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Good morning!
Wow, what a good boy in the class! There was a LOT going on and he was Mr. Professional. I am so excited by that! It is weird that he had another dog barking at him but I am also glad he ignored it and got cookies. The sequencing looked really lovely!!!! This is exciting!!!! I bet that bringing him to trials and stuff really helped, because he was so focused – that is pretty amazing for a dog who is 13 months old (I don’t think he is 14 months yet, or barely 14 months?) He might be one of those dogs that thrives on the chaos of the trial environment – so fun!!!!
>> I felt like he somehow matured a bit overnight, because he was unshakeable today.>>
Well, big boy classes plus latent learning… his brain is cementing the learning and he is probably feeling a bit of serotonin/dopamine happy brain juice too 🙂
The channels session looked great! He did look at you like you were NUTS on the first countermotion rep but then he had it. the rest looked good! I was literally about to type that you should add more poles and more running and then BOOM! There were 8 poles and running. Woohoo! Good clicking too, lots of left shoulder/pole 3 clicks. Perfect!
For the channels, go to 12 poles now if possible. Keep mixing the challenges around, he is doing great!And yes, 2x2s for the next session are perfect – it is all going to start to have legit weaving soon. If you are tightening the 2x2s and he starts to bounce rather than swim, open them back up a little so we can work towards the swim weaves 🙂
Great job here!!!
TracyGood morning!
I like this set up!!! Plenty of room for him to get the entry and for you to move around. And you had the correct side to start him on on both sides – your right side on the fireplace, your left side on the couch side 🙂 Click/treat for you!
>>So when I’m on the couch side now 9 o’clock I can easily judge left shoulder in.
Yes – I your left side sends (couch side) were all really good, and he is just about at 100% with those. You can totally add on motion (walking towards the window). He was lovely!!
>>The 3 o clock side is my down fall in perception. In trying not to do threadle entries I think I have rewarded right shoulder in which is wrong?>>
That is the hardest part about weave training – we humans have to do all sorts of different things… but the dog’s behavior should be exactly the same every time. My dogs are better at remembering that than I am LOL!!!! It scrambles my brain sometimes, that is why I drink so much coffee 🙂
You were perfect about starting him on your right side (for sends) when you were positioned on the fire place side of the poles.
When you were sending him from your right, you might notice that he was pretty insistent about going to the other side to make the entry (couch side of the poles) – he was correct, the couch side is always the entry side. So when he is on your left when you on the couch side, he goes through 1 and 2. And when he is on your right (fireplace side), he has to go around pole 1 to get to couch side, to go through 1 and 2. That is why he kept trying that at :45, 1:07, 3:31, 4:14, 5:04, etc.There are a couple of ways that I use to keep it straight in my head:
when the dog i on my right, he goes ’round pole 1. (Right Round :))
When he is on my left, he goes through (left through, which doesn’t roll off the tongue as well as right round LOL!!)The other way I remember it is shoulders: left shoulder next to pole 1, no matter when I am (and right shoulder next to pole 2). So when he is being sent from your right/fireplace side, he has to go to the other side to put his left shoulder next to pole 1 and right shoulder next to pole 2. When he is on your left/couch side, he goes through the base to get his left shoulder to pole 1 and right shoulder to pole 2.
Let me know if that makes sense, or if I need more coffee (I might get more coffee anyway haha!)
>>I don’t know what was going outside my window but it was clearly distracting so sorry for the few missed entries because of that. >>
I don’t think he was distracted by the window, he seemed really on task for finding the entries. Good boy!
And no worries about clicking the wrong entry on the fireplace side, he was happy to get the cookies and it will be easy to convince him to go right round when you try it again.
And great job on the left side poles! My fingers are crossed for good weather soon too, I am ready for consistently warm, dry, sunny days 🙂
TracyGood morning! Looks at both of these sessions in a row gives us good ideas for the next steps!
On both of these sessions, she is doing really well in terms of finding the angles of entry, even on the really hard sends you did on the 1&7 angles from the first session. Nice!!!!!
And on the 2nd session with the first base at 12&6 and the 2nd based at 2&8, she also did really well finding the entries.
