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Good morning!
>>Oh! I found video footage of you telling me to use clear verbal markers for the 1,000th time:
>>Bwahahahahahaha!!!! Bear in mind that I tell myself to plan and use clear verbal markers only about 10,000 times a day an that “YAY!” is not actually a real marker hahaha
>>Do you have any advice for revisiting running contacts while also teeter training? I am concerned that both behaviours will degrade once I try to put them back together.>>
I lean towards chocolate in these situations, to help temper the stress.
Oh you meant a *training* idea hahaha. I train all the things concurrently, so it helps me keep me eye sharp for criteria and habits strong for me and the dog. The dog walk versus teeter versus a-frame can eventually go into speed circles: jump-frame-jump-teeter-jump-dog walk. That way you can reward the specific behavior on each one and River gets to practice seeing them in a sequence.
>>I don’t remember if I told you before, but I model all of my feedback to my high-schoolers after your feedback style. >>
Wow, thank you for that! I model the feedback on what I learned from music teachers when I was a student, and from when I was teaching music too. So I owe a lot of the music teachers of the world – there are sooooo many similarities 🙂
>>I am looking forward to seeing you in person again some day. Can’t wait for the next course.
Same here! Someday the world will get back to more normal and the borders will re-open and we can meet for training and ice cream 🙂 Can’t wait!
Great job with your girl here – she is going to have quite an amazing teeter in the trial ring!Tracy
Hi! He was a good boy on these, they are really hard. I am happy with how he found that entry from so far away from you! Yay!! One suggestion for the exits: that last bounce to the last gap between the poles requires him to NOT look at you (and not look at the toy :)) so you can help him out in the early stages by tossing the toy back to where he would need to exit, rather than reward from your hand. The toy in your hand is more of a ‘proofing’ challenge, which you can go to after he has a higher success rate on these. The toy through back to where he needs to exit will help you add more motion because he won’t look at you as much. Then you can easily add it back to coming from your hand as a proofing game.
>> It was set up to practice a nice threadle exit.>>
Semantics: it is technically a serpentine exit. Replace the last weaves with a jump bar laid perpendicular to the set of poles and it will make more sense as a serpentine. Agility people like their names and words, after all haha!! The threadle is more about the entries: when he is facing one end of the poles (like the backside of a jump) and you need him to squeeze himself between you and the *other* side of the poles to get the entry (like coming in to take the front side of a jump on a jump threadle).
Nice job here! It is really cool to see him nailing 12 poles so that you can work on fancy handling 🙂
Tracy
Hi! I like to warm up the dogs before training with a bit of trotting/jogging for a few minutes, then some active stretching, then some explosive behaviors right before they work. It depends on what I am going to be asking them to do, so the warm up is more intense if the work is going to be harder.
Tracy
Good morning!
>>How is she doing on this? I have been more focused on the entries and getting her through. I am not doing channels because I don’t have any.>>
She seems to be doing well with the striding! You will see it more when the weaves are straight and closer, so that she has to stride in the sets pretty rapidly.
>>At a place where I can rent the ring, the poles are stuck into the turf. This is not my usual training facility. Why do they stick them into the turf?>>
Do you mean it is a normal looking metal base that is nailed into the turf, or taped down? That is standard practice because larger dogs can move the weaves when they go through them. I will either nail the poles down if they are on dirt or grass, or use heavy duty carpet tape to keep them in place on artificial turf.
There are ‘stick in the ground’ poles that don’t have a metal base, but I don’t use them because they can be too flimsy and easily moved for the big, fast dogs.
>> Do they work any differently? I didn’t look closely the first time I was there, but am assuming I can pull a couple of poles out of the turf? I only have 6 poles with which to work.>>
If they are stick-in-the-ground, you can pull them out and move them pretty easily. It is harder to move poles that are nailed in or taped down.
Tracy
Good morning!
>>When she missed the entries, I didn’t think I should give her a treat when I called her back to me.
Think of it as a treat to get her lined up for the next send – not a treat for the missed entry 🙂
Getting her lined up will really help boost success because she will have a smooth transition into the weave entry.T
Good morning!
I am glad you enjoyed the class! It was really fun to watch you train Cowboy and see him sort it all out 🙂 He is SO FUN!
And I love the video – he is turning into a great agility dog. I love your connection to him on course – just lovely! I am looking forward to seeing you two on course at trials someday 🙂Hope to see you soon!
TracyHi!
Hope you are having a good holiday weekend!>> I assume the sequences on 6 poles you mention here are the ones under the “Find ’em Track: 2×2 heading?>>
The most recent ones with the straight poles in sequence are here:
https://agility-u.com/lesson/find-em-track-2x2s-game-5-mini-courses/
and can eventually be expanded to 12 poles too!Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>>I hadn’t noticed the difference in left and right turns or lack of head turn.
