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Good morning! There is not too much video here – just the right amount for the games! She is doing really well!
On the lazy game:
No worries about the occasional bar down – it seems to happen when she is chewing and then goes right back to the jump, so give her a little extra room and extra time to finish chewing haha! And you can also lock the bars into the jump cups if the bars are hollow and they fit, or for this you can leave them on the ground.
Her understanding of the game and of the commitment looks really good!!! And she was picking up speed! So you can spread them out a little to add more challenge by adding distance.
One thing on this game and the others too: in the words of Aaron Burr (or Lin-Manuel Miranda): “Talk less, smile more” 🙂 You talk to her a lot and praise a lot… but that, for her, is actually a bit distracting. I think she is more of a ‘just the facts, ma’am’ type of worker and you can praise her *after* you deliver the reward (not before it – before is all about cues and using reward markers like get it). This will help her keep the bars up too. More on that below because it gets more obvious in the one step sends.Mountain climber – well, I guess she really likes this game, she was trying to do it without you LOL!!! Good girlie! Only 2 suggestions:
Try to stabilize the chair more (it wobbles under her height) or use something strong to hold the board. That way it will be very stable as you get her running up it faster and faster.
Also, you can use a long spoon and some duct tape (fancy, I know :)) to attach the spoon to the underside of the teeter – and then that is where you can put her reward. She will run all the way up to the end of the board and the spoon will be sticking out with the treats – this gets her right to the very end of. The board and helps prepare for a 2o2o behavior, which is generally what we teach the big dogs on the teeter 🙂She was really good about going back to the toy here – if you had SUPER snacks like cheese, make sure you use the bestest possible toy because, well, cheeeeeese yum!!! Ha! I can relate.
The one step sends started off perfectly! Loved it! You can add your wrap cue to the wings so you start attaching the verbal to the wing wraps there.
The tunnel send at the end fell apart a little because of the ‘talk less smile more’ thing 🙂 It wasn’t that you asked too much of her, she was doing it great – it is just that she really has to duck down to get into the tunnel at that angle (any angle, really) and at 1:14 and 2:01, right as she was ducking down, you said a big loud YES!!! So she assumed it was reward time and came to you (because every other time you say the big loud yes, she gets a reward).
So…. talk less 🙂 Keep telling her tunnel tunnel tunnel and then be patient – don’t say anything til she is in it and going through it, then reward 🙂
At 2:20, you disconnected and turned your back on her, so she thought your were doing a blind and ended up on your other side. Then I think she got a little frustrated, and that is why she offered the other behavior of getting on top of the tunnel LOL!
The other suggestion is to run with the toy in your hand, not your arm pit – when it is in your hand, you can open up your arm back to her and have better connection. When it is in your arm pit, your shoulder remains closed to hold it there, so your connection breaks more. I don’t think the toy scrunched up in your hand will be a distraction for her if the info is clear. And you can also use a marker (I use ‘bite!’) to tell her when she is allowed to lock onto the toy 🙂Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>“Tunnel Threadle Verbal (Kiss Kiss Kiss) This verbal tells the dog to take the ‘non-obvious’
tunnel entry that is not on his line (the one closer to you). It is used in tunnel
discriminations”>>When do you teach this? Also, what is the quick primer on how to teach this. Is it really always the end closest to you? I drew something that I think of as a bi-pass, but I can’t figure out how to attach an image. Is there a way?>>
We start teaching this in MaxPup basically as soon as we have shaped the pup to run into a tunnel. I can post the videos if you want! I think it is the end closer to me but I think of it more as a sandwich – if the pup and I are the bread and the tunnel is in between us (pup is on the outside of the line, kind of like taking the front side of a jump or push to a backside) then it is a regular tunnel cue. Also, the pup drives directly to it and does not need to turn away to get into it (the tunnel might turn the pup away once he is in it, that is a different story). If the pup needs to squeeze herself into the middle of the sandwich (tunnel and I are bread, puppy is the meat haha) and turn away to get into the tunnel: then it is the threadle cue (not a bypass, that is different and pukey lol).
