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Hi!
This went really well!!!! She was on fire for that toy!>>I think I need to up my connection game…not sure if this is why she tended to curl into me or if it was brandishing the toy, lol.
Yes, it was totally the connection and she was not being too focused on the toy. When you had low arms and clear eye contact, she was lovely on her line! Looking at :04, she was perfect (you had a low arm and LOTS of eye contact) and compare to :11 where she curled in a little (you had a higher arm, pointing ahead of her, not as much eye contact).
So the low arm pointed back to her and looking at her eyes totally helped!
Look at :26 – you had the toy waving in her face LOL and she never looked at it: she stayed on her line because your motion and connection and low arm looked great.
Looking at the rep that started at about :35 –
Nice low arms and lovely connection all the way through :43. Gorgeous!!!!At :44 , when you cued the left you started to point ahead of her so there was less connection, and she curled in a little.
At :51 you were pointing way ahead of her, which broke connection and turned your shoulders away from the line, and so she didn’t know where to be and did not take the wing. (yes she jumped for the toy but that seemed like the only option LOL and you were correct to reward her 🙂 )You used more motion towards the wing at 1:05 to get her to the wing, but I think the further ahead you get, the more you will want your dog side arm low and pointing back to her, so she can see the connection.
>>Might use a more discreet toy next time.
I don’t think you need to! She loved this toy 🙂 Try more connection and I think she will be perfect 🙂
>>And I forgot my “right right”cue because… no reason.
Totally relatable. It is the panic of running a young dog LOL!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!!
>>It will take some practice to untrain myself.
Yes, either stand completely still… or be walking back and forth the whole time as long as your change of direction is not a cue for engagement 🙂
On the video:
The roomba was hilarious in the first 2 sections LOL!!! She was great about ignoring it. The first section was a terrific value building session, my only suggestion is to reward that very first interaction and not take the leash off before the reward (you did the fast reward on the 3rd section in the agility ring).
The 2nd section was harder for her, probably a little too hard (took her a long time to come back to the target). You can spread the distractions out mote, and for the get it reset cookies, throw them about a foot away from the target so it is very easy to find her way back to it (and harder to get caught by the distractions).
The 3rd section looked great!!!!Just keep going with these simple value building sessions with your magic piece of cardboard hahaha 🙂 I promise we will make it into some fancier soon 🙂
TracyHi! I love planning FEO runs 🙂 I think there is more UKI happening in your area, I’ll find out and let you know. UKI is most flexible with FEO and there are lots of inexpensive runs 🙂
In general, I work FEO in steps with the dogs letting me know how fast to proceed to the next step.
Step 1 is “just like home” were the toy is in my hand, I play on the way to the start line, I reward a couple of release off the start line, then maybe some fast and fun speed lines (no contacts or weaves, those are too hard when we are trying to make the ring super fun).
So if you have any FEO coming up, that’s what I suggest 🙂
When the dog is super happy with Step 1, we go to Step 2.Step 2 is “just like home part 2” were the reward is very visible and maybe I add 1 contact (a favorite contact). Still TONS of reward and fast lines.
Step 3 is all the things, gradually adding more contacts and weaves and handling, with lots of reward at first then gradually less and less.
Over time, we start to build in remote reinforcement where we have the reward station outside the ring and a hidden toy on the handler. In UKI, a helper can hold the toy.
That helps us fade the toy in the ring and move to full real runs.How long does the process take? The dogs let us know 🙂 I have 3 young dogs working this process right now, the oldest is in Step 2 and the youngest is ready for real runs LOL! I have video and plans for all that coming soon.
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
2 easy answers for you on this!First is about your line: Every time she does not take the wing, you are blocking her line and the faster you move, the less she can get to the wing without taking you out at the knees 🙂 so when are walk, she can get past you.
The best reps, though, like at :23 and :30 and the first couple on your left – you started on more of an angle, so she could drive to the wing directly without you pushing her off.