So since accuracy of entries is not an issue at all (yay!) here is what I think the next steps will be two-fold:1 – The harder angles are accurate but not fast yet, she is tending to think deeply about it and trot to the poles, then pick up steam when she is in and when the reward is moving -so start closer and start to move sooner, also mark sooner to throw the reward and mix in a lot of easy peasy reps from easy angles. I think using the squirrel toy more and doing fewer reps will really help too – end the session before she wants another one 🙂
You can leave the poles at the 12&6 for base 1 and 2&8 for base 2 and see if a couple of sessions increases speed – if not, open up the first base to 2&8 til she is flying 🙂 It might be a residual soreness from the Lyme too, so we can watch for that as well.The combination of high value rewards, super short sessions and more motion will help build up the speed. And we don’t want to add more angle to the poles yet because that is when striding comes into play… and she needs to be going full bore in order to sort the striding. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
2 – On the sends, you can be moving the whole time or stationary the whole time – as long as you don’t wait til she gets the entry and then start to move 🙂 That can cause her to rely on lack of motion to find the entry, so send and move as she is on the way to the entry. Of course, that is harder 🙂 so move slowly as motion might be a distraction.
>> More of this and gradually angling the second set of poles?>>
She will give us permission to add more angle when she is cantering/running to the poles rather than trotting. The change in speed will indicate that she doesn’t have to think as hard about it anymore 🙂
>>Skip a day inbetween pole sessions?>>
Yes, at least a day 🙂 With the new games coming on Monday, I have a lot of disclaimers about now how we have to slooooow down the progressions because the dogs are actually weaving – so we can’t do multiple sessions a day, or even do a session every day. The games for Monday’s package took me 3 weeks to film for the videos. I am sure my disclaimers/reminders will be annoying LOL!!! But yes, go to 3 times a week for weave training now that we are getting the poles tighter and she is doing more bending.
Let me know what you think! Having to slow down the training is a good thing, it means that she is actually weaving 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi!
>>Thank you! We had a good time in Tulsa. The one bobble that made was at the weaves! Good thing we are in this class! I think had we been three clean, we had a high chance of making finals, so it gives us something to work harder for next year.>>
Darn it! So close! Onwards to next year 🙂
>>I was really happy with the spacing between the sets of 2x2s and him collecting even though it’s hard for him
Yes, he was working REALLY hard to find that bend! Good boy!
>> I think it will help in several ways in keep our engagement high.>>
I like the reset cookies or toys for the engagement value too… it allows us to make sure we have the engagement before we send, and we can also control the level of arousal: a quiet deep breath to calm the dog, or a crouched READY READY READY to make him wild 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi! Good boy here! This was a definitely glimpse into his future weaving, yay! He was able to get it when you were not moving til he was in the poles (when you moved sooner on the angled entries, he had more trouble). When you add in the movement, open the poles up a bit more so the poles are easy (because the movement variable might not be easy :)) He is doing a GREAT job on his various angles, and you asked for some difficult ones! Yay!
So when he is happy letting you jog or run while he is heading to the poles, you can start to tighten them up – and that is also when we will look at striding. He looks big enough to ‘swim’ the poles and he was trying to sort it out here a bit but wasn’t 100% sure how to manage that. We will be focusing on striding more in the next games package on Monday, so that will be perfect timing for him!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
>>Yes! Cowboy was self sending a lot (unfortunately). He is starting to understand the game of agility (I think) so waiting is becoming more challenging!>>
Yes, he was like “I got this, let’s go” LOL!!! That is why I use the reset cookies – to reset the dog, yes, but also to buy myself time to be ready to send before they send themselves 🙂
>>I have started using a Cato board for my BC for use as a station (and hopefully improve the starline stays). I think I will try using one with Cowboy as well (he already knows how to use a mat but that is more for outside the ring)>>
You can incorporate the Cato board for when you are shifting the angles of the poles, or when you are changing sides – send him to his board, then call him to you when you are ready.
>>I will also begin adding more motion. I think I got into the habit of waiting because I wanted to make sure my motion wasn’t prompting him to enter the poles. I also like the idea of isolating the harder entries by getting in closer. I will give it a try.>>
The motion shouldn’t be towards the poles (unless you are doing a crazy rear cross :)) so I don’t think he will rely on it as the cue to enter. You can send and stay lateral and head down the line towards the reward, parallel to his line.
