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Hi! That’s right, now I remember! Yes, keeping the hand low helped him out.
I also realize that we are being very obsessive about it (in a good way haha) because his position on the end of the board there is better than 97% of agility dogs out there! But because of his talent, I believe we can get him right to the very end all the time, to put him in the very top 1%.Good morning!
Same good opening as course 1 (yes, 3 is a backside slice if you want to run it again)
Looking for the chase moments: I think the first one was at :19. Coming out of the long tunnel, and since she is small, when you turned a little forward (pointing ahead of you) so all she could really see was your back – and it looks like she saw the shoulder turn and was reading it like a blind cross. You peripherally saw it happen and tried to fix it, but she was pretty irate about it LOL!
So it was not really a chase moment – it was more of a break in connection. When you were miles ahead on other elements of this course and connected, she was perfect – so try to make eye contact back to her especially on the tunnel exits (I know – make the eye contact there from miles ahead AND keep running as hard as you can :)) When you are that far ahead on the longer distances, lock your dog side arm back, extended to her, so she can see your upper body. That should eliminate the error you had here.
And if you have other chase moment videos, feel free to post them so we can sort out why she is doing it.Saving that moment partially contributed to the off course a-frame, but also that delicious high value a-frame was right on her line. She would need a stronger left turn cue there – either send and leave sooner if she responds to that and will turn tightly. Or, you can add a brake arm (outside arm to ask for more collection). Or a spin! But a spin would last option because you have to rotate and we don’t want you to lose any ground with such a speedy dog.
When you fixed it at :32 you had the opposite arm going but I think that was more for the serp after it?
Nice backside after the teeter! One of the summer goals will be to allow you to send and leave on that, without needed to use your opposite arm to cue coming in over the bar. Your backside cue should also mean “take the jump” so you should be allowed to just send her to the backside side and run through the the blind on the exit. The upper body rotation takes a while and delays your running… and again, because she is little (no hang time) and FAST FAST FAST we are going to do as much as we can to let you just run and handle minimally.
Now, she is only 2, so I don’t know how well she understands to go to the backside AND take the jump. But try it without speed, just send to a backside, stay connected, and walk past *without* using the opposite arm cue and let’s see what she does 🙂
She was a little high on the RDW at :42, so if you trained with a mat, feel free to put it back on for these big independence moments so she rehearses correct behavior there.
Great weaves at the end!!! Layering the tunnel – the video stopped but it looks like she had a question about taking 15? I think the cue was late there – you can start giving her a go verbal or out or jump verbal while she is around pole 6 or 8 so she exits looking forward. You gave the cue after she was done here, so she had already turned towards you (the weave exit turns them towards us there too).
Doing it without the layer worked to get it because you could show her 15 really nicely but it made the line 17-18 harder to smooth out.
Her weaves look really independent in the opening AND here in the closing, and that is GREAT because you can really do whatever handling works best! Yay! And it will be a really good handling challenge to start giving her the next cue while she is still weaving 🙂Great job!
TracyGood morning!
She looked really strong here with finding the entry and staying in. I have a couple of questions that can help us figure out the next steps:
About the toy – yep, I have seen that in a lot of dogs including my own. Twitching the toy sometimes is so distracting that they pop out. When you were holding the toy and she popped out, was the MM also out ahead? I found that by using the MM exclusively for a couple of sessions but also holding the toy (not throwing it, it was just in my hand) – the popping out stopped. And then I faded the toy in as a reward: the MM was still there, but sometimes I threw the toy instead. That was an easy way to get the dogs ignoring the toy too (and now they just weave for the toy, no MM :))If you were holding the toy and the MM was out there and she still found it difficult, you can ease off the line of motion distractions and make the toy smaller in your hand and see if that helps. We really do want her to weave while you are holding the toy 🙂
Her striding was a little questioning on the video – it could have been that the poles were open as you mentioned, and/or that you were sending from a distance and running away. She was great about getting in and staying in! So you can experiment with this and see how she does with the handling challenges on the 6 closed poles with the MM versus slightly open poles, using the same handling as you did here.
And you can also try setting the line from right next to the wing – by doing it from a distance, she might have been thinking hard about it and that changed her striding. Setting the line from right next to the wing might be easier and then the striding in the poles will be there – and I also think the distraction of you starting next to her and then dramatically running away is a pretty significant challenge 🙂
Let me know how it goes playing around with these options! And she is also looking pretty ready for the sequences if you are ready to do them too 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
>> Since I’d been introducing Sole to this along with Presto, I also did the Pizza game in her class last week and it was pretty amazing. Perhaps it will help unlock her next level of potential!
