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Hi!
>> On our way home from a RV trip to Florida for a mini family reunion. The 4 sisters were finally all able to get there at the same time to spread my Mom’s ashes. It actually all worked out well, Mother’s Day weekend and the first year anniversary of her passing, it all just seemed right ❤️
That is so amazing, I am so glad you were able to do it!!
>> Lots of opportunities for Pattern Games and instant focus with the car keys, quick hand touches and sits in all sorts of new places with all sorts of new distractions.
Yay! I am sure he was great and got lots of reinforcement in all sorts of new environments 🙂
>>Changing subjects on you….do you have any interest/availability for “seminar tour of New England”? Jennifer Johnson and I are trying to figure out how to work with you on person! She loved the seminar she attended in Florida. >>
A seminar tour of New England would be super fun! The challenge is finding dates. Is there a time frame you are looking at? Winter makes things really hard in terms of planning travel, so maybe spring/summer/fall?
Thanks! Safe travels home!
TracyHi! Lots of good stuff here and plenty of big distractions to play with too! She did really well!
Looking at the videos, I think we can start to form her process more specifically! Each dog helps us define what they need in different scenarios, and I think this helps us figure it out for her by doing it in a high distraction environment!
On the first part of the video, this looked like a kind of a mashup between pattern games and volume dial – the delivery of the cookie was like a pattern game, but there were tricks and you were using “ready” to draw her back to you. She likes things to be very clear, so two ideas for you:
– do the pattern game, first thing, in new environments. This is where the food gets tossed, and you are not cuing behavior or saying ready or doing any pop ups – you are just standing still, or walking back and forth, being cookie-throwing-in-chief. The calm ‘get it’ toss is what starts the game. Then, when you are seeing relatively low latency in terms of her re-engaging with you, move to the volume dial games:
– the volume dial games (the ‘ready’ word, the pop ups, etc) have more energy in the cues and in the cookie delivery: you can be moving more, and the cookies now come from your hands and she can chase you a bit for them.That will help her make a better distinction between the pattern games (which say to her: assess the environment and re-engage when you are comfy) and the volume dial games (which say to her: let’s get you pumped up!). If she is still feeling the need to assess the environment, then the volume dial games will be harder.
And you can add in the remote reinforcement game as step 3 to this – a bit of a pattern game (til she says, “this is fine”) then a bit of volume dial til she seems more pumped up – then you can put the rewards on the reward station and go into the remote reinforcement game. The outside-the-ring environment is very challenging, so that is why you can use all 3 games in a step-by-step fashion – and that will also mirror the pre-run routine, which makes for a great rehearsal for actual runs too!
Let me know if this makes sense, in terms of showing her each piece in order and observing her response to know when to move to the next step. Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Lots of good stuff here!
>>As you know I have been focusing on the pattern games, engagement and recall work. I’ve also been working on adding new behaviors like a bark on demand, and some front paw value using a bowl as offered behavior.>>
The bark on demand is starting to develop nicely! And if the bowl has value as something you want her to offer behavior on, be sure you remove it as a distraction from the other side of the jump in training.
Video 1: Overall this went well! A couple of suggestions for you:
For the pattern games: do those first, on leash, and without any volume dial or tugging or tricks *before* them. The pattern games are intended to be done in a natural state of arousal, so that the dogs learn to assess the environment, disengage from distractions and re-engage with us, without us helping or cuing behavior. It teaches the dogs the coping skills for the internal state that they find themselves in with distractions. And definitely use the leash, because it is realistic to the various situations she will need to learn about. I train on leash at home all the time, it makes it very easy to deal with the leash at trials and classes!
The volume dial games look good in this environment, especially with the tugging. I am glad you are getting the barking on cue!
