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Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi! All of this is looking good!
>> As I went through all of this, I was beginning to wonder if the 4 on end position behavior I originally taught Sundae might need to be adjustedβ¦is she too big for 4 on and needs to switch to a 2o2o? Sheβs 17 inches and about 35 pounds.
>>I originally taught Sundae to do a digging behavior at the end of the board, and youβll see that come out in our backing up video here. >>She is a good size for 4on! I do like the digging behavior a LOT as it adds another layer of ‘something specific’ at the end of the board – and all 4on dogs need something very specific to do there. More on that below.
Backing up video – really good! She perhaps thought it was a little weird so she was a little roached when she had all 4 feet on, but I think she will straighten out and will “pop” her hind end out more when she is more comfy with the concept. And after she gets the cookie for getting back onto the board, you can have her dig at the edge of it as the fun extra ‘something to do’ when she is there.
Plank confidence video – she is looking really strong here too! She was happy to hop on, turn around, go back and forth, etc. The only challenge I think you can add that I don’t think was here is to get her to turn in a full circle (360 degrees) in the center of the board – it is good for balance and thinking about where her feet are on that narrow plank!
End position on the plank – looking good! I think you should recover the digging behavior – it will give her a great weight shift and it will bring her all the way down to the end of the board.
She did well with all the layers of challenges you tossed in here – stopping with her, running past, crosses…. she was a VERY good girl!! Perfect! Try to take this travel plank setup to as many places as possible to help generalize that behavior.One thing I noticed on the plank here: when you hang back and send her, she wanted to look back at you. That can cause her to slow down or curl off the side of the teeter. So, when you are behind her – you can reward her by throwing a reward forward and releasing her to it, rather than rewarding by hand or near you.
Bang game video – very good mechanics! You set her up to jump on right at the end. This video is the one that made me think you should revive the digging – her front feet are not quite at the very end of the teeter, I think she is leaving herself room to nose target. So if you have her come down and digdigdig right at the edge, you’ll get an ever faster teeter and great weight shift.
Plus it is great for shoulder conditioning LOL!
As with the plank, when you are not out ahead, you can toss the reward in lower and between her feet or release her to go forward to a reward – so she doesn’t curl towards you to look at you.
You can definitely add challenge now! Add in the motion and crosses you had on the plank, I think she is ready for it here.
And if that is going well – onwards to more tip!Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyTracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi!
here is the FB to DW videos:
Contraband:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjdKpNPaNxg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlfcarOi9VEElektra:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR0qzZfpGNA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSVuH4Pp-MI
Both the flyball instructor suggested I lean on the send and use less arm.Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterI did see! But evidently there is this thing where I need to hit “Submit” on my reply in order for you to see the reply. Who knew? HA!
The reply is there now π
TTracy Sklenar
KeymasterYay! The creativity on everyone’s setup is cracking me up. And hopefully Skills got some more free cookies because he was judging you for not giving him any LOL! Oh wait, I am supposed to be watching Stark LOL!
Stark did great here – he was very happy to run up the board and target, shift his weight into the crouch, then leap off. The bosu is pretty portable – maybe put it on the downhill side of the teeter so on the downhills, Stark runs down the board to the bosu ball end?One other thing to play with here – ‘jostling’ him a little to add more strength and balance (that was homework from HS’ rehab people): when he is balancing, gently push him on his side, so he has to shift his weight to balance (GENTLY hahahahahaa). Then gently push the other side. That builds balance and core strength by allowing up to elicit it with the gentle pushes. Be sure to not fling him off the side, though LOL!! I would only push hard enough for her to lean into me, which is good weight shift!
Great job! Let me know if the bosu goes outside to play πT
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi Lisa! You and Maia are off to a great start here!! And she is so fun π
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 π 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!
TracyTracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi! He is looking really good – one thing that I noticed on all the clips that involved the teeter: he was happier & more relaxed, and you didn’t have to work as hard to get him stimulated to run up the board with confidence. The confidence is there more naturally now, which is a tremendous step forward. Yay! More details below:
Targeting on the plank is looking good. Now, you can add more motion and excitement to this, he looks ready! As you do, add in 2 rules for yourself so that you have really independent behavior:
Your feet are not allow to be near the target on the plank anymore when he stops in position LOL! You can send him ahead and hang back, you can cue the target then move laterally, you can move ahead- but don’t have your feet next to him when he hits his position so he doesn’t have your position built into his understanding at all.
The 2nd rule is if you are moving past the end of the board or laterally away from it, you must stay in motion for 2 full steps after he has hit his target position. That way he won’t be relying on your deceleration or stopping as a way to help with the position (we all do that by accident, it is like a bad dance move LOL!)Mountain climbers – awesome! I see more and more confidence each time. He is driving up the board without hesitation. He appears to be stopping a little shorter than I want him too – he is stopping at the top of the contact a bit more than at the end of the contact. So, you can throw in lots of reps where you lead out to the very end, face him, recall him up the board and then reward him with his feets hanging off the very end. I suggest starting each session like that, and repeating it once or twice when you add more tip (or more, if he shows any concern). That will build a lot of value for the very end in a way that supports him so he is confident. And, I think you can add more tip on this too, bit by bit.
