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Good morning!
Yes, sometimes the emojis don’t appear til after you click ‘submit’ but they do come through LOL!I love the lightbulb moment – yes, especially at this stage, it is the sound/style of delivery not just the word. I think super experienced dogs can pick out the word regardless of sound or style of delivery – but not youngsters. The actual letters in the word are less important than the tone/rhythm, volume, etc. and so we are teaching the dogs more about the sound and less about the actual word at first. And, even though we are not really focusing on handling in this class – the style of delivery will also help handling in terms of decelerating appropriately, accelerating, etc. It is pretty cool how it all works together.
For now, in training – keep your motion the same as you change the sounds – just walk towards the wing, or jog towards the wing, etc. Try not to handle 🙂 And also, when you are adding more motion, keep the sounds the same (this is harder) – try not to get louder or longer with the verbal when you are running when the cue should be quiet.
>>Do you ever want to tell us students, “yeah, sure you can use whatever verbal cue you want, but I can tell you which ones won’t work.”>>
Ha! I do try to give folks a heads up if I think something really won’t work, usually because I have screwed it up for myself and don’t want others to screw it up LOL! And I do go running around outside shouting verbals to test them out 🙂 Yes, the neighbors think I am insane 🙂
On the second video:
>>(did she really just do 2 reps of “LEFT” for a right turn?!!!
Ha! I have done that too – usually there is a good demo video blooper on that but so far for this course I have managed to say the correct words. But you do get a gold star for the style of delivery – he knew it was a soft turn! The sound gets processed before the actual word, as you can see here.
Since we are obsessing on sounds – for the wraps – chatter them quietly as if you are whispering a secret to him (socsocsocsocsoc) and when you start running – don’t start yelling the secret (SOC SOC SOC). That adds pressure and volume to the verbal which usually propels the dog away rather than get a tight turn.
You had this quieter chatter going with the tictictic at 1:33, that is the best sound/style for wraps! he had some questions about which way to turn, and it was probably just your line up position that got the RC there and you moved a bit backwards into the RC line at 1:39. He is young and processing all.the.things so he will sort it out as he gets more experience. But your verbal was good so those were indeed ‘no reward’ moments – to help him out, you can just move forward to the outer edge of the wing you want him to turn on. For the turning away for you on the verbals – we start those next week 🙂
Another line up suggestion: line yourself up to the exit wing and not center of the bar – the backside slice game that was posted today will address the front versus back question he had at 3:03. Your line up at 3:09 was perfect! You were closer to the wing you wanted him to turn on, so he didn’t feel any pressure to the backside line.
And the Go reps at the end looked great – I was going to suggest more of them but you did that in the next video 🙂
3rd video: Really nice session with all of the different verbals. Yay!!! You had significant differences in how you delivered them, and it really helps!! As you add more of your motion, try not to change the style of delivery – keep the wrap cues quiet and chattered, soft turn cues longer and still soft. Go can be nice and loud and long 🙂
Loved the tictictic verbal at the beginning! Good line of motion and style of delivery of the verbal! And the first couple of reps had different verbals and he was nailing them. His only question at the beginning was getting the left after the GO. That is a question he has had a couple of times – it is funny to watch because his head is turned the correct direction but his body is not, as if the 2nd jump is magnetically drawing him to it. He was all like “I know it is not a go but I am not quite sure what it is ” LOL!! That will get better with experience as you continue to alternate the difference verbals – for GO versus left/right soft turns, you can also change your motion (slow down a little for soft turns) to help him out.
Since the verbals were going well on both directions here and you can keep playing with these adding the exit line combo game, I have 2 general training ideas for you:
How does he feel about food? You can use that for getting the toy back and for resets (including after an error) – he will be less grabby for the toy, and it will keep him cooler because there is a little less tugging but still a ton of reinforcement.
