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Good morning!
Total gold star for the training and another gold star for the team name. Love it! Sounds like a blast!Yes, defaulting to the backside is normal at this stage because even though you didn’t do a zillion reps, the start position has some pressure on the line so dogs think that it is either a backside pressure or a rear cross pressure. You were right to start close and break it down to help him understand that both options (front and back) are a possibility and that the verbal cue is what will tell him, not just position. It can be a real brain bender especially for dogs that are relatively inexperienced.
I agree that he was figuring it out at the end! Yay! On your next session, do a couple of short reminder reps without motion… and when he says “oh yeah, I remember!” Then you can start adding the motion of just walking forward.
If he goes “I have no idea what any of this is” then you can repeat this session 🙂 Doing front versus back on JUST verbals can be super challenging and it is fine if it takes us several sessions 🙂 He is doing really well!
Great job here and keep me posted about the trial!!
TracyGood morning!
I agree – training with a frizz or a tennis ball for the tenny-lovers presents additional challenges because the friz or tenny likely have that “go run run run” conditioned response that has nothing to do with jumps or turns LOL!! So if he can process the cue and the skill with a friz in the environment? Heck yes!!!!
>> I have a really hard time moving through all of these drills because it’s more “training” than “handling” to me. I wonder if setting a target obstacle or cone to make it to would prevent me from being static?>>
It is indeed training 🙂 and that is why you have to remind yourself to move because we are training the dogs to process while the handler moves. Any type of target that helps you is great as long as it is not something that he considers as part of offering behavior.
I think getting the handlers to do this while also moving but moving slowly and forward and not towards the backside wing… it is pretty darned hard for the humans to process 🙂 My guess is that this is related to the issue that we have all run into – not being able to properly spit out the directionals while running a course. We can either do the directionals – or run the course. Both? Yeah, no. Ha! So these foundation games have proven to be challenging in terms of handler motion AND verbal. I think that by getting all of this rehearsal in for the humans, we will all get much better with the verbals while running courses too (I have certainly improved thanks to filming the demos with all the motion!)
>>Should I vary the front side per session or just stick with L and R versus go?>>
For now, let’s just stick with one version of front for all the sessions. It is mental calculus for the dogs and I have other games coming for fast-moving processing of different front side cues.
T
Hi! Really nice work here!!!
She is doing MUCH better when you are not helping with physical cues for each verbal (when you are just moving forward). It was harder to collect when you were moving forward FAST, but she sorted it out when you dialed back the motion. You can probably split the difference of how much you dial it back – the running hard forward with the wrap verbal at :20 was perhaps too much motion, but at :22 you dialed the motion waaay back. Because it was just one error, you can dial it back less for the next rep. If she still has a question, you can then go back to walking.
You did have a few moments of handling that supported the verbal even if it was slightly late handling: and she was AMAZING on those. Ideally on a course there is handling that helps, not just us running forward like crazy people LOL!) and she is going to ROCK it!!!
She had 2 toy-grab errors at :40 and 1:16. Interestingly, they were both in moments of full disconnection from you. She finds disconnection distracting! So, yes, the obvious answer is “don’t disconnect” but because we are dog trainers, we are going to teach her that motion towards the jump and a verbal means take the jump (not come to momma or grab the toy). So yes – do some reps without connection. You can do it was a toy in your pocket at first (yes, delayed reinforcement, but that is fine because the toy is a big distraction). And then do it with the toy in your hand. You are doing a really nice job with your “strike” cue so I think teaching her to process the verbal and motion even if you are disconnected will really help all of this!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I totally feel the pain about managing my motion! Having to literally write down the mechanics for all of the games here has helped me manage myself better 🙂>> Do you use your Left and Right for all your soft turns – ie. straight(ish) tunnels and running dogwalk or do you have a different verbal for those?
I use left/right for ALL of my soft turns, regardless of obstacle. The left/right verbals mean “take the obstacle and exit on the 90 degree angle”. I know people who have different sets of verbals for jumps and tunnels and the running contacts… my dogs tell me that they don’t need 3 different sets and that they understand one set and its applications (THANK YOU, DOGS!!!) I guess my emphasis on “take the thing and exit turned this way” is what gets the behavior to the stage where I have not needed 3 sets of cues.
