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Good morning!
>> The place where she had a question was because I made the treat hand more visible on that rep.
Yes, that is one of the elements we are training here! “Ignore the cookies in my hand and go do the thing” LOL!!
>> Unfortunately I still don’t have a stay. My criteria for proper sit (obedience) slowed us down….but this has kicked me back to stay training!>>
You can also use a mat or something to get the stay for these as you develop the great stay for obedience too!
Have fun 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>> we worked on all 3 games from last night working up to more advanced levels from the games where he was ready.
Great! The pups in class are all doing so well that I am going to need to add some super advanced levels too!
>>This was a longer session than normal since I’m kind of trying to tire him out but only about 3 minutes per game.
I feel this LOL!!!! Did it work? I am currently trying to tire out all the younger dogs while keeping them relatively separated because 2 are in season and 2 are intact males and one is a neutered Papillon who is wanting to breed the BISs. Dear lord! Ha! So far, I have only succeeded in tiring myself out LOL!!!
The little distractions at the beginning were hilarious, like a neighborhood alert went out: COOKIES ARE AVAILABLE lol
Rotated sends looked fabulous and so did the forward sends with more distance. You can start to combine these by rotated as you send him past you, so you are indicating with a bit of a forward send as you decelerate, and rotating to the next one as he passes you (so the final picture before he arrives at the barrel looks like a rotated send. You were starting this when you moved to the rotated sends leaving sooner and the sideways sending with more motion – especially at 1:53. So you can build on that by adding more distance between the barrels so you have to run forward more then decelerate then rotate. This might be skipping you ahead in terms of upcoming games a bit, but that is fine and we can add more when he needs it 🙂2 other little details with the rocking horses:
Since we will be moving fast and having rewards in hand, you can use your cookie-in-hand marker for when you are decelerating to reward. We want him to know when the cookie is available on the decels, or when he should continue to ignore it, so the marker will help. You were saying yes and good boy, but we can get more precise by using markers since you have them in place already 🙂And you can also use a toy for these now! I like to start with cookies to establish the mechanics and precision of the behavior… then with toy driven dogs, I add the toy in pretty quickly because it is very valuable to the dogs, and also because it stimulates more arousal. And that allows us to help him understand the commitment even as you rotate away, in that higher level of arousal. He is totally ready for that! And, as with the cookies, use your toy-in-hand marker when you want to reward so he learns about when to look at the toy and when to ignore it. Fingers crossed for good weather ahead so you can take this outside 🙂
The “out” is going really well! It has turned out to be the #1 most useful cue at trials for 2021 (even in Novice!) so I am glad everyone is jumping into the training.
As you cue the out, keep moving (try not to stop parallel to the target) because you will be running on course. And, you don’t need to mark it with a good, yo can mark it with a get it and toss the reward. That will keep him looking forward and not at you, because there will eventually be another obstacle out ahead on his line.Because he is so brilliant, add in the balance reps more regularly. He is anticipating the out and not looking at your line of motion before you cue it, like at 2:49 when the prop was behind the wall
You got some really good balance reps later in the session like at 3:35.
We want him to be looking in your direction until cued, then he turns away just like he did at 3:51. You can mix in the balance reps after every 1 or 2 outs at this stage, to help him avoid anticipating the out.Serps looked great! Good boy ignoring the pet tutor it is SO HARD . That PT is in the same place a judge would put an off course tunnel nowadays, so it is a great distraction to introduce at this point. After his question on the first rep, he was pretty perfect after that, from positions 1, 2 and 3. You can work this from a stay, and yo can also add in tugging before the stay (or cookie toss) to add in a little more arousal. The PT can be in the same place, but the toy will add more stimulation to challenge him to still find the serp and not go directly to the PT
Watching this session, you can actually use the PT position to loop back into the serp from an even more challenging position 3: after he gets the treat from the PT, you can strike your serp pose and see if he can find it from that extreme angle!
Using the PT, you can start to add some motion, walking through serp position now. The lower body moves slowly to the PT and the upper body holds the serp pose til he arrives at the reward. He is not likely to hit the hand target now and that is fine – time to fade it while we keep the in and out behavior.
And, of course… you can add in a toy for this too. The toy can replace the PT and you can work the progression with the toy on the ground.
