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Hi!
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You’ve given me a lot to think about and digest. I will need to read and re-read your feedback….something I just do.On using my turn in class to work the environment….. would I take the games to the middle of the course and work them near, but far from what might trigger her? So far, I work the games on the perimeter while waiting my turn or take the games near a person that she might trigger on…Like when I tug with Posh close to a judge in the morning of a trial. Take those games etc into the middle of the course/equipment as my turn? I’m trying to grasp what that might look like. Can you give me an example, please?>>
Yes, pretty much as you have described. She reacts to the ‘judge’ sometimes, or the ring crew… so you would go into the ring and play the pattern game (for example) about 10 feet from the judge until she is no longer looking at the judge. Or if there are spectators with their dogs outside the perimeter of the course, do the games from inside the ring. These are basically Kryptonite games, played inside the ring to tackle the distractions she will only experience inside the ring.
Control the environment by having her on leash, so she can’t leave to bark and so you can control the distance away from the distraction.The games can be any/all of the pattern games, volume dial, off leash offered engagement, remote reinforcement, etc. You can choose a game to start with (I always choose pattern games to start) and work from there.
If the distraction is quickly overcome, you can then do part of the sequence. If you turn is 3 minutes long, for example, spend the first minute doing the game inside the ring. And then if she looks engaged and there are no surprise distractions? You can try a bit of the sequence (that is something to plan with your instructor in advance).
And if you have a sequence planned and then suddenly a new distraction pops up? Switch gears 🙂 Tackling the distraction as top priority will make a big difference in the long term.
You have been working these outside the ring and things are going well! The environment and context inside the ring are pretty different and she still has questions in that context, so the class or training environment is a perfect place to work that.
let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! It looked crazy windy on the video (and cold!). It was smart to skip the actual run – too many factors working against guaranteeing a great time in the ring.
She did well on the video here! For the pattern game stuff in the beginning, you were mixing in tricks too – I think, for her, you can start with a pure pattern game in a new environment: the toss the cookie, wait for offered engagement, toss the next one (or drop on shoe like you were doing here). She was having some trouble with the grass and sights/smells/sounds, so it would help her to let her be in lower arousal so she can moderate her own internal arousal.
The tricks bring her into higher arousal, which is us helping her (which is useful for sure) but the bedrock is her helping herself 🙂 with the pattern games – and the lower arousal is where we want her for those so she can work through the state she might find herself in during her run or at the start line. Let me know if that makes sense or if I need more coffee 🙂
And then when she is very engaged, you can do the tricks (she does those really well!) My only suggestion on those is to move away from her more than towards her – you were doing some backing up and moving towards her, but she prefers when yo move away (it puts her into a higher state of arousal).
The other thing you can do outside the ring is show her where your reward station is and do a tiny bit of remote reinforcement! I do this now with all 3 of my young dogs, even if it is just 20 seconds of it. They are all fully aware of where to go at the end of the run but appear undistracted and engaged during the run, so something must be making sense to them LOL!
Her pivoting looked really good! That is a fun game to play when there is a lot of activity around 🙂 One small suggestion is to let her offer before your hand goes to your pocket. She was not offering until after your hand moved to the cookie pocket… then she was on board. So be careful to not tip her off with cookie hand movement 🙂 If she can’t “see” the pivot prop, then you can move her a bit further away from the distractions to see where her threshold is.
Great job! Keep me posted about how today goes!
TracyYEs, the weather has been a pain lately! Hopefully you get a stretch of good weather so you can have some fun in classes.
A fun evening makes everything so much better 🙂 Today will be about finding ways to help Promise be comfortable at the trial 🙂 Keep me posted!
Hi! He was on fire, so fast!!! I think the weaves might have been an unfamiliar color but also they were right up against the ring gating, which might have been distracting.
He definitely enjoyed checking out the ring crew and judge! Do you have folks who can come to class or ring rental to act a as ring crew, so you can reward him for ignoring them? I think that was the hardest part for him 🙂 Everything else looked really good and he was so fast! Nice work!!
TracyHi!
The tunnel threadles are going well! After the first rep, you got your feet moving forward to the threadle end of the tunnel and she did well! You can move even more directly to that tunnel entry: your feet will go right towards it and your upper body will do the threadle cue with the arm. Overall, she seems to be reading the cue and listening to the verbals. YAY! And the Front cross threadle cue was funny LOL! You can add more motion on these, building up to being able to run run run the whole time.>> I think that I really want to walk backwards which of course won’t work when running…lol
Correct! She is too fast for you to be walking backwards LOL!
