Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi there! She is doing well on this grid!
I do agree that the 3.5 looks a little cramped for her too. You can try 4 feet (and I bet when she is older, she can do 5 or 6 feet).Watching her work through this – I think I liked the MM best for now – she was thinking about her striding more. You can have it further out and also place yourself right next to it so she doesn’t sprint past you. I think starting her on the MM will let her think about her striding more than the toy would – she brings so much natural speed that We don’t need it here 🙂
She did look really good on the last rep with the toy as well, so after introducing the new 4 foot distance to her and also the angled jumps with the MM – you can then play with the toy! That way she can layer in the speed after she has learned the striding.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi Donna! She is looking really good here!!!
The blind crosses are really starting to come together; hopefully the don’t feel as weird LOL! You are getting early and more comfy, and she is now really driving into the turn. Super! Your timing was generally good – most of the blinds start right after she arrived at the wing. A couple in the middle started after she exited the wing, so they were a little late but your connection was solid so she still got the turn. On the reps that were earlier, she looked great! At :02 and :11, I liked your timing and she was good about figuring out the turn. And then at :34 and :42, I liked your timing there too AND she knew what to do with the turn, so she was much tighter 🙂
Now, to be a total pain… you can try being even sooner: trust her commitment more and start the blind before her nose arrives at the wing 🙂 That will be perfect!She is doing well with the RCs too! I think she was asking some questions about whether you wanted her to go straight or do the RC – you can see her turning her head back and forth LOL! Watching your running path, I think that on the RC reps at :11, :24 and :31 you were just a little late getting onto the RC diagonal. You ran forward a few steps on the straight line and then cut over into the RC. At :31 she was already committing straight then got the turn over the bar. But compare those to :46, when your toes were already pointing to the RC line (center of the bar of the jump) as she exited the tunnel – that was a very clear cue! Do more like that, loved it! She was surprised by your speed there but your line was super!
Great job here!!!!! Let me know what you think 🙂
TracyHi! Both games look really strong here!!!
On the bang game, he is doing a great job of staying in position! I think he is really very solid now 🙂 and you have a lot of motion going too. My only suggestion is that you line him up so his whole body is parallel to the board, so he can leap on going directly into target position. You were tending to line him up perpendicular to it, so he had to turn and then get into position. Line him up so his bum is next to the board 🙂 That will add challenge to the balance and weight shift, and he is totally ready for that.
For the next session, add a little more height!The elevator game also looks great and the scratching is awesome LOL!! He is not that heavy so if he wants to run to the end of the board and scratch it to get it to drop faster? Perfect! That gives him something to do rather than leap off 🙂 The challenge of motion was pretty easy for him – you were able to cue the target and move forward as the board was dropping and he did just fine! Nice!
So now yes, add more height – you asked about the board being parallel: yes, we get it to parallel on the elevator game, and eventually to pointing up! So you can take out the holder on the other end: start him next to the board with it pretty low, ask him to hop on. As you reward him for hopping in, raise the board a bit (elevator going up!). Then do your countdown and then cue the target. Only add a little bit more height, gradually, to see how he feels about it. And when you are adding more height, take out the motion and stay there to reward in position (like you were doing in sections of this video).
If you do a session with more height and he is fine and happy, you can add some motion back in 🙂Separately, if you have time: revisit the uphills/mountain climbers for a quick session or two. Those are coming back into play on Monday so it is a good time to get back to them a little 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Nice session here! He was happy to get into end position either from the elevator game or running down the board and is getting quite demanding about scratching at the target LOL! Perfect! The only question he had was after a reward when you disconnected, moved forward and started talking…. he totally thought it was the release. On all the other releases, you were much more connected and still clearly in “game still on” mode and he was perfect: so don’t be casual after the reward goes in LOL!The snow this weekend is indeed a PITA!!! Stupid snow. I think that as soon as that snow melts, the teeter needs to go outside because he will be ready for the next games that are coming on Monday… and they can’t be done inside 🙂 You need room to run run run before the board 🙂 Fingers crossed for good weather from here forward!
