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Hi!
The downhills are definitely harder to adjust when using tables – the towel was a great idea.
Yes, I could see her trying to assess the pivot after the first rep – but even on the first rep after you fixed the towel, she had worked it through and was already driving across more and looking for the pivot less. So her needing the moment to sort it out might have more to do with not being as experienced in the downhill game as she is in the uphills? But either way, she sorted it out very quickly and was moving nicely across the board. So on the next session, start where you left off here and maybe do a couple of super high value peanut butter sessions with only one or two reps. That will help make it easier for you to fade the towel and add tip.Great job!
TracyHi!
I love how you break down the sessions to really make sure she is a happy, confident girlie and also that she is NOT surprised by any changes. I think that was the main factor in the success of this session – she was happy on the new board and tried to start without you LOL!!! Good girlie! And yes, it is smart to show her as many different teeters as possible – I think they have the most variation out of all the obstacles in agility. This one wasn’t really even moving and I could see it had a different feel and a different ‘whip’ to it. You should totally incorporate it into the games, adding tip, etc. – we see those teeters all the time at trials LOL!!! You can go back and forth between your two teeters so that she just gets used to the idea that she will encounter all sorts of different tips.Great job!!!
TracyHi there!
Shoes are only for the bang game, where I fear the board can smash toes that are nearby LOL!!!
My feedback is a little boring because the games look so good!
The uphills look great, she is very confident running and does not seem worried about the movement at all. You were able to add crosses and stuff – no problem. So….. add more tip!
The bang game into end position also looks really good – you can add the challenges to this one (motion past it, crosses etc) and also add more tip 🙂
I think you will find that the amount of tip can be added pretty quickly for her! Yay!
I think we need to add the verbal for her soon rather than later, because the AAC dog walks have no slats so she will need to differentiate early on. For your bang game – you can totally add your tee verbal now, maybe just once. And then for the uphills – you can add a tee verbal (just say it once)
Eventually the full verbal will be tee tee tee so that should really help her drive to the end position AND it should sound very different from your RDW verbal. Let me know if that makes sense!
Great job!
TracyWelcome back, hope it was an easy trip!
He liked the barrel wrap before the teeter! He seemed to be driving very directly to the top without concern, both on the early reps and then when you added more tip (and also when you did the rear crosses, he seemed fine and no different than when you drove ahead or sent him ahead). The ball throw between reps was VERY happy making for him LOL! Good boy!
Fabulous session here! So next session on the Mountain Climbers – start in the same place, if he is happy still – add a tiny bit more tip 🙂 I am excited by his progress! Great job!
TracyHi!
>>You probably noticed I’m also having fun with colored poles. I have three colors (plus white) at home and I’m trying to vary it all the time so that color isn’t relevant to his understanding. >>
YES! I use all sorts of rando poles too because ya never know what they will see. Love it! Glad you are starting him early with the ‘weave whatever is there’ protocol LOL!
Really nice session here! A couple of ideas for you:
>> It’s very clear – as you already noticed – that now he is having trouble with the other entry.
Yes, the pendulum of entries has swung back to the left side being harder. You can think of the 1st 2 poles as being 2x2s and change your angle based on the clock relative to pole 2: so 3 o’clock would face pole 2, not the middle of the channel. Starting nice and close should help too (and also isolating it on 2x2s). I also think using just a toy for a bit might help – because he won’t be seeking out the MM as much. It might help him look for the first entry a bit more.
>>He is now super successful from the other entry – unless I add motion a little too soon on the really hard ones. But he was getting some really tough ones even with motion.>>
Yeah!! He did really well! I don’t know if you were moving too soon, or if it was more that you were moving too fast. I am curious to see how he would do if you started moving at the same time, but walking. You were moving fast so that might be the distraction? Worth a try to see if we can isolate the distraction – speed of motion? Or timing? He will let us know LOL!
>>I also switched up and added a toy for part of the session like you suggested, and other then some awful tosses by me, it did rev him up but he kept his success rate consistent.>>
That is why we started with the MM – to get them looking down the line in preparation for our terrible throws. My frisbee throws would qualify as “horrendous” but the dog is fine LOL! Your throws were fine 🙂
So I think on the next channel session – hard angles on both sides (from a little closer to the poles on your left) and move early but not fast. Let me know if that makes sense and how it goes 🙂
TracyHi! I am excited to see you in May at CSA!!!!! FUN!!!
>>After reviewing my videos I’ve realized that I’m all all over the place with verbals>>
Will “poles” end up being your finished-behavior cue? If so, wait a little longer to use it, til he is weaving more. I think using ‘go’ or a little noise is fine for now.
Really nice channel session here!! He had a super high rate of success!
