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Good morning!
>>I’m already feeling nervous- shocker I know.
Let’s normalize feeling nervous about running your young dog. I feel nervous about running my young dogs in Novice and I have been doing this for almost 25 years. LOL!
>> This is the first time I’ve entered him locally, and the drama/politics of agility here really gets into my head. I’m hoping I can shake it.
Well, you can observe it and see it but don’t embrace it or catastrophize. Stay out of any conversations about drama or politics. I highly recommend ear buds or a headset so people leave you alone, even if nothing is playing in them LOL!! Just smile at people all day, and tell yourself: no drama!
>>He is entered 2 days this weekend under Courtney. 1 Fast run and 2 Nov jumpers/standard.
Well, definitely FAST is great as FEO and then you can decide your approach to jumpers and standard. What is the facility like? I HIGHLY recommend you get your pattern games into a super happy place and also brush up on some tricks and remote reinforcement.
>.I need to plan further in April to utilize more from this class.
Yes please LOL
>>Her back was stiff but I didn’t know how ouchie she was. She had 12 trigger points when she saw Ken Bain Saturday and this was after she already had two massages.
Ouch! Poor girlie!!!
>>Oh! also, I am working on teaching bark on cue. I was able to get tiny woofs at the start jump too. They were more inspiratory woofs than expiratory but he felt confident enough to make sounds!>
A woof is a woof is a woof! YAY!!!!! Any vocalization as a trick is GREAT!!!!!
T
Good morning! The animals were feisty on the zig zag video LOL!
Zig zags are looking strong! The stays look great; that is really helpful for these.
The reps went better when you were facing her on the release (2nd rep and last rep) because you could be stationary and show her the lead changes, creating very strong responses from her. When you were facing forward and moving on the 1st and 3rd reps, things were more confusing and the handling wasn’t as clear, so she was less certain. If there is a handling blooper like at :55, you can reward her (she was correct there) before bringing her back to start so you don’t get any frustration behavior of her leaping up near you. You an add the 4th wing now, and lead all the way out to wing 4 to face her and handle the lead changes 🙂Find the jump went great! She was totally into it and found the jump each time. My only suggestions involve getting her to look forward more and at you less. 2 suggestions for that:
You can throw the toy sooner to help her keep looking forward. As soon as she exits the tunnel and looks at the jump, you can throw it to reinforce the choice to find the jump rather than skip it and the early throw will keep her looking ahead. You were throwing it when she was arriving between the uprights, so she was looking at you. And when you throw, add in a reward marker like “get it” so she knows to look ahead – the general markers like “yes” or “good” tend to encourage the dogs to look at us.
Also, you can add connection to her as she exits the tunnel by looking at her eyes more and looking ahead less. Adding more connection will indicate the line sooner (connection turns our shoulders to the line better, and not connecting often causes the dogs to look at us like she did here) and then you can also see the moment she looks at the jump to throw sooner.
She seemed great with finding the jump whether you were ahead and running, or parallel to it. Yay! So now you can add in being behind her – you were doing that a little at 6:28 but you can put yourself further behind if you run deeper to the tunnel entry so as she exits, you are parallel to her or maybe on little step ahead) and running up the line 🙂
And with all of these – you can add in your GO verbal as well, so she exits the tunnel and gets the big GO cue to take the jump as you run.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>.I will give the treat and train a try this weekend when we are local. 🙂 We will see if that works.>>
Cool! Show it to her in a remot ereinforcement game at home first so she recognizes the TnT as part of remote reinforcement, particularly if it is not something she sees regularly.
>> She ran her first run of the weekend which was a premier standard course like she hardly had any ring stress. Rocked the course, her verbals, everything. Her second run, we ended up on the start line and she made eye contact and I TOTALLY missed the moment until we were leaving. WAAA!!! Giant tears of frustrations.>>
Great news on the first run – what was your order of festivities before the run? This is part of data collecting.
I am confused about the 2nd run – yay for the eye contact on the line, super YAY!!! But then you ran or didn’t run? I am confused LOL! Need.More.Coffee.>>Her next two runs as noise and activity picked up were less exciting.