Backing up – yes, remain stationary while he does it – you might find it easier to sit on the ground or in a low chair, so you don’t have to move and he keeps his head low. But he did great here!!
The Bang Game is looking good, so now we move to the next level which will challenge his balance and get him even more right to the end of the board. Rather than have him jump on a little higher and then take a few steps down the board, start right at the every end of the board – your toes will be at the very end and he will be next to you and parallel to his target position spot. Have him hop on right into position – taking a leap onto the board and basically landing in position without any steps down the board. It is a little harder to do this, especially with the down as the end position, so do a couple of sessions without tip. When he is happy with that, add tip π
As you set up the mechanics of being right at the very end of the teeter, you can be stationary with your feet next to the target. But as soon as he gets the idea, you can add motion and also add in the rules from the plank targeting: no feet allowed near the target, and you must stay in motion for 2 more steps after he has come to a complete stop π
Great job here! He is moving forward in all the games π Let me know what you think!
TracyTracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi! He is looking really good!!
>>He had a few misses in the session, but they were really tough ones (mean Momma!) and was able to figure it out right away.
Yes! He was especially good on the right side entries which now appear to be stronger than the left side entries LOL!! He did really well with very few misses with the various angles (including hard ones) and the threadle side entries.
>>And I did remember your advice to give him an easy rep after a crappy click and that avoided a repeat behavior.
Yes, that made me chuckle! But he did not offer the clicked behavior again, whew! I mean, when I think back on it – we humans click the wrong thing, and then we humans ask the same question from the same angle, but expect the dog to magically offer a behavior which is NOT the one I clicked just a moment ago. It sounds insane when I think about it LOL!! So doing something entirely different kept a great flow to the session.
>>Next steps for now is just to keep doing angles and motion on this? And for 2x2s working angles and motion as it moves to βstraightβ?>>
Yes – channels remain open while you do angles and add more motion – I think you can probably try him on 8 poles, giving an intro to it by moving the MM down the line like you did with 4.
And yes to the 2×2 poles getting to straight π You can also isolate those wicked hard left side entries with a clicker, like you did with the wicked hard right side entries that look really strong now.
No need to do threadle entries past the 3 and 9 o’clock angles, as that open up a can of worms we don’t want to open up yet LOL!
Great job!!!
TracyTracy Sklenar
KeymasterOh that is so cool – I didn’t know you played violin!!!! It must feel great that rehearsals have started. It has been a looooooooong year!
He looked great here. Happy dog, drove right to the end, seemed relaxed, no frantic behavior, no loss of balance as the board moved under him. He kept his head down and was focused on the drive to the end.
>>One difference this time is I taped the target plate to the bottom of the teeter so he has to lean Down to get the cookie. >>
I think that is the right choice – get him used to ‘looking’ for the target off the board, which will also match the other games like the bang game and some of the ones in the future. I agree that it would be confusing if there was a target on the board then one off the board. So, leave it there. His weight shift here was fine – he had to be a little more ‘forward’ to get the treat, yes, but still really balanced and his weight was distributed pretty nicely! If he gets off balance, we are likely to see his head come up and his shoulders will look like they ‘lift’ off the board – if that happens, we can go to the balance games. But so far – he looks great! So, keep the target there on the underside, and add more tip π If he has a question about the weight shift, we will see it when you have about 6 inches or more of tip.
Great job!! Onwards to more tip π
TracyTracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi!
I am excited to see that the snow is GONE! And the weaves have a base too LOL! Yay!
This session went well! I am glad she likes her line up cookie π She did really well with the lotus ball – you might want to set a visual target up out there for the lotus ball reps, because the throws were on a bit of an angle towards 7 or 8 o’clock, so she was drifting to her right a but rather than wrapping hard to drive to 6 o’clock. You can also try adding the MM back in (then you don’t have to worry about the throws at all LOL!) now that the cheese line up reward is in the picture.
She looks totally ready for more motion here and also for angled poles! Yay! Onwards!
Great job π
TracyTracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi!
