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Serpentines are looking good! You were totally in the right spot 🙂 Having you closer definitely helps get the turns and when you had the toy closer to the wing of the jump, she really had to think and turn (good girl!!) On the first couple of reps, you had the toy far from the wing so she didn’t have to turn much. I liked the position of the better after about :13, it was on a better line for the second turn on both sides. My only other suggestion is to keep your upper body frozen until after she reaches the toy – on a serp line in motion, your ‘open’ upper body position would stay open as a way t o cue the 2nd turn. If you close your shoulders forward, she will not read that second turn. For now, the toy is creating it but we want to get ourselves into the habit of keeping the serp shoulders open.
We can start adding a bit of movement to it and that will definitely need your shoulders to stay open: you can have the toy on the ground and, starting from the side of the jump opposite the toy: walk parallel to the jump, nice and close, shoulders open and serp arm back. When you just about reach the wing closer to the toy, release her. Walk as slooooooowly as needed to get success!
On the contact mat – her behavior was relatively similar, but your clicks were MUCH better on the elevated mat 🙂 Your clicks on the elevated mat were all for back feet (the mat on the ground had clicks that were less clear if they were for front or back feet). The next step of mechanics is to throw the treat with whichever hand she is heading towards – if your left hand is closer to where she is heading, toss with that hand (even if the clicker is in it LOL!). You were throwing with your right hand on all of these, which is fine when she was heading towards that side. But when she was heading the other direction, the toss was across your body which was getting her to look at you a bit more. So quick tosses from the hand closer to where she is going will help reduce her looking at you. We do get some looking at us at this level, but that goes away with the mechanics and also when you add in a manners minder or stationary toy.
I am excited to see how she does with the food markers now that the food has come up in value! It was smart to take out the marker til food was higher in value, there is no need to ‘name’ anything that is not fun yet 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>> Tugging has been a challenge for us – she will play with the toy – follow, maybe chew a little but its rare that I get good tug.
She had her mouth on it here a lot, so we can build that up. If she pulls it, let her win! Most dogs like to win the toy. And you can start with a soft pull then work up to stronger and stronger pulling before you let her win.
>>But anymore than that and she says no toy – just going to sniff, which is where the leash started coming in.
That is a start for now! And also, for now, no more treats tossed on the floor. I think that too much treat tossing has raised the value of sniffing around on the floor. She does MUCH better when the treats are in your hands or from the MM (and probably from a bowl too, see below)/
>>So cutting our total sessions shorter – and doing more tug like activity the 1st time, she will also tug at the end of 1st session but after that runs to her crate.>>
There is probably a lot of cookie value for going into her crate, so you can move the crate from the area and make sure the door is closed so there is not as much of a distraction from the crate.
And add in lots of random toy play in life – tugging, throwing, running around with toys, all separate from actively training anything.
On the videos:
Tugging started off well here and I am excited that she went back to it at the end! Let her win it! What other things does she like to play with or tug on?Prop hits looked good, she has some great value going! This was kind of a combo of back and forth and sending, so try to stick to one in each session and not mix them together. You can do the value back & forth for a minute, then take a break, reset, work the mechanics, then do the sends. The clarity and predictability will help her know what is next, and the mechanics of setting of for the send look different than the back and forth.
And, yo can reward from your hand on these for now – it looks like the cookie tossing is setting her up to sniff for more cookie tosses, so for now skip that and reward from hand. Cookie tossing builds in sniffing and raises the value of the floor, if there is a whole lot of it happening. So, let’s shift value away from the floor (the later videos had more reward from your hands and no sniffing!)Ladder – you can use bowls or a target at each end of the ladder, to place the treats in after she trots through. As with the prop games, it is possible that all the tossed rewards are both hard to find and create sniffing the floor as a very valuable behavior. And, doing this with your hand on her nose is hard on your back and she is not thinking about her foot placement – so you can move to an empty target about 6 feet from the end of the ladder on each side and let her trot through to it.