So, to be able to add more speed, you can start her on more on an angle (kind of lined up with the far wing of the distraction jump. That way she can accelerate to the wing as you add speed and not have to run in front of you.The 2nd thing is reward placement: you were rewarding either next you you, or ahead of you after the wrap. To get her to consistently fight to get the wrap, throw it way past where the landing spot would be (and no where near you haha). You are rewarding commitment to turning away and taking the wing, rather than finished the wrap.
Those two together should make it much easier to get her to commit as you run.
Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyGood morning!
>>So, this was hard FOR ME. I wasn’t that connected and it shows.
Yes! One of my mantras is to always look at the tunnel exits, very directly. And I also try to look at the dog on the exit of turns to send to the tunnel. I thought your connection on the exit of th wing wraps was really good, the questions here were more about connection to and from the tunnel. Yes, look at her more out of the tunnel and also on the tunnel sends – there was a spot where you were saying tunnel but turning and looking forward, so she didn’t take the tunnel entry you wanted, she came with you (good girl!). You fixed it with more connection and more handling support at approx 1:32 and she got it 🙂 Yay!
This particular game has a lot of handler hustle LOL!!! It helps us get used to our baby speed demons 🙂 She was GREAT here especially about finding those wings at a distance.
>>I was also saying “get in” instead of tunnel which is Gemma’s cue.
The change in cues was to differentiate the get in and the get it? I admit that I use “get out” for some things and “get it” for a marker… and the dogs have no trouble differentiating (because they are smarter than me hahaha)
Other than the connection that you already mentioned, I think the main thing here is to say your directional verbals a lot sooner hen using them on the tunnel. Most were happening as she was already in it, so she was not 100% sure of the exits.
The reps at :26 (go), :58 (left) and 1:12 (right) were examples of when the verbals happened before she was in the tunnel. When I started working tunnel verbal timing, I put a leash on the ground about 4 feet from the tunnel entry, so I have a visual: as soon as the dog was arriving at the leash, I needed to assume tunnel commitment and begin the exit verbal (and for my bigger dogs, the leash was 6 feet away :)) When the weather gets better, try that line and see if it helps with the timing!
Overall, though, her commitment and turns looked terrific. Well done 🙂Tracy
Good morning!
One really notable think about Dellin is that she seems to be able to take her skills into new environments and do them as well as at home, or maybe even a little better. That is both unusual AND super exciting 🙂
On the jumping stuff: I would love to see how this looks in a bigger space (outdoors?) and with a slowly dragging toy (I know, I know, totally NOT traditional Salo :))
The reason I suggest that is on the first set (the set point and then to the jump after it) – she was mainly attacking the grids to sort out how to STOP for the toy, rather than power through. It is really interesting to see! I don’t think the spider was too much pressure, per se – it is more like she was like “what to I do with my hind end to get through this AND stop at the toy”. She was tucking her rear up more than she was powering with it. So more room (meaning, more open space around the setup so there is no visual of ring gating nearby) plus the dragging toy can make a world off difference (but show her this on really low bars at first so we don’t overwhelm her with information to process.
She was doing some of the same on the ladder grid and her striding was different on the early jumps as opposed to the last 2 jumps when the toy was closer. She got better as the toy got further away on the last reps! So, this one can also be interesting with the dragging toy or at least with the toy MILES away so it is about powering through and not about sorting out how to stop 🙂
She did a great job with the wind in her hair outdoors! Hooray for the snow melting! She was great about finding the jump. To get her to drive ahead even more, you can do it so close to the wing that you can touch it and don’t move til she exits the wrap 🙂
One handling thing on this game: Keeping running to the placed toy until it is in her mouth (or if you throw it) – you were decelerating as she was locking onto it and we don’t want to dilute decel by having her blast past it. So run hard like you did in the toy races, like you are trying to get to the toy before she does (you won’t win the race hahahaha) –
She hit one bar at :54 – could have been a bit of fatigue if she did these all in a row, could have been you decelerating as she was lifting off, could have been a simple error on her part, or all of the above 🙂 No worries, as it was unusual for her and she didn’t repeat it.