Great news about the teeter in the new location – it sounds like he was perfectly fine with it, and he is happy overall in class. Super!!! The whole ‘who is that person behind me’ question is probably going to be a pretty normal part of our training progression with all of our pandemic puppies. They simply did not get to have much (or any!) experience with that, and we probably took it for granted with previous generations because they had so much more early exposure. So my guess is we will have to work those exposures now or soon with these adolescent dogs and it will probably take a little longer to get them into the trial ring. Normally, my dogs at 18 months are ready to do some NFC runs on lower height jumps and tunnels and maybe a ‘for real’ Speedstakes or something. But not this year! We basically lost months and months and months of the exposures that we would normally have done by now, due to circumstances completely out of our control. But no worries, I figure they are mature, level-headed dogs and we will catch up and they will be perfectly fine 🙂
(Plus they will have better obstacle skills and handling understanding than any previous generation :))Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The down at the end of the board changes the structure of the downhill games a little bit, because we don’t want her to stand at the end or run off, but we don’t want to add the foot target too soon. So it is a slightly different progression for the down dogs 🙂
Basically, we do the loaded target like you did here until she is super happy running through the end of the board. And it seems like she was pretty happy here! And, ideally, she stays at the loaded target longer, she was doing drive through (grabbing the food really fast and running off) when you were moving because the toy is still more exciting LOL!But because she is ultimately going to end up in a down, I don’t want to insist that she practice *standing* at the end of the board because then we would have to ‘untrain’ that. And that would frustrate her! So, because she is happy to run down the board and is not worried about the tip: we add the target for the down behavior. (The target position for the down dogs gets added sooner to this game than for the other positions).
That means that the next sessions here should have the foot target in position but no treat pre-loaded on the target. Have her move down the board (no speed needed yet) and assume the down position on the target – then reward her, then release. I recommend “warming up” the behavior of the down by showing her the target is there in the bang game for a couple of reps. Then if she is happy with that, you can go to the full board with you moving slowly. For her, I don’t think we need to ask for speed because her speed is always there as soon as she knows what to do 🙂 YAY!
Let me know if that makes sense – we are adding her down position at this stage in the progression because it will make more sense as the board continues to get closer to the ground 🙂
Nice work!
TracyGood morning! Lots of good work here!
The mountain climbers to cream cheese were interesting to watch – there is enough tip now that she was definitely thinking about it! You can see her shifting her weight early on the first couple of reps then getting better and better on subsequent reps. She got REALLY good at driving to the end of the board when you were moving especially when you were ahead and running. She was still not totally comfy with driving ahead of you, so you can definitely keep working that with the cream cheese yummies at the end 🙂 You can do reps of just sending her up the board to the cream cheese 🙂 The wing and the motion all were good, she seemed to have no trouble with the added speed and motion in terms of getting on the board and balancing.On the target fading session – I loved your creative way of adding motion! I don’t think she was releasing on motion, I think she was releasing because it was unclear if she was supposed to stay there after the tossed reward. I could hear the catch marker in the 2nd part of the session (couldn’t hear it in the first part, but it might have just been quiet) – be sure to define the catch marker specifically. For example, my ‘catch’ is also a release to get the reward because the throw will make it hard to stay in position (because, my throws can be a bit wild lol) – and I want to reward the dog and not enter into a self-control dilemma 🙂 You can define it that way, and so then you would either throw it back and expect a release (or release her if she catches it and continues to offer 2o2o) or you can hand deliver it or release her forward to get the reward.
Or, you can define it as ‘stay in position to get the reward’ in which case you would use your release after she eats the cookie, like you were doing later in the video. Your throws are good and she is very very good at catching them, so I think this is a possibility for you to be able to use.That will make it easier for her – the clarity in the marching band 🙂 section of the video is already super helpful for her and she was very successful!
And those reps had very little actual target, right? Yay! Keep fading, try to get it to super tiny or basically gone, I think she is ready for it to be gone now 🙂Great job!!!! Let me know what you you think!
TracyGood morning!
This is beyond exciting 🙂 I mean, usually in new places we do a little bit of the beginning of each game and expect small successes. But he had massive successes! (I would run down that board for DD hash browns too haha)
The first clip looked just about the same as it did indoors: he was fast, happy and accurate about jumping on the board and going to end position, even starting without you LOL! And also you had a lot of motion going and it was no problem. I saw a target for it but then did you also have it faded by the end? Great session!