Let me know if that makes sense. And if the IMG tab isn’t working, can you put it on a google doc and post the link? Sometimes the IMG tab is wonky in the forum.
T
Good question! If I plan to toss treats, I do it while things are quiet and there are not many dogs around – like early in the morning, or far from the ring. Being far from the ring helps when there are dogs running. And to be honest… no one has said anything about me tossing cookies around near the ring but that might be because the locals here are fine with it and also flyball tournaments have no uptight-ness about that 🙂 I have not had any other dogs come play.
That being said: when I am waiting on line at the ring, two thoughts:
– I am not playing this game to help acclimate because at that stage, the dog should be relaxed, so no cookies tossed.
– But, I do vary this pattern with rewards in my hand – the dog offers engagement and I give a cue to get the reward in my hand, so it is a modification of the pattern.But I do get close to the ring with this game as an acclimation/relaxation game with the youngsters, and I do toss treats. I think I just get a spot where the dog can see the ring but other dogs can’t grab his stuff 🙂
T
Hello!
>> OK, we are back in town for a bit. I worked step 1 & 2 with all three dogs (Hoot, Zing and Joe) this morning. Zing and Joe were the best LOL.
Welcome back! I am not surprised that Zing and Joe were best – we approached things differently with Hoot and her cohort LOL!! And I am glad Joe is getting to play!
>> I need another word other than “Get it” I think. I use that as permission to grab their toy. And “find it” for finding their toy. Can I use “find it”?>>
I was going to ask about your marker – I couldn’t really hear it. But if you were saying get it and get it also means ‘drive to your toy’ then something else would be appropriate here. ‘Find it’ works or something silly like “snacks” would be good too 🙂
>>I am posting with Zing. She is fairly good at working through distractions at this level, but I want to find the point at which she breaks. Might only be with stimuli that is like a trial, we will see.>>
She did well here, but I think I would like her to look up at you more. On most reps, she was not looking at the distraction but also not really looking up at you. In this game, we’d like them to eventually look at us – you can isolate it by standing still and only using the ‘find it’ when she makes eye contact for now (no distractions). And then as you add distractions, you can shape it successively by rewarding looking away from distraction or in your general direction but building up to looking at you (for example, at Flyball tournaments with Contraband, I reward looking away from the racing with a cookie but I give him a frisbee cue if he makes eye contact. That packs a wallop so now I get a lot of offered eye contact LOL!
And you might need to stand still each time you add a layer of distraction, to let her settle in and then she will move through the levels quickly.
>>Anyhow, let me know what you think. If the mechanics look good I will go on.>>
I think the only other thing is to have the cookies in your hand and don’t move your hand or reach into the bag – that is a lot of hand movement/cookie movement for a shaping game so I am being a bit of a purist in that you can keep the hand stationary for as long as possible then use the marker and flick a cookie 🙂
I think she is ready for more 🙂 Great job here!
TracyHi!
That is good info about what she finds stressful!!! I think the weaves and the table are secondary and will be easier when the startline stress gets resolved. And yes, these 2 games are a great place to start!She did a great job with the pattern game: easy peasy! So now you can go to the next level with some distractions and also playing this game in other places.
The second video (which is actually the first game) is also going to be really important for your start line procedures! First thing – i think you were using ‘get it’ for the rewards behind her here and also for the tossed cookies in the pattern game. So I recommend a different word for the rewards that are outside the ring Just so it is really clear what you mean.
In the session, you went right into the sit and the stay at a jump. I think that is fine for home, but when you go to new places, keep it simpler: let her see you place the treats down, then just take a step or two away, then give the cue and run back to them. Then add in one little trick! Then we can build up from there – taking this to new places will become important.
You can also take this game into your agility classes – do it as she is starting her turn (but you don’t have to do it on all the runs, just here and there) to get her in the habit of understanding how the rewards are earned when you don’t have any on you.Question, for planning purposes: when she is at class or a trial, will she play with a toy? Ball? Or is she only into food? Will she tug on a leash? The biggest step to getting her to run without stress is going to be NFC and FEO runs, but we need to know what she will like as reinforcement before we do that. Let me know and we will plan 🙂
Great job here! And these are games you should be teaching Maple too, start ‘em young!Tracy
Hi!
