[Tracy Sklenar]

First video – nice focus and tricks for cookies! From the sound of it, there was a LOT OF EXCITING ACTIVITY nearbyand he was great. If I didn’t have the sound on, I would assume that there was nothing happening in the environment because he was so lovely in his focus and engagement. You can use your treats as toys: instead of handing them to him, you can move a few steps so he chases your hand with the cookie, then deliver it to him.

I am glad he was able to tug a bit too! Be sure that when you are tugging, you are also asking for some tricks so you can keep him centered in his arousal. Tugging might send him into a state that is too aroused, so mixing in tugging for tricks will move him towards that perfect centered state of arousal.

>>There was more barking in this subsequent turns, but I think he did focus a bit better at the start lines.

Some dogs bark during runs… for a lot of reasons LOL!! So, if you remember or looking at your videos:
– did he bark and continue to work really well, just barking because things were so exciting?
– did he bark and look at you, coming off a line or coming towards you?
– did he grumble while working (usually a sign that our handling was late LOL!)

On the 2nd video – sounds like he was barking, maybe just because LIFE IS AWESOME and he was pumped up. One big thing here: take your hand off his collar 🙂 When the leash comes off, he will either engage or not engage LOL! By holding his collar, both of you are getting tense about the start line. So, take the leash off and do not hold his collar – let him make a decision about engaging or not. The goal is that you can be relaxed, trust him fully, take the leash off, line up, and onwards to the first jump. Being able to do that is a much better state of arousal for both human and canine 🙂

Happily, there is a game coming tonight *specifically* for this (engagement when the leash comes off).

No worries about him saying ‘hi’ to Becca 🙂 She was very close and she has more value than the fancy backside move 🙂 A judge at a trial won’t be as close, and won’t have as much value, so he will easily be able to ignore them

Great job here! April 2 is next weekend, so the new games will be in place so you can use them at the next seminar too! Yay!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Great start with all of these games and some VERY useful info from Grady!

Action tricks with cookies visible: you have SO MANY great tricks. YAY! Is the barking on cue? I LOVE barking as an action trick, it is very good for getting the dogs stimulated and focused.
He has great action tricks – in training, reward each one for now so he doesn’t frustrated when doing several in a row. The spins, hopping up and down, paw, tricks, etc. – this is a fabulous toolbox of tricks 🙂

He thought the pattern game was easy peasy and offered engagement very nicely 🙂 To keep it very predictable, stick to one style of reinforcement per session (like tossing versus dropping on your shoes) – you can take a break between each session if you want to change reinforcement style. The predictability of it is the most important part. The next step is to add a neutral distraction, some random item, and play the pattern game near it (not agility equipment though, make the distraction something like a suitcase or a trashcan LOL!) And, take the pattern game into neutral environments so he offers engagement in different places: leash walks, different places, even different rooms in your home 🙂 We will be building this up to where he can offer engagement happily even when a judge or a bunch of people are moving nearby.

He also liked the line up games, this can be a fun way to build up a new start line routine and also a silly fun trick to get him pumped up before a run 🙂

This video answers my question about barking on cue from earlier – YAY! I am glad you have the barking as a cued behavior. You can totally use it in the volume dial game.

Treats in pockets video – aha, we see where we need to add more focus as the tricks lost a lot of crispness when the treats were not immediately visible. He was able to do them, but needed mutliple cues and/or was not able to do them as well. So keep revisiting this game – either cookies in pockets, or cookies in a bowl on the table next to you. When you do this, be hyper-aware of where you hands are – at the beginning, you were really good about keeping your hands empty and away from the magic cookie pockets 🙂 But then you started to have your hands in your pockets or move to the pockets before the cue, so he was watching to cookie hands. For example, watch the paw sequence starting at approx :49 to about :57 where he was seeing your hands in your pocket as part of the cue. To get crisp behavior in the trial ring, be super careful about not moving to the cookies until after he has done the behavior.

I think the next game to really focus on will be the remote reinforcement game – this game also focuses on getting engagement without the cookies or toys in your hands, which is going to be a really important piece of the puzzle with him.

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! Thank you for the videos, he is SO FUN!!!!

