[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>I’m not quite up to running it band injuries are the worst and I suggest you don’t ever do that to yourself.

Yikes, that sounds painful!!! I hope it is healing quickly!!!

And yes, it has been crazy hot – I do all of my training and filming at dawn or dusk. Bleh!

I think on the lay game you were tossing the treat to cue him to take the jump – he did well, so you can reverse that now and throw it after he is moving towards the jump.

On the pinwheel sequence – this was a REALLY insightful session to help us figure out what he reads on course! I think he is cuing off your motion and feet more than off your arms (which is not that unusual for a smaller dog). He was really hustling and finding the lines independently when you were just moving along them and using your verbals.

But when you tried to use your arm to point to the jump – he was slower and less certain. That was partially because your arm moving forward to the jump blocks his view of your eyes and breaks connection (so he gets hesitant) and partially because pointing forward was causing your motion to either slow down or stop… so he was not as clear about what to do.

You can really see it on all of the openings, when you were just releasing him and moving along the line towards the tunnel – he was flying, even later in the video when he must’ve been hotter. And same on the lines after the tunnel where you continued to move. When you were trying to indicate by pointing more (like at 2:49 and 3:20)- it stopped your motion and broke connection, so he slowed down to figure it out.

This is good to know! I personally think it is easier if I can just run alongside the lines and not have to worry about pointing at things LOL! That allows me to move better and it is clearer for the dogs – I want to try this with Merlin too, so when you get to the ring rental (hopefully air conditioned!!) try just jogging along with connection and verbals, no arm pointing at the jumps, and see what he does.

>>I numbered the middle wing backwards so Merlin did what I asked whoops

No worries! We will do backsides later on in class but these are all front sides 🙂

>>the lazy game looked better on film after the fact he struggles to find white food without a whole lots of sniff and huh>>

A lotus ball or treat hugger is probably going to be more useful, then – if you have more than one, you can throw one for the first reward, then throw the 2nd one for the next one: then pick them up, reload, and do the next lazy game rep 🙂

Great job here! Let me know if it makes sense about motion (lower body) being more helpful for him than arms (upper body)

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>I think that these first two concepts went fairly well, though there’s still room for improvement. I’ve also sped up the videos by 3x just so they would be slightly less boring.

Yes! I think they went well! You don’t need to speed them up, they are not boring 🙂 Fast forward makes it harder to hear the verbals and clicks – real time videos are better to really see what she is doing. Setting a timer for 2 or 3 minutes is great then you don’t need to edit – just post them up.

Lazy Game: It was interesting how she had trouble with the middle jump in the beginning! It might have been that after eating the first treat, she was going into handler focus and didn’t ‘see’ the middle jump. You did a really good job trying to toss your treat to help her line up to get it! That worked and then was able to find it – and then you could reward her to taking it. She was really getting it by the end! You can spread them out a bit more to add challenge, and also add the one-step sends to send her to it as you start to move away.

On the planks:
>>I didn’t have a 9 or 12 foot plank, but I had three 4-ft travel boards, so I just pushed them together. Acceptable? Here Ria kind of got on and off the plank wherever she chose. >>

Yes, it was a good setup and she did well here too! I think she was getting off the plank when you started to throw the reward, so you can start to delay the throw by a few steps so she stays on the plank for longer. She also did really well getting on and turning around on these, good coordination! You can add in having her ‘hop’ off in the middle to make sure she knows how to safely get off the board too, in case she ever loses her balance going full speed across the dog walk.

Great job here! You can move forward to the next games too!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>Here is a redo of the mountain climber – much better..

Oh yeah!!!! Look at her on her mountain climber going straight to the end and right into the down. Super! On those first couple of reps, did you have something there to help cue the down or was it just an earlier verbal? They looked great. She was not as quick in the middle of the session and then back to being quick with the down by the end – it sounded like earlier timing of the cues. Perfect! As she grows up, you can ad tip to this game… but again, my rehab/ortho/sports vets don’t want the slam on the dogs body til they fully developed (joints and soft tissue) which puts things closer to 16-18 months at the earliest.