>>Or maybe the better question is: Is that what you use them for primarily and do you also/ever use them over a jump, like in a Gamble?
I use them any time I need that particular turn and a gamble is a good place for it LOL! For example, I ran USDAA 2 weekends ago and one of the gambles was very clever: it required a GO out of the tunnel to get on the line (tunnel was under the dog walk) but the handler had to tuck in next to the DW before the dog exited the tunnel so the last physical cue the dog saw before entering the tunnel was the handler decelerating and getting behind the tunnel entry – which is the exact opposite of what the dog needed to do when he exited the tunnel: after the tunnel the dog had a GO to a jump then a threadle then back out to a tunnel.
Clever, clever judge.
I never train gambles with Voodoo (lazy momma!) so all I had were my verbals. I used a big GO GO GO verbal before he entered the tunnel, then when he exited heading straight, I used the right verbal then a threadle verbal then a go… boom! Good boy nailed the gamble. It would have been much easier if I could have been running alongside but it was a great test of the verbals.
>>Also, in all the videos your Left and Right is to the side that you are on, when you cue Right you are on the dog’s Right side and vice versa. Are your left and rights not relative to you and later on in the training you add in training for when they are a turn away from you?
The left and right turns are not relative to me – but that is MUCH harder. We start stripping out the handling help in the easier version where the dog is turning towards us. Then we start the harder in the serp games and then add more in the next 2 weeks. Surprisingly, only my youngest (and most feral) dog had an easy time when I added the concept that left or right could also mean turn away.
>> By the way…I was smart enough to print out the Field Guide this time and it’s great!
Awesome! I wanted to help make it easier to remember all the things 🙂
THi!
I agree, these are looking great!>> Should I repeat my verbal cue? I’ve always just said left or right once for my soft turns. I also need to remember to say them
Say them early, say them often. Dogs have a LOT to process and one quiet “left!” may not do the trick 🙂 Plus, it might sound too much like other cues if is not not repeated he might end up missing that one cue and having to hear it again. Left and right in isolation sound pretty much alike and only one repetition doesn’t give you the opportunity to use rhythm, inflection, volume, to help him differentiate.
Hi Slider! Loved his cameo appearance! And Skye was a good boy with the added distraction.
>>Now, should I add the bar locked in?
>>If he goes straight two times, what should my plan be?Yes, I think adding the bar is the definite next session. Start with the cone wrap (because it is fun 🙂 ) and with you walking forward and see how he does – his success rate will guide you as to how much more motion you can add. It is easy to know what to do when he gets it right 🙂 If he gets it wrong once – switch sides and see if he can do it on the other side. If he gets it wrong twice, you can either dial back your motion (as long as you keep moving) or you can move the distraction jump further away. And you can do very few balance reps of the GO line – get a really strong left/right going before you add that in.
Nice work here! Let me know how he does when you add the bar!!
TracyHi!
>> I finally got (most) of my fittings and pipe to make jump wings! I only had the fittings to make half wings, but at least they were good enough to try multiple jumps outside in grass! >>Yes! The wing and jumps you built look great, and this space worked perfectly for the sessions. She was perfect in her focus with a whole lot going on outside around her! Nice!
That first session with the wing and the jump looked really good, glowing eyes and all LOL!! I think the toy was a better reinforcement for her – easier for her glowing eyes to see so she looked at you less. Really strong session!
2nd video, exit line game:
Interesting that she was so mad about something and barking at you in the beginning! The setup is visually challenging so she might have been a little stimulated by the challenge. No worries – you worked through it nicely! It was hard to see what she was doing but you added more motion and that helped her take the wing. And more motion helped her then go to the jump after the right turn. So definitely keep moving – you don’t need to help her with arms or rotating, but moving forward will give her permission to also move forward to start each rep.
The dig digs were perfect! You can add more motion to those, by jogging forward and see what she does 🙂
To help her sort out the soft turns even more: You can throw sooner on the right turns – my guess is that the soft turns are new enough for her that she has some questions, which is why she was looking at you a bit. But she got better and better through the session, and that will help with the bars. So as she is rounding the wing and looking to her right, you can be throwing the toy (probably a better visual for her than a food reinforcement and will also help get her to look at you less).On the 3rd video:
There are a lot of different behaviors on this little 2 jump setup, so we can isolate and reward them all!