Great job here!!!! Let me know if he ended up being at least a little tired out LOL
Tracy
Good morning! I am glad you could come to the live class – it is a great group of puppies and people, and it is fun to have so many of the other folks join us too 🙂
Great job with these games, I love how Kiwi the Papillon os supervising at the beginning 🙂
Strike a pose:
Both the Mike reps and Karena reps looked really strong! Yes, he did skip the target a bit on that 2nd rep but we are going to fade the target soon – so you can start rewarding that now. As long as we get the same behavior of ‘in-then-out’, you can reward. And as you present the toy, try to keep your upper body as stationary as possible so that the target hand shoulder doesn’t move forward – the goal is that the center of your chest faces the bar the whole time, even as he is bending to get the toy. It is easier when the toy is on the ground, so you can start moving to a toy on the ground. If you think that might be really difficult, you can start with something much more boring like an empty food bowl then work up to the toy on the ground.We are going to be adding more about markers for the toy next week, but since this game is going so well – you can replace the ‘yes’ with your ‘get the toy in my hand’ marker if you have one. If not, we will create one! I use “bite” which means the toy in hand is now available for grabbing. That has allowed me to have the toy dangling and visible while the dog ignores it in favor of doing the behavior. And when the toy is on the ground, you can use a get it cue for that.
Rocking horses:
Mike reps: excellent job focusing on the mechanics to get this started! It is a slow game at first because we need to get all the human and canine mechanics in place. Then we add some serious speed to it 🙂 You were almost perfect with the mechanics – one little detail to look at:
At :44 as he is exiting the basket, you have your right hand down near your knee and you are looking a tiny bit ahead of him. I am sure you could see him but he couldn’t see the connection. Note his response: It looks like he stuck his head into the planter which is both hilarious and a strikingly honest indication of where your shoulders were pointing. He will eventually not need you to be perfect but for now, keep your dog side arm further back, pointing to his nose as he exits the wrap and make a more direct eye contact before you bowl forward into the send.Karena reps: also great job focusing on the mechanics here! We had a really good camera angle at 1:03 of the connection: he is finishing his wrap of the planter and your right arm is back, your shoulder is open, and he could see your face. You did the same thing on the basket at 1:05 – very nice! It is harder when you add speed of course, so one little detail is to leave the toy in whatever hand you will want it to end up in, so you don’t switch it from hand to hand. The speed reps with the turn and burn looked great (I think he really liked those) but the good news is that he is already too fast for you to have time to switch the toy back and forth (it might be subconscious :)) So, leave it in the hand it ends up in and it is ok if he has to pass it on a cue to wrap the wing (great little self-control element!) For example, at 1:20, you exited the turn and burn with the toy in your left hand, so you can start the entire sequence with it in your left hand (it looks like it started in your right and you switched to the left after the first send).
Now that you’ve added the speed and his commitment looks great, you can totally add your wrap verbals to this game too!
Get out: I am glad you jumped right into this – it is turning out to be one of the most commonly used semi-fancy cues on course! And BCs really think it is weird at first because lead changing away is just not how they like to do things LOL You can see it in his expression on the first rep – so funny! Great job rewarding it, Mike, even though he was very judgmental 🙂 And that first reward set the tone for the rest of the session – he got faster and more confident on each rep.
Karena, as you practice it, try to turn your shoulders a little less so your hips and feet don’t turn too – bearing in mind that you will be doing this at a run, the arm/connection/verbal will do the trick so your lower body can just run straight. You can play with a comfortable arm position too – your arm was really high here and that might be harder to do as you get moving, so it might be more comfy if it is at shoulder level (I am planning ahead to keep in mind how fast you will need to be running with him: all signs currently indicate that you will need to be running very fast 🏃♀️
Great job adding the movement at the end! You can be further from the prop (it looks like you drew a line in the sand, so you can now put the prop 7 or 8 feet from it). And be sure to d some balance reps of NOT going to the out, so he understands it is an ‘on cue only’ behavior.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
She was a good girl going to her prop! I couldn’t see it but I could hear her hit it LOL! Definitely let her finish chewing before you send – chewing and sending is hard multi-tasking especially on your left. Or use soft treats that require no chewing.
I am glad you moved her closer to it, that was completely the correct choice. Interestingly, she turned left when you cued with your left hand at :55 (she should turn right). I am not sure if she is a lefty or if something caught her eye, we will watch for it in case she has a strong side preference.