>>>Next is the love the slam it, baby. We did these a couple days ago. I think front feet were solid, but back feet took a bit.

She did really well on the baby level here! No problem getting on it and moving it. This board is little so she really only fits her front feet. Do you have a second board so she can get all 4 feet on moving things? You can have her put two feet on each board. And you can use a tug to here too – she looked a little bored by just cookies LOL!!
The other thing you can do with this board is prepare her for the noise teeters make by taking this board to noisier floors and having her smack it around, and using big rewards whenever there is a noise.

>> We don’t have a go backwards to get the back feet on. We also tried the advanced version, but nothing felt right, especially with the desire for the down at the end. (you will see I adjusted the advanced version when we were out today. Went forward, rewarded the down and then rewarded the release).>>

You were doing what I call the bang game – dog leaps on the end and moves into position. I would hold off on that for a bit for a couple of reasons:
– be careful of too much slam with a puppy, even a couple of inches is a lot of repetitive bang on their bodies (I have asked the ortho vets and they all say we need to wait until the dogs are closer to adult).
– I start it on a short plank to get the end position perfect before moving it to the teeter – she was not entirely sure of where to be, so you can use a target to get her into the 4on and also feed her lower, so she doesn’t have to leave the down to get the reward, and so she doesn’t look up at you.

>>We don’t have a go backwards to get the back feet on.

You can play with that skill separately to get her really understanding how to use her hind end – it is perfect for playing in the house when it is a million degrees outside!! Here is the link to i from the first puppy class:
https://agility-u.com/lesson/hind-end-awareness-backing-up/

>>>Lastly, we worked on the Motion Override. When I reviewed the video, it seems I was helping her with her sit. Although, I think when slow, she wasn’t bad. But if tried to pick it up, it took her way longer to process.

I agree – she did really well when you were moving slowly but it definitely was harder when you tried to go faster. You were smart in the session on the video to slow yourself back down on the last 2 reps, so you didn’t end up decelerating with her to create the behavior. No worries, give her a couple of sessions of you moving slowly. I think it will also be easier if you toss a cookie away for her to get so you can start moving and she will not curl in front of you. You can also reward her more quickly – as soon as she plops her butt down, you can release and play – that will help her get into position faster too.

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
You and the boys looked really good here!!!

First up is Bob’s run: This is a terrific first attempt!
Lovely 1-2-3 opening! Fast and smooth! You can add in a little more connection to his eyes on the send from 3 to the #4 tunnel – you were looking forward to the tunnel and pointing forward to it a little when you cued it, so he looked at you rather than looking at the tunnel. As strange as it sounds: if you look at him, as you say tunnel and keep moving, he will look at tunnel 🙂

The little oopsie at :30 was the moment where you went the wrong way for a heartbeat, no worries 🙂

So he hasn’t seen 12 weaves in a course since a year ago? Wow, he did great and remembered a LOT!! GOOD BOY! When you have had some time to practice them, you will be able to change sides while he is weaving and get him on your right for the tunnel rather than rear cross the tunnel. That got you a little behind him which made it harder for the next line – that is why he almost took the off course tunnel. You were running to catch up and said ‘go’ so he was going LOL! Calling him sooner, as he lands from the previous jump (or a left verbal is he has one) will totally smooth that out – he responded as soon as you called him.

Pete also had a great run!! Your opening looked great too, and you had lovely connection 3-4 on the send to the tunnel: note how you were looking right at his eyes and not ahead, and he was smooth there, finding the line to the tunnel. That allowed you to do an excellent blind after the tunnel at :11 to get 5, really great connection.
Taking thee weaves out was smart but also made you have to hustle more – you can play with a more independent tunnel send to be able to get further ahead on the exit so you can stay ahead of him and not have to hustle as much 🙂 On the ending line: you didn’t say go to him at the end so he was more handler focused and never looked at the off course tunnel on the closing line. YAY!!
When you have the super independent weaves or tunnel send, I bet you can get into that gap for a blind (or front) cross with both dogs.

They looked great! Nice work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>I watched some of the Zoom seminar. This is the Lazy game with the tunnel and then the verbals. NOt too lazy though. lol.