>> This was our 1st try at ladder. This was our 3rd skill we were working yesterday(she had rest breaks while I worked the older dogs). But I see her lose interest and thought that maybe I try just 2 at a time, thoughts?>>
It is hard to know if it was too many sessions/skills, or if the floor came up in value because the treats were tossed, or if the other dogs barking were distracting – or maybe she just had enough treats and the treats lost value. You can probably do several skills but do super short sessions so treat value remains high.
Wing wraps –
Good tugging to start here! And she did really well here too. Yes, you can replace the ‘yes’ with ‘snacks’ as the ‘cookie from hand’ marker. You might also be able to play this with a long tug toy and see how she does.
Looking at your mechanics… Be more ready at the start of your session. Cookies should be in your hand, ready to go, not in pockets. If she starts without you because you were not ready… reward her anyway. Your position near the buckets at :45 was the cue to start, so she did… and then you didn’t reward so she started sniffing. So always be ready!
Good mechanics also help her focus on you not on the floor. Note how she was able to avoid sniffing for the rest of the session because she had a high rate of success and the reward placement as very predictable and NOT on the floor 🙂 Super! You were able to add in leaving earlier too, her commitment looked strong!Tunnel value is starting to look good too! And she definitely seems happy to go to the Manners Minder 🙂 Looking at mechanics here too – I think the offering was a little confusing for her as to when to start and what to do – so we can clarify when she should move to the tunnel. You can start with a clean start: hand on collar, saying tunnel, then let go so she knows when to start. That will add the verbal as well as give a clear indication of starting. Start her on an easy angle then you can work up to the harder angles.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyYes! There are 2 more classes after this one (the next one will start in March) and then the obstacle skills classes… then the dogs will be ready to compete!
Tracy
Good morning!
Jackpot is the remote reinforcement mark for food, and gravy is for toys? I love the words – distinct and also funny 🙂
She did really well with these games! Yes, she didn’t recognize gravy or jackpot as releases but that is not a problem because she will figure it out with more experience, and also because we generally use remote reinforcement with moving behaviors in agility (like the end of a run, or doing the weaves without anything in our hands, etc). I do have a remote reinforcement setup that works start lines stays but it is a different marker to mean “get the reward behind you”.
She seemed very keen to play this game and was even offering ‘extras’ like the extra right spin LOL!! She was doing a bit of hand checking when you played with the toy – I take that as a “are you sure there are not cookies in there?”question so you can keep your hands open and not closed.
And I think she was GREAT with the toy play!!! All play, no frustration in the form of not playing or not letting go of it – gotta love that! Clarity and high rate of reinforcement definitely contributes to her happy play here. Great job creating that!!Well done – you can take this game to as many different places as possible in coming weeks, so she gets to see that it is a game that can be played anywhere 🙂
TracyAwwww poor broken Sheltie baby LOL!!! He deserved a good nap, he did really well with his serpentines!!! Strike a pose went really well. Only little details to bug you about – try to point your feet towards the reward and not towards the target hand (although bending down was perfect and probably made your foot position too hard to twist the other way :))
And, try to have a treat ready in your hand and don’t keep your hand in your pocket. Dogs are brilliant at watching pockets LOL! But, going to the next step will also help that: time to get the reward on the ground to lower his head. I think an empty food bowl is a good starting point, placed on the ground out under where your reward hand is. When he comes into the target hand, you can mark it and plop the reward into the dish 🙂Great job here!!! Hopefully he is rested up for more later 🙂
TracyHi!
>>Question about the contact mat – I’m not sure what this would look like:
“You can also elevate it by attaching it to something higher (maybe 2 inches tall) so you can isolate the back feet because she lifts them to get on the mat.”>>I attach the mat so the dogs step up and across it, and over it – something like this to start:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KUg5Thh1IYWD8tnI-pHoz37-OP1TIHp45rrBnra6Ib8/edit?usp=sharing
I can really isolate clicking for the back feet when the dogs have to step up onto something.
On the video:
She did well in the dirt barn! All sorts of new distractions and she looked great!On all of the wraps for now, do a front cross not a post turn. The FCs are more helpful for getting the pups to dig in around the barrels and to get commitment while you leave sooner and sooner. You were tending to post turn & back up when you wanted to reward her, so keep working the FCs.