On your next session, you can start pretty close and with her on your left side, then get further and put her on your right side. I think she is also ready for you to move to the other prop games, like parallel path or the sideways sends (or both :))Her barrel sending looks good too – and let her finish chewing here as well. You will get crisper, faster behavior if she is also not chewing (dogs are bad at chewing and running LOL!)
She definitely seems to check your left hand more for treats on the sends here too – possibly because there is more value for getting treats from that hand from other sports or training? If that is a possibility, then do lots of balance on the left side of sending her away from the hand so she doesn’t want to stick too close to it. She did seem much happier to send away from it on your left than when you were trying for the prop – my guess is the barrel is so much bigger and that makes the sends easier.
And I am glad to hear she likes the turn and burn game, it is super fun! It Doris require more space though – so you have a carpeted hallway? If not, outdoors or any training location you go to will work (my laundry baskets lived in my car for about 6 months 😂)
Have you started thinking about which verbals you want to use for her wraps? I think we are getting close to adding them!
And also – this is a great setup for adding the toy in: everything is the same except she gets a toy reward using your strike marker. The eliminates the chewing LOL and also helps teach her to work in higher arousal, using a behavior she already understands nicely.Backing up looks good on the first couple of reps! Then she started offering sideways. You handled it well: reward, reset. Her best reps after that were when you managed to get her to take 1 back foot off and then put it back on. That was precisely what we wanted and she often followed that with a good 2 foot rep.
So if you are able to precisely get her to take one foot off then put it back on: perfect!! It is not that easy to isolate it down to one foot but it will be VERY useful for body awareness, conditioning, etc. And when she is very precise with that you can add more distance away from the platform too.
The other options include making it easer to be successful to start this: a wider platform to step backwards to will help (although she might just go sideways around it more haha!). So other options include putting the platform she is stepping back up on into a location where it is very easy to go straight and very hard to go sideways: between a couch and a wall if there is room, for example. Or between 2 crates or x-pens. Anything that narrows the sideways area and isolates the go straight area will help you get her to go straight backwards.Great job on these! Fingers crossed for good weather so you can get outside for the games with more running. 🙂 The running will keep you warm 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>> I have a friend that cues a rear with “switch.” Thoughts?
It depends on how you structure your verbals for him. You can use a cue to turn towards you and ‘switch’ to mean turn away for a rear cross. Or you can use directionals like left or right, so he can turn to his left or to his right, and those can be used for rear crosses as well. Either way is great!
He is so cute in his little coat! He is doing well with the rocking horses. Really nice commitment! Your connection is looking good and that is the most important part! So we can build up other elements of it since the important pieces are in place:
One of the goals of the rocking horses is that you do not run to the barrel, you basically stand in the middle and send him with one step like we did on the single barrel. So, you can fade out your running and do more sending. By the end of the video, you were sending more and that is what we want.
Also, you are doing too many wraps in a row. On the 2nd rep, you did 6 in a row, and that gets boring for the dogs – too repetitive. After that you did a couple of shorter reps where he had 2 or 3 wraps before a turn and burn – that is much more exciting for him, so keep the reps short and sweet like that. You did 5 on the last rep and he was slowing down, anticipating the repetition. By doing 2 wraps then a turn and burn, things stay pretty exciting because the chase element is activated pretty quickly.
Since you are using a lotus ball, try a variation in how you deliver it: when you do the turn and burn and reward, don’t drop it. Instead, throw it past you as you run because that will keep him running too! he was slowing down as you ran, anticipating that he would need to stop for the lotus ball. We want him to accelerate, anticipating the thrown reward.
Nice work here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! That is a really nice barn, I am jealous LOL!
He was a superstar here – you had a nice loop going from you to the tunnel to the MM back to you to the tunnel and so on. YAY!! If I was being nit picky, I would suggest changing hands when you switched to the other side, so that you call him back to the outside hand to set up the tunnel send (the MM remote was in that hand). My guess is that your hands were cold so it was easier to keep things where they were LOL!