Truth! It ends up being the Not Too Lazy Game haha

>>Hmmm…..I noticed in the video most people are giving a Left,L,L…Rights. I’m not saying jump for the first jump I am saying “Out jump” Out jump means take the top jump in a pinwheel and come back. So I’m not usinf the L and R. verbals. And then “Tunnel, tunnel, tunnel before the jump going into the tunnel.>>

That is fine! As long as you are consistent with your verbals, it is great! I think you were very clear here.

On the video:
First rep looked good! Only one suggestion: Do the FC on the tunnel at :07 before she enters so she expects the turn on the exit. Everything else looked great!

2nd rep – She dropped the bar on the pinwheel jump on this one: you were maybe a little late turning at :20 but I think the distance might be a bit too tight – she is turning really well AND going super fast, so you can try to spread out the distance.

>> She went wide once at .41 You can see her go wide off of the top jump. But she needs to come in, right? Maybe I have this too tight.

That was on the 3rd rep – yes, I think she needs more distance when she passed the outside jump at :41. You could add a collection to the middle jump but I really want her to go fast fast fast like this – she is turning really well AND going fast, the perfect combo. She can get all the jumps if she slows down… which we don’t want, so I like the idea of more distance between the jumps.

You had a really good wrap at the end! And more distance will help give you more time to cue it so it will be even tighter!

>>I’m jumping 8 inches. DId it say somewhere that this class eventually teaches them to jump full height? Maybe I am wrong. lol.

8″ is fine for anything that is new. Did I read that she is just over a year now? That means that over the course of the next few months, we can add taller bars, gradually, on the stuff she is really good at. We don’t address full height jumping specifically here because a lot of the dogs are too young. I don’t get the dogs jumping full height before 18 months anyway, because they have soooo much to learn and so much body development needs to happen (I know people get dogs jumping fully height VERY early and into the trial ring at 15 months…. but that skips a lot of steps and is not good for their minds or bodies :)) You can also add a little more height to the jump grids we did in the last class – like the accordion grid! When that last jump is 12 feet away, the bar can go to 10 then 12 inches.

>> Oh, I think you missed a video. The baby level One-step sends. Before the ones with the FC’s. Maybe I’m wrong again. LOL.>>

I will go check! And it might be referring to the game posted last Friday (not done in the Zoom class :))

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
Yes, it looked like everyone as VERY serious at the Regional 🙂

Nice work here! He is doing especially well with his new “over” cue for the leg jumping! It was fun to see that when you told him he could go play – he thought about it then decided he wanted to stay and play with you! Yay! And your hands up in the air (jumping jacks) are a definite cue for him to jump up , that is good to know going into the ring. You might think this is nutty: but have you ever tried cuing that (basically, doing some jumping jacks?) as you are going to the start line? That jumping up seems to be one of his more favorite tricks AND it is energizing!! That can be something to try next weekend at the trial!

He is doing well here with responding to the cues – so you can try the sequences now to see how he processes the verbals while you are running the courses!

Great job here 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>I think I used the upside arm before the send to the pinwheel because earlier in the week we ran a sequence during class using the tunnel to the blue jump to the dog-walk (off screen). I thought I saw Cowboy eyeing that line when he was exiting the tunnel and wanted to make sure he turned to the red jump instead of going straight (or at least that was the plan!)>>

Ah! Makes sense! It is a good challenge for him as a young dog to follow your body language and verbals even when the big delicious tunnel and dog walk are out there LOL!

For the teeter:
I love his confidence on the full height teeter. And I totally see what you mean about him stopping 4on then waiting for a re-cue (target or no target). But he does understand the concept of waiting til the release!
Having the MM out ahead on the plank got him to look at you less and more of the 2o2o but also only when you stopped your motion or were moving slowly.