That is the joy of being able to stare at the video a few times in a row LOL!! It is hard to see in the moment for sure, and then sometimes when editing videos of my own dogs, I don’t really see things as well either.
>>is the head turn game where you were word as soon as they turn away from you on a barrel or cone or wing?
Correct – it is the double wrap where you cue the 2nd wrap and c/t as soon as he turns his head. It is different from traditional multi-wraps where the dog keeps offering (the dogs don’t ever really turn their heads on that) – the cue is what elicits the behavior for us to click, then we reward it and then we reset it. Eventually you click the head turn on that first approach and fade out the double wrap.
>>it’s funny because I did just revisit the baby steps of rewarding circling a cone and marking when he turns head away but I’m thinking maybe there was another game that you know of that I missed?
Do it on a wing now, rather than a cone – it is entirely possible that he does it on a cone but needs you to generalize it to a wing. I found that my bigger pup targets the inside edge of the wing as he approaches it, to be able to turn his head and bend into the turn.
>>I will definitely go back to just using wings and not the jumps Because the low jumps aren’t really teach him anything about how to jump anyway.>>
There is a lot of value when using low jumps and he can learn a lot about jumping… plus the low jumps also tell us what he needs to learn more about (like collection) while saving his body. So I agree that getting the behavior first on a wing is the right way to go, but then put it back onto low jumps before going to taller jumps.
>> the next question is do I also continue with some of the other games that don’t involve collection and transitions?
Yes, keep working the other games that involve speed and extension. We are looking for a good balance and that takes literally years to achieve. If you only work on collection, you’ll only get collection and then it is harder to get extension and speed. If there has to be a skew in balance right now, I am happier when young dogs skew towards extension and speed 🙂
T
Hi there! I think you are really close to getting to all 12 poles!!! His drive to the poles looks good and his striding looks good too!
He did really well here – the one thing I see is that he wants to look at you a bit (because, cookies :)) and then when you added speed, he had trouble staying in the poles. He was pretty perfect with his weaving when you were walking and not moving ahead.
So with that in mind, you can address that specifically and then it will be much easier for him to stay in. When he was using the second set of 6 as a focal point, his first set of 6 looked great and he didn’t look at you. So let’s give him a focal point on the 2nd set of 6 as well (which will transfer to the 12 poles): he has done really well with the Treat n Train as a focal point, and also with your V-shaped cardboard as a focal point. That way he can look ahead to where the reward is thrown and won’t want to watch your hands as much.That can also help you add more speed: you were trying to add it here and it totally caused him to look at you. But with a focal point, I think he will just happily do his weaving while you can do all sorts of other things LOL!
And when he is more experienced with doing 12 poles, we can replace the target focal points with other obstacles 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense! He is very close, this is exciting!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
Great job here! She was on fire driving to the poles for the first several reps for about the first 35 seconds of the video. She was fast going to them and she was really quick and rhythmic through them
She did slow down on the last couple of reps – it looked more like fatigue (was her tongue hanging out? LOL!) so on the next session, start with the 12 straight and see how it goes. That will answer the question about if it was fatigue or not: if she drives in fast (even if it is not perfect) then she was fatigued here. If she slows down on that first rep going to the poles, it was more of a visual distraction of all 12 and she was slowing herself down to think.
>> Question – do we keep at 12 for a while now, or should I vary sometimes 6 and sometimes 12 and sometimes 10 or 8? Simple sets or inside a small sequence? I think she’ll pick up speed and confidence as we go on, but I’d like to make that progression as fun as possible. What do you suggest? >>
I plan the # of poles based on what the training goal is for that session. Crazy entries? I will do that on 6 poles to make sure they ae well-understood and comfortable, so. I can reward pretty quickly (and not worry about 10th pole pop out after a brilliant entry). Same with hard exits, I will do that on 6 poles. I have posted some sequences on 6 poles for you to play with that add challenge to the entries and exits on just 6 poles (it is easier on the dog’s body and quicker to reward).
I do show the dog 12 poles: simple lines at first, then adding in handling challenges after the pup is successful on 6. But the reps are really limited so I get 4 or 5 passes through the poles, maximum, which includes misses – so I plan a lot.Eventually you can do all the things on 12 poles, but it is still with an eye on limited reps.
I personally have not gone to 8 or 10 poles, mainly for lack of have that on full competition bases (and not wanting to use my 2x2s after the poles are straight, because the dogs push them open). I imagine it would be OK if you wanted to do that!Let me know if that all makes sense! Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
All of the warm cup games on the first video looked really great, and I am SUPER happy with his first full teeter – he stopped past the end of the board but that was a GREAT error. And then on the next full one – he showed no concerns and worked hard to drive to the yellow then shift his weight to stop in position. Yay!
