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Hi!
>>Ugh! I wrote a long post yesterday and apparently it didn’t stick? waaaaaaa!!!!Ugh! So annoying! What type of device are you using? On some of the mobile Apple devices, Apple sometimes bumps out any high content WordPress that also has a lot of YouTube links. You can start a new thread and the issue will go away until Apple fixes it in their next update. If it is on a different device, it might be an internet connection issue?
>>I shared that when we got to our home turf for classes on Wed she was super comfortable, pattern games -shmatern games, let’s start tugging (tugging! she jumped up to grab the fluffy leash handle!) so that was really good data for me of what comfortable looks like.>>
Awesome!! TUGGING!!! Love it 🙂
I>> wanted to ask if you want the Pattern Games and the Volume Dial separated by a total break – like put her away between. I know that if she wasn’t getting comfy then I wouldn’t continue and if it has been a few minutes then yes we’d take a break. But if she is comfortable quickly then may I move into Volume Dial aka Cued behaviors in the same session?>>
The wind up to the ring doesn’t need all of the games, and some of the games are specific to what happens in the ring or at the end (rather than trying to get all of the games going before the run). We practice them a lot outside the ring at this stage but you don’t need to try to get them all in – here are a few ideas on where they each might go:
Thinking of it as the windup to going into the ring: if she is engaged with the pattern games, you can go right into the volume dial as you get closer to your turn un the ring. If she is struggling, you can move her away to see if she can find a comfortable spot and then try the volume dial games.>>I also asked about other games — over the last week / the trial in Utah I’d been showing video of PG VD and RR and you gave me a clear 1, 2, 3 order to those, but there’s also Engaged Chill, Leash Off/ Offered Engagement, and Find My Face, and Zipp’s version of FMF is to give 1 pull on the leash (like ringing a bell to be brought tea by her servant).>>
In the context of the wind up to going into the ring: The 1-2-3 order is the way I would start getting the dog ready to run. The engaged chill can go between the pattern game and the volume dial, as those as all outside the ring games to help prep for the run. Volume dial happens within a minute or so of the run, because it is not an arousal state that can be maintained for a long time. And if it looks like you are about to go in, and your do your volume dial – then there is a delay! Then you can go back to the engaged chill or the pattern game, then back to the volume dial, for example. The leash off/offered engagement is for the line in the ring, so it does not need to be practiced in the wind up to the run (it is taught separately and used in the ‘this is what happens in front of the jump’ moment. Find My Face is a fun warm up/volume dial game if you pivot fast, but it is also mainly a separate game to help the dogs understand how to remain engaged when connection breaks. The Remote Reinforcement is also not something that needs to be used in the wind up to the run – it is a concept to be trained so she knows where the reward is and how to earn it, and I do show the reward station to the dog so she knows where it it… but the main outside the ring stuff before your run doesn’t require it. I suggested doing it at the Utah trial because it was a good opportunity to work it in a new environment even if you didn’t run the courses.
>>My understanding is that when arriving at a class / trial: Pattern Games is priority. Once she’s comfy then I can do some “temperature checks” with Find My Face and Leash Off / Offered Engagement, or should I do some Volume Dial things to bring her up and THEN do FMF etc? Followed by more VD closer to our turn in the ring including a Reinforcement Station check in?>>
Think of it like this:
Pattern games are basically the “let’s check it out and let you settle in”. Then, before a run, the volume dial tricks get her ‘up’. Those are the various tricks – off leash offered engagement is not necessarily a trick, and FMF can be a trick if you do it fast. But the off leash offered engagement is really later in the procedure, when you are at the line.> know we don’t want a fixed ritual / routine, but I want to be sure I understand your suggestion of the 3 games in Step By Step fashion, and my take that Find My Face and Leash Off are both CUED behaviors, so they come after pattern games, but they are not energy rising games like spins, pop, “ready” etc.
FMF (in the calmer non-trick state :)) and the off Leah offered engagement are not particularly pre-run prep games for when you outside the ring and are getting run to run, they are part of the run after the get ready part: off leash offered engagement is cued by context (in front of the jump) and the leash coming off 🙂 And Find My Face is cued by a disconnection on course 🙂 But I do sometimes use fast pivots as part of the volume dial game.
