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Hi!
The vacuum provided a nice distraction! And he was definitely looking forward more 🙂
He is doing well on these and it was good to add angles to both sets. He did have more trouble finding the straight entry when you were moving (he really had to slow himself down to think about it) – so that is the place to hang out for a few sessions in terms of same angles and you moving slowly. When he is driving to that entry with you moving slowly, you can start to add more of your speed. If he is successful with that, you can then angle poles 3-4 more. My guess it will take several sessions to get it but that is normal and fine 🙂 The straight line approaches from 12 o’clock are hardest with motion because they require the most collection for now, so you can definitely work more of those and then I am sure he will be fine with them too.>>Overall, though, I think I did way too many reps even if this isn’t real weaving yet! I think I need to give myself a certain number of treats or set a timer on my watch to make sure I don’t overdo it>>
Since you mentioned it, I counted: 40 reps. Yep, too many! With poles 1-2 straight, he is doing repetitive weave behavior and actually striding, so you have reach the spot where less is more 🙂 Setting a timer or only bringing out 10 cookies is a good tactic so you don’t keep going for too long. He is close to having the poles closed, so the less is more approach is totally useful 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyGreat question! Yes, if there is something you want to train or a course you want to run with a weave challenge, you can start with ‘easier’ poles like open 2x2s or channels to work the skill – then close them up and try them. That definitely saves the dog’s body while allowing us to train the concepts 🙂
TracyHi! Both videos were really nice sessions! You did a great job mixing up the angles and he did really well finding the angles (especially on the fireplace side, he was impressive!) That extra moment to line him up really helps him be successful, and he was doing well on both the sends where you were stationary and also when you were moving. Super!!!!
So – I suggest one more session just like this, with a couple of reps on each side. If it is highly successful, the next session after that can be the same in every way except you can tighten up both sets of poles a tiny by, maybe an inch for both of them. You might find that you get to that within a day, or a couple of days – his success will lead you.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
I am super happy with how this session went – he was finding both straight sets and also doing the correct “bounce” striding. Nice! Since you left off at a 5 foot distance, start there on the next session and then inch the poles in closer together by maybe 2 inches at a time, tops, over the course of several short sessions. You will probably see him be highly successful for the first while, then it gets harder – when it gets harder, sit at that level or give back an inch for a few sessions. This is exactly where I was with my dogs who are the same size as him 🙂And the new camera/phone sounds NICE!
>>Question on how he is exiting the 2nd set. I used Nemo so he would be more excited and run more, but I am noticing him exiting towards me a bit as opposed to staying straight on the reward line. Is that an issue if he’s not looking at me when weaving? Because if the course went to the left next, I’d want him exiting that way.>>
I don’t think it is a concern, as long as he is looking straight in the poles til he is done – you can throw a bit sooner, but it won’t be a problem when the poles get added into courses and there are other things to look at and drive to.
>>2nd question applies to weaves but is a bit more general. It has to do with his relaxed outlook on agility 95% of the time. He’s definitely a thinker and gains speed when he understands what he’s doing and he’s still young (almost 18 months), but I am starting to feel like he should be picking up more speed than he usually shows. >>
That is a bigger question for sure! Yes, conditioning will help but also a combination of stimulation and experience and maturity will help too.
By stimulation, I mean the goofy tricks that get him pumped up before he does an agility thing, such as barking or jumping up or spins, or anything that gets him a little wild. That takes time to build but it worth it before training sessions at home and TOTALLY worth it in new environments.
Experience is all about getting into the new places – and for many young dogs, that suppresses the behavior that they ‘know’ so we see either over-arousal or under-arousal. I think that this generation of Covid pups will take longer (they will be older than previous generations) to get into the right state of arousal in new environments simply because they have not had the same early experience to work through. For example, with my 2.5 year old dog, she was doing silly things outside the ring at agility and flyball for a LONG time, long before she was asked to go into the ring and do things. So it was a pretty easy transition into the ring because of the 14 months of hanging out outside the ring. My 2 youngsters? Not even close LOL!!! So I am being careful to not expect them to go into the ring at 18 months or 2 years like all of my other dogs did, because they have not had even 1/3rd of the experience in that environment that the others did.
And, maturity… baby dogs grown up and get fast at different rates. My Voodoo is one of the fastest dog in the country at 20″ (or at least was in him prime, not so sure anymore now that he is 8). But – at 18 months, he was gangly, immature, NOT fast, very handler focused, but very good looking LOL! It was fine, I was thinking I would have a medium-speed and very consistent dog, so I kept training and introducing him to new places, and play, and letting him mature, and figuring out which silly tricks pumped him up. Somewhere around 2.5 years old… boom! Switch flipped, so fast I was left in the dust. Maturity!