Good to know. What were the order of festivities before the run on those: games? Food rewards? Where was she crated? More data collection. And this was Friday?
>>Saturday, I couldn’t get her to run at all and she literally stalled out on the last run of the day which she hasn’t done in a long, long time.
For data collection: what was the environment like? What was the order of festivities outside the ring, pre-run? Was she able to offer engagemen when the leash came off outside the ring? Inside the ring?
How many runs did she do on Saturday? She was 4 runs in on Friday.>> I was pretty down by the end of that day.
Totally relatable. It can be very emotional!!!
>>Came Sunday with a plan to try to get her super excited and asked a friend who she loves to help me out with a smorgasbord of treats. Played some delayed reward games and get the cookies.
Mmmmm smorgasbord, count me in LOL!!!! So delayed reinforcement get the cookies were two games that helped center the arousal (data collection) 🙂
>> My friend had treats in both hands so she got to choose which hand for a treat. It worked. She ran like a champ.
Fabulous! For the 2 hands game – was it more of a “hey, you get to choose your reinforcement from the charcuterie board” or was it more of a silly active game, almost like a pattern game… or both?
How many runs on Sunday?
>> Overall, she loves raw steak. However, I have had moments when even that didn’t get her up enough to overcome whatever trips her trigger. I have no idea if it is noise overload, which is possible since Saturday was by far the day with the most noise and energy. >>
Could be that the environment suppresses her arousal enough that she struggles to get into the optimal state, even when you have the magic steak available. The environment (Pavlov) wins that battle over the steak (which leans more into the operant/Skinner zone). Pavlov always wins, that bastard.
>>She also doesn’t love crowds (perhaps PTSD from showing indoors here) and it was pretty busy in front of the rings on Saturday.
Data collection: what was it like on Friday for the early runs? And for the 2 later rnus which your described as less exciting?
What was the area in front of the rings like on Sunday? How was her first Sunday run compared to her last Sunday run?
Have you ever tried having someone else hold your spot in the queue outside the ring while she is in a relaxing spot elsewhere, then you make a grand entrance at the last minute so she is not in the more challenging environment for long, and when she is, she is jogging through it with you to the start line?
>> We were in a covered rodeo arena, so somewhat limited space between the rings and the stands.
Crowded and mostly enclosed (data collection :))
>>Anyway, how do I go about finding that one thing that sends her over the top?
Do you mean, the magic reinforcement? The Busy Bee (this always makes me laugh because I am always looking for the magic toy aka Busy Bee too LOL! :))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib0Xv86kyIk
To answer your question – there is probably no single thing that sends her over the top in terms of food or toys. You can look at see if there is something that makes her nuts in real life (like a broom or feather duster or fly swatter or something) because that can become closer to the one special thing. Does she do anything “naughty” in the house that makes you crazy? Well, that might be part of the answer LOL!! The answer probably won’t be found in food or toys because those won’t necessarily break through suppressive environments ( unless it is something like a ball or frisbee in the FEO runs)
For example, 2 of my most environmentally sensitive dogs will bark a lot at home. So, I put barking on cue and when I need to bring them out of an environmentally sensitive moment or bring them into a more challenging environment, I will cue the barking. It works 100000% of the time.
Also, these 2 same dogs love to grab my shoes at home as I am walking arond (yes, the shoe is on my foot). It is TOTALLY annoying but also incredibly useful – so it is on cue for both of those dogs, and used in environments that might suppress them (admittedly, the youngest dog does it without a cue when she is feeling great so I just let her do it LOL!!)
One of those dogs is my Export, who was the most noise-sensitive dog that I have ever met. Terrified of noises!!! So the breakthroughs were due to the barking on cue and also the shoe grab trick in challenging environments, and lots of counterconditioning.
>> but that is what she needs to get beyond herself and run. When she runs she is AMAZING and I love running with my amazing dog.>>
Yes, she is amazing and that is why we are still working to crack the code!
