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Hi again!
First up, answers:
>>Question about threadles to the weaves….. use a diffferent verbal??
I will leave it up to you if you want to use a different verbal – I will be – but no need to worry about a verbal til games package 3 (#2 was posted yesterday, so you have 2 more weeks before you need to worry about a separate verbal hahahaha) We don’t need to add a verbal yet because we are not really weaving yet and the MM is showing the do the reward line (for now…)
>>Use a threadle arm???
Yes, eventually – but for the threadle side entry game on 2 poles, no arm – just line him up on the “other” side of and let him find it . No need to do entries harder than 3 or 9 o’clock for now.
>>just say your normal verbal Q for weaves and the dogs will figure it out??>>
For now, no – no real verbal cues. And in the future? Some people do use just a physical cue and the regular verbal. I will be using a different verbal (and a physical cue too).
The second session went well too, it is great to get the game into a new place (he was more pumped up being there!). The angles all looked good, time to add your motion as you send him then if that is strong – angle the poles. If ‘weave’ is your interim cue for now… keep using it. If ‘weave’ will be your permanent cue… don’t use it here because it is too far from the actual behavior. Also, resist temptation to add obstacles before LOL!!!! It changes the reward line and he doesn’t know it well enough it fix it on his own. He was finding the 2 poles but we want to teach him how to bend into the entry, which he won’t know how to do coming in from a jump. Getting him back to you on a toy or cookie will make it easier to avoid him offering other obstacles that are around, and it will also allow you to start working the crazy angles.
Great job here! He is off to a fabulous start!
Tracy
Good morning! He totally picked it up really fast! Good boy (but I am not surprised :)) Yay! Great job worked all the angles!
Add more motion now – as soon as you send him, start to move down the line parallel to the poles. And then when that goes well (and I am sure it will :)) you can angle the poles to 2&8 on the clock. Easy peasy!
I think the hardest part for him was getting into the groove. Start a little closer to the poles but also, since the MM is only kinda exciting – mix in line up cookies or line up toys before and after each rep. That will get rid of the sniffing (you can see already that the excitement you added really changed his approach and the sniffing went away). So – it can be something like tug tug tug, ready ready – send to the poles – click the MM, he gets the cookie – call back to tug tug tug. Lather, rinse, repeat 🙂 That will also give you a moment to change positions and get him lined up.
Since you asked about verbals below – what do you want your weave verbal to be eventually? If it is ‘weave’, don’t use it here yet – just use a noise or a random word or something. We will add the verbal when there is more actual weaving happening 🙂 Onwards to your next session below. Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
A longer session here at this stage is no problem, he is mainly just running an not weaving. The self-control comes into play as that first base goes to 12& 6 and the 2nd base gets almost closed, that is when we all need to shorten up the sessions and slow down the training (more time for RDW, right? LOL!)
This session looked great, adding poles 3 and 4 were easy peasy, exactly as the setup intended. It hlpes that he already has some experience with this! I think you can go directly to the next session with poles 1 and 2 and 12&6 – and start 3 and 4 a little further if you think he needs it (or not). He will guide you as to how quickly poles 3 and 4 can be rotated (but no rush – the sessions in the demo are literally the only sessions I have done on the 2x2s).
>>I’m getting confused – does the dog start or end at 12 o clock?
The dog always ends at 6 o’clock, and starts wherever you want him to start 🙂
>> I’ll work on the tricky off side entry with him as you mentioned by getting close and dropping the reward in right at the pole exit.>>
Perfect, it is a good indoor-on-carpet (or mat) rainy day activity, just a shaping game 🙂
Great job! Have fun!
TracyHi! I think his focus was excellent, especially considering he has not seen his friends in a long time! Good boy!!!!
He had a lot of good successes here! Good boy! You can start moving down the line too – after you say your cue, just start walking parallel to his line towards the PT and see what he does (I think he will be fine :)) Nice job being really clear with your mechanics and line ups, I think that really helped him a lot.
On the reps where he missed –
when you are at the 3 o’clock angle and he was on your right – that is a tough entry for all of the dogs, so next time you work on it: keep him on your right but start him at the 2 o’clock entry…. then gradually inch your way back towards 3 o’clock, with all the reps on your right on that side so it is a send: 2:05, 2:10, 2:15, etc haha! Very gradually working your way to the 3 o’clock angle will help him get it.The only other ‘misses’ were on what I would consider to be threadle side entries, meaning you were at 3 or 4 oclock and he was on your left, or at 7 o’clock and he was on your right. In those moments, I think he was finding entries but he thought the poles were going the other way (away from the PT). That is probably leftover from his previous experiences with the poles, so for now – don’t have him do those threadle side entries when you are past 2 or 10 o’clock, just stick to sending: when you are on the 1-2-3-4-5 side, he is on your right and when you are on the 7-8-9-10-11 side, he is on your left. We will add the threadle stuff back in when you get to 4 poles or on the channels.