>> She had some trouble ignoring the toy in my hand at the beginning, but seemed to work through it.>>
I don’t think this was a toy-in-hand question from her, it was more of a handler mechanics question. 🙂 When she was coming off the wing or looking at the toy, you were withdrawing the send cue too quickly, while she was still behind you and not close enough to the wing. An example of that is at :13: As she was arriving at your leg there, your feet were together and you were looking ahead, so there was a bit of a connection break. The feet together there mean your send leg had already stepped back, which pulled her off the wing. So, she curled into you.
This also happened at :35.Compare that to :29, when you held your send step longer til she was past you and loser to the wing, so she committed really well! And at :50, :59, 1:13, 1:39 for example, you ha dthe toy in the dog-side hand and she didn’t look at it because your connection was clear and your send leg held the send til she was past you.
So the key is going to be holding the send leg forward til she is past your for now and a little closer to the wing – the wing doesn’t have as much value as the barrel for now. You can do this by slowing down the mechanics to send forward ti the dog-side leg too if you are using the dog-side arm. It will get easier as she gets more experienced.
If you are starting with a ‘sideways’ send, you will want to send with the arm next to the barrel, not across your body (1:06 and 1:10 were both across the body, I was not sure if it was a forward send or intended to be sideways – so be sure to take a moment to set the mechanics, then send her.)
>> And also did a little turn and burn.>>
She totally likes those! And you were clear with the mechanics so she was committed really nicely!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>The forward focus is better, but she’s skipping rungs. I thought I filmed tonight with treats in the ladder, but…..apparently I did not!>>
Overall she is pretty balanced here and definitely much better with the forward focus! And yes, she is skipping a bit at the end of he ladder (mainly on your left side). It could be that the ladder is a bit small for her to compress her trot with you moving, so you can take out your motion for now – start her in the middle of the ladder and let her trot to the bowl at the end, without you 🙂 The cookie can already be in the bowl or you can toss it towards the bowl as she exits the ladder. If she can do it from the middle of the ladder, you can back her up to the entry. If the middle is too hard, have her trot out from from the last run of the ladder.
I think when she was on your left, there was less room between the ladder exit and the bowl so she was trying to decelerate and couldn’t really do that in the ladder – so you can have her going the same way in the ladder (away from the camera) and you switch sides of the ladder, so she can be on your left and on your right. It won’t be back and forth, but you can set the loop differently: she is on your right, trots to the bowl, you step over the ladder and call her to your left side, reward and reset, then into the ladder to the bowl, and so on.
Eventually this will move to cavalettis where she can open up her trot a bit more than the ladder allows 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi! I think the waits are coming along really nicely! The cookie tosses are helpful for when you want to be further ahead and she might break the wait.
Have fun!
TracyHi! We don’t go past basic ladders and body awareness in this course because cavaletti work is more about conditioning and these pups are a bit too young for formal conditioning. We do some jumping foundation in the next class but I leave conditioning to the sports vets 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! Hope you had a great holiday weekend!
Plankrobatics:
OMG her little happy feet, so cute!!!! I like how she sorted out getting her hind end on. I think the struggle she was having initially was that she wanted to look at you and that high head position made it hard to get her back feet lined up on the plank. So she could do it running back to you but it was harder from the side when you wanted her to get on, when she was facing you. So to help her be able to hop on from the side (great for body awareness) and then to add in the turning around on the plank, you can move the plank over to a couch so you are sitting and can help her turn around with a low hand (you can do it standing but you’d need to bend over and your back might protest LOL!). I do a lot of couch sitting with really small pups so we can get the behavior without having to end up bending over too much.Sounds like she ignored a lot of sirens too! Good girl!
Stays:
Her happy dancing feet make stays harder, I totally feel this (been through the happy feet with the terriers and the papillons LOL!). I am glad she is doing well with this technique, I definitely don’t like to battle dogs about stays. You can reward faster and earlier – I think on the first couple of reps you waited to long and she was twitchy, so after that you rewarded earlier and that really helped! She was very successful!!
