrying her, so we will be adding these environments into the training games and FEO runs.
>>Her BALL can override most anything.
With the Ball and favorite toy – you can use those instead of treats in the pattern games here! That can VERY stimulating plus you can take them into the ring for NFC!!!!
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Thanks for all the great info!
>>nterestingly she wants to go up and see, sniff, get treats form strangers, but when they lean over her or do same to pet her, she can back up and bark at them. >>
Yes, dogs that might be worried about people make decisions like this: they get close then then get even more concerned. So if she wants to get close to a stranger… don’t believe her, don’t let her put herself in that position LOL!!! And ask people to not interact with her. She is VERY cute and that is a problem, because people want to make nice with her and probably makes her more nervous.
>>Ring gate to start, Trial, lately, if she thinks I’ve got her favorite toy, she’s all in.
This is MOST EXCELLENT and we can build on this. YAY!
>>If she knows I have nothing, she’s worried, distracted, people, environment,
Probably a bunch of reasons – the toy stimulates her into higher arousal, plus with the toy present she knows exactly how to earn it and where it is. Without it? She doesn’t really know how to earn it or where it is… but we are working on all of that with the remote reinforcement games and reward stations, and gradual use of FEO runs.
Have you ever tried using 2 toys for pattern games, or 2 balls? That make help even ,ore than cookies do!
>>depending how close they are and who’s staring at her. People like to watch her run.>>
She is cute and she is fast, so she draws attention. But we will work on getting her happier to have people around!
T
Hi!
I think what you are seeing here is a positive conditioned emotional response to agility in your yard. I love it! She felt this was very easy 🙂 And because she is also good at the practice jump – two ideas for you:– at home, play this game with no reinforcement in your hands, it is too easy LOL!! You can have your breakfast bowl of yummies and walk her past it on leash, nothing in your hands and pockets… then take the leash off. That might be a little harder for her to offer engagement but when she does, you can run over to the breakfast bowl and reward her.
– take it on the road. Yes to doing it at the part, and around people/dogs, etc – but with safety in mind, I would use the 2 leash option. So the agility leash is the one that comes off, and she can still be on a light regular leash just in case, so she can’t really go anywhere. And in the distracting environments, you can have food in your hands to reward her. And if it is easy in those environments, move the rewards to your pockets 🙂
The goal is to condition the response so it is basically a reflex, so you will want to do zillions of reps for reinforcement 🙂 During the coming weeks, you can do this around people (with your rewards visible) and then we can fade the rewards too!
>>lso, how often do you reward the line-up when you are practicing at home?
Pretty often! 50% of the time, or more, at least. I might reward the line up, or the stay – I really love both of those behaviors so I give the dogs tons and tons of reinforcement so they love them too 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Fingers crossed for good weather soon! I am ready for spring!>> While we are still working on these, is it OK to use the verbal where it is appropriate when handling a sequence even if I don’t think my dog has a complete understanding of the verbal but will most likely make the appropriate movement because of the handling?
Yes, it is totally good to do this! If you think you will be roughly correct with the handling, then it is good to pair the verbal with the physical cue (and with cookies too :))
Have fun and see you in better weather!
TracyGood morning! Here is some boring feedback for ya 🙂
Her stays have been looking awesome lately! Her line ups and stays are currently in the “If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It Stage” so you can add in things like the leash coming off before you cue the line up, doing it in different place, etc.
It was brilliant of you to incorporate the toy because yes – it is what you will be needing for FEO. Preparing for FEO is an important part of preparing to trial! This session looks great, so I think for the next line up games add a leash coming off before the line up. Then you can move to the new line up games posted last night 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
The breathing protocol is basically outlined here:I was trying to find the original from Dr. Overall but can’t find it. But you can find Leslie McDevitt on YouTube to see more of her games, they are terrific! Here is an example:
Hi!
For the engaged chill, we don’t want the ball to fly and ideally there is little or no food involved too. So try the scratches and pets and see how he does!T
Thank you for the Tuesday morning update!!!!
>>For Monday night training class, I was able to go 4th and practice while 1st dog ran, let him relax on raised bed, and use pockets for remote reinforcement. By the third time of running over to his remote reward, I noticed he was happily standing and wagging his tail with anticipation. I had his reward in a cooler on a chair with the pockets.>>
Perfect! He looked like a relaxed, happy, fast agility dog!!! And it looks like you also had rewards in the ring.
>> One instructor said that could backfire but liked I was putting it near the dogs in crate.
It only backfires if we don’t train him to understand how it all works 🙂 I have seen dogs not understand how it works and leave te ring tograb their leashes or cookies… but those dogs just didn’t understand, it was not their fault. You are actively training him to understand – you are doing an awesome job, and he is brilliant so it will not backfire on you 🙂 He might have questions about when/where he can have it as we train him, but that is fine and normal 🙂
>>I decided that was not good and set up behind the camera away from dogs.
that is a good decision – we don’t want him to have to run into a crate area for his rewards, it should be not too far from the ring and not in an area where other dogs might be moving around.