Have fun!
TracyHi! She was a very good girl here!!!! Nice job with quick reinforcement!
Now… let’s get the toy lure out of there for the wraps 🙂 And we will build the send (the verbals are easy to add to those when there is value on the send). We can shape it, which will give you a ton more freedom to move up the line and send and all that fun stuff 🙂 You can have 2 toys (one in each hand) and have the wing in front of you – let her offer going around it and then you reward her at your side from your hand. She moves before the reward moves, though, so she offers some movement towards the wing – then the reward can move to build the rest of the drive around, at the beginning. And then you can reset her at the side you just rewarded her on, let her offer movement towards/around the wing, then you reward from the other side.
Start off very close to the wing to get the value rolling without you needing to help her jumpstart the behavior. Gradually wait longer and longer to present the reward til she is driving all the way around – it might happen instantly, or take a couple of sessions, either way is fine 🙂 And when she is driving all the way around, we will add the verbals and also start moving you further away and adding in sending, which will build into this game (adding the jump) really nicely!
You can also separate finding the jump (then throwing the toy) if she has not had experience with that yet. Then we will merge the two back together.
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
OMG Sport at the door was SO funny!
This is going really well. I agree, she caught on really fast and is totally earning her nickname of Fast Forward Ruby (or maybe I will call her Red Rocket Ruby, sounds better LOL!)Yes, in handling, my hand has a magnet to the pup’s nose – that helps me remember to keep my hand down and back when she is behind me, so I am not flailing/flinging and so she can see the connection and find the line more easily.
A couple of ideas to smooth out the parts she had questions:
Try not to switch Santa from hand to hand – I think you have reached the stage where she is going so fast that either you need to leave it in one hand, or stick it in a pocket or down your shirt or something. Switching it is delaying the info, like at :19 where the switching made you late on the connection and cue and that is when she will sometimes jump up.
Good job getting all the verbals out! You can use a left or right cue on the race tracks, those are perfect for that type of turn (HOLY COW she is fast on those!!!! A blur!!!!)The other thing that will help with keeping her on the ground and not jumping up is clarity on the transitions to get the toy back and to deliver it as the reward: you can trade for a treat for a cleaner transition, or you can relax your hands til she releases it (and then reward by giving it back :)) In the heat of the moment it is harder to remember the clean transitions, but she always does better when you do that 🙂
Very nice 2nd full run, such nice connection! And the wrap versus race track versus spin all looked great – wow! This is really exciting! Note that you use a Get it cue at 1:05 – that was great then food transition back from the toy to line up again – very smooooooth! Keep making it super clear for her like that, it really looks great and she is fast and also focused and accurate. Love it!
The last run also looked great!!! You were REALLY emphasizing connection and she responded beautifully. You were a tiny bit soft with the connection (looking a little forward and not at her as much) and stopped moving a little at 1:35 so she lost the line, but the rest looked very clear and she nailed it.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Every day is Christmas with the Santa toy! Ha! This went well. She is really listening AND going fast. NICE! I think the little jumping up for the hand had to do with the cues a little late and not being sure when she had permission to get the toy. When she exited the tunnel at :40, you can already be giving her the next cue so she knows to keep going. You didn’t really say anything until after she got to you so she thought maybe it was toy time. And when you want her to take the toy, use a specific cue – you used get it in the next video and that is perfect!
Her understanding of the different cues looks great and she didn’t struggle when you did 2 tunnels in a row. Perfect!!!Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
This went well!
He cheated on the first rep when you did the blind by self-releasing and I cracked up when he realized the error of his ways and tried to get back on! But it was a good cheat, considering your goal of getting him to drive through the pivot! Also, you said “ok” (the release) but not the ‘paw’ cue when you started that rep, so definitely use your target cue to maintain clarity). The 2nd rep went much better and so did the rest. Yay! I think you had an empty target on almost all of the reps, and that is great – now that the board is going to the ground, we can be rewarding end position decisions without pre-placing the cheese on the target 🙂
Keep adding challenges here, and be super quick to toss the treat back as you did here. When the target is faded from the regular plank, we will eventually fade it here too 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! He was really nice here! It took him a moment to realize we wanted him to just hop on and not go to the target, so definitely keep rewarding him. Good job with your mechanics and your countdown! The only little tweak is to give him his target cue and *then* drop the board, try not to do it at the same time – the slight separation helps strengthen the stimulus control of the verbal because he will predict that the verbal is followed by the movement and driving into position.