>> When we send and add motion, it makes lots of sense from 12 to 9 and 12 to 3. When were sending from the bottom half of the pole set-up, the motion is less clear. Iβve been moving forward a bit, sending with my arm, then turning around and moving back to the starting point. Do you suggest any other motion or non-motion from those points (8,7,6,5,4)? Just wondering.>>
I suggest either doing a one-step send (and one arm point) generally towards the poles and then moving away immediately, or no motion at all and sending on a verbal. Remember back when they were wee puppies and we were sending them to those props at the very beginning of class in July? Think of the weave as a prop – and only take one step towards it, then you leave for the next direction. It is like a split-step, where you step one way with one foot, and the other way with the other foot – no rounding the line or supporting the line. It is a true send-and-go π
And I mix in lots of holding the collar, saying the verbal, letting go and not moving at all.The overall goal is to help as little as possible, especially in these stages. Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyTracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi! This also went really well. I don’t think the tunnel was a distraction at all – the poles were basically straight, so the misses that she had were probably related to that more than to the tunnel being right there. So you can open the poles up a tiny bit on that angle so it is a shade easier.
She might have also been watching the cookies in your hand more than she was thinking about the MM as the target – if the cookies were higher value in your hand, you can switch values and see if that helps her keep targeting to the MM.You can also ask her to do the tunnel a few times then ask her to do the weaves π That will add challenge because the tunnel because more exciting after she does it a few times. Wheeee!
But her high rate of success right in front of the tunnel is exactly why we start it this early in the progression. π Great job!Tracy
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi!
This is looking really strong! She is a smartie pants! And going back to the normal sends on the 4-5-6 side looked great – at this point with the threadle side entries, don’t do them past 3 and 9 (different can of worms that we will open later on LOL! )
I suggest 3 things at this point –
you mentioned she is nuts for the flying squirrel toy (I think that is the toy you mentioned) – lets get her a bit wilder and see if she can still find all these entries when she is more stimulated! You can start just by playing ith the toy before, using cookie rewards from the MM, then back to the toy.That brings me to the second idea – if she if fine with the toy being incorporated along wit the MM, you can then do entire sessions for the toy (no MM). Or, you can use the lotus ball. As long as she keeps looking straight and you throw to where the MM would be, she should be fine. You can also leave the MM there as a throwing target π
You can also add more motion, pushing harder to see if she will ask questions when she is more stimulated by the running.
And if that is all good (and I think it will be!) – onwards to straight poles!
Have fun! Great job here!
Tracy
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi!
These look great, I didn’t see any real questions from him. And yay for being outdoors and the snow going bye bye!
I think you can work up to straight poles for the sends w/ motion and also the threadle sends (but there is no need to go past 3 and 9 on the threadle sends, because otherwise it opens up a can of worms )threadle vs. no threadle) that we will address in future games π Getting the poles straight will set you up perfectly for the new games coming on Monday.I totally agree about adding in returning to you for the ball between treats. It will add even more excitement! Coming back to the toy will also help transition for efficiency – some outside distractions caught his attention after he ate from the PT, so the routine of coming back for the toy will help him grab the treat and drive back. And of course, I think you can also do sessions of toy-only with him instead of the PT at this point.
Love the stealth changing of the angle of the poles while he was eating and didn’t see it happen LOL! He had no questions on the angles at all, from what I could tell.
Great job!
TracyTracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi! Super video! Do they let you go in and train in the mornings? Sounds like an awesome perk!
He was driving up nicely. He was looking for the weight shift moment right at the top of the contact, but it was subtle and it gets better each time so keep going with the party atmosphere you’ve created here πAbout the RDW training… I’ve had the dogs offer the teeter target position on the end of the DW board when I am annoyingly slow getting ready, but never during the training. 3 reasons for this, 2 of which might be useful for you:
1 – they aren’t all that well-trained on their teeter end positions, and Stark is much better trained haha
2 – I have used their mat in a flyball setup before putting it onto the DW- so they learned the hit and go on a flyball board first, and it is super fun. Definitely something you can tr y with Stark, I have video of it if you are interested.
3 – on the DW itself, 2 things : I used my elevated and inverted targets on the DW plank first, to show them what that plank was all about before going to the flat mat (I truly can’t remember if that is what Jordan recommended or not lol) I did all my back-and-forth reps with those targets.
Then, when I went to the mat on the DW, I used the same body language I used on the flyball training, so they all immediately said “where no stoppy”.Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyMy teeter training body language is very different (more like what I use for the bang game) so they are discriminating pretty well).
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi! Based on this video, you multi-task really well π
On the first couple of reps with the cone, she was jumping on a little high and then moving down the plank, so those were really more of a warm up.
When you switched to the other side and without the cone – she was leaping right into position much more. And when you went back to your left side without the cone, she was definitely moving right into position, no walking down the board. Nice! And I don’t think she noticed the increase in tip. Yay!
So for now, leave the tip where it is an add some handler independence: start the same way you left off here, but as you release her to target, start to walk forward to challenge her to hit and hold target position.
Then if that is strong for a session, increase the tip and repeat the process of introducing the different challenges π
It should be very gradual increases like you did here. We’ve got about 10 more days til we build on it, so you can make a goal of maybe 2 or 3 inches total to add from what you had here (and see how see feels about it :))
Great job!
Tracy -
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