Yeah, the weather has been a little nuts for so many folks but I think we can get a lot done in between raindrops 🙂 Remember, it is more about concepts and less about running all the courses.Good session here!
Looking at the various sections of the sequence:
First run started off great! Then he went around a jump and you disconnected/lost energy and called his name, so info stopped and he almost called an Uber LOL! Yes, don’t mark errors and he likes action – always keep moving.The 4-5-6 is like a Goldilocks moment: too much, not enough, just right 🙂
You can handle the 5 jump a little differently at :12 – rather than get up there and round the line with him (which was too much acceleration), you can send when he lands from 4 and peel away to the tunnel, to tighten the turn a bit. You used decel there on the 2nd rep, but that was too much especially since you were already there and decelerated, so he lost speed..
You had more of that “just right” middle ground at 1:31 – less of a big decel, more of a send – it worked well! One thing to consider is not getting too far ahead: on courses like this one where there is no place to go, you can drive in deeper to the #3 tunnel so you don’t end up decelerated and waiting for him when he exits for 4-5 and also 8-9.One little detail:
If you are going to use his name as an attention cue after the tunnel (which is perfectly good, he is very responsive to it), say it before he enters the tunnel – you are tending to say his name when he exits the tunnel, which delays the next info. For example: on the soft left at :44, you called him when he exited the tunnel and then said right as he was jumping 8, so that ended up being late.
This is also a good spot to drive more into the tunnel – you ended up stationary there so he almost came in too tight.I liked the send and go much better at 1:35!!! I think combined with a few more steps into the tunnel so there is less decel, it will be the perfect combo.
Remember to not just cue the tunnel on a verbal – connect and drive forward to it, to support the cue with motion. Being decelerated plus not connected and turning away pulled him off the tunnel (good boy) and he got concerned. Then I think there was a noise distraction, a horn or thunder or something? But I think he likes action, so if something goes wrong, no worries, keep running to the next line. If he is worried, just keep moving.
The wrap at :49 is a good place to add more decel and to stay on takeoff side – your right arm ended up a bit on landing side and you were sideways and moving wide of the wing, so he was wide based on the motion. If you get there early, just hang out a bit on the takeoff side of the wing. I think you can also try the spin there to get the BC exit, rather than FC then RC the tunnel (the spin should faster because he can chase you and it sets a better line than the RC of the tunnel does here).
He might have pulled the rail at the end when you gave him a big yes – or he might need a little more ‘extreme’ connection (hard eye contact as you keep moving up the line) heading to the bar after the tunnel because of the lead change. Extreme connection cues the lead change really nicely.
Great tugging at the end of the first run! Wheeee!
And i something happens and he turns off (thunder, for example) it is perfectly fine to stop the session (better than trying to work through it, because the pressure and the worry might get associated with agility, which we don’t want.
>> I feel less prepared when I’m running full out.
I feel this!!! Same for me hahaaha! But we will build up to that 🙂 And going deeper to the tunnel will give you more of a running full out feel.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> I will go back and look more closely at where my eyes go.
Yes – connection is so odd – we humans like to point things out, but that is not how dogs read courses. They do a lot better on sending if we look at their eyes. Strange but true LOL!!
>> I was really pleased with both of them and I will work on what you said above. Thank you so much!! I am loving this course! You are right, there is a lot to do but I am not getting overwhelmed. >>
You should be pleased with both of them – they rocked it! Glad you are having fun 🙂 And yes: Pick what you want to play with rather than trying to do all the things, and you won’t get overwhelmed 🙂
TracyHi!
>>I’m not quite up to running it band injuries are the worst and I suggest you don’t ever do that to yourself.
Yikes, that sounds painful!!! I hope it is healing quickly!!!
And yes, it has been crazy hot – I do all of my training and filming at dawn or dusk. Bleh!
I think on the lay game you were tossing the treat to cue him to take the jump – he did well, so you can reverse that now and throw it after he is moving towards the jump.