That is great!! Clarity in this can really help dogs relax in the ring 🙂
>>He can do 12 closed weaves now – even did it in Jackie’s seminar in a sequence! But, as I mentioned when I saw you, he has lost the nice speed and footwork he had a couple weeks ago and he seems more thoughtful and deliberate.
Good boy!!!! Here on the 6 poles, he was speedy and rhythmic… bouncing, not swimming. Totally independent, good boy!
>> But he had no problems with the independence – the only moment was in the middle rep included here he did look back at the end since I was a little late clicking the MM.
Yes! And when he looked at you there, it was appropriate. That is where we would want him to look after the weaves in a sequence if you were in that position. Good boy!
>>It was harder for ME since I had to run into trees. 😉 Also, I noticed that as I do the wrap, I keep moving the clicker from one hand to another, which makes my send a little muddled. >>
Yes, I was chuckling about you running into the trees LOL!! And I don’t think he really noticed the clicker moving.
>> Later this weekend I’ll try this again with a full 12 weave set, although I’ll reduce the reps. I was thinking I may also open the weaves a bit since it’s a new challenge.
Let me see a couple of reps on the closed poles so I can see what he is doing with the striding. Then yes, do some with them a tiny bit open, so we can obsess… I mean so we can look at striding 🙂
>>Tomorrow Presto gets four FEO runs at an ASCA trial. I am hoping to find some longer sequences in the courses and if he’s handling the environment well, also work some weaves (although separately from the long sequences). His teeter is starting to look pretty good too, but not independent enough to do at a trial yet. After tomorrow, our next trial opportunity is UKI at the end of July – its the weekend he turns 18 months, so then I really have a great opportunity for NFC runs!!>>
That is a great plan!!! I am excited for all of your training opportunities!!!!!
Great job here! Keep me posted on the 12 poles 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>> I always tell my instructors to be brutally honest with me.
Training is a collaborative art 🙂 And the video really helps! I will try to give you as much detail and as many ideas as possible 🙂
>>On the weaves I was working with him on open channel weaves going to a treat & train prior to coming up to Colorado. I guess I need to continue that as I was seeing progress in his speed and he certainly loves the treat and train. However I do need to hang back in the weaves and not rely on my motion so much. I am able to pull off the weaves and have some independence but if my overall goal is fully independent weaves I need to be able to send him and go. >>
I like the idea of bringing back the Treat And Train and opening up the poles – the TnT can help with the independence and the open poles make it easy and fast, so you can do more reps without an extra ‘bang’ on his body. And you can work on sending him ahead while you sit in a chair 🙂 or run the other way or run off on 90 degree angles.
>>I was also working on sending him to the tunnel and taking off to the next obstacle before I left.>>
Perfect! Thrown rewards are great for this too – since he likes food, a treat hugger or lotus ball is perfect to for that.
>>I will focus on moving away from him with the toy in the future. Keep me honest. If you see the same thing in a future please call me out on it.
You can also tie that toy to a long line or a long tug toy, and let him chase it while you swing it around. Let his response be your guide: if he lights up and gets right on the toy, you are moving it in a way he likes. If he backs off the toy or stops looking at you, then he is not excited for it. I find that smaller dogs like it better when we are upright and moving the toy away, so having the toy attached to something long can facilitate that 🙂 And I will indeed keep bugging you about it LOL!!
Looking forward to your next videos!
TracyHi!
Yes, I like your idea of using the poles for the Skills Sets! You don’t have to have them all open, just either the entries or exits that you think might be super challenging.And you can say your reset cue and keep turning in a circle, so it doesn’t get accidentally paired with stopping. And you can also stop on purpose and keep giving your weave cue… then throw the ball. Wheeee!
The Skills Sets will be fun! And you can also set up small pieces of the bigger courses. It can all be super fun 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>> I was so hesitant to post this teeter video because I knew this would end up in an accountability for criteria discussion 😅🤣. He was originally trained in a 2o2o. I’m not the best about holding him in a stop like seen here. We haven’t done a ton in full on run but he’s been offering a stopped 4 on. He’s such a fragile soul sometimes I’ve worried that somehow a butt bounce in a 2o2o might traumatize him so I haven’t pushed the issue. I originally trained by back chaining and then uses the MM at the end, which I should probably revisit.>>
4on can totally work, but clarifying it through lots of rewards will help him be less delicate (the 2o2o is also a great option and I have games to prevent the butt bounce LOL!!)