The downhills were perhaps not as totally fast as indoors, maybe he was thinking a little harder? But they were plenty fast and he seemed happy – and that is the goal of this teeter tour adventure. Yay! Very fun!!!!!
It seems that the new location, the distractions, the different teeter: no issues, he worked in drive AND kept a level head for thoughtful behavior. Brilliant! The only suggestion is to keep doing these little teeter tours when possible – once a week if fine, if possible. Are there any UKI or USDAA trials near you coming up? We can start plotting some training in the ring 🙂Great job!
TracySounds good! I agree that the independence of the end position is one of the most important pieces. And because he is so confident with all the movement and noise and height, as soon as the end position is solid things will move very quickly to the full teeter. Fun!!
OK then maybe the 4 wheeler 🙂 And I have played the bang game with one hand on the working dog, next to the teeter, and the other hand on the reward dog 🙂 Only 2 or 3 arms needed LOL!
YES! We have bouncing. Super! So now we plan:
The missed entries from the 10 o’clock-ish angle doesn’t bother me at the moment – he was looking at the entry but couldn’t figure out how to stride it, so he didn’t get it. No worries: if we solidify the striding so he doesn’t have to focus on it, then that entry will be fine too (it really has never been an issue for him).
So now that we are in the striding part of the fun, I would change nothing about your setup here in terms of the poles. And I suggest keeping him going with straight entries (11-12-1) and your motion. So nothing about that changes, but you can get even more practice of the good striding by throwing a jump or tunnel before and after it (definitely before and then maybe afterwards if it is not too distracting).I recommend the same weave setup in a mini course (still rewarding weaves but you can throw towards the next obstacle) for 2 more sessions of about the same length you had here. If at the end of the 2nd session, he is finding the striding easily and he is a happy bouncer: then we move on to the harder angles. If he is not a happy bouncer, we can open the poles if needed.
You can probably do your 2 sessions in one day if you have a nice long day to be able to pull the poles out once in the morning, once in the afternoon/ evening. But there is no rush, of course, we are in the final steps now!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! This was a really good session, especially considering the dog and human distractions! Let’s look at it as 2 separate behaviors, the sends from your left (11-10-9-8 side of the clock) and the sends from your right (1-2-3-4-5) side of the clock.
The left side sends (11-10-9-8) look really strong and I think you can tighten up poles 3-4 a little bit and move them a little closer to poles 1-2.
The right side sends (1-2-3-4-5) are where he has trouble. He is doing a GREAT job of getting to the correct side of pole 1 but then had a little trouble getting in between 1-2. He would get in better when from 1 and 2 on the clock and when you were close to help him. But you won’t always be able to be right there (he is speedy!) so to help him, angle the 1-2 poles a tiny bit open so he has an easier time getting in between poles 1-2.
Because the sends on the left and the sends on the right will have a slightly different setup, you might find it easiest to do them in separate sessions so you don’t have to keep switching things around.
And when he locks into the 1-2 entry on the right side sends, then we can tighten up poles 3-4 there too 🙂
Great job with adding the motion, he is doing really well with that!!!
Nice work here! Let me know if the plan of action makes sense 🙂
TracyHi!
This is a great game to work with her, I am glad you went back to it! It was haaaaaard for her! That tunnel is very exciting 🙂 You can see that she was able to make the wraps but it was VERY hard for her and she needed you to rotate or move the cookie hands. And the turns were a bit wide – and that is fine for the beginning stages, because we reward for getting it right without caring so much about how tight the turns are. This wa sa great first session for her! And it is also insightful as to why she might turn wider than desired on course: the draw of running fast to the other obstacles is very powerful!
Two ideas to move forward with this game:
your next session should be just like this one 🙂 If she is able to make the turns but the turns are still a little wide, the session after than can have more distance between the wings and tunnel so she is less tempted 🙂 the goal is to see her make the collection to turn before arriving at the wing.