Great job here!!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>It makes sense that the video would end up being a full blown movie if you out everything in at once!
Ha! Yes, I cut things down a lot because between my 3 dogs, it gets a bit boring for anyone except me hahaha
>>I did watch the videos for both steps 6 and 7 and see that you went a bit past the 3 and 9 a few times. Do you plan on posting a video that shows sending from 5, 6, and 7? Either way, when I give them a try (eventually) I know you’ll help me clean up my handling.>>
Yes, I will post them – I only work the 2x2s maybe twice a week at this point because the dogs are actually weaving, so the demos of that will be coming in the next package. My note to self is when the dog is on my left, send to pole 2 from all angles. When the dog is on my right, send to pole 1 from all angles…. and ignore poles 3 and 4, just act like it is still only poles 1 and 2 (the dog should not ignore 3 and 4 of course, they should go into them after 1 and 2 :))
>>I think it would be great if I can get Keiko to chase her squirrel like Contraband chases his saucer.>>
Contraband lives and breathes for his frisbees. I am working on getting him to eat more cookies LOL!!! I am sure Keiko will learn that squirrel chasing is a fun part of weave training.
>>Love how your pups are charging in and seeming to love the poles. When do you stop saying “Q” and go to your weave cue?>>
I actually changed the cue yesterday! The dogs were doing a relatively familiar set up, it looked enough like weaving (channels) so I just switched from my noise to the ‘poles’ cue. When it is basically weaving and we can guarantee a pretty high success rate – the real cue can get slapped on 🙂 I will probably also add the real cue the next time I work 2x2s.
>>Wow – lots of questions this morning!
It is all good, I have had my coffee so my brain is turned on 🙂 Bring on the questions!
Tracy
Good morning!
This was a really good session here! Adding the toy might have been too much of a change when coupled with being outside, new spring smells, etc. I added the toy first by carrying it with me but rewarding with the MM, then adding toy play between reps, then leaving the MM there and just using the toy. I am confident he will be happy to work for both the MM and the toy 🙂
He did really well with the various entries – working more systematically around the clock did seem like you added in the harder entries, closer to 7 and 4 o’clock! I agree that the praise was a little distracting for him, but on the easy entries – ramp that praise up so he gets used to staying in the poles while you tell him how brilliant he is. Then he will be less distracted by it when you work the praise in for the really hard entries 🙂He did a really nice job with the motion too! So next time, keep adding in motion but also add in the harder handling challenges so he gets used to seeing all the crazy things we will be doing while he is weaving 🙂
>>The new 2×2 games look super exciting – can’t wait to add that second set!! But I restrained myself and did not pull them out tonight>>
Click/treat for self-control LOL!!! Things will be getting exciting really quickly… but it becomes super important to slow down the training so we don’t break our babies! The 2×2 demos on the video are honestly the only 2×2 sessions my dogs have done with 4 poles – I will do maybe 2 more sessions this week and that is all. So hard to be patient but also so important 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Darn the evil neighbor dog! But it was smart to stop the session and pick it up later on.
On the threadles – she was finding the entry, no problem! Now either I need more coffee (always a possibility) or they were not actually threadles because she was on your left and you were on the 11-10-9 side of the clock, where left side sends are normal. For the threadle there, she would be on your right side to start, not your left. Let me know if I need to caffeinate more LOL!The straight poles session is looking really strong! All of the left side work looks good, add motion to that side for sure! The right side work is going well. For the easier entries (12-1-2) definitely add motion too. On the right side entries, you might consider putting the MM back out because she is looking at you a lot – the MM can get her being more focused on the reward line and less on da momma 🙂
On the harder entry (3 o’clock is hard for so many dogs!), breaking it out and working on it at 1& 7 was smart ! You can also do an isolated clicker session where you shape it: I brought the poles into the house (yes, I am a nut haha) and on an area rug, just shaped it (with Elektra) – no speed, no motion, just click for getting those hard right side entries and I dropped a treat right in past the base. I think I did 2 short sessions of that on straight poles and it helped exponentially (and we are doing that with some of the other dogs here who were asking similar questions :))
I think another session or two with movement added will lead her to be ready to add poles 3 and 4! Yay!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! He definitely seemed more excited with the little 2-dog excitement happening! He was driving really nicely through the 2x2s, good entries and good speed!
A couple of ideas for you –
When it is Callie’s turn to party, have Fever watch from a crate or bed or something so he doesn’t use himself up pacing around or running back and forth. He will heat up pretty quickly and we want him fresh for his turns.
Callie was placing herself as the reward target on a lot of the reps LOL! When it is Fever’s turn, see if you can have her stay somewhere behind you so she isn’t on the toy line and also where she won’t also be moving while he is weaving – I live in fear of collisions when both dogs are out and moving.
No worries about the bad reward, I have done that on more occasions that I care to confess to LOL!!! To make sure the oopsie reward doesn’t create more failure – make the next rep different so he doesn’t repeat what was just rewarded – either do a completely different entry on the other side or flat our lure the correct behavior on what you just screwed up (I call it an ‘apology rep’). I used to try the same entry again – but that doesn’t make sense and the dog would ALWAYS fail, like Fever did, by offering what we had just rewarded (I mean, of course the dog would offer it again, that is what the reward just told them to do LOL!!) So I realized that if I mess up, it was important to fix it immediately by helping erase my error rather than hoping the dog would figure out that I screwed up LOL!I think the jealousy will help to build this! Keep your sessions nice and short, and start to work through the progressions – bearing in mind that it is not really about the weaves, but mainly about the reinforcement strategies. I think that when those are fully in place, the skills training will be smooooooth sailing 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHa! I feel that pain about the batteries. The other thing to know about the TnT is that the batteries will stop working while you are trying to reward a really fabulous behavior hahaha
Hi! The demos have the first session on them, and I didn’t add the 2nd session in because the video starts to get too long. I did add in the entries from 3-6 and 9-6 in the 2nd session. Trying to hit all of the entries in one session makes for too many reps. So, you can totally work all the entries when adding poles 3 and 4 – it is more challenging because it is now a discrimination. The entries should all look like sends, not threadles, to keep things clear at first.
T
Hi!
HA! Yes, I bet crunchy peanut butter is difficult in the tube LOL!
He did really well here. He was not as fast driving to the end, but I think that was mainly because the peanut butter was so valuable that he was being sure to stop for it. And that is great! We don’t need him to leap off the end, and it is important that he knows that the moving board means STOP (as opposed to the dog walk which means run run run :)) So, since this is going so well- over the next week, add a little more tip. You don’t need much more, so you can train it a little bit every other day or every 2 days. And separately, add in lots of end position work so the bang game gets strong too. We build some of these together starting next week, so adding more end position value will really help him be ready (he is ready for the uphills elements of it :))Great job!
TracyHi there! She is doing great!
On the Mountain Climbers:
She looks fast and confident on all of the challenges! She is not quite as fast on the challenge of doing it entirely without you while you were standing still on the send, but that was still really good! And she was super fast on all the others. You can definitely add a little more tip here.On the downhills – This is also going well. She started off not quite as fast as she was on the mountain climbers. She was still driving straight through the tip but not running like she was when going uphill. I think she was sorting out gravity and how to shift her weight back as the board dropped so she was slowing down – but then she had a lightbulb moment and was definitely getting it in the last couple of reps – fast AND weight shifted, almost sliding (which is fine with me). Yay!! She also came up in energy when her cheerleading crew (Lennan!) was singing her song, and same with the mountain climbers: she gets pumped up with a noisy audience. Yay!
On this game, give her one more high success, high value session like this one, same tip – and if she is confident and speedy like she was on the last couple of reps on this video, the session after that can have more tip. Be sure her cheerleader is available to help out 🙂Have you been able to try any of these games at the barn? The more teeters she can play on, the better!
Great job here!
TracyHi there!
The downhills are going well – he was really quick on the back and forth parts of it, running straight through the tip to the end on each side. He didn’t seem to mind when you added more tip (he was liking it so much he mushed your fingers trying to get back on!) so now you can formalize it into the downhills by always starting at the top (table) and having him go downhill to the teach it. Did you get the food tray with the teach it? If so, add it on so the rewards can be there. If not, you can tape a target or spoon to it, to place the cookies in – the cookies placed in there will get him driving to the end and you can do all sorts of handling challenges to create a lot of independence. Then I think you can add more tip! He seems to really like the downhills!!
On the backing up – this is hard but he was totally getting it! I think the long jump boards totally helped him. He was very into it when it was not tipping… but then when you added tip, he was not as interested in offering the backing up (his tail was also not in the usual happy place). It might be possible that the backing up onto the moving board is not currently happy-making, so we can add an intermediary step: the disc! Since the disc has breakfast value, you can first put it in front of teeter board in this setup, then under the teeter board. That way there is movement and difficulty, but in a way that he is comfy with and without as much slam. Then we can fade the disc out (either by gradually sliding it out or by deflating it LOL!!)
Great job!!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
