[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! I think this is already greatly improved! I think this particular challenge is simply not intuitive for the pups – lead changes on the flat are not something most of them do naturally (I added it to the puppy curriculum because my adult dogs struggled with it so I decided to teach it very early on :))
The other thing that is hard is that there is a lot of strength involved – it is built off of a fitness exercise from a sports vet 🙂 So it builds both the understanding and the strength that gets used for the semi-sideways jumping on serps, backside slices, etc. – that is all the stuff that adult large dogs in particular struggle with.

So if he feels a little less responsive, especially when you are trying to get him to shift away: yep, I would agree LOL! And it isn’t just him – he is trying to go fast and figure out how to use all of his feets to feet the line that you are cueing. But he is really coming along nicely here! He is already getting the pattern much better than just a few days ago.
On the first rep, you were a little late with the push away cue and pointed a little too far forward so he was late shifting away and didn’t get into the gap. Compare it to the push away cues at :18 and :27 and also on the last 2 reps – you were earlier and more connected, so he got it really well! I think he is also beginning to recognize the pattern, which really helps so your handling won’t need to be as precise.

>> Am I correct in thinking that we are trying to teach/establish the come in/ go out behavior as somewhat situationally habitual as we move forward with his agility training?>>

Yes – we are building the understanding and strength to use his body in that context, and getting him used to the sideways approach to the wing and bar that he will see in a variety of situations that involve slices (backsides, serp, threadles, etc). It gets simpler for the handler pretty soon 🙂
Great job!!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

I am happy to help catch! Contraband will need to be corralled to bring the discs back LOL!

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! yes, he is doing really well targeting now!!! Good boy 🙂 Nice work! And no worries about the foot pawing, that is normal and fine LOL!
I love his confidence on the teeter – so cool to see!!!

So now that he is happy to offer the position and seems to have a good grasp on what to do with all the feets and his head 😁: Now we formalize the bang game to be able to build on it. The goal is that he leaps right on the very end of the board, all 4 feet, and into position with no added steps down the plank. So this is 2 part process that will move very quickly, totally focused on mechanics:

First, starting on the plank to familiarize him with the mechanics and concept:
start him next to you, right at the very edge near the target end of the board, with him between you and the board (the target is in position too). Gently hold his collar is you need to, so he does not start without you LOL! Give the target cue, let him jump into position – the plop the reward in right on the target. For now – there are 2 “Don’ts”: don’t move and don’t click 🙂 Those will get him looking at you and we want him to look at the target.
If he can easily do that for a session or two, you can start to add challenges like walking past, etc: but the starting position is always the same.

The second part is easy: you reproduce the mechanic you used on the plank, but on the teeter 🙂 Starting with him jus was you did on the plank, with him right at the edge: gently hold him, give the target cue, and let him leap into position. This should be an easy transition after he learns the mechanics on the plank.
Now when you get to the teeter, start it with a lot less tip then he had here – he was losing his back feet often enough that we want to reduce the tip so he never steps off the board and so he can learn the weight shift.
So as with the plank, this gets formalized and very specific: which means don’t let him offer without you and also don’t send him from any position other than you being lined up at the side, at the very end – that is so he gets into the habit of the weight shift. When he was approaching more from the front, he was getting on with his front end then putting his back end on, so the line up at the side really emphasizes his back end and the weight shift.
Because of his confidence and speed, we will definitely be emphasizing the weight shift 🙂

Great job here! He is moving through these really quickly, it is so fun to see!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Ah! He totally wears his heart on his sleeve 🙂 That is good info: for the elevator games, change how you do the sessions:
one hit wonders with super high double whammy rewards: one massive reward on the target, then a thrown toy to get him away from the board. Then no more reps until the next day. For example, my BorderWhippet HATED the elevator game until I did one hit wonders: meatball on the target then I threw his frisbee 🙂

And if you do it in class, just do it once then release to the rest of the course 🙂

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Yes, that can all help! the attention noise will only work if it is associated with a very fast reinforcement.

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>I also tried to make sure I was moving slowly. I do have a tendancy to run at things. >>

Yes, and they like to go fast fast fast! So there is a bit of muscle memory to unwire to tighten the turns up, but she is getting it!
I watched this video and froze the screen every time you said the left or right verbal. Most were when she was about a metre from the tunnel entry… which I think is too late for her. My favorite was at :12 – she was a solid 2 metres from the tunnel on that one and I think that was also her best turn!
One other thing about the verbal: say it more that once. Tunnel tunnel! is very exciting and propels her forward. So the left and right should be lower in energy (riiiiight riiiiight riiiiiiightt) and I suggest saying it several times so she can process it before, during and after the tunnel 🙂 That will really help!