Backsides are generally going well too! She did best when you had really strong connection (like video 1 at :47) and when you were moving faster (like the first video a :58 – that motion plus that connection looked great!
>> When looking at the video I see Fritzi gets confused when I switch up my shoulder rotation to throw toy as she comes over the bar after the backside. I really need to be conscious of my turn from now on. She gets it, but in the next few reps I see she’s uncertain about coming over the bar. What do you think?>>
I think what was happening on both backside videos was that she was watching your hands for the toy to move and for you to cue the bar. Since we want her to do the bar on her own, we can change the timing and placement of the reinforcement to help her out: Have the toy in your dog side hand and as soon as you think she is going to go to the backside, drop the toy behind you and closer to the entry wing as you move away. That way the toy gets in earlier and she learns to look for the bar and not at you.
Also, you can use a ‘shifting’ connection to help her out on both the regular backsides and on the Countermotion exits: as you pass the landing side, shift your eyes from looking at her eyes to looking at the landing spot. And on the countermotion, you can use your dog-size hand to point to the landing as you look at it.
Good motion at :58FC on landing side looked great
So for example, on the 2nd video as you were working the countermotion exits: Keep moving while she is in the stay, to get past the wing then release while you are on takeoff side, When you release, shift your connection to the landing spot and point behind you. That will help her move ot the jumps and not towards you. Then toss the reward to the landing spot too!
Nice work here! Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
Tracy215 on video 2 needed more connection
Hi!
I know there were some rough moments today, but the good news is that the FEO run looked GREAT! You handled that big delay at the start line like a pro, no problem! Did a couple of hand touches, made sure you had her engagement at the start line, and great run even with the toy dangling. Yay!
The rest of the day just gets filed away as “information”. Good information learned and we can make adjustments!
>> Tomorrow my plan is to crate out of car. I plan to get to site earlier so I can give her more time to acclimate.>>
Yes, and don’t offer her food for a while – give her time to settle after the ride. When she appears settled, try offering a toy first and see how she does, building to food later on when she is feeling relaxed.
>>Also, I have an appointment with a vet behaviorist on may 19th. On the trip to Texas, I realized separation anxiety in the crate is huge part of her car anxiety. She did largely very well with the trip. No sickness. Minimal foaming when put in. When I left her in car to go to bathroom, she had foamed a 6 inch drool and her chest was soaked. I had only been gone 3-4 minutes😞😞😞.
Today was the same. She was great on trip over. Annalise left car one second before I got her out and that was when her foam started 😭.>>Wow, that is a GREAT discovery because you can focus your training there! And that might be playing into why she was soooo upset in the crate today (and in other places) – separation anxiety! The visit with the behaviorist is just around the corner, I think it will really help!
Onwards to tomorrow, building on the success in the ring that you had today 🙂
Tracy
What’s interesting is she can only ride in middle seat where she can see me, but can’t be left in middle seat crated. She can be crated in rear of car with one of the boys by her, but can’t ride in the rear of the car! She freaks! She can’t see me. 😩😩😩😩!!!!
Holy cow, you had a 5 mile lead out when you took off and ran! She was great! Lots of great stuff here for sure 🙂
She did a better job of lining up and she does GREAT when you just run away LOL! Love it!
I think she also does better when she is moving to the line and NOT jumping all over in front of you and barking. And that was affirmed in the 2nd run, where she had a to wait a little longer so she was more settled. So – will she come into the ring doing little tricks like hand touches or spins, so she is not just jumping jump and barking at you? That might be a helpful piece of the puzzle!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
He was on fire coming off the start line! Yay!>> I think the jump was my placement but also checking out the judge?>>
I think it was your running line – he saw a lot of forward motion and no turn, so he was go go going 🙂 Good boy! How much more of a lead out do you think you can get? A little more lead out will put you in a better position to show the turn cue.
>> This ring ran so fast that I didn’t have food waiting for me. He tugged on the way out and the wouldn’t again once he stopped. >>
That is pretty normal – the adrenaline from the run, the expectation of getting cookies when finished. All good!
>>He still comes off much higher than he went- but this can come with reactivity. For my next run, I’ll try to place a station or food on a person, unfortunately where the chairs are, it’s super congested with people waiting.>>
Yes, have a reward station pre-planted so you don’t have to rely on anyone because they might get busy! And getting to the reward fast can help him with reactivity too. I am surprised you can wear the cookie pockets into the ring! You can leave those (with cookies in them) as your reward station.