He did really well here, so on the next session: no cheese pre-planted on the target 🙂 Give him a cookie for hopping onto the board – then after the countdown and target cue, let him make a decision about going to the position. And when he does… place the reward in then release to the toy.
>>Think that we are going to work on fading the target via your instructions on another board somewhere else.>>
Perfect! I think he is ready for that!
Tracy
Hi!
>>Because he is a pandemic puppy to his core, his party can is an old disinfecting wipes container. >>
That is hysterical! LOL!!!!! I will be chuckling about that all day!
Thinking about this session along the same lines of clarifying reinforcement strategies – have a more sterile environment in that each thing can only elicit one behavior. So just use a wing (which only elicits the wrap and will help with this game) rather than a ‘full’ jump – there are a lot more behaviors associated with the full jump, so that can muddy the water when he is trying to sort out how to earn reinforcement.
And for the reinforcement strategies – when you were helping with the collar push to the wing or wiggling the toy as a lure (like at :17, 1:26, 1:37), he was successful in the wing wraps. But when you were not moving or showing the toy, he was frozen, waiting (1:07). And when you were trying to cue a wrap but you were moving backwards even while rotated but not showing the toy… he took the tunnel (or stuck his head into it or gazed at it for a while LOL!) one all of those: :02, :32, :40, :49, 1:20.
So that is actually an incredibly helpful session for planning!
From the handling perspective, don’t back up:) I think Linda Mecklenburg said it best: backwards motion is still forward motion 🙂 But the handling is secondary to the reinforcement strategies, so let’s focus on those first:
After you develop and name the strategies mentioned in the post above, isolate the wing or upright (no tunnel in the picture) and apply the reinforcement strategy to the wing as a looped behavior:
he is on your side, you send to the wing without a collar grab, he goes to it, you cue the reinforcement action next to you, then cue going back around the wing. You can start with a wingless upright to apply it. You can use cookies or a toy – but don’t lure with physical cues or the reinforcement – let him offer and work out how to earn the available reinforcement. If he has already done it on a different object, it will transfer very quickly.
Try all of the wraps standing totally still and without the collar sending (he had a bit of a body language droop on those) and adding in your verbal for the reinforcement in your hand (not luring with the reward to get the wrap, although you can have him follow the reward to reset his position for the next rep 🙂 ).It will be really important to not use the toys or treats as a lure to get him to come around the wing, because following that movement followed by delivery of the reinforcement only strengthens the focus on/watching the toy or treats… then he is confused when it doesn’t move and when we don’t want him to watch it, so he doesn’t offer behavior in facing of watching it.
And then when he can offer that wrap without the distraction of the tunnel, you can add the tunnel back in and work on the cues for each 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense! I truly believe the clarity of how to earn the reinforcement when it is available in your hands will be a big breakthrough moment for him 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
The party can concept is actually something similar to a game we are going on Friday, so definitely bring it. It has MANY useful elements and applications… but also is not useful for somethings because of the relative inefficiency of the reinforcement. I think his questions here are not about getting the reinforcement *off* your body or out of your hands, but how to earn that reinforcement that is available in your hands. Here is what I mean:So his questions that I am seeing here on the video look to be based on defining his understanding of reinforcement strategies as well as setting up the training environment a little differently.
First, reinforcement strategies… I think his question is as simple as learning to offer a behavior away from you, when the reinforcement is present but not being used as a lure or prompt. So when you had the toy out and moving or thrown early, he would go. But in the absence of that, he was a little bit at a loss of what to do so you got some freezing and some sniffing. And it might also be happening with food reinforcement as well.