On the pinwheel sequence – this was a REALLY insightful session to help us figure out what he reads on course! I think he is cuing off your motion and feet more than off your arms (which is not that unusual for a smaller dog). He was really hustling and finding the lines independently when you were just moving along them and using your verbals.
But when you tried to use your arm to point to the jump – he was slower and less certain. That was partially because your arm moving forward to the jump blocks his view of your eyes and breaks connection (so he gets hesitant) and partially because pointing forward was causing your motion to either slow down or stop… so he was not as clear about what to do.
You can really see it on all of the openings, when you were just releasing him and moving along the line towards the tunnel – he was flying, even later in the video when he must’ve been hotter. And same on the lines after the tunnel where you continued to move. When you were trying to indicate by pointing more (like at 2:49 and 3:20)- it stopped your motion and broke connection, so he slowed down to figure it out.
This is good to know! I personally think it is easier if I can just run alongside the lines and not have to worry about pointing at things LOL! That allows me to move better and it is clearer for the dogs – I want to try this with Merlin too, so when you get to the ring rental (hopefully air conditioned!!) try just jogging along with connection and verbals, no arm pointing at the jumps, and see what he does.
>>I numbered the middle wing backwards so Merlin did what I asked whoops
No worries! We will do backsides later on in class but these are all front sides 🙂
>>the lazy game looked better on film after the fact he struggles to find white food without a whole lots of sniff and huh>>
A lotus ball or treat hugger is probably going to be more useful, then – if you have more than one, you can throw one for the first reward, then throw the 2nd one for the next one: then pick them up, reload, and do the next lazy game rep 🙂
Great job here! Let me know if it makes sense about motion (lower body) being more helpful for him than arms (upper body)
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I think that these first two concepts went fairly well, though there’s still room for improvement. I’ve also sped up the videos by 3x just so they would be slightly less boring.
Yes! I think they went well! You don’t need to speed them up, they are not boring 🙂 Fast forward makes it harder to hear the verbals and clicks – real time videos are better to really see what she is doing. Setting a timer for 2 or 3 minutes is great then you don’t need to edit – just post them up.
Lazy Game: It was interesting how she had trouble with the middle jump in the beginning! It might have been that after eating the first treat, she was going into handler focus and didn’t ‘see’ the middle jump. You did a really good job trying to toss your treat to help her line up to get it! That worked and then was able to find it – and then you could reward her to taking it. She was really getting it by the end! You can spread them out a bit more to add challenge, and also add the one-step sends to send her to it as you start to move away.
On the planks:
>>I didn’t have a 9 or 12 foot plank, but I had three 4-ft travel boards, so I just pushed them together. Acceptable? Here Ria kind of got on and off the plank wherever she chose. >>Yes, it was a good setup and she did well here too! I think she was getting off the plank when you started to throw the reward, so you can start to delay the throw by a few steps so she stays on the plank for longer. She also did really well getting on and turning around on these, good coordination! You can add in having her ‘hop’ off in the middle to make sure she knows how to safely get off the board too, in case she ever loses her balance going full speed across the dog walk.
Great job here! You can move forward to the next games too!
TracyGood morning!
>>Here is a redo of the mountain climber – much better..
Oh yeah!!!! Look at her on her mountain climber going straight to the end and right into the down. Super! On those first couple of reps, did you have something there to help cue the down or was it just an earlier verbal? They looked great. She was not as quick in the middle of the session and then back to being quick with the down by the end – it sounded like earlier timing of the cues. Perfect! As she grows up, you can ad tip to this game… but again, my rehab/ortho/sports vets don’t want the slam on the dogs body til they fully developed (joints and soft tissue) which puts things closer to 16-18 months at the earliest.
>>>Next is the love the slam it, baby. We did these a couple days ago. I think front feet were solid, but back feet took a bit.
She did really well on the baby level here! No problem getting on it and moving it. This board is little so she really only fits her front feet. Do you have a second board so she can get all 4 feet on moving things? You can have her put two feet on each board. And you can use a tug to here too – she looked a little bored by just cookies LOL!!