I think the target itself has lost some value and he doesn’t really know where to put his front feet. So, a couple of ideas for you:
– with the target, refresh the value with some nose touch games to it!
– you can also consider a foot target there instead of the nose target – a long strip of something that you teach him to run to and put his front feet on and then when he is happy with that, it replaces the red target
– you can leave the MM out there as a focal point so he looks at that and not at you for reward
– check out the love the slam hind end combo game too – where he backs up into the 2o2o on a wobble board and on a plank. Try to get that completely independent of your motion – it can really help him understand where to put all his feet 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hmmm failing on just the 2nd time… how often is she successful on the very first attempt? She might be calmer/less stimulated on the 1st rep then is more stimulated on the 2nd rep, goes faster an then fails. So maybe try getting her more stimulated for the first attempt?

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
Both dogs did a great job here!!!
He started off with great work on the flat, good boy!!
I think when you started near the wing you were not connected so he was confused (but, that is a good way to not have to be perfect with connection! ) So on the first rep you can connect a little and then he will respond faster and not judge you as much haha! He figured it out pretty quickly though and then was terrific. He looked good with Nemo too – I think Nemo ball is more of a help than a distraction because at this point I think he would do anything to get his beloved Nemo!

When you added running at the end of the video, with the sit cue: towards the wing was HARD. Running away from the wing – much easier. So you can add in towards the wing but with less motion, and/or towards the wing with a ton of motion but more distance away from it.
And yes, I am also trying to skip the YES and go for more of the markers 🙂 It is hard for me to keep my mouth from cheering when the dog is brilliant haha!

Watching this, I think he is doing really well with your dance moves so we can start to consider other distractions for this game:
– moving cookies all around: bouncing treats up and down in your hand, tossing a handful away and then cuing a behavior, etc
– adding moving dogs – a dog is walking and you cue something. That can build up to a running dog, which transfers nicely to agility. It can even be your hubby walking Min around on leash! (Sorry, Dean hahaha)
– play this game with rando people as the distraction 🙂

Min did really well too! At first she really wanted to interact with the wing but responded to the other cues really well – but that might be why she wasn’t sure if she should interact with the wing when you wanted her to. But then she got it so nicely!!! As with Kaladin, you can have a little more connection to her on that first wrap cue so she knows it is about the wing at that moment. But she looks great! I think a good set of distractions would be watching other dogs run: can she still respond to verbals?

>>In other news, Kaladin rocked his mini seminar at OTR on Friday. We did the environmental acclimation game while we were walking and a few tricks heading in for his turn and he rocked the very first sequence. Then lost his brains when he was heading towards Jacque H so detoured to pounce on her, seemed disappointed when she ignored him and came back when I called him. I had him do the next part of the sequence and then rewarded that.

Good boy!!!! When he did the Jacque pounce, was it in the middle of the sequence where the line presented her as a distraction? You can vary the acclimation game pattern using her as the subject: toss a treat for him to get then as he is getting it, you run past her and call him – then when he follows you and ignores her, toss a treat the other way and run past her going the opposite direction.

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Thanks for the link!
I think with Ruse, same as Hero about not using as much cross arm on the wrap cues at 11. You were getting more collection but on the reps at :24, :44 and 1:07, she was tighter because she had a little question and almost came into you rather than take the jump. At 1:32, you were a little later so there was less cross arm and she had no questions – she still turned really well but there was no question there. I timed that one to be the fasted of the reps through there 🙂

And then I went back to the baseline, where the turn at 11 was good but not as collected. Guess what? The less collected turn on the baseline was faster by a couple of strides. So now all you need to worry about is making sure she knows where she is going next – you don’t have to insist on more collection because it is slower 🙂 We will keep tracking that!

Everything else looked really good. You can play with lining her up straighter on the 1-2-3 line (rather than facing straight to 1 which creates a turn at 1-2). And on the 8-9 line, you started using a right verbal then later on switched to the pop pop verbal but that is the same one you use on the wraps. Sooooo…… which is it? LOL! I think the right is your 8-9 verbal and the pop pop is your wrap verbal. And all you need for 4-5 is just a jump cue or the send, as it is not a tight turn needed there at all.

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! Hope you had a good weekend! Adding in the video work here was perfect!

