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Hi!
Holy wow, that first video looks FABULOUS!!! Little Grace handled that like a super experienced dog. You really drove the line and had great connection!!! Super nice rear cross to the tunnel!
2nd half also looked great! She almost missed the last jump because you were a little disconnected, but then you got connected so she found the jump. Yay!!
Full course – it is also notable that there was a dog nearby and she ignored the dog and person at first. Superstar! But then it got hard: maybe that is part of why she came back out – her brain was processing the visual and you called her, so she came to you? Then it looks like she was barking a bit? My guess is that she has never really experienced that and it was weird! You can help her recover with a pattern game or tricks for treats to get used to having other people nearby. She just needs more experience with other dogs/people.
>Would love your advice on why she doesn’t run the line to the finish without curling in to me.>
It was connection: when she exited the tunnel she didn’t see your connection, so she turned into you. So be sure to really lock onto the exit of each tunnel and let her see you really looking at her as you run up the line. That will help set the line directly to the last jump.
>She has never done more then short sequences before this.>
She was brilliant!!! So fun!!!
Great job!
Tracy
WOW!! You and Maisy look fantastic here!!!!! Well done! And I love the enthusiasm of the presenter or whoever was yelling in the background about how brilliant you were 🙂
T
Hi!
>Yes, the barrel games are coming along. Much more fun than rear end awareness and backing up – don’t worry, we revisit them every few days as well.>
Totally agree LOL!! Backing up/body awareness is fine but I like the games where we get to run around a bit 🙂
She did great with the volume dial game here! Yes, you can add a few more tricks: she had hand touches, sits, spins here but when backing up is on cue that can be a good trick to add! Or a high five, or dancing on her back feet. Or even leg weaves! All of those are fun and silly to train.
She was best with the hand touch when you looked at the target hand instead of at her. When you were looking at her, she looks back at you and doesn’t really see the target hand, So when you put your hand out, let her see you shift your eyes to it, and she will go directly to it.
>You’ll notice the last hand touch turned into more of “bite the hand”.>
Yes, it is a good indicator of arousal level: a little bit of a tooth hug on the hand target, or less accuracy (you were getting some feet on the hand target too). But is it a good thing or a bad thing? Time will tell, based on what happens next: Does the tooth hug indicate overarousal? Or does it indicate optimal arousal? You can play this right before training, the you can see how she does when you train in terms of accuracy, speed, and focus.
One thought on a small details or mechanics: She did well with releasing the toy overall! You can get it back even more easily if you keep it lower so her jaw is parallel to he ground – pulling it up causes her to hold it a bit longer because she can still pull on it.
Great job here! Definitely try this game with food, as well as a mix of food and toys, and see how it goes!
Tracy
Hi!
Prytania was a willing helper here!! Quill did great! You had him doing sit and downs here – you can ask for a variety of behaviors: hand touches, tricks, heeling, etc. Maybe for field, he can do focus forward on a toy (as if marking a bird?) while she is chasing a ball? All of that will be fun for him with his Prytania distraction 🙂
The toy video while Prytania was running around/squeaking the ball was also good! When he was only tugging, he was *definitely* aware of her – I think he did better when he had a “job” (first video) or when he was in the sit here in the 2nd video. He as great holding the sit while you threw the ball! This would be a good place to add the forward focus: when you put his toy on the ground, wait for him to look at it then release him to it.
The wraps are going well! You have the low and slow hands happening, and that really helps. Plus I think he was figuring out to not try to chomp the cookie hand, and follow it instead. It really helped!
Take a look at the advanced level of this, where we do the full 360 circle wraps (backside circle wraps). He is ready for that!
Great job :)
TracyHi!
>Tugging – I’ll have to try that when Bella isn’t in season. Added layer lol!>
You can fight fire with fire with the highest value toys on a line, and swing them for him to really chase!
>Been wanting to do the SSC with friends. We have focused more on recalls from friends building confidence in his people shyness>
He might prefer the SSC with people rather than recalls. Recalls kind of forces the interaction. And if he is not comfy, he doesn’t really have the agency or freedom to ignore them. He might really like the SSC a lot better!
>I was going to ask a bout the toy on the ground. I don’t think I officially introduced the concept. He does know get it but doesn’t transfer “not “ get it lol!>
That gets baked in with the initial strike a pose game – we get the toy dangling really early on, then on the ground. The markers really help and it is in that game where we introduce the concept of ‘don’t touch it til we mark it’.
I also put a toy on the ground and walk away, giving the pup treats.
And we use a toy on the ground in the SSC work – novel/exciting is the spot for it.
>And no I didn’t video that one either. I will when we get to the final spot and the toy can be next to him.>
Don’t wait until you have the finished product to video… video the early sessions so you can see where the improvements can be made. That will make training more efficient and speedy!