Also, have you played with using reward markers for the toy? That is stuff like saying ‘get it’ when you throw it, or ‘bite’ when you want him to take it from your hand. These markers replace the general praise words and help clarify for the dogs when the toy is available. I think he has no questions when you throw the toy, it is more about when the toy is in your hand – he doesn’t know when to grab it from the hand or ignore it (sometimes he tries to grab for it) or when to pass it versus offer a setup between your feet like at 3:14. By adding a ‘bite’ cue to mean “you may now grab the toy from my hand”, I have found that my youngsters have gotten really good about ignoring the toy in my hand in favor of doing the cued behavior even as I run.
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This is a really interesting video: the draw of going straight over that first jump is POWERFUL. Thank you for posting it, I love these types of puzzles! So we have a few options to help her out – she is trying so hard to sort it out and get it right, and I love that!I don’t really think changing your motion will make a difference because you were not really moving a lot here. So let’s change the picture and ‘split’ the behavior better ao we can add back your motion:
With the jumps about 8 feet apart, use a partial jump for jump 1: just a wing and an angled bar sitting on the wing (I use it in the backside slice game I posted today). That looks less like a real jump and *should* have a different conditioned response – meaning, she should be more likely to turn and less likely to go straight because she is less stimulated.
Then when she can do that with a little motion – we use the partial jump set up to add more and more motion.
If she can’t do it even with the partial jump, put more distance between the partial jump and the distraction jump – go to 12 feet and see how she does!
Let me know what you think! Keep me posted 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>>She was 100% upon arrived, but struggled when we tried before we left.
That is really interesting! It takes a lot of brain power 🙂 So doing just one session is best, to see the success rate really high.
The reps with you running were really good – you were legit running and she was getting it right – the response seemed a tiny bit delayed, almost after she arrived at the wing, but it was correct! Yay!
And yes – the variable of HER running along with you running was a head-exploder. I think it was partially because it takes so much brain power to process the verbals when you are running that she couldn’t do it when you were both running. So, keep her running going – and you will just do a fast walk and see how it goes. I bet within a couple of sessions, you can build your running back in! And see below for another idea on how to to help get even more success 🙂 And because you have seen her have more trouble later in the session or in a second session – do this first thing (she goes fast, you do a slow jog) rather than towards the end of the session.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>>I am in my pajamas in the afternoon. Please don’t judge.>>
Thanks to this endless pandemic, I have learned the joys of morning pajamas, afternoon pajamas and evening pajamas. All excellent training options 🙂
>>Stark did really well with not jumping up at me and barking. He had a few moments but they were few and far between. YAY!
Yes!! You are getting really consistent with the get it marker/placement and also with NOT using a swoosh arm. I think his only jump up/bark moments were frustration moments. If you don’t reward, you can totally use a reset cookie to keep the barking/jump from emerging again. If he is incorrect, and you didn’t throw the toy, call him, present a cookie at your side and line him up to go again (and let him eat the cookie of course LOL). The reset cookie will NOT increase the errors but it will decrease the barking/jumping.
First video: he is doing well differentiating the soft turn versus wrap verbal! Yay! With that in mind – watch his head to decide whether or not you are going to throw the reinforcement.
Head coming back around the wing after a wrap cue? Throw.
Head facing the soft turn direction looking at the jump? Throw past the 2nd jump. He had some questions about whether or not to take it, and it is probably because we have done a lot of ‘don’t take the distraction jump’ games. He was producing nice soft turns, so you can throw based on what he does on jump 1 and not worry about jump 2 as much.But if you mess up and throw when you didn’t want to, especially if you said get it… just let him get it. I mean, it was your screw up LOL! We don’t want to frustrate him or get him barking/jumping when you throw it then tell him he was wrong. It also changes his behavior:
At :12, he had a nice right turn and then saw you throw the toy, so didn’t take the jump. You told him he was wrong (barking/jumping) and that created the error on the next rep (:26) when he tried to change the behavior because what he just did was marked as incorrect. Then at :28 you tried to help more and almost pushed to the backside… then threw the toy with a “good” marker so he didn’t take the 2nd jump. LOL! So, if you throw wrong, just let him get it and be clearer on the next rep.
