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Hi there! This is going really well too! It is a hard behavior because it is pretty unnatural for most dogs: they don’t want to move away from us like that.
All of the chase the momma moments looked great, she never considered leaving you for the jump or grabbing the tunnel behind you, she was always on the line. Perfect!!
The get out cues are going really well, considering they are very new!!! On the reps where you emphasized your outside arm pointing to the far wing of the jump, she got it every time. You can see that on your first ‘get out’ rep as well as at 1:07 and 1:20. At :47 you were a little too understated in the cue (it is a big cue :)) Same at 2:30, but the other reps on that side looked good – so be big with the cue, lots of connection and arm pointing. It will get easier when she is more experienced with it, but I think you are off to a great start!
There were a couple of moments here that allow us to continue talking about your question from the previous session:
>Do you think this is a “likes being correct” sort of thing or just expects rewards and is confused when she doesn’t get them? It’s always taken her a moment when she is wrong to get back on track to whatever I’m
Asking of her.>She had 2 errors here that deflated her, and she did what I think you were describing.
The first one was at 2:02 on the send to the wing: you were not that connected on the send and it ended up looking like a blind cross cue… so she ended up guessing on the wing wrap and turned to her left. That makes sense, because it looked like your shoulders were pointing there and she is also a lefty from what we can tell. Good choice, Arty!
You said “oh no ma’am” (or something) and faced her, movement stopping – she deflated (from her perspective, that was the response to the info she saw, so she was not actually incorrect). You gave her a cookie for the sit at 2:13 but that was a solid 10 second later, which adds to the negative punishment of the moment.So what to do instead? In that type of oopsie moment, it is a very very high likelihood that the dog was correct and the handler was not 🙂 So, I almost always reward the dog’s effort right away (“Good girl! Here’s a cookie while I figure out why that happened, nice effort and commitment!”) while I assess if I was doing something wrong and, even if I thought I was ok, I will improve my cue for the next rep (and you totally gave a better cue at 2:15!! and she nailed it).
Now, I won’t reward right away if I have given a specific directional verbal – for example, if I say “right” and the dog turns left. In that case, I am still pretty sure it was human error 🙂 so I happily call the dog, immediately send the dog again with a better cue, and immediately reward. But you did not have your specific verbal (unless I couldn’t hear it) so it would have been fine to give her a reward then reset.
If I go back and look at the video later and decide that my cues were great and the dog was just choosing wrong… no worries, because the extra reward will not have a big impact on the learning in a bad way. It tells me that I need to clarify the behavior but the extra rewards keep the session and the training in general feeling really good and free of frustration 🙂 The extra punishment will have an impact, though – it can create frustration/stress which will manifest as fight (dogs that bark at or bite the handlers), flight (sniffing, zooming, running off to visit) or freeze (standing still, staring, slowing down… which is what Arty does). I have had dogs that showed frustration in each of these ways, which really helped me figure out how to reinforce the behavior we want without getting any frustration. It is easy to see it when the dog is biting you or having zoomies LOL!!! The freezers are harder to see as being frustrated but they are.
So, you can un-freeze her in that moment after an error with a response that can ultimately lead to more reinforcement without having to tell her she is wrong (because she knows). And if there is ANY possibility that your handling cue was wrong… just reward her as if that is what you meant to do (because it was probably what your body was saying).
Now, at 2:30 when she didn’t take the jump, that was a bit of a handling error (more pointing needed :)) and also it is a new skill for her. I thought you handled it pretty well! You can also call her back and do a trick for a cookie, like a spin or high five. And then just keep moving to keep the flow going – she seems to perceive that break in the action without a reinforcement as a marker that she was wrong, so she freezes up a bit – I think that response was residual from other oopsie moments. She will get more resilient in those moments when there is a stop in the action or the moments when she is not correct because there was no reward offered if you also pair them with reinforcement is still available, either with rewarding for potential handler error, fun tricks for tricks (or toy), or quick movement back into the next rep.