>>the other thing I mentioned is that her stays seem broken now with the silly walk lead outs (in class), but she holds them with an All Business lead out. My thought is to work on strengthening the stay in an easier environment but keep investing in silly walk, vs switching to all business.>>
Yes, totally 🙂 Strengthen the Monty Python lead outs with lots of reinforcement, then you can choose the all business or silly lead outs baed on how well she does after you release the stay.
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
OMG so windy there!!!!
Sprite did well here! Great job with the turn aways/tandem turns at the beginning – deceleration on these really helps her lock onto the hand cue to turn away (like at :24 and :53) – you were moving too fast on the first 2 reps on each side. While the cues were technically correct, the acceleration through them propelled her long past the wing. The deceleration as she was arriving at you helped set up the tight turns.The transition on these is similar to the transition on those tight FC wraps: accelerate, decelerate when she is exiting the tunnel and getting closer to you, then turn her away.
On the bigger starfish reps at the end – she did well here with her commitments!! On the tunnel exit where you needed the soft turn to her right, you can call her sooner – you were giving the verbal right as her head got into the tunnel, and ideally she will be hearing it while she is still a full stride away from the entry.
She did well finding the single wing after the turn away and the tunnel entry too! Lots of independent commitment happening there, YAY!!!
>>I’m still trying to figure out the tunnel discrimination one. Gemma couldn’t do it and she’s pretty good with that cue usually.
The tunnel discrimination on this game is HARD!! Try a wrap cue on the wing before it and a deceleration? And send some video so we can figure it out 🙂
Great job!!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, this went really well!!! She did well with all of the soft turns and was getting better and better with the Go go go after you added more connection and more repeated verbals (and early toy throws).
When trying to get her to the wing after the Go tunnel exit, use a big connection to her on the tunnel exit (you were looking straight at :30 and :46) so she knows where to be) – you got there faster at :59 and 1:34 but more connection will help when you can’t get as far ahead.
You had the connection going at 1:55 when she exited the tunnel sooner and it worked well! You also had it at 2:23 but you stopped moving too soon, so she didn’t get a chance to finish committing. You had great connection oand motion on the rep after that and she got it nicely!
You can still move laterally away from the tunnel sooner, I think. She is showing great tunnel commitment, so you can already be moving away to the soft turn wing when she is just past the halfway point between the wing and the tunnel, while staying connected and saying the verbal.
Speaking of verbals…
>>My verbals, especially left (OMG!), were a mess today >>
Yes, there were a lot of right cues on left turns LOL!!! When adding all of these words with a new pup, do a 1:1 ratio of run it without the dog (with the correct verbals) then run it with the dog (with correct verbals). The errors happen when we run it with the dog each time and don’t practice the verbals.
She is very very responsive to the blinds you did at the end at 3:16 and 3:31. But, do them a lot sooner 🙂 You started them after she reached the wing and ideally the blind would be finished by them. So, when you see her approx halfway between the tunnel and the wing, start the blind – it provides her a picture of what the timing will be and also challenges her to maintain commitment. And keeping your arms in tight to your ribs will help you be really quick with the connection on the new side of the blind, which really helps keep it nice and tight too.
>>For a while the trucks and construction vehicles were moving around in the hydro yard next door and she was quite distracted by that – I held her collar for her setups then.
I could hear it in the background a little! She worked through it nicely.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Thanks for all the videos!!
For the most part, I love love love what she was doing on course: wicked fast, good jumping, strong commitment, and resilient to fixes – she got right back on the line without any further questions. 🙂Her arousal needle has moved to the “hot” side a bit – that helps her course work but has hurt the start line a bit. Two ideas for you:
– on the first run, it looks like you tapped her to get her engagement because she was looking away. In that moment, just wait for a second or two or three longer, so she can offer engagement, and then you can reward. That can help center her.
– for working the stays: rather than reset the stay position if she breaks, you can reset the process! Bring her back leash goes back on. Take a breath, leash comes off, cue the stay again. And you can play with what works better: leash off, get engagement and then cue the stay? Or, get engagement, get the sit, leash off. She will let you know what works best 🙂 My youngsters all prefer the leash-engage-stay order of festivities. If they break in practice or at a trial, I reset the entire procedure not just the stay.
