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Yes, it can be straight. The stationary start position of both the dog and handler on the serp takes out any potential issue of the dog being too close to the tunnel.
In UKI, I use it at the end of my session. For rxample:
Bring a toy to the line or something, do a little sequence, reward near the teeter. Do a crazy elevator game, click and run out to the MM. 1000% allowed in UKI. But I don’t go back in after that, so I time it just right. I’ve also done it for weaves.Hi there!
Your description of what was happening was spot on! Thanks for the video 🙂 I see what you mean: she was not ‘seeing’ poles 3 and 4 when they were straight, all eyes were on the target bowl. She did get it a few times when you helped her with a body cue, but your original line of motion was perfect and we don’t want you to have to help her with physical cues.So a couple of ideas for you:
Spread the setup apart:
Poles 1-2 straight
8 feet
Poles 3-4 straight
8 feet
Reward bowl(The 8 feet is approximate you don’t need to get out a measuring tape or anything haha!)
Then I want to backchain it like we do in the 6 and 4 and boxcars games (not sure if you have watched those yet but the same concepts will apply here):
Start her in the first gap, between poles 2 and 3, and just work finding poles 3-4 as you move, then reward toss to the bowl.
Do that once or twice on each side of you. If that is incredibly hard, we stay there (I would be shocked if she found that difficult :)) Since it is probably going to be super easy, you can move to the next steps:Start her right at the exit of pole 2 and then cue her to take poles 3-4 to the bowl (with you moving too).
If that is fine and dandy:
Start her at poles 1-2 (I liked the angles you start her on here, around the bucket 🙂 ) then keep walking/jogging and see if she finds poles 3-4 with the bigger gap.
If yes? Jackpot! And then keep doing that for a couple of sessions, and we will gradually move poles 3-4 closer and closer and closer.If no, if she still can’t see poles 3-4: don’t open them up but instead go back to starting her in the gap between poles 2 and 3 for a few more successes before we add back poles 1-2.
Let me know if that makes sense and how it goes!
Tracy
Hi!
There were a couple of things going on in terms of getting him to lead with his head: I think there was too much motion on the full 360s as you were moving, and that was too much of a distraction. Plus, the reinforcement was largely near you, so he was focusing more on you and less on the wing. The head turning requires the dog to look at the wing and not at us.I don’t think there was a pain response on the right side? But if there is any possibility of pain, definitely have him looked at by a PT or chiro person before trying more bending.
>> Maybe just more practice is needed for the young pup as he has to remind me how young and inexperienced he is. I think we will go back inside to work on some of the wrap basic 360 exercises using just an upright and clicker.>>
yes, 100% this. Now that he is more grown, I suggest revisiting the beginning stages – just a single upright or cone (not a wing) with you stationary, using food rewards. Cue the first wrap and as he finishes it, cue the 2nd wrap with your hand: and as soon as he turns his head away to lead with his head for wrap 2: click (or say yes if you don’t want to click) then toss the cookie to the side of the cone he is heading towards. Only do 2 wraps in a row (this is not a multiwrap game), and use very very obvious-looking cues (we don’t want him to offer it, we are going to cue it). The reason we don’t want offering is that the behavior we elicit is not nearly as good as the behavior elicited with a little hand cue 🙂
Refresh him on the left turns to start, then switch to right. No need to add motion til we see that bendy ‘slither’ in both directions 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>> She read it just fine but I think she might have thought she was being cued for a wrap>>
Yes! The adult dogs give us pretty straightforward feedback then they cover our behinds LOL!
On the rear cross reps with both dogs at :04, :10, :16, :28, you were moving to the wrap-towards-me-wing than just as they were taking off, you turned your feet to the RC line. So the response from both dogs was basically the same:
They made a takeoff decision on the jump, looking to the wrap side. Then when you decelerated and rotated your feet, they turned their heads over the bar (they were jumping the center of the bar) and then landed and finished the turn.So that has 3 things of note:
– On full height jumps, they will have made the takeoff decision sooner, and the rear cross will end up being long and after landing, with a lot of impact on shoulders. Or they might turn the wrong way.
– With you being so far on the other side of the jump, you get way behind, which we try to avoid with such fast dogs 🙂
– and this is the most important one: because dogs are great at figuring things out, they will figure out that the position/motion on that side of the wing could mean rear cross. And that will have 2 elements of fallout:
First, they will slow down approaching the jump to wait for that one extra moment of info. That question will add ticks to your course time because they have to think and wait for a moment.