The dog on the video I posted above is a ‘freezer’ like Arty – but note how she was most definitely wrong (not a handler error there LOL!) but she had no change in demeanor, she just tried again and got it right 🙂
Let me know what you think! This is a really fun part of the training to explore 🙂
TracyHi!
>>Thanks so much for taking the time to help me look at the jumping! I feel better now 😅
I love obsessing on the little details like this! It is the type of thing that tells us a LOT about the dog!
>> we did our rear cross exercise this evening and I’ve got to say, I’m proud of this!
You should be proud, the RCs looked great! Especially on the left turn RCs. On the right turn RCs, I think you can get closer to her line, sooner, getting right on her tail 🙂 Running in closer to the tunnel can help you set the line even sooner to get those a little tighter.
And nice balance with the GO lines, she was really reading the difference nicely, only one oopsie 🙂>>I didn’t teach my older dog Peaches (first agility dog) rear crosses until we were 4 years into trialing! I can’t believe the progress Arty has made on these at such a young age!>>
You’re doing a great job making sure she knows all the things 🙂 Rear crosses are not what many folks consider “fancy” but they are SO important 🙂
>>I left one part in there for you where she blew past the jump then seemed pretty demotivated when she didn’t get rewarded. >>
Yes, thanks for leaving that in. She was going fast! And trying hard! And just so happened to be incorrect, probably driving to the last place she saw the reward. Oopsie!
>>Do you think this is a “likes being correct” sort of thing or just expects rewards and is confused when she doesn’t get them? It’s always taken her a moment when she is wrong to get back on track to whatever I’m
Asking of her. Just wondering if you have any tips there.>>>>I don’t think it is a likes-being-correct thing as much as it is a ‘you’re wrong’ marker. You can handle the errors without communicating that she is wrong as much – the lack of reinforcement makes it clear that she was incorrect so you don’t need to stop or face her or really even say anything – you can just run her back to try again. You were not trying to use a punishment marker but if that reaction (body language and words) has been paired with negative punishment (which is withholding reinforcement, basically) then it is easy for the dogs to deflate – that sounds like what is happening. So, approach the errors differently:
Have a laugh! Tell her she is a cutie (because she is) and that you liked her effort at doing all the things FAST. Then keep things moving back towards the start while being engaging and smiling. You can even do a trick for a cookie on the way back to the start. No worries about her thinking that her choice on that last one was correct because she knew the instant there was no reward that it was not correct.
Here’s an example: I just finished editing some weave videos for that class, and one of the young dogs made a really impressive blooper of running past the poles and directly into the tunnel LOL! It made me laugh and so I stayed engaged, had a chuckle, said something silly and random, then just tried again. She didn’t get her toy but note her body language here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8lbMni6sbEShe didn’t need a verbal marker or anything change in demeanor from me to know that it was the incorrect choice – there was no click or reward thrown. So in that moment, I just moved back into the next rep and she was a happy girl throughout.
Let me know what you think! Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>Not sure what happened with the sound on the last one but clearly from the first two reps on this one you should never assume my markers are perfect 😳 Although they were pretty good for the wing wrap!!>>
Ha! Yes, the first couple were early indeed 🙂 On the others, now that you are at 4 basically straight poles, you can delay the click until his left shoulder is passing pole 3 and his nose is between poles 3-4.
He did really well here! Lots of accuracy and striding and speed! Yay! You can add in more variations in the angles of entry now too.
>>In hindsight I did way too many reps…
Now that the poles are straight, it definitely gets important to count reps. I think there were 16 reps here, which adds up to about 5 reps on a set of 12 poles – and that is about the most I would do in one session. You can try to limit the reps by counting to 10 reps for 4 poles, or 8 reps for 6 poles or 5 reps of 12 poles. You can also set the timer for 2 minutes and do as many as possible in 2 minutes (which will never be too many LOL!)
>>and the MM is only mildly rewarding…too damn slow and 3 kibble isn’t much of a reward in his opinion. I think I need to figure out how to make this more fun.>>
A couple of ideas for you on this:
you can move the MM further away, so he can run more to it after the poles rather than decelerate because it is close.