One more thought about tight turns: from now on, let’s have her get all turn rewards from you hand (or right near you): by throwing the toy out on the line, she is not exactly looking for a turn, she is looking to stay on the big line for the toy 🙂 So – after the left or right, run away on that approximate line and get her to chase you for the toy. Yo can be calm in the motion until she is in the tunnel: then take off and run for her to chase you for the reward. That way she will shift to looking for your new line and not looking ahead for the toy. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>Fancy Gap upload speeds make me crazy.>>

I feel this deeply, to my very core LOL!

On the video, lots of good reps but we can totally get rid of a lot of the errors here too! 2 main things:
First thought is about handling mechanics of the serp (and eventually, the threadle too): keep your shoulders in that open position until after he arrives at the MM. You are closing them forward as he passes your leg, which is too soon. Think of the MM as the next jump in the serp, which is cued by the open shoulders on the serp. If you close your shoulders too soon, he will run right past the next jump of the serp line. He won’t run past the MM because, well, cookies 🙂

No worries about the early MM beep at :32, it marked the intent to come in. In a perfect world he would have continued to come in, but the click still marked that decision to come towards you 🙂

The other thing has to do with the misses:

>>I’m not seeing another explanation for his not coming in there, but you probably will>>

I think the tossed treats to get the behavior started are actually doing more harm than good, in terms of the efficient line up for the next rep. A couple of things were happening – he was sniffing a bit (understandable, gotta get the treat!) and then after getting the treat, he didn’t have that moment to see and process the cue of the upper body versus the lower body. And when he was very quick to get the treat and come back into the rep, you were a little late showing the serp cue – by the time you got it going, he had already made a decision which didn’t happen to match what you were looking for (examples of this were at :51, 1:14, 1:21, 1:28). When he could see and process the cue before making the decision, he was consistently accurate and fast.

So… time to install some type of stay to start it 🙂 This will raise the rate of success! It might mean a backtrack on the level of difficulty (no MM in the picture, just a reward from your other hand) and lots of rewards for the stay. You can make the picture smaller by just having a wing there or even nothing at all, just a lead out. And you can make the stay easier by using a mat or a cot or something. But the distinct start position and also the cue to begin the rep will make the process more efficient and more successful, with the side benefit of getting the stay going before the jump 🙂
If he is anything like my dogs, you will probably spend a few sessions on just the ‘stays are AWESOME FUN’ behavior near a wing or on a mat, then it will click into place and you can take it back to the jump.

Let me know if that makes sense! I know stays are not always the most popular way to start reps because we are all worried about making them fun and not getting stress – so take it away from the serp stuff for now (because when he sees the serp cue, he nails it) and make it a super fun game in front of the jump. He is doing well on the wing for the zig zags so I think you will be fine here too 🙂

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good news about being in touch with Leslie too! And I believe Tricia also worked with Dr. Karen Overall, who is one of the pioneers in the behavior field and has been soooo helpful.

About the a-frame – I apologize for being the fun patrol… but you should block it off so she can’t run up and down it LOL! Two reasons to block it off: first, young dogs do silly things like leap off things and hurt themselves, so we need to make sure she doesn’t hurt herself.
Second, all of the running up and down it are rehearsing behavior that you don’t want when you will want her to do it for real (she will have a distinct criteria, like stopping in 2 on, 2 off at the end). So, better to block it off for now , sorry Ria haha 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

That is so interesting! I wonder if it is a Beardie thing? A lot of herding dogs struggle with tunnels (BCs, Shelties too) so there might be something to the not wanting to disconnect issue. But I know you will get it figured out, some straight tunnels lots of rewards will do the trick 🙂

>>Bounce used to come very teeth forward after them.>>>

bwahahahaha teeth forward, I am totally going to use that phrase. Sounds scientific, Voodoo approves LOL!!!!!!

