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Hi there! This looks great!
The first 4 reps were really fabulous: lots of motion plus the crosses, no problem! I think that the games you’ve been playing here directly contributed to his success on the full teeter when you were way out ahead 🙂 Yay!He did think the rear crosses were a bit odd LOL!!! So you can put the target out for those rear crosses reps – either put the target on the plank, or put the cookie bucket out ahead, or both 🙂 As soon as he realizes that the rear crosses are a legitimate thing, he will stop looking at you and keep driving forward.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Heavy bread LOL! Now I am hungry! This session looked really great.
One little tweak that he is ready for on the crazy elevator game: don’t catch the board til he is ust about arriving at the end – if you catch early, he weight shifts early.The full teeter looked GREAT!!! You were caught in the moment and got way ahead… try not to leave him in the dust as much, support him by staying closer for now until he has more full teeters under his belt, so he doesn’t get tempted to bail off or stop early.
And the last crazy elevator looked great too, he was NOT worried about the full teeter and was still very happy.One more suggestion – you can remove the mat from under the down side of the teeter, so he doesn’t use it as a target – it is not reducing the slam a lot so you’ll still want to limit reps, but we want to be sure that the visual is correct as we transition this teeter into the trial ring.
Great job! More sessions like this will help get him used to the full teeter 🙂Tracy
Hi!
>The trial is a USDAA Trial.
Good, there are fewer rules 🙂
>>Toys: I have a flirt pole with rabbit fur on the end. He cannot resist it, but….he hates to give it up without multiple discussions!It might be worthwhile, though – all he needs to do is one good elevator game for it then he can have it and you don’t need to get it back, the FEO is over at that point. I need to find out if in USDAA you are still allowed to touch the obstacles – I know you used to be able to, but they change rules a lot so I will double check for you.
>> Once he is in the mood for toys, then bungee balls with fur attached are good. sometimes, just a ball or a frisbee.>>
You can also try it with a ball or frisbee and bring more than one 🙂 That is totally allowed. The 2nd one helps get the first one back LOL!
So for the USDAA – elevator game all the way! Start with a rep or two of the normal elevator for the toy. If that goes well, do one crazy elevator game (you can use a jump or tunnel to send him to to give yourself a head start). Reward him even if it is not perfect. You won’t have cookies to reward the top of the board but you can still catch the board and use your hand to help him stop.
And totally practice all of this during the ring rental 🙂
>>I am hoping to use the dogwalk, too, as well as, just play with toys to get used to the arena agai>>
Perfect!!!
T
Hi!
>>One question, I’ve been sort of varying the warmup game before the 2 Warm up Regular Elevators. Sometimes we do Bang Game and sometimes we do some Mountain Climbers. Is that OK or should I make the whole session totally predictable at this point? Does that question make sense?>>
I think the warm up is fine to be either bang or elevator (but not mountain climbers) to remind him of weight shift and end position. I lean towards elevator game as the warm up, because it reminds us both of how the elevator game goes, in terms of rhythm and mechanics – so it warms me up as well as warms him up. And since the elevator game requires nothing to hold the board up, I can make a really fast transition from the warm up into the crazy elevator game.
>>And I go back and forth on keeping the target cue in addition to the teeter cue. As you said… we’ll figure it out… whatever works for him>>
Right! He will let us know. A friend and I have dogs the exact same age: my dog needed to hear target 57 times to convince him to stop. Her dog tried to weight shift the instant she heard it, so she ended up not using it. My Hot Sauce also tries to weight shift the instant she hears it, so I don’t say it until she is in the yellow at the very top of the board 🙂
T
Hi! I vaguely remember 2:1 paint to sand but I could be wrong – the Home Depot folks might know better. And you will see the consistency get thick, kind of like grits lol!
Good morning! This was a good compilation of his recent successes!!! Yay!
One thing you can add is more toy play between reps, rather than going back for another rep. Or toss some cookies for him to chase – make it more about the party of being near the teeter, and less about getting the reps in on the teeter.
He looked good on the regular elevator game reps, that is where I would totally recommend toy play in between reps. You used the toy after the rep of the crazy elevator game – that was great!
In the class setting, will he play with a toy? He did well on that first rep…. so now I will bug you: why did you ask for it again? Try to be more in the habit of taking the success and getting outta there on that first rep.
And during your turn in class, I am very happy that he did his teeter!!!! YAY! So keep focusing on the tiny # of reps and super high success.Tell me more about his toy play in the class setting. One of the ways we get dogs happy in pressure-environments is with play, so we can plan some toy stuff and that will spill over nicely into his teeter work.