And every dog is different – my dogs that were fast at 18 months were immature too, so while they were super speedy they were also very wild and a little over-aroused. I think Elektra is going to be like Voodoo – thoughtful and slow for a while, and that is fine with me LOL!>>He slows down if the space is smaller/more restrictive or he isn’t sure about the footing because it is new. He is also pretty sensitive to the environment (other dogs/people moving around). So maybe I am seeing a stress reaction to environment but last night in class he would barely get out of a trot for an easy jumps/tunnel handling sequence. >>
yep – environment suppressing behavior. In that situation, I would think back to the steps we would have taken in normal times that we could not take due to Covid, such as regularly hanging out watching dogs run courses or hearing dogs barking in crates, while doing silly tricks. That would explain why it is harder to transfer agility training to a new environment: lack of experience in processing those things, while also being asked for difficult behavior (sequencing).
For picking up speed to the poles… use a tunnel instead of wings! That gets the juices flowing.
And for the RDW – my Hot Sauce didn’t start really running on the plank until after I started the a-frame and after I started the whole dog walk… then the light bulb went on and she was fast fast fast!
One of the things I am planning with my youngsters is a catch up period for all of the ringside environmental stuff they missed (Elektra has had ZERO of this, Contraband has had maybe 10% of what I would normally do) – several months of just going to different places, doing tricks and stuff near distractions, and asking for the simplest possible sports-specific tricks. Maybe by the fall they will be ready to show off their sequencing skills in a harder environment, but their responses will let me know.
Let me know what you think!
TracyHe was clothing himself victoriously in dirt, like the Kentucky Derby winner wears a blanket of roses…. lol
Hi!
>>Overall, I think he’s doing well and the concepts are starting to gel.>>
I totally agree! Things are looking good and we will be merging a lot of the games in the next couple of weeks.
Elevator Game – I think one tweak in the mechanics will make the difference: have him start on the same side as you, between you and the teeter, and not on the other side of it like he did here. Don’t let him get on til you are ready – that way you willl have more control of the board and he won’t turn around and urn up and down while you are trying to hold it LOL! I think it was harder to hold because he was coming in with a lot of speed from the other side of the board, leaping on, turning around, etc. LOL!
He wasn’t yet looking for the target fully (new game and all) so you can move the target in closer but also having him line up next to you, facing the target will help him focus on it more easily.
Bang game – on that first rep, he was on the wrong side of you – he was on your right, so he was correct to run up the board rather than turn away and ru down. Your line up was great on the rest of the reps, and he was great too! He is passionate AND accurate. Yay!!! One little tweak: Start him a little closer to the end of the board so he can leap right onto the end of it. I think he is ready for more height here too!
Wobble board – looking super nice! Motion, hanging back, adding the wing… all looked really good! Happy dance! One little tweak: move the MM a little further away so it is a little less helpful in getting him to choose to stop and a little more tempting to not stop 🙂
I think he is doing really well on his end position games, so you move into fading the target on the plank (not the teeter yet, we add that on Monday :))
>> I’m thinking I’ll post another session of the downhill game and then you can let me know if you think we’re ready to progress to that level. >>
Perfect! Looking forward to it!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
My reaction is mostly gone, aside for some swollen glands in my jaw.He is hitting his target position with OOMPH here! When you added more of your motion at 1:04, he didn’t quite maintain the position but he was fine afterwards and also when you added tugging. My only suggestion is that when he is driving ahead of you, you can release him forward to the reward on the target so he doesn’t try to look back at you.
Otherwise, keep adding more motion and excitement – taking this game outside and adding a wing before it, so you can really get running. He seems to be having no trouble with the movement of the board or noise, so we can add more targeting challenges 🙂>>Apparently I misread your note about the fit bone under the plank and thought it was the end with the target so that’s how we trained it last night. >.
Ha! That just makes it more like the weight shift game or the rebound game: targeting on a wobbly board. I am glad he was happy!!
Great job here!
TracyHi!
I think he is getting the idea of the channels here! The mistakes were good ones – just entering in the wrong spot to get into the channel, and only on that one entry. So for the next channels session, move the MM a little further out and add more motion. Then I think you will find it very easy to start to angle the poles. They are all at 3&9 here, so you can quickly go to 2&8 and add in all the crazy handling challenges.
Great job here! And have a blast with Nosework tonight!
Tracy
Hi!
