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Good morning!
>> Should I be looking for any more speed before I add more tip or is trotting without hesitation what I am looking for to progress?>>
Good question! Watching when you run ahead, he is lifting his head a little early on the first rep with you running then was much better on the 2nd rep with you running. There is enough of a speed difference that we want more speed before adding more tip, so an idea: I think you can structure the sessions to get both the head down on that first rep and more drive across the board when you sending.
2 ways to do it:
One hit wonder send for insanely gigantic reinforcement – even if he is not running on that first rep, if you do enough of these with sending he will soon be frothing at the bit to be sent across the board (stay tuned for videos of me walking around with a giant tub of cream cheese and a knife LOL!!). Yo ucan start with less tip then work back up to more tip.
and separately, with the tip you have here: do all the driving ahead, moving, running reps for good rewards, but no sending at this tip so he doesn’t rehearse trotting. We can treat them like 2 different elements then merge them back together at some point 🙂 This is the one obstacle that hinges on confidence so if he shows us any questions, we detour into the confidence zone and then eventually rejoin the original route (all 3 of my youngsters have taken those detours LOL!)Uphills – I think you will start to see more weight shift when the teeter gets outdoors because you can both move more. And yes, super clunky as you mentioned in the video, that might be holding him back. I have added some towels and a tunnel bag to help de-clunk the teeter a bit and then fade them back out. So you can get creative with de-clunking it a bit especially indoors where it is probably a bit louder too 🙂
So for now, stick with this tip (8″ is pretty significant) on the uphills and when you are ahead on the downhills – you’ll probably be able to add more later this week. I think he has reached the stage where we chill at one tip for a while until it is almost too easy… then we work in more 🙂 Plus, if you have a chance to get teeter outside, I think that will move things along because we can add in NEMO MAGIC (the addition of toys was the game change into massive teeter love for 2 of mine too). Fingers crossed for Nature to be cooperative!!!
And for the sending – dial it back in terms up tip and number of reps, but dial up the reinforcement into frothing at the bit insanity (it was cream cheese and peanut butter for my beasts LOL!)
Nice work!!!
TracyI was going to ask but forgot so thanks for reminding me: in the weaves, what do your other Aussies do, bounce or swim? (I think they are both Aussies, yes?) We are getting ready for do weaves for REAL so I am making plans for the big dogs 🙂
T
Good morning!
He did nicely here!!! I think all the challenges looked good – adding motion, extreme rear crosses, running the other way right at the end – so the only real question was about reinforcement value and placement. He was not necessarily incorrect to do the tight wrap of the exit but it would be nice if you could reward back there LOL! So when training with high value like chicken necks in your hand, you will need to “up” the value in the MM so it can compete again the chicken necks. I juice up my MM treats by mixing in stinky stuff (I had freeze dried tripe in there with the kibbles for a while – ewwwwwwww gross smelling but the dogs were happy 🙂
On the 12 poles, I think you can move the channels in closer – not quite close enough that he is really bending or weaving yet, but closer so he is running through with the poles right next to his shoulders.
The channels track is going nicely! You can shift focus a bit so that you are closing up the poles on the 2x2s and that will lead nicely into the next set of games (April 5).
Have fun! Great job!
TracyGood morning! Lots of great stuff here!
On the videos:
Targeting on the plank 1 and 2 – he is getting the idea of the 2o2o!! Nice!!! So now we can move forward with it to help him watch you less and be more independent: on the next session, start in front of him so he doesn’t curl into you at all. You can be kneeling like you were but directly in front, even holding the target, so he can step into position. When you were kinda in front in that first video, he was already straighter on that first session
For the targeting resets before each rep, you can toss a cookie on the release, but then have a clearer reset onto the board. This will help us begin to be able to add the explosive step into position (which is where the weight shift comes from) and the stimulus control of the cue – this will replace having him in a stay and then coming across the board, or offering it after the tossed cookie. Have him stand on the board, get him excited…. then let him offer (holding the collar then letting go of the collar is the easiest way to get this rolling). When he is really happy doing it with you in front, we start to move you off to the side – that should happen pretty quickly because in the second video, he was able to do it with you standing.