One thing to add is looking at the data collection and, when you can predict what the environment might be, pull different tools from the toolbox. The pattern games are HUGELY helpful for environment issues, so I would definitely play pattern games separately from pre-run prep – first in easy environments, when it is not that crowded ringside. Then later on, do it again when it is crowded and the environment is a lot harder. You will know you are on the right track if she can, in the crazy environment, whip her engagement back to you so fast that you barely have time to get the next cookie ready. That is indicative of being in a more optimal state, so type/value of reinforcement and what tricks/games you do outside the ring become less important because Pavlov is victorious against the environment, so Skinner doesn’t have to be (Skinner/operant conditioning is much weaker than Pavlov/classical conditioning/internal states).I’ve got some video coming of this in the next package to really underline the importance of well-understood pattern games, as well as an additional pattern game.
She has a longer history of the lower arousal state, so it will take longer to get the offered engagement where you want it with the pattern games than, say, a puppy 🙂
So I guess the start to finding the one thing that sends her over the top is just going to be a simple pattern game 🙂 If she can do that in the hrder environments, I bet the rest will be much easier!
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>You may need to put down your beverage before watching the video.
Ha! I’ve got my coffee well-protected 🙂
Thank you for the update! He looked great in the video! The points total doesn’t matter because he gets a zillion points for his focus here 🙂
>>He was comfortable at the mock trial since we train here. I did do pattern game upon arriving and tricks before his turn. He was able to do engaged chill while waiting to run since they ran tall to small so he went 3rd from last out of 20 dogs. He did well waiting inside for his 2nd run and did not want a chew but would lick his Kong widget with cheese on it until a dog came by. He was quite happy when I left the pockets on the table outside but left easily and enjoyed his reward station at the end.>>
This is all good news! Yay! Sounds like he was terrific.
>> did jog out, took off his leash, forgot to reward, and headed to the start. We ended up at the same start line, just different routes.>>
It looked like you were feeling a little rushed or maybe stressed – very trial-like 🙂 BUT (and this is a VERY GOOD BUT) – did you notice that he was offering engagement before you even took the leash off? And then again when you took it off? He was a little distracted when you threw the leash but then he was right back to focus. Something to remember then is to NOT throw the leash at this point. So even though it was not totally according to plan because of the start area blooper, I still score it a big win! Did you have food in your hands? Or in your pockets? Just curious so we can plan.
At :18, he exited the tunnel and you had stopped – did you reward him? If so – great! He was terrific. If not – that is a moment in training to reward, because he will lose focus if there is a stop where you ignore him (talking to the judge there). In a trial and something goes wrong? Keep running 🙂
A handling style to consider, a little outside the context of this class but I figured I’d throw it out there LOL – he has big questions when you are running and your arm is pointing forward to the obstacle ahead of you both, especially when he is slightly ahead or slightly behind you (like at :42-:44). The pointing blocks connection (especially for small dogs) and also turns your shoulders away from the line. You might want to consider a small-dog handling style, which is more like running with no arms pointing at all, just running with your arms pumping (with some low arms for sending, etc) so you have connection. It looks like this, with a dog that is almost the same size:
>. except my attempt to blind from tunnel to AFrame ended up on my left and not taking it. >>
That was a handling blooper (we all have bloopers LOL!) and he handled it like a pro: staying engaged and getting right back on the frame, without barking at you as far as I could tell.
>>He actually got the gamble (4 out of 10 dogs in novice). He’s never been able to do that when we practice gamble in class but this line was less distance than class.>>
He was on fire! It was cool to see 🙂
>>She called it elephant handling
Meaning your arm was too high? Handling an elephant instead of an Eskie?
>>He then went the other way on the course as the pink ribbon for the gamble line was flapping in the breeze and caught his attention as he loves lure coursing.>>
Aha! Something to add to the list of distractions for pattern games and volume dial games – maybe tie a plastic bag to something so it flaps around?
And since he loves lure coursing… have you ever considered putting a plastic bag on a leash and dragging it around as a reward? We have done that with other dogs that love lure coursing and it has turned into a fabulous non-food reward!!
How did you feel about how things went? I think he looked fabulous. So the next question is… what is coming up that is at your training facility, and also not at your training facility? We can plan to take these skills on the road 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyUgh! Bummer!!!! Well, you can keep practicing this indoors, at home, and even in the rain 🙂 Fingers crossed for Thursday (tomorrow!)
T
Good morning!