Lots of good stuff to discuss 🙂

>>I would have loved to see the difference in the Dobie at the Animal Inn seminar – cool! Doesn’t surprise me because dogs that don’t know or can’t predict what’s happening will get frustrated (or spun up, or….) and that causes issues.>>

Yes – and it is such a nice blend of classical and operant and all the things that really help the dog. I don’t think any of it is on video but it was really cool to see!

>>Here are my verbals for both Pose and Differ:
>>Not sure if I’m forgetting anything.

it is a good list! I suggest adding 2 maybe 3 more, in this order:

– a general jump cue which is basically: take the jump and turn a little (that grey area between extension and the soft turns). It gets used when you need a commitment cue of some sort but it is not a true left or right. You might already have this cue.

– a jump threadle wrap On the happy side, we start training it here in CAMP beginning next Monday! And it cannot be the same as the jump threadle because jump threadle really implies slice and the courses are making it so we cannot ‘be there’ to show the difference with physical cues. And my goal it to really love training it by the end of the summer hahaaha
My jump threadle wrap is “in in” (my jump threadle slice is “close close close”)

>>One question I have is that I need to change the GO GO GO with Pose. She’s getting confused with that verbal sometimes in trials. I think it sometimes sounds too much like her name. She appears to handle it fine when we are training at home (arousal level is lower). Any suggestions or ideas on this?>>

Yes, it would make sense that it is harder to process the difference between GO and Pose with higher arousal and perhaps bigger distances at trials. Your frame/DW verbal is run, so we can’t use that (it was the first thing I thought of :)) So the others that pop to mind are :
– fly (extended to minimize the dipthong so it is more like FLAAAAHY FLAAAAAHY)
– big (also extended, so it is BIIIIG BIIIIIIG)
– jump (if this doesn’t already exist in your language on course, you could use it to be the GO cue and use something else or a different energy of it for the general commitment cue).

I’ll keep drinking coffee to see what else pops to mind. Ha!

Onwards to sequences!
Voodoo now sings the song of his people when he hears you 🙂 Ha!! Recognizes your voice.

I thought all of your runs here were great, tons of clarity and connection. Both girls were fast and happy! So with that in mind, I am looking at them through the lens of:

– are there things we can try differently to see if they are faster (or not). If we try asking for more collection, get it, and it turns out slower? GOOD TO KNOW! Ha! I am not going to insist on a tighter turn if it is slower. As long as the dogs are safe and happy? Party on!

– where are the dogs asking questions and how can we answer those questions to keep them on the fastest possible lines: in preparing for the 3rd sets of games coming next week, guess what ended up being the make-or-break in terms of fastest lines when I did the overlays? Yes – if the dog had a tiny question, even the fastest line/handling choices turned into the slowest ones. It was amazing to see how the dog on the ‘slower’ line would overtake and pass the dog on the ‘faster’ line if there was even one tiny question from the dog. So my new handling system is called “No Questions Handling”. HA!

Differ, sequence 1: Fabulous! So here are tiny details to consider so we can produce the fastest possible runs (I think she will enjoy those too LOL!)
– line her up on a more severe slice facing 1 so she basically sees 1-2-3 (she will be closer to your a-frame here) and then she has full on extension 1-2-3 and no turn over 1)

– A question about the verbals: you used right for the wider turn 4-5 and right for the tighter turn 8-9. I think for her, the 4-5 turn is pretty extended so that is where I would use the general commitment cue and not the right verbal. They are very different jumping efforts so we would want different verbals.

– She had a question on the 8-9 line, because as she came around the wing she could not yet see the new side info or next line. The spin was still in progress, so to get the info to her sooner and eliminate the question: run deeper to the tunnel #7 so you can not end up past 8. That should also allow you to start the spin sooner, as she is exiting the tunnel you can be moving into the spin. (It is also possible she does not need the spin – a lateral send might be perfect and you don’t have to worry about getting the connection after it because there is no connection break :))

– the rest looked good to my eye 🙂 But because of her size, I am curious to see if asking for less collection on the #11 wrap ends up being faster. You asked for collection, she collected! Good girlie! But she started that collection about 5 or 6 feet from the jump. It would be fun to see what would happen if you moved through it faster (more motion). Now that opens up a tricky detail – you would still need to make connection on the new side before she finishes the wrap, because any question from her will result in a slower time. So the other option to try is a one step send and go (no spin) with the wrap verbal and compare it to the rotated cue. So you would send her on your left and then peel away to the tunnel still on your left.