At the very end you did a threadle-side send, he was great there too. So since he was perfect on that, two things to consider now:
– you can line him up and cue it without arm or foot movement, just letting him find it on his own. That will set him up for your future tunnel threadles where you are going to want to use the verbal and maybe an arm cue, and he goes and does it without any other handling moves 🙂
– speaking of the verbal… have you decided on a tunnel threadle verbal? I think he is ready to start hearing it when he is on the inside between you and the tunnel. What verbal do you use with the other dogs?The other thing that is worth mentioning is his focus: what a good boy to be in a big barn and be completely focused on the task: not checking out the barn, not taking off to look at the MM. Good boy!!!!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHello and welcome! She is so cute! The tech stuff is perfect 🙂
Prop game – good session here! She is so fun with her little toy and is doing really well going back and forth from the toy to the cookies to the toy.
When working the tugging, have your prop tucked away somewhere (armpits are useful) so that she is not confused as to what you are working on. If both the toy and the prop are immediately visible, it is less clear about what to offer as you saw when she went to it. When you went to the 2nd tug break and lifted the prop, that was a cleaner moment.
One thing you can start developing is a marker that says both “that was correct” and where the reward is placed. So, rather than “yes” which just means “that was correct”, you can replace the yes with a “get it” which means “that was correct and the reward is being tossed”. More on those markers coming soon, but in a nutshell: they help develop behavior faster because they indicate correct behavior AND placement 🙂Pre-Game 2: she is hitting the target nicely here! She does have her feet involved a little but that will go away really quickly in the next couple of steps. You can reward that – she was hitting nose-then-foot so you can reward sooner for now: as soon as the nose is *almost* at the target (and before the foot comes up) you can reward. And if you are late… reward anyway because otherwise her rate of success is too low and she will get frustrated. I am not worried if the foot is involved, so try to be quick and get the nose but no worries if we also get a foot. You can start getting more off the ground by doing this with you sitting on a couch or chair, so you are halfway to standing but you are not hurting your back by bending over 🙂
Great job on these! I am looking forward to seeing more!
TracyHi!
>> I’m going to print this and put it in my agility bag. This is exactly what I needed to help me plan. I understand what you’re saying.
Whew, that is a relief, I was hoping I had enough coffee in me to make sense LOL!
>>I really like the option about running with exposed toy in FEO till she’s solid and then hiding it till she’s solid. >>
That is how I started Contraband: he could see the toy so it was “just like home”. Now I am leaving with his leash (totally UKI legal even when you are running for realz) or stuffing it down my pants LOL
Elektra starts soon and I will do the same thing. I see the potential in all of our dogs and I am willing to wait for it to come together before I chase titles, big events, etc.>>I’ll make it more training like initially and help her be right.>>
You will get great results and you can also kick some butt in JWW
>>Thank you for this well timed class. I only wish it could continue when I can start trialing again
Well, stay tuned for 2022 classes… Agility U enters year #10 in 2022 and I have some plans that will hopefully be interesting. We are going to be more of hybridized: part traditional online class, part live class, part in-the-moment trial help. I just need to get it all sorted out 🙂 And some cooperative ventures with Clean Run!!!
Merry Christmas to you and the whole family! Hope to see you in the New Year 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
She did well here with the teeter! It appears that it was not moving or not moving much, which is a great start especially in new places. And she was very happy to chase the frisbee. But if she is not interested in the frisbee in different places, you can use giant chunks of food and throw them for her to chase (or a ball or anything she likes!)Now have her make it move a tiny bit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06dQYZXgIpY (the sound in this video appears to be off, so ignore the weird sound :))
Then you can make it more like gymnastics to help her start to jump on from the side:Then eventually it is all on the side:
These are the 4 things I would do on new teeters in new places, for MASSIVE reinforcement and doing only one rep then taking a break:
1. Start the way you had the setup in your video, with no movement
2. Go to the first video here with the weird sound
3. Then go to the 2nd video with Hot Sauce
4. Then go to the jumping on the side (that is my dog Matrix)>> so I left that clip in so you could hear what “noise” this seesaw does make. Not tons, but it’s not completely quiet, either. Would there be any point, down the road, in adding something to it to make it make more noise or is that a horrid thought?>>
Adding more noise is a possibility down the road somewhere, but we don’t want to risk sensitizing her to noise with the home teeter too. So I think the best focus is to re-introduce her to teeters in other places without noise, just touching, then very gradually adding more and more noise til she is happy on regular teeters 🙂
Keep me posted!
TracyHi!
Glad you had fun with this class!!!