When you are standing, continue to add challenges gradually, with a little motion, but now add 2 things:
– your feet can be anywhere you want them to be as he is moving into target position… except next to the target LOL! Let him sort it out with your feet a step behind, a step past, a step laterally… but never next to the target to be sure that he is definitely not cuing off of your foot position.
– And the other thing is to toss the treat back to the target or drop it in from above a lot – rather than place it there. Tossing or dropping it in will allow you to build value for the position while you are nowhere near it and he will look at you less.When adding motion past the board, be sure to that keep moving for at least 2 more steps after he stops (we all get into this rhythm of decel and stop as the dog is stopping, and then the dog cues off that). So even if you are barely moving… keep shuffling forward for at least 2 more steps 🙂
Backing up – good boy! The foundation you’ve already done with this is transferring nicely! I think you will be able to get more distance and less turning around if you reach in to feed him in position when he backs into it (then release forward) rather than drop the cookie forward. And the cookie in position will build more value for being in the magic spot. Next session can have a little more height to the board – this is more important than distance away from it 🙂
Uphills – He was moving up the board nicely on this first session but also shifting his weight back a bit earlier than we need him too (he was shifting just past the pivot rather than at the end of the board). We can see that more on the 2nd video with more tip (which is totally normal and almost all the dogs do that at some stage) – but also because he was slowing more in that session and bailing, that is when I go into those One Hit Wonders: a single rep for incredibly high value reinforcement (you’ll start to see some demos of me walking around with a giant tub of cream cheese LOL!!)
He was happier on the third video but still thinking about finding the tip and a bit of avoiding getting on the board – so definitely go into “think less, teeter more” mode with single rep sessions for a single gigantic reward 🙂 For example: tugging with him before seems to help him get excited (at the end of the video here) and you can use a giant meatball glued onto the target with peanut butter (or some similarly amazing reward) – do one rep with slightly less tip than here and with you moving along the board slightly ahead of him (he seemed to like that the best), then tug… and that is your entire uphill session. He is going to want more, you are going to want to do more but you need to resist LOL!!! You can come back and try it a few hours later, for one more rep.
That can go on for a couple of days til you see a shift: he will be driving all the way up into the contact at the top and he won’t be avoiding or looking for the pivot – then you introduce more tip but still with those high value one hit wonder sessions 🙂Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Ah yes, it is helpful that he doesn’t really give too much of a care about the tunnel yet LOL!! Did you see the big weave/tunnel discrimination at AKC Nationals on Friday?
On the tunnel sends, stepping in really helps him – you can make the tunnel more valuable and tempting by moving the PT over so it is halfway between the tunnel exit and the weave exit (when he is on your right at the beginning of the video) – that way the PT is not lending value to one over the other, and you can reward the tunnel with the PT too 🙂He did perfectly well with straight poles and also on the most tempting angles. Yay! I am very confident his generation of dog will see this challenge in the ring A LOT so I am glad he is doing so well!!!
If you can to add challenge without a tunnel… replace the tunnel with an empty food bowl or a jump wing and eventually… the Nemo Ball
Great job!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>> He was measured the other weekend as a solid 19″. Weighed him the other day and he is still just 31.4 lbs>>
19″ is a height that can usually be fine for swim weaves. Do you have a photo of him next to Nikko, so I can look at body length? You’ll see more about striding next week but if we see striding we don’t want, we take a striding detour to get what we want. Some swim striding is NOT good for big dogs but it sounds like he is big enough.
>>Obsessing is what makes agility EXTRA fun>>
Turns out it actually did not require much obsessing at all, the dog immediately picked it up. Good to know, so I can go back to obsessing on other things LOL!
>>base 2 is poles 3 & 4? Just checking if I’m supposed to add a little more angle to the new set of poles before going more straight with poles 1 & 2?>>
Yes – base 2 is poles 3 and 4. Before closing poles 1 and 2 back up, we introduce the concept that poles 3 and 4 are also going to angle (to 2&8 and then to 1&7). This usually happens pretty quickly, at which point we reset poles 3 and 4 to 3&9, and poles 1 and 2 go straight to 12&6. So many numbers LOL!
