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Hi!
>>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!
TracyGood morning! Thank you for the update!
>>although I’ve been a bit overwhelmed, we are making progress. 🙂
There is a lot at the beginning! It gets easier as all the pieces build together 🙂
>>Pattern game…tried toys, did well, although the higher value the toys, the harder it is for her to let go. But she got the hang of it. She tends to want the last toy she had in her mouth even though they’re identical. Did combo, toy and treat and that went well depending on the value of the toy, although seemed to go better than toy for toy.
The pattern of engage-toy-treat can really work nicely to get more engagement AND get the toy back 🙂
>>Maybe by then she had more idea of what we were doing.??
This is also likely – the more the dogs learn the pattern games, the better they get and the faster they can offer engagement.
>> I made her balls into toys with bungee/cords for her to tug with, for her some are higher value than others. But just plain tennis ball with no attachment is still supreme, but hard to tug with that.
Have you seen the Kong toys that are basically large tennis ball thingies that are great for tugging? I have used them with my ball-crazy dogs:
https://www.petsmart.com/dog/toys/interactive-toys/kong-airdog-dumbbell-squeaker-dog-toy-5093883.html?msclkid=eb8117c245161bf978c3758fed001901&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=US_MSN_Shopping_Hardgoods_National_All&utm_term=4580565451568438&utm_content=US_MSN_Shopping_Hardgoods_National_All&gclid=eb8117c245161bf978c3758fed001901&gclsrc=3p.dsThey come in all sorts of different sizes for small dogs too 🙂
>>Line up game…going well. We are now working on sitting between my legs, stay, and swinging my leg over. This part is hard for her, She does better if she sits a bit in front of me and I swing my leg and move to the side as she is sitting. Haven’t figure out how to do it with the leash on yet, a bit cumbersome. But going well.>>
Great! It is an additional fun game – you might choose to use a different line up behavior and turn this one into a fun game.
>>Off leash engagement, going really well. Years ago someone said to transfer a treat from my mouth to her mouth as I am snapping collar/leash off. I know it may seem gross but I don’t mind :). I do this as she comes out of her kennel to put her leash on, so I’ve incorporated it into this new game? Bad? too much? Still give her a treat when I stand up. I have to bend over to take her leash off.>>
That is something that is popular in obedience! It is fine except that we want her to offer engagement by looking at you before there is any indication of food movin to her mouth. So it can be in your mouth – but take the leash off, let her engage… and then reach to get it and deliver it to her. Try not to move it to her mouth until she has had a chance to offer engagement.
>>The Volume Dial…I find it hard to assess her ‘appropriate’ arousal level.
We will know more when we see how she does with it in trials 🙂 Experimenting is key, then seeing how she does!
>>Action games in a calm manner with treats keep her engaged and calm, delivered with more movement and enthusiasm gets her up a bit, same games for toy/ball raises her way up. But what’s appropriate for entering the ring, I’m unsure of. >>
This is good! There is no single thing that works for ALL dogs, so we need to experiment. When is her next trial? In general, for dogs that might be anxious about people – getting them WAY UP is better! I know it is counterintuitive but that is wha we have seen working well over and over. We need to ‘ask’ her by trying different things and see what she does.
>>So far I’ve tried treats with low energy action tricks, pattern games farther away from the ring with more time to go, then increase energy level with treats and finally pull out toy with same behaviors with about 3 dogs to go before we enter.
How long is she out doing this before her run? How did the run go? 3 dogs before her run might be too long for the high energy tricks because it is hard to sustain that energy level, so you might try it when there is one or two dogs before. It also depends on if it is standard or jumpers, because that is a slightly different timeline. And definitely add in the engaged chill (see below :))
>>But then one of our best runs, I had to switch my other dog out for Posh from my car and go straight to the ring with minimal warm up Go figure??>>
The rush probably got both of you WAY UP so she was at her best!
??Engaged chill…do you have any suggestions of what to do with a 12 lb dog? We engage chill at home while watching TV, she sits on my lap and I pet her head, massage he ear. She also likes to sit on the back of my chair curling around my head… I know, very weird! The only thing so far I’ve been able to do is bend down and cuddle her head against my leg while I pet her face and message her ear. But I have to bend over quite a bit and it would be hard to go over the course etc. Perhaps pick he up and do the same, but I don’t know if giving Her that view of things would negatively affect her. ??>>
I would try picking her up, if she loves it already. Plus it can be very ‘grounding’ for her and she won’t need to be near things that make her anxious!
>>Remote Reinforcement…going surprisingly well. Using our little purple child’s camping foldable chair, and treats in a small glass jar, lid shut tight. Started this outside. Went so well, I put it on the edge of our yard, go with me to a jump upright, sent her around it, had her jump in my arms, then off to the chair. We progressed this to 2 jump uprights, had her do a few figure 8s, jump in my arms then off to the chair….treats!!!>>
Hooray! She is a smartie!!!!
>>Then I decided to try 2 tennis balls, no bungees, her absolute highest value toy. She watched me load the jar with the balls. I walked away and she didn’t want to leave the chair. >>
Ha! One of my dogs feels this pain, entirely. LOL!!