One thing to note is that you don’t have to mix up all of these games within a couple of seconds of each other. For example, the instant focus game is not a home game – it is a randomized environment coping game, with no volume dial or pattern games before it and no obvious reinforcement til after she interacts with the prop. Doing all of thse games as a mashup starts to get a little muddy, like when you were cuing barkin but she was on the instant focus prop. Think of it as more of a step-wise progression and not jumping around as much.. For example, I will do pattern games in new environments (or challenging environments) until the dog tells me she is ready for the next step. She will tell me by looking at me and not enaging with the distractions. If I toss a treat and she looks at me immediately after getting the treat (like the demo of Contraband entering the ring area at the flyball tourament), then she is ready for the next step. If I toss a treat and the dog does NOT immediately look back at me – then I stick to pattern games for longer until the dog can look back at me immediately (and move away from the distractions if needed).
And if you think she is ready so you start some volume dial tricks and she can’t respond or she is much slower to respond (high latency)? Go back to pattern games.
When you moved to the grass, this is a good example of when you should be on the pattern games for longer. She was not realy able to engage in that environment yet, so she couldn’t respond to the tricks cues – and it gets stressful for both of you when that happens. So, move her further away and go back to pattern games til she is very engaged.
** I totally understand that it is INCREDIBLY hard to not cue behavior and to stand still and observe, letting her drive the bus. But is it critically important, and observing her behavior will give you a much better handle on how to help her in other environments as well – the volume dial really only works when the dog is already able to offer engagement, so getting the offered engagement is the first and most important step **
You can use Mimi as a distraction for the Kryptonite games, and it was definitely harder for Skipper! For now, though, she was not successful enough to move to the next step of Mimi being right there next to her. That is already anxiety inducing terriers, and that pressure was also really hard for Skipper: note how the responses got slower and she couldn’t really tug. It was too much pressure, Mimi being *rightthere* suppressed Skipper’s behavior. So be sure to note the rate of success (high or low) and the latency: if the success rate drops and her responses get slower – dial back the distractions rather than keep asking for behavior in the same location. I would leave Mimi on the other side of the fence for several sessions, til Skipper can completely ignore her, can tug, and can respond with low latency.
Video 2:
>>In this session I started with some treats in my pocket but she saw me put the treats on fence post where most of the rewards were coming from.That is fine, she can see where the rewards are, and there were a lot of good remote reinforcement reps here. What is your RR marker? You were using “ok” but I think that is your release from a stay marker?
>> I started with the fence gate open and I think this through her off a bit. The neighbor next door was also walking back and forth in the driveway. When she is in the fenced in yard on her own she will often bark at the children playing on the driveway so I think this contributed to latency, as well as the fact that we had to go to the rewards which were behind her.>>
Yes, it was a bit of a kryptonite session especially if she has a history of alternate behavior there. It is also a good place to use your leash, to get the leash on, leash off process fully part of daily life. That leash off, offered engagement is a critical piece and I don’t see it here – it is going to be a massive piece of your puzzle so raise it in priority so you can condition an engaged response to the leash coming off (whether you carry her in or not, doesn’t matter, do it both ways :))
>>I liked watching this session because as we worked together her response rate and engagement improved.>>
Yes, she is doing well! Be sure to note the level of difficulty and make it easier if she struggles (she sometimes struggled with the left/right spins. Also, ping pong the amount of behavior you ask for if you are doing the remot reinforcement games so it doesn’t get perptually more difficult. Do some really easy reps in there too.
In these scenarios, get more toy play involved! Tug toys, balls, treat huggers, anything she likes other than cookies from your hands because cookies from your hands are the one thing we can’t use for NFC. And the NFC runs are what will bridge the gap between training and trialing 🙂
Seminar video:
>> This video was painful to put together because it was so obvious to me what happened over time
>>Lots of good information here.I have a list of ideas for you…. but I think it might be better if you start by detailing why she struggled and making the list of what you would have done differently, and will do differently next time? Then I will add to if it anything is missing, or just give you a high 5 if you have it all sorted 🙂
Let me know what you think! Send me your ideas on how to changes things for the seminar context!
Tracy
Hi!
>>. I think having a noise buffer may be key for her right now. The fans were awesome for this!!!
yes, I am totally a fan of noise buffers! Fans, music, anything that helps.
>>Will you send me the link for the seminar?
Here it is:
https://fb.me/e/2jAHu1JomShould be an interesting seminar!!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I’m a visual learner and sometimes need to rehearse things mentally, and physically, before I do them. In my line of work this would be called “Chair Flying”.”
Yes, rehearsing it all beforehand and using visualization and planning totally helps!
I don’t have any demo videos of me doing this in classes because sadly I never get to go to agility classes (the joys of living a solid 2 hours from any form of civilization). But, there are some classmates here who are doing this in a class setting, if you want to scroll through their threads. Here are the teams that have LOTS of good stuff to look at in terms of these games in the class environment:
Brenda & Zippie!
Elaine and Sprite
Lisa and Lanna>> I will want to re-read many things. Is there anyway to print some of your material? Print my Forum postings and your feedback?
The access to the class is live forever, but also the info is all meant to be downloaded 🙂 The games all have PDFs that can be downloaded, which include the links to the demo videos. For the Forum posting, you can print it for sure, it depends on which device you are using. Right now, I am on a Dell PC and when I click on the 3 vertical dots in the upper right hand corner, I get a pop up tat shows me a spot to click “Print”. You can also click Control + P to do that same thing. Then you will see your print window come up and can choose a destination: you can have your printer actually print it, or you can save it as a PDF on your computer. If you are on a Mac, let me know and I will give you the exact steps there too (it might vary depending on which iOS you are using)
Thanks!
TracyGood morning! Thanks for the videos!!!
>> It was very hard to keep my mind positive. I think I get so upset that we will lose connection, I think that’s the problem and I know it’s me. As the weekend progressed finally Sunday we kept it together for T2B.>
While I do think the dogs read handler stress and that can contribute to struggles in the ring, there are also a lot of things we can do to help him (and then you will be busy andwon’t have time to stress about whether you will lose connection or not :)) I find that I am most positive and do my best when I have set a very clear plan for myself – and that has nothing to do with the handling or trying to Q 🙂 The handling and the Qs will come much more easily when we have the dog’s total engagement, so my plans always begin with helping the dogs engage and learn how to be in the trial environment.
I watched the videos straight through, looking for themes 🙂 Here is what I see:
He is at his best and most focused when:
– he is more active outside the ring, doing more moving tricks and tugging on his toy
– when the start of the course is fast and flowy, and not choppy or highly technical
– when the leash is loose
– when the reward is visible in FEO runs
– when you keep moving
– later in the weekend when he is more relaxed in the environmentHe struggles the most when
– there are cookies outside the ring before the run but he is not really moving
– the leash is tight
– when the opening of the course is really technical
– when you stop and fix, or stand still
– when the course swings towards the exit gate, especially early in the weekend or if there were stops earlier in the course
– in the proximity to people, especially men like the judge being nearby or a ring crew person being too close.So looking at how to get the best focus and speed from him, here are ideas on how to play the games and plan his trialing:
– before his first runs, walk around by the entry gate and play pattern games til he says ‘ah! I know these!’ and whips his head back up to engagement immediately. Then play some volume dial games! This is all good to do when you arrive at the site, and not in conjunction with getting ready to run – consider it to be just acclimation.
– early in the weekend, avoid the highly technical classes (like Premier, or using the premier skills in FAST) because there are lots of technical lines and not a lot of flow. Stick to the fast, flowing courses – no need to enter in the technical tight courses especially early in the weekend if he is going to struggle. Get the weekend off to a great start with very fast lines!
– don’t fix anything in the ring 🙂 Just run run run! Fixing stresses him and he ends up leaving & sniffing. The Find My Face game is the gateway to being able to fix things in the ring, but until that game is really solid in a variety of environments and if you are trialing him before that game is solid – resist the temptation to fix things because then there is more rehearsal of sniffing.