Resetting the procedure helps the dogs understand each step being linked to the other steps… and also resetting the entire process provides a pretty massive response cost to a dog that wants to go go go! Starting over, on leash, is the LAST thing they want but it is the prize they win by breaking the stay LOL!! Plus, that response cost is always available at the start line because the leash is always involved 🙂
Everything else is looking SO GOOD that we are really getting close to what you want in the ring!!!
The engagement game looked pretty fabulous too 🙂 I tried playing it at half speed to make it look more normal but that only kinda worked LOL!!!
What is coming up on Lanna’s training and trialing calendar?
TracyHowdy! This session looked really good, bummer about the session that was not on video!!!!
You can try dragging the leash/toy to get engagement when he is hot? He probably grabs it right away when he is not hot, but dragging it like lure coursing might help when he is hot 🙂The Cartoon lead out looks fun 🙂 One thing to add, to build the tension (in a good way) before the release: look at him more, a little sideways glance of “do ya wanna….?” And slow down your movement: tight muscles, tip toe walk and slow inhales like breathing in through a straw can really be enticing and get a lot of engagement 🙂
Find My Face looked much better here, even with him already being hot! You can do this near a jump (really close to it) and reward him for taking the jump – stay just connected enough to see what he is doing. I really want to get working on more front-side-of-jump commitment in training and trials, and this game will help 🙂 Just have your treats already cut up so you can be quick with the rewards (I am also guilty of just ripping pieces of cheese off and it delays the reward).
Great job!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I am glad you like the 2o2o class!!!
This session looked really good! She is GREAT at finding the backside on your left side, very smooth and confident! She is not as sure about it when she is on your right side. I don’t think it is anything you are doing, I just think she is better turning to her right than too her left (she has shown us this in other contexts too, if I am remembering correctly :)) So when she is on your left, you can a more distance on the backside but to help build up her skills on your right – don’t add any distance yet til she is as smooth on your right as she is on your left.
When working backsides without the bar, you would still reward her for coming in as if the bar was there (it is easier to get the pups to the backside without the bar because taking the front of the bar has a lot of value and can be distracting :)) You had racetracks going here with her going around the 2 wings, so you can still have her come in as if the bar is there during the backside session. And then, in a different setup, you can cue the racetracks so she still gets lots of value on the bar for the backside.Great job here! Have fun at the trial this weekend!
TracyGood morning!
This session looks lovely!>>We tried hard to be early with the directional before he enters the tunnel. Pretty hard to get it in! I>>
Yes, your tunnel verbals can be sooner and I think you are going to need more (and heavier) tunnel bags as he continues to get more powerful 🙂
You can make your life easier for earlier tunnel verbals by adding more distance between the wings and tunnel – the tunnel verbal can start as soon as he turns around the wing, and then draw a line in the sand so you can anticipate the timing and change to the exit verbal.
He read the threadle part really well, and there was a hesitation after it on the first rep. It looked like you were surprised at :10 – then scrambled to keep going LOL!! Watch his head: when you see he has turned his head to the threadle, assume that he has committed and keep moving through and start the next verbal. You were more prepared for his brilliance at :30 and that looked lovely! Remember to stay connected after the threadle, maintaining eye contact, so he can drive ahead to the next line without looking at you.
One thing that you have added which is GREAT is that little bit of deceleration going into the turn away moments for the in in: you can see it really clearly at :45: you are taking big strides, then you go to smaller steps as you start the verbal, then the turn away cue. Note how well he reads it!!!!
And you had GREAT connection there – you can really see your connection on the lines that are closer to the camera – click/treat for you because connection is so critical.
Karena – your reps were excellent too! The only thing to add is more connection to his eyes after the in in turn away cue. You were looking forward, so he looked at you for a heartbeat. If you maintain eye contact after that turn away (and start the verbal for the next line as soon as you see his head turn away for the threadle jump) you will see him read the line of your shoulders and stay out on his line.