>> (I’m bummed that I’m not finding time to keep up on other people’s threads too, might save you some repeating yourself-eek)>>
No worries! The dogs are all so completely different that following other threads might be interesting but not necessarily helpful.
>>I also need to work on leash off while holding her, I haven’t done that yet.
Yes – that is a good one: Scoop her up to enter the ring, the last cookie gets delivered when she is up in your arms(. Then you take leash of, put her down, and wait to deliver more cookies for offered engagement. Lather, rinse, repeat 🙂 to build that conditioned response.
>>Wraps – OMG thank you! I see so much “blah” lack of enthusiasm on wraps (from most of the dogs I’ve trained), which leads to looking around for something better to do and all the things we don’t want.>>
Yep! And I probably train wraps a little differently than a lot of traditional training approaches – I don’t really care how tight the turn is or the collection, I just turn it into a super fun chase game. And – voila – the dogs sort out how to collect because they want that chase game a whole lot. So I have nice tight wraps and happy dogs – but it is all built off of the dogs loving the chase games and driving on the easy lines. I 1000000% do not encourage multiple wraps where the dogs slow down, at all, ever.
>> AND YET my instructor has multiple wraps on every course in class,
Many wraps on course is a training trend, same with all of those threadle wraps and dog walk in the middle of the ring with 85 tunnels under it 🙂 Yes, super fancy stuff but the dog needs to love driving lines before we go to that – and I think another trend is skipping the “go fast, take what you see in front of you” stage of training to get right into the wraps, backsides, threadles, etc.
>>Every week I tell myself I need to work on wraps at home more, running away rewarding to power them up. But my goals are to get a Q in Nov JWW – LOL!
I would put wraps lower on the priority list. Rank the skills – fast lines in extension are always higher than tight wraps, so make sure you’ve got the fast lines and confidence where you want it, then you can throw in a wrap or two.
I personally “sandwich” wraps for my dogs: super fast line, a turn, then back to a super fast line.
>>other instructor sees a wrap start as a “good thing” to get some “momentum going” as compared to a lead-out start.>>
Well… depends on the dog. Some dogs – yes, totally agree. Some dogs get frantic and knock that bar on a wrap start. Some dogs don’t like wraps and that makes it less fun. Some dogs do a LOT better on a short lead out because they can chase the line immediately without collection. It totally depends on the dog.
>>so perhaps for now I run a modified course to have straighter lines for motivation, Tracy says so?
Sure! You can blame me for anything you want to do that might not be what they want to do. LOL!!! I am a big fan of “go fast, chase da momma for rewards”. No need to work tight crazy stuff until she can do that.
And, be sure that all classes and seminars are level-appropriate. I run my youngsters in “young dog” seminars because those seem to be the only seminars that work on big lines with very few “fancy” moments (and even then, there are skills presented that a young dog doesn’t need to know, like backside threadle wraps, layering multiple jumps, etc). So while I believe 2 of the youngsters can handle masters-level competition courses, I never train them in Masters-level seminars or classes because the currently fashionable training trend there is to throw in all the hard turning and layering stuff.
>>The other thought I have is that Zippie LOVES a rear-cross turn back on your path when the option presents itself – she reads it really well and seems to enjoy taking the leadership role vs me being on top of her. Thoughts?>>
If she likes it, and you can race her out of it, then go for it! I don’t think any dog likes us being on top of hem – don’t hover! Always move!
Let me know what you think!
TracyHello!
These are looking good!
For the serps, I think a change in your setup will help her sort it out better:
On the first part of the session, the reward target is too far from the jump to get the second turn for the serp, making it a little too easy for her LOL! So have the reward target very close to the pink wing so she can land and turn away a bit then take one little stride to it. She is not having to read a serp there, she is reading a post turn as you pull away from the jump.(Same at :54 when you went back to that side) On the other side starting at :17 I think your position of the MM was better so it was harder – a true serp! And that is why she was running past it more (because you were closer to the jump and not pulling away from it). So having the MM where it was there is great, and yes, you can turn your shoulders more – belly button pointing to the jump bump 🙂 and don’t ad to much motion yet.