>>Grady seemed a bit bothered by the judge…more sensitive to her location>>

I agree – he is sensitive to the judge and also the presence and activity of the ring crew.

On the first run, there were relatively limited distractions near the start so he had a good opening (note the big yawn on the start line, that is a stress signal)
Later in the run, as he had to turn to the judge, he lost his train of thought.

On the 2nd run, there were lots of people nearby at the start line so he was more stressed and he definitely struggled of the line, when he saw the judge (weave poles) and then after the wrap wing, he saw a ring crew person and struggled with that.

This is great info from him! We will definitely be adding people into the games after the games are well-established, so he can be happy and confident with people moving around. I’m guessing that it is this bit of nervousness that is having a big impact on his runs. We will plan how to do this even though you train on your own a lot 🙂 For now, get your training partner to act as the judge for really simple behaviors (low jumps and tunnels) so you can reward him a LOT for passing a person nearby, even though he is probably fine with the training partner.

Let me know what you think! Onwards to the games!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Minny pinny – this went well! She had no trouble moving through it at all. Yay! 2 suggestions:
– Repeat the cue, so she hears it with each left or right turn (and be sure it is the correct one LOL!) so it will sound more like left left left instead of just one left verbal.
– And change your reinforcement position – rather than tossing straight, have her do one more left or right turn across the front of you so she ends up between you and the wings.

Serps –
She had a little trouble sending to the wing with the reward target in place, so you can send to the wing and reinforce that piece before moving through the serp. I think part of it was the cue to the start wing, through: On the sends to the start wing, part of her question was about your connection. You were pointing forward and not looking at her, which turns your shoulders/chest into the gap so she was not sure where to be. Start eac hsend with your dog side arm back more, more eyes on her, and stay connected as you send her to the wing – don’t point forward until after she is past you.

For the serp cue – your feet were good, keep moving towards the reward target. For the upper body, rotate your upper body to face the jump more with your dog side arm back more. Your belly button will be facing the bar, and your chest will be pointing to the bar as well. You were turning your shoulders forward (like a post turn) so your belly button was facing the reward not the bar – she did come in over the bar (like a post turn) but she was not turning back out to the reward (like a serp) so more upper body rotation will help that.

Very fun to see the smiley face show up in class! FUN! She was fast and lovely 🙂 Use the smiley face games to work on connecting back to her when she is behind you and not point forward of her because then she is not sure of where to go.
Looking at the wrap to the tunnel then tunnel to the wing at the beginning – that was lovely connection and she nailed it!
At :13 to send her to the 2nd wing after the FC, you pointed forward which broke connection and turned your shoulders… so she came off the line and looked at you. Then you recovered the connection beautifully and she was perfect at the end! So you can move more slowly in order to emphasize the connection for now (it gets a lot easier as the dogs learn the game, as you know :))

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! Sorry that I missed the smiley face game – thanks for reminding me! I put the ideas above.

The set point here looked really strong! Effortless!!! So 5 foot distance, dragging toy, setting her up exactly where you had her here. That is our current sweet spot.

For your next session in a couple of days – do 2 reps with the bar are 8 inches. If it looks and feels as good as this session, do 2 or 3 reps with the bar at 10 inches. Then end on one rep at 8 inches. We are going to gradually increase the height while maintaining her power and organization 🙂

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! Sorry that I didn’t see this one!!!

Her wrap commitment and tunnel commitment look terrific!! NIce connection on those and also nice clear connection on the tunnel exits! Great job with your verbals. She really understands what you want on the wraps and tunnels and is able to do the wraps tight AND fast, which is what we want. YAY! For the wraps, I think you can start to rotate sooner: decelerate as she is passing you and rotate as she gets to the wing, to work on earlier timing.

The only place I see her having a little question is on the racetracks – and I think that was a handling question. As you are doing the racetracks to the left and right, try to keep a bigger connection by keeping your arms lower and pointing more towards her nose. You were pointing a little ahead and looking ahead, which broke connection and turned your shoulders, so she looked up at you and zigged in a little before zagging back out. So as you run, you can keep your arms low and eye contact and keep moving – that should help her stay on the line like she did with the wraps and the tunnel cues.

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

This session went really well! Yes, there was not enough connection on the first rep but you still tossed the toy long, which supports your motion (for the times when we all forget to connect :)). The rest were perfect on the 10 foot distance: you looked at her, she looked ahead.

