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Hey there, we’re still working away at it.
My new mantra is “he’s doing the best he can with where his brain is taking him” so it’s up to me to help him do better. As much exposure as I can to new and novel sights and situations. Have him entered in a seminar this Thursday – topic is stopped contacts, something that he does have in his toolbox. I did that on purpose, taking a skill he has to a new location with new people.This video is our 1st run on the floor at last nights class. Watching it, my take aways are
Motion is tough for him – wait until everyone is settled before bringing him put and setting him up.
When I lost him at the start line, it was to a new dog in class standing up by the fence line – he needs to check out new so I just have to always be aware of that.
Reward reward and reward – all errors were mine. Stopping a sequence without rewarding will lead him to check out.We have a couple of trial runs this Saturday. My plan is to pick out some short 4 or 5 obstacle courses and run them. I’ve got to hold myself accountable for sticking to the plan! What usually happens is I get to the line, say we got this and run the full course – overconfidence or denial? This time maybe I shouldn’t walk the full course LOL.
A run from last night,he did well here. He comes out of his crate when the PWD enters the ring, we do some up and down, some watching the run and then go to the entry gate for some more pattern work, I enter the ring while the PWD is still in, trying to keep things trial like. The RC running out while he was at the line was hard for him but he dealt with it, motion is tough. I asked the instructor to walk around while holding his leash. The back ring almost got him while he was in the weaves, but he dealt with that also. Finished the run and decided to end the session there, didn’t want to go work on something additional and cause him to wonder if he made a mistake. No lotus ball on me here and empty hands, some cookies in my pocket though.
Some thoughts
More impulse control work and work around distractions – been going to a local park where there is usually a group of dogs and owners around 5:00 to 6:00 PM usually 10 to 15. We keep our distance and work on his attention and skills, recalls and= call to hand and side. Also use this location to help us build our volume dial games. goal being to slowly decrease the distance between us and the pack. The only thing I can’t control here is the occasional off leasher coming over to join usHe doesn’t like being wrong so stopping and redoing is not helping, going to be hard for me, but just keep going Tom. Yelling at him is NG – I’m working on stopping that
As far as his arousal states, I believe that the trial atmosphere naturally puts him in high arousal. So the goal with him is to figure out how to bring him way down and then if needed up a bit when we go to the line. Keep working the pattern games
Been doing a lot of experimenting with our routines, waiting, start line and end of run. Time to figure out what works best and build it into a habit.
Training with high ROR is different than trial prep work. I keep mixing them together which probably promotes some confusion
Use class time to teach us how to best use a food box setup for UKI
A bit from our session yesterday,some remote reward sequencing. He was starting to get a bit flat here, so I used treat tosses for some volume dial work. Did have some objects scattered about on the floor.
and a bit from Mondays class – I’m now starting to think I need to simplify things for him here. Nos ense in trying to execute courses with 5 backsides while I’m trying to teach him to ignore what’s going on around him. I can pick out a simple course and run him thru that for success – yes?
I also need to work on my own thinking. I’m finding that I’m starting to anticipate when the wheels will come off the bus which is leading to me managing him instead of running him, going to work on changing that.
Thursday, ran a couple of rounds of jump, jump, RC to tunnel then RC tossed reward after tunnel exit. RC was seated about 3’ away from tunnel entry
This went wellFriday, two rounds with some people walking around the floor. I also hung some coats on jump wings as a weird item. This too went well.
“my only suggestion is to throw it one obstacle later” that’s how we started his 1st time out on the floor. Then I started overthinking it – what was getting rewarded, passing the RC or the weave / tunnel performance. Do I need to think of this as a chain, with ignoring the RC as just part of the chain? obstacle – ignore the