But also she needs experience serping even as you add motion, so you can angle the jump a little: leave the start wing and the MM in the same place, and your line of motion is the same, but turn the jump so that as she comes around the start wing, she sees the bump more (the wing closer to the MM can be moved closer to the camera when she is on your left).FCs looked great on both sides! And great job with your verbals!!!!
The zig zags looked good here, having the wings angled and closer were pretty easy for her! She has fast feets!!! Well done! So now that she can do them that close, you can ‘flatten’ the wings so the are basically the same as the send’n’ serp setup but without the jump bump. Go back to a 1.5 meter distance when you flatten the wings, as that might be a bit harder for her.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Look at him being a superstar with the horses in the field right next to him! Yay! I think this went really well! His striding in the angled grid was even better than the straight grid! My only suggestion is that when you point at the MM, point with the dog-side arm so you are facing forward and don’t rotate towards him to point with the opposite arm (that slows dogs down). But yes…. onwards to the dragged toy! He was great with this setup so now we can add some spice and see how it goes (I am sure he will be perfect :))Great job!
TracyGood morning! Lots of good work here! Fingers crossed for the snow to melt ASAP!!!
The zig zag is going really well – nice stay rewards! You have good aim LOL!
The game on 2 wings looked great. As you add more distance, you can use your feet more on the push element especially on the first rep of it. I think that was the hardest part for her – finding the push on the middle wing when you were facing each other with you on wing 3. Part of it is timing: At 1:23, 1:52 and 2:07 you said the release THEN did the physical push so she didn’t see it – the decision was already made to come straight to you based on the release. Good reset cookies in those moments! And good job moving closer and making it a little easier. At 1:40 and 2:35, you actually started the push movement before the release and that totally helped her! So you can step to the push line (and use your arm) and THEN release – the physical cue can be in position for a second or two before the release, and you can also do the physical cue but rather than release, you can toss a reward back for the stay so she doesn’t pair any motion into the release or start to anticipate.Minny pinny – the left/right turns are looking really good, she is definitely happy to turn away from you! I think the hardest parts here were the starts. Have her lined up next to you for these, and I encourage collar holding so you can start the verbal THEN let her go to offer the behavior. And tons of cookies in that moment will help: come to side, get a cookie. I gently take your collar, you get another cookie 🙂 She was starting herself and guessing a bit, and the cleaner line ups will help that especially as we add challenge where it won’t be just turning away:
since she can turn away from the harder positions, work pn sending her the other direction as well, from the same position! For example, on the last rep, she did a left turn away from you (from you left side). While still on your left from that same spot, you can add in the right turn cue so she will go to the other side and turn towards you.Moving serp looked good on one jump – I think you were smart to warm her up with the serp on one jump! The MM was a good choice for the reward target. Sending around the barrel adds a WHOLE new dimension of speed! Fun! Do you have a 3rd wing or can you borrow one? I don’t want her to keep touching the barrel and moving it out of the way in her haste to get back up the line. So a wing or a harder barrel or something that won’t move as easily as the laundry barrel should be better for that.
She did really well on your right side! She had one error when you switched sides at :52.You were pretty far ahead on that one and not as far ahead on the other early reps on your left, and then worked back up to where you could be way ahead. Or she was heading to where all the reinforcement previously was and needed a moment to process the new side. No worries, though, she was great after that! Yay!
Work more lining up on this one too – like with the minny pinny, she didn’t really move into a line up position easily. You can do the hand touch and line up then reward once or twice with a cookie, so she gets more value for the line up spot and doesn’t avoid it or try to start without you 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Really great session here!
She was able to do her serps in motion even after some tunneling. Super happy with that!!!! The next step is to add more speed in the sends’n’serps game, then add more speed to this one too 🙂>.Better overall? Am I wander too far from the jump?
You were really strong!!! I thought your position was perfect when you were stationary and moving away a bit too much in motion: when you are moving, head towards the edge of the tunnel bag on the entry of the tunnel. Or, you can think about moving to the feet on the wing.
>> She is still a bit unsure that “look look” is a release cue.
Yes, she was questioning LOL!! But that is not a big concern – when the threadle goes into the flow of a course, she will recognize it as a release off of a stopped contact, for example. She was great with them and also never messed up the difference between a threadle or a serp. Your handling and position was really clear, too!
