[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

This is a good session – tells us what works best for her and what is hard. The most important thing is to move on a parallel line to the wing – she did really well when you did that. When you were moving towards the wing, she thought it was a wrap cue and not a tandem turn. You can see how well she read the parallel line of motion at :42 and :51 and after that.

I thought your arm movement was fine – you were trying to get her attention on your hands and off the wing, which is an important element. She is VERY wing-focused, so when you had her come to your cookie hand at 1:37, you could see her lightbulb moment: aha! It is the hand NOT the wing! That really helped! You can have her come all the way to your hand and eat the cookie then turn her away, to balance the value of your hand with the wing (right now the wing has a lot more value :))
As soon as you convinced her it was your hand after 1:37, she did REALLY well as long as you moved on a parallel line. When you moved towards the wing, she was correct to think it was a wrap.

So the parallel motion line and the emphasis on ‘come to my hand’ will really help.

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! Glad you are feeling better and more mobile – you can definitely send her away to a barrel or wing if your foot is happy with it.

These went well. My only suggestion is to wait til she gets a little closer to you hand before starting the cue – hold still til she is about 2 or 3 inches away from your hand and then move. In the middle of the video, when you had switched sides and she was coming to your left hand/left and turning to her right, those were the smoothest: partially because you waited til she was the closest, and partially because she is more comfortable turning to her right on these.
On the other side at the beginning and end of th video (going to your right arm and leg) – you were moving earlier so it was not as clear and she is not as comfortable turning to her left here. So waiting til she gets to that 2 or 3 inch spot away from your hand will draw her all the way in and make it easier to turn her.

Nice work here! let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! She is doing pretty perfectly on the plank here, so the real question has to do with the target on the teeter. She probably just needs more reps across the teeter (elevator, crazy elevator and full teeter) with the smaller/partially obscured target. A couple of sessions of that and then the target can get more and more hidden each time. That will probably be easier – on the fading sessions, she seems to struggle at first without it (or if it is reduced) so she just needs more experience and exposure to the teeter end position with the fading more gradual.
Everything else is looking strong! She is a little ‘chill’ going across the board coming from a jump, so feel free to use a tunnel before it or even put the teeter in a little sequence so she can get practice when she is higher 🙂 It can be a sequence to the crazy elevator game, or the full teeter!
Nice work here 🙂
let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! I agree, the 2nd run was a better thought out plan – he seemed happy! Be sure to let him get into position at the end on the elevator game before rewarding, just that extra heartbeat – otherwise he will get confused about what the end position is in trials. But in both runs, he was eager to try and happy to do it again – yay! That is the important part. And on the first run, I think going to the full teeter was too early, so be sure he is happy with his crazy elevator game before asking for a full teeter 🙂 Are you trialing tomorrow?

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! This was a great way to spend a Friday night 🙂
He looked really good here, and he picked up on the 8 poles really quickly. Plus, he nailed the 6 poles in the mini course! Yay!

So, looking forward: I think from this point on, in your indoor facilities, you can be working on the 6 straight poles, no need to open up the poles anymore.

And looking ahead to the next step: yes, move to the 6 and 4 (all straight) and then I think you will easily be able to do 6 and 6. Remember to ‘warm up’ on the 4 poles first then do the 6 then 4. If it proves to be really easy for him, feel free tp go from 4 to 6 in the same session. If it is hard, you can stay at 4 or if it is really hard (which is not likely) then you can open them up).

For outdoor training, you can see how he does on 6 slightly open poles and then maybe 6 straight poles? Outdoors is a step or two behind the indoor progression for him, which is fine – just less experience working outdoors 🙂 But he will catch up quickly because he is doing a GREAT job in his indoor locations!!!!

He is getting close to 12 straight poles! Fun times ahead!!!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Here ya go!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/allthingstunnel/

[Tracy Sklenar]

Awesome! His box cars looked really strong here – striding, forward focus, speed and also accuracy were all spot on (he had a blooper on the first rep but that was just the warm up).
You can do both sides in the same session – the box cars are more of a spot check thing to begin bringing the weaves together, so you can do a bit of left and right side sending in the same session, then bring the poles together. My guess is that he will be perfectly fine to let you bring the poles together to a set of 12 in the next session or the session after it.

And the holee roller is a great choice – it is perfect for throwing and grabbing, and yes his retrieves looked great (and you tugged with him when he brought it back, which really rewarded the retrieve :))

I am excited to see him on all 12 poles really soon, fingers crossed for great weather!