On the video:
He was super good about continuing to drive through, especially considering that there was no reward target out there! Nice! His head position made it appear like there was a target out there, but you said there was no MM – maybe there was something else but dang I really like how he is looking forward (we have to fade that MM anyway, so he is going to have an easy time with that).I really liked the bend-away challenge with handling at :58 – hard but useful skill!
I think the harder entries were more about motion distraction – when he had questions you were moving faster. And when you didn’t move much, he was much better. So you can fade motion in more gradually on the harder entries – mainly, I think it will help him if you move immediately… but slooooowly 🙂 So he is seeing motion as he is making a decision about the entry. The easier entries can have all the running, but the harder ones can start with an immediate walk then build up to more speed.
And yes as you mentioned: you can do those harder angles on 4 poles, so the only new variable on the hard entries is the motion. You can start the session with hard angles on 4 poles, then move to the faster/easier entries on 8 or 12 poles.>>d I saw him make some nice stride corrections to stay in on entries>>
YES! I saw some striding moments that looked really good!!!!
>>But, my oh my, my “weave” noise cue totally drives me crazy when re-watching my videos – I have to take that down a half octave!!!>>
Ha! It doesn’t bother me at all! And we will be adding the actual real verbal soon enough. YAY!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! These are marked private, can you change to unlisted?
>> it doesn’t look like you replied, but then all of a sudden it appears like 8 hours later. I edited that previous post several times, and no reply appeared.>>
Sounds like the server or your browser was not updating and maybe using older cookies? That is weird for it not to appear, it was posted a little before 12:45pm.
Good morning!
Wow, I am glad you did bloodwork and found the Lyme! The good news with dogs is that the doxy course will be VERY therapeutic and she will be feeling better very quickly.
I think the session went pretty well – she did have questions about the really hard entries – those 3 and 9 are the hardest, which is so counterintuitive because it feels like 7 and 5 should be harder LOL! But, all the dogs agree: 3 and 9 are harder. Who knew?
The set up is particularly challenging and also if she was feeling poopy, the bending was probably not feeling great. I think the lotus throws were fun for her! You can have the MM out there as a big visual and use the lotus.
When she is feeling better and the rain goes away, go back to this setup but do a very happy-making session of all easy entries, lots of speed, and lots of toy/lotus throws. We want to be sure that any ouchy feelings from the Lyme don’t bleed over into the weaves, so a happy happy session of easy entries is definitely on tap! She has been doing wonderfully with the hard entries so I have no concerns about her learning those – so it is fine to leave them alone for a bit 🙂
Then when things dry out and when the doxy kicks in fully, we will be able to start closing the poles. Question: how tall is she? We are going to begin looking at striding and with the big dogs, we can help them decide on the bounce striding or the ‘swim’ striding. It really comes down to height, length, structure, so I am begin to think about that for all the bigs 🙂Enjoy your weekend! Fingers crossed the rain isn’t toooooo bad!
THi!
Ah, the magic of chicken necks! He definitely had to think about it a bit at first, it was hard to tell if he was concerned or if there was not a lot of motion at first so he was holding back. But either way, he definitely sorted it out and was happier and faster by the end. I suggest staying at this level of tip for another 2 sessions and then if he is happy with it – we add more tip. He is progressing nicely!For the plank work: when tossing the treat back, aim for between his front feet. You can be in any position (to the side, behind, ahead) – if you are ahead, face forward as if there is another obstacle ahead rather than face him. Start it without motion and then eventually we will add in motion. And when you toss the treat, he is allowed to move to get it (which is why I use my ‘catch’ cue because the dog knows it is coming to him and he can move, but he looks at where it will land :))
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! I think this is going really well and there about to be some seriously boring feedback LOL!