And at 1:16 and 1:55, you tossed it and then grabbed it, you can see he backed off of it and we want to keep his confidence really high about rewards placed on his line.He was totally ready for you to add more motion, so I am glad you did this in the 2nd video!
On the rep at :06, you had a little convergence so he pushed to the backside. The backside slice game posted today begins to address that (verbal cue did NOT say backside, unless you also use wrap cues for backside wraps). So for now, just move straight to the outer edge of the wrap wing. And a reset cookie would be perfect there – it lines him up for the next rep without jumping/barking.
The bar at :45 was just an adjustment error, he fixed it on the next rep then was great on all the others.
For this exit line game, try to wait longer before you throw for the wraps, especially the wraps to his right. I think you were throwing based on what he was doing on the takeoff side (which was nice collection!) but I am not sure what his final answer would have been if you had not thrown 🙂 So on those, don’t throw til after he turns his head to look through the gap and at the exit line. His collections were really good so now we can in the criteria of how to exit the wraps. Soft turn exits looked really good here!
The wing added a lot of his speed and I think he was great! So on the next session, we will also add more of your speed by having you line up closer to the start wing, so you can move faster without getting caught at the jump. And try to handle less – be deliberately late by just moving forward until after you see him make his decision. That is how we will convince him to process the verbal without also relying on handling. And when you are running sequences or courses for real, you can use both the verbal and handling to make for great turns!
>>Sizzle made a cameo appearance in some of the videos and some could have had scary outcomes. I’ll call it distraction training (eek).>>
Yeah…. She gets voted off the island for interference! I don’t like other dogs running into the setup for safety reasons (he was avoiding her on a couple of reps on the second video, not processing verbals) and also because it is generally a distraction that the dogs are not ready for (like at :48 on the first video when she was diving in for a ball in his line of vision.) So, she can bark and run from the other side of a fence LOL!
Great job here! Let me know how he does with even more motion!
Tracy
Good morning!
Good job here! He seemed to have no trouble at all with the soft turns to either direction. My only suggestion is to have him line up cleanly at your side to start each time – if he is facing you, the start line might be more confusing as we make things more distracting.You can totally add motion now! And the wing and the distraction jump can be about 6 get apart. Start holding his collar, saying the verbal, then left go and walk forward as you keep saying the verbal. And keep up with the perfect placement of reinforcement, that worked really nicely!!!!
His rate of success will guide you about adding more motion or the start wing before this setup: if he is 90-100% successful for 5 or 6 reps… go to jogging 🙂 Another 90-100% successful, either in the next part of the session or a different session? Yo can add running or the start wing.
Great job here! Keep me posted on how he does with more motion.
Tracy
Good morning!
He is turning really nicely here on your soft turns! You did a great job adding in the GO balance lines – you can alternate them more – do a couple of Go lines, then a left or right, then a go, and so on. You had more motion on the GO, so now add a little more motion for the left and right (try not to decelerate or stand still as he exits the start wing).On the game 3 in the 2nd part of this video: I think there was some confusion about whether to take the wing or the jump – on this game, we want the dog to always commit to the wing and the amount if turn is dictated by the verbal. Either a wrap verbal, which means that he should come right back around, or a soft turn verbal which means he goes around the wing and then takes the jump. You were sometimes cuing the wing, sometimes the jump, but he wasn’t sure which based on his start position. So be sure to start from a clean line up at your side, facing the direction you want him to go. When he was facing you, the verbals didn’t make sense to him so he was asking questions.
One other thing – I was not sure what around versus dig dig means – both were right wraps here? And check check was a left wrap. I think it will be easier when he is using the wing as the first obstacle on all reps, then you can cue a wrap or a soft turn. Let me know if that makes sense!