Also, you can mix different things into the kibble so it is more exciting and smellier 🙂 My MM currently contains a stinky mix of kibble, cat kibble, and freeze dried tripe (ewwww). The kibble picks up the smell and taste of the other stuff so the dogs are wild for it 🙂
And, you can leave the MM there as a focal point but now move to a thrown reward – something like a Treat Hugger or Lotus ball or even a tennis ball! That is also a good way for us to begin fading out the MM, which is on the agenda in coming weeks too 🙂I think he is ready for you to add poles 5-6! Let me know what you think. Great job here!
TracyHi!
These are looking good!The Zig zags are looking strong – she is especially strong on the first 2 bars – I think on the first several reps you were too far from jump 3 so, positionally, she didn’t know you wanted it. When you moved in and got close to the 3rd bar – nice! I agree – that last rep was the best 🙂
An added challenge for you: you can start to fade out the big arm motions and see if you can cue the in-and-out all on one arm 🙂 You were playing with that a little on a couple of the reps here so now you can see if you can try to get all 3 bars with you only moving one arm 🙂 Doesn’t matter which arm for now – try it with both just not at the same time LOL!Lap turns – yes, she is definitely transferring her understanding from your home games into these games on the wings too! Yay!
Little details: Remember to step straight back more and step less to the wing to set the turn, especially when your right side is next to the wing. When she was on your left side, you were very strong about going straight back like at :18 and :25. Also, to draw her in when the wing is there: extend your hand to her in the presence of the wing, let her lock onto the ‘magic cookie hand’ 🙂 until she is about 3 inches away then move it back – if you move it back too soon and when she is too far away, it looks like a throw back to the other side of the wing – especially if you step towards the wing and not straight back – that is what happened at :27, versus the next rep at :36 where you waited a bit longer and stepped straight back 🙂 That was great!When you added your motion – it all looked great, that is more comfy for you both 🙂 Yay! Your mechanics looked great on those.
Lap video 2 with the race tracks – These also looked really good! She likes the race tracks 🙂 You can use your sends more to the race track wing, so you don’t have to run backwards up as much. She is reading the lap turns really well!!!
Tandem turn are also going really nicely 🙂 For now, coming out of the rocking horses or race tracks, just do one tandem turn then reward her. Your first tandem turn on each rep was GREAT – you were moving forward, cuing the tandem, and keeping your feet straight (like at :07 and 1:03). When you did multiples in a row, you were not as crisp with the mechanics and ended up moving less or turning your feet a little so she was looking at you more.
Great job on these!! If you wanted to challenge yourself, you can add more distance between the two wings 🙂 The turns and commitment look really good so more distance will add more speed 🙂
Tracy
Hi there!
>>I am having a good deal of trouble/frustration with her not bringing a toy back to me. She grabs it and runs around and will actively avoid me. >>
Lots of ideas, but first a few questions:
– when does this happen in the session? At the beginning? In the middle? After a failure? All the time?
– how often does she get to play with toys and have big run arounds with toys, without being in a formal training session?
– what type of toys does this happen with?I think the first thing to do is figure out why it happens and then change up the training loop. If you have video, post it up!
And separately, I recommend a training loop that is simply about getting the toy back 🙂 In a boring, clean environment, work on some trading: one toy for a cookie, first only from your hand: right hand tugs, you cue an out, left hand presents a cookie, and so on. Don’t try it in conjunction with actually training anything yet – we can add that later.And by boring clean environment, I mean a small room or hallway where there is going to be less stimulation and less interest in running off with the toy.
And then when we take it outside, I suggest doing it on leash and only the simple loop you establish inside.For example, Contraband got into the habit of running off with his discs and not coming back. I did some things that created it by accident, messy training mechanics and also accidentally pairing taking the disc away into the ‘game is over’ moment, so of course if momma can’t take the disc then the game can’t be over, right? LOL!