On the bang game, since end position is on board – remember to wait til he is fully in end position before moving the cookie. The cookie was moving a little early on some of the reps, but that is probably a bit of habit from the first steps of the bang game. You can start adding in challenges now – cue the spot behavior then walk forward, walk laterally, do a cross, tap dance, etc 🙂
The mountain climbers look great, not surprisingly 🙂 Only one suggestion: more tip. Ha! He is ready for a little more tip to it, continuing with the end position. He might dangle his little feets over the edge when he is doing the real teeter, but probably not hook them over quite as much? The hooked over feet were probably because he knew he was gonna be there for a minute so he was relaxing LOL!!! But a tiny bit of hanging over the edge is PERFECT.
Great job here! We are making solid progress and move games come tomorrow that build these even more 🙂
TracyHi! These are looking good!!
On the plank to disc game, the plank might be a little too unstable? A slightly longer plank might
work better, or angling it so she can full stand on the disc. Placing yourself at the end really helped her balance, so defintiely keep doing that – and when you go back to deliver the cookies, feed with her head lower, more towards the center of her chest. Try to get her to reach down and a little back to get the treat – you were lifting her head a little which was causing the balance to be harder (like at 1:50). She was getting really good about balancing and stopping! Yay! So it is just a matter of tweaking the setup and reward placement to see if you can get her to rock back a little more.Uphill to 12″ drop: this seemed strong with all the challenges! Super! She is pretty fearless on these games 🙂 It might be harder when you add more motion outside, but you can definitely add more tip to this game here, just a little bit more 🙂
The downhills also seemed really good, she is moving through the pivot very directly and shifting her weight nicely at the end. She just has a lot of confidence driving all the way through the board, I love it!!! You had more motion here and she was still solid with her running down the board. So…. add a little more tip here too 🙂 Yay!
Great job! Things are coming together really nicely!
TracyHi!
Looking at the end position – I think you were too helpful LOL! You were trying to get the treat in really fast, so he was looking at you and kind of waiting for that as the cue, rather than offering the position. So let’s switch gears a little – start by letting him offer the position, without you being too exciting to get him into it. And then when he can offer the position, you can add more excitement. About the reinforcement – definitely delay the movement of your cookie hand until he is most definitely stopping into position (rather than moving it in towards the target before he arrives there). When he does arrive in position, you can deliver it but you might find that it is easiest to toss it to him. The TT out ahead can help – and you an use it sometimes rather than all the time. For example, when he hits & holds position, you can either toss a treat to him, or hand deliver it, or release the click the TT. Mixing it up will make it easier for the TT to get faded. And one other thought – I think the clear target on the ground might have been confusing him as to where to put his feet. You an put that target right onto the edge of the plank, that can help him keep his feet on the plank for the 4-on behavior. That target can eventually be jutting out from the underside of the teeter but it that case, it should not confuse him as to where to put his feet.
Let me know if that makes sense!He was fabulous on the downhill games, he really loves those! So….. add more tip 🙂 He didn’t seem to change his behavior at all with any of the challenges you added, so I think you can go to a smaller box.
Great job!
TracyHi!
So this uphill video was after he did toy races and was playing frizzer? He was fast and focused, aroused but not over-aroused. Perfect! I agree, he did not love you facing him – but that is fine because we really don’t ever need you to be facing him at the end of the board so we don’t need to really work through it.
My only suggestion is that as you get him off the board, ask him to hop off the center then get rewarded so he doesn’t get reward for leaping off over the yellow on the end that touches the ground – that might come back to haunt you later on.Otherwise… onwards to more tip on this one!
End position – I think you can warm up each session by having him leap into target position from the side with you hanging a little back, then go to the sending ahead (with you hanging back), then standing further away, or ahead of him. You can be anywhere standing still… except for right next to the target 🙂 Keep throwing the rewards in like you did, that was VERY helpful for him!
It looks like he needs a couple of sessions of doing this with you in different positions without motion before we add motion in – when you were moving, he was watching you more than he was targeting. When he is highly successful without motion, we can add motion back in.Because this has been hard in the past, you can try 2 things that might help:
– a bigger more visible target – maybe raise it up on something like a bowl that has been turned over?
– a MM out in front, 4 or 5 feet away, to sometimes reward him from (release then click it) so he looks ahead and not as you as much 🙂Once he gets it sorted out and we ad motion, it will be easy to blast through the rest of the progression 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>you are already calling me out on my bad habits.