2nd video – omg the Very Hungry Caterpillar ugh be your crowning achievement. Ha! I admit that bacon sticks actually sound delicious mixed with ice cream. His warm up games looked great, and I think he was temporarily mind-blown when the caterpillar appeared (understandable). He does get a gold star for multi-tasking the chewing AND going into position LOL! Good boy!
He did well on the full teeters here – still working out where to shift his weight but I think he is ready for more toy play before the rep and also the toy as the reward. It will fall into the ‘think less’ category to help him keep running to the end 🙂 And you can also add in not being as far ahead – being parallel to the board as he is getting on it, mixed in with him getting ahead of you, mixed in with you being way ahead.It was hard to see – did he have a target here? If so – you can leave it in for more full reps and keep working to fade it on the the bang game and plank. And when you take this behavior to other places, you can bring the target to help transfer it. I think it will be easy to fade.
Thank you for the Cooking With Lennan Compilation!!!!! Brilliant!!! Made me crack up all over again. Also, note the evolution of your cooking creativity – you started small and then went wild. Ha! You were creative all along and your artistic presentation grew to match it. SO FUNNY!! Let me know if you share this on Facebook, I would love to post it 🙂
Now I want ice cream for breakfast. Ha!
Great job on all of this! I am looking forward to seeing the teeter go into sequences!
Tracy
Good morning! What’s up with the winter gear?? It is almost June, c’mon, Mother Nature!!! LOL!!
Hey, nice clear markers here!!! Very precise on most of these reps!
I think she goes into calm mode after the first rep and actually gets a little thoughtful, so she stops a little shorter. The toy play here didn’t seem to spiral her too high, which is good! I think you can put the teeter into sequences now – and go back to working on fading out the target (there is no rush to fade it because you’ll want to really solidify the teeter in different environments).
The MM out ahead, on the other hand… much harder 🙂 That makes sense because of the running contact work so you can dial back your motion on that (she was ahead when she self-released). That teeter performance when she self-released was really nice, though 🙂 so you can tell her what you liked about it (praise, a bit of play) but not give the magical MM click. She got thoughtful on the last rep with the MM and was successful. With continued practice, she will balance that thoughtfulness with the drive all the way to the end.One thing I notice is that she likes to pounce on the board as she gets on it rather than run up the board. That slows her speed across the board a bit, so if she keeps doing that you can use the long jump board as the guides (or whatever you used when we worked on teaching them to find the teeter from various angles). That little bit of help might encourage her to run up the board rather than jump on it 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyI am glad you enjoyed the class! Keep moving along this progression, he is on his way to a great teeter!! The last day for videos is May 31st. Have a great weekend!
TracyHi! I am so glad you are enjoying the training – I am SUPER excited about how Sundae’s teeter is turning out!!!!!
A couple of ideas for you as your finish polishing her final performance 🙂
>> Especially at the lower catch height, she’s having some balance issues, and I think part of that is me and some instability on my part on how I’m holding the board.>>
Maybe a little, but also this particular teeter has a lot of side-to-side action to it. Weighting down the feet might help, a couple of tunnel bags might do the trick? But she also didn’t seem put off by it at all, she just worked her balance more. That is good experience for all the wobbly teeters she will encounter.
>>>Our effort that comes in at about 1:09 on the video is, I think near perfect in terms of where I hope she is downing on the board.>>
I really loved her drive up the board and slam into the down on that rep (and there were others that also looked great!!) This gives us an idea of what she can produce on the teeter and I am doing a happy dance!!!!
>> I accidentally said Dig before my countdown…but it seems like her timing and where she is on the board were just right. I need to figure out how to see that in the moment and do a super reward>>
yes, she seemed to like that timing!
And it cracked me up on the lower catches when the reward dropped: she gently reached forward to get the reward and then moved back onto the board and into the down for the countdown. HA!!! Love it.2 other ideas for you:
When you catch the board, try not to face her – keep yourself off on the side of the board and your shoulders as forward as possible. When you were facing her at the front of the board, she was slowing down (most dogs won’t drive as hard to us when we were facing them compared to how fast they go when we are facing forward).Also, I always not sure if she was supposed to remain in the down or stand up when the board hit the ground? She was going into the down nicely at the top of the board but then standing up – I think it was because the reinforcement was too high. She had to reach up to get it, so she was extinguishing the down in favor of standing. So if you want to maintain the down as the end position, reward lower at the top of the board and also when the board is on the ground: right on the board between her front feet so the reward is easily accessed without her having to reach up for it.
I think she is ready for more full teeters now! Great job!!!!
TracyZig zags – getting started 🙂 Ignore the discussion about backsides at the beginning, that was there because it was part of the backside class:
