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Hi!
On the barrel work videos:1st Barrel work:
Turn and burn with FCs: His commitment looks great and his toy drive is great too! Were you using the wrap verbals? It was hard to hear, so be sure you are using your wrap verbals on these 🙂
Be careful with how you advance the angle and motion. For the turn and burn where we focus on a lot of countermotion, the two of you should start facing the wing. On the first part of the video, you and he were facing the wing and things went really well!
When you changed sides, you started on a harder angle (almost a 360) which made it too hard for him with that motion so he had some errors – remember that if he has an error, dial back the motion (just be moving more slowly) but still stay in motion the whole time. The errors came when you were trying to run, so you can stay in motion by try walking fast You got success on the last one by standing still then running, but we don’t want you to stand still 🙂Rocking horses – His commitment is good here too and when your mechanics are very crisp and clean, he was perfect 🙂 So I will bug you about mechanics LOL! (also, you can add your verbals here too)
One thing I notice is that he doesn’t know when the toy in your hand is something he should look at or grab for, or not… so he ends up looking at you and barking a bit, not always committing to the barrel right away. So, for the toy, add a consistent word to marker the moment it is available as reinforcement in your hand. I use “bite”, some folks use “strike” – that way he will begin to understand to ignore it until he hears the magic word. When it is in your hand, it often ends up in front of his face and your markers are varied (get it, yes, etc., and also get it is used when it is out ahead of him too.) Adding more consistent (and different) reward markers will really clarify this for him. You can see more about this in the Week 7 games.
Also – be super clean with each rep, meaning start him at your side, have your reward plannde, have your verbals planned. At one point you cued him with a weird noise and moved fast and he didn’t know what to do, so he got pretty mad LOL! Also, resist temptation to do more than 2 or 3 barrels in a row – it gets reptitive and boring for the pups LOL
Since he is so small, add moreconnection back to his eyes so he knows where to be when he exits a barrel wrap. If he sees your eyes, he can drive directly to the new side. If he can’t see your eyes, he hesitates a little – like at 4:12, all he can see if the back of you so he comes in a bit then barks then goes back out. So you can get more connection by locking your dog-side arm low and back towards his nose, fingers pointed to his nose, and looking for his eyes.
On the pivot game – He was getting the idea of turning with you and not just going straight. Yay! Because he can have a cookie and then get back to his toy so nicely, use cookies for the pivots right away to raise value for the pivots. And, decelerate to begin cuing the pivot sooner: as he exits the wrap, you can already be almost stationary and presenting the cookie hand, to set up success so he comes to you even with the ball or toy out ahead. When he is happy to drive to you and turn, you can add more motion to it. You can also use a 2nd toy instead of a cookie here!
After the pivot, when you want him to drive ahead – since he is driving ahead to the toy so nicely, you can totally use your GO GO GO cue (like you did with toy races). And you can spread things out more, so he can drive ahead even more 🙂
Bowl to bowl and head turns – these are looking good!
The bowl to bowl at the beginning should also have an element of letting him go back and forth before you drop the treats in – but he could do that with the upright so I am not worried about it 🙂
He did well with the upright, pretty perfect up to a certain distance – try to structure the session as starting easy with the upright nice and close, getting harder by moving it further away, then ending by getting easy by bring it backin closer to you. The game here kept getting harder so he had errors in the later part of the session. Over time, you will see that the easy-hard-easy structure will allow you to make it harder more successfully because you won’t have the failures at the end of the session when it is easy-hard-harder. You will see the same thing crop up in the minny pinny session (see below).Head turns – these are going well too, he is very bendy here 🙂 His only questions were when you didn’t have the clean line ups, meaning he was starting kinda sideways. But for most of them, you took the moment to line him up before sending and that was great! The left turns seem harder, he is wider on them, so for those you can slow down the mechanics, moving your hands more slowly through the turn so he can organize himself to turn tighter without trying to go fast yet. Because he is little 🙂 you might want to be sitting on a chair for this so he doesn’t have to look up at your hands (which changes his turn mechanics) and so you don’t have to bend over (to save your back :))
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Lifetime access to download the videos! And today is the last day for the Forum here to be open, if you got the backside game video’d 🙂
Tracy
Hi! She looks good with her cavalettis! She is generally pretty balanced. She is starting to look up a bit, which changes her striding. I use a target at each end – a bowl – to keep the head down and back in the right position. The bowl an be empty and placed about 2 or 3 strides past the last bar, and I toss the treat into it, so she can exit straight and turn around to be lined up straight for the next rep. That gives the dogs a good focal point and also is GREAT for them having to remind themselves to not rush the striding 🙂 If she is really good with cookies in a bowl, you can place the cookie in the bowl in advance 🙂
Yes, today is the last day – we start up next week for round 2 and I am excited! See you there!!! Great job with her in this class, she looks amazing 🙂
TracyHi Ruth and Leo! I am so glad you had fun!!! You are doing a great job, he looks amazing 🙂
I will be at Argus in July and August – I am sure there will be sessions at his level in both and would love to see you!!!!!!!