We all have habits that are hard to see or feel in the moment but are clear on video. I try to leave in some of my big bloopers in the demo videos so you can keep me honest about my bad habits too LOL!
>>I like your play more than the time the work takes and the reminder that it will start getting warm. I have always been bad about cramming much into one session although we take many breaks. >>
I feel that! With each new puppy, I set a timer on my phone and then force myself to stop, even if the puppy wants more.
>>I work on set ups for my upcoming classes as she runs around and plays on her own. Yes, it is really hard to remember she is only 5 months old!!>>
Yeah, she is a mature little one!!!! And she might be tiring herself out running around – My 2 youngsters chill in their crates while I am setting up and the adults get to run around… which of course gets the baby dogs VERY pumped up for their turns 🙂
>>I have been working from home since last March. My job was eliminated at the end of this February. It has been great (puppy, goat kids, spring time). But I expect there will be a new job soon and it won’t be from home. Everyone will be in for a shock and my habit of cramming tons of stuff in when I have time will be more of an issue!>>
It has been a crazy year for working… sorry to hear about your job!!! Fingers crossed for a new one very soon. I know you will be fine with balancing all the things. I try to get one training game played each day, then a different thing the next day, and so on – that has helped me not lose my mind trying to work and train 3 young dogs 🙂 And also a lot of self-forgiveness if I decide to just chill and not train *anything* 🙂 All of the training will come together very quickly with your little spitfire so you might find it easier to not worry about getting it all done as life gets busier 🙂
T
Hi! Welcome to puppy class 🙂 I think a lot of the games here will build up skills that will definitely work on the stuff you want to improve! We might also find questions she has about things in the foundation – we evolve foundation training with each new generation, so her generation is likely to have questions about stuff we didn’t know we were supposed to teach them LOL!
Jumping and wrapping efficiently and backside wrapping are all linked. We don’t really look at conditioning in this class, so be sure that you have a lot of plyometric conditioning going for her and also core strengthening – those are the two big things that help improve jumping efficiency 🙂 But otherwise, we will act like she is a puppy and see what helps her!
On the set point – I think the distance between the jumps was fine! For now, drop the height of the 2nd jump down one more notch, until we see the striding more fully. She was organized on her release and on her step in between the jumps. She was a bit ‘ass-over-teakettle’ (do they have that phrase in NZ?) over the 2nd jump on some reps, meaning her bum was higher than her shoulders. That could be happening for any number of reasons (or combination of reasons):
– the MM was a little too close, so she was shortening up to have room to land. Try to MM placed 4 metres from landing of the 2nd jump, so she has room to land fully and then take a nice long stride to get to it.
– she was trying to sort out how to jump efficiently! And that is good 🙂 I think she did her best with her head down when you were at the MM and a little low, not moving. So keep placing yourself out there and she will get it sorted out. We can also eventually use a toy there instead of the MM.
– she might not have the plyo or core strength to control the arc. That is why we sometimes see the over-jumping you describe, and also why they can’t figure out how to wrap efficiently. A lot of these games here will build that naturally 🙂I think the catch rewards will definitely help her with the stay! And the stay is useful here because it gives you both a moment to get sorted before she starts jumping.
On the wrapping – good start here! I think she started offering behavior on the foot of the jump because your position and placement of reinforcement was pretty close to it, so she was building in proximity to the jump foot as part of what you wanted. Plus she might not love having you that close and facing her, so she might have been backing off completing the turn. But, we can solve both by changing to a wing and having you stand 🙂 When you reward, I think you should take off and run for her to chase you – that is one of the ways we convince the dogs to turn tightly: chase da momma for reward! You will see more of that in the other games but for now you can give the cue for the wing, and when she is wrapping it – do a front cross and have her chase you for the reward.
You can throw the toy ahead as she catches up to you (saves your hands) then trade her for a cookie or another toy so you don’t get annoyed trying to get it back 🙂 But it that is still hard and you are getting your hands chewed – use big chunks for food, but still run and throw them.Let me know if that makes sense! Great job here!
Tracy
