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Hi!
>I mentally ran through our training and I FORGOT to teach her a release word. We played the two toy game, and I was shaking the other toy for a release. We skipped a few steps!>
Ha! That is so funny! She is a good girl 🙂
The personal play of the ready game went well! We want her to be engaged with you and ready to go, but also keeping her feet on the ground like she did here, instead of pummeling you. She liked it when you were being crouchy and silly – but she didn’t really want you to move your hands to her face (she backed off a bit when you did that). So keep going with the crouchy, fun bopping back and forth as the engagement before the send.
The sends went really well! She was not entirely sure for the first one or two, but after that she was perfect: driving to the prop then doing a nice snappy smack before turning back to you! You can go to the advanced level and try the sideways and backwards sending.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Using the stay is definitely an option here! You can also put a cookie in a big bowl then reward her for walking away from it… then send her to it to start the blind cross game. That is a fun opportunity to build up some ignoring of place rewards!
She did great from the stays, though! That allowed you to show the blind: super clear connection and she had no trouble finding the new side. Yay! If she will hold a stay long enough, you can try for 2 blinds: do the first blind as soon as she releases from the stay so you have time to do the 2nd blind.
If you are at a trial on any of these weekends, you can ask someone to hold her so you get really far ahead and can easily get 2 blinds in 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
>He has been having some tummy issues with all the treats. I question if Dublin is going through some fear period or something he was a little off yesterday with noise from snowplow and garbage truck in the am and then barking at his own reflection later that night. Today he was barking at the bag I used for the neutral object.>
He might be right at the beginning of adolescence, where we see these sensitivities for sure. The sensitive periods in the brain develop at different times, so it is possible he is in a sensitive period now.
Also, if his GI is off and his belly hurts – he might just be feeling crabby 🙂 I don’t blame him! Also he has had a lot of training sessions so you can take a day off and let him rest and let his belly feel better.
> I had thought about doing an outing for resilience walk but not sure now.>
Let him rest for a day and let his GI system feel better, then you can carry on 🙂
>I hope it is ok but I just combined into one video.>
Absolutely! There were a lot of sessions all from today, and lots in the last few days, so he might be brain-tired and belly-upset. You can do one or two games a day then let him sleep on it 🙂
The 3 cones for the wing wraps went well! You can also use a rolling suitcase or a laundry basket, anything you have floating around is good 🙂 And remember to break things up for toy play so he doesn’t go too long and lose his train of thought (I think that is what happened at the end of that part of the session).
Goat-ing around on the cato board went great too! You had lovely transitions from the food to the toy, and he was super engaged. Later on you did the bone and he did well too, happy to get on it and sit on it, even though it was unstable. You can put several objects around for him to walk all over during his goat games, and even pile them up a bit!
The foot targeting went great! He has developed a lot of value and understanding for that little mat and did great! Lovely transitions into tug here too 🙂
Since this went so well, you can go to the next game where you are sending him to the prop and alternating between handler focus and obstacle focusYou did a great job throughout there picking up the prop or Goat object to play tug, then putting it back down to do more shaping. Super!
Double turns also looked really good: easy peasy!!
For the novel neutral stealth self-control game: based on how close the object was to you and how you were facing him – I am pretty sure he thought you wanted him to offer behavior on it. And that might be why he kept going to the object. So you can do recalls where you are moving away from him and have the object further away so it is not potentially something he thinks we want him to offer behavior on.
For the bag: it is possible he as barking at it because a few things happened. It was at the end of a lot of training, so he might have been mentally depleted (brain tired 🙂 ) and not able to have a lot of self-control on it to ignore it. Also, he sniffed it and something must have smelled weird, because that is when he backed away and barked. So it was fine to pick it up and not worry about it. No need to revisit that weird bag LOL!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>I’ve attended a seminar with you years ago hosted by Blue Ridge Agility Club & it was a lot of fun.>
OMG! Those were super fun! And I am coming back this year, along with Loretta Mueller!
>The videos attached (Hopefully-lol) are our 1st & 2nd try.>
3 videos came through! They had weird link titles like “666” “yes” and “**” LOL! So it might be easier to copy the link from the URL window and paste it into the threadle text post.
Looking at the videos: She is so cute!
On the first video (prop game): you engaged her with the toy and she was interested! But she didn’t actually tug. You can try attaching the toy to a line or another long toy, so you can swing it around for her to chase and grab. She tugged better at the end but attaching it to something to make it longer will get the tug even more easily 🙂
Nice clicks/ treats to get her building value for it! After the first clicks, she totally knew it was about the bag so you can change your reward placement: click then toss a treat off to the side (rather than reward on the bag) so she can run to get the treat, then run back to smack the bag.
Aha! You had the toy on a line for the forward focus game and it went great: she was tugging brilliantly! Her forward focus looked great here too – for her next session, you can show the toy further and let go of the line. If you think she might take the toy and go for a run with it, you can run the other direction and reward with a 2nd toy when she gets to the first one.
And sine she did so well here, you can also add in your movement: running forward as soon as you let her start driving to the toy.