On the coming in video – what treats were you using? They were good, he was eating them. But you might want to go to the mind-blowing level. Also – I think the up and down pattern game is probably not the most helpful one because it requires him to be relatively stationary. That is very hard for an adolescent learning to ignore things in the environment! I think the back and forth (tossed treats) will be a more effective choice of pattern game for this scenario.
About the toy:
>thought any toy would do but he didn’t love the one I used for the shpile>
I don’t think it was the toy itself, I think it was more about how you were using it: you were bent over him, the toy was relatively short, and you were squiggling it in front of him, almost like swiffering the floor LOL Then you gave up and walked him away – his face was like, huh?
When you broke off the session to play a bit on the middle and at the en – he engaged really well with the toy when it was moving for him to chase and grab! He let go of it almost every time you smack his shoulder, so maybe don’t smack the shoulder 🙂
For toy play homework: make the toy into a live fun squirrely thing to chase and grab! Use the full length of the toy, or better yet – tie 2 toys together so it is 4 feet long. Then stand upright (leaning over the pups reduces toy play) and move the toy away from him to hose & grab. Use plenty of room and make it a game! I bet he will totally get into it. I bugged Christine out the game thing so you two can hold each other accountable. Squirrel, not swiffer! 😂
He dod well with the shpile! He got all feet on almost everything really well – he seemed to avoid the paw pod things and that is fine – I don’t think they feel good on puppy feet. So you can use the other objects and make them more random and piled up for him to climb around on.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Bummer about the panties but she did great with the shpile on the mats!! She seemed confident to put her feet on just about all of it, including slamming the wobble board LOL! She seemed to be actively avoiding the paw pods, and I don’t blame her – the little nubby things seem like they hurt LOL!!!
She was not quite putting her hind end on everything so you can put some towel under the wobble board and reward her by tossing treats to the other side to get more end engagement.
And she is interested in the toy – that was along toy, so use the full length of it so you can stand up and really swing it around. When you are bending over her and only giving her half the toy, she can’t grab it as well (maybe she is trying to grab your flesh, which we appreciate!!)>I should have planned better for her getting to the pile before me to support the rocker board. I didn’t realize it’d be that loud.>
She seemed maybe a little surprised but not offended 🙂 But having it wobble less and be softer/less noisy will help encourage more hind end use.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
He did really well here!
The verbal-only game is looking good! And so is the sequencing 🙂
When you had a lot of motion in positions 1, 2, and 3 – the hardest part was when you were not fully connected – he pays close attention to your physical cues but if the connection is not clear, he is following motion to the obstacle he sees (like at 1:17, for example).
You can reset after oospies with a cookie, so he still gets rewarded for his effort. When you are running fast, add lots of connection by looking straight back at him and making eye contact. That will totally help him know which side of you to be on.
Separately from being beautifully connected and running fast – you can add in being a little disconnected like you were toward the end, but dial back your motion even more when you are ahead so he can sort it out 🙂 Interestingly, the tunnel was harder than the jump when you were a little disconnected so that is a good one to work on!
Great job here 🙂
TracyHi!
>>>I think at one point you said “your brain is braining” and that is the funniest thing I have heard in a while LOL!!!!!!!!
Hahahaha!!! I’m glad that made you laugh! 🙂 That made my day!>I laughed ALL DAY about it. So funny!!!
Position 1 went really well – She had no problem at all reading the cues. Your connection and verbals were super clear!!
On the 2nd video – your positions did indeed look different! This went well too.
When you were ahead at :12, you had a bit of a disconnect, looking forward- so it looked like a blind to her and she took the jump even though you were saying tunnel. And she had a connection question at :59 and 1:33 and 1:50 for example – taking the jump instead of the tunnel. I think you were ahead and she couldn’t see connection, so was guessing based on motion.You can open up more connection there to get the tunnel by using exit line connection: reaching the opposite arm across the body to push the dog-side arm back, which reveals more connection.
Separately, you can work on more of the disconnection by slowing down your motion and not being too far ahead – and deliberately softening the connection. By reducing the motion, she can prioritize the verbals and be able to get the correct obstacle. That is HARD but she is ready!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Handling 1: The sequences went well, in terms of finding the jump versus the tunnel when cued. Super!!
You get sniffing on the way back to restart, as you get the treats ready – it is enough of a disconnect that he starts singing around. After the reward, can you send him to a station? So if you have a cato board or something, you can reward for the sequence, snd him to his cato board (reward that) then you get ready for the next rep – then you call him to you to start it. It can set up a cleaner transition between reps and help diminish the sniffing.I think the is something to use for sure – the same disconnect happened in all 3 videos, during the reset back to the start, which was causing more sniffing on the next rep each time. Since we don’t want him to sniff at all, you can teach him to station so you can reset to start the next rep without losing him to sniffing.
