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Hi!
I was great seeing you in the Clubhouse last night! I really like that app, it is like an interactive podcast! So cool!>>I’m noticing spray cheese is such a super party I’ll judge you for your next reward and not come with you to the next obstacle. Running with me has lost some value. So question is did you only use your hot dog party with the teeter or did you transfer it to other tasks?>>
Value is like a pendulum, it swings back and forth. Since the teeter is now his great love, you can go to lower value treats for it… and the spray cheese (YUM haha) can be for jumps or moving with you! And sometimes he gets the cheese for the teeter, sometimes a different treat… keep an eye on that pendulum and adjust as needed. You might find that the teeter loses a bit of value so you go back to cheese on it. That is all totally normal and expected at this stage.
>>searching for the kfc bucket
OMG I have not had KFC in years but now I want to go to KFC hahahahaha
T
Hi there! He looks great!!!
You can go back to having the cookie in your hand for some of these reps – if I remember correctly, you had put the food off to the side because he was looking at you but I think now he is driving perfectly to the end so you can get the cookie in your hand to reward even faster. You don’t have to do it all the time, you can also continue doing reps with the food in the bowl off to the side.The downhills look fabulous and the board is just inches from the ground. So… might as well just go to the next step and let the board go all the way to the ground. It puts you a little ahead of the class, but I that’s fine 🙂 So do everything the same *except* – change the setup so the board touches the ground when he arrives at the end. Exciting!!!
The bang game looks great! You can have the cookie-in-hand for quick rewards here too. And, since he downhill game will be landing on the ground, use the bang game as a warm up for a few reps to remind him of the end position on the ground, before you do the downhills.
Great job!!!! Keep me posted!
TracyHi! Very exciting to see poles 3 and 4 here! He did great!
Distractions are also great, I am glad they happened! It is fabulous to have random distractions in the session 🙂 I mean, I was distracted by the fandom guy watching in the background and had to rewind the video because I missed a bunch of reps haha Presto did well, it appears that he really didn’t lose focus. That is the best part!
The session went really well. Most of the angles were easy peasy. Good click timing! You can add motion to all of that, and I am pretty sure that you will be able to angle poles 3 and 4 pretty quickly too if the motion goes well. The only question, as you noted – the 10 o’clock angle looked hard. That’s good, we would be so bored if he was perfect hahahaha!! You can start closer to the poles on the same 10 o’clock angle to make it easier to find the entry (the further you are from it, the easier it is to miss), and/or start at 11 then 10:45 and then gradually inch your way over to 10 and past it. While you are doing that, you can be progressing the other angles and adding motion and straightening the poles.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
I love that he was able to do the poles moving away from the MM! Happy dance!!!!Most of the challenges on this session went really well with angles and motion. Yes, that left side threadle send from the harder angle was too hard, so be sure that you have a mental count always going in your head. You can call him back for a line up cookie and revisit the challenge on an easier angle, build success, then work your way back to the hard spot. You can also ‘show’ it to him with a right side send there, then show it to him again with a left side entry and see what he does. He did not get frustrated (yay!) but we do want to raise the success rate for these harder angles as that will help him understand them even better.
>>Should I do another session like this with the poles the same?>>
Yes, for the regular sends – but since he had trouble with the threadle side entries, you can those to 2 or 4 2×2 poles to help him isolate it, before going back to channels (those are harder in terms of finding entries because there are more options :))
Another reason to do another session here is that you added more speed, he was having a little more trouble lining up down the channel (centrifugal force!) – you can really see it on the left side entries (11-10-9-8 on the clock) – he was trying to sort out his leads on the entries and then the speed of it all was causing him to carry out to the side of the poles on the other side of you – he was entering correctly but running the line of poles on the side closer to the 3 and 5 poles instead of center. Center is ideal as it will translate to weaving better, so another session will help! And if it doesn’t we will dial back your motion – the poles start to tighten soon, which will also help.
Nice work here! Keep me posted!
TracyHi! I think this went well on 12 poles, which is a really new setup for him. He did great and I agree – I like the acceleration! Wheeee! The only place he seemed to *not* accelerate was on the rear crosses. So on those, use less motion and just walk through it. He just did not seem convinced that he should finish the channel that independently. The other thing you can do is just send him through all 12 poles no motion, you just stand still back at the 10-11-12-1-2 areas of the clock, to build value for leaving you for the full length of the channels.
All of the other stuff where you were moving and your motion supported it was great! You can add in driving ahead more, which brings me to the next question:>>uestion on the serp exit challenge – Do you want the dot to exit and serp with you or do you just run across the end of the poles ahead of them while they continue to the MM/PT?>>
In these early couple of reps, I was clicking the MM so I don’t mind that the dog ended up going to it (you might see the dog was turning to the line then heard the MM so went back to it). As we fade the MM, we will have the dog exit and drive to the reward on the serp line :))
Nice work here! Great start to 12 poles!
TracyHi!
I agree, he did great with both of the challenges here!>>however I have clock dysfunction. I printed your notes but I guess I should have printed a clock to go with it. >>
What I did to make it easier for me was to use those number cones during training, so I could see them and not have to try to remember them 🙂 The PT is at 6, the straight line entry to it on the other side is 12 – and then you can put 9 and 3 out there. Then the ‘normal’ left side sends are all on the 11-10-9-8-7 side of the clock, and the ‘normal’ right side sends are all on the 1-2-3-4-5 side of the clock. It might look like I was actually remembering all that in the early videos, but the reality is the numbers were keeping me in the clock haha! I say ‘normal’ sends because when you are at 11-10-9, you can also do the threadle side sends when he is on your right (and on your left on the 1-2-3 side). But those are less important than the normal sends.
On the first video, great job adding motion (he had no problem) and working on the angles around the clock. So to answer the question:
>>When do you decide to add 2 more poles?>>
If you have had 2 or more high success sessions on the 2 straight poles that have also included motion… add poles 3 and 4 🙂 Remember that poles 1 and 2 open up to 1 and 7 when you do this, so the introduction of poles 3 and 4 is easier. I think he might be ready!!
The tunnel discrimination game was easy for him, the PT is definitely more valuable than the tunnel right now (this would be a good one to play near a teeter….) You can also add challenge to the tunnel set up: have him in your left on the 11-10-9 side so he enters the poles facing that tempting tunnel and has to turn to the PT. And, you can also switch the PT to the other side so he doe the 1-2-3 entries on your right (going in the opposite direction here) and has to find the entry next to the tunnel.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHelloooooo!
This is looking really strong, he is actively finding the entries and using good mechanics to zip into them. Yay! Super session! Next up… add your motion. But as you add motion, clarify your transition mechanics for him: make a clearer transition from the toy to the send. Get the toy, take a moment to get him lined up like you did at 1:09 (he will give you sass, but that is fine, he can have a potty mouth in that moment :)) I mention this because he had a couple of misses in this session and the errors were not weave errors, but transition errors (1:22 for example). That extra moment of line up before the send will get rid of those oopsies and make it easier for you to fold in the motion.If you get a session of motion that looks fabulous like this, from all sorts of different angles… onwards to straight poles at 12 and 6! Wheeeee!
Great job 🙂
TracyGood morning! Hooray for sunshine!
>>I would imagine our motion is a great cue/assist to the dog>>
yes – it is a major cue/assist… and also a big distraction at times.
>plus it’s more fun to do it as a team!>>
1000% agree! So much fun!
Left side sends look good, she is doing well from the harder angles. When you get to the bottom of the clock, send more and run less
Right side sends were great too, she is absolutely nailing the discrimination element of going all the way past poles 3 and 4 to find the proper entry of poles 1 and 2. WOW!!! Love it! That sending is what I mean for the left side – send and you can stand still til she gets it, but you don’t need to take any steps towards it.
This went brilliantly so….. onwards to angling poles 3 and 4! If that goes well (first at 2 and 8, then 1 and 7) I bet you will be able to move to straightening poles 1 and 2 within a session or two.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>>Hes not quick to bring the toy back and he doesn’t release the toy quickly so we’ll also work on that.>>
See above for some ideas – you might see in some of the videos with my biggest pup that I have more than one toy and treats. Yesterday I had 4 frisbees and a stick of cheese during his weave session, it was the happiest day of my pups life hahaha 🙂
This is going well! Those extreme rear crosses and also the lateral distance work are looking GREAT, those will be sooooo useful on course. extreem RCs were good
I think you were stating to move sooner on some of the other challenges, that is good! Keep that up and add in moving even sooner. And also work the little countermotion details in – when you do the countermotion, after you click, you don’t have to turn and face the end of the poles, you can keep moving the other way after the click of the MM. That will really help solidify the independence without the support of your motion.Great job!
TracyGood morning! These are looking good, he seems really unphased by the distraction of the tunnel or weaving away from the MM! Yay!
On the tunnel distraction video –
Toy throws went well! And he found the entries just fine… so now you can make it harder. You were sending him on the 12 to 6 o’clock line, mainly, with the tunnel entry at about 3 o’clock. You can add challenge by moving him around to the 11, 10, 9, 8 clock angles of entry so basically he is entering staring directly at the tunnel (tempting!) but will still need to make the turn into the weaves and exit to where you were throwing the toy.
One thing about words – you were mentioning it in the video and I had jotted a note about it too – for now, I think ‘go’ is fine or a noise. You can use ‘free’ if it is his release word and he was in a stay but if he is not in a stay, you don’t need it – go or the interim cue/noise will be useful there. The one thing I don’t recommend yet is the actual ‘weave’ cue – we don’t put that on until he is actually having to collect into the poles (which will happen when the 4 poles get tighter and also when the channels get more complicated within a couple of weeks).On the second video, weaving away from the MM – the hardest part was bringing the toy back, the weave challenge looked easy 🙂 You can develop a routine using 2 toys or a toy & a cookie: throw one toy, reward him with the 2nd toy or a cookie for bringing first toy back and letting it go. And since he likes to weave, you can also send him to the poles immediately when he drops the toy (you mentioned he doesn’t drop it quickly) – if he realizes that dropping the toy means back into the game quickly…. he is gonna spit that thing out really fast 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>I will do more work to try to increase value of MM separately from this exercise…I need to do that anyway for contact training etc.>>
Yes, plus that value will percolate as the MM gets sandwiched into the other things. And for RDW training, it is going to be easier if he is *less* interested in the MM at first and not wild for it 🙂
>>He is a good tugger yes.
