Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Good morning! This looked great – nice warm up, nice crazy elevator, then really strong teeter performance! And that teeter wears sandwiched between some things that created some pressure in the environment… no problems. Yay! My only suggestion is to try to stay facing forward and moving forward until after he has landed and hit position before going back to reward – you were stepping into him a little as he was landing. I recognize it because I have to stop myself from doing that all the time LOL!!! It causes the dogs to back off the end position a little, so I force myself to keep moving forward LOL!!
Great job here! I think that the teeter can now go into sequences as classes!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, I can imagine Lennan being dramatic in his response to not being able to train LOL!! Poor guy, I am glad he is back in action here!
His plank session went well, the only difficulties were when you tried to run. He did well with you walking and also walking faster with big strides – but running was really hard. It might have been the combo of running more and being ahead so you can split it a bit: start closer to the wing you are sending him too, so you are moving faster but more parallel to him the whole time or even a little bit behind him. It looks like the target wears either fully or mostly faded for those, so the target might need to make a brief re-appearance when you go to running. The running is the last element on the plank work to convince him to let you do 🙂The other thing on the plank work was that as he was hitting it harder, it was moving more (like falling off the inflatable) then he was being careful and slowing down more (smart LOL!) So you might want to switch to the bang game to add the running to the end position, so he can drive as hard as he likes without needing to also stabilize the board from slipping out from under him.
If his foot is feeling good, I think you can also start to do the elevator games again! Niamh looked really good in terms of letting you do the mechanics – her session looked strong! Lennan is likely to come more to the end of the board, so be prepared to have to use more muscle to grab it LOL!!
Looking good here! As long as he is feeling good, we can move into the final games 🙂
TracyYay! Look at your boy doing the full teeter!!! Watch his face at about :45 – he hits end position and he licks his chops as you praise. That right there is the positive conditioned emotional response we are going for! He should be drooling in joy for the teeter LOL and that can of deliciousness you were holding totally helped.
He was trying to jump on the teeter (rather than run up it) and I think he scared himself a little by doing that when you were too far ahead, so for now keeping supporting him with motion and not being too far ahead of the board. He also missed his end position when you were way ahead and running, so don’t ask for that yet either. We want to avoid failure at all costs for now, to really protect his teeter love (it will be easy enough to ‘proof’ the end position later on).The trial this weekend comes at a good time! Remember to reintroduce the teeter in tiny bits with just end games and don’t be tempted to do to many reps.
And keep me posted!
>> Now if only you had running aframe class because this boy doesn’t get mat work>>
I trained mat work for the running contacts like we train Flyball box turns – with an elevated mat then an inverted mat, to help them really ‘find’ the mat 🙂
Tracy
Interesting about the food – do you think he was overly aroused and not eating, or he didn’t like the gyro meat?
Good morning!
This was an interesting session – I think maybe the wind was bothering him or something because his success rate dropped to about 60% and it had been much higher. It did look pretty windy and his tail set was different than normal, so perhaps he was struggling with the wind?>> I had a few reps with too much motion on my part but Chapter was happy to try again.
Actually, I was thinking the opposite – not enough motion LOL! Especially on the early part of the video, you were not moving a lot so he had some misses (could be because of lack of motion, or not) – but he definitely improved later in the session when you moved more (also could have been the motion, or he was more comfy in the environment or both). I think the motion supported him more when he was less sure, so keep adding the motion.
>> His attitude and persistence in training has really improved.>>
YES! This is so true. He was always coming right back to try again. And after an error, when you started from the same place, he got it right every time. Very cool!
So I am not sure why he had more trouble on this session, let’s chalk it up to the wind making the environment more distracting. But the distraction only manifested in a reduced success rate: he didn’t present any other behaviors like leaving or over-arousal. That is a big win!
>> He’s starting to swim the poles now so should I add the verbal or wait until the poles are closer together. >>
I think you’ll want to wait on the real verbal til his success rate is more like 90%, so give him a session or two like this one and then add the verbal (as you keep tightening the poles :))
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Yes, good session! He did really well and his striding looks good. The only error looked to be associated with the toy throw starting earlier than usual, so that is something to note for working on later (moving the throw arm while he is at pole 3).Also yes 🙂 you can move on to the box cars! How far apart were these poles? There are 2 ways to proceed – You can do the box cars, get the sets together and then continue to close the poles. Or you can close them fully on 6, separately from the other 6. Either way, he is moving along nicely!
Tracy
Hi! He is doing well here and really doing a great job of getting into end position (he kind of taught himself to do head bobs/nose touches LOL!) It is a fine line between always making him wait a long time (in dog years) before the reward and balancing with quick releases as soon as he hits position and also rewarding in position. At this stage, you can extend the duration of him staying in position for several steps of running past, but don’t try to proof it at all (like when you gave him a gyro piece then took off making noise and he broke position). We want to challenge a little but almost never see any failure (because failure can create a negative feeling and we want the teeter to have only the best feelings associated with it :))
He did slow down a bit by the last teeter, and I think it was a bit of lack of reward right at the end position on the harder challenges (the full teeter) – he got gyro 🥩 for the end position on the easier games but on the last part of the video, he didn’t get rewarded at all for the teeter (instead, he did more of the sequence) – I think the teeter love is still new enough that you will want to pay him for each and every teeter. And yes, I will get you a blue tooth earbud so you can hear me saying “don’t do another rep” hahaha!!!!
So try to mix up the reward placement a bit more (I know, it is like a pendulum, swinging back and forth as to where to place the reward) but he was getting his fastest performances when you were both maintaining criteria and getting the rewards in fast fast fast (either thrown back or quick released. You can do duration occasionally, but not too often for now 🙂 Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
And this is not teeter related but it is a pre-CAMP moment: when you send to the tunnel before the teeter, stop flinging your arm way up: it disconnects you when he is behind you and turns your shoulders away from where you want him to go, so he was enjoying a tasty flesh moment LOL!!!
Nice work here 🙂
TracyHi there! Thank you for the kind words, I really enjoyed obsessing over the tiny details of teeter training LOL!
Sly’s teeter looks great – really nice session! The placement of reward was spot on – dogs will be happy to go wherever the reward is consistently placed! His last teeter was awesome: chef’s kiss! 🥳🤩🥳🤩🥳. Watching it with the target, I realize that you would be allowed to put the target down on the ground in UKI for your NFC runs. You can put something on the ground but not on the teeter – so the target would be a nice familiar focal point! I *think* you can do it too in USDAA, I remember doing it the last time I started a young dog but that was almost 5 years ago so I would need to double check that.
Great job here! It was fun to see the teeters in sequence and I think he is totally ready to see it in course work 🙂 And I love that he got a bit swim too!
Tracy
Hi there!
I love his confidence on the teeter – he did a great job driving across it! Yes, it might be a little lighter and tip faster, plus having it lower changes the weight shift point. But no worries, he will figure it out because he is so confident!
The one thing that will really help is an actual target, for now – in the most recent videos, he still had his red target out a couple of inches away from the end of the board and that was helping him with stopping independently (and, by extension, the weight shift because he was preparing to stop). It looks like he didn’t have a target here, so he was doing well when you were moving at a slower speed or you were nearby – but moved with you when you were moving faster and past him. So, for now, I highly recommend the target to help with the stopping and weight shift so you can continue to add more speed and motion, and independent handling too 🙂 The target provides a strong focal point and then you can reward him on it 🙂 It will be easy enough to fade the target when he has more experience with the end position and on different teeters.
>> noticed that some people are asking for a down on the board.to create a lowered center of gravity. Do you think this will help Cowboy and do you have information regarding how to train it?>>
Yes, some folks choose the down but I think it is better for smaller dogs in terms of balancing on the end of the board in a down. Because of his size and build, it will take a little longer for him to get into the down position, which will make the teeter behavior a little slower. We can teach it to him (using targeting and lots of quick down work) but I think the 2o2o is a better choice 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! He did really well with the sequences with the weaves! I am glad you added in the rear crosses – time to show him more independent handling challenges 🙂 For these games, always reward the weaves: when he did the great rear crosses and you were not clear on the next jump, you missed a really good reward opportunity. Speaking of the jump after the weaves: another challenge is to drive way ahead of him while he weaves so that you can be connected to show him that jump after the poles (but still reward the poles LOL!)
2 other challenges to add: running away laterally while he is weaving (for example, in this setup, you can try to layer the tunnel!) and also driving ahead to be able to do crosses while he is still in the poles.
Great job here: I think we can say he is officially weaving. YAY!!!
TracyHi! We are still going til May 31! I feel the pain about lack of internet, I too have spent plenty of time at coffee places or in parking lots lol
Nice work on these, Indy was driving hard! I hope her foot is feeling better. These are looking good and as you mentioned: yes, you can trust more and cue sooner 🙂
Baby level – Really nice! On those tandem turns: she looks like she understands them really well so you can turn her away sooner, to help tighten up the turn a bit (she is driving hard but waiting for the rest of the info). And when you add more of your motion and running, a little decel as you do it will help tighten it up too. The other thing I notice here (and in the other videos too) is that you can plan and use more verbals – on the exit of the tunnels, in particular here. She was not sure where to look on the tunnel exits, so you can cue her before she goes in and then you’ll get better turns on the exit of the tunnels.Adv 1 – COOL LAYER when you sent her to the wing on the other side of the tunnel! Really excellent use of connection and verbals and physical cues. Very fun and a totally useful skill!!! Handling it without the layer also looked strong on the 2nd rep. I will bug you about adding more verbals here too LOL! On the tunnel and on the wings – yes, you will feel like you are talking a lot on these small setups, but it will challenge you to spit all the words out and it will help her really understand them.
Adv 2 – Nice connection on these, she had no trouble with the FC to the tunnel at the end! Your connection, overall, looks really strong on just about all of these. You can totally give your verbals sooner and more consistently here too, as well as add more motion.
Adv 3 – Yay for adding more speed here with running! That challenges you to also ramp up your connection and timing, and that made these harder: at :14 your cue was late for the correct side of the wing after the tunnel and you were disconnected and pointing forward – so she needed up on the wrong side of the wing. In that scenario, you will need to connect to get that push away from you, which you did on the next rep. The other cue that got a little late because of added speed was the turn cue at :32, so she went shooting out wide. However, these setups are perfect for adding more running and working the timing, because you can still see how timing and connection affects her without her having to go over jumps 🙂 So adding the running here was great!
Adv 4 – A quick question about the verbals: the cue at :17 didn’t quite get her turned to the tunnel entry I think you wanted, but it looked the same as :22 where she was correct. So is that a wrap cue or a threadle? In the scenario at :17, you can use a wrap cue as she approaches the wing and then add your tunnel threadle cue. And at the end, your turn cue at :52 was the best turn cue of all the reps – smooth, timely and really tight!
>> RE the jumping grid (still on the video camera), she looked good, except for the 5th one, back to the initial set up. She did the first bounce, then opted to jump all the way to the end, as opposed to two bounces…>>
So if I am reading it correctly… she took jumps 2 and 3 as a double jump? One bounce between 1 and 2, then she landed after 3? Alright, the girl has some giddy up! So you can spread the distances out. What distances were you using? You can add a foot to each distance and see how she does – if she continues to fly over 2 and 3 as a double jump, add another foot 🙂
Nice work here!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I am glad she is feeling better!
She did well here, she didn’t seem rusty at all from her time off. I agree that she had to adjust to the competition set, but I think also the 2 sets are distracting – she had to think really hard in the first set, and seemed to bounce along faster in the 2nd set. Perhaps the visual distraction of the second set was making steam come out of her ears for the first set LOL!! But she did well on both. You can also drop the reward in between the 2 sets to help her focus in on the 1st set even more.I also agree that she will go faster and get bouncy with more practice 🙂 That is how she rolls 🙂
So for future sessions – we haven’t worked on the harder angles in a while, so I think on the set of 6 that is something to revisit and reward on just 6 poles. And then it will be easy enough to put the 2 bases together for 12 straight poles. I figure a session or two of hard angles on 6 straight, then if that is peachy keen: onwards to getting the 2 sets of 6 closer and closer to 12. Let’s proceed slowly so she doesn’t have any soreness, so maybe every 2 days just to be really careful? I am sure she would beg to differ LOL!!! But that puts her at 12 straight poles in about a week and that is great 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
That is great news about Lori, she is terrific!>> For the Find Em – keep the same weave alignment (all a smidge open) to add more motion and then circle back later closing some of them?>>
For Find Em, I would leave the same configuration as you add speed. Separately, you can work on straightening them the same way you did for the ‘meh’ session (and I am confident it won’t be meh lol!!!)
Fingers crossed for good weather!!!!!
T
You are welcome about the outline – there is a lot happening at this stage of training so I figured a list would be easier LOL!!
About the toys… it is possible that the highest value toys lose that value if they are used regularly in the rotation. You can try adding more variety to the reinforcement, even in the same session, to keep the value high and see how he does.
T
Hi!
>> when does “camp” start?
CAMP starts on June 21st.
>>And how long do classes we’ve taken stay available to us to go back to after the class is officially done? >>
Lifetime access! They are available forever 🙂
>>I was also wondering about All Things Tunnel. I’m finally getting my act together about what I’m going to use for verbal cues for my tunnel turns. I had sort of skipped that when we were doing Tunnels and would love to go back and play those games now. Are you going to offer that class again sometime?>>
That one should still be available – I might re-open working spots sometime in the fall but probably not before then.
T