Great job here! Enjoy the beautiful weekend ahead!
TracyHi!
Very clever to use the MaxPup prop, I didn’t even think of that! Ha!!!! She did well on the shaping session, she remembered it 🙂
On the 2nd video – I thought that was you dancing around in the red outfit at the beginning LOL!
Promise had a harder time here, so for now, keep the distractions a little lower. The other thing you can do is attached the target to something taller so she has to step up onto it. That can make it even more obvious in the enironment as she looks for it with distractions 🙂
She definitely figured it out by the end! NICE!!Great job on these – keep doing these little value building sessions and we will build on it soon 🙂
TracyHi! I think she is a teenager and teenagers can have big emotions LOL! We will sort her out – you are DEFINITELY on the right track 🙂
TracyHi!
On the independent backsides: both dogs are getting the idea of being more independent on these!
For Veloz – try to be moving forward the whole time and not helping at all by stepping in or doing a lot of handling. When you were trying to help, sometimes it worked and sometimes you were rotated or bringing him to the other side for the backside wraps. So, start closer to the start wing and just move forward – he had some really lovely moments in this session so you can add more motion (but less actual handling help :))
Fusion is all doing well! Same thing about motion with her as with Veloz: be moving the whole time, directly forward, try not to handle 🙂 Als, are you saying a jump cue before the left/right? I don’t think you need it, you can just say your left and right cues because the ‘jump’ is implied in the left/right verbals.
She was doing well with the start wing in position 1 and 2, but position 3 is too hard for her. So try a couple of more sessions in position 2 with the start wing, so you are not tempted to get it right by stepping in with handling 🙂
On the Mini Course – considering all the noise, Veloz did REALLY well!!! He had some good turns there without you needing to run a lot to help out. YES! He was definitely finding it really distracting – throwing reinforcement away from you can help him not get mad or jump up but I think he did well!! You can be a lot earlier on his turn cue – as he is in the air over the jump before the turn jump, start saying the verbal so he hears it nice and early.
Fusion also did well and by the end, totally got the idea to make a nice turn with the verbal while you run. She had a couple of errors at 1:22-ish, but it was because you were pushing her line so she was not sure of what you wanted and couldn’t quite get to the front of the jump – when you hung back a bit and gave her room, she was terrific!
Even with the dogs barking I could hear the difference in your verbals, and that is great! The sound and pitch and rhythm are just as important as the actual word 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what yo think!
Tracy
Hi! Thank you for the reminder!!!!
Here are 2 videos for you –
one is of the game for the backsides and one is the head turns.This is specifically to train form for those backside circle wraps:
I don’t do multi-wraps in the traditional way of going around and around (I don’t really love the mechanics or the lack of excitement of those) but we do isolate the decision to turn the head/lead with the head which sets up great turns! So the dog wraps twice in a very specific way (but not over and over).
Here is how we start the baby dogs:
>>Is our course still “open”?
yes, til April 1
>>Thanks a million, this has been an awesome experience.
So glad you joined!!! It has been a pleasure getting to watch you and Prism!!
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The bluetooth mic sounds great!! Cool!!!He looked really good here – part of the happy dance is for the power and coordination through the set point, and part of the happy dance is for how well he held the stay with you dragging the toy and moving away faster and faster – hooray!
At almost 11 months, we can give Leo a little more height on the 2nd bar. It looked 8 inches here maybe? You can try 10 then 12 and see how he does. We have plenty of time to raise the height, so there is no rush at all 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! She did really well here!!
She naturally wants to turn towards you, so she looked great on the turn exits of the tunnel. You were a little late on the very first rep but then you got earlier (like at :50 for example) and she turned really well.