I think you should use a toy for any thrown reinforcement, and cookies for resets, line ups, and trading for the toy. She does much better with the toys out on the line than with cookies being thrown.
For the stays:
Mix in a ton of rewards for the stays, by throwing the toy back to her as you move away. And cookies for lining up 🙂 She did really well with her stays overall – a couple of errors of early releasing to the placed reward past jump 2 and a couple of errors when you came back to her and said wait – she anticipated and thought it was the release.
And on some of the reps, you don’t need a stay at all – how does she feel about you holding her collar? As you are solidifying the stay behaviors, you can also do a lot of reps for the verbals where you start by holding her collar so you can move forward but don’t need a stay. I also give a ton of cookies for collar holding – line up the dog (cookie), gently take collar (another cookie :)) then start the verbal cue, then let go.For driving forward – have the reward (toy) ready to throw ideally in the opposite hand from whichever side she is on. And, you can throw sooner: as soon as she is approaching the first jump, throw the reward. So if you say “go”, you can throw the reward out past jump 2 as she is heading to jump 1 rather than waiting for to take jump 2. That will help her drive ahead and not look back at you, while you are moving forward as well.
I prefer the early throws over the toy placed on the line, because the lure of the reward out ahead gets the behavior but then there is confusion from her when it is not there. The early throw will help her keep moving forward and make a nice transition from the placed lure to having no lure out there – and be sure to be moving while you are doing this so she learns that she can drive forward and not watch your motion.
And if something goes wrong, you can totally whip out a reset cookie and line her up at your side – think of it as a “thanks in advance for not biting me” cookie 🙂 I would rather have potentially too many cookies going to her (no such thing LOL!) than too much rehearsal of dog teeth on flesh.
If my memory is correct, she likes balls, right? You can totally use a ball for the GO reps, I think she will like that a lot! Or you can use a ball for any behavior that needs a thrown reinforcement – I use a ball a LOT with my 3 year old dog because she LOVES it so much and it is easy to throw.
You did bring the toy out later in the session, I think she does better anticipating where to look with the toy as reinforcement. So on any of turns – when you see her heading to jump 1, throw the toy to the landing spot of the direction to help her drive ahead of you without wanting to watch you.
And of course be moving forward on all the reps – yes, it feels like you will need 3 or 4 arms LOL! but it will really help her look forward and respond to the various cues.
I am not worried about the bars right now at all – when she was looking the correct direction, she did a great job organizing her body to be clean on the bars! So we can focus on teaching her how to NOT look at you and drive forward, and then she will take care of keeping the bars up.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHellooooo!
This is looking good!Keep reminding yourself to start at the first wing of the serp jump and not near the start wing – you caught yourself getting closer to the start wing, good job playing with him as you re-positioned him near the serp jump 🙂 You can also move the start wing further away, so you can get further past the serp jump now! I think he is ready for that. Try to be all the way past the jump as he exits the start wing 🙂
>> At one point mama stops walking to help and we almost had a little collision. He saved me. No more helping.
Failure is desirable over a collision LOL! Don’t get run over by red dog coming in hot!
And keep working the clean start line up – you flung him into it at 1:00, and that was the error and oops moment. I don’t know if the oops moment deflated him – maybe? Or he might have also been bored and tired – this game is all running for the dogs here and very repetitive. I don’t think he likes repetition all that much, so you can get maybe 2 good ones on each side, then take a break and come back to it later with new challenges (I think he will like more speed as the new challenge :))
>>I did note to add the lefts and rights in repetition but I think the sound wasn’t as good and unique as when I was saying them alone. By gosh I’ll get it someday.
I thought you were good! But yes – making the verbals sound different while running is HARD!