>> can’t seem to find All Things Tunnel. It’s probably obvious but ….can you help? >>

It is one of the Facebook classes – I will go grab the link and post it for you 🙂

Have fun! Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Good session here – you had different angles of send, you were moving ahead of him, and he had lots of success. His striding continues to improve – we are seeing more and more rhythmic striding! And these poles are fully straight, yes? Good boy! And great job NOT falling in the mud, solid dance move there. And no 911 interventions? LOL!

I think the main thing here (and probably in other areas of training) is sorting out what is a consistent use of reinforcement. The holee roller is a great choice, right? But he fell out of interest in it, which changes his ‘attack’ of the weaves which changes his striding. He liked the frizzer thing for sure.
So separately from the weaves, you can play with building up the value of the other toys (dead or alive lol) by pairing them with the higher value toys: keep a friz hidden or tucked under your arm, get some play with the ‘lesser’ value toy, then whip out the friz. This should be done away from any actual training of obstacles because it will take some sorting out. The goal is that he is happy to play with any toy – so keep switching toys, adding new ones to the pile, making the toy you are holding or throwing the MOST exciting thing. That will help him in the weaves (because he will be driving for whatever you put out there) and also everywhere in training. And that way you can save the higher value toys for harder environments (like NFC runs at trials) and they will retain their value.

As for weave training – for now, use only the higher value toys (and keep changing toys out before he says ‘no thanks’) so he keeps attacking the weaves. And keep on adding angles of entry, drifting laterally while he weaving, driving ahead, and so on. He gets more solid every time you do it.

Great job here – let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! He did really well here! He was driving through the pivot and to the end nicely on these.
You were near him on a lot of these, so I think you can add in moving past him – keep moving so that you are almost at the tunnel after the teeter as he gets into position.
He will also have a little more speed if you give him a straight entry to the board – he had to find the entry here, which slows him down a little because he is getting on at an angle.
And I totally agree that revving him up with a toy will help – he is really fast at home, but being able to rev him up with a toy will help transfer things really nicely to trials. If he likes to tug, you can try getting him to tug on a leash, as that is basically a toy that you can bring into the ring and also use as a reward for the teeter.

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
Really nice session here – he was confident and he was nailing the end position. And you were able to keep moving past him when he was in his end position – super!!! He also seemed just fine when you added more speed to your motion.

Since this is going so well, you can lower the table even more – does the facility have a 12” table?

And, time to move into the elevator games as they are the last piece to putting things together. When you are comfy with the mechanics, I think he will move really quickly through these.

Great job!!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Thanks for posting the grid, I see what you mean! There were a couple of things going on that we can adjust to help!
One thing is to start her closer to jump 1, less than a foot from it – that way she will have to use her rear more and the grid will be more challenging for balance.
The other thing had to do with the toy – she really liked it LOL! Because she was so into the toy, she was leaving the stay early and then doing a joyous flying monkey leap as she approached it LOL! That bit of leaping is what contributed to taking jump 2 and 3 as one jump.
So, add in more stay rewards and also be stricter with criteria. And also maybe hold the toy but use a target as a focal point, so she drives to the target then you drop the toy onto it. Or, hold the toy and use a cookie target? That might help her focus on it but also will hopefully eliminate the joyous leaping 🙂

Let me know if that makes sense! It is all good to sort out now so that she has no trouble in the future. 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
>>I suppose they just learn to make up their mind what feels best. Right?>>

Yes – we want them to be balanced and we leave the rest up to them 🙂
She looked good here, I like this distance for now. It might change as she matures but she did really nicely!
The bounces look good and when jump 3 was far, she did well with appropriately adding a stride. On rep 4, she added a stride where she could have bounced, but I think that was more about the manners minder being close, so she shortened up so she didn’t land on it. She looked really good on that last rep though, nice adjusted bounce!!!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Good question about the teeter in class #4… I guess it depends on how difficult he finds the environment. He might be depleted by then, in which case there is no need to do the teeter. But if he is happy and relaxed… go for it! And per UKI rules, you can place the target on the ground to help him!
T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Very whippety, to not eat lol! You can maintain control of the reinforcement by getting to eat it then release to the toy or to run. That will keep the food valuable by pairing it with other stuff, and also keeps his arousal more centered 🙂
T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
You can alternate sessions:
One session of box cars, then one session on 6 poles closing them up, then taking them over to a box cars session, then next session on the 6 poles getting more closed, and so on. That will help get it all done 🙂
T

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