2nd video:
Your position and release at :12 actually did call him past the jump – so keep going! Or tell him he was a good boy and reset with a reward.
Stopping without a reward indicates that he was wrong, which can be deflating so he ended up on the top o the tunnel and then lots of sniffing. Since the environment is challenging, never tell him he is wrong especially because he is probably never wrong in how he reads the handling 🙂3rd video – he had a little trouble with the less connected reps which means he just needs a little more time to let you fade out the connection to challenge him with processing the verbal only. The outdoor distractions might contribute to that – his brain is processing a LOT so perhaps he can’t quite pick out the verbals and is relying on motion.
4th video:
>I brought out the lotus ball since he was doing well at staying with me and working.>He does like his lotus ball! What kind of treats did he have? You can also tie the lotus ball to a line and swing it around for him to chase – that is both fun and also can help overcome environmental distractions!
On this video too – if something goes wrong, keep going! He did wrap the wing, but you walked away to go reset the bar which is deflating. To help with the start him further back – and I think the side of the wing was more of a handler error than a dog error 🙂 so remember not to let him think he was wrong at all.
>I can tell his focus is split even though there was no one else around.>
Yes – challenging environment for him! But we do have tools to help out.
>’m going to try starting with the sniff and dismiss walk around the field while my classmates are walking the first course. >
Sniff and dismiss is only somewhat effective because you need a lot of time and you need full access to the area – neither of which are useful for trials. And you do run the risk of something really interesting for him to find that he can’t dismiss 🙂 So a bit of sniff and dismiss is OK but we want to use other games to help him engage immediately.
I think the most important one will be pattern games! The back – and- forth pattern game is the most useful one, so you will want to revisit it at home then bring it to the field. And use the highest value food he will eat. I use stuff like scrambled eggs, rotisserie chicken, and lately one of my dogs loves FreshPet (ewwww). That high value food with the understanding of the pattern game gets pretty immediate attention when they enter the environment.
The stationing on a cato board between reps to reset will also be huge – that is where you are getting sniffing too. So do one rep with a huge reward (no telling him is wrong) then onto the station… then get ready for the next rep. Those in-between moments are critical too!
And you can use the pattern game to come out at the start of each turn – and make each turn super short and crazy fun – even 90 seconds might be too long as he gets used to the new location.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi! These went really well!
The push to the backside looked good – he committed when you had your arm back and the pointing forward at :12 actually drew his attention to you (he took a step towards you) because pointing forward changes the line of the shoulders to the front of the bar.
The threadle was easy because the jump was on an easy angle for that 🙂
FC after the backside worked but it was hard to finish the FC quickly enough to be fully off his line. The BC at 1:09 was fantastic! The timing was spot on and you were finished very quickly so he had a clear view of the next line.
>They are nowhere near on verbal alone and we aren’t even at consistent performance yet, especially due to my mechanics inconsistency.>
I would venture to say that threadle wraps around the world are not on verbal only 🙂 99.99% of dogs are also getting some type of physical cue, which is great!
Looking at the threadle wrap on the wing at 1:26 and 1:40 and 2:01 – nice job setting the line after the blind! A little decel will help him read it and turn himself away so you don’t have to help as much. Decel as you set the TW line is a big factor because it helps the dogs collect and turn themselves away.
He did really well with the threadle wrap on the inside wing of the jump! That is crazy hard! You don’t need to go as close to the wing before it – you can send him to the wing after the tunnel , and that should keep you a bit further ahead to set the line to the TW with a bit of decel into it.
But overall he got really hard TWs with a tunnel right there – well done!!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
The cookies session here was great! Even in a new and distracting environment, he was super engaged – in fact, I think he really likes this game! The more he did it, the more pumped up he got. Fun! That is great he likes this because he is going to need this skill for his agility runs!
He did well responding to the sits and downs. You can also ask for tricks, or a couple of things in a row now, to add challenge!After the surgery, it might be fun to shape the retrieve so you can stay off your feet and still train him and keep his brain busy 🙂 We can also work on some verbal discriminations where you can stay off your feet and send to a wing or tunnel, and toss treats 🙂 Hubby can set stuff up for you 🙂 It will be fun and hopefully it will tire PoweR out too!
Great job here!
TracyTotally yes!! The reverse retrieve involves you running the other direction and he can chase you (and you can reward with a 2nd toy) so I think it will be a fun addition to the retrieve games!
T
Hi!