>>Going back to the obstacle commitment, I think I underuse deceleration with him. One because I don’t really need it with Callie so it’s sometimes an after thought, but mostly because it will usually result in a refusal and orienting back to the mama. And I mean man can he stop on a dime when I decel. >>>
I think we can fix that with changing the placement of reinforcement: all rewards come at the exit of the obstacle and nowhere near you 🙂 I call it Commitment Boot Camp and for 1 month, all rewards are thrown to the landing of jumps and exits of tunnels. Boom! Commitment. Then you can figure out what he needs in terms of cues for extension versus collection. Without commitment being really strong, it is hard to know. So even on a tight turn where you are decelerating: decel, cue a turn… throw the toy. The toy should be thrown approximately to where you want him to land/turn.
>>I don’t really have a soft turn cue in my toolbox at the moment. Left and rights are on my list of training goals that is ever growing. I find the tone which I say jump can cue collection versus extension and I do tend to try to decel with him for soft turns.>>
Let’s get commitment first… and then it will be easy to install the soft turns. We have that on the agenda for the summer 🙂
>>>I am not recalling zigzags
check out this setup:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1Vq_Mv4j0o
>>>Carrie and I were working on my timing 🤣. Unfortunately we didn’t get her in film saying “you need to do that again because you were late with your cue 😜”>>
Ha! I thought I heard her starting your turn cues on time lol
T
Hi!
>> With Ruse and the Seesaw, do you think training a nose touch would be ok?
Yes! I trained many of my dogs with nose touches and it worked out beautifully.
>>I don’t know why Hero scratches, I didn’t teach him that lol.
You didn’t but you did – he offered it and you clicked it immediately LOL! I think he was reading our discussion about it? LOL!
>>Does the cue I give “slam” mean you go to the end of the seesaw and when the seesaw hits the ground you do a nose touch, or does the second part of the behaviour have to have a different cue?
I tell my nose touch dogs to teeter (which means run to the teeter) then ‘target’ (same as slam) which means run into the position AND nose touch.
>>I’m thinking to set up one of the jumping courses tomorrow to have a crack at with both dogs maybe Sunday. Or would it be better to tackle an agility course first?
Either one is great!
On the Hero video:
He did SUPER well here! Only little details. I was really excited by his weaves! Are they still a tiny bit open? If so, I think he is ready for you to start to close them up.
Some thoughts on the little details:
First rep – he was nice and tight on the backside at 2 (I think you wanted the backside there, it looked like you cued it) and all through the rest! And the weaves looked GREAT.
Second rep – on the forward send to 2, it was hard to hear if there was a turn cue and also the forward send doesn’t cue enough collection for him there – you can try more ‘brake’ arm with the outside arm when he lands from 1, to see if that helps get more collection there.
I think his wraps looked good on jump 4. You had a moment of disconnection over 7 at :31 so he lost his train of thought and looked up at you, dropping the bar.
Great weaves again though!On the 3rd rep, you turned your lower body away even sooner at :38 and had a bit of a brake arm up – that turn on 2 was tighter. Yay! I think with the brake arm and also since you are hanging back on the weaves, you can stay near him between 1 and 2 to really accentuate the brake arm and decel, which can get the turn really perfect.
Great weaves again 🙂4th rep – at 1:00, you didn’t rotate as soon on the wrap and it was not as tight.
And nice push to the backside at 1:11 – you had great rotation and connection there and his line was lovely!>> (hopefully I sliced where you meant)
I was thinking of jump 4 (the one after the weaves) – you did some backside slices and they were lovely!
Great job here. Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there!
She is super fun! OMG!!! How big is she? You’re doing as great job with her: lots of great skills and speed, at only 2 years old!
Some throughs on the first course:
You can be a little more towards 3 when she lands from 1 to set that line a little better (so she turns before takeoff and not on landing) but she read it well and had GREAT weaves! She turned the wrong way on the weave exit at :28 which I am going to chalk up to adorable baby dog stuff (she might have thought Lynne was you at first but she did it again at :36. Since that is a hard skill you can break it down and be more ‘in the picture’ so she knows where to turn when she exits.