The 3rd video was a 2nd foot target session: you nailed the timing of that first click when she quite clearly lifted her foot to smack the target. She wanted to nose it a bit, so you can wait a bit longer to see what she will do – try not to move or anything, just let her offer something about moving towards it with feet, not her nose 🙂 She might have been waiting for you to help, so this is a perfect game to let her work through offering more behavior when you aren’t clicking or pointing to the target.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>I think I did good with my internal clock, lol! Check out the length of the videos- woot!>
Heck yeah! Impressive internal clock here!!
She was definitely ALL IN for the food in the bowl during the forward focus game! She was great with her driving ahead and hilarious when she stole it as you tried to move her away. Ha! You can add more distance to this game – do you have good weather and can do it outside?
>I’d like to try this with a toy to see how it goes.>
Definitely! You can try it with a toy and see how she does!
She has good value for the prop and was happy to leave you for it. You might have been a shade far from it at first when transitioning from handler focus/ready dance so she was not hitting it quite as well, so moving closer was the right choice. She had a little trouble moving past the send hand (because hands mean cookies!) but she is doing really well in these early stages! You will see more and more independence develop, so keep sending and rewarding like you did here, getting the cookies to the prop when she went to it. When she is driving to the prop past your hand, we can start to shift the reward back to your hand as well.
Wing wraps: This is also going well!
She had a bit of a chain going for a couple of reps: going around the cone to her right (from your left hand to your right hand) then sliding between you can the cone to her left. That likely means she is a righty, so we can adjust things a little to help get the left turns (moving from your right hand to your left hand).On the right turns (your left hand to your right hand) you can add a little distance between you and the cone. Then when she is going to her left (your right hand to your left hand) you can side the cone back in close to you so she can be successful with the left turns. And soon enough, the left turns will be as strong and natural as the right turns 🙂
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Hi!
> We worked on it some yesterday evening and I was able to get more distance and not use as much physical cues. I did a few reps of holding her back but in front of the wing with me behind it and having her go to the tunnel and that helped smooth it out.>
Awesome!!! I am glad it went well 🙂
> I did do some throwing the toy at the end of the tunnel and she loves it. That’s something that I’ve used in training all my greyhounds. It’s always so motivating and relaxing for the sighthounds and I’s so glad that you understand that.>
1000% agree!!! Throwing the toy and also attaching the toys to a line to drag for them to chase is super fun. Then I let them run around with the toy for a bit because honestly, I think that is a big part of the reward for these hounds 🙂 And the moving target game is something that my whippets/lurchers taught me in order to get the best jump! So I am sure Carmen will enjoy the moving target game too 🙂
>We’ve been working the set point too. But I needed to go back and work her happy stay and release some.>
Yes – keeping the stay happy is so important, so take your time building it up.
>I have a 3 day weekend with nice weather so I’m excited to get lots of sessions of all the games in and will video.>
Fun!! I am looking forward to more! Have fun!
Tracy
Hi!
>I’m not sure if YouTube will take out the volume because the radio is on in the background, but we’ll just assume my verbals were also amazing on this one.>
Ha! Youtube left the music in for now 😂 And your verbals were good!!! Especially on the GO – check out that gorgeous connection as you said the verbal directly to him. Then he left you in the dust, driving to the jump. Click/treat for you both!
Looking at the set point: what is the distance? Might be a little too short for him, maybe add 6 inches and we will see what he says?
Also, start him right up close to jump 1, about 6 inches away, so he does not have room to tap his front feet down again after the release: we want him to plyometrically push off from his rear only for jump 1.
Also, he is ready for the moving target instead of the stationary reward. The stationary reward plus starting him further from jump p1 are causing his rear to be high over jump 2, as he kind of dives on the reward. But if the target is moving and he is close to jump 1, he will be coming in on his rear better AND use his rear better between the jumps (because he is not planning to stop to get the reward, he is preparing to power through for another couple of strides.
And well done rewarding and maintaining his stays! Super!
Great job here 🙂
TracyHi!
>So for the “Wind in our Hair”, I should be rewarding any time she goes over the “jump”, but not if she comes with me and goes around it, correct? >
Yes – reward for finding the jump, even if it is a delayed find 🙂 The delayed find could be that she is looking for more connection, or still building value for the jump – all good! And if she misses he jump once or twice, you can ramp up the connection and/or slow down the motion to see if that helps her.
>I didn’t try the more advanced distance, or staying behind as I want her to be a bit more solid with focus forward while paralleling my path. >
And when you do add being a little behind, you can throw even sooner, or sometimes place the reward depending on the distance.
>Here is our “Smiley Face” session from this morning. She surprised me! >
Team Jazz rocked it!!! Wowza!!! Your connection and line of motion really helped her, and it was great to see her commitment foundation start to come together here! Yay!
>I think my spacing for the wings in relation to the tunnel may have been off. Didn’t seem like a great line for her, but she got it. I>
Seemed like it looked good!