– when you are outside the ring waiting, getting him tugging on his pouch toy like he did later in the weekend, that was great! That, plus more action with the tricks, brought him into the ring in a better state of focus and engagement, and those runs were better.
– you had an ‘all business’ approach to the ring entry and the lead out, but I don’t think he is an ‘all business’ dog right now. I think he is a volume dial dog! So when you move from the ring gate to the start line: engage him 🙂 Talk to him, jog to the line, ask for a trick or two or three. If he can’t do the tricks, the fast moving entry and the engagement might be enough. And check out the cartoon mashup game – I bet that is going to help him too, more than the ‘all business’ calm lead out does.
– he did well with the FEO runs and it looks like he was even tugging in the ring! Yay! Try to reward more in the ring, in the middle of the run. The two spots to add more reinforcement will be:
when he passes a wide open space near the back of the ring, or a ring crew person close by
when he sees the exit gate/last jump and turns away from it to continue on the course (like in T2B where he took the jump and turned away from it to do the weaves – that is a GREAT place to reward as it will build value for turning away from that exit jump, rather than keeping all the value on the exit jump).– Also, with those FEO runs: doing the “just like home” FEO run with the visible mixed in with full, real runs is too big of a leap in criteria for him. We definitely want him to have success with the FEO ’empty hands’ where the toy is in your pocket and comes out after a few obstacles, and then the 3rd step of short, fast fun runs with no toy in the ring at all – and when he is successful and engaged, then you can do the full runs again. You were going from step 1 here (which looked great!) to step 4 and that was too challenging.
You can also work that step-by-step progression in classes, adding in friends/instructors/classmates to show him how things look in a trial ring – basically doing the Kryptonite games! In classes, we tend to always run with reinforcement in our hands but it is really important to also show him the other 3 steps of getting the reinforcement out of your hands and outside the ring. So we show the dog the distractions and the reinforcement process mirrors the FEO steps: at first the rewards are highly visible. And when he is very successful, the rewards are in your pockets. When he is highly successful with that (it won’t all happen in one class 🙂 it will take multiple runs and classes :)), then you move to showing him the distractions with the short in-and-out runs (no rewards in the ring, they are outside the ring but the runs are REALLY short and easy because distractions are very high). And when he is successful with that? You can mix in full runs, reinforcement outside the ring, distractions inside the ring.And remember that trialing should lag behind training. So if he can train at the step 2 level (rewards hidden in pockets) with distractions, then he can trial at step 1 (easier skills because distractions are MUCH harder). When he can train at step 3 (in and out) and he has been successful with step 1 in trials? Then trials can go to step 2. When he can train at step 4 and he has been successful in trials with step 2? Then trials can go to step 3 – and when he is successful with step 3? Then you can go to step 4 in trials too.
Let me know if this all makes sense! I am going to put together a flow chart to help folks plan their training and trialing and to keep getting those successful runs 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
Looking at this from the end working back to the beginning:Once he gets running, he looks great! There is so much good stuff here!!
So we really need to focus on the start of the run, as you know. And good news is that he was resilient to the stress and after the first struggle at the line, he was able to come back and work really nicely. I do have a bunch of ideas for you about how to get that behavior right away, without the stress moment where he runs off.The trick video separately from the run looked good – he likes that backwards moving hand touch a lot!! I think he was dragging his leash here, but this is a great opportunity to work on changing how he feels about the leash off moment: you can take the leash off, reward offered engagement (you have to be calm in this moment!) then go into the tricks. If you want to carry him in, you can carry him to the tricks spot and practice putting him down, rewarding engagement, rewarding tricks. With that in mind:
Looking at the beginning of the 2nd video, where he runs off at the beginning:
As you were moving him to the line, you were mainly in ‘all business’ mode – but he is not an all business dog at the start line 🙂 You were walking to the position, and he did get a couple of treats for a hand touch… but it was not the same as the tricks outside the ring. Then when the leash came off, you didn’t reward engagement or do volume dial tricks – you turned to the tunnel and tried to run, but he was facing the other way, not quite ready, so he ran off. Good news is that he bounced back pretty quickly and worked really well!!Bearing in mind that the running off is a stress response, we can help him a lot on the start line!