A dog training thing you can do to help this, because he had that little question after the threadle for both of you: after the in in threadle, throw the reward straight ahead immediately (don’t worry about the next wing) so he gets into the habit of driving out of the turn aways and out of the habit of checking in :))
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, crazy windy, I hear you are having tornado warnings out there too! Eek! I turned the sound off because I could only hear the wind, so we will assume all of your verbals were perfection 🙂>>I found myself without one of the wings needed for the Starfish and so since I was losing light fast I just threw in a jump instead.>>
Putting the jump in is fine, this one needs a lot of wings 🙂 Put the jump in a spot where he doesn’t have to rear cross or turn away, because that is much easier on just a wing than with the bar (there are so many options for turns on a bar, and with the wing, there are fewer options so he is likely to be more successful reading the turn away cues).
I thought he did well here in terms of speed and focus! We can use some placement of reinforcement stuff to help get even more:
The starfish has a lot of those rear crossy/turn away things, so for the smaller dogs I highly recommend a lot of thrown reinforcement for driving straight mixed in with all the rear crosses. The throws should be as long and far as possible, so he accelerates to the lotus ball (like you did at 1:30 :)) That will help to build more speed and confidence running past you! And for the rear crosses, try not to stop him for the reward – drag the reward on the ground and keep moving til he catches up – yes, some extra running for you (sorry!) but that will both build even more speed AND help eliminate the tasty grass distractions 🙂
He did really well on the sequences here – his commitment is looking really good and he was turning really well too! Yay! Looking at some of his questions:
>>The rep where he skipped the tunnel…it looked like he missed it because I may have been really crowding the entrance too much but not sure.>>
A little bit of crowding, a little bit of baby dog stuff where he was not quite fully focused 🙂 He did great on all of the other reps! So no worries about the miss on this one at the beginning of the session.
On the rear cross handling: Your rear crosses do NOT suck!!! He is reading them and we can move your line over a little bit: try to run more directly to the center of the bar, rather than pull to the other side of the jump and then push in later like at 1:18 and 1:37. He is reading it well, and he did well on the rear cross on the blue wing too! And balance those with multiple go go go reps because the go is more important than the rear crosses for the small dogs 🙂
He missed the white wing before the tunnel because of a little connection break/shoulder turn too early at 1:01. You were more patient and connection was much clearer at 1:15 and 1:34 – very nice!
You were a step too early with your FC at 2:03 – rMainly because the transition was missing the decel to commit him (the decel is the commitment cue). Remember to decelerate until he is pretty close to the jump, then you can turn and run the other way You accelerated then turned so he didn’t commit fully and went with you when you turned.
The only other question he had was at 2:12 when he ended up in the wrong side of the tunnel from what you wanted – your line of motion presented it. As he exited the wing, he saw both a bit of motion towards it as you stepped back, and a bit of connection to get him to your right side. He looked at you to confirm – then you closed your shoulder forward, which told him to NOT come to the right side, so he went with the motion and took the tunnel, good boy. He read it correctly as a threadle on the last rep. For the FC, you can run a similar line you did on the threadle, keeping your dog-side shoulder open so motion and connection both support going to the other side of the tunnel.
Great job here! Fingers crossed for more good weather and no tornados!!!!
TracyIt sounds like MN is having a CRAZY spring! It needs to calm down before June LOL!!!
>>Question on Max Pup 3 – I saw you posted that it was full. I have not signed up yet – I wanted to do basically what I’m doing now as the live dates mostly don’t work for me- so I’d watch those on video and then post my video for you. Is that still available?>>
The LIVE classes are full, but the regular online working option (like this :)) has room for everyone from this MaxPup who also wants to do the next one 🙂
On the single lap turns, it is a good warm up – and it will be easier if you start her in a sit so she can see the cue before she is moving, otherwise she will guess (and you will have to move backwards to get her unto the lap turn).
>>She has some serious wide outruns around those wings which is unusual for her – was my arm flinging all over??
I see what you mean! I think part of it was that you were pushing into the line, so she was pushing away from you (like at :37-:41)
You were also doing these as race tracks (post turns) so you can add in a ton of FCs/rocking horses to keep her tighter and I think that is also easier to send her away to the far wing to set up the lap turns. In fact, the more I watch – the more I like the FC option better for her because with the race tracks, I think she was just border-collie-ing and doing wider and wider loops, anticipating the lap turn and toy throw. So the FCs will keep hr nice and tight to you 🙂She is responding beautifully to the lap turns, so you can also try these with the tandem turns! I think she will do well with those too : )
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
She is going to need to buy you a few more udder tugs!!