One thing that will help you add challenge: To start each rep, try to have him come back to you all the way and let you line him up to start him. That will allow you to angle him ‘just so’ then send him and start to move. That will also allow you to fade your hand because he will be next to you, you can line him up and then just say the verbal (don’t use your hand at all) to start him. Personally, I thought your hand use here was fine but we can totally get him to do it with your hands not needing to be part of the picture at all 🙂Now, he loves to train and he loves the MM to convincing him to come back to you might not be easy – I use cheese line up cookies for 2 of my dogs, and the frisbee for the other. That is really high value because the poles and MM are SO FUN!
He was finding his entries beautifully here! The really hard ones at 4 o’clock or so caused some questions but that is fine we want to be sure he is being challenged. And he was staying in regardless of what you were doing – you added speed, rotations, etc., he didn’t care, he stayed in his poles. Super!!
And he was so patient during the MM malfunction LOL!
>> Is there anything else I need to start working in to this training to prepare.>>
Thinking ahead to the new games on Monday, the 2 things he will need are:
the 2x2s to be straight, which they were on the last session. You can revisit that and add more of your running if you like.
Sending to the channels. You can play a bit with regular (not threadle) sends and see how early you can get outta there after the send!But if you don’t get another session in before the new stuff is posted, no worries – he is definitely ready for the new games 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
Great session on the 2x2s! I think the cones totally helped both of you – your throwing was really good and she was probably targeting the cone a bit, so she was driving to the reward line really nicely. And 100% success! (Lining her up on the ‘wrong’ side is something you need to do anyway when you get to the threadle side entries, so all good there too LOL!!!)
Yes – onwards to adding your movement. If she is fine with you moving (and I think she will be) – onwards to a tighter angle. Fun!!!!
Excellent intro to the channels!
>>the fact that she actually could think clearly enough to figure out how to get to the pet tutor to get the reward without cutting through the poles!>>
This is what I was happiest about! When we have a clear reinforcement process in place, anything is possible! Yay! It was efficient, stress-free, and she was 100% rate of success in the session. She did a great job here on the poles and you set up a great session. Yay!
On the next session – you can move the PT a little further away and also angle all the poles a tiny bit more – she is really little so your channel can start tighter (as long as she is not actually needing to weave yet). I think that will also help her stop jumping the bases – and it shouldn’t be a problem, but we will keep an eye on it to see if she develops any extra jumping dance moves LOL!Also on the next session – more angles and you can move more. Remember the delay the click til her left shoulder is at pole 3, to make sure she gets in and stays in.
Great job!!!!
TracyHi! I think these are duplicates of the sessions you posted in your thread here:
https://agility-u.com/forums/topic/lisa-and-maia-2×2/
Let me know if you have trouble seeing it in the forum! Also, let me know if these were supposed to be different videos posted. I also copied the feedback here from the originals – really good sessions!
Hi Lisa! You and Maia are off to a great start here!! And she is so fun 🙂
On the first video: great job working all of the angles around the clock – looks like she had no questions at all. Was she driving to a bowl and your assistant was dropping in treats? Nailed it! She was perfectly focused on her line. You can also toss treats into it if you are training on your own.
For some reason, when she was on your right, the click was distracting her a little and she was looking back at you, but not on the left side. You were clicking quietly after that and she was fine. You can also go to a quiet verbal “yes” and then toss the treat.On the second video – the angled poles were also no trouble for her. Super! It was fun to see her so happy and nailing the entries. So – because she was offering brilliantly in both of these sessions, you should move on to the next steps:
– with the poles at this angle, have her start next to you, you send her, and you add motion down the line parallel to the poles.
– for the send, convince her to come to you and not start without you 🙂 I use a line up cookie for that, so I can convince my dogs to set up on the angle I want and they wait for the send
– for the send, you can put on some type of interim weave cue or noise, just to be able to give her a little permission to start. This will be useful when we get into the crazier angles.If the next session goes well with motion… onwards to tightening the angle. The poles in the 2nd video were at about 2 and 8 o’clock, so you can go to 1 and 7 and work the angles on sends and then the angles with motion. She is looking great, so I bet you get to straight poles pretty quickly.
Great job!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I make the kibble in the MM more exciting by mixing it in with other things – right now, I have freeze dried tripe (ewww) mixed in with the kibble to make it more exciting for my big pup who is not all that food-driven. I have also jazzed up the kibble by soaking it in tuna juice (the stuff that is in the tuna can LOL!) and other stinky smelling stuff 🙂 It raises the value of the MM compared to what is in my hand 🙂T
Hi!