So I went back to the loop of getting the disc back and rewarding it, first in my hallway at home, then on leash on the front porch then on leash in the yard then on leash in the agility field (separate from any training) – then re-installed the disc back into training, maintaining the improved mechanics and loop: so now he is fine 🙂 It didn’t take long as soon as I got myself sorted out LOL!>>Makes using a toy for a reward very hard to do and makes training sessions more about getting the toy back than anything else.>>>
Agreed, which is why sorting out the reinforcement plan is more important than the training at the moment. You can do sessions on ALL cookies for now as you get the toy play sorted out separately.
>> I try trading the toy for a food reward, which she is happy to do (loves food also). But still doesn’t bring the toy all the way to me.
That isn’t so bad for now, you can move the other direction, do the food trade by tossing it past you the other way – and as she is getting the cookie, you pick up the toy, and play from your hand. One of the training loops you can develop can be toss a toy, call her back and when she moves towards you, mark & toss a treat the other direction, you get the toy, ply with her, toss it again, and so on. I recommend this in the house first though so there is less running off with the toy that happens.
You’ll find that you can begin to delay the timing of your ‘out’ cue and next food toss til she is closer and closer and eventually she will be bringing it to you. You can also do shaping sessions for ‘put it in my hand’, I have video somewhere of me doing that with my Papillon and a ball 🙂
>>Tried working on this inside with minimal space/distractions. Helped some inside but no transfer of behavior to outside. HELP!>>
The transfer to outside is likely because you made big leaps in criteria and didn’t establish the loop outside too… and then it will pop up particularly if the dog gets frustrated. So whatever worked inside needs to be re=established outside. That is why Contraband was on leash outside to help – and even though he is great at home now, I used a long line on him at his first disc competition last weekend as a way to help transfer the game of ‘bring it back’ to the higher arousal environment. UpDog allows the long line for most of the games and Contraband was wildly successful – he never ran away with the disc and he never tried to ‘taco’ it. And one game did not allow for the long line but it is had agility obstacles – and he was able to transfer the understanding there too.
Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyGood morning!
>> WAY too many things for me to remember and then execute in this one 🤪🤪🤪
Ha! That is why I mention the mechanics about a zillion times – it is harder than it looks LOL! I highly encourage a lot of practice without the dog, so you know which hand goes where and when 🙂 I think you looked good though!!! And he did really well.
Nice review and warm up of the mountain climbers and elevator to get this rolling. And he did REALLY well on the crazy elevator levels!!!>> The “dancing feet” at the end of the board kind of through me off… it felt like as soon as the treats were gone he wanted to back away from the end of the board and something in my brain went wacko and I started double counting>>
Yes, sometimes they do that – it is either a reflection of the difficulty of the game, or an early prep of the weight shift for the drop to target position, or maybe both. My Hot Sauce (medium sized dog in the demos) totally does that. Just ignore it, it will go away as long as you keep rewarding at the very end for driving up and your countdown/release is very consistent. Do the countdown fast and don’t double count because that changes the consistency of the cues.
He got better and better with less backing up as he got more understanding of the game!
And he did a GREAT job when you added the wing, I think he preferred that because of the speed and running 🙂 He seemed very confident! And he also had no trouble with target position. YESSSS!One suggestion: Catch the board sooner so it doesn’t drop as much – and feed him all the way at the top with the board still way up in the air. That will encourage him to drive all the way up to the end super fast, because small dogs tend to see that picture of the board way up in the air.
Then you can feed him and lower it a little before the countdown to keep him comfy with the drop. Eventually you will be able to do the countdown and drop from that sky high position 🙂Great job here! I think this game is going REALLY well. I would give him another 2 or 3 sessions like this one, from the stay in front of the board then from the wing, then move it to the tunnel.
Tracy
Hi there!
Looking at both of these videos, he is doing well! Fading the target? No problem. Confident on the end of the board as it is falling? Yes!!!! Frisbee on the ground as a distraction? Easy peasy. Lots of great stuff here, and 2 things to clarify for him:
One thing on the Elevator game mechanics (I know, I obsess on these mechanics LOL!): after he hops on, you can raise the board. But then the board should be completely stationary during the countdown, then when you give the target cue, just let go so it drops. You might not even realize it, but when you were giving the target cue you were pushing the board up before letting it go. That causes him to have to balance differently – first as it is moving up fast, then as it moves back down – and on the full teeter, it is not a scenario he would se (the board will only be going down, not up then down). So try to just let it go and don’t push it up before letting it drop.