Pose, Sequence 1: Also fabulous!
I liked her start position here, and it would be fun to move her over one step and see how she does with it as a straighter line.

– you used GO at tunnel #3, I don’t think she needs it there – she did a little too much go and I think it cased her to consider the backside of 4 which made 5 wide -caught you both a little off balance there 🙂

– She had a little question on the spin 8-9 too: you can start the spin sooner and a little more laterally with the main goal being that you want her to see the connection (with your arm back and your eyes on her eyes) when she lands from 8. She looked at you at :10 and that question will end up slower.

– I think the cap cap turn at 11 is looking good! It would be interesting to play with a little deceleration as you exit the tunnel and a little less send arm motion with your right arm (keeping your arms in tighter as you rotate and leave. That will produce a little more collection. Then we can see it if is worthwhile to work for tighter turns, or not 🙂

Differ sequence 2:
>>I am TERRIFIED of stepping on her I have seen bad things happen to little dogs when the handlers tried to push their little dog out to another object and punted/kicked the dog or stepped on it.>>

YIKES!!! Yes, totally understandable. We do NOT want to kick her!!

opening 1-2-3: I think for Differ this can be more of an accelerated “let her rip” moment 🙂 Start her on as much of a straight line at 1 as possible and then try it without the left verbal (you said left, she collected and I would bet it would be faster to let her rip there even if it is wider – I would also bet she will chase your motion and not look off course).

Try to be quicker on the re-connection after spin at 4 – she hesitates to wait for the side info. This might also work nicely as a send and go, so there is no connection break to do the blind element of it. That is a definite thing to play with for Differ: starting the rotations sooner to be re-connected sooner… and also trying as sends without rotation and then we compare.

Be careful of the spin on the entry of tunnel #5 at :16 – I think you were doing the rotation because it was the quickest way to get up the next line. She saw it and since it is a turn cue, she was turning on the tunnel exit (good girl!) and then had to go back out to the correct line. So send and step forward to your left rather than rotate to your right. (We don’t want to lose the turn response of the spin by pairing it with extension afterwards.

She collected really nicely on the left cue 6-7 at :19… but I want to see if you just let her rip with more acceleration and no left verbal. Giddy up! I think she will be a member of the Masher Rule Club (as much extension as possible creating incredibly fast times) so this will be fun to play with.

I liked the blind to the tunnel at :22! She was fast and appeared to have no questions, connected and timely blind. Yes – keep the blind at 9-10, I think it was GREAT and then if the course finishes at 11, you can keep her on your left a the end! Just run run run outta there with connection – the get out verbal will work but you can let your motion do the cuing as you drive the line so there is no risk of kicking her. Or, decel as you finish the blind before the tunnel to send her to it, to buy time to get to the other side if there is a reason to change sides.

Pose – I think you were just saying “tunnel” on the opening and it looked great, That is what I would recommend with Differ.

Collection on 4 looked good to me, but she had a question coming around it at :09 – looking up at you and waiting to see the reconnection. So I think the main theme is trying to finish the rotation earlier so she can see connection as she lands.

You spun at the tunnel entry with her too -the good news is that she did not turn on exit (Go cue happened while she was exiting, not before entry to override the spin). That is also the bad news LOL!! The rotation happened well in advance of her entering and she came out looking straight. Ideally when she sees the rotation we want her coming out looking for the turn, so be careful there to only use the spin when you want the turn. I personally find that it is a little extra step or two for me to NOT spin, but it is worth it because it preserves the turn when I do show the spin to the dogs.