>On occasion she dropped a bar at 8 in. I still rewarded as she got the cue right, but that’s not ideal. What do you suggest in that case?>>
I couldn’t see which reps had the dropped bar. My guess is that it was due to reward mechanics (saying strike at the decision point as she was over the bar, rather than after fully landing) – the reward mechanics are hard because there is very little room on this setup, so you can either lock in the bar or use a bump, just to solidify the skills without worrying about rehearsal of pulling the rail.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! This is a great update with Fever! It sounds like he did really well in a high octane environment (surrounded by an abnormally high level of arousal in the humans and the dogs at NAC :)) Interesting about the pressure in the cookie-taking – it sounds like he was in a great state of arousal and it also sounds like the pattern games were magic for him! Huzzah!
>>He was definitely less snappy but did offer eye contact. He was readily doing all of his tricks for cheese but wasn’t feeling a ton of tug. >>
This is great – I am not concerned about the tugging because that is not nearly as important as the engagement and eating! YAY!!!
And yay for the dock games too, I bet he was happy to get to play.
What is next on his calendar in terms of training or trials, so we can plan some things 🙂
Poor Callie! Was she ouchie before NAC or did it happen at NAC? I am glad she is feeling better!
Keep me posted!
TracyGood morning! I think he did well here!! I am happy with all the reps and really loved his little twitch of excitement before the relesae on the last one 🙂
>> he would have done just as well without I think.
Yes, but he was not sad about having it 🙂 You can throw it back to him from the longer lead out and you can also release him forward to it sooner – no need to ask for as much duration yet.
>>do u see in the second clip he puts his nose down to have a little sniff of the grass .. and this is an area he knows so well but it is public. At a trial he will get up and follow the scent
Yes- no worries. It might have been a bit of leftover behavior from the past, or that you were not as connected as you left him as you were on the first rep, or he needed a couple more tricks before you set him up, or he was smelling the odor of the fod ball. He fixed himself and lifted his head without help, which is a big win!!!
>>So my line up routine is to walk in saying ‘break break break’ when I’m walking and when I stop he sits automatically .. then break is my release word?
So break is an engagement word and the release word? I am confused LOL!!! You can walk in saying something like ‘ready ready’ or something silly but save break for the actual release.
<
> It looks a little too much like obedience – which is not a bad thing, except I think he will need more ‘volume dial’ so yes, the spins and twirls and tricks can really help! It is something to experiment with and see which tools are best.
>> I can train with a trainer on Thursday
Perfect!!! You can take these games to new places – particularly the pattern games, the volume dial and the leash off engagement game, as wel as some remote reinforcement.
>>I have a big agility event on Saturday – if the grounds dry out. I’ll make sure to get video this time.
Yay! We can set goals for Saturday. I think a good goal is to see if you can simply get offered engagement when you take the leash off – then take off and run 🙂 No need for long stays yet like you did here, we can add those easily when we have engagement. And we can also check and see how he does with he various tricks and pattern games with that environment, to assess which tools work best at the moment. Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Lots of great stuff here in these videos! And I remembering correctly that really quiet environments are actually harder for her? She did well!
Some thoughts for you:Instant Focus looked lovely! She is beginning to look to offer behavior immediately rather than assess the environment. Same as you added the leash off game: You didn’t lose her on that first rep – she was going towards the jump when the leash came off, offering interaction with the jump. Pretty cool! So, when taking the leash off and not wanting obstacle interaction, be about 10 feet from any obstacle so she doesn’t think it is an offering game on the obstacle.
Planning ahead – the next set of leash off games should have cookies in pockets rather than in your hands 🙂 Yay! But still be quick with the rewards like you were here.
2nd video – yes, a little mechanics blooper at the beginning but same as what happened on the first video: she was heading to the weaves, you didn’t lose her. I think she was offering some weave action. So if you do the leash off super near an obstacle, she is offering the obstacle. That is fine – just be further from the obstacles because we really don’t want her to offer the obstacles at this stage.