The other thing that both sessions had in common was the stay versus release:
>>. I’m not sure that’s clear for him on all the reps
>> I also had issues when I tried to move forward with Chapter not seeming to understand on some reps that he needs to stay.>>I agree, the stay/release is not as clear as it can be, so he does not know when to move or not. Let’s clarify that and then it will all be much easier.
First, words 🙂 I think the ‘yes’ might be too vague of a cookie toss word – it is a word we use all the time in about a zillion different ways so it doesn’t tell him to stay or release or where to look. For the “I am throwing the cookie to you in that spot” moment, choose a marker word that is entirely different and define it.
For example, I use “catch” to mean: reward coming back to you there and then you can move to get it.
“yes” does not mean the dog can move or anticipate reinforcement – it is more of a “I like that, keep doing that right now” thing. For example, when Chapter nails a weave entry, you are likely going to say “yes!” on course… but you will also probably want him to keep weaving in that moment 🙂 Same on the teeter: when he hits and holds the 2o2o, you will probably default to a “yes!” on course but that doesn’t mean a release.Of course, you can use “yes” for that throw back & release… but then you can’t use it for other things and that might make your brain hurt too much hahahaha
Separately, the ‘break’ release can be very clear to mean “leave position now” without the reward being thrown back, and I think that is what you are defining it as, yes? Generally, I use ‘break’ either to mean “come to me for next info” or, if I follow it with something like “get it”, it means leave position and go chase the thrown reward (break get it!)
Second, when you have defined your verbal markers, let’s add them in being super consistent:
On the plank, for example, you don’t need to toss a cookie back as he is arriving in position. We can move to the next step to see if he is clearly making a ‘hit & hold position’ decision with a small delay of the reinforcement: long enough that he has a bit of ‘wait’ so you can assess what his choice is: just long enough for you to say “good” in your head (not to him yet, that might muddy the water with the other words for now). Then after that short delay (2 seconds, maybe?) you can use your toss back cue THEN toss the treat.
So the order of festivities becomes very important for him:
Have the cookie ready in your hand. Cue the behavior. He hits and holds the position and when you are sure of his choice: say the word (but do not move your hand) and then toss the treat:
Prepare – Cue – Assess Behavior – Mark – Deliver.That will help him be able to consistently predict what is happening, so he will be able to better understand the stay element. Right now, I think the yes has several meanings and also the cookie is moving before the marker – so it is helping him arrive in position, and he takes the cookie toss as permission to move (which is fine provided it is first paired with the marker word).
The marker can also be “break” after you assess the behavior and then he comes forward off the board for the reward delivery.
Obsessing on the mechanics will clarify for him – take out your motion at first so you can be ultra-focused on very clean mechanics (I do that because I cannot walk/run AND be clean in my mechanics until after I have gotten it without moving haha)
And he will give you feedback: if the mechanics are muddy, he won’t know to stay. If they are clean, they stay in position will improve immediately 🙂 For example, my smallest/youngest dog gave me feedback that my catch cue was very clean & clear: her stay-in-position is great and when I say ‘catch’ she lifts her head up and looks behind her LOL!!
Let me know if that makes sense! Everything else is whizzing along beautifully 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>>I noticed he didn’t appear to acknowledge the target but wasn’t sure how that and where I was located played into his finding the 2O/2O position. I will try this again.>>
Dogs definitely like to use our position and motion as cues, so I am hyper-focused on helping them NOT watch us here LOL!!!