>>Happy with what he was giving me.>>
Yes! It was a great in-and-out run! Are you trialing tomorrow?
Tracy
Hi! Looks like you are in Utah with Bill Pinder? Great judge.
Bearing in mind that almost all (or perhaps all?) of her recent agility has been indoors, an outdoor trial is a big leap in distraction type. I don’t know if she has enough NFC runs in steps 1 and 2 under her belt to be in the In and Out mode, so definitely try to get her cranked up with the volume dial more outside the ring – higher value food to fight against whatever smells or stress there might be. And before her class even runs, do pattern games near the ring to help her deal with the smells outside the ring.
She had good speed on course when she got started, but stay away from the table because, ewwwww table. Too much stopping when we want run run run 🙂
She was able to offer engagement when you put her back down in the standard course – you did a reset by picking her up again, talking to her, then back down. That might have helped the start in JWW too. If she is struggling, don’t do a lead out – just release and run. If she is engaged, do a short cartoon lead out and she what she does! But I think it will be super helpful to get her near the rings, long before your class, and play some of the pattern games and volume dial and a little instant focus without the pressure of trying to be ready to run.
Let me know how it goes!
TracyGood morning!
>> I’m wondering if there is an element of “Depletion” of self control going on.
Posh has 4 classes/lessons/week. We Rarely, if ever, make all 4 events. My thinking is to get her to as many places as possible, experience different people, places, equipment. There are other reasons as well, but they don’t apply here. Then we might have a trial or something else on the weekend. Perhaps it’s too much.>>If you are ending up at 4 of 7 days or 5 of 7 days doing agility in a week, then yes, I think it is too much for mind and body 🙂 There is not enough time for training to solidify and for the mind & body to rest when there is more coming very soon. If there is a trial on the weekend, doing less during the week is helpful. And if there is no trial during the weekend, 4 times a week is a lot.
Now, you can train stuff like concepts pretty often or do cross training, fitness, body work pretty frequently – but running agility a lot is not recommended.>>Looks like I need to do what you said with her around this person before class or we take our turn. Sometimes that’s hard. People coming in late etc.>>
Yes it can be hard because we cannot control the environment or other peoples’ behavior. But, knowing that environment overrides agility for her, you can take the same approach. If the environment is fine, no surprises? Do the agility 🙂 If something has changed in the environment, change your plan and work on the pattern game or other games during your turn, and don’t do the agility. If you have an instructor who is NOT on board with that? That is a good class to skip for now 🙂
>>When I’m walking the course planning possible reward, I don’t know where the people will be. They often run out to reset bars then pick a spot to be as I’m lining Posh up, or even going out while I’m running to take a spot. It can be hard to micromanage that activity. I don’t want to be disruptive or disrespectful to the instructor or other students.>>
You can’t really manage what they do, but since the alarm barking is s a sign of discomfort, then it is important to ask people to move slowly and explain to them why (and bribe them with food). And if you have a reinforcement plan and you notice the environment has changed? Change your reinforcement plan. So say your plan was to do a short sequence and reward a dog walk, but suddenly the new guy with the golden shows up? New plan!
As an instructor, I don’t find it to be disrespectful or disruptive when someone wants help getting their dogs happy 🙂 And as a student… if the instructor doesn’t want to help get my dog happy, then I am less likely to go to those classes. If your turn needs to be working on environment stuff, that should be fine – you don’t need to run the course, if you spend your two minutes working on handling the environment. Instructors don’t like it if people spend their turns working on environment stuff and THEN want a turn on the course LOL
>>So let’s say she runs by someone and does a slight woof as she runs by, reward her then for keep coming with me or after the next obstacle. If I reward right away is that rewarding her for barking?>>
Two thoughts on this: generally when working with anxiety, the food does not reward the barking because it is a different ‘realm’ of learning (classical rather than operant, although there are always elements of both happening)
First, if someone is close enough that she *might* woof – change you plan so she is not that close. And do your best to reward before she woofs at them. If she woofs at them, she is too close. That is hard to control in agility.