The 2 poles sessions looked good – at this point, you can add motion to all warm up reps and keep lack of motion for anything new and/or weird 🙂
Adding poles 3-4 definitely were little harder! Because the new poles were the new variable, 2 suggestions: poles 1 and 2 can go back to being slightly open to start, and start your reps on top-of-the-clock easy sends (like you did at 1:17, where he was sent from approx 11 o’clock). He is VERY good at the hard angles on 2 poles but the visual distraction of the new poles make those hard angles even harder, so building up from the easy angles is a good way to get things rolling. As soon as you showed him from the easier angles: boom! The harder angles came right back and then he was great.The toy is very exciting! And since he loves it and we will want to use it… you can have it in your hand or pocket but only use the MM, to kind of desensitize the stimulation the toy brings 🙂 Then every now and then, when things are going well, you can throw it as a reward 🙂
I would bet that the next session with this setup will go really nicely with all 4 poles – starting with the easy angles, progressing to the harder ones. If that is the case, do another session on this setup with your motion. If that goes well… moves poles 3-4 in closer to 1-2 (but not angled yet) and do a session with entries and motion.
At that point, we will be able to begin angling poles 3-4! So it won’t take all that many sessions to get that rolling. Fun times ahead!
Great job!
TracyHi!
Yes, this was harder 🙂 You can start her back more in the middle of the pinny, and then use a little hand cue or a cookie on her nose (with a slow hand lure so it is easy to follow) to turn her away from you. She didn’t really know that it was ok to do that on the right turn side! But she was great on the left turn side – maybe she is a lefty today 🙂 The toy on the line helped, but you can also try that cookie on the nose hand cue to turn her head away before she enters the pinny. Let me know if that makes sense! And you can start on the left turn side next time, so she remembers that it is OK to turn away from you and that will make the right turn side easier too 🙂
Nice work! I am sure she will figure it out really quickly.
TracyHi!
Fingers crossed to get in off the wait list! And she is a perfect size for the 16″ class!!!
She looked really good here – I agree that both sides looked really good wih nice bending and bouncing! And she was great without motion too. Yay! I am glad to hear you are doing it outside too, she finds it easy so it is a great setup for the distractions of the great outdoors (neighbors!!!!)
I see you posted the next steps, she is definitely ready for that.
Great job!
TracyHi! Lots of great work here!!
Left/right video – Yes, I can see her watching the distraction at the beginning. You can take that moment to see if she will engage with you with tricks or tugging or both, to help her learn to ignore the distraction – it will set up a higher rate of success! She is doing well with this game! I liked your position for the right turn start at :36, ever so slightly over near the wing you want her to enter the pinny on. That is a great way to get her to process the verbals from the neutral position while avoiding the left turn vortex 🙂 After a couple of sessions like that, you can progressively move back to the center position.
Serps – these are going really well, great job staying closer!!! On the first video, the jump was angled a bit opposite and made the serp jump harder, more of a backside (which is why she missed on the first rep) – the wing closer to the MM can be pulled forward so the bar is more visible as she exits the wing, making it a clear line to the front side.
On the 2nd video – really nice! Great job being nice and close, and she did a great job on the jump. So now… add more speed 🙂 You were walking so now you can move up to a faster walk or slow jog.Zig zags – these are also going well, she was a good girl in the stays and also responded well to the handling cues. And yes, I agree it is also a nice foundation for those lateral lead outs 🙂 She looked good on both the 3 wings and the 4 wings, so two things to add:
– You can line her up more ‘sideways’ to the first wing so she has to shift more immediately (she was facing into the gap between wings 1 and 2 here) Her hip can be right next to the wing, making her stay position parallel to the wing.– You can move the wings in a little closer to challenge her to make the shifts side-to-side more quickly! That will be useful for jumping serps and backside slices when we add bars.
Find the jump 1: She is finding the jumps nicely here and responding to the Go verbal. One little detail – add more connection on the tunnel exit by looking at her more when she exits and not straight ahead. When you looked at her coming around the wing wraps, note how she did not have to look at you – perfect! When you were looking ahead when she exited the tunnel here and on the 2nd video, she looked at you because it was not immediately obvious where you wanted her to be. The connection will help that.
You can see it on the 2nd video too – great connection before and after the wing wraps, note how she doesn’t have to look at you at all but is responding perfectly. So add that little bit of connection on the tunnel exit and she will look forward more.
You can also throw sooner: as soon as you see her lock onto the line to the jump, throw the toy so she sees it sooner and doesn’t look back.
I think she is ready for more motion on this game, you can be running up the line, staying in motion – and also sending her to the tunnel from further away and you get way ahead, to challenge her to find the jump when she is way behind you.Great job here! Have fun at the USDAA trial this weekend!
TracyHi!
He is really doing nicely here! The left turns away from you are the hardest, but that is normal. He is most successful on those when you have the clear transition into the setup.
As with the other sessions, we can clean up the transitions into this and that will raise the rate of success. The markers for the reinforcement can be installed here too, as well as the clean starts and resets – because he finds this setup pretty easy, it is a great way to get the mechanics going!