The teeter was good with you hanging back, but I think she can go even more to the end of it (:45). A target can be out there to help her for now. Plus you can be closer to the 7-8 jumps before her so you don’t have to decel – the added momentum will keep her driving ahead.When you reward the teeter, you can release and reset the line – you released her from right next to it and then she *smoked* you up the next line LOL! That is what produced a bit of chaos at :54. if you get caught behind there, you can use an outside arm to get her out and off the line but ideally you use your independent teeter skills to get way ahead 🙂
That line worked a lot better on the next rep when you used those skills more. And now you are going to laugh: you know how I obsess on connection connection connection? Well, looking at her speed… when you see her heading to the jump after the teeter, you don’t have time to connect. You have permission to disconnect and RUN, as long as you keep yelling your verbals. WHEEE! That will get you to the position you need several steps sooner. I think you stayed connected a heartbeat too long at 1:03 and that is why it was so hard to get up the line.
On the line after the a-frame: you got a good turn at #13 so the 14-15 line is another place to send, yell the things… and not watch as much. You were a bit careful there (maybe the running aframe is not totally solid yet) and she had questions on the jump after the frame at 1:17. Even if you get behind there, though, you can still decelerate and cue the wrap – it would end up being a FC there on 16 and then RC the tunnel entry, but that would work if you can’t get far enough ahead.
Although watching the next rep, I think maybe you were trying to slice that jump? Great job getting in for a BC 11- 12-13-14 but you might not need to do that – you can get the same line if you keep her on your right and send more to 13.
You got to a MUCH better position after the frame because you had a lot more send & hustle 🙂 Yay! To get the serp to the tunnel at 1:34, you would need to converge directly to the 16 jump so you could get your feet past the exit wing and pointing to the tunnel. You ran a parallel line for too long, so she read it as a more ‘normal’ serp.The RC to the threadle there also works – adding more decel on the RC will get a tighter turn and make the threadle easier… except it puts you waaaay behind Speedy Speederson 🙂 I like your serp option!
Since the DW was off camera, we will just assume it was perfect 🙂 And yes, be careful with the GO verbal, make sure you know where she is looking before you use it 🙂
I couldn’t really hear what verbal you were trying at 2:04 on the second time there? She is inexperienced, so she might need more of a physical cue – like a foot rotation towards her – to help get her eyes off the weaves there. Your decel on the very last rep totally helped. Nice independent weaves, though!
>> Course 2 – better – just the off course to the frame first
Maybe I am missing it, but I don’t see course 2 here?
>>And you go to see her chase – at least she’s not leaping & biting anymore
On the first course, what would you consider chase moments? There were a couple of spots where she had questions, but they were legit and not too chase-based.
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Nice work on the sequences here! You are really looking good with the connections – almost perfect on all the reps! And great job setting the line from the wing wraps, it gave her a great line up on these.
On the weave section:
Great job on the turn and connection on the 3-4 jump to wing (or where it ended up being in context) – lovely!>>She didn’t want to stay in the weaves when I left to early. Agree?>>
Yes 🙂 that first rep was great, she nailed it… but then she was on to you and realized you were not moving with her. I don’t think you were leaving too early, I just think she needs to see this in a training context. I suggest opening up the poles a bit (if you trained with 2x2s or channels) so the poles are easier and sending her through with you fading away laterally like here, then throwing the reinforcement out ahead (rather than turning back to you). You can do that just on 6 open weaves and she will soak it up like a sponge.
When something goes wrong, especially for her: resist temptation to mark the errors negatively and especially don’t make a whole conversation about it (“what happened??”) – she knows it was wrong LOL! And adding the marker/conversation just adds stress to something she already finds difficult. It is better to just call her back, reward a trick, then make it easier to be successful (in this case, by opening up the poles and adding a little more motion if she still needs that).
Only one little connection error here – after the poles on the push to the backside, connect more to her at :38 and not to the jump. You looked forward there so she ended up thinking you wanted the front side of the jump.
That little off course after the push at 1:36 was just because there was an extra jump on her line that would need to be handled – no worries, she was a good girl to pick it up.
Teeter – she did well on the teeter here but this was harder for her, I don’t think she fully loves the teeter yet. What is her criteria? On the first rep it was a moving release, on the 2nd rep it looked more like a 4on? To help her love it more and drive to the end as you move away, you can too put a target out depending on how you originally trained it. Then she will be looking for the target and you can toss the reward to the target as well.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I use the Manners Minder for this (and UKI because they are much more chill about in and out of the ring). The MM is the ‘anchor’ for this ‘go get your reward’ cue. And when the dog works away from it in the ring, I give the cue and we run back to it together. Initially, it is in the ring and very visible during training. When that procedure is firmly established, I move it into a food reward box in UKI (or just outside the ring gate). When it is in the food reward box, I can go in and out. When it is outside the gate, going to it ends the training run but that is fine. It gets gradually built in. Then when it is firmly established, I can leave it outside the ring, 30 feet away, and show it to the dog… run the course, then out to the reward.The procedure must be firmly established through the baby steps in training though, which is why you won’t want to try it this weekend at a real trial. My guess is the trial this weekend will be the same as usual and then we can work on adding the different procedure for different trials.
