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Good morning!
Lots of good work here! One thing we will look at are which games need energy from you to help start and maintain the game… and which do not need energy from you because we want him to do the work 🙂Pattern games- these are games that need very energy from – he is going to do all the work 🙂 You can now wait longer between cookies: let him look at the environment (if he wants to) and then choose to engage back with you. Being too quick or energetic can serve as a cue, but we want him to choose it and not be cued to do it. The reason is that, ultimately, he will need to choose to engage especially when cookies are not present.
You can bring this game to class and run throughs, to be done nearer to the ring and other dogs. Start as far away as needed so he can re-engage successfully but close enough that he can he look at the distractions.
Volume dial is also going well! This game CAN have your energy and excitement because it is all about play 🙂 when you use a food reward, you can make the cookie more toy-like by moving it around for him to chase (in your hand, so it remains interactive, and not tossed away from you).
He looked great with this tricks! Don’t forget your middle trick here as a volume dial game. 🙂Remote Reinforcement – having this established will be a big help!! When you mark the behavior, you can just use your ‘let’s get it’, no need to use yes first . The ‘let’s get it’ tells him he is correct AND where to go to get the cookies 🙂 The Yes marker doesn’t provide quite as much info, and also we don’t want yes to mean to go back to the cookies 🙂
Hooray for massage as engaged chill! What is his favorite massage body part? This will not be for the waiting in line moments, it will be for before then (at this point). It was interesting that he was breathing hard here – was this after the games with more action? Or does he breathe harder when massaged?
Action tricks with cookies and leash – very true to life 🙂 but he did well! Maybe they were not as perfect as when there is no leash but still great. That leash gets in the way a bit, but it is necessary to add. And remember his middle trick for this game too 🙂
For all of these, move them to as many different rooms and locations as possible, away from the training area. He is right on track for the new games 🙂
I’m excited about the mock trial!!! We can put together a big plan for success!!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>We will go back to the basic pattern game. I will see if she will tug with me in the pattern game. I did teach her ‘tug’ as a command, but it is not her favorite. Hmm. Can I toss the ball as part of the pattern game? I now have two that she likes (both red 😉 ), so I could alternate tossing one and then the other to her.>
If tugging is not a true reinforcement in the moment, stick to food. For the balls…if you toss to her, will she catch it? That can totally going the pattern game? Picturing her on leash and in close quarters, a little ball toss could be really fun if she will catch it and doesn’t need to chase it.
>>For engaged chill, she likes to sit or stand next to me, get her neck rubbed against the grain of her coat or have her butt scratched just above her tail. She also likes her face rubbed. So, I will work on those for engaged chill for now and continue to look for other things.>>
Perfect! The engaged chill is a piece that is hard for so many dogs!!
>>We will also keep building on the remote reinforcement. Phew! She is both the most amazing and most challenging dog. Crazy that we are still working on this at 9.5/almost 10 :-O, but who is to say there won’t be another, and I don’t think she is really ready to retire yet. Maybe this will give me a head start the next time.>>
I agree, she’s not ready to retire, she’s got a lot more to teach us. I’m grateful that the 9 year old dogs have more to say! It helps them and also help us prepare for the next generations 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
I’m glad you are using the MaxPup prop – I didn’t even think of that because the Instant Focus game developed before the MaxPup prop games LOL! But it already has a ton of value so it works beautifully for him.You can also elevate it a bit but taping it to something for him to step up onto. That’ll make it even more salient when we build on this soon.
Sniffing the strange objects was perfectly fine and I love how he came back to work the prop with no help. The moving tug toy in your hand was harder LOL bit that is fine, just a bit of wishful thinking on his part perhaps (are you gonna throw that, mom?)
I’m glad that he is doing well with it in trial settings too! To prepare for the next steps, you can take the prop into different rooms of the house (bring Ripley too, of course haha), plop it down, do a couple of clicks/treats for interaction (just 2 or 3) and if latency is pretty low, pick it up and go to the next room. Lather, rinse, repeat LOL in various rooms, probably totalling 15 cookies 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I think increasing your speed went really well!!! He looked good! And I am glad you are feeling well enough to run again!>> These are very hard for me. I feel like I’m the cause of the mistakes but also the verbals need to be great because I can’t always be perfect.>>
In training, take an extra moment to plan before each rep. It is possible that you are moving back to the next rep too quickly. Plan the verbals (directional and marker), the start point, the physical movement/cue, and the placement of reinforcement. I think you were planning the start point and directional, but not the marker and placement and that is where the little bloopers happen. It adds an extra 5 or 10 seconds between reps but that is fine because then the rep itself will be really precise!
Adding cookie resets will help with those in-between moments and also will help resetting after an error. Friz throws will heat him up quickly, so cookies will be reinforcing AND keep him a little cooler.