Go was definitely harder for her on the tunnel exits!! You were very early for all of them (yay!) so she will learn it with more practice and reinforcement. As she exits the tunnel on the GO lines, to get her to the wing – give her a TON of connection in the form of very direct eye contact (as you keep running of course LOL!) If you look forward she curls in towards you a little and if you point forward (like you noticed at 1:07) then she curls in a lot. So for now, give her as much connection as possible to support then line – then it will be easier as she gets more practice 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHello and welcome, thank you for all of the great info!!!!!
>>. It’s a hard topic to find training and an area of struggle for Sprite since he’s chase driven and waiting in line watching dogs run is not his strength.>>
This is true – there is not enough training on this stuff, specifically! Sprite’s questions are not unusual in agility, so these games will help him a lot.
>>He finds training very rewarding. He’s not a foodie dog but works for his daily kibble.
It will all get a lot easier for you if we can crack the code of reinforcement for him – what doe he really love that we can use as reinforcement? This can be types of food (you mentioned cheese and stuff) that make his head explode, or activities, or anything that he really loves (biting a broom? Barking on cue?) We can use a hierarchy of reinforcement to get better engagement in the ring for sure.
>>His start positions are not great as he insists on facing me.
The line up games will help this!
And, using his favorite treats, start the pattern games, those will really help him learn to to ignore the other dogs running. When you did the Naughty But Nice program, which games were most helpful for him?
And when you get a moment, video some of his tricks and we will build from there!
Looking forward to seeing more!!! Let me know what you think 🙂
TracyHi!
She did really well with the game in this new environment!
For now, when working the up-and-down with the cookies on your shoes, be careful with your motion. Try not to use motion as a lure to re-engage. What was happening was as she was chewing, you would move away towards the end of the chewing and it was becoming an antecedent (cue) to re-engage. We want her to drive the bus on this completely, so stand totally still. (The opposite side of this is to be moving the whole time, no start and stop, but that comes later).And the good news is that after a couple of minutes, she didn’t feel the need to look away 🙂 Yay! So if that happens – you can end the session, take a break, move to a new environment for the next session. You don’t have to make it harder by adding different things for her to look at, as that makes it unpredictable and predictability is our best friend on this one 🙂 You can train a skill if she is engaged, but that would be separate from the pattern games.
>>I have a question — on our way home she saw a dog she wanted to harass, and insisted we keep walking. Zippie moved into a pretty heel, slightly forged and FOCUSED on my face. Demanding. I could now ask for proper heeling, sits, downs, spins, all really flashy & without luring, all from the higher arousal state. Cool. I love happenstance opportunities to get and reward that high quality performance. I notice this after lure coursing as well. Any reason not to?
That is a great example of how arousal state is so important for optimal behavior! The first thing to do is always just reward the offered engagement. Yes, you can go into a training session after that but you want to make sure the FIRST thing is a big reinforcement for the excellent decision. And if you are training after that, be sure that there is a super high rate of success, keeping things simple enough, to help maintain the positive conditioned emotional response.
Or… you can just continue the walk after the reward for engagement – we don’t need every environment to be a high arousal work environment 🙂>>And should I food-reward offered engagement whenever it happens around the house, even when I’m not “training”?>>
I personally do not do that, it is exhausting for me and the dog LOL!!!! I don’t want my dogs to always be “on” in the house. If there are triggers (like a time where she would bark ou the window at something but offers engagement instead) then yes, totally reward that! Or if I am having a lot of struggles with a dog, I might do it – but it can potentially lead to some attention seeking behaviors and frustration so I tend to have the house as a place of chilling out 🙂
Nice work here! Enjoy the weekend!
TracyHi! She looks like she had fun with the retrieving! This one is hard to do outside the ring because you need a lot of space but it will be VERY useful inside the ring for training opportunities (USDAA and UKI)!
She did well ignoring the breakfast bowl… but note how when the ball was gone and you were moving away, she hung out with the breakfast bowl LOL!! That is both adorable and useful info! So definitely practice the remote reinforcement of simply walking away from the breakfast bowl and she offers to engage and come with you, without cues or the ball 🙂 Let me know how that goes!
Tracy