TGood morning!
First up, sequences with Fusion: She did well here!! Good commitment!! Good connection from you especially around the wing wraps!! She is a tight turning dog especially on the wing wraps! You’ve done a great job with her handling foundations, this was lovely work especially from such a young dog!
The main suggestion here is that you give the info on the tunnels sooner: you were sending her in straight and forward on all of them and then giving the exit/turn info as she was exiting. Ideally all the info is delivered before she goes in, so she can set up the exit line without you. She naturally turns tight back to you (especially with the MM there 🙂 ) so not giving the turn info before hand was fine on the tight turn exits because that is what she wants to do anyway. However, it made the slightly wider exits a lot harder because if you were not there, she had a question about where to go (like at :31 and 1:37 and 2:10 and 2:26 we get a clear view of her question) Plus, on those big NZ courses, we really prefer her to want to go straight on the tunnel exits for now and not turn tight back to you.
At :41, she did miss the tunnel but to be honest, I think that was a handling error and not a Fusion error LOL! When you sent her around the wing, her real path was right past the tunnel to the backside of the tunnel, GOOD GIRL – she would need a threadle to come in and take it. Young dogs are very honest and don’t save us in those moments LOL! You used a physical cue to pull her in on the next rep (and on later reps) and she was great.
On the around/send to the wing at 1:19, yes that high arm turned her to the tunnel so she was unsure. When you took one more step at 1:28 AND the arm was low: perfect! You also did this on the following reps and it looked great on all of them
On the wrap at 2:11, she pulled the rail – the wrap rotation was late. You had the verbal going (yay!) started rotating when she was taking off. Try to start the rotation when she is still a meter or two away from the jump so the info comes sooner. She kept the bar up at 2:27 and 3:00 because you were actually a bit later (turned when she landed from the jump) but ideally we want you to be turned and running up the next line before she takes off, especially when the bars are at full height.
So let me know what you think – mainly getting the tunnel info in sooner (and rewarding out past it for when you want her to drive out of it straighter and earlier wrap cues (we work more on this in July too).
Veloz might benefit from doing this with 2 leashes – one really light one that you hold the whole time, and the normal leash that you take on and off. The reason for the 2nd leash is so that you can get rewards in REALLY fast without him leaving when you take leash #1 off. We worked on this a bit back in Jan 2020 but it is something to keep working on to countercondition his impulse to move away when the leash is off. He is already much improved so I think this is going well! He doesn’t naturally love being right next to us humans so the more we can pump him full of reward, the better he will feel about it. He seemed to do well with the leash as a toy!! And he was releasing it well too. He was very engaged! I definitely recommend using the leash as part of the transition to trial game because it will basically be like taking a toy into the ring.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
So much good stuff here! Lots of things that I think we can play with the dog training element, and then some handling things that will help smooth out where he had questions. Yay!
First up, the teeter! He did really well here! You were good about adding some challenge by not also having a ton of motion so he could think it through: enough challenge to have to think about it and grow the skill without failing dramatically. Question: what is his teeter criteria? 4on? I noticed that he was doing a 4on til released but stopping a little higher on the board than we want him to. It might be that he was not used to you being behind him or fading laterally, and/or that he really hasn’t worked the teeter in a while. Rewarding out ahead with the MM helps. To get the criteria right at the end of the board as much as possible (because it is clearer/easier to maintain and also faster :)) – did you originally train him with a target? You can put it out again for these drills. Let me know how you originally trained him and we can figure out a way to get him right to the end of the board.
On the sequences:
He is doing well here too! There are mainly 3 things to tweak – and you saw those 3 things several times in these sequences, which is why he had some questions.And yes, the threadle/wrap cue is above the pay grade of these sequences; we will get to them later in the summer LOL!