Second, when you get in on a wing to try to cue a really tight wrap, if your transition is not perfect or they see the foot turn a little soon: you will get a rear cross and not a wrap.Now compare all that to the last rep here, where you got MUCH more on the RC pressure line:
It was incredibly distinct looking from you, entirely different in line/motion/position from any wrap-towards-me cue, so there will be no need for the dogs to think or wait for more info, plus they won’t give you a wrap or rear cross when you wanted the other option.Note how you got Kip to turn to his right AND he was jumping the side of the bar closer to the next line, not the center of the bar.
And if you had kept moving, you would have been parallel to him when he landed and not far behind him – that is a huge advantage!
So keeping working those RC diagonals – let me know if all those reasons make sense. The tunnel start is definitely better but you are sending and getting ahead – try running down to the tunnel entry all the way to almost touch it, then drive up the line to the RC – it will allow you to set the RC diagonal even sooner so you can leave for the next line sooner too!
Great job!
TracyOh no, poor buddy!!! At least it is only punctures and not fractures. Yep, he will need time to heal up the punctures and bruising and any strain higher up in the leg and shoulder, because he was probably trying to pull his leg away. Definitely ice him all the way up the leg and into the shoulder, and see if he is sore anywhere else.
But, he will bounce back and we will still get the teeter finished – he won’t lose what he had before this. We just don’t want to put him on the teeter at all until he is 1000% sound again because there is so much concussion.
The target fading here looked great: my notes were things like “good” “nice” “WOW!” Haha! The effort to get into position fast looked great and he was sliding a bit too (weight shift!). I think the toy out to the side was maybe a little harder, but he still did well. And he was great with the toy out front and you moving. And the markers were clear, plus there was some quiet praise in there too, all good!
So when he is recovered, this is the game to start with – there is just enough concussion on the feet that we will know if anything still hurts, without making things worse and without any pain being associated with the teeter itself. We still have plenty of time to get it all done 🙂 If there is one thing that I have learned from the long stretches of no training during the pandemic is that anything that was trained reasonably well will be retained even with a long break 🙂 And I would say you have trained an excellent foundation!
Great job here – give him some extra ice cream for his sadness and I am sure he will be back in action soon 🙂
TracySounds like a good plan!!!
One thing about the food reward box: I have placed my MM in there and run NFC with the remote in my hand. Clicked the remote and then run to the food box. I asked the judges, of course, and they were all fine with it. I’ve also run NFC with the MM outside the ring and the remote in my hand when working up to full runs. Food for thought for the PT!And yes, having Nemo right there is a great idea. When I play with balls in the NFC classes, I bring 2 of them with me to make it more efficient to get the first one back LOL!
And having access to all that NFC is great. The first NFC class my dogs run is never about agility obstacles, it is about playing with me inside the ring, as close to the distractions as they can handle. Recalls, tricks, play, etc. I thought I had video somewhere of Hot Sauce’s very first NFC but I can’t find it. I bet have one of Nacho somewhere. And then the dog’s comfort level from that first NFC will help me plan the 2nd NFC (as to whether to add agility or not).
T
Yeah, I thought about this overnight and I think the only answer is to just play it by ear and see what the future holds. It seems like vaccine access has vastly improved… but that is mainly from my friends in Manitoba. So for now the only thing we can do is keep building the teeter skill up in practice, add it into sequences, add distractions, etc. Then hop into any other opportunities as things open back up. Personally, things are more “open” here (insert comments about how they really were not all that locked down 🙁 ) but I really don’t think any of my dogs will get back into the agility ring before late summer. I’ve spent a decent amount of time doing disc and flyball because that will present training opportunities in terms of learning how to be in the environment, even if there is no agility 🙂
T
Good morning!
I watched each rep in super slow mo to see the striding… nothing to worry about here. For the most part, the striding was fine. When he had to think really hard about an entry, he lost it a bit. And he only had one blooper where you were both way ahead moving fast AND pushing across the exit, it was too hard so you can keep those variables a little more separated, like way ahead but walking and pushing across the exit, and way ahead and fast but NOT pushing across the exit.And nice job with the disc dog leap for the toy! I think you should do some UpDog!
Speaking of the toy – you asked him why he wasn’t getting and I think it is because the toy goes dead really quickly when you drop it rather than throw it. So keep throwing it so he can chase it 🙂
OK, back to striding – the poles are half an inch but it looks like the exit is a little more open, or maybe he is pushing them? He bounces out of the exit which won’t be an issue when we add more poles.