>>Mt verbal hit it for end position… im struggling with can I use hut it for end position for DW? I’m giving up.on running for now.. trying to think my.hit means the board id dropping or end position on ground>>
When I had the same position on the end of the teeter and the end of the dog walk, I used the same target cue for both because it was the same behavior: drive across the board into 2o2o. And I also had obstacle names, and the timing of the obstacle plus target cue would help the dog know which obstacle was coming
teeter-target (right as he was getting on)
walk it………. target (when he was on the center ramp)So yes, it can be used for both but there are two caveats:
– the position must be the same – he does a bow-like position on the teeter, is that the same position on the dog walk?
– he must love love love love the dog walk, or you risk poisoning the hit it cue which can adversely affect the teeter.If it is the same position and he loves the dog walk… go for it! Train it from the ground up as if he was a baby puppy and with a high rate of success, and it will turn out nicely!
Tracy
Good morning!
I agree – super strong session here!!!!
>>-I’m starting him close to the teeter, so he doesn’t have too much speed, which will mean his down will be a tad slower. But I think that’s good right now as he figures out the order of events.
Yes – we don’t want speed until we have understanding, otherwise it all goes to poo. Based on this session, you can start him from a stay again but lead out less so you have to move when you release him, to begin adding more motion. If that goes well, we add the wing wrap before it 🙂 so you are both moving.
And if that goes well (this is over the course of a couple of sessions) then you can add in your motion forward a bit after you drop the board.
One thing I think you can do about catching the board: don’t catch it til he is just about at the very end. Keep your hand out of the picture (not under the board) til just as he is arriving in the yellow, then reach out and grab it (kind of like what you did at 2:00) – that will get him all the way to the end of the board as it is still moving.
>>-He is consistently offering a down without any cues, and in a couple reps he started the weight shift a little earlier, which I rewarded more when I noticed it.>>
Yes! It looked really good!!
>>-Preloading the target definitely helps with keeping his focus forward.
Yes, that definitely made a difference plus he had the great impulse control to hold his position until you released. Yay! My only suggestion is to move the target further away (a foot or two further) so that he can drive straight to it and the teeter won’t possibly hit his bum when it resets 🙂
>>-I need to make sure my treat hand is out of sight as he comes up the board.
Yes, but that won’t be an issue when we are doing full teeters 🙂
>>-I think he did better when I let the teeter drop a little further. Maybe as he feels the board drop more there is just natural weigh shift that helped him get into position quicker? Given that’s what will happen when he’s doing it full speed, not a bad thing.>>
Yes, I agree – letting it drop more will elicit more of a weight shift, and not catching it til he is at the end will cause it to drop more 🙂
>>-I didn’t use any target on the teeter – wondering if I should?
I think he did fine without it here. We can always reinstate it if needed, but he seemed to get the down easily and also he was using the yellow target as the focal point.
>>The actual having the teeter drop with him in a down is not a problem – he seems really stable and comfortable and if he loses his balance at all, is able to make small shifts to stay in place.>>
Yes! That will be something we keep an eye on when we add more speed (like from the wing and eventually from the tunnel). So far, he looks great!
So onwards to adding more speed with you moving, then the wing with both of you moving more 🙂
Nice work!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! So much great stuff here – he is doing well and ready for the last steps!
First up: Uphills! Looking fabulous.
On the first video:
It is a red BC! Ha! I love the close up and cinematography as well, would be well-suited for The Food Network. French vanilla snout and stripe sounds delicious
And holy cow he is a wild man for the uphills, in a good way! Fast fast fast!The Panda bear made me snort. The ears! LOL! Your helper almost lost his hand to Lennan’s gaping maw!
The flying exit made me laugh too – he is having a great time and that is 99% of what we want (ok. the other 1% is criteria but I am not worried about that LOL!)We are going to convert this game to the crazy elevator game (see below) so your first thing will be to practice the mechanics of running, board catching, Lennan feeding while holding the ice cream cone.
Downhills: he is doing well here too. Yes, praise might be a distraction right now in a moment where he wants pure info. “Just the facts, ma’am!” It was smart to clarify with the markers and you can see his understanding really build through these three sessions. We will add praise back in – see below.
I really liked his weight shift at :44 on the first video! And then he was consistently able to do it even with you moving. Good boy! He did have trouble with the praise in that section – If something happens and he moving on the release, you can give him some type of other reward like a reset reward because it is a communication error not a poor choice error. That will keep him from getting sticky as he did when he was not sure what the praise meant.
The 2nd video started with markers and he did really well here and then again on the 3rd video. Great job with the aim on your cookie tosses 🙂 And it is important to note that he did well with your motion AND with the toy out front. Yay!