3rd video –
>> I didn’t give cookies after taking of the leash in this session,>>
For conditioning purposes, give a cookie every time for a while – either from your hand like you did on the earlier videos or directly as RR like you did on the first rep here. I think we are seeing some shifts in her conditioned responses, in a good way!!!
For the RR combo – mixing this into obstacle training and sequence training is great! Be sure tp do lots of reps where you have nothing in your pockets or hands, and no target plates on the ground (those are all tipoffs about availability of reinforcement which is fine for some training stuff but also we want her to be able to train/run without cues for reinforcement availability in the ring. Mix it all up – I do plenty of training with the reinforcement visible with me in the ring, and mix in sometimes having nothing and using the RR cue. That “mom has nothing” becomes a cue for the RR game, which the dogs find clarifying as well!
I think she did really well on all of this! And you were moving around a lot more in the volume dial stuff, and that worked well too!
A thought about structure of the handling training here (and classes/seminars too):
>> we also practiced and rewarded frequently for wraps –>>
Wraps are a skill that requires the dog to do something incredibly difficult (and having to slow way down to do it), with the handler not moving much – and also wraps are also a skill that we really don’t use that much on course… so I realize that a lot of instructors work the daylights out of wraps but I see no reason to with her, until after the ‘run as fast as possible’ is fully installed 🙂 We want her to run as fast as she can and enjoy feeling the wind in her hair – so for now, have all of your handling be run fast, take things in front of her, big go go go lines that are not technical, with you also hustling. Same with threadles 🙂 they don’t fit the wind-in-hair plan. Set up the handling training so she can BLAST through a sequence and not slow down. (Dogs her size don’t really need to turn tight, but that is a separate topic LOL!!)
And one of the other ways to get the wind-in-your-hair, joy-of-running-fast feeling from the dogs? Jump at a lower height (below shoulder height) until you have the speed you want in training and trials. I will be sure to discuss it more in the next set of games, as we are having this discussion on a lot of threads here. Jumping full height is hard, especially is the dog is jumping above her shoulder height – organizing jumping, watching handling, dealing with environment… eek! So we can take out one variable to make it easier to be successful with the stuff we can’t take out or control (environment!) – and dropping the jumping height in training and trialing will do that. All of my dogs begin their careers at lower height until I see the speed and focus I want: first in training, then in trialing. Then, when I love what I see in training at full height, I will mix in some full height jumping in trials and eventually get to full height in all runs. Totally great for confidence building for the dogs!!! And UKI has made it reinforcing to do that, because all points earned at any height count towards the titles 🙂 It might be the same for other venues too. Food for thought! If she is jumping 16 here, I would jump her 12 until you have the engagement you want! We want her to look at the 12″ bar and say to herself: that looks easy, giddy up!!!
She had a big day yesterday, so do some easy stuff today. Take a breath is a good one, maybe some pattern games because they are easy and we want her responses to be pretty reflexive! I like to alternate training days to let the dog mentally rest and cement the learning.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>Today toy stayed out and we struggled more. More looking around and slower to engage. Most people looking at the runs wouldn’t see the problem, but I’m betting it will be obvious to you when I post tomorrow.>>
Well, it is good that most people didn’t see any issue because so many people are the FIRST to point out any little issue LOL!!! #FunnyNotFunny
I am guessing it is partially the change in environment (running order) as well as the day two tiredness. Mental fatigue is a REAL THING. A flyball teammate has a really lovely young dog that is almost ready to start. In a midday warm-up yesterday, he was sniffing near the box and then on the full practice run, he went over and started sniffing around the other team’s dogs. He had been really perfect for a day and a half but as you know – flyball tournaments are intense! My teammate wanted to put him in again for the last race of the weekend and I had to convince her not to, thankfully with the support of our local flyball big name trainer. Brain tired youngster! There is some science behind it by anecdotally – I know that we humans get brain tired and so do dogs. A full day of intense focus followed by a day of harder environment might have made it harder for Lanna. But overall – a TON of successes for her!!!
>> She did the obvious stuff: stayed, kept bars up, and did a nice approximation of agility; but her jumping was worse and she ran past a jump on run 2 that I can guarantee was a I can’t think about collection vs mom’s handling is subpar.