The tunnel game looks great! Easy peasy. You can add in connecting with her closer to the exit of the first tunnel and then doing the tunnel threadle (so you can be in motion the whole time) and you can also call her out of the first tunnel and run – NO bypass cue, can she resist going back into the tunnel as you run past it? Start as far as needed to get success, of course 🙂Here are some core strengthening ideas – these are not the greatest examples of form because they were done as part of pre-hab/rehab but you can see the general idea. Posture of just standing in stack is really useful! And the positions changes are good too (2 different types of sits)
Single legs lifts are great and very hard.
Somewhere I have a video of my Export doing the down-to-stand-to-down behavior while I help up one of his front legs – incredible core strength! I can’t find the video but I will keep looking.
Note how these are all on stable surfaces, no need to do them on unstable surfaces yet.
Posture
Posture and leg lifts
Posture
Down to stand to down
Kick back stands to sit to stand
Roll back sit to stand to sit
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I think she did really well with the 5 foot distance and 12″ bar! Were both jumps at 12″? I think the first one was still lower which is good, but it was hard to tell.
For the 2nd jump: No, don’t lower it again. There are 2 things you can do with this set up now:
– keeping the 5 foot distance, make the 2nd jump into an oxer (double) – of the 2 jumps in the oxer, the first should be 8 inches and 5 feet from the real first jump. And the 2nd oxer jump can be 12 inches, and 6 inches behind the 8 inch jump. Let me know if that makes sense
🙂– in a separate session, keeping the 12″ jump as a single, do a warm up rep at 12 then show her a couple of reps at 14.
Let me know how it goes! It is fun to add more challenge for her!
TracyHi! Both of these videos look great – she is really quite brilliant! And fun!
She dd really well with the lateral lead out! The stays look lovely and that really helps. She was nice and close to the jump, to start, which also helps! Remember to use your dog-side leg to step to the jump – you were using it on the first couple of reps at the beginning but when you got to the landing side of jump 1, you were using your arm only. When she was on your left, you kept your feet together. The movement of the step will help her commitment when she gets further away, and helps you push off better to do the Front cross, for example, after it. When you revisited the dog-on-left at the end, you did use the step to the jump and I looked great.
When she was on your right in the 2nd part, you did use your leg on the takeoff side and landing, and it worked really well! She committed beautifully, you were able to add more distance and also push off really well too (the throwbacks looked good here and when you revisited the dog-on-left at the end!).
On the accordion grid:
The first interval between jumps 1 and 2 looks consistently lovely.
She gets hoppy going to the food target especially on the shorter distances (rep 3 looked the best because she had to extend on the longer distance and couldn’t really hop to the cookies 🙂
The ‘hoppy’ striding is NOT a jumping issue, it is a ‘yummy, cookies!’ response so there is nothing to be worried about – but we can change the reward to de-hop her striding 🙂 Two options are: put the reward plate with the cookies waaaaay far away, 15 feet from the last jump, so if she feels the need to do the joyous cookie hop, then she will do it well after jump 3 🙂 Or, you can use the dragging toy – she is looking great here so the dragging toy reward might be both a great option to get her to hop less, and a great challenge to se if she can remain balanced and organized even when she is more excited 🙂Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyThank you for the info! It is something about how Apple communicates with Google-owned YouTube, with WordPress in between in this case. Generally, it happens, then goes away (someone fixes something in the software, somewhere) and pops up again in a few months. It has never happened on a PC.
I also prefer Apple devices for all the heavy duty stuff, and the Android and PC are used to make sure everything works on all platforms 🙂 thanks for letting me know how susceptible Android is to hacking!!>>How awesome they can be used in both roles! Reassuring and a distraction😊.
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Thankfully she’s not rich strike 😳🤣!>Ha! She is TOTALLY not Rich Strike in terms of chomping her friends LOL! She is fast like Rich Strike, though 🙂
I have used the stable pony concept a lot, most recently with Voodoo (adult, replaced confident male) being stable pony for Hot Sauce who was nervous as a puppy. And Contraband had always been a relaxed happy dude, so he was stable pony for Covid puppy Elektra who was shy. This included walking together in new places so the happy dog could model behavior, and crating next to each other!
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