The other thing you can do with this board is prepare her for the noise teeters make by taking this board to noisier floors and having her smack it around, and using big rewards whenever there is a noise.>> We don’t have a go backwards to get the back feet on. We also tried the advanced version, but nothing felt right, especially with the desire for the down at the end. (you will see I adjusted the advanced version when we were out today. Went forward, rewarded the down and then rewarded the release).>>
You were doing what I call the bang game – dog leaps on the end and moves into position. I would hold off on that for a bit for a couple of reasons:
– be careful of too much slam with a puppy, even a couple of inches is a lot of repetitive bang on their bodies (I have asked the ortho vets and they all say we need to wait until the dogs are closer to adult).
– I start it on a short plank to get the end position perfect before moving it to the teeter – she was not entirely sure of where to be, so you can use a target to get her into the 4on and also feed her lower, so she doesn’t have to leave the down to get the reward, and so she doesn’t look up at you.>>We don’t have a go backwards to get the back feet on.
You can play with that skill separately to get her really understanding how to use her hind end – it is perfect for playing in the house when it is a million degrees outside!! Here is the link to i from the first puppy class:
https://agility-u.com/lesson/hind-end-awareness-backing-up/>>>Lastly, we worked on the Motion Override. When I reviewed the video, it seems I was helping her with her sit. Although, I think when slow, she wasn’t bad. But if tried to pick it up, it took her way longer to process.
I agree – she did really well when you were moving slowly but it definitely was harder when you tried to go faster. You were smart in the session on the video to slow yourself back down on the last 2 reps, so you didn’t end up decelerating with her to create the behavior. No worries, give her a couple of sessions of you moving slowly. I think it will also be easier if you toss a cookie away for her to get so you can start moving and she will not curl in front of you. You can also reward her more quickly – as soon as she plops her butt down, you can release and play – that will help her get into position faster too.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
You and the boys looked really good here!!!First up is Bob’s run: This is a terrific first attempt!
Lovely 1-2-3 opening! Fast and smooth! You can add in a little more connection to his eyes on the send from 3 to the #4 tunnel – you were looking forward to the tunnel and pointing forward to it a little when you cued it, so he looked at you rather than looking at the tunnel. As strange as it sounds: if you look at him, as you say tunnel and keep moving, he will look at tunnel 🙂The little oopsie at :30 was the moment where you went the wrong way for a heartbeat, no worries 🙂
So he hasn’t seen 12 weaves in a course since a year ago? Wow, he did great and remembered a LOT!! GOOD BOY! When you have had some time to practice them, you will be able to change sides while he is weaving and get him on your right for the tunnel rather than rear cross the tunnel. That got you a little behind him which made it harder for the next line – that is why he almost took the off course tunnel. You were running to catch up and said ‘go’ so he was going LOL! Calling him sooner, as he lands from the previous jump (or a left verbal is he has one) will totally smooth that out – he responded as soon as you called him.
Pete also had a great run!! Your opening looked great too, and you had lovely connection 3-4 on the send to the tunnel: note how you were looking right at his eyes and not ahead, and he was smooth there, finding the line to the tunnel. That allowed you to do an excellent blind after the tunnel at :11 to get 5, really great connection.
Taking thee weaves out was smart but also made you have to hustle more – you can play with a more independent tunnel send to be able to get further ahead on the exit so you can stay ahead of him and not have to hustle as much 🙂 On the ending line: you didn’t say go to him at the end so he was more handler focused and never looked at the off course tunnel on the closing line. YAY!!
When you have the super independent weaves or tunnel send, I bet you can get into that gap for a blind (or front) cross with both dogs.They looked great! Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>I watched some of the Zoom seminar. This is the Lazy game with the tunnel and then the verbals. NOt too lazy though. lol.
Truth! It ends up being the Not Too Lazy Game haha
>>Hmmm…..I noticed in the video most people are giving a Left,L,L…Rights. I’m not saying jump for the first jump I am saying “Out jump” Out jump means take the top jump in a pinwheel and come back. So I’m not usinf the L and R. verbals. And then “Tunnel, tunnel, tunnel before the jump going into the tunnel.>>
That is fine! As long as you are consistent with your verbals, it is great! I think you were very clear here.