If she is able to make the turns AND she is nice and tight… you can move to the advanced level where we add the wrap cue in after she exits the tunnel 🙂
Her success will guide you and I think this will transfer over very nicely into her turns on course!!!
Nice work here 🙂 Let me know what you think!
TracyCan you have her brother in a stay, then when she leaps on the board you can release them both for a big run?
About the 4-wheeler… is that a game she gets to play? If it is a safe game for her, you can use it! But I wouldn’t want to recommend it if it is at all dangerous.Hi!
Nice work here, he is really getting this behavior going quite nicely! Yay!!! And it helps that he is really confident about the movement of the board and the noise 🙂 So with that in mind, I focused more on the 2 different approaches to the line up:
I see what you mean about the pulls on the collar with the tab. On those reps, though, he was more independent with the getting on (watching you less because he had a moment to look at the end of the board, and so you could move more easily) and his weight shift was MUCH better on those reps too!
On the cookie throw approaches, he didn’t get the pull on his neck at all, which is good 🙂 Those reps didn’t have as much independence though – he was watching you more and trying to line up his position with your position more, seeming to rely on where your feet were. And the weight shift was not as good because he was looking up more.So I think we can get the best of both worlds with some tweaking of the mechanics! Bring him near the board, to the line up position right next to the end, without holding the tab – a cookie lure is perfectly fine for that 🙂 Get him right next to the board, and as you feed him a cookie, take hold of the tab. Then stop the cookies, let him look at the target (you can give a little ready ready) and then give the target cue and let go of the tab.
That should eliminate the pulls on the collar that were happening when you were moving him bu the tab, while also allowing you to have the independence and weight shift that starting him that close to the end gets. No need to push him back or anything (he didn’t like that and ended up jumping over the board there), just line up. And a bit of gentle opposition reflex is fine 🙂
That can also set him up nicely for the next step: since he is understanding it so nicely, you have now entered what we are affectionally calling the Lava Zone: the area next to the target is lava (for you) so your feet can be anywhere except next to the target. So when you cue the target position, either still back in the yellow like you did in the first couple of reps, or start to walk forward immediately so you are moving the whole time (slowly at first) – staying in motion for at least 2 more steps after he stops. That will help him not rely on your foot position or your deceleration. That is the important next step for the bang game.
So working out the mechanics of the transition into the leap on plus adding in your motion forward will help really solidify things! Let me know if that makes sense: he is doing really well so it is fun to move to the next steps 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
>>That was Jennifer Thomas.. she said to stop asking for the full teeter and just work on elevator with me moving after. Since he was not successful at full teeter>>
I thought that might be her, that is why I wanted to hear her advice: she is a terrific trainer/handler!
And I loved his speed across the full teeter, he just couldn’t stop at the end. I reward that then stop the session if the dog has any history: thanks for going fast buddy, let me figure this out before we try again 🙂>>I think I wear my heart on my sleeve a bit too as I was disappointed…sigh>>
TOTALLY RELATABLE. I feel that – I shed many tears over Export’s teeter issues when he was a baby dog but he & I got it figured out and he went on to have a spectacular career (if I do say so hahaha!) And anytime I want to stick a needle in my eye with my young dogs, I remind myself of how we got it done with him and then I can carry on with the training plan 🙂 And to keep myself from getting too emotional, I obsess on the science behind the training and it always comes back to conditioned response (and maybe some chocolate too, that always helps haha)
>>As soon as I saw him duck under table I recognized avoidance..
And that is why it is good to have video – sitting here watching, I could see it much sooner but in the moment, it is easy to miss the early signs.
>>I was so happy he offered weaves I did not see avoidance because we have been working weaves just as much as we have the teeter.>>
Right! Good boy! And you can reward that offer. He seems to have the positive response to the weaves that we are going for with the teeter now too 🙂
>>Class yes.. he had history of flying off.
He has no history of teeter work at place on video..just jump sequences
Again bright side for me is he’s coming back. And trying things.. a year ago. With the Jennifer dogs barking in down stay 30ft away..he would never even had attempted to work….so progress>>>Ah, that is good to know – so even though the teeter work was not as good as at home, the overall session was a massive improvement! Lock onto that! The teeter will get there too!
T