Yeah, sounds like young dog tired brain stuff indeed. To dial down challenge when the internal or external environment might dial up challenges, you can run her at a lower height on the days where she will NOT be first in the running order. She will develop the mental stamina, no worries. Sometimes with the baby dogs on day 2 I just do a full run of only tunnels LOL!
>>2 of 3 runs the dog before her couldn’t be caught and the third was one of the fastest in our area.
OMG that makes things challenging!
>> On the positives you will see Teresa on multiple videos and she is choosing to disengage.
I noticed Teresa on your videos! It was great to see Lanna abasically ignore her (sorry, Teresa, not sorry hahaha)
>>She held her stays, was able to tug with a loose sheltie in the ring, and didn’t completely implode when the loose Aussie charged the gaiting near us then I ran out of cookies because it took forever to catch the dog (this is why fixing this is important to me).>>
OY! That all certainly interrupts the routine. In those moments – I leave the start area, and do a brief re-start of the routine. If that means asking for more cookies from people nearby and causing a little delay as I bring the youngster back into focus? Yep! It sucks that there was a delay because two dogs were struggling, but we don’t want that to bubble over to your dog’s time in the ring. I put a big smile on my face and don’t rush back to the line 🙂
>>For pattern game I am cuing first cookie by standing or verbal, rest is uncued.
Perfection!!!! Her engagement seemed to be happening so fast that it was hard to tell – that is great!
>> I bought licky mats to try, she isn’t a huge fan of the snuffle mat.
Same with my crew – but they like the licky mats so far!
>>Pip was a horrendous demand barker from the day I got him from the shelter (and demand biter). I got rid of the biting, but never the barking, let’s just say I am suffering from PTSD.>>
Ha! Yes, I totally understand the PTSD 🙂
>>Jen Pinder April 9
Jumpers Workshop Beth/Diane April 16
Monica Bush May 6
Wags UKI May 7
Lucky Dog UKI May 22-23
Kerry Smith May 27 (Teresa’s)>>OK great!! and the next 2 seminars will have multiple runs so you can install the bigger pieces of the toolbox as she comes into the ring. And because she loses some jumping organization when the distractions are higher, you can consider jumping her at 10 or 12 in the higher distraction situations so that she doesn’t have to devote much brain energy to jump height.
In your spare moments this week, keep working the offered engagement when the leash comes off, with food/toy in your pocket (empty hand) and you can also start to stuff the food/toys into pockets when you are playing the other games. It is OK for her to know they are there, but they won’t be visible. And you can have a 2nd toy and treats at a reward station. And I think the other thing on tap was going to be playing with 2 balls and see how that went 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Remote reinforcement looked fabulous! The leash on didn’t bother her at all and it is great practice to just have it in the picture. She did well on all of this – the only thing I can think of to add at home is:
You can also be walking away as long for something if she has a trick she can do while you are both moving, rather than in front of you – picturing the two of you moving to the line and you ask her to spin at your side or something while you both move.Instant focus was also great – that was a REALLY hard environment and it took her a heartbeat… but she got to work! YESSSS! That is why we do instant focus – to shorten the environmental assessment time in favor of quick offerings of trained behavior. SUPER!
>> We also have some rented practice time in a novel place. So: leash off with cookies visible and pattern games that bring up her heart rate in a good way before we start weaves? Magic cardboard as well I image but just once?
Fun times today!!!! The very first moment can be instant focus. Then yes – pattern games outside the ring. And have a reward station set up the whole time, even if you don’t use it the whole time. Just have it there and use it sometimes: you can sometimes do a bit of remote reinforcement and sometimes run with cookies in your hands to reward in the ring. And each an every time, bring her to the start area on leash and take the leash off again so you can pair sooooo many cookies with the engagement after the leash comes off.
If your goal is to do weaves – pattern games won’t put her in the right state unless she is very distracted by the environment. Volume dial games should do that, if the environment is not distracting. Bring her heart rate way up LOL!! But is she struggles with the environment – yes to pattern games first. Then when you have her engagement, do a bit of volume dial tricks and have a really high rate of reinforcement session on the weaves.Great job! Let me know how it goes today!
Tracy