>> >> I still need a solution to my unclip the leash>>
The solution is in transferring the skills into this challenging environment, step by step 🙂 Using the tools you have worked separately, we can bring them to the start line as well:
As you move to that first jump, knowing it is going to be stressful for him, get your high energy tricks going to get him super engaged before the leash comes off. When he is looking at you, take the leash off – and see what he does. If he offers engagement? Reward, reward reward 🙂 One way to help get that reward to him is the 2 leash version of the game – take off the more obvious leash, but gently hold the 2nd leash. That will increase the likelihood of offering the engagement and decreases the likelihood of running off (because it controls the access to the behavior because he is still technically on leash :)). And after the leash off engagement reward, you can do a bit more volume dial and then start the sequence.>>Would you recommend a ‘carry him in ‘ with my leash already off?>>
You can try it, replacing putting him down and getting engagement rather than the unclip the leash moment – but it still needs to be rehearsed as described above, in the Kryptonite situations (see below). There is no single magic behavior that will fix it, because he could just as easily take off when you put him down or let go of him. The solution is in taking the skills he has learned into the seminar & trial environment, and repeating the process to transfer the skill. He is very clever and it will happen when he is able to play the games more in the challenging environments. Ideas for you:
I think the procedures look good in isolation and in home practice. That leash off moment at the start line is his Kryptonite when in a seminar or trial environment around other people and dogs – so the goal cannot be the sequence, the goal needs to be the engagement. So looking at the games you played with the cookies inside the crate, for example: bringing him in on leash, getting the volume dial tricks going, taking the leash off (using 2 leashes if needed), letting him offer engagement, then reward, then move volume dial tricks, then into the sequence. The seminar and trial environments are so much harder (plus he has the history of start line stress) so we need to work it specifically to change how he feels and responds in that situation.
In the harder Kryptonite environments, this will start as we started it in class (and it mirrors the “not for competition” steps): with the reinforcement really visible and the setup up pretty easy for success, because the environment is soooo much harder. The games should look easy enough to be instantly recognizable even in the harder environments – and then we gradually add in the harder challenges, such as reinforcement in your pockets, the remote reinforcement, and so on.
What happened here on the video was that he was in his Kryptonite environment and he doesn’t have enough experience transferring his new skills to the start line in that environment so he wasn’t able to engage. So getting him more and more into training settings around other dogs and people, in big fields like this, will give you the opportunity to install these games into the environments he needs to see them in, in the step-wise progression that will move him to trials pretty easily.
I think we are on the right track and it is a matter of putting all the pieces in place, systematically. Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>> I didn’t run T2B this AM, it was our only chance for FEO. I didn’t know when I entered how yesterday would go so I only did it once. I’m still very intimidated by the combined classes- over 60 dogs entered in T2B this morning. I will work on my confidence.>>
For now, prioritize getting the FEOs in rather than avoiding because they might be more crowded. You can set up the pre-run stuff so that he is a far as needed from any crowds, and you have a toy in the ring which will help the before, during and after! The FEO runs will give you BOTH a lot of confidence in the ring!
>>Mentally, I was spent by the time I got to this run.
Eek! 3:30am wake up would be enough for me to be exhausted LOL!
>>With that being said, I wanted to scratch all day but hung in for standard. I elected to not run jumpers. Amy got the pre run which was pretty good- aside from me again having him out to early but novice takes forever. He did really good chill at my feet.>>
About being out too early – can you bring a portable crate or cot or mat nearby in case it turns out there are 3 more years before your run? The video being 8.5 minutes long of pre-run stuff definitely shows a need to have a place to chill – even doing pattern games for the first 5 minutes was too long of a time. Sitting and relaxing is good! And if you are feeling tense, talk to people, make eye contact, smile, sing a song – as strange as it sounds, those are all tried and true relaxation methods for handlers before a run. One of the other important mental prep piece is to do breathing exercises – that will definitely help!!!