See you in MaxPup 2 🙂
TracyWow, that is an insane amount of snow!!! Ugh!!! I am about 61 inches tall, so I know exactly how much it is. Ick!! We can modify things as needed to fit the space you have! fingers crossed for speedy melting but no flooding 🙂
Thanks for the kind words! It has been a blast watching you and Ripley!!! I am excited to see what he does in MaxPup 2!!!
Tracy
Hi!
He is doing really well with the serps! You can start the serp verbals sooner, as soon as you see him at the start wing you can switch to the serp verbal (and repeat it) but overall he did well with finding the lines even as you were getting way ahead. NICE!!! You did get the verbals out on a lot of reps, but you were silent on some others, so keep working to spit those verbals out on all of them LOL!On thing that I think will help here: you can stay more engaged during the lotus ball reload and the line up, which will help him stay more engaged during the in-between moments. You can talk t him, you can show him the reload process, then take his collar and give him a little ‘ready ready ready…’ before sending him. You were quiet and probably thinking ahead to the next rep, but we don’t want him to disengage so you can include him in the planning process 🙂
>.I also need to remember to repeat my cues and start them early.
Yes – the backside verbal in particular needs the repeated verbals and starting them early with you holding him, otherwise he guesses based on the motion he sees. For example, at 1:34 where you moved before saying back (left foot stepped then you said the verbal) so he took the front, processing the first cue which was motion. And on the next rep handling got it because you moved towards the backside. So be really careful to hold him, say the verbal a few times… then let go. And when you do, move directly forward to the bar, don’t move towards the backside wing so he begins to understand the verbal more independently. You can throw the reward as soon as he arrives at the entry wing.
Great job catching yourself with the bar down, and staying engaged 🙂 let me know if you try the Klimb or Cato board or something for him to hang out on for those in-between moments. You can also use a toy for thee games – he likes the food and the lotus ball, but chasing a toy might be a lot more fun 🙂
>>he knows the cue “push” really well, so I thought I’d use it for backside wraps since that is what he’s really used it for. I tried “back” at first and got frustrated and switched to “push” to see if he knew it. I’ll need to teach “back” and decide which is for what turn
I don’t know if he knows push or back independently of motion (like at 2:48 and 3:16 you stepped to the backside as you said push then you moved away, so it was more of a motion cue). So this game and the backside circle on the wing will be good for teaching the verbals, with him hearing them before you move.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Happy Mardi Gras (this is today, right?)
This is looking really good and it was also a really good session in terms of structure, reinforcement, criteria, etc.I am glad you started to add your movement earlier – that was a “just right” amount of challenge. You had a really good transition back to the start after the one error – it was a legit error, there was more pressure on his line (which is correct for this game). You can deliver the reset cookie as part of also lining him up but that is just a little nitpick.
2 other details – your timing of the reward toss was really good so now alter the placement a little by getting it to land on the landing spot (not near you when he exits the wrap). That will get even more independence – you’ll be throwing it behind you as you move up the line 🙂 And, try to say “get it” then “yes” not “yes get it” – I am trying to get myself to NOT say yes first as well, such a hard habit to break!
I think he is ready for the more speed here – start your next session on the easier side for him (left turns, I think, like you did here) and do a couple of reps with the motion you had here. If that is all good, add jogging then running 🙂
>>when I come in like the meme of Jason Momoa to the backside.
Well, our goal is that you are literally running behind his tail, so he will get used to the Momoa-ing 🙂
“”I keep trying to make this holee roller a fun toy but I think he gets bored with it. We played fetch after so hopefully he keeps feeling it’s fun. It’s just super easy to place.””
Try flinging it further – when you throw it to te landing spot, you can really toss it rather than plop it. He likes to chase it!
>> I’m still bad at switching is collar to hand while tugging to restart.