The main thing that was happening here was that I think his tunnel commitment can be stronger. You were trying to turn before the tunnel (I think what you did at :15 was spot on in terms of timing and rotation… but that is when he did not take the tunnel). So we can work on getting him to commit better to the tunnel – when he didn’t commit to the tunnel at :15, you ended up facing forward for longer, so he was going wider on the exits and then he picked up the rhythm of the sequence and came out looking for you even with you facing forward. So a great skills set is to take a short straight tunnel and have the MM out ahead and toys to throw: and with more momentum going into it, work on the tunnel commitment with rewards out past the tunnel so you can get your cues in before he enters (ideally, he sees the rotation while he is still at least 3 feet before the entry).
On sequence 1, some ideas on the handling:
On the jump after the tunnel, he sometimes ended up behind (:24 and :41, and later on at 1:29) you even when you did the cross really early and you were on your left arm before he approached the jump. A TON of connection to his eyes (staring as his eyes as you move away will really help that) and you can also reward some good old fashioned recall-to-heel games where he has to fit himself in between you can the jump (it is hard!) You had great connection at :49 and it really helped him out.The other thing we can work on is the timing of the turn cues (I think you and Carrie were working on that here, I could hear her helping with the verbals) – because of his stride length, you’ll need to decelerate when he lands from the previous jump (facing forward but slowing down) so he can cue off the decel and also so you can rotate sooner. Ideally the rotation is finished and you are moving away before he takes off for the jump and the deceleration really facilitates that. So on the turns where he was wide on the wraps (like at 1:47 and 1:59 and 2:24 and 2:51) it was just a matter of adding that decel transition into it so he could see it coming sooner. No worries, we obsess on turns in Games package 2 AND 3 LOL!
And the other thing I see is a training thing: he has a little trouble setting up for the ‘soft’ turns (moderate collection, not wraps) so he was a little wider than needed and the bar came down a lot on those especially to his right (like on reps 1 and 2 of sequence 3). You mentioned the ground was a little soft and it was hot, so that indeed contributes. You can also decel/cue and leave sooner on those (you were using a jump cue, is that your soft turn verbal?) and we can also look at using a brake hand (which is gently using the opposite arm to help him collect a little).
Those soft turns are actually the hardest, imo! We can also show him the zig zag grid – I can’t remember if we showed him that? If we did, you can refresh it as it will help a lot with that moderate slice jumping. If it doesn’t ring a bell, let me know and I will post some videos for you 🙂Hi!
I am jealous that you get to run UKI this weekend! So fun!>>Yes, my verbal is “get it” which I use to mean “get it” i.e. get the toy/treat on the floor. Should I be using a unique command for this exercise only?>>
I do recommend something totally unique so it is really specific. I use get it for when I am sending the dog to something on the ground out ahead, and let’s go for when they have ‘permission’ to go get the reward outside the ring or behind them in the ring.
>>>I don’t know if you remember but she becomes “frozen stiff” when we go to set up in the ring and I am not able to get her to engage in a simple trick or play. She acts like she is in a trance and inches forward until she can’t hold it any longer.>>
Yes, the joys of arousal LOL! Some dogs are all business and can’t do tricks. I do use the send back to the leash for those dogs – the leash is a bit of an ‘anchor’ for them and so they sit next to it or near it, and sometimes they get released forward onto the course, and sometimes I use the verbal to turn them back to it. In UKI it can also be a toy, because it is legal to bring a toy into the ring with the leash on every run! Yay UKI!
>>This exercise seemed to help her a lot. Shall I continue to do what I did today but put it in the context of a sequence in preparation for Saturday?>>
Yes, a short sequence but it is probably a bit too soon to do big sequences with it at a trial. before putting it into a trial, I would get her happy to turn back to a toy or leash after you have lead out past a jump. You can do it with food too, but that usually won’t be easy at a trial – but we can talk about how to use food in the trial setting like this! I do it all the time LOL!
T
Awwww very cool about the foxes!! They are so fun to watch – what color are they? They looked almost grey (or blue Merle LOL!)
>> Will there come a time when you proof that later when the training is more solid for those unforeseen things that happen at trials?>>
Yes and no…. I add duration and praise before the release, but I am not the type of do everything that looks like a release and with the rhythm of a release, and then say something like “Oklahoma” or “Breakfast” or twitch or something. I feel like I am setting up the dog to fail and it is rude to the dog LOL! I mean, they put up with my handling when it is crappy, so I try not to be rude to them on the start line. If something happens after I lead out and I can’t run (like a timer malfunction, for example), I will either release and praise and then go get their leash or cookies, or just use my reward word to send them back to their leash.
T