So now one more thing to add, which brings us to one more thing after it:
Start to delay the marker and reward now, to build a little more duration and help be sure that he is 10000% most definitely going to stop and hold the stop. You were marking & rewarding within one of your steps after you were sure he was executing correctly and that was great, it really helped him! So now you can add some delay: 2 or 3 steps after he stops & holds, then mark and reward. You can throw back the reward or release forward to it. You can use the ping pong approach to gradually get more duration too, going from 1 step to 3 steps to 2 steps to 4 steps and so on, so he just learns to hold position until he gets the marker/release.And, by adding that duration, we now have a window to gradually build in praise. I like praise but I also don’t want it to be confusing or frustrating to the dog 🙂 So when he is happy with you going 3 or 4 steps after he stops, you can build in eye contact then mark & reward. Then a smile, then mark & reward. Then eventually you can fill the gap with quiet praise. The goal is to fill the gap between end position and release with boisterous praise, but we don’t want him to confuse it with a release, so build it slowly 🙂
The elevator game videos both looked really strong. The only distraction was the wind 🙂 He does try to anticipate end position every now and then, so for now you can feed him for a little longer after he hops on the board (which will get faded eventually) to hopefully encourage him to not anticipate.
Based on these 2 videos and his uphill videos, I think he is ready for crazy elevator. Yay! Warm him u with a rep or two of normal elevator game, like you did here, but with little or no motion from you after you drop the board. Then go into the crazy elevator from the stay (with you holding the ice cream cone as the reward :)) also with little or no motion from you after the target cue. Yay! His response will let us know how quickly we can add more motion to it.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there!
Really nice session here! One overall thing is that she is doing REALLY well hitting and holding the end position!!!! And your reward/release mechanics are looking a lot cleaner and more consistent, which I am sure contributes to her success. And the big target 🙂 but more on that below. I think she had one rep towards the end where she forget to get her front left foot into the grass – small oopsie, didn’t get repeated, no worries.The structure of the session looked good with the warm up and then the crazies. My favorite crazy rep was the first one: it was right on the edge and you caught that board right as she arrived at the top. You were earlier to catch it on the others, so she was earlier to weight shift. So if possible, catch the board right as she arrives at the top. Wheeeeee!
For your next session, repeat this session rep for rep but with one exception: somewhere in the middle, after a couple of crazy elevator reps, cue her target position (tee) as she is getting on the board and let her do the full teeter. Because that is a big and important variable change, two things should also happen in that session:
– dial back your speed so you are moving along the board parallel to her but walking not running
– reward anything that is roughly right, doesn’t have to be perfect. I think the only thing I would NOT reward is a dock diving moment, but then if she did that you can have her come to you, settle down with a hand touch, and have a cookie.After the one full teeter rep, end the session with a couple of crazy elevator reps 🙂
About the billboard target – you can revisit the bang game nd fading process there, but I would leave it fully in place for the elevator games for now, because we are adding the full teeter. We will fade it out of the elevator game at some point next week, probably, depending on how the full teeter goes and how much training time you get (life gets busy at this time of year, no rush or pressure!)Great job!!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHooray for the ring rental time! It is great that it is in the same place as at the trial.
For the ring rental, bring your target and bring your plank. We can’t do a full hour of teeters 🙂 But we can alternate some teeters and some planks and some other stuff.
Start on the plank with a little warm up and targeting (not with a tunnel or jump nearby, and with the target on the plank).
Then do a little regular elevator game with the target, using food rewards and starting off very easy.
Then, his response will dictate what is next:
If he is fine, we ask for a couple of reps of crazy elevator from a stay, then from a wing. In other words, you are repeating the same exact progression in this new place.And if he is happy with that? Do a full elevator.
The target should be in use the whole time for that session, and you can probably do it all in one session of about 5 minutes if he is successful.
If he is good with that, do one more session without the target, but the exact same progression: normal elevator warm up, crazy elevator, full teeter.
If he starts to question or fail at any point, you go back a step to get success and stay at that level for a few more reps, then give him a break.
This can be done in multiple 5 minute sessions (approx) with nice breaks in between. 🙂
For the trial – my first question is: is it an AKC trial or UKI or a different venue? That will change the plan.
Second question: what toys does he like?
Talk to you soon for more planning!
TracyGood morning!
Ah yes, now is a good time to shorten the teeter as it will change his striding. I guess the 3600mm puts it closer to the international specs?
Thanks for the video! I didn’t see what caused him to jam his right front on the first rep – but it does look like the teeter reset whacked him in the chin as he tried to get back on it. And then yes, on the 2nd rep he was totally limping: easy to see on the video but also easy to miss in the moment.
Poor guy.>> Maybe he is still hurting from this? But that doesn’t make sense if his is loading his front end and not using his rear. That would make me think it is in a rear leg or his back.>>
Could be that he has an ouchie in his left hind and is compensating on the front right, or vice versa – that compensation is totally common in dogs. Or his back might be ouchy so it is showing up. Either way, a week off will help for sure 🙂 He has so much heart and drive that he will continue to work, so I like your plan of pulling him and not doing jumpers.