>>So we had a bobble on the first set of BS slices because I got so focused on my path relative to the bar that I rewarded way too early so the second time he didn’t feel the need for the jump.>>
Yes, amazing how one reinforcement for behavior we don’t want can change things and 10,00000000 reinforcements for behaviors we do want don’t seem to help hahaha (RDW pops to mind). But also I think it lets us know that he is relying on the hand cue to take the jump bar (on the other reps you did the hand cue with the frisbee in it then you dropped the frisbee). So, to help strengthen the default behavior of taking the bar, drop the friz in as soon as he arrives at the backside wing, so he rounds the wing looking at the bar and not at you.
>>Enjoy me sorting out the wing because you said post turn or spin but no front cross. I imagine this is what scent work feels like to dogs. Mentally taxing 🤣>>
It didn’t take nearly as long as it might have felt! And good planning makes for good training!!
He did really well with the soft turns on the front and also with the backside circle wraps (loved the reward placement there!). On the backside slices, he does his best when you are moving along the position 2 line (center of the bar) with a bit of connection – that work that for a few more sessions and then start inching over to position 3 :). That center of the bar backside line is already better than most dogs out there, so I am excited to see him be able to do it!
>>I will probably move on to the serp drills next. I’m really happy with how he’s setting himself up for l and r.
Same! Happy with the left and right and you’ll use those a LOT on course!
>>He really does better with those than I deserve.>>
You totally deserve it! You have worked on becoming a great teammate with him, lots of reward and joy! A good time and high success rate is well-earned and well-deserved for you both <3
Tracy
Oops, sorry! It turns out that the site can’t read my mind and only posts thing when I click the post button. Oops! It should be visible now.
TracyGood morning!
An idea about the verbals: For the Sprite and right sounding similar – Shantel with Zhara the Schnauzer makes her right verbal sound more like “aaiight” (reminds me of the New York way of saying alright hahaha) and the emphasis on the AYE sound will help it sound distinctly different from the SPR of Sprite 🙂
The sig zags were easy for her! She was responding really well on the 2 wings so going to 3 wings was the right choice. She had no trouble with 3 wings either: impressive!!! Nothing seemed hard for her and that is fabulous!
So there are two ways to proceed on this one: you can add wing 4, then wing 5 (might take several sessions to get to 5 wings). And, separately, you can go back to 2 wings then 3 wings and shorten the distances (which make the zigzags happen faster, requiring more coordination). How far apart were these distances? Looked to be about 8 feet but video can be deceptive. The goal is to shorten the distance to get her to where she can do this with the wings 5 feet apart and eventually 4 feet apart. So you can shorten maybe to 6 feet and see how she does – if it is too hard, open the distances up to 7 feet. If it is too easy… go to 5 feet 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi again 🙂
Nice work on this one too! The wraps are easier for her in this setup (more value and probably also an easier skill to execute. The tunnel is harder – she is tall and Has to duck down to get into the tunnel. So, as you cue the tunnel: keep supporting the tunnel verbal with motion towards the tunnel and watch for her to lower her head to be sure she is committed. Then you can move away. On the first couple of reps you moved away too fast, so she came with you to the wrap (which is easier for her). On the successful reps, you waited til she ducked her head to commit to the tunnel and then she was perfect 🙂 The wraps looked great here!You can keep playing with the tunnel-wrap mini sequences and even some tunnel-tunnel-wrap mini sequences too 🙂
Great job!!
TracyHi again! I am glad she likes the toy enough for this game to be challenging 🙂 Her stay is definitely coming along nicely!
Because she wants to release as soon as the toy hits the ground, you can split the behavior more by dangling the toy a little – then releasing. Then lowering it… and releasing. Then eventually working it to the ground and releasing. That can set up a lot of success while maintaining the joy for the toy 🙂
I like what the toy is producing with her movement on the flat and over the baby jump. She is moving with her head low and a really lovely open stride. She is a little pouncy on the toy as she arrives to it, but that is not a problem because the toy will be pretty far from the jumps when she does arrive to it so she can pounce on it right at the end 🙂Great job! You can move this to the set point. Because of her size, I think you should start at 7 feet between jumps and if she looks too squished up, you can move to 8 feet. Let me know how it goes!
TracyGood morning! Welcome back!! She looked great and congrats on the conformation points!!!!
The wrap verbals went really well – I like how she is turning, leaning into the turns with her head and bending through her body. And your verbals sound distinctly different from each other, which is also a big win. Yay! It is possible she thought this game was a little boring because she was looking for something else but no worries, you can add more motion to it in the next games 🙂
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
>> pretty much sucked as a handler on the tunnel exits. I was late on my verbals and wasn’t very connected.
Yes you were late on the verbals, however she still got a ton of reinforcement and it appears she had a great time. She forgives any lateness and I score the session a win – any time we can get a TON of reward to a dog around agility equipment without telling the dog she is wrong is a big win!
Also… TOYS!!!! Didn’t you just tell me she had trouble with the toy at the building and here she was, playing with the toy, chasing the lotus ball, etc. Super!!!!!