>>In addition, would using the Treat n’ Train help at all? In that way, Cowboy gets rewarded without me being there or would it cause confusion when it is time to fade it out of the picture?>>
Yes and no – you can use the TnT but about 6 feet away. The setup would be:
teeter with the red target close to the end of it to elicit the 2o2o, with the TnT no closer than 6 feet – that way you can mark the 2o2o and release to the TnT reward without the TnT being either too big if a distraction or the target that elicits the behavior (it is indeed very hard to fade when used to create the 2o2o)But more important for getting the independence of the behavior is that he is consistently able to predict what earns reinforcement, and where. So for the next 4 or 5 sessions or so, use the exact same setup and exact same target so it is easy for him to recognize and predict that the 2o2o is what earns the party 🙂 That will allow you to add all of the other things like running, lateral distance etc. If the setup is different all the time and the targets are different, he will default to the only consistent predictor: you. So he will watch you, which we don’t want 🙂 The target will should create it for him, so then he won’t need to watch you.
Let me know if that makes sense! It took me about 10 training sessions to get the targeting where I wanted it to be before I got into the really high level games towards the end of class- a couple of sessions on the plank, then the bang game sessions. I am too old & slow for the dogs to rely on my position LOL! So it is very important that they do their end position without needing my help 🙂 And I think it is also super helpful for faster runners because then you have more freedom on course to run to wherever you like, and he will go and do his end position 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
Both videos are the same here, I think the video is the 2nd session you discussed? But it went REALLY well!
One small Border Collie-specific suggestion: make sure he swallows the treat before throwing the disc haha! Take that extra moment, let him look up at you – then throw it. That way the efficient flow of the session doesn’t get interrupted by hacked up cookies LOL!
On the video:
the added speed from the motion even with the friz present seemed to be no problem! And he got some of the hard side entries too – your focus on that is paying off 🙂 So, before we finish tightening the poles, I think we move him to the Find Em game from the wings to teach him to look for the entries with more speed and coming from an obstacle before the weaves:
https://agility-u.com/lesson/find-e-track-2x2s-game-2/>>I can’t remember which video it was when you said we should add the weave verbal- are we there yet or do the poles need to be closer?>>
When we see the swim striding (which is what I think he is going to do), then we add the verbal weave cue for realz 🙂 So – not yet, but soon.
I think the next steps for him will be the Find Em with the poles at the angles you had here, and then after that – tighten up the first base to straight, then the 2nd base to straight.
So, getting to 4 straight poles will end up being anywhere from 3 sessions total to 6 or more, he will let us know 🙂 Things are rolling along very nicely!!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I took the jump after out, but I do see that he is coming out looking for me to toss the toy. I just didn’t think I’d have the coordination to toss the toy back between the poles & the jump today.>>
I don’t think we need to worry about it for now – his head is straight in the poles and he is focusing ahead on task. Good boy! You’ll see games added Monday that introduce the dog to the concept of what happens after the poles when there is no reward (in other words, sequencing LOL!)
>> I thought about using the Pet Tutor, but he accelerates more for a thrown toy.>>
I agree with your choice of the thrown toy, and you used it effectively to add in poles 5-6 with good throws for poles 1-4!
The addition of poles 5-6 are a big visual change and he definitely was looking at them like “wait, what??”, so we can isolate them and let him think through it – take out the wing wraps for the next session and let him work it out in terms of finding the new base with poles 5-6. Your throws were really good about helping him get the new base! So now we can let him work it out – and if he slows down for now, no worries – the striding will come back as soon as he realizes what poles 5-6 are doing 🙂 Then you can add speed back with the wings, and also you can add the variables of the different angles of entry too! You’ll see his lightbulb turn on and the striding come back – then you can straighten out the poles 🙂
So in a nutshell – give him one more session with just poles 1-6 set like you ended here, and no worries if he slows to think it through… just keep rewarding and then when he sorts it out you’ll see him ask for more “giddy up” into the poles 🙂 I think he will literally only need 3 minutes of getting rewarded for finding 5-6 before he says, “got it!” and then you can add back the wings and running and tighten things up.
>. We had a break in the middle when what sounded like a dog fight erupted in the yard kitty corner behind us. He had to stop and stare- didn’t bark or chime in, but I figured a short break and then some easy tricks would be prudent.>>
That was crazy! He was a good boy – and at some point, that might happen at a trial. So file it away as trial prep LOL!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! This is looking super, big progress! She is finding the entries and looking ahead while you are moving (or standing still, she was great with both). Check out her wrapping that entry! SUPER! I even see her striding starting to percolate.