15 foot distance looked even better – she was FLYING and you were nicely connected. I think she is enjoying the running fast a WHOLE LOT 🙂

So now for the next sessions, 2 things to add:

– Right before she goes into the tunnel, say your GO cue, and keep saying it as you move up the line. That will name the behavior and give permission to go go go out of the tunnel and over the jump.

– Add more motion 🙂 She was perfect with your moving at this speed, so stay connected but also add running. And do what you did here: be ahead of her running, be parallel to her, be behind her, all while running. Keep that same toy placement.

We don’t need a lot of sessions of this because we are going to of course balance with turns on the tunnel exit and on the jump, so feel free to mix in a soft turn on the tunnel exit here and there by using your verbal before she enters.

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Now She’s got it in terms of tuning away on the minny pinny! You can shorten the distance between the bumps by maybe 6 inches or so, so she can bounce a little more and doesn’t have to ‘reach’ as much especially during left turns.

For the next session, start like you did here. Then, on the easier side (right side) start to move your start position over ot the center of the setup, where the 3 wings meet – to start comparing the left versus right from the same side of you. This is a VERY gradual process, be sure to make it easier if she fails as we are working towards pure verbals and that is hard for dogs!

On the serps:
Glad to know the breeder sees the serpentine question as well hahahaha
Have the toy on the line a little closer to the jump on the one jump set up so she has more bend over the bar when working one jump. If she will hold the stay, you can add more motion before the release so you are moving the whole time.

I am glad you angled the jump – and was surprised her first response was to run past it LOL! Hard to see what happened after that, hopefully you told her she was cute and didn’t play. After each correct rep, make a big deal of the play so if she skips the jump and gets the toy, you can just be casual, take the toy, and start over. When she went around it… it was not the setup, it was young dog border collie-ing: I GO FAST! You can even whip out a clicker for the next session and click the moment she organizes to take the jump and not run past it. After all, it is easier to run fast past it than it is to organize herself to take it.

So we will keep working the angled serp jump til it is easy for her: she was able to take the jump on the other reps but I don’t think any of it was easy for her. So stay here with this set up and over several sessions, we will angle the jump back to the original position. The zig zag games will help this too, because we end up using serp handling on those too.

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
I agree… this was great! She was fast, happy, accurate 🙂

>>Should I be asking for some hands touches right when we enter the ring? That’s where she seems to disengage.

Maybe, maybe not, we will experiment 🙂 some dogs are all business and just want to go to the line. Some dogs need the engagement tricks. We will play around in coming weeks and see which works best. I have games for line ups coming tomorrow and a leash game. What I do suggest with her is to go all the way to the line on leash, then take it off when she is basically in the right spot.

I think part of it is that I feel pressure to >>rush the start and that might be stressing her too but the AKC trials do seem to rush people to get to the line and start>>

Totally understandable! It is your time, though – take your time, sing a song, smile at the leash runner 🙂 it only takes about 5 extra seconds and everyone can wait 🙂

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Perfect! Keep me posted! Totally understandable that he wouldn’t want a big dog under him! I tend to make sure no big dogs approach me or my Littles when I’m holding them.
T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
The stay element of the start line looks great here! I think he is confused about where to line up, exactly. Since we don’t want him between your feet, you can have him line up at your side with either a hand touch cue, or have him nose target your leg (you can put a piece of duct tape on your pants to start that behavior LOL!!
Start it with the cookie for a session, to basically say: yes, this is where I want you to be! But then fade the cookie in the next aession so he lines up and you can just move away.

The tricks you did at the end were good – he likes to line up between your feet as a trick. And then you can release him forward without you needing to move away first.

For the engaged chill…when you are hanging out at home, what does he really enjoy? You have a Paws up trick and he seemed to like that – try that but don’t pet him as much, maybe just leave a hand on him or very soft slow petting. I like the Paws up because he is engaged and you don’t have to bend over (he is too big to carry but small enough that you’d have to bend over if he didn’t stand on you.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Great question!