Great job!
TracyHi! Home schooled is the new normal 🙂
This is a good set point setup. Because she is young, we can use it to work only on form, not height. We can get her head lower and back more rounded. On the taller bar here, her head was up and she was lifting from her front, which was inverting her a bit.
The jumps looked to be about 6 feet apart, but to get her going with more of a rounded form, stretch it to 7 feet. Both bars should be super low, the first one at 4 and the 2nd one at 8 or 10. You can start her a tiny bit further back from the first jump – and your position should be further past the landing of the 2nd jump. I think I want to give her 2 solid strides after landing, so your position would end up being 15 or 18 past it, approximately.
The toy on the ground is great – you can even have it on a line so you can release her and drag it forward as you move forward (to get her to look downwards more).
Stay at the lower heights and 7 foot distance til she is very comfy and rounded in her form – then we can go back to 6 feet. If the distance on the video was 5 feet, try her at 6 feet and see how it goes. After that, the bar can slowly inch up on jump 2 (no rush at all on that).Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I watched these trying to figure out why she would sometimes get the distraction jump on the right turns, and sometimes nail the right turns and was perfect with all the left turns. It was not motion – when you had a lot of motion, she got all the left turns and plenty of the right turns. So, I slowed it down (fun to obsess in slow motion haha!) and I think she was being literal to your running line. It is a little hard to see on the right turns because I couldn’t see all of you, but when you were blocking the line to the wing, she was doing a really nice right turn on the jump. When you were showing the line to the wing – she did the right turn on the wing. When there was less motion, the line didn’t matter as much because she was ahead of you and could easily see the wing and recognize the setup.On the first video: The first reps went well on both sides, not as much motion and you were behind here, so she saw the wing easily.
At :30, you had more speed, louder verbals , off course to the distraction jump. It was hard to see you so I thought it might have been the added motion? But at
:53, it was easier to see your first couple of steps and your running line was blocking the line to the wing and she took the off course. So i went back to :30, and the first steps I could see were blocking the wing there too. Aha! So watching the rest and the next video from this perspective:
your running line at 1:07, 1:20, 1:24, 1:27 (with lots of motion!) and 1:44 – all good, so she was great.
1:11, 1:15, 1:31 – all looked like you were blocking the running line to the wing (I couldn’t really see the line at 1:38).Looking at the 2nd video:
:12 had the blocked running line, but :17, :21 and :31 were great! It was easier to see your line on the left turns: you had good motion on these and you were very clearly NOT on her line (like at :45 and :49) and she was perfect.So what does this obsessing mean? She is correct to take your running line into account when making decisions 🙂 So be sure to have a line of motion that clearly shows the wing – you can even move the wing to the center of the bar of the distraction jump. Keep adding motion, I think she was fine with it! I am sure you have snow on the ground, so this game stays indoors and we can tweak the position to have clear running lines.
And you can also add the jump to replace the wing – it might be trickier to give yourself a clear running line in a smaller space, but you can move the setup to give yourself a little more room on either side.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
These are challenging games for sure! Great job working through them 🙂She is doing really well!First and 2nd video:
She did well here!! One thing to do is alternate the Go versus the turn more frequently – she is really clever so I think sometimes she assumes it is a turn because you just did several of those LOL! So you can add Go reps in sooner so she doesn’t get locked into left or right turns only. Keep her on her toes and thinking about the words 🙂 As you alternate Go with the turn verbals – keep your GO verbal nice and loud like it was here. And try to keep your left verbal quiet and a little longer to help her differentiate the turn versus the Go. When you got running faster, the turn cue also go louder and more like the Go verbal. So keeping it a little quieter and longer helps her process it even when you are running (this is not so easy to do, takes some practice LOL!!)On the go reps, you can have the jumps a little further apart or the 2nd bar lower, so it is easier for her to fit herself into the gap there. In general, there is a really clear different in how the verbals sounded here – it is when you get running that you’ll want to keep the soft turn verbals softer sounding 🙂
3rd video – she is also doing well here!!!! One thing you can do to add more challenge with her speed as you start running: start with your hand on her collar, say the verbal a few times – then let go and start to move forward (and keep saying the verbal). That will put her into a higher level of arousal, similar to all the speed she has on course – and putting the verbal in before the motion will help her process it while you are running. A good example was the 2nd rep here: You started moving and THEN said the verbal, and she nailed it. Yay! Keeping them a bit separate helps build success. And by flipping it: verbal then motion, you can get her processing even sooner! And, because she is so clever, alternate the Go and the turn more frequently 🙂 You can even do a couple of Go reps in a row, then ask for a soft turn 🙂
Did you get to play with the exit line combo game yet? I think she is ready for it, with a little motion at first and then gradually add more 🙂 Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Lots of good stuff here, he is SO FUN!!!!