On the video:
First rep looked good! Only one suggestion: Do the FC on the tunnel at :07 before she enters so she expects the turn on the exit. Everything else looked great!2nd rep – She dropped the bar on the pinwheel jump on this one: you were maybe a little late turning at :20 but I think the distance might be a bit too tight – she is turning really well AND going super fast, so you can try to spread out the distance.
>> She went wide once at .41 You can see her go wide off of the top jump. But she needs to come in, right? Maybe I have this too tight.
That was on the 3rd rep – yes, I think she needs more distance when she passed the outside jump at :41. You could add a collection to the middle jump but I really want her to go fast fast fast like this – she is turning really well AND going fast, the perfect combo. She can get all the jumps if she slows down… which we don’t want, so I like the idea of more distance between the jumps.
You had a really good wrap at the end! And more distance will help give you more time to cue it so it will be even tighter!
>>I’m jumping 8 inches. DId it say somewhere that this class eventually teaches them to jump full height? Maybe I am wrong. lol.
8″ is fine for anything that is new. Did I read that she is just over a year now? That means that over the course of the next few months, we can add taller bars, gradually, on the stuff she is really good at. We don’t address full height jumping specifically here because a lot of the dogs are too young. I don’t get the dogs jumping full height before 18 months anyway, because they have soooo much to learn and so much body development needs to happen (I know people get dogs jumping fully height VERY early and into the trial ring at 15 months…. but that skips a lot of steps and is not good for their minds or bodies :)) You can also add a little more height to the jump grids we did in the last class – like the accordion grid! When that last jump is 12 feet away, the bar can go to 10 then 12 inches.
>> Oh, I think you missed a video. The baby level One-step sends. Before the ones with the FC’s. Maybe I’m wrong again. LOL.>>
I will go check! And it might be referring to the game posted last Friday (not done in the Zoom class :))
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, it looked like everyone as VERY serious at the Regional 🙂Nice work here! He is doing especially well with his new “over” cue for the leg jumping! It was fun to see that when you told him he could go play – he thought about it then decided he wanted to stay and play with you! Yay! And your hands up in the air (jumping jacks) are a definite cue for him to jump up , that is good to know going into the ring. You might think this is nutty: but have you ever tried cuing that (basically, doing some jumping jacks?) as you are going to the start line? That jumping up seems to be one of his more favorite tricks AND it is energizing!! That can be something to try next weekend at the trial!
He is doing well here with responding to the cues – so you can try the sequences now to see how he processes the verbals while you are running the courses!
Great job here 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>>I think I used the upside arm before the send to the pinwheel because earlier in the week we ran a sequence during class using the tunnel to the blue jump to the dog-walk (off screen). I thought I saw Cowboy eyeing that line when he was exiting the tunnel and wanted to make sure he turned to the red jump instead of going straight (or at least that was the plan!)>>
Ah! Makes sense! It is a good challenge for him as a young dog to follow your body language and verbals even when the big delicious tunnel and dog walk are out there LOL!
For the teeter:
I love his confidence on the full height teeter. And I totally see what you mean about him stopping 4on then waiting for a re-cue (target or no target). But he does understand the concept of waiting til the release!
Having the MM out ahead on the plank got him to look at you less and more of the 2o2o but also only when you stopped your motion or were moving slowly.I think the target itself has lost some value and he doesn’t really know where to put his front feet. So, a couple of ideas for you:
– with the target, refresh the value with some nose touch games to it!
– you can also consider a foot target there instead of the nose target – a long strip of something that you teach him to run to and put his front feet on and then when he is happy with that, it replaces the red target
– you can leave the MM out there as a focal point so he looks at that and not at you for reward
– check out the love the slam hind end combo game too – where he backs up into the 2o2o on a wobble board and on a plank. Try to get that completely independent of your motion – it can really help him understand where to put all his feet 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