And a MASSIVE click/treat to you for having a timer running and making sure your sessions are short and successful. I am doing a big happy dance about that!!!
>>If she goes without my sound cue, what do you recommend?>>
If the dog leaves before the cue, I call them back happily (something like “c’mere! I have a secret to tell you!” or something goofy :)) But, ideally, we don’t let them make that decision so you can create a slightly different ‘loop’ for her in the process:
give the cue, she weaves, you reward in the reward target like you did here, then catch her attention your hand (on the side opposite the weaves, the hand you will send with) – have her come to your send hand as you move to the next spot, give her a cookie – then give the weave cue. So basically, she will get her weave reward then a reward back on you at your hand then the send to the weaves and so on. Let me know if that makes sense or if I need more coffee to better explain it 🙂
For next the session – I agree with your assessment that you can move forward.
Leave the first base where it was at the end of the session here (it looked pretty straight!), do a warm up rep or two (maybe one on each side) with poles 3 and 4 where they were at the end here) and then keep working the progression of tightening up the 2nd base. They looked like they were at 2&8 here, so go to 1&7 before going to straight poles.
At some point, we will be seeing her striding both bases (yay!) and at that stage, before you finish straightening them out, I recommend the Find ‘Em game where she has more speed coming from the wing wraps:
https://agility-u.com/lesson/find-e-track-2x2s-game-2/
Great job here! I am super excited by her progress!!!
TracyGood morning!
>> I didn’t plan this so no pet tutor… forgive me I must work on throwing skills. I did try to not stare at him to see if he did the weaves correctly so I would keep moving.>>
I think he liked the thrown rewards!! On the first short video, he was a little surprised and needed a moment to remember the weaves on the first rep but then he was a good boy on the 2nd rep! Your connection and motion looked spot on here.
>>He’s very graceful thru the weaves and not as fast as some I assume that will come let me know when we should discuss striding.>>
He is getting there in terms of speed and striding. You can see it percolate in these 2 clips – on the 2nd short video, he was faster AND finding the striding. Because of his size, he will definitely be a bouncer and not a swimmer. And that striding will percolate with understanding and excitement. I think the position of the poles here mean we are ready to add the excitement (we really have not asked for that yet).
Leaving the poles at these angles, check out 2 things:
The Find Em with wings to add speed:
https://agility-u.com/lesson/find-e-track-2x2s-game-2/
2x2s striding ideas (but on 4 poles for now):
https://agility-u.com/lesson/weaves-striding-troubleshooting/
I think he is ready for both on 4 poles and when he is feeling zippy, we will go to 6 poles.>>PS I did email you about summer classes hopefully it went thru wasn’t sure I hit on the correct email>>
I haven’t gotten into my email yet today 🙂 I will find it shortly!
Let me know what you think! Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
>> It took me a few reps to get the whole, don’t be loud and throw the toy early thing…but I eventually started managing that. >>
I feel that – the mechanics of being in motion and NOT yelling/flailing are always a challenge for me hahaha!
>>In the evening I made the rather bad decision of telling Eric I wanted to get him out for a quick weave session before I left to teach when he had already opened the dog food container. So, Presto was thinking DINNER!! and then I took him outside to be a thinking dog. >>
So there was a new variable introduced… hungry! That can definitely change the internal state, and I think that was happening here on the “easy” side. As a human, I feel that – I can go fast and work hard when hungry but I might not necessarily be as focused and accurate 🙂 At least he was not HANGRY LOL!!
Recognizing that as a variable, I think it is actually a good one to train with – not because we will ever really be asking them to compete when they are hungry for dinner like that, but because it is a great way to change internal states and simulate trial arousal. His errors here are exactly what young dogs do in trials. So feel free to do another pre-dinner session with the “OMG MY SISTERS ARE EATING” variable but dial back other variables – don’t run fast. Raise the rate of success working through the dinner variable and then we add back the motion on the easy side.