>>I had a hard time without the pockets so I ended up with a few cookies in hand at the start of the actions on entrance and during the first run trying to put the clam back in my pocket Instructor commented it messed up my hands and line I took on jumps so he ended up dropping a bar which is very rare for him.>>
Yes – by running with out the training pockets, you had to sort out the mechanics of where to put the cookies and the clam. Little bobbles are tp be expected at first, then it gets smoother and more comfortable. I am not worried about the bar coming down as you were figuring out what to do with the clam LOL! He is not a bar knocker and carrying the reward will get easier and easier.
>>He did engage quickly when working him with another dog out running. We had to walk past barking dog to the area behind but he ignored it and happily hopped up on his bed. He would face me and briefly turn his head to see the dog on course and then quickly turn back. He didn’t really need many cookies for the pattern game so I just moved to action’s and then some engaged chill on the bed.>>
SUPER SUPER SUPER. Yay!!!!
>>After class, the 2nd instructor told me I was giving him too many treats and I explained it was purposeful. She was having him retry sequences and he was a bit more vocal with some frustration. She thought he should calmly sit, do the obstacles and then reward, not reward before.>>
Well it depends on what the treats were for, right? If they were for staying engaged while you got feedback from the instructors, then that is cool! If they were being delivered for lining up to re-start the sequence? Also cool 🙂 I am not sure he can calmly sit with no reinforcement while you and the instructor talk – he might get distracted or get concerned… so using reinforcement in that moment is indeed purposeful to build focus. And then, reward for the obstacles as well 🙂
About the vocal moments: in handling, the errors are almost never the dog’s fault. Either we do something like disconnect, or the dog doesn’t understand the cue, or we cue it wrong. He *definitely* does better when your arm is low and you are connected to him. When you are got higher and your turned forward, he lost connection and was not sure where to be, and that is where you got some questions from him. So continuing the run, then doing cookies for resetting as you work the handling is perfectly fine, so he doesn’t get frustrated.
Looking at the videos:
First video – he looked super engaged wih you despite the people walking past!
2nd video – Look at him doing his tricks like a rockstar on the line up! And look at hime moving to the line with focus and lining up between your feet. LOVE it! Nice release! Looks like he missed the 2nd jump, but that was a connection oopsie (handling with your arm too high so he couldn’t see the connection) but he was engaged nicely!
No worries abotu the tire – is that something he struggles with (finding the tire during a run)?
It was hard to see what was happening inthe back of the ring, but I did see him barking. If that was a re-start after getting feedback from the instructor, you can take a moment to line him up again so he is ready to roll with focus.
3rd video – love how he offered engagement immediately when you took the leash off, then moved with you to the start jump and lined up. SUPER. Yes that was a weird freeway noise 🙂 He only looked for a heartbeat then looked at you again.
He did well with the person picking up the numbers as he was running! I was distracted by her but he was not LOL! Nic ework on the course here too. He does better when your arm is low and he can see your face. When you have a high arm and turn your soulders away, he has questions
Nice reset at 2:05!! That was a good way to get him back into the sequence.Great job here! What did you think of his focus and work during the class?
For this week in training, take a look at the new games, he is ready for them. Let’s focus on the off leash engagement game and the remote reinforement combo game as well as getting him to chill more with the 2 new chill ideas 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Looking at the remote reinforcement video:
She was offering engagement really quickly as you moved away here. She even started to look a little happy and hoppy on the ‘yay let’s go get it marker’
You don’t need to keep moving the reward station>>My instinct is to increase the distraction, maybe moving to the garage?
No need for distraction yet – we want this behavior to be the BEST THING EVER and that will take multiple high success sessions… and distractions can potentially cause failure or stress. So rather than adding distraction, here 2 things to add in a relatively easy environment by playing in the same area where she is successful:
– have her wearing a leash now (or a harness) like she would be doing outside the ring)
– and add in the combo game posted last night, adding in one trick. Pick a trick that she is great at with no treats in your hands! I suggest doing an entire short session of just one trick, so you can then decide if you want to stay at that level (if she is not as quick or crisp with her responses) or start to ping pong more tricks into the game.She, like me, gets bored quickly by standing still LOL! She had about 3 seconds of chill when standing on your leg. But when you put her up on the bench, she was much happier to just hang out – so that might be the golden ticket of engaged chill (standing on something so you are both very relaxed :))
>>I often have her licking a cookie up on my thigh,>>
This can easily be turned into taking a breath! If she takes a breath, she can lick the cookie 🙂
Great job here! Onwards to adding the combo game for remote reinforcement and the take a brath game for the engaged chill. Plus, the off leash offered engagement is a great one to add in next as well. Let me know what you think!
Tracy