>>Then she started pawing at the jar with the balls in it, in the chair. Instead of calling her, or going to get her, or putting her on a leash, I decided to just stand there about 10 ft away facing the jump uprights and wait. She continued to paw at the jar and look at me. So I didn’t say anything and waited. After a few seconds she chose to leave the chair/ball jar and come to me. I set her up in a sit, released and did a few figure eights, asked her to jump into my arms, and ran to the chair. We opened the jar and played fetch with those balls for 5 minutes!!! Go figure!>>
The balls are the ultimate high value AND they elicit an entirely different behavior than the engaged focus we ask for in the remote reinforcement games 🙂 So, break it all the way back down the the balls – one step away, two steps away, etc, rewarding the little bits just like you did when you started this game.
>>A couple of months back I started working on the basics of this. At first it was very hard…she pawed at the cookie jar for literally minutes before she finally paused and I could open it and treat her. It took sessions before she could leave the jar or pass by the jar to do something. Then toys were introduced. With this, your method/mechanics and the power of the purple chair, it seems like we’ve made good progress. However for a trial, or seminar setting, I can see how this routine would need to be absolute, especially with the chair on the outside of the ring.>>
Yes – you are doing a great job of building it up! The next step is to bring it to a training setting – that reward station just hangs out there, whether you are training with the reward in your hand, or not. And the chair is outside the ring and a cued behavior. It will work really well!
>>Since we last chatted, we’ve had a private behavioral lesson, one session UKI course seminar, USDAA tournament only night trials, and class this morning. I will add the results and data from these events tomorrow.>>
Awesome! Looking forward to that so we can plan for what is coming up 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning! Lots of good stuff here!
One thing that I notice is that he is doing REALLY well offering engagement as the leash came off – that is HUGE! Be sure to reward that a LOT because it is so important. You are tending to emphasize the stay but I think you will have more success in high distraction environments if you prioritize the engagement and reward it, rather than going into the stay and lead out.
>> Line up mechanics still struggling once he’s in position he’s like a lazy horse at the start gate and wants to angle each additional setup seems to devalue because the cookies are slower to come especially at trial etc>>
I think what you are seeing is a value issue – the reinforcement comes significantly after the engagement/line up, especially when you move him around, so he is not very excited about it. So reward a lot sooner (for the leash off engagement and for the line up and for the remote reinforcement, rather than after a lead out) – and if he is not in the perfect position… don’t move him. Most dogs find that a real bummer because it is punishing but they were not incorrect. You can use your position to line him up, and he will find the first jump just fine even if he is not perfect.
And use the reward station in practice a lot, so he lines up facing the jump with the reward station behind him and sometimes you use the remote reinforcement marker and go back to the reward station.
>>>.Could catch be a get it replacement or alternative? That appears to be his favorite foodie and sometimes toy behavior.
Yes, totally is another great way to add in fast reinforcement for engagement at the start line.
>> The first session is at my parents and he definitely is not a fan of his toys in new or different environments. I’m thinking that if he can’t interact with the toy it may not be worth it to keep pushing using food seems like less fighting or? I thought maybe I would ask the question and if he says no just use food on those days or places?>>
I agree! Don’t fight about the toys. If he says that the toy is NOT a reinforcement in that moment, no worries, just go to food which appears to always be reinforcing 🙂 When a dog is in a new environment, a toy is often harder to engage with. He said “no thanks” to the toy in that first session and it was perfectly fine to switch back to the food 🙂
>>Random clip of bed and treats if they weren’t on that was behind as a rest stop.
Was he able to relax a bit on the bed? We do want that engaged chill moment 🙂
>> What I didn’t know until later was that a dog in heat or just out of had been in the yard prior so extra credit for any focus since I came to play engagement games and was slightly befuddled as to why it seemed much harder than it should be.
Ah! Great distraction! I thought he did really well, though!
At the training ring – you can put in a reward station outside the ring to mix in practicing remote reinforcement, and also use your leash to the line, to reward lots of engagement when it comes off!
Try not to use an oops marker or tell him he is wrong when he doesn’t read the sequence correctly. That is all handler error 🙂 and we don’t want to blame the dog because he will check out if he is told he is wrong, but he was correct with the info he was given. For example, at 6:45, he read the handling correctly but was told he was incorrect so you can see him deflate. Same at 7:54 – I think you told him your feet were not facing where he went… but actually they were LOL! He was correct there too because he would need a lead change cue to turn to his right a bit, and the line you ran cued him to stay on the line he was one. So even in the moment if you are not totally sure what caused the error, it is better to either keep going or just use a reset cookie because sequence errors are almost never dog errors 🙂
Later in the video, as he moved to the line (9:00) he was sniffing. it might’ve been the good girl smells 🙂 but whatever the cause, you can use your volume dial games here to get him engaged, with less emphasis on getting into the stay and more emphasis on getting engagement. I think that will help trial behaviors a lot more. Great job rewarding and staying connected with little handling errors there! That makes a big difference!
Nice work! Let me know what you think! What is next on his training or trial schedule?
Tracy