For now, because her release forward is really explosive, you can balance that with most of the stay reinforcement being thrown back to her as you get gradually further away. For my happy feet littles, I had 75% of the stay reinforcement thrown back to them – I really like stays LOL!! I think you had the get it marker going for both the throw back and the release forward, so using a different marker for throwing back will really help. I use catch and that has REALLY helped the happy feet dogs love to stay 🙂 More on markers will be coming today, stay tuned!Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Great job here, she was totally figuring it out! Yes, the bumps were very enticing especially when you were not moving or when you were on the other side of the bumps but I loved how she figured it out and was moving away on cue. The bumps put the behavior more into context, I suppose: move away from the obvious line to pick up the other line (the prop, in this case).
To help add more motion and also show the line from ahead, you can start from a cookie toss instead of a stay so you are already in motion and further ahead on the line – starting next to her was harder especially with the bumps in play . And she is ready for you to add more speed to this too 🙂
On the 2nd video, no bumps, she did well too! For the non-out reps, call her as early as possible – if she gets one step out of the stay, she is locking onto the line – I think ‘bingo’ is your release, so you can do bingoside or bingopearl almost as one word for this 🙂Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there!
The tunneling looks great! Because she is tall, try to stretch the middle of the curve more so she doesn’t push it too bent as she runs through. When you were relatively close, she was perfect. As you add more distance away from the entry, she was not entirely sure that she was allowed to leave you for the tunnel so you can repeat the cue a couple of times before you let go of her collar, so she has more support verbally. Too much quiet seems to make her question whether she has permission or not 🙂
She was also easily able to do the tunnels on the inside/threadle line – have you decided on what you want your tunnel threadle verbal cue to be? We will be adding it soon!Great job here!
TracyHi!
Yes, I am being highly reinforced for having moved south – you are welcome to head on down any time you get sick of snow!She did well on the videos. I have a few ideas for ya!
Contact mat – I am guessing you are planning on training the RDW, so a few ideas for you: for now, don’t worry about her looking at you – lock onto her back feet and click that only (2ndback foot hitting the mat. You can also elevate it by attaching it to something higher (maybe 2 inches tall) so you can isolate the back feet because she lifts them to get on the mat. Trying to get her to not look at you will cause you to click early, but then we are not isolating the criteria (back feet).
Out – she is doing a great job of leaving for the prop. Yes, the balance is harder because the space is tight and also the prop is really salient and high value. It think the “don’t do the out” will be easier for her when it goes into context in a sequence. The main thing here is your lower body: Keep it moving! You were stopping and sending with your feet and arm, but this send is an upper body only behavior. Your lower body should be identical to the balance reps, where you were walking forward. On the out reps, walk forward and use your upper body and verbal to cue the out but tell your feet to stay in motion. If you send with your feet, it begins to look like a rear cross on the flat.
She was doing the retrieve nicely but she seemed to think the paychecks were not all that exciting LOL! She has a lot of big opinions 🙂 You can have the retrieve to hand trigger a ball launch or tug cue from your other hand – that might keep her really engaged and less sticky, so it is more action-packed.
Nice job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>That answered my running DW question about the loop. Thank you! I’ll likely do a stop as I don’t have space and equipment, but training the box can’t hurt regardless.
Even if you don’t end up training a RDW, it is a great learning experience to train the behavior on the flat. Learning to watch for the specifics of the hits and developing the loop – that has really sharpened up my eye for everything else! And splitting things to maintain a high rate of reinforcement – definitely a good challenge. Highly recommend if you like nerding out over training 🙂
On your serp video:
One cool thing about this session is that her toy drive was really on fire here, she seemed totally happy to get that toy even though it was ‘dead’ and then she brought it to you for tugging. That is the best part! The other best part was towards the end when she was starting practically next to the toy and still did the serp then went to to the toy. Super!It is fine that she is not nose touching, we fade it out at this stage. In the next session or two, you will see her begin her turn before she arrives at the jump ‘bar’. Right now she is doing the turning on the landing side. :57 was the closest rep to making the turn before take off. When she consistently does that, we can start to add your motion. That will probably happen within a session or two – she just needs more experience with this with the toy on the ground and without the hand touch. I think she is right on track! her little bloopers like running past the jump are normal questions about how to get to the reward (it is more efficient to NOT take the jump LOL!) but she was incredibly successful here.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