So to change that, take this away from the wing and the jump for a bit and do a two-fold style of session, with the main goal being to develop reinforcement strategies that are very clear:Take an object and an easy behavior (like getting onto a dog bed) and shape it, starting close to it but with careful attention to mechanics and in a relatively sterile environment (so there is really nothing else to offer or do):
do a shaping session as a loop and with the main goal to be putting the reinforcement strategy on cue: you are holding the toy, you are near the object. When he offers the barest hint of behavior towards or on it, you will give a clear event marker (like “get it”) and then present the toy to him, from your hands. And the placement of the toy is back on you (and can be at your side, for example) in such a way that when you stop the tugging and take the toy back, it sets him up to immediately go back to offering the thing.The get it is first and then you move the toy – the toy is there and visible (not behind your back :)). Start with a low value toy at first, if this is hard with a high value toy.
In a nutshell, it is ‘if you want the toy, you gots to go touch the thing there then when you hear the get it, come get the toy’.And do the same with food rewards – the food is there, in your hand – he goes to do a thing, you mark and use a ‘get yer cookie’ verbal back at you, then that placement resets him for going to do the thing again.
The goal is that we clarify how and when and where the cookie or toy is available, and the availability hinges on NOT watching or waiting for it to be used/moved to help.
It will be something like this (but perhaps an easier behavior) – this is all 4 feet on the target, and my yesssss means come back and get the cookie next to me (I use a lot of different tones for yesssss because that is something they get used to LOL! but because he is newer to this, try to use one tone).
Then, when you can do a bunch of shaping in loops like this on random things with toys in your hand and toys moving (I have video *somewhere* of the toy moving but I can’t find it) with the reinforcement markers clearly in place… if goes back to the wing and the jump – you will be able to be near a wing and he will be able to leave the cookies or toy to wrap it because he will better understand how to earn them (I have different words for different styles/placement of reinforcement and that helps clarify too – yessssss is from my hands, ‘get it’ is it is thrown at ahead, and ‘catch’ means I throw it back to the dog).
I believe that when that understanding is in place, all of the wing & jump stuff will just come together perfectly. Collar sending him around the wing was getting it going, but I am not sure if he really liked it? And also running/throwing motion was getting him over the jump – but that and also the collar sending was making it all more reliant on motion & handling and I think we are better to teach him the how/when/where of earning reinforcement when there is reinforcement present in the environment.
And second, the sterile environment: I think having the tunnel right there was too much challenge, as the value associated with the tunnel opened up a different can of worms in the how/when/where to earn reinforcement. So as you are working out the reinforcement strategies, do it in a place where nothing else of value can come into play.
Then you will find that the clarity of the reinforcement strategies will be like flipping a switch. Boom! He’s got it, then things move forward rapidly.
Let me know if that makes sense! It is a fun way to help him out and happens quickly too 🙂
TracyHowdy!
He is not quite as excited by the downhills in the new location as he was at home (this is normal), so structure the session there the same way as you did at home – a couple of wild fun toy and tunnel bang game reps, then a couple of downhills to the bottom while he is foaming at the bit for his toy throws.
The rebound game can be done with either of them, and I am really happy to see he didn’t seem to be concerned about it. He was more interested in doing his end position, so keep rewarding fast & furious for that. Yay! And he was shifting his weight to push the board back down without any concern about the movement. Super!!!!
Great job!!!
TracyHi! I love this!!! Really great work here.
I think your first rep of hte bang game was not quite clear on the mechanics but then you smoothed out the reinforcement and release on the 2nd and 3rd reps. Then you lined him up better on the 4th rep so he was basically leaping on and sliding into position at :29 (yessss!) and I am gonna guess that he rather enjoyed the release for the tunneling and the frizzer LOL!!! I know it feels so counterintuitive, but getting the dogs OFF the board often works better than rewarding in position 🙂 Yay!
And then he was fully GAME ON, BISHES when you did the downhills – the frisbee is a game changer now that the pieces are coming together. Super!
So keep working the bang game with you starting him super close to the end, so he gets the love of sliding into position and not taking any steps down the board there. And then mix in some downhills to the ground, with the same high blast rewards. It will get harder to maintain the end position criteria, so it was great to see you taking a breath and assessing here before releasing.
Great job!!
Tracy