>Big news! Benni earned his NW3 Elite title on Saturday!!!!! Holy cow! It took us 8 trials to finish this. Some learning experiences along the way. So Brioche got lots of sniffaris.>
WOW!! That is awesome!!! It seems like he finished that title pretty quickly. Well done Team Benni!!!!!!!
Tunnel Threadle verbal:
He did really well here! It seems like his right turns were a little easier for him here than the left turns, but you were able to get lots of good left turns reps by being a little slower and very clear with the cues.To really solidify the verbal as an independent skill – try holding him by the collar, say the verbal 3 or 4 times… then let him go. The verbal and the arm movement were happening at the same time here, so he was highly likely to be processing the physical cue more than the verbal.
The double whammy went great!!
He got into a bit of a tunnel vortex (offering the tunnel before you were ready LOL!) so you can buy time to get ready by lining him up with a treat, or tossing a treat to the side so he is going to get it rather than offering tunnels 🙂His stay work is also going really well! I know you want the tight sit, but he didn’t like it when you poked his foot back in. So you can try lining him up at your side by having him start facing you then following your hand, turning around, then lining up at your side – that will help get a nice tight sit! You can also working the between-the-feet lineup you did towards the end!! That also promotes the tight sit. If he keeps popping his feet out in the sit, yo can have him checked to be sure he doesn’t need an adjustment or have a trigger point or ouchy that is restricting his tight sits.
He is holding his stay brilliantly!!! I am so proud of him!!! So now you can work the stays with a toy – he will be more excited so release or throw the reward back sooner so he doesn’t break. The toy and tugging becomes critical because he will be very excited in agility and we want this great stay to carry over to when he is really pumped up.
The last video with the sits had a good angle from the video – his back legs do tend to be a little wider than his hips in his natural stance, so the very tight sit is a little uncomfortable. Along with the sit training, core strengthening will probably help him hold everything in nice and tight! That can be stuff like stand to down, stand to sit (rollback and tuck sits), some balancing on an inflatable, etc. The way he is getting a more complete strengthening and can really help.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>He was a little flat to start, and there were some sniffy decompressions>
Maybe he was not as sure about driving fast with you facing him, at first? He was definitely thinking about what to do, both in terms of coming in to you and going over the bump. Plus, holding the sit took a lot of brain juice (he did really well!) so the little sniff diversions might have just been indicating that it was hard.
But like with the previous video, you made the toy really fun! And that helped him work through a relatively challenging game!!
>(although that last rep, he broke!) >
He stayed really well and yes, left the stay early on the last rep. To be sure he doesn’t think that the hand cue is the release, you can get into the threadle position, extend the hand… then either praise before you release with your threadle cue, or toss a reward back to him. It is possible that he thought the moment when you dipped your shoulder down was the release, even though you hadn’t said the word yet.
Great job!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>Can’t believe it’s been nearly a week. I’ve had a rough one with the old black dog of depression.
I am sorry, that is so hard! Sending love and support!
> And it looks like Edith’s clearance to start training again may have been the wrong call. VetPhysio is worried it’s disc disease. Need to get an xray. >
Ugh that sucks. I hope they get it sorted out ASAP and it is an easy answer.
>(I also just discovered an out of place toof on babby Barry – He’s gonna need braces!)>
Oh no! I do know of many dogs that have had braces and they do fine but still, I wish you and Barry didn’t need to deal with it!
>Also sorry your country is in such a place! Your recent elections give hope… but I cannot imagine your health insurance nightmare.>
Yeah… pretty much an epic disaster here that will take decades to undo. I don’t have to deal with the health insurance until December so I am refusing to even think about it at all. Part of what is happening with the disastrous government here is one section (minority section but hopefully strong enough) is holding out to be sure that the health insurance issue does not end up being as horrible as it looks.
I did look into moving to NZ! But it turns out the the NZ government really only wants either super rich (nope not me LOL) or in super useful professions (they don’t consider ‘dog agility’ to be super useful LOL!!). So if anyone wants to adopt an adult with 9 dogs, that might be my only chance LOL! 😂😝
He was a good boy with the tunnel here!
>At 1 min he was freaked out by something at my neighbour’s house (they were on their deck, behind the camera). He had a couple of moments where he was worried about the neighbour but by the end of the session he started looking for the tunnel I think.>
Yes, I see that something did worry him! A dog was barking in the background there so maybe he was picking up on something that the other dog was worried about too? Plus… adolescence 🙂 You will see on-and-off times where he is sensitive to things even if they are familiar things. But he worked through it really well and had a bunch of strong tunnel reps! You made the toy play fun fun fun and that really helped.
This tunnel looks like it is scrunched up to make it shorter for now – but I think he is also ready to see a longer tunnel!
Gret job!
Tracy