The backside work looked good especially with frizz! You had a lot of motion and he had no real trouble. On the front side balances – be sure to also move forward and don’t be stationary because we don’t want motion versus lack of motion to be the tipoff for front versus backside. And since this backside versus front side is a brain-bender especially because the motion is not going to help him – just use one front side (soft turn or Go, not both) so all he needs to multi-task is whether he should do the backside or the front -not back versus front versus which type of front if it changes a lot. We will get to that further on down the road 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>Wally is a delightful British term for a person who’s lost a few brain cells
I love it! I am totally going to use that word 🙂
>> Yowza is not a fan of having her collar grabbed, and when she was younger, she very much objected when a helper tried to hold her by her harness – so, until now, I have tried to avoid doing restrained starts, or I have done them by holding her chest (which she doesn’t like much either).>
I feel that pain about the helper – All 3 of my younger dogs also really dislike being held by someone else! I guess have been bad about making that fun for them 🙂 but by working a ton of the games with me holding their collars or harnesses (lots of cookies then being sent into the game), they are fine with me holding them now. And as you can see, that helps separate the the verbal from the motion and gives the dogs extra time for processing.
She did really well here, lots of success! – on all of the release after the verbal, be sure to move forward so you are not as stationary. Keep walking forward the whole time until after she makes a decision. the you can build up to jogging then running!
She was also doing well with the different verbals. To keep her from having to make tooooo many decisions, just use one type of front side verbal (soft turn or wrap). That way all she needs to process at this point is mainly whether it is back or front, not back or front AND what type of front 🙂 That is a lot of multi-tasking. She definitely did better when she heard the verbals while you were holding her, and you made the words sound pretty different in terms of rhythm, volume, etc. Yay!!!>> this time with the start wing about 10ft away. I used a verbal for the serp jump, though I doubt that I would use that in a trial. I tried to run faster, and to give her the reward from my hand.>>
Serps looked great!!! At a trial, when you are in perfect position on the serp jump, you probably don’t need the verbals 🙂 They will be most important when you are WAY ahead, as in past the serp jump entirely and she still needs to take it, or when you are behind her and she needs to drive through the serp ahead of you.
And the verbal on the start wing is useful because it helps the dogs know if the line is a serp or a threadle! More on that coming soon 🙂Circle wraps were indeed hard for her! Good job moving the wing further from the distraction jump and breaking it down for her. There is so much countermotion on this still that she had some trouble when you started moving but she had a big lightbulb moment when she was on your right and had it perfect! When you switched to you left, she had questions: if you were still on the ‘landing’ side, when she needed to turn, she could do it. But if you were parallel to the wing or past it, she wanted to go straight with the line your motion was showing. Good job setting up the success with you on the landing side and gradually getting yourself closer and closer to the wing. I think some of her creative responses (like wrapping from the inside) were her asking if she could turn towards you and not do the countermotion LOL! Plus, she seemed happier turning to her left on these so she was offering up a nice left turn instead of a right turn on some reps 🙂
She had more success when you were dropping the toy in a bit sooner to the landing side – so keep that early ‘drop’ of the toy going for the next session. You can start where you left off here, with her driving ahead and you still pretty much on landing side – then you can add more and more motion so as she is turning away from you, you are passing the wrap wing. If my memory is correct, left has always her easier side, so you can add more motion passing the wing to the left wraps here, then gradually add it to the right wraps too!
great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, we had one day of lovely weather – back to pouring down rain here 🙁 Glad you and the dogs were able to get out and play!
>>Anyway. wondering why the wing is offset from the jump? I guess serpentines don’t have to be adjacent wing to wing but in trials there is usually the familiar 3 jumps all lined up straight.
Does this make it easier?>>
Yes and no. Yes – to make it easier for the dog to end up on the correct side of the serp jump (and avoid accidental threadles) but also no – it is also a little harder for the turn on the serp jump because the dogs come in to it from a harder angle.
>>That is what I wonder about this course- yes the ultimate goal is for the dog to respond to our verbal cues no matter what crazy things our body may be doing
Good questions!
Two thoughts on this –
the goal is to get the dogs to respond correctly to the verbals while we are in motion, especially when that motion is not supporting the line or late or moving the opposite direction 🙂 Standing still is not helpful for our eventual application.Each game has that independence regardless of physical cue systematically built in, which is why I bug people if they skip steps LOL!! Skipping steps will not give the dog the complete understanding, so the dog will be relying on handling because they start to fail and then we start to help by handling… which doesn’t help the verbal understanding.
This serp game starts with a lot of motion because a serpentine involves the dog having to override the urge to run parallel to the handler. At first, it is pretty simple, but the later steps are harder when we get the handler past the jump (and next week’s Part 2 is MUCH harder).