>> Ok dokie I’ll move my reinforcement it ended up there by accident because the gate is there to put it outside the ring all together.>>
You can leave the reward where it was – you can change the timing of when you move to get it 🙂 Instead of using the marker when he is heading towards the reward or ring exit, try to use it when he is heading away from the reward and towards the other side of the ring, away from the entry and exit gates.
>>DW it depends he can do it but it’s not always solid so I’ve been helping him a bit. Practice on a plank is 100% add running a bit less reliable. Add rubber and a trial I normally don’t ask for a stick unless it’s essential.>>
Got it! So in training, you can use a target to help remind him to hit his yellow even when you are not there.
>>Future question back to start on a leash if the leash was a tug leash do you tug back to the start or ?>>
If he has just had a blooper, I don’t tug on the leash going back to the line, it is more of a “let’s start over moment” but otherwise, yes tugging on the leash is good 🙂
>>I probably won’t have anymore ring time before the 23rd so any inside things you want to see?>>
This is the perfect time of year for planning your training – assess his strengths and weaknesses and using reinforcement procedures to turn his weaknesses into strengths! That can include everything from focus to obstacle skills to handling skills and so on. I make a giant list and then prioritize the important ones, then I plan how I want to train them (or how I am going to get help LOL)
>>Suggestions for winter boredom?
Stay tuned for the 2022 winter classes coming soon!!! And big congrats on the rally title, that is a AWESOME score!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>> UKI trials are slim around here. I thought a new nearby facility would be a good option, but unfortunately the footing is iffy.>>
That is a bummer! Might still be worth it to enter and do straight line stuff to contacts (you can make up your own course in UKI).
>>When I can do FEO with a toy. Should I release from the contact to the toy or stay closer to her and have a long toy with me and toss her end to her with a “catch”? Both?
I think trying to do ‘catch’ with a toy on a line that you hold onto will get a little awkward in mechanics and will force you to have to be close to the contacts (which could build in a reliance on your position). So, for AKC, the only option is to release her from the contact to the toy – but have the toy hidden on you so it is less of a cue for her.
>>The runs that I can’t do FEO, I can still “train”.
I have no problems leaving early for good behavior if I’m making it clear to her that’s what’s happening. Could I use some remote reinforcement? SHe gets her AF and we leave to her cheese? >>Yes…. but I would just skip those runs for now. Either she is going to be wrong and then you have no immediate reinforcement in the ring if she is correct on the re-do. And the remote reinforcement is going to be significantly delayed in getting to it so it is unlikely to make an impact on the contacts and could even be a punisher to her (because you are leaving the ring, albeit cheerfully). The delay for AKC remote reinforcement can be significant: say the a-frame is in the middle of the course. You praise and release and give the remote reinforcement marker… you’ve got 40 feet now to get to the leash, put the leash on, go to the gate, open the gate, to the food. At the very fastest, that is 15 seconds so the reinforcement is so significantly removed from the a-frame that I don’t think it will have any crossover. I would skip the non-FEO classes til you are getting really super contacts in the runs where you have a toy hidden on you.
Does AKC allow helpers in the ring for FEO? Can someone be out there with you and hold the toy? That can speed things up and add in the remote reinforcement element.
>>I also want a plan for if she doesn’t stop.
That is why you want to stick to FEO for now. Do your best to set her up to stop in a trial: don’t run that fast, don’t go too far past hi the contact. Don’t add extra distractions because the environment is distracting and her internal arousal is distracting. So if she stops… surprise! Pull out a reward. If she doesn’t stop – you stop for a moment, tell her she is cute, go back a couple of obstacles, and try again – and if she stops, reward! If she gets to barking, yo can ask her to sit and lead out to where you want to re-start her from then release and try it again.
If she fails twice in the FEO run where you have a hidden reward, then you back track one additional step: let her see you carrying the reward during the FEO runs, just like you do in training as if to say “this is just like training”. In fact, if she has a history of struggling to stop at trials, then you might want to start with this step because the hidden reward might set her up to fail. And you do FEO with the toy in your hand for as many runs as needed til her contacts look just like they do at home. Then you do the FEO runs as many as needed til they look the same as at home, but now the toy is hidden.
Remote reinforcement to mark specific behavior in AKC trials is hard to do as FEO, because you cannot have the toy leave your hand, so you can’t leave it at the start line. And I am not sure how an AKC judge would call it if you used the leash during the run, unless it was the end of the run.