I think the videos were posted from most recent (first video) to start video (3rd video) but either way – he is doing SUPER nicely with these. His only questions now are about motion: “mom, do I follow the motion or process the word?” More ideas on that below!
I see what you mean about him pushing out to the backside! It is pretty common in BCs because it is easy for them to push away on the tiniest bit of pressure. Jamie’s Fever, another young BC in this class, was doing the same thing 🙂 So for now, your line of motion can be on the outer edge of the wing as you move forward for the left/right/wraps, which should help him resist the backside push temptation 🙂 And the idea on how to start each rep (below) will help this too! The games tomorrow add backside versus front side, to help clarify this issue 🙂
First video:
On this video, he did well with the turns approaching the jump but I think he was waiting for feedback on exit line (in the form of a marker or reward placement). So to help him process, try repeating the verbals as he is approaching the jump – that will help him process because he will hear it more frequently and also the length/pitch/rhythm of the words are important for differentiating. For example, the GoGoGo! at the end was PERFECT 🙂 It was long and loud and most definitely not a turn cue! In that same spirit, the wrap and soft turn verbals can have repetition and a change in how you say them (quieter, longer for soft turns, chattered like tictictic for the wraps) and that can help him differentiate them on the way to the jump especially as you add more and more motion.
The exit combo game will also help solidfy the wrap exit versus the soft turns, so feel free to move to that game too!2nd video:
The airplane sounded like it was landing in your yard LOL!!! He did really well here. On this wing setup and on the other games too where you are starting him with you (not from a wing wrap): you can add more excitement and motion by starting him by holding his collar, saying the verbal several times and THEN let him go 🙂 that will challenge him to process the verbal when he is more aroused, which simulates what will happen when yo add more motion. And by having the verbal going before the movement starts, he has a stronger chance of processing it before he sees motion (and before motion overrides it :))On the 3rd video:
I think this is the one you said was the first session? This is where I see his questions about motion. The reps with a little less motion were all really strong! When you were running is when he had questions, mainly because the running and verbal were simultaneous and motion overrode the verbal. You can see this on the first rep where you went fast at the same time as saying the verbal once, so motion won 🙂 Same thing happens on the 3rd rep too, 1:37 and 2:17.
When you aren’t moving as fast he is able to get it, like on that left turn where he made the adjustment at the last minute – good boy!!!
And note the repetition of the right verbal at 1:46 helped him while you had fast motion!
Since we want to add more and more motion (he is FAST so you’ll need to be running on course :)), starting with the hand-on-collar, saying the verbal several times, then letting go (while still saying the verbal) and moving. The repetition of the verbal (and the different sounds/rhythm/volume) will help the verbal override the motion as you add more and more motion. You might feel like you are saying it 150 times and that is fine LOL!!!! Start this by walking when you let go of his collar so he can handle the added stimulation of the collar hold, but I bet you can quickly move it up to running.And adding the wing wrap before it will also add more motion – you can totally repeat the verbals on that too!