The serps also begin the concept that the left/right verbal might mean turning away from the handler, so it the verbal is not just turning towards the handler. More on that in coming weeks.
And this game challenges the handler to spit out the correct verbal pretty rapidly – not so easy at a run!
>> but- wouldn’t the real challenge be saying the verbal while not moving at all?>>
It would be a little less challenging because motion triggers certain responses that the verbals need to override. So doing this without motion? It is pretty fun but it is easier than with motion. And also, it has to be done with motion because we need these verbals while the handler is moving.
>>I know we are supposed to progress from walk, trot , to run faster but when they don’t know the verbal yet, they are just responding to our movement, same as before.>>
Well, the walk-jog-run is not necessarily handling – it is just moving, which is not that helpful for the dog. So can the dog wrap while you are running forward and NOT decelerating or rotating? That indicates a pretty strong understanding and is really difficult.
>>I’m thinking this class will be most useful , at least for me, once they know the directional cues like left, right, circle and around regardless of my movement.>>
The games are designed to teach that ‘regardless of my movement’ element 🙂 If you are using too much motion to support the understanding, then we are not teaching the independence. So while some of the games begin with supportive handling to help make sure the dog understands the verbal (like suggesting more motion to help Desi understand Go Go Go) each game progressively strips out the handling while adding more motion, so the handler can just run and the dog can process the verbal. I don’t have any games where the handler is stationary because it is not what we need on course. And motion and handling are not the same – in fact, our motion on course can often be the opposite of what good handling would need to be.
>>What would this look like with a dog and handler where the dog knows 100% what the verbal means? Could the handler jump up and down, stand in place or do anything at all while saying those verbals?>>
Theoretically, yes – but it is unimportant to see if the dog can do a serpentine on verbals while the handler is doing jumping jacks. That is simply not the distraction the dog needs to work through. The dog needs to learn the verbals so that the handler can run freely to wherever needed on course and the dog still commits and turns. Standing still or jumping up and down are fun tricks but ultimately not as useful for agility because at some point the dog still needs to learn to commit and turn while the handler is running.
What it would look like, ideally, is that the handler can stay in motion on the course the entire time – and with well-understood verbals, the dog can run with speed and precision without needing a lot of connection or good timing or motion changes from the handler. The handler just keeps moving along the line to get where she needs to be, saying the verbals, and the dog takes care of the rest of it by responding to the verbals regardless of the handler’s position/motion/connection/timing.
To really maximize this, I obsess on the handler mechanics in the training session 🙂 The independence and motion are all embedded in the mechanics. And working very systematically through the progressions to set the criteria then pump it up with more motion and less handling.
Looking at the videos:
In Libby’s session, you tweaked the mechanics to make it work a lot better. You started off near the start wing but that put you too far behind for her current stage of understanding and you ended up not being able to get the turn or the motion challenges.
You mentioned something about ‘how can I beat my dog at a walk’ and the answer is: mechanics! Instead of starting at the start wing, you and Libby did a much better job when you started near the first wing of the serp jump and walking after approx :32. And that produced 2 important learning moments for her:
– commitment to the soft turn on the wing while you run the other direction
– commitment to the soft turn on the serp jump while you are ahead of her and not particularly handlingWe can really see it at 1:07, big difference in mechanics! Be sure to keep moving on a flat line past the jump – more like 1:50, 2:04 and beyond – don’t pull away from it to bring her in and convince yourself to not do a blind cross (because it is not a soft turn on those).
One thing I think will help with Libby and definitely with Desi is a cleaner line up: bring them to your side and line them up next to you with a cookie. There is some fighting about the line up, and they face you a bit which makes sending to the wing harder. On the sending, you want to say the verbal and leave to teach the dogs to commit on the verbal. But if they are facing you, then the start of the rep gets off kilter, so you have to handle by stepping to it more and staying there longer… which negates the teaching of the verbal overriding the motion.
For Libby, with the cleaner line ups, you can then add even more motion so you are way past the serp jump and she should still take it based on the verbal.