>I also noticed that I’m still blocking the wing and pointing. I’d like to smooth it out; looks like I kind of race to the end of the tunnel and then step and point for the wrap so there’s a lot of stop and go. What’s the best approach for breaking that habit?>
That was going to be my only suggestion: point back to her and let your hand move with her nose, rather than point ahead. I don’t think you were blocking the wings, but pointing might have made it feel that way?
Two ways to break the pointing habit:
– you can think of having magnets on your fingers that are going to pull to her eyes:
– you can run with an open bottle of water in your dog-side hand and don’t spill it!
This is how I stopped my pointing habit 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hello and welcome back!!
He is happy to be back working – the Wind In Your Hair game looked great!!! He was happy to wrap and totally drove to the jump! Super! Since this went so well, keep adding distance between the wing and the jump – and you can add more of your speed too. When you are ahead and running, it challenges him to find the jump and not jut chase you. And, you can start at the wing and stick close to it – then start running forward when he exits the wing wrap. That challenges him to drive ahead even more.
Set point is off to a great start! He did well sorting out one jump to the target. And he also sorted out the structure of the set point, especially the stay-til-released part (that was his least favorite part LOL!!)
Since he is moving really well through this setup, it is time to add the moving target from the pre-game (slowly dragging the reward rather than using a stationary reward). That will help him set his rear between the 2 jumps even more: with the stationary target, he is primarily sorting out how to stop so you can see the weight shifting out of his rear. The moving target will get a strong push off between jumps to get a really powerful form 🙂
>I had the jumps 4 feet apart which I thought was correct for him, but it seemed maybe a little hard so should try them closer?>
How tall is he now? I think the 4 feet seemed good for now and adding the moving target will give us an even better idea if whether it is the right distance or not.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>Could I try a dead toy without me hanging on to part of it? He enjoys retrieving. Or will I need him to target the end of the toy (on a rope) for this and future exercises?>
For jumping exercises, we will want something you can drag while you are moving, that he will look down at to grab. If you have a toy that he will do this with – great! If not, we can try a food based toy.
He did really well finding the jump here and he was definitely loving the wrap too! He was trying to start without you on those LOL!
>I feel like Skizzle sometimes responded to the verbal for the wrap and was mostly eyes forward over the jump. >
Yes! He was beginning to go to the wrap on the verbal alone (yay!) and was definitely eyes forward to the jump. Super!
>I stalled out at barely walking towards the jump (vs. running). >
I think this was mainly because you didn’t have a lot of room. This game can totally go outside and you can use a ball or thrown toy as the reward. And it will give both of your room to drive up the line and let him feel the fun of driving ahead of you.
Great job!!
TracyYou and Ender were Rockstars here!!! Super session!
His tug drive looked great and he drove ahead brilliantly. You can throw the toy further and further, so he can learn how to get ahead of you 🙂 Throw it as far as you can, then let him leave you in the dust 🙂
I wonder what he would do with this toy game if you went back to it after a very short session with cookies? It is something to try, to see if he will play with a toy again after treats!
His sends to the prop were also great! He was able to do it with precision in both directions, and that is unusual! Usually the pups have a strong side and a weak side, but he was strong on both sides. Super!
My only suggestion is to add a bit of the ready dance to ramp him up and put him into handler focus, so the send shifts him to obstacle focusYou can also go to the next steps with the sideways sends and also the backwards sends.
Driving you and decel look great too – you can go to the next step here as well, by adding more movement as he is getting the start treat, so he accelerates then see deceleration when you slow down. I think he is ready for you to add the pivot here, just remember to keep your cookie hand nice and low for him to follow.
Great job on these!
Tracy
Hi! You’re on the right track here! He is still learning to find the tossed start cookie so it ess hard to predict when he would start moving back to you. But when he did, he drove to ypur side really well! My only suggestion is to get your cookie hand lower- knee level or below – to keep his lower jaw parallel to the ground, or just pointed slightly downward. That make it easier for him to deceleration.
You can also add in moving faster as he gets the start cookie, then the moment he starts moving towards you, let him see you slow down so he can prepare for the decel into your side.
He might only need one or two reps of that, then you can add the pivot (definitely keeping your cookie hand nice and low there too).
Great job!!
TracyHi! Well done to you for making that smooooth transition so he never noticed the collar! The game went GREAT. Focus forward was lovely, he was happy to be held, and he was not bothered by you moving. You had excellent mechanics which make all this good stuff look easy. Click/treat to you!
The next step is to throw the toy and let go of it, and you can run too. If he gets there ahead of you, you can encourage him to bring it back and not run off by doing a front crosd and run the other way. Doing this indoors will let us know what he does when he gets sole possession of the toy 🙂 so we can plan for outdoors to avoid potential taking off with it 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! Well done to you for making that smooooth transition so he never noticed the collar! The game went GREAT. Focus forward was lovely, he was happy to be held, and he was not bothered by you moving. You had excellent mechanics which make all this good stuff look easy. Click/treat to you!
The next step is to throw the toy and let go of it, and you can run too. If he gets there ahead of you, you can encourage him to bring it back and not run off by doing a front crosd and run the other way. Doing this indoors will let us know what he does when he gets sole possession of the toy 🙂 so we can plan for outdoors to avoid potential taking off with it 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