Based on his body language and response times, he seemed fine outside the ring even with the banging. You can do the high energy tricks and heeling while the dog before you is running so he is at his best centered arousal state as you walk into the ring.
>>What made me scratch was how our start went. I almost walked off. They were loading equipment and there was some banging. He wouldn’t do any trick I asked other than lie flat to the ground, but when I asked if he was ready, he did seem like he wanted to go. I decided to see what happens- this was hard, I was about to combust, but he looked pretty darn good considering.>>
A couple of things on this – you got the down, but then moved him – took the leash off after that, then leaned over him (dogs really don’t like that) and asked for hand touches – and he was like ‘um, we don’t do that here’. I think standing up and moving away from him a bit might be better choices (that is part of the reason he likes the heeling – no pressure and he gets to move into you, rather than the other way around). And it is also possible he is all business on the way into the line (run in, take the leash off, ask for the down) followed by the cartoon crouch lead out (he seemed to REALLY like that before the release!)
The run looked good – one of the reasons I like the T2B or FAST FEO is that there is not table 🙂 Tables are the biggest arousal bummers and we don’t want young dogs to stop their action and potentially have an error or notice the environment.
Will he tug on the leash at the end? The video cut off right before that. If not, getting it on him and running to cookies is fine. (Contraband doesn’t want to tug on his leash either, he wants the cookies at the end :))>>Carrie and Amy encouraged me to do jumpers because he did so well, but I really didn’t want to push him. I’m not sure if that was the right choice, but he had a good time all weekend and I didn’t want to chance ending poorly.>>
NOT running is always the right choice if your head is not in a good place and/or you are tired and/or you feel like it might set up the dog for failure.
>>I really need to work my mental management of this. He’s been brilliant and amazing and done everything I’ve asked… and I’m handling him like he’s fragile and waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was hoping with a few trials under my belt, I’d relax some, but that hasn’t yet been the case.>>
Yes – mental rehearsal and management is key! I have a couple of independent study classes to look over, and there are a lot of good ones out there where you can get instructor interaction too! But the main thing is that the mental prep has to be rehearsed and worked on, same as we rehearse and work on the running dog walk for example 🙂 It is a DAILY practice because our brains are NOT always helpful so we need to have our toolbox prepared and rehearsed, so it is at our fingertips when we need it the most (very much the same as what we are doing with the dogs here: coping skills, handling arousal, resilience from errors, etc).
I think he did really well! So the next piece of the puzzle is the mental management. Just like dog training, it is something that has a variety of existing protocols that can really help!!!
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>> The rest of the day was uneventful!!! She crated great out of car. No melt downs at all!!! She was great!!! Car ride home was terrific. Very happy with today!!!>>
VERY interesting that the car ride home was terrific. Was she crated in a different place in the car? No stress? Definitely something to tell the behaviorist!
>>I don’t really think the diarrhea this morning had to do with the car. That has never happened before. Her discomfort on the way over had to do with that. I want sure till after it was all over.>>
It might have also had to do with the challenges from Saturday. Those stress hormones can take several days to dissipate and diarrhea is pretty common.
>>Yes, hopeful the behaviorist can help with the car issues and her behavior states in which she has a very difficult time transitioning out of!>>
I just saw a seminar about Resilience In Dogs get posted, I think it is an online seminar from Barking Brains (neuroscientist dog trainers). I will find it and tag you. Also, the neuroscientist dog trainer types that I know are drumming into my head that adolescent dogs have brains that are not fully developed yet, so we need to be chill and let them grown up so their brains develop 🙂 Just like humans LOL!!!