Great job here! Let me know what you think of the plan to add more motion :)
TracyHa1 It sounds like the sheep were happy with your bribe but the ducks wanted a second helping LOL!!!! So fun to hear them in the background 🙂
Wow, what a great update!!!!! I am so glad he is having fun!!!!!! Maybe something clicked in these small games and he has more value for commitment and running back to you for the ball? He loves balls and discs, so we can totally use it to keep him blasting through the courses 🙂
Tracy
He did indeed look offended when the toy landed on his head 🙂
To lock in a bar – if the bars are hollow – insert a jump cup into each end so that the bars don’t displace as easily because they are held on by the cups.
>> I am having a hard time placing myself off his line for the soft turns. His bubble is a bit bigger for those or so it feels.
I don’t think it was a bubble issue – if we are on the line the dog needs to be on, then they will likely guess it is a different cue. So the line you can be on is to the outer edge of the wing, so he has the entire bar to himself.
>>He did a beautiful right in handling work today at Carrie’s.
Yay! Very cool to hear that it is coming together so nicely!!!
Tracy
Good morning! Here it is:
OMG we have the sam wind here, brrrrr!!! But this was a great session!
Your directionals as you were holding him were so exciting that my youngest dog in the other room started to bark LOL!!! That is good – we want him excited like he would be at a trial. He was really great here. As you add the wing wrap to start, you can add more of your motion and also mix in more GO GO GO so he remembers that sometimes he will be asked to go straight. Ideally, you would be jogging up the line the whole time then throw the reward when you see him make the decision based on the verbal.
I think you can also show him the exit line combo game, where he has to listen for the wrap cue or the left/right cue! That is hard, so do that one from a stay and just walking for now, so his brain doesn’t explode 🙂
Great job 🙂
TracyHi! Good session here!
>> I must say in this small space, I have a really hard time modulating my motion. I probably need to practice without the dog because I’m either barely moving or full out. No sweet spot yet.>>
You were in a good place with the amount of motion, I think! AS long as you are aware that you don’t want to go from a casual walk to a full on sprint, you’ll be fine 🙂
>>I lost him for a second jere. I kept the footage in. I’m not quite sure what prompted it. I paused the session and groomed Callie and then came back to it. In terms of length, I really wasn’t pushing it. We were about 3:40 into it when he started sniffing.>>
It was probably a couple of things: he didn’t like the placement of reinforcement with that type of toy (frisbee is better for that scenario) and also I now 3:40 doesn’t seem like a lot… but it was a repetitive sprint/plyometric workout so he probably thought 3:40 was plenty after a toy was thrown at him LOL!!! I personally know that after about 2 minutes of a sprint/plyometric workout, I am ready to stop and if you throw celery at me as a reward, I will definitely go off and find a reason to stop. But if you throw beignets? OK yes, maybe I will dig in a do a few more.
But because it is repetitive and there is that element of sprint/plyo for the jumping, you will want to maybe do 3 reps on each side then go do something else.
The only other mechanics suggestion is to lock the bars in so he doesn’t knock a rail when he is sorting out his turns or chasing the toy on the wraps.
Speaking of the wraps – those looked really good!!!
And nice change in tone for the verbal and motion on left turns. I think the frisbee is a better choice than the testicle toy there – the first is for throwing, the other toy is for grabbing LOL!In the 2nd half of the session, he had a couple of little errors on the soft turns. Bearing in mind that the frisbee does promote him wanting to move away from your more, at 1:55 you were pressuring the line (moving more towards the bar than the wing) so you got the backside plus that was where all the other reinforcement was previously in the day. Your line was much better at 2:01 and even though he looked left, he got the right correctly. Yay!
At 2:14 – you were on his line again, so you got another backside. Be sure to stay off his line for now, moving towards the wing like you did at 2:32 where he did really well! We have backside games coming on Monday where we will help him sort out the front side versus backside issues 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