Which bring us to the second point: That woof is not a fully operant behavior, it is more reflexive because she is anxious. So if you can get cookies or toys to her in the proximity of a trigger, she is going to generally feel better about the person and woof at them less. And because there might be an operant element: yes, reward her for continuing on course with you. The other option is to NOT reward, which might cause her to leave you to go bark at the person. So even if you reward for her passing the person even if there is a little woof, you are building value for passing the trigger and continuing on, rather than leaving you and getting more explosive in the reaction.
>>You can do short bursts of sequences with no reinforcement on you – but that is less important and lower on the priority list than training the skills of engagement and getting her less anxious about the people nearby.”
This statement is SO meaningful to me! Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with so much to do work on with Posh that I don’t know what to do next and get bogged down.>>You can make a list, in priority order! Focus and engagement games? Top of the list! Weave poles or Threadles? Bottom of the list LOL!
>> He’s a guy who’s unaware of what’s going on around him what his dog is doing etc, and he has a Golden R. At first I was anxious, with him coming in late I didn’t have much time to pattern game Posh around him. She didn’t even want to play, respond with anything at first. But we worked through it as best we could. I made sure I went 3rd, so I could warm her up while previous dog ran. He happened to hang behind everyone with his dog on leash while we were at the start line. I went full guns with treats and balls and although she was definitely aware he was there we worked through that too. The only thing she did was a slight ‘woof’ as she passed by Kodie on our first sequence.
Sometimes the hardest thing is pulling out the toolbox, seeing what in that toolbox is working right then, when there’s limited time, or the environment changes on us.>>Those environmental changes are cues for us humans to change our plan in the moment. You were focused on the agility, but you don’t need to do the agility – she is already very good at the agility! When something like that happens, you can 100% shift your focus to comfort in the environment. That means playing games near and in the ring, and not running the course. The woof at Kodie is a sign of her discomfort, because Kodie is not exactly new or unknown to her 🙂 Kodie is an excellent dog trainer and I am sure she will understand and support the priority shift, so you can ask if you can use your turn on course to just work the environment and not the sequence. Your sequence work will be much easier and improved when you have worked the environment stuff first 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Vimeo won’t let me see the video- maybe it is private? And yes, if the weaves were solid in color and the dogs are not used to that, they dogs might indeed think they are hexed!
T
Good morning!
Have a great day today! And yes, according to my husband, kryptonite and Dr. Strange do not go together hahahaha but they are all the same to me 🙂She did reallg well here, she was kind of on the lower end if the arousal curve (she was relatively calm, but that is good!) but still a little challenged by the environment. I would never have known that the water sends her into crazy mode!!!!!
You can add in more challenge – taking the leash off and letting her offer engagement, doing higher arousal tricks, instant focus, etc. What would she do if there was someone IN the pool? Or spraying hose?
Have fun today and keep me posted!
TracyGood morning!
>> I have a tendency to get stuck in training and not make things harder, so here was the one time I moved too fast. >
It is fine to make things harder, but then the dogs guide us as to whether it was correct to do it or if we need to dial it back. I count the # of errors in the session: 1 error? Ok, noted, change nothing, try again. 2 errors in the session (not just in a row)? Too hard, dial it back. Most of the time we make it harder and it is fine – but counting errors keeps us on track if we make it too hard.
She did really well on the serp session here! One of the top priorities is that you can run run run on the serps, and it looks like you were really hustling here. So now I get to bug you a little about mechanics 🙂 I think on most of the reps, the serp arm was late. Having the arm extended back in serp position gives her the whole picture – I think you had it back relatively on time at :04, :17 and :34 where your serp arm was back when she was halfway between the wing and jump. I think it can be even a stride earlier.
But on some of the other reps, like a :10, :13, :20, :24, you were pointing to the center of the bar then as she approached the bar, you moved the arm back to the serp position. The serp position cues the 2nd turn, so on those reps she had to adjust last minute on those and was not always successful. Part of it was that you were switching the toy to the other hand, which made the arm later and toy later, so she hit the wing on those reps (:10 and :24).
So as you revisit this to inch the jump back to being straight, keep reminding yourself to have your serp arm back nice and early to cue the double turn. Those reps looked great!!
The get out reps looked great too! There was one rep where yo stopped moving (at the beginning) which causes your feet to turn and cues a rear cross – but the rest had movement and looked great! And she seemed to have no trouble with the non-get-out reps other than judging you for running directly towards nothing hahaha! So on the next revisit of this one, add in the Advanced level blind or front: as soon as her head turns to the get out jump, begin the cross. She looks ready for that challenge.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