Tracy
It was Lauren Duckworth!!! Love her!!! Great, great courses! She was my judge when premier first came out and her premier courses were fabulous!!! I was hooked the first weekend on premier 🥰. She does not judge much! She was a junior handler 🥰.
Good morning!
>> No, I don’t think you need more coffee, maybe I do? 😉
More coffee is always good for all of us 🙂
>>I think where I get confused is me thinking Pattern Games = easy for dog= feed no matter what, but I do get flustered when she NEVER stops sniffing. >>
The pattern games are really important because they give us the best view into where she is on the arousal curve and what she is struggling with – while also allowing her to work through it using a framework we have given her (and a framework of how to help her). So yes, there is a lot of waiting for her to process and engage – it is a very passive game for us humans, the dogs really drive the bus on it.
Another way to look at it: replace wanting to sniff the ground with wanting to lunge at other dogs. Yes, different behaviors on opposite sides of the arousal curve – but similar in that both interrupt the dog’s ability to engage with the handler, and they both require the dogs to learn how to disengage from the trigger, moderate their internal arousal back to ‘center’, and engage with the handler. The lunging is a more obvious behavior though 🙂
So playing pattern games with a dog that wants to lunge – if the dog looks at the distraction, considers lunging, but then returns engagement to the handler even if it takes a few seconds (high latency): reward! This is the equivalent of Zippie sniffing a bit, or looking around.
If the lunging dog is unable to stop lunging and cannot return engagement to the handler: the trigger is too close and too hard, the dog is over threshold, so the next step would be to move the dog further away from the trigger to find the spot where the dog CAN stop lunging and offer engagement with the handler. This is the equivalent of Zippie being unable to stop sniffing. If that happens, move her further from the distractions or whatever is causing stress (possibly being close to the ring, or other people/dogs).
In both cases (lunging or sniffing), trying to cue tricks may or may not help the dog because she might not be able to respond, and also because she is not learning how to moderate her own internal state and choose engagement, when she finds herself in that state and the handler is not cuing tricks in that scenario.
In many ways, the behaviors are similar in what drives them, but they manifest differently – but can be handled similarly in pattern games.
>>But I will repeat it so it sinks in better : wait for engagement, dont cue it, and reaching for cookies IS a cue. If it’s too hard get further away.>>
Yes 🙂 And reaching for the cookies is a cue for sure (dogs see EVERYTHING lol!) but also it is a good sign that she was aware that you were reaching for the cookies – if she was severely under-aroused or severely over-aroused, she would not notice if you brought out a giant steak!
Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyGood morning!
On the lap turns, I think she is reading them well. You can edit the video less so I can see how the rep starts when dong the one jump reps – the lap turn was a little awkward at first probably because she was starting too close and had to wait for you to show the cue? And for the reward, try not to reward in front of you – instead, if the toy is in the outside arm you can throw it so she drives out of the lap turn or you can have The cookie or toy in the turn hand too deliver or throw.
When you add the rocking horses/2 wings, try sending to the wing further so you are not running backwards more than one step and so you can be set in the lap turn spot. I think that was what was making it a title harder for her to read it (she was good about waiting for where to be while you ran backwards LOL! But we really don’t want you to run backwards, she is too fast for that so the sending will be your friend here 🙂
And being relatively stationary to cue the turn will help her learn to love to drive into you without needing motion, which is a SUPER skill for baby Border Collies 🙂Lateral lead outs – her commitment looked FABULOUS and so did her turns! YAY! That allows you to work on other details.
>> My issue was trying to keep straight which arm I was supposed to use (I did watch the video again and then I get outside and can’t remember anything).