I liked the BC there again and the ending line! Nice! If the course continued the other direction, based on where you sent to the tunnel from – you would have had plenty of time to get the the blind on the tunnel exit 🙂

>>She went pretty wide from 7-8. Maybe a send to 7 and a FC between 8 & 9 would tighten that up? I would have to walk that again before I make that decision. The BC felt like I showed her the line sooner (at the time). But I had to be close to the #8 jump to get the turn. I might have been able to be more lateral… or maybe a tunnel threadle?>>

You can totally play with all the options to see what works best – the FC, the tunnel threadle, saying the left verbal after landing of 6 and repeating it so she collects more on 7. But to be honest… what she did here might be the fastest way. Yes, it might not looks as pretty as if we can get her to add a stride before 7 – but she knew where she was going (watch her head over 7) and smoked the line there, absolutely smoked it. It was not a questioning wide, it was a Indy500 race car turn, Vroom Vroom! That is exactly how Voodoo runs these lines and it is always the fastest line for him to do that (same with HS right now too). So yes – try to get the additional stride and let’s compare it to the Vroom Vroom moment 🙂

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>I’m good with a stationary behavior, we’ve got tons of them but I’m realizing that I don’t think I’ve taught any moving ones “on a verbal”.

That seems to be a trend – all of our moving behaviors require us to stand still and use a hand cue, but we need to be able to work up to running and just using a verbal (which is basically what agility verbals are :))

>>And I’m assuming I don’t want to do this (at least not to start) with an “agility” one….like Back, or left or right, right? Way too hard, I think.

Correct! Start with something silly so there is no emotional investment from you (which means you will have more fun and will break it down more) and also so we don’t poison an agility cue if we mess it up LOL!!! I mean, I don’t really care if I poison the monkey dance cue but I don’t want to poison my left or right.

>>Would go to your mat be considered a moving behavior? We’ve got it on pretty well understood verbal and usually when I cue it I’m not moving and he does have to move from where he is to his mat. Would that work for this game?>>

Not really… we want it to be something that the dog can do while continuing to move (which simulates the verbal directionals). The mat can be one of the stationary behaviors though, because he has to stop there, so it can be useful for that 🙂

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>Just wanted to let you know that even though there’s been no video we’ve been doing a lot of playing with the Up/Down Game but in real life day to day type stuff so no video. There are some things that really crank Sly up and I’m finding that Up/Down helps him crank down and screw his head back on quicker than anything else I’ve tried.>>

That is awesome! The patterns really help a lot of dogs (props to Leslie McDevitt because she is the one who brought so many of these concepts to the table).

>> He can get so excited going to a door that sometimes he can’t do any of his hand touch games or settle on his mat, or sit all of which are REALLY solid behaviors. A few reps of tossing a cookie is bringing him back to Earth so he can then do hand touches 🙂 And sit and wait while I put a leash on 🙂>>

That is so interesting – arousal and environment change behavior so dramatically, yet we play sports where the dogs have to execute behavior in high arousal AND new environments…. HA! Makes total sense why things go wrong sometimes 🙂

>>Also we’ve got a couple of “real life” training opportunities in the works. Headed to DataDriven next weekend for UKI on Friday and entered him in one (Starters Gamblers) run in the USDAA trial there on Saturday. This will be a challenge for us…outdoors, next to road, someplace he’s never been….but fully fenced and I’m guessing going to be a pretty small entry since it’s the weekend after Regionals so thinking it’s a good time for us to go play and test the waters. And my sister lives about 45 minutes away so can see her and her husband for dinner 🙂 Then have a couple of AKC T2B runs at AK9C that we’ve entered…I guess you can run T2B FEO 🙂 Any suggestions/recommendations?>>

Lots of great training opportunities! A couple of suggestions for you:
– bring a tripod so you can video even if no one is around to video for you. You’ll want this on video!
– play these various games outside the ring: cookie tossing, tricks, etc. And for the first couple of runs, do them as NFC/FEO and don’t make any changes in terms of putting the reinforcement away, hiding it, etc. Enter the ring with a ball which I think is his favorite, unless the UKI is allowing the food reward box. It is important that the only changes he sees in the first couple of runs are environmental changes – we don’t want to also add in changing placement of reward or running without reward. That is too big of a leap (pun intended :))
– in the ring, play like you would, do all the things like normal on the first couple of runs in terms of rewarding stays, play, setting him up for success. Don’t ask for anything that is not basically perfect in training because the environment makes things sooooo much harder. My first runs are all simple lines with tiny lead outs and jumps and tunnels. I don’t ask for contacts or weaves until the dog is relaxed in the trial environment. If he is running for a ball, bring in a couple so you can throw one and then offer the other to get him to come back faster.