About the non-FEO runs: If you are in a run where she does not stop and you are not able to reward, there is a slippery slope of punishment or accidentally continuing which is reinforcing. She will get frustrated because it is unclear and punishment (leaving the ring) doesn’t help until she knows what to do to be correct. So, with a dog that is consistently quite good about stopping on the a-frame in high arousal settings where there is no visible reinforcement, then I might consider leaving the ring is she doesn’t stop. But if she is not yet consistently good at it, or if yu leave the ring and she doesn’t immediately improve… then leaving the ring is doing more harm than good.
>> I’ve been putting her back on but it seemed to just make her higher.
Back on at the end? It might not be helpful enough because it is not the same as having to stop after going all the way across it. So you might try bringing her back to the jump or two before the contact then trying it again.
>>As you can tell, she justs wants to run. I have SO much confidence in the JWW ring, I need that in STD too.>>
So for now, as you build that, only run JWW and the FEO runs – only rehearse in trials what you want to see in trials 🙂 Don’t rehearse good stuff in 3/4 of the runs and stuff you don’t want in the other 1/4 of the runs 🙂
let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> rears. I worked hard to get that “step to takeoff down”
I feel this!! And it was only when I slowed the videos way down did. I realize that I was accidentally cuing rear crosses. Oops!
>>Mine is tieing and retieing my shoes. By the end of a trial day my shoes are so tight that my feet hurt!!! I appreciate that thought. I need to think about it as if I don’t give Sly the chance to “tie his shoes” it’s all he’s going to be able to think about until he gets to. I so get that! Seriously, if I don’t do that final “tie” I can get distracted by how my shoes feel while running!!!>>
OMG this is so true! You can tell him to tie his shoes LOL!
>>Didn’t make it to the trial…..just getting too old (or finally smart enough) to want to drive home in bad weather in the dark. >>
I feel this too – I love agility but I don’t love it enough to drive in the dark in crappy weather.
>> Don’t remember where I got this course but have set it up as a “Christmas Challenge” for everyone this week. Lots of interesting sections for training. Thought you might enjoy seeing Sly go!!! Incorporating (still fine tuning) our start-up and end of runs routines is getting easier
Go Sly Go! He looked great! Is your tire dressed up for the holidays? LOL! He rocked it! I love the flip from the first set up weaves to the 2nd set of weaves. He also did well on the complicated handling (no problem!) and he made you HUSTLE! Greta job incorporating the setup stuff, the handling connection – ALL.The.Things 🙂 Yay!
I will keep you posted on the 2022 classes. I have some crazy ideas and will be revamping the style of classes a bit now that we are 10 years into this site 🙂
Enjoy the holidays!!!
TracyHi!
>> video. She really likes class so she usually runs well there so it might be hard to see a difference. I did notice that after Buccleigh ran she was a little more vocal and she was jumping on me. She was pretty peppy for the last run too.>>
Yes, I think she looked good! It was really quiet in there, a big difference from the trial environment (even with Buccleigh barking). Does she also go to classes where there is more noise and chaos from other people and dogs? 🙂
>>I can’t say fro sure that it made a lot of difference but it was functional and I think I will continue to do it in class. It is easier to split the time into shorter intervals for training between the two dogs. It was pretty exciting for Buccleigh. You can hear him in the background when she runs but he was able to come out of the crate and maintain good focus and respond well. He was working to hold the sit stay but he could. I think it is a little closer to the trial environment so it was good practice. I was proud of both of them.>>
It might be hard to tell in class if it helps or not, but she was happy so you can keep doing it and then trial behavior will help you know if it helps. Be sure to balance the remote reinforcement with doing some runs with reinforcement in the ring (from your hand or pocket) – it is a fine line because if you only do remote reinforcement, you might risk losing value on the individual obstacles or skills. And if you don’t do remote reinforcement, she won’t know how to run without visible reinforcement.
>> We have a run thru at the trial venue next week. These are rare and I can use food in the ring so I want to make the best use of my time.
That is a great opportunity to help both dogs learn about reinforcement in the ring!
>>I signed up for three spots. In the first hour I have 2 spots which translates to 6/ 1 minute runs. I think I could ask if I can combine the spots to get 3/2 minute runs. In the second hour I have one spot= 3 /1 min. runs but once again I think I could do 2 back to back so I would have 2 minutes and then 1 run of 1 minute remaining.>>
I think you should do the 1 minute run – get in, do the thing, get out – fast and fun! Then build on it in each run. 2 minutes is a long time!
>>I was thinking of doing our remote reward circuit. Put the cookies at the ring entry. Walk up to the start line and set up. Then release into the course away from the reward, do one or two obstacles and then “cookies” and back to the reward. Then set up again and repeat adding another obstacle and then ping ponging for either 1 or 2 minutes. Does this sound like a good plan or would you recommend something else?>>
Yes – on the second 1 minute run. Because the dogs have been stressed in the ring, I would do the first run as a fiesta of reinforcement inside the ring! Then on the 2nd one minute run, you can do the remote reinforcement of just entering the ring, setup, release then go back to the reward. Ping ponging that for a minute then taking a break is good – doing it for 2 minutes will be too much and you can get finished with the 1 minute set while the dogs are still pumped up to do more.
>>My goals: I would really like to do the start line stay with Buccleigh as we have not been able to try this at this venue. I didn’t think he would be successful a trial and I didn’t want to risk it (not because of q’s but because of the effect it might have on his confidence). I feel more confident with the remote reward availability.
I think the start stay can come into the picture later in his runs – the first thing to do is establish the reinforcement. He is still getting good at the stay elsewhere, so you don’t want to jump right in with something that is hard. Use your first couple of 1 minute sessions to establish the reinforcement procedures. And then on the 3rd one minute session , if he has been super happy, you can ask for a stay.
>>For both of them I would like them to be fast and happy. I think the remote reward will help with that especially if I am patient and keep the number of obstacles low so the rewards are frequent.>>
Yes, remote reward will help and also actually having the cookies in the ring sometimes will be very happy-making for them too 🙂
>>As an aside, Keltie and I had a spontaneous game of tug in the house and she was really getting into it. I think I might be able to teach her “bite”!
YAY!!! That is great! She is blossoming into a tugger 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> I’d really like to continue our reinforcement procedures work and keep building. I think if we master delayed reinforcement, I won’t have so much anxiety about end of run or disconnecting in runs. I really need some positive reinforcement here>>
Absolutely!Keep working those into training and more and more into sequences, seminars, etc.
Also bear in mind that you can train all the other things – if you put too much emphasis on remote/delayed reinforcement then it might dilute the reinforcement of the skills in the ring. So work it in balance – maybe 25% of your work is delayed/remote reinforcement (as an arbitrary amount) and the rest is spread out in the ring in training, looking at the various skills we train with the dogs (turns, commitment, contacts, etc)
>>I’d like to get a few seminars under our belt working in a little bit more distracting environment, FEO in AKC or UKI in a solid ring-barrier facility/one ring trial.>>
Perfect – you can try to find maybe one per month (seminar or trial) and if that doesn’t work, you can add a time to create a distracting trial-like experience with friends 🙂
>>I’m not sure what other goals to set so far. I often get hung up on things and then get paralyzed on moving forward.>>
Take an assessment of his skills, strengths and weaknesses. Then set goals to build the weaknesses into strengths. It can range from focus in new environments and remote reinforcement, to obstacle skills and sequencing skills. I tend to prioritize things: for example, a great threadle wrap is a very very low priority compared to finding a straight line or weave entries. You can make a list and schedule stuff on a calendar, or just put stuff on index cards and draw from the pile when you have a few minutes to train 🙂
>>I do want to again visit other sports outside of agility to keep working new environments. We plan to do more dock in the spring.>>
Great! Cross-training is very helpful!
>>Any announcements soon on what classes are coming next?
I will be working on that in the next week or two! Hopping for some fun stuff 🙂
TracyHi!
>> It teaches how to use MM 😃 I’m going to wait to see if there’s an after Christmas sale 🤞
I am sure there will be good sales!
>>I’m glad to be see I don’t need a separate class for running contacts.
Actually, we on’y cover the basics/beginnings of the running contacts here because the dogs are too young to do much more than that. Plus it takes months to train running contacts 🙂 One of our other instructors, Jordan Biggs, teaches the running contacts class in the spring.
>>I’m curious if you’re classes cover weaves also?
We have a big weave class in the spring, when the dogs are old enough to do the full progression 🙂 It is fun!
Tracy