Keep me posted!
Tracyhi there! He did really well with driving up the board here, he seemed happy and focused and fast (even with the added distraction of the environment being busy :))
Yes, his end position was not as good but I think that was a variable issue: we had the environment being stimulating, we had him being asked to run fast, and you were running fast to catch the board and also moving fast after the target cue. Soooooo many variables at once! Consider your motion and his motion as separate variables: if he is going faster, you need to either be stationary or slower. You can’t BOTH be fast at this early stage LOL!
So on the next session, only one adjustment: do everything the same in terms of the speed except when you cue the target, don’t move. Stay there so you can reward him in position. Then after a couple of successes, you can add back moving VERY slowly, and still reward in position after assessing that he is holding position (he was not holding it here on these even when you were rewarding quickly, he was already moving).
I am confident that he will sort it out then we can add back your speed after you drop the board. Separately, you can work on you moving fast on the plank while he recovers.OK, one more little tweak – make sure before each rep that he has a straight shot up the board from the wing, no angled entries. On the left turns around the wing here, he had to find the entry on an angle, which we don’t want to add as a variable along with speed.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I agree, this is totally coming together! I am very happy with the full teeter thrown in the middle of the session, he was great. And he seems to both understand end position and LOVE end position – PERFECT!!I thought your were consistent with the 3-2-1 feet cue here, was it 1-2-3 feet previously? I think the dogs figure out the rhythm, he seemed fine with it 🙂
One little tweak for now: after he gets the reward for getting to the top of the board, you can stop feeding during the countdown so he can look forward and prepare. Note how at :54 you stopped feeding after the 2 in the countdown and he looked forward to the end position – this is exactly what we want. So continue to deliver the yummies at the top of the board, then as he is finishing them start the countdown so the food is out of the way before the countdown finishes.
I liked this session structure: good warm up, great crazy elevators, one full teeter that was lovely, then right back to the crazies before he could decide if he liked the full teeter or not haha! He seemed like he was looking for the weight shift a little sooner on the last 2 crazies, so something to add is some wild ball play after the release from the end position. That can put him in ‘think less’ mode after the full teeter so he can’t ask “wait, what just happened there?” LOL! You might have been playing ball but try to play it all the way up to the tunnel send before the teeter. And yes, you might need 16 hands for adding the ball.
I personally like using teeter AND feet, but whether you keep both cues will depend on him response. Some dogs slow down when they hear the feet cue (Mom, I want to be right so I will get really accurate when I hear it!) and some dogs need to hear it 10 times to convince them to stop LOL! For now, keep move and time will tell us what he prefers.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I agree, this is totally coming together! I am very happy with the full teeter thrown in the middle of the session, he was great. And he seems to both understand end position and LOVE end position – PERFECT!!I thought your were consistent with the 3-2-1 feet cue here, was it 1-2-3 feet previously? I think the dogs figure out the rhythm, he seemed fine with it 🙂
One little tweak for now: after he gets the reward for getting to the top of the board, you can stop feeding during the countdown so he can look forward and prepare. Note how at :54 you stopped feeding after the 2 in the countdown and he looked forward to the end position – this is exactly what we want. So continue to deliver the yummies at the top of the board, then as he is finishing them start the countdown so the food is out of the way before the countdown finishes.
I liked this session structure: good warm up, great crazy elevators, one full teeter that was lovely, then right back to the crazies before he could decide if he liked the full teeter or not haha! He seemed like he was looking for the weight shift a little sooner on the last 2 crazies, so something to add is some wild ball play after the release from the end position. That can put him in ‘think less’ mode after the full teeter so he can’t ask “wait, what just happened there?” LOL! You might have been playing ball but try to play it all the way up to the tunnel send before the teeter. And yes, you might need 16 hands for adding the ball.
I personally like using teeter AND feet, but whether you keep both cues will depend on him response. Some dogs slow down when they hear the feet cue (Mom, I want to be right so I will get really accurate when I hear it!) and some dogs need to hear it 10 times to convince them to stop LOL! For now, keep move and time will tell us what he prefers.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Great session here! I think he drove more to the end on each rep here, with the last one (full teeter) being the best one. But you know I am going to bug you about being 1000000% sure that the teeter is on a direct straight line from the tunnel from now on! Yes, you should play the game where he has guides and works on the uphills on angled entries. But with all the speed from the tunnel, don’t risk him having a fall so be a million % sure it is straight (check it after each rep). And also, when he has to approach from an angle, he has to slow down and weight shift to do it, which slows down his run up the board. So, the straighter the entry, the faster he will be across the board.
How is his crazy elevator game going at LU? It is time to plan bringing the crazy elevator and full teeter to LU, but only if he is VERY happy with the regular elevator and crazy elevator there. And also, only if there is a straight line entry LOL!
Great job here!
Tracy