Do you mean getting your hand on his collar while still tugging? I don’t think you need to, and I think it dilutes the play a bit. On the last rep, you did play-out-cookie-line up -collar – cue. I think it was clean and smooth and he was a very happy critter who then nailed the response.
>>I feel like I’m leaving over too much to start but that may just be me nitpicking
yes, just nitpicking- you have to lean over to hold his collar and he didn’t seem sad bout it 🙂
Great job here!! Le me know how the next session goes!
TracyHi!
>>>> After last week’s live chat, I was really trying to keep this in mind, but it’s so hard of a transition for me when I spend Sundays teaching Puppy Kindergarten, Good Dog 101, and Jump Start Puppy and we’re using “Yes!” (or a click) to mark behaviors. Eventually, I got a bit more regular with it, but definitely still need a lot of work!
True, it is a hard transition when you spend a lot of time just getting folks to use their clicker or say yes and reward in puppy classes 🙂 Not gonna lie, I don’t teach people to say yes anymore but I still have a hard time stopping myself LOL!
>> I tried a bit of handler motion this morning, but I didn’t record it, so no video to share. I was trying to be clear with left/right handler motion, but she was still going straight. Any specific tips for what handler motion might look like for this? Do I try starting her way back from the jump/wing so that I can be far enough ahead of her that I can turn while she can still see me?>>
Yes, it is possible that she needs to see it sooner – so starting way back and then letting her see you move away on a right angle can help. You can also add a little more space between the 2 jumps – if they are 6 feet, try 8 or 9 feet and see how she does. Is she able to do it on a wing, but goes straight when there are 2 jumps?
>> I have worked so hard for her to focus more on me, less on cars/squirrels/scooters/skateboards/motorcycles/trucks/manhole covers (weird I know)/other things that she has been reactive towards or wants to chase so that she can be a calmer/more balanced dog. At this point she stares at me any time I’m at home and I can’t shake her from looking at me. So hard to get her to focus on something else these days! Should I just wait her out until she’s looking at a jump or some other obstacle?>>
Ah, the joys of Border Collies and herding dogs in general LOL There is a lot of “Don’t Look At That” game LOL!!! You can start some focus-forward-on-‘work’ by holing her collar and tossing a ball or toy: when she looks at it, let her go to get it.
Then apply it to a jump: hold her collar and when she even glances towards it, you can release her and toss the toy past it.
Speaking of where to look – have you ever done the Look At That game with her? It is a Control Unleashed game that helps produce calmer behavior in the environment, but also helps her learn that it is OK to look at other things and not just at you.Keep me posted! Let me know what you think1
TracyUnfortunately, Zoom doesn’t have any way to transcribe the video or get text of the conversations 🙁
T
Found a bunch of videos for training the over-the-bar distractions!! Now to get the get out videos too 🙂
T
Hi! I think this went really well!
You esablished a very different tone between the louder, more urgent “GO!” and the quieter, more chill left nd right verbals. And you had your ‘get it’ markers too! Yay! He seemed to process everything pretty independently from physical cues, which is great! I don’t think you need to revisit this game – it builds in to the week 4 Fast Lines Challenge – so try this with the exit line challenges first like in the week 2 Exit Criteria Combo game then the week 4 Fast Lines Challenge 🙂Great job!
TracyHi! Looking good here!!! Hope the great weather holds!
The backsides are going well. For the next steps:
– have the toy in your hand so you are ready to throw it. The goal is that it lands on the landing side of the jump, pretty close to the bar, so he doesn’t look at you at all. With it in your pocket, he gets all the way back to you so it is building in looking at you too much.
– Keep moving forward for longer, and faster 🙂 You were stopping your motion as soon as he was arriving at the backside wing, but you will want to stay in motion moving forward, as if getting ready for a backside serp or a German turn (backside serp to blind).– if that goes well, move to step 3 (front side versus backside)
The serps also look really good – you were a little too quiet, though. I heard your verbal for the start wing, so now remember to use your soft turns verbals for the serpentine. That will get especially important as we add the Serps Part 2 game – I think he is ready to see that!
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Great questions!
You can probably still use tight and right if you changed the delivery:
Riiiiight
TTTTT (for tight :))The in in comes next week 🙂
And for a connection verbal- a soft noise is great! I use my dog’s name – depending on which dog and which situation, it might be a soft name call or a loud urgent name call or a full name: first, middle and last 🙂T