– Gauge his response to the environment – if he looks happy and pumped up? You can ask for more in the middle of the day but then make the last run easy (for when he is mentally fatigued). If he looks stressed – ask for less and get TONS of success. You can even just to tricks at the front of the ring!

AKC has slightly different rules about rewards – they have to stay in your hand. That is a bit more restrictive – so you might need to bring in a toy that is attached to something so you don’t drop it 🙂

The main thing is the goal setting: the top priority is getting him comfortable in the trial environment and showing him (with lots of reinforcement!) what to expect in that situation. The agility skills should be easy peasy. And, we need to bear in mind that our pandemic puppies are starting to learn about the trial environment from a different place in their lives than any of our other dogs – these pandemic pups simply did not have the same exposure, so we need to move more slowly and carefully. Agility skills will easily transfer when the dogs are comfy! And, personally, I don’t even think about the Q until I have a very comfy dogs – which can be a few months down the road.

I also start all of my dogs at a lower jump height (my 16″ jumping dogs start at 12″Select in UKI, for example). That is for 2 reasons: It keeps my competitive drives in check (because I don’t want to move up in Select, I would prefer to do it in Regular so I won’t be tempted to try for a Q before the dog is ready) and also makes the jumping effort easier as the dog learns to function in the environment 🙂

Perhaps I am being too cautious and the dogs will be ready very quickly! But too much reinforcement has no negative fallout, where too much stress could make for hard times for the dog.

Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>> On a side note for the second time today she did weaves (4 or 6 poles) well but when I changed things slightly she started offering other patterns. Wondered if she thinks because I ask her again she was wrong so took her and did a jump then reasked the same thing she failed on and she did it no trouble. is this normal, should I just changed things more so it is less like a repeat at the moment.>>

You might want to change the angle of entry but leave the placement of reinforcement consistent? If she does it over and over from the same angle, she might not want to repeat it the same way.

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
I think both of the sequence videos were the same? But if it was the same question (the wrap) for both dogs – a couple of ideas for you:

On the wrap warm ups, keep moving 🙂 The chase is part of the reward, so always move out of it and have them chase for the reward – it gives the dog a big reason to turn tight 🙂 If the reward is moving on the exit, they will collect themselves better to be ready for the chase. If the reward is stationary, they will not feel as compelled to turn as tightly.
One other thing: When you did it in sequence, I think it was fine to get there early and stand still – one variation is to use the ‘new arm’ (exit arm, if it is a front cross) to cue the commitment (right arm in this case) rather than the arm across your body (left arm, in this case) – that cross arm might feel awkward and it also shows a bit of the slice line. Plus, it is longer to unravel from crossing the arm and start to run again, and it is easier to run to the next line with the inside arm (the arm is closer to the jump so it is easier to run forward). You can see at :37 with Hero that the cross arm ends up causing you to lean in towards him and not cue the jump, so he comes to you. And then on the last rep you moved into it more and it was definitely better! But you can still get rid of the cross arm there and just decel and rotate away – rather than swoosh across the body with the opposite arm.

I think 8-9 looked great! And the ending looked good too, that line is not exactly straight so you will see a little lead change.

Ruse:
She is doing well with the Motion override!!
Yes, keep working it, it is great for her to learn to process while she is running AND you are running 🙂
You don’t need to add a lot of new levels of motion all in one session, yo can proceed slowly with the new motion 🙂 She might need a couple of different sessions on fast walking, then a couple with high knees, and so on – so she can be quick to process. And you can switch up which cues you ask for – that way we know if she is processing the different verbals, or just assuming it is the mat verbal each time. So, at a walk, you can use your mat cue or your sit cue or your trick – keep your motion slow because the processing challenge there is much harder 🙂

Great job here! Let me know what you think! And also let me know if the 2nd video is different and if my computer is being weird lol
Tracy

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