>>> I kept up my motion and was also working on being quieter and throwing the toy earlier. But I think his misses were mostly about not collecting for the entry, although he was doing a pretty valiant job of trying to make it work.
Yes – definitely liking the earlier throws and his head was lower already – plus when we add something *after* the poles, it will get even better 🙂 When you get a miss, though, allow the red flag to wave in your mind: these sessions are short so either change a variable right away to get success or definitely change it if you get one more miss.
>>After one particularly rough entry, the next rep he kind of skipped the poles. So, that could have been the angle of the entry, but might also have been a lingering aversion to how he jammed through the previous rep>>
Right – and I am fine with him choose body safety over weaving 🙂 Good boy! But that rough entry can also count as a ‘miss’ even though he did weave – definitely still reinforce him but then since it is out of character for him to do that, you can change a variable.
There are a lot of ways to change variables: when the dog is in a higher arousal state, I tend to use less motion as my first variable reduction, with easier entries being my 2nd choice. Those are easy to add back in because they already successfully exist in other variations.
>>So, based on your previous plan of action – another session similar to this with walking on the difficult side and see if he has a higher success rate on his “good” side if I don’t pull him away from his dinner?>>
Perfect! And another option, separating the hard side from the easy side:
do the hard side session as planned when he is not hungry.
Just as Eric is whipping up dog dinner, take him out to the ‘easy’ side for a few reps but with other variables reduced to help him be successful.Another way to look at it: by the time I take Contraband to an agility trial, he will have a lot of weave skills at home 🙂 But at his first trial, the environment is going to get him very stirred up, internally. He was quivering in excitement at his first disc dog event and he doesn’t even really know what it is LOL!!! Lordy. So, assuming he will be REALLY excited, I will be dialing back the other variables to get success when he is in that state: I will be parallel on an easy entry and trundling along rather than sprinting. And the environment (internal) is the challenge – so I won’t present any others. I will add back to the other challenges when the environment (internal or external) is not a challenge anymore 🙂
It takes a decent amount of planning but then it turns out to be SO MUCH MORE FUN (and successful, and reinforcing) for both human and canine 🙂
>>>Next time, he may also have the added distraction of an audience because I think my family will want to see him in action. Might be several people doing the wave in the background and singing Presto’s theme song.>>
OMG what an amazing opportunity!! It will be exciting and distracting for YOU and also for him. So plan for it – dial back other variables, so his first association with being watched by a crowd is an extremely positive, successful one. It will be his very first ‘national finals’ atmosphere!
And what is his theme song? LOL!!
>> and I even brought my channels along. Eric was rather stunned and impressed when I pulled out the pieces and reassembled them and he had no idea! >>
HA! Your Eric and my Eric are probably not really surprised anymore by what we can fit in the car hahahahaha
Great job here! Enjoy family time <3 and keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
>>> She’s doing good on her RC’s. I think I am a little late on the rights. Maybe because I think she is better that way so I am lax.
She looked GREAT on the rear crosses! You got your verbals in too (you said GO then right on the first one, then caught yourself and only did right or left on the others, which is perfect). The rights are a little wider than the lefts because you were a little gentler on the rear cross diagonal. On the rights, she knew it was a rear but on the lefts, you got on her tail immediately 🙂
>>And the left I start my push sooner. But she is doing good on those so I need to push the same.
Exactly! Start early on the right turns and get right upon her tail like you did with the lefts. She was perfect finding the wing when you did put it out there, no problem at all. You can move it further away to see if she can find it 🙂
>> Did these yesterday, day off today. I’m trying to stay caught up here because on May 6 I have to have bunion surgery. (Just want to get the dang thing over with figured now is as a good a time as any) 4-6 wk recovery. Not sure what to expect. Maybe I will be able to stand outside and do some of the stuff. We will see. If not, I will just print off all the games and do them later when I can. “Gotta do, what cha gotta do!” >>
If you can move around and stand still, you can save the proofing stuff that doesn’t require running for the surgery recovery, or the jump grids where you get to lead out and stand still. We will figure it out and make a plan 🙂 And the games are all available forever, so you don’t even need to print them out 🙂
Tracy