Perfect 🙂
>>He does independent back up great, have done a ton of perch work and platform stuff.
Also perfect! This is such an important skill for awareness, conditioning, warm ups, etc.
>>I do have concerns about his structure and stability however. Hoping it’s just his age…
Teenage boys are not known to be super good with their body awareness 🙂 When you mention stability – that can also be built. I am glad you are taking things slowly, because physical maturity is SO helpful for this stuff.
>>He is just learning to sit square and pop up. Not easy for him.
It seems like such a simple thing, right? NOT simple at ALL!
>>Haven’t done cavelletti with him. What height and spacing do you recommend?
I believe the general rule of thumb is the distance between the cavs should be the same as his shoulder height. And the cavalettis should be super low, 2 inches maybe? Definitely not higher than his wrists. And lure lure lure lure to get him to not rush through it and present good form (this fitness stuff is one of the only things I teach with luring so I can control the speed and form of the dog) When he gets the idea of trotting, you can fade the lure. And of course you can change the distances to get the trotting (and with older dogs, we extend the distance to get more reach in the trotting)
>>When you say big giant hollee roller about what diameter are you thinking?>>
The one I have is about the size of my head LOL! I think it is the XL? But you can also put it up on something for him to snag as he is moving.
Keep me posted!
TracyHi!
>>We have done a bit of driving straight out of the tunnel to a toy. >>
That might also be why she was freezing there – expectation of placement of reinforcement, then she was all like “WHERE IS MY THING?!?!?!” hahaha! Love her!
>>I also noticed that I need to be careful with my feet. If I didn’t step in with the appropriate foot she didn’t seem to understand.>>
Yes! Baby dogs are incredibly literal so you have to exaggerate your steps. But it will get easier (and it reminds me how much my experienced dogs cover me when I am wrong LOL!)
>>I used food specifically because of her arousal with a toy. Which is so funny since initially she wasn’t interested in toys. Now they are manna from the gods. I’ll play around with that some this weekend. We’ll be at her first trial so it will be a great opportunity to work on focus during arousal.>>
Working for the optimal internal states is SUCH a pendulum with young dogs, things can shift quickly and also unexpectedly. And conventional wisdom tells us that food is that way to work through the arousal stuff but I have found that toy play is actually much much better for it and also it helps us learn about the needs of each individual pup 🙂
T
Awesome! Welcome, great to see you here! If anything doesn’t make sense, let me know 🙂 Have fun!
TracyHi! Since this game is all about developing form, it was good to see all the things you played with to see what works best.
Bearing in mind that 10 month old boys are not known to be fully aware of all of the legs LOL!! I think he is doing well here! A couple of ideas:
I like that you shortened it to 5 feet – you might want to start the next session at 4.5 feet and see how it goes. He looks like he will end up being a 6 foot distance dog as soon as he sorts the whole hind end thing (definitely not sorted out yet, but that is NOT a worry, he is really young and this will help :))I see that toys brought more excitement into it, as did your motion. But they also brought less thoughtfulness into the mechanics of how to get through the grid with balance, so a couple of ideas on how we can get the best of both worlds:
The MM is definitely NOT the most interesting thing to him… but you can make more of a reinforcement sandwich: does he like tug toys? You can tug tug tug to increase excitement – lead out to the MM, release, reward with the MM… then as soon as he has swallowed the cookie, throw the toy or play tug. That will get him more excited for this setup in general and will also raise the value of the MM – without him diving into the ground for the toy.
I also suggest moving the MM further away – make it a solid 12 feet past the landing spot of the 2nd jump (so will probably total out at 15 feet) – he was shortening a little because the MM was so close, plus your position out there will make it more exciting to drive to. I think his stay looks really good so you should be able to use that to your advantage here.
And the toy play being incorporated into it will build excitement and that will build speed – that way you don’t have to use your motion. If we install your motion too early, he will focus on your running and not on his mechanics, so for now, keep standing still.
One last idea for using a toy: we don’t want him diving on the toy on the ground, but you might consider getting a really huge holee roller toy – the dogs tend to scoop those as they move through, so there is no slamming into the ground but all the benefits of using a toy (I use one attached to a bungee a lot with my BorderWhippet)
When you added the bar, was that also when you shortened the distance to 4 feet? I think he is old enough to see that low bar, but I we can also see how he does on bumps at the shorter distance.
And, separately, he is a good age for us to start talking to him about his hind end. Three things come to mind: how is he doing with backing up independently? Have you started cavaletti trotting? And I also like to do ‘pop ups” where the dog is in a nice square sit in front of me, facing me, and I have them pop up to get a treat or toy from my hind – popping directly up, not striding towards me at all. That gives a little wake up to the hind end pushing off 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