So here is what I would like to do: close those bastards up to all be basically straight. The slightly open is still a little awkward for him. So close them, but work only on letting him get his striding. The handling challenges here were great and he basically nailed them all! So the next sessions should start with entries from the 9 o’clock side all the way around the top of the clock to the 3 o’clock side with you moving, but just kinda trotting along on a parallel line. Nothing fancy 🙂 And let him sort it out. What is likely to happen is that you will see mostly swimming with a double tap here and there as he sorts is balance (especially on the entry, maybe in the middle). No worries at all. And if he slows down to think about it and still swims? Perfect! The speed comes roaring back when they have the understanding.If he really struggles and you do 2 sessions at 50% rate of success or less… let me know and we will adjust the plan 🙂 The sessions will be super short because of heat and # of poles, so you will need 2 sessions spread apart to really assess what he is thinking and let a some latent learning creep in.
Let me know what you think! He is ready and I am excited!
Tracy
Good morning! Yay, 6 straight poles, no problems! Nice low throws, they look like mine 🙂 When I am throwing in public, I warn everyone to move far away because they might get hit LOL!
As expected, she thought that doing the poles in isolation was a little silly hahahaha but her striding looked super consistent here and she seemed to have no questions.
So with that in mind, onwards to planning what comes next!
Mother Nature is providing a rest day so when the rain goes away, yes to your plan of 6 poles in big wide open sequences, which will also allow you to introduce the harder angles (and you can also bring back things like the sends from the bottom of the clock, like 4 o’clock, 5 o’clock, 7 o’clock, 8 o’clock and so on, as well as the easier entries but with you adding rear crosses at the entry.Give that a session or two (they are short sessions because now on 6 straight poles, reps add up quickly). Then later this week, go to the 6 and 4 game (6 straight, a gap of 6 to 8 feet, then 4 straight). I am pretty confident that will be easy – so then the session after than can be the boxcars (6 and 6). I figure that depending on weather and your calendar, she will be doing 12 poles easily within the next 2 weeks without having to push to hard – exciting! Now of course, if she has any questions, we will help her out but she seems to have a really solid understanding and that will allow us to move through really quickly.
Great job!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! I don’t see a link here, let me know if I missed something.
One thing to try is having your 2 straight sets further apart, with you moving as well – that can help her find both of them. How far apart are they now? We want to move past opening up the 2nd set – how many times does she seem like she doesn’t get it? We can play around with different ways of helping her out 🙂Let me know!
TracySuper update! Sounds like a really successful time (but it looks cold!!!!). I think his lack of enthusiasm on the first session was mainly carsick carryover (a little bit about the new place but mainly the carsickness, poor dude). But then it sounds like he was great! There were people, new smells, noises – no problem (nice barn, too!)
The teeter session was great. He was pushing to get into target position during your countdown and the movement/whip/noise of the new board didn’t seem to bother him at all. Happy dance! The crazy elevator from the wing looked fabulous too – he is going to be able to do the full teeter next time! Woohoo!!! So we have now reached the stage of planning to get this progression of the game on as many different teeters as possible, and some in front of tunnels in new places. Lather, rinse, repeat 🙂
And… UKI trials! What is coming up? And USDAA too. Time to plan for some training in the ring opportunities. Not AKC though, because you will not be allowed to throw the toy and Kaladin with think it is stoooooopid if you just hold Nemo.
Great job here!!!
TracySuper nice session! My only suggestion is that the dead friz is boring for him 🙂 so try to throw or roll it even if you are way ahead, rather than toss it back. When he exited and the Friz was moving, he was stoked! When it was flat like a pancake, he waited til you threw it again. And it is fine if it ends up past you on the throw, he can be chasing you and the friz during the reward moment.
Hmmmm, what to do next…. Yes to adding the harder angles by moving the wings further down the line. And I think I would try what you did here: start with the PT, get him going, take it out… and then tighten up poles 5-6 maybe halfway through the session if he is having a lot of success. That will bring poles 1-2 and 5-6 to be basically straight, right? And you would dial back your motion at that point a little bit.
And then we would tighten up poles 3-4 in the next session. I think he is ready for 6 straight poles – his speed, entries and striding all look great here!! Let me know what you think!
TracyPerfect, perfect, PERFECT!!! Hopefully they will put gamblers first so you can definitely NFC it to reward 3 things: start line, teeter, weaves. I am confident you will have 12 weaves but the end of May – strong enough to do NFC. And then you can decide if you want to do them “for real” in jumping, or not 🙂