One thing about connection – on the wing wraps for the turns like the wraps and left/right turns, you can stand up and connect. You were bending over to make a big connection and it was slowing you down. Try to make the connection of looking at her eyes without bending as much. Your arm can be back and you will be looking at her eyes but not bent at the waist.
And for the GO lines – yes, getting ahead of her to get more connection to the wing wrap totally helped! She seems to have really nice tunnel commitment, so you can send around the wing and to the tunnel from further away so you can more easily get ahead of her at the tunnel exit.
You can also move the wing in closer so that she sees it better. For the other 2 wings… move them further away so you have to run more hahaha 🙂
>> I guess I should have met her closer to the tunnel on the turns as well.>>
I think on those, you can be more lateral because she will see you moving that direction before she enters the tunnel, which will help her respond. If you race down to the end to meet her, she will confuse that with the Go cues.
So on the next session, put a leash down on the ground 6 feet in front of the tunnels to help get the timing before she enters. And, you can get the verbals to sound different: – the left/right can be repeated and softer, and the GO can be longer and very loud 🙂
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning! This is looking really good!
Your upper body and connection and footwork all looked strong on the serps! You mentioned needing to have your arm back and down more, but I think you were good here!! And he was great about coming in on the serp line each time. No problems at all! And also, great job with the verbals.The FCs went well too – the FCs when you ran away from the serp jump were fine but too easy 🙂 At 2:00 when you did the FC and ran past the serp jump: that was a great challenge (he nailed it :))
You were generally engaged with the rewards even when they came from the MM, which is good – keep reminding yourself to engage with him and not walk away and plan the next rep!
A couple of reinforcement ideas:
Remember to use the markers especially if you are just dropping a treat on the ground.
And there was an odd moment at 1:39 when you did a wrap cue, he was correct… no reward, then you tried to do a serp. Both Brisk and I were like, “wait, what just happened there?” LOL!!! So keep each rep separate and distinct and rewarded 🙂The other thing you can add are line up cookies – that will get him back to your side and into position with a lot of clarity. Without them, there is not as much clarity and he is not always sure of where to go. So, using a line up cookie to line him up for each rep with make it easier and faster for you both 🙂
Great job here! Fingers crossed for lovely weather ahead!
TracyIf she is 18″, she will actually settle a bit when she is 2 so don’t rush to get her measured! She is going to be ‘taller’ now than she will be at this time next year 🙂 One of my dogs was 15.5 inches at 14 months old, and now that she turned 2, she has gotten two 15″ measurements in a row!
Hi!
>>Good to know how far from the bar you thought looked the best for him! The second bar was at 10 inches for this session and the first bar at 4 inches.>>
I love obsessing on these things LOL! He is going to physically change a LOT in the next few months, so there is no rush to get the bars tall. He might be full height at the shoulder, but his chest shoulders and rear are all going to start to expand and muscle up. No need to cement the jumping skills til he is in his adult body, so this is more about coordination.
>> For the verbals, he was surprisingly good in that session.
Some dogs are just amazingly verbal – he appears to be one of those, happy to process verbals and have an easy time doing it. YAY!!!! My Contraband and your classmate Ripley are also amazing at processing the verbals. I am surprised that they are all male because usually males are a little more immature at this stage. But my male dogs are outpacing my female dogs in verbal processing!
>> I would LOVE to have him know the difference between coming in gentle and hot. At the moment, both are hot, lol!
Totally know what you mean! I never taught my 9 year old dog the difference between coming in hot or not… and to this day he still makes mistakes that involve my flesh. Ha! The youngsters know the difference and my fingers/hands are much happier 🙂
T
Hi! She did well here! Nice job with the various verbals!
>>Not sure if I’m giving her too much help or not enough.
I think you can help a little more with the handling – turning towards the tunnel helps, and stepping to the wing helps when you want the wrap after a tunnel. You can use handling for this game, because the motion of handling can actually make it a little harder while also supporting the line.
Be careful on the tunnel sends to step forward and not back – at :25 you stepped back away from the wing & tunnel and she wasn’t sure what you wanted (you can reset her in those moments with a quick tug to get her back in position). On the wraps you tend to step back to rotate a bit (like at :57, 1:10, 1:16) which is fine so when you said tunnel and stepped back she was confused 🙂
When you do the tunnel to the wrap, one more step will help her know to keep going. When you were too stationary at 1:24, she was unsure so feel free to handle a bit more there.
Overall, though, she was terrific! She doesn’t seem to fully love tunnels yet, so you can reward by running more so she can chase the toy, which will be more fun and therefore make tunnels more fun too 🙂
>> She is not keen on her collar being held
Yes, she was unimpressed with that LOL! Do you have a little harness? Maybe she will like that better? Or you can slip one finger under the collar and immediately let go – she seemed fine with it for a couple of seconds, then she got angry about it 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! If you are feeling up to it, you can upgrade to a working spot! Email me at agilityuniversity@gmail.com and we can set it up.
Tracy