You can really see how the verbals need to override motion in Desi’s session! She had more trouble than Libby did. And this is where I get to bug you about skipping steps 🙂 you went to running very early on and she had a lot of failures. To really systematically train the full understanding, I live by that 2 Failure Rule – not 2 in a row, but 2 for the whole session. If I get more than 2? then my mechanics are wonky or I am pushing too far, too fast in the progression.
Mechanics are even more important with Desi who is more likely to pull off a jump, I believe. For example, the first rep had too much handler speed and you can see how the entry wing is indeed a challenge with you moving away.
The clean line up at your side with a cookie near the serp wing will really help her. And if the the start wing is too far away and you have to run past the serp jump, and she fails because the verbal is not overriding motion – move the start wing closer so the mechanics can be the same but you won’t need to run as much at first. Then when she is highly successful, you can move it further and further away. This soft turn send to the start wing as you move away will really help her understand to commit on the verbal, which will translate nicely to pinwheel commitment as you move away.
As you are moving past the serp jump, try not to shake the toy – I don’t want her to rely on any physical help to come in. Just move slowly past it, saying the verbal, then reward.Based on how quickly Desi learns, I believe she will be able to get the idea of this in the next session with the clean mechanics, which will allow you to then go back to running – which sets her up nicely for Part 2 which gets added on Monday 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning and welcome!
She did really well with the wrap cues here!
>> but I don’t have different words for each wrap side.
I recommend having 2 different words, especially for when you are behind or need to use distance (both are popular course trends right now!) The 2 different words can be based on her left or right, or turning away from you or towards you if you think you will be easily visible to her 🙂
>>I don’t know why I keep repeating the verbal even after she completed the wrap. Couldn’t stop myself lol!>>
Ha! That was funny! But better to say it too much than not enough – when you were trying to say it less, you only did one quiet “dig” and I think repeating the verbals really helps the dogs 🙂
When you added the jump – have the distraction jump closer, maybe 5 feet at the most) and also handle less 🙂 You were decelerating and rotating, which is great for real courses but we can challenge her to do the verbal independently from handling: see if you can just walk forward and NOT do a rotation to help her until after she makes a choice to wrap. You will see her collect on the takeoff side, at which point you can then turn, run, party, reward 🙂
Same with the GO balance – just move forward, yelling the thing, don’t accelerate too much. She did well with those!
And I think you can also show her game 3, the exit criteria game for the wraps 🙂
>Soft turn verbals are brand new to use so we only worked the wing.
Perfect! You really focused on the mechanics of the verbal and the reward. Lovely! So for the next session, add more of her speed with the start wing before it (and the distraction jump closer). When she is happy with that. go to the jump for the soft turns and balance with the Go reps.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Lovely work here – you had great mechanics and that really helped. 100% success on a pretty challenging set of behaviors! Yay!!Great job with the backside slices! My only suggestion is to have the reward ready (a toy or ball might be easier) so you can drop it in as you keep moving, when you see him arriving at the entry wing. He was getting to the backside bar pretty quickly and then looking at you like “I am here, now what?” LOL!
>> I used a marker so I knew where I did the last rep and how far to move the next one over – moved about 8-12 inches each time.
Brilliant! The sessions were very clean and systematic, so it is not surprising that it was basically perfect too.
When you add step 3 now for the backside slices – start him with both of you facing roughly the center of the bar, so that you can slowly move straight forward (you don’t need to get past the exit wing for step 3). You might need to start the step 3 session with a front side verbal cue, so he sees that the front is in play and it is not a backside-only setup.
Also great job with the wraps! These wraps were great because he had to do it quite independently and you didn’t have to help with any additional arm movements and you really didn’t even have to connect. YAY! He did look at you like you were NUTS at first when you were not connecting but then he was fine with it, driving really nicely. Not much to add on this one for now, unless you wanted to work on even harder angles of entry.
Great job!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Really nice session here on the left/right serps!!! It looks like you were really hustling and were getting past the exit wing of the serp jump and he never considered ‘flanking’ it – GOOD BOY! That is a harder skill than we realize for young Border Collies 🙂 Both sides looked really good. One little thing I noticed was more about the physical cue than the verbals – I think you had your shoulders open better on the serp jump when he was serping on your right side (first part of the video) and they were more ‘closed’ when he was on your left (second part of the video). Ideally when running a real sequence you would have your shoulders more open. For a verbals only game like this, it is less important 🙂 He also did really well with trading the toy for a cookie and generally ignoring the toy in your hand.