I need to get my Papillons in more of the engaged chill videos 🙂 they are 8.5 and 11 inches tall, respectively, and I carry them for engaged chill moments. I have photos and probably videos from flyball of the Papillon doing engaged chill in a very non-chill environment 🙂

Does your Norfolk like bending held?
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
I’ve found changing the jump angle to be the fastest route to success with the serps 🙂

I think the minny pinny looked good! It isn’t really a jumping exercise at this stage, it is more of a brain game 🙂 and the coordination tells us how hard she has to think hahaha! Right turns? No problem, which is why we ate seeing better coordination and movement. Left turns? Ermagerd much harder, so she is not as fluent in her movement. No worries, though – it will percolate over time. Gemma has so much experience that you won’t see much difference on right or left sides, but Sprite is still learning all the things. For now, I would change anything other than revisit it here and there. She’s doing a great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
Big congrats on a successful trial weekend! Especially in bad weather – it sound slike you made excellent adjustments!!!

>> but … during the run in a small part where I was deliberately stationary as he ran towards me.. he put his nose down and sniffed. This taught me a lesson in running him … if I had run further into the obstacle and we were chasing each other – he would not have put his nose down .. so note to self on this one

Yes! Good lesson about staying in motion. Never plan to stand still unless the dog you are running is a complete freight train who ignores handling LOL! Sparky pays attention so he might have thought the standing still meant something went wrong.

>>.. then 4th run we started but abt 3 obstacles in he started sniffing .. so I guess he’d had enough …

He was likely physically and mentally exhausted.

>>but honestly yesterday was abt 80 percent improvement so I’m feeling happy …what exercise should I be looking at next…

80% improvement is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

I have a bunch of new info ocming tomorrow. So, for today? Give him a complete day off. No training. That is actually the BEST thing after a big weekend, so he can rest up and not be tired for the next steps.

>> what do u think abt caring a dog in as the start line procedure?

It works beautifully for dogs that like it! I carry my Papillon to the start line in agility and into the ring in flyball. My other dogs are just a little too big to be carried. We build up to any of it working because the dog understands and loves the routine. I mean, you can carry him in and if he wants to sniff or leave after you set him down… the carrying will not prevent that 🙂

Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>> He enjoys calm pets WHEN it is calm pet time. He doesn’t enjoy it as much in the context of a working session and at times finds it annoying/slightly aversive.

Yes! The engaged chill is more of a behavior that the dog gets to choose – we help a little by looking at what they naturally prefer and what they dislike, then we install it into the chill behavior.

MANY BCs find the petting and kisses on the head to be annoying/aversive. I mean, I can relate: if I am in a state of readiness to run a course and someone wants a hug? Yeah… no. LOL!! My BC/Croatian mix is like that too – loves being petted at home but in a work situation his engaged chill is more standing next to me (I admit to kissing him on the head sometimes to annoy him because he response is entertaining: MOM YOU ARE EMBARRASSING ME. But he is 9 years old so it is just silliness :)) My terrier/BC mix also prefers an engaged chill where there is eye contact sometimes and we are together, but she wants to be able to stand still next to me, and sometimes hop up to lick my hand. Totally different than the whippet mixes who want to be touched all the time. I have video coming of each. And it is all discovered through relaxed experiments at home and during training.

>>Sometimes that’s next to me or between my legs but if there’s something stimulating in front of us, like I’m watching another dog run, I’ll ask him to lie down facing me so he can more easily relax and chin rest on my shin or shoe.>>

Perfect! And his responses will give us a very clear indication of how he feels in each moment.

Very cool tree planting ceremony!!! Looks like your 87 degree weather has gone away! Good boy Ripley being the king of CHILL especially with the little Beagley dog being interested in his treats LOL! This is great – not as exciting as a big agility trial, but a lot more people and dogs in a small space. He was perfection!

His chill between reps while working is good too – I love when a dog can just stand and let us have a moment to sort out our sh*t for the next rep. I want the dog to understand that the withdrawal of my attention is NOT a punishment and that he should also not turn his attention to the environment (unless cued to do so). I loved when he was in the down, that kind of made me think of what waiting for a trial run would be like: he is warmed up and you are running through your handling plan in your mind.

Does he have the opportunity to chill like this before his turn at his in-person class? You can be as far from the ring as needed but I think he can see this in more of an agility context too.

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

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