Yes, she was more fidgety than usual in her sit here, perhaps the tugging got her excited or maybe the presence of the jump? Or both. Ha! She was also very opinionated hahaha
She did well reading the difference between your motion forward and your decel for the wrap. She is going to be a GREAT turner on course! So now – add your verbals 🙂 I think you used your release word for all of them, which is fine to get it started. She is ready for more to be added now:When you want the go, lead out halfway, release and use your go go go cue (before you throw the toy.
When you want the wrap, lead out to the wing like you did and release but use your wrap cue there.And if your snow has melted, more room between her and the jump too!
Starting her a little further back will give you more time to add the wrap cues to these because she will have more distance between the stay and the jump after you release.Great job on the placement of reward for each cue!
Lovely work on all of these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This was really good! You definitely had less ‘swoosh’ 🙂 Her commitment looked really good too on these, so I think you can now move to the next step where you are moving away sooner (plus walking all the way around the jump so you are releasing while you are in motion). Her stays also look really strong – she only had one error, when she took about 3 hours to eat the cookie – then when you released her, she had forgotten when she was doing and just went to you LOL! But all the rest were great 🙂Finding the right value of food versus toys is HARD for sure when the dogs are young! When you moved the toy she got right into it – when you dropped it, she thought it was dull LOL! So – definitely move the toy when you present it as the reward so she can chase it and grab it. When you are throwing a reward to the landing side as you move away, you can toss a treat or a ball for that.
I noticed that she got a little bitey on your hand when you grabbed her collar on the transition from tugging into the sit. That is something good to play with – tug tug tug, collar touch (just a touch) then tug tug tug so she gets used to your hand going in and out. She was not being aggressive, she was just all jazzed up – but still we want her to not deliver any tooth hugs LOL!
Great job here too!
TracyHi!
>>But it’s hard to let her pass when I am leaving early on the FC.>>
On these, you can be decelerating and rotating, but still very connected.
On the video: Nice tugging to start!
I think in general you are pretty connected! You can do this game with an open water bottle in your hand – so you know if you are connected or not 🙂 If you hold the water bottle all the way back towards her nose, you are connected. If you spill the water, you are disconnected LOL!
There were one or two spots early on where you arm came forward and she grumbled at you, and one time where you sent forward and she ended up on your other side, thinking it was a blind cross. But then your connection got *awesome* and it looked great!Now, I know I am bugging you about perfect connection… but in the moments where she grumbled at you, I think the connection was fine. So since she is so young (and she is also very opinionated haha) we can get her to commit more by tossing treats out past the barrels more frequently (like we did early in the training) rather than having her come to you for reward. But throwing rewards out past the barrels more, you will find that your connection will matter less because the barrels (and eventually jumps & tunnels) will have so much value.
So for now, keep working on perfect connection 🙂 but add in more rewards out past the barrels. She looks great!
Tracy
Hi! Yay for great weather! Boo for MM malfunctions. But the dogs are so patient with that thing LOL! And it is far less time-consuming to just chop off the beginning and end and let the session run. I can watch the in-between parts in fast forward 🙂
How does he do with playing with toys in the presence of the MM? I think he did really well on all the angles here, the toy play in between will both help you get him past any environmental distractions plus it will also add challenge by getting him more stimulated.
On the video:
He really had no questions on the slightly open poles and also on the straight poles. Happy dance! And I think he did really well with the environment – Yay! So next session: straight poles but with gradually increasing motion – jogging and maybe some running. Don’t worry too much about the threadle side entries for now – focus on straight poles because Monday brings us new games that the straight poles will be useful for 🙂Great job!
TracyHi! This is a good intro to the distraction of weaving with a tunnel nearby! He did a great job, hitting all of his entries. It got a little harder when you added the tunnel before the weaves (there is a lot of speed happening) but he got it on the second rep and then again when you did it at the very end. So on the next session, you can move the poles right up against the weaves so he is very tempted and work all the angles 🙂 Yay!
And yes, you can totally play with the threadle side entries! There is no need to work the ‘bottom’ of the clock (4-5-6-7-8), you can stick to the top: 9-10-11-12-1-2-3. The bottom side of the clock is something we will address with threadles at a later date 🙂Separately from the tunnel or threadle entry – I think he is ready for you to straighten up the 2 poles to 12 and 6. He is like a sponge so far, absorbing everything! So we can move forward and get the poles straight in prep for the next games package coming on Monday.
Great job!
TracyHi! The folding weaves might work! I found them to be too light for my dogs who were pushing them over but Merlin is smaller so it might work.
I will get a video of the 2x2s turned into channels, but one of your classmates is doing it. You can follow along with Julie and Kaladin. Here is the video Julie posted with her 2x2s used as channels:
https://youtu.be/KdzKOvg1zek
Have fun!
Tracy