For example, he comes into the environment with engagement. You line him up at your side right side, send with left verbal and physical cue for the left turns – then reward with toy or cookie with your right hand so he comes across your feet – then turn him away to the next left rep. That can line him up really nicely! I think on a couple of reps he was kind of wandering into it, not really sure when to start and this will help. As with the wing wraps, the running rewards make it harder to reset, but you can run, reward, engage as you come back, reset (line up cookies are useful) then make a clear send into the setup.
If I remember correctly, he did not fully love his collar being held yet, so you can use this reinforcing setup to build it into the line up: as you reset him, you hand can go near the collar or one finger under the collar, cookie, cue to start. It makes the line up/reset easier for you and also he will start to offer up his collar, because it means the game is starting sooner 🙂Eventually, the dogs get really good at reading context and we get really good at resets/line ups that we can revert to adding in some Woohoo! Yay! stuff LOL! But it is fun to obsess and sharpen the mechanics which will make it all much easier.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Good work here – he is DEFINITELY showing more value for independently driving around the wing without you needing to help too much. YAY!!!! Since we are currently obsessing on clean sessions, a couple of ideas for you 🙂The start of the session should be as clean as the rest of the session. He needs to know exactly when to start – so you can either bring him into the training environment after the wing is set out, then line up in the start position, or you can bring him in, line up in a start position and then set the wing out. If both are happening (he is milling about and you put the wing out) then he won’t know when to start offering (that is what happened here). The line up and engagement before starting the session can make for a seamless transition into the start (which bubbles over nicely into start lines and such).
This becomes especially important when you want the left turns – he is most definitely a righty 🙂 And without a line up, he is going to offer that right turn loop. And since there was no real cue to suggest a left turn… he isn’t exactly wrong. So it gets confusing when he doesn’t get rewarded. So the engage, line up, then start can allow you to be very clear and clean as to which turn you want. He is perfectly happy to turn to his left when asked… but if left to his own devices, he will choose right turn 🙂
And the other recommendation is to plan your verbals and markers before he comes into the session so you be super precise (there are a lot of words nowadays in agility LOL!) You, like me, tend to be more of a Yay! and Woohooo! type of person. So for precision on verbals, I remind myself a lot about which words go where, and when before I get the dog involved. That way your ‘get the toy’ marker and your ‘get the cookie’ marker will be immediate on the first reps, which will make the whole sessions smoother. You had the markers in there… but later on in the session. And since there are so many words 🙂 you can either click or use a verbal yes/yay, but I don’t think you need both. You can click then do the event marker, or yes then do the event marker – or just use the event marker because it is really powerful as a conditioned reinforcement. You were doing that a bit with your food marker (AiAiAiAi :)) And that is great! Just be sure not to use the event marker as the send cue, which was happening at 1:43 – so he was a little confused. He was on the way to the wing and heard the AiAiAiAi and came back for the cookie, which is correct per the marker.
Soooooo many words LOL!
So now that his value for the independent wing wrapping has gone waaaaay up – you can add more looping in and include the cue (the video edits make it harder to see what was happening in between reps):
Say you are bringing him into the environment after the wing is in place and you want a left turn wrap. Engage – line up on your send side for the left turn (your right side) – cue the left turn with arm, leg, and now the wrap-left verbal (fun!) then be quiet. He goes and wraps to his left and you mark then deliver the reward… and while delivering, you are also moving him into the line up for the next rep – you can deliver the cookie or toy from your left hand and also use it to reset him into facing the wing for a send into a right turn.Now, when we are running, agility gets a little less clean and a little more muddy 🙂 This clean loop thing doesn’t always take into account the running and throwing LOL! We can plan for it though – for example, on the turn-and-burn reps where we run off and the dog chases us for the reward, you can party when he gets there, then move with him back to the wing – reset, line up, send.
Let me know if that makes sense! After the line up/reset is sorted and the various words are second nature, the next step would be to put this onto the rocking horses 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
She looked great here! The way you added the collar restraint was just right: it added a little bit of ‘yeehaw!’ to the game and she was able to maintain her thoughtful responses while also going really fast (and in the presence of the toy). Perfect!
On the first rep, the tunnel was a distraction which is why she had a question – then she sorted it out really well on the left turns! Her rights were also good and she loved the the collar restraint, it got her totally jazzed up 🙂
When you added the turn away left cue – you had a little physical help but that is fine to get her understanding that turning away is perfectly acceptable! You faded it on the right turn. I LOVED her response on the right turn rep – she was lined up facing the left turn to the tunnel… she had to think hard to turn away from the tunnel without a lot of physical help from you (I think there was some steam coming out of her ears!) but she did! Good girl, Arty!!!
Then it was easy – and great job finishing the session with easy reps 🙂
So using this setup, you can fade your body cues (but still use the collar restraints, she loved that) and then gradually work towards that neutral position. She is doing really well sorting out the verbals!
Great job, let me know what you think!
Tracy