Part of this stage of training is developing your own system of communication with her. In general, when you are on the takeoff side of 1 (landing side of 2), using the dog-side arm makes more sense. When you are on the landing side of 1 (takeoff side of 2), using the dog-side arm still makes sense, but also for many dogs it is fine to be rotated and use your opposite arm (almost like an old school ‘recall to heel’ except positionally you are further over. I think it depends on what would happen on jump 2: for a throw back, I would do the dog-side arm for the send and throwback, like you did here. For a front cross and run 1-2, using the opposite arm with you already rotated totally works, because it is like already being halfway through the FC 🙂
Her commitment is strong enough that you should show her ALL the things and then you gave a gigantic toolbox to pull from,
The one thing I would add on all of these, though, is more connection before the release. You were looking forward (probably thinking about what you were going to do) so she was looking at you. Ideally, she would focus forward a little more – the connection will get that (plus it stabilizes the start line). When we connect to the dog, they tend to look forward better. When we are not connected, they look at us.
>> I think some of my problem was the toy and trying to hold it in my throwing hand. When I did the throwback at the end, the hands made more sense… >>
The toy can be in either hand, and it is good for her to get used to your hands carrying a toy and she ignore them til you mark that it is time to grab them.
You can add a little more distance on these as you get your hands more comfy!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! I am glad you are feeling better and also – look at all that green grass! YAY!
On the lap turns:
Remember the 3 inch rule 🙂 That is keeping your feet together and your magic cookie hand extended towards him as he is coming towards you, til he is 3 inches or less from your hand. Then the leg goes back and the arm moves with it, drawing him back first then turning him away. You were too early on these, starting it when he was a couple of feet from your hand. What happens when you are too early (especially with the leg movement) is that your leg gets stuck back so he doesn’t know what to do like at :46, or he reads it as a throwback to the other side of the wing at :57. So I try to stand totally still until he is very close, then it will be easier (standing still is HARD! LOL!) If you end up running backwards to the position, no worries – you can keep moving backwards til he is 3 inches from your hand, or stop in position til he is 3 inches from your hand. Eventually you will be able to send him away to the other wing, so you won’t have to run backwards 🙂Tandems looked good! He likes the motion a LOT and the timing can be earlier, so he read them really well. YAY!
>> I think this was pretty good considering it was VERY HARD to keep him from being too distracted outside.
Part of it is that he is really inexperienced working outdoors, so you can do the high motion, super easy games. And use a crazy toy or ball. If you use food, feed from your hands from now – throwing treats in the grass was making him a bit sniffy because they added smells and if he didn’t know what to do, he would sniff around a bit.
The backside video was the same link as the lap turn/tandem video – let me know what you repost it, I am looking forward to seeing it!
TracyHi!
This was a really interesting series of sessions! At first she TOTALLY thought you were insane and it was stooopid. And it was really cool to see you make it easier, reward a lot, and build it up – and note how she got faster and faster! YES!
>>< I know I was facing the wrong way I realize now. On those moments: It was not so much facing the wrong way, as it was using alternate styles of handling. And that is all good. In fact, when you had the 2 jumps with you on the landing side of jump 1, she totally preferred when you used your outside arm/step to landing, and didn’t like the dog side arm/step to take off. And that is fine, because basically you and she are developing your own system of communication. I really only have one idea for you (you sorted it all out on your own, pretty much LOL!) - you can have a food bowl placed on the landing side of the 1st jump, tucked into the wing closer to you - so she has a visual target and looks at you less. And then you can toss the reward into the food bowl as you build these up to add even more distance. I am really happy with how her speed developed here and I know she will continue to get faster and faster - great job breaking it down to help her out! SUPER!!!! Tracy
Hi!
>> This was my leash in pocket solution since I can’t wear a jacket at 90° running. I figured since people can wear their Hurrta training vest, why can’t I wear a training skirt?>>
Excellent point!
>>We are showing again today. Hoping it will be more low key because it’s the end of the trial and most people leave.>>
The environment can be lower key, but you can be higher key from the entry gate to the start jump 🙂
>>I probably can get a bigger lead out, I’m just not good at those because Callie doesn’t have one so I feel like getting to the landing side is SOOOO FAR 🤣. I watched the video and was like oh it took one step past the landing side>>
Yes! Work a little bit more lead out in! Have fun and keep me posted 🙂
Tracy