This game can go on the back-burner til Monday when we add the next level of it 🙂
>> WHAT do I say to release the dog to just go away from me and use a contextual cue to take the wrap jump?
I agree that ‘around’ should be saved for the Rally behavior, and you don’t want to say go because this setup will dilute the Go verbal.
I use my verbal directional as a release and step to the wing – so if the dog is lined up on my right and will be doing a left on the wing, I say left left left.
There is a big conversation in the agility world about release words at the start! We in North America like to use a general release like “OK” or “break”. Europeans are making a good argument for using an obstacle name or directional on the release, because they feel that just an “OK” does not provide enough information. I guess it depends on what the release means, specifically, and what context it is used in. I use my general ‘break’ release when the dog should begin moving up a straight line, taking all obstacles on his path to me if it is a simple opening like that because “break” names the line. If it is a harder opening – we are starting to see some wraps or soft turns on the very first jump, for example – then I will use the appropriate directional. Just food for thought when deciding which word to use. I think as long as we are very clear and consistent, the dogs will be happy.
>>we have done this (just about identically to your system).>>
Great minds thinking alike 🙂 LOL!
>>You can see he kinda knows what I want, but when he is jacked up, he really wants to tug longer.
Yes, as arousal comes up, it is normal that releasing the toy is harder. I do a lot of back-and-forth: toy – release for a cookie – give the toy back. I am not convinced that the cookie is a high value reinforcement for a lot of our toy-driven dogs when they are higher arousal states, so giving the toy back after a release (either after a cookie or as the reward for the release) can help build value for the toy release and for eating the cookie LOL!!! You were doing this towards the end and it will really work nicely for him – just be sure to stop tugging before you say out so he can process that it is coming. You were tugging as you said out, so he had a little trouble ‘hearing’ it in the moment 🙂
He did really well finding the backsides here! Good boy! So now we can add more challenge 🙂
For the next steps:
On the line up – try to turn your feet to the front of the bar so there is no physical ‘tip off’ that you are cuing the backside (this will help as you add in step 3). He might be leaning towards the backside but you will be fully facing the front of the bar, almost the center of the bar.And, after saying the verbal a few times like you did here – let go and walk forward to the front side of the bar, moving roughly parallel to his line (but not towards the backside wing, just straight forward).You had motion here but now we can ramp it up to have you running more forward, prepping for super independent stuff like German turns where you are running past the exit wing when he arrives at the entry wing 🙂
And no matter where you are moving, drop the reward in on the landing side of the jump (relatively close to it) and as far from you as possible (easier said than done, especially as you begin moving towards the bar).
When he is happy with that and you are moving (my guess is he will be happy with it in the next session :)) then go to step 3 (front versus back). When you start step 3, cue the front side first so he realizes that the front is in play, and this setup is not just about going to the backside 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! This was a great session!
I think your position from the start wing was GREAT because she really had to think about committing while you ran away:
“Should I commit to the wing? Or chase da momma?”
So chose the wing each time which is fabulous!!!
And the serp was great too – the 8” bar was no issue for her at all. She was fast and clean over it.
On the 2nd half when you had her going left on the wing and right on the serp jump: yes the wing was set up at a slightly odd angle but it presented a higher level of challenge. She had to both commit to the wing and come find the serp and right turn at a harder angle. I swear I saw steam coming out of her ears LOL!!! But, she nailed it. And that is fabulous!!! She is so speedy that you will need to be able to send, run hard, yell the thing and she needs to be able to process it and ignore how fast you were moving. She nailed it here. YAY!!!Great job 🙂 Let me know what you think!
TracyReally nice session here too!! You were able to add in a lot of motion and he was great about going to the backside. Nice placement of reward too. He looked pretty happy about the collar being held – excited to run but he didn’t seem worried about being held.
He was 100% here.
So if you get one more 100% session like this (or 90% success session) – move to step 3 but dial back the motion to a walk to get started.
I think for your first rep of step 3, do everything the same in terms of the mechanics except cue a front side first while you walk forward, so he knows it is ‘in play’ as a possibility and that the setup is not just a backside send setup.Great job here! Let me know how he does with the next steps!
Tracy