See you in Gretna?
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! She looks wonderful here! She is totally getting it. The most important thing is going to be connection involving the tunnel. When she exits the tunnel, give her a strong connection in the form of very direct eye contact so she can find the line to the wing very smoothly. You might even think of it as looking for her eyes directly into the tunnel so she sees it before she exits. You can see that she has a little zig zag on the tunnel exit, looking for connection, on the exits heading towards the camera at :10, :25,

The connection will also help her get into the tunnel, like at :35 – as she exited the wing, connection was soft (she could not see your eyes) so she followed you feet and shoulders directly to the part of the tunnel where she jumped onto it LOL! Puppies are very literal LOL! So on the exit of that wing, make a very direct eye contact and run directly towards the tunnel, take nothing for granted LOL! It will get easier as she gets more experience 🙂

Her wing commitment is looking really good!!! The wraps look great and your connection in and out of them also looks great. Yay!! It looks like she thought the racetrack was a little odd, but she will get happier with it when she has more experience with it 🙂 And yes, keep working to get the directionals consistent – I couldn’t hear them that well with the mower noise so I will assume that they were perfect 🙂

Iam glad Kiefer and Bader got to play!!!! It is a fun game – you can also start to add a little more distance for Miss Cerid too, that will challenge your connections 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Oh crud, I replied to this all yesterday right before I got on the road… and it is all gone!!! EEK!!! Sorry for the delay, here we go with round 2 LOL!!!! My home internet is making me SO MAD lately. Sigh.

Anyhoo: Lots of really great work here! I am going to urge you to split your training sessions into separate days – I think doing it all on the same day tends to create too much for her (she is not even 6 months old, right?) so some of the questions are mental/physical fatigue-related.

On the left/right rear crosses and backside wraps:
I like how she is reading each cue so well!!! A couple of ideas to make it even smoother:
On the go reps, try to stay outside the wing of the jump so you can keep running until after she has landed – that way she doesn’t see any decel associated with the Go cue (as that might confuse things when we add deceleration cues very soon :))

On the rear crosses – she is reading them, yay! Rears are hard for baby dogs 🙂 I think she can read them sooner, before takeoff, if you hang out by the wing while she is wrapping, wait for her to be almost done, then start moving up the rear cross line. She will see it sooner AND get better at driving ahead, which should help her turn even sooner. You were sending to the wing then having to wait for her to catch up to you 🙂

On the backside wraps – she is being a really good girl here too! Your connection and cues looked great, it looks like she had no question that it was a backside. YAY! Try to show her more of the wing – you were running on her line a bit so she had to go around you, which widens the line. Your running destination is where the wing meets the bar, so she sees the full wing. If you get there before she does, decel and wait til she passes you: that also helps set up a nice turn.
And if she has an error (like when you ran out of there and she didn’t take the jump), resist the temptation to mark it with an ‘uh oh’ – that is a deflating marker for her, so if she has a question just show her what you want t hen reward.

The Strike A Pose proofing is going well! One thing about this game – you can spread out the around the clock challenges into multiple sessions, especially on the threadles. You were doing a lot of difficult challenges so she had more errors than we would like at this stage. Plus, you were trying to help and ended up turning your feet on the threadles – and I think that might be why you get a bit bent over with the arm? When your feet were facing the tunnel, I thought your arm was great and you were not too bend over.
Bearing in mind that your feet should be facing the tunnel on all 3 cues here (that is what makes it so hard LOL!) you can be closer to the jump for the serps, to help get the second turn. On the threadles, for now, keep her on slightly easier angles on the clock til she can read the difference between serps and threadles without you needing to turn your feet at all. She is doing really well, we have plenty of time to add in harder angles 🙂

The ladder grid is where I feel that she might be brain/body tired – she couldn’t quite get organized to bounce the distances. You were trying to help by moving, but it is better to let her sort it out when she is fresh. One thing that will help is to move the MM further away, so she can take 2 big strides to get to it after jump 3. Then, since she has such a good stay, you can lead all the way out to the MM, stand still, release 🙂 It might take her several sessions to get organized into the balanced bouncing, and that is totally fine 🙂 Movement is a distraction so she did go faster, but she shifted totally onto her front end. So do a couple of short sessions when she is fresh and just stand still – I bet she figures it out nicely because she is a pretty balanced girl 🙂

The Diamonds – these are fun, right? She LOVES this stuff too – and that is where I come in to remind you to do very short reps and focus on mechanics (I know, I know, I am a pain LOL!!!!). On the blinds, I think what was making you feel slow was that you were trying to do a lot all at once and you were losing the mechanics (toy was switching all around, etc). So just work the blinds in isolation, just one and reward – so you can keep the toy in the same hand and get the connection across the body. So if she begins on your left, the toy is also on the left and stays in the left so you can show it to her across your body after the blind to your right. That will tighten it right up!
And then, because her commitment to the wings looks REALLY strong, you can start doing the blind sooner: send to the tunnel and cue the wing when she exits: and just before she arrives at the wing, do the blind. But mechanics are more important than anything else on these, so feel free to break it down as needed.
On the racetrack sections – wheeeeee!! This is where I am also going to be a pain – try to do only 6-8 things in a row, then reward. Reward correct behavior before you or her mess up (generally the errors are human errors, like disconnections :)) You definitely got caught in the moment so the courses were 30 seconds long, which is the same length as a nice Grand Prix courses LOL!! So, less is more 🙂
I think of it like this: if we hold the reins a little at this age, focus on handler mechanics and training a lot of dog understanding, and follow the less-is-more approach: then when she is 18 months and heading into the ring, everything will be in place and you two will be amazing! So that is why I keep bugging everyone to do a little less in each rep and each session 🙂

Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi – Great news about the training opportunities in USDAA and AKC!

>>Scenario is joyful zooms I don’t mind them but I’d like to do agility

Usually zooms are stress behaviors, could be brought on by any number of reasons – hard to tell without a deeper dive into it which we do in CAMP. But the general answer is to trial ‘for real’ less and with rewards in the ring more.

>>I’ve gotten to the point where a boundary in practice makes a good highly valued +R transition/reset however that won’t work in a trial… thoughts ideas? >>

Not sure what you mean by a boundary in practice?

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! He is doing great!!!

One observation: when he hears the click of the MM while he is in the poles, he just about always hits the poles with his shoulders. Since we don’t want that rehearsal, delay the MM click til after he is fully exited. And you can also turn off the beep and give a quiet verbal marker then trigger the MM (he will hear the gears). Or, you can leave the MM there as a focal point and throw a reward instead.

His accuracy looks strong with all of the challenges (no worries about the one rear cross error, he will get that sorted out) and his speed look great… so onwards to getting the poles even closer together 🙂 How big is the gap? I think the next step is close the gap between the 2 bases, then finish getting poles 3-4 into the straight position. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
The toy and for bowl were big distractions for sure! I am glad you worked through the various options because when she is distracted, she hits the poles more especially when you are running. Cookie-in-the-bowl was the definite winner, partially because it got the weave behavior we like and it got her looking ahead better 🙂 Double yay!

On the 2x2s, the rear crosses are really hard for her as she either hits the poles or lifts her head to much. So, leave the rear crosses to the channels where the visual of the channel keeps her driving straight and she doesn’t hit the poles.
I am thinking of other things we can do to teach her to not hit the poles on the right side sends (she is really good about not hitting them on the left side!) I am trying to help her preserve her body LOL! I re-watched her most recent channel session and she does not hit the poles on the right like she does on 2x2s… hmmm…. so 2 ideas:
using a cone or wing – do some backsidey sends from your right and click/treat when she does NOT touch it. Start with very little motion, let her think – and then over time, add more and more motion (it will also help her backside jumping).

And for weaves… I think the next bunch of sessions should be all channels so she stops rehearsing smacking into the entry 🙂 And you can tighten up the channels on 6 poles pretty easily, plus it will help her get the swim striding (which is probably the correct striding for her).
Let me know what you think! She is doing really well so you can start to tighten up the channels 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
Lots of good work here: poles almost together and straight, plus the opportunity to work in a new environment. Yay!!
A couple of thoughts:
About the cue: I think you have enough real weaving here that you can name the behavior – he is doing the weave action AND he is highly likely to be successful, so name it 🙂 As it gets harder in terms of the poles getting closer – let that be the variable that changes and only do relatively straightforward top-of-the-clock angles for the first session each time you get the poles closer. When you do the harder angles or rear crosses, he has to think more which causes him to lose striding a bit: so to get the striding fully developed, you can do relatively easy angles so all he needs to focus on is the striding.

And once the weave cue is on, leave it on even if you work easier angles with other variables (like new locations, harder entries, or the completely wicked game I have ready for Monday hahahaha)

For the channels – you can angle them a bit more if he has been successful with them, and slap on the cue 🙂 Wheeee!

And yes to alternating back and forth, the methods complement each other nicely particulary for dogs like Kaladin who will bounce.

Yes to moving to the backyard, starting maybe a little angled and then proceeding from there (different location being the change in variable).
Now, with the 2x2s, we can decide how to approach them to get the striding on 4 poles: it can be what you are doing, getting the 4 poles straight and progressively closer. Or, you can get them to the regulation distance apart and a tiny tiny bit angled open – as much as needed for striding and success. Every dog is different – with both of my girls, I got to 4 straight up poles in a line with that slightly angled set at the very end of the progression to solidify the striding.

Great job here! Let me know if this makes sense 🙂
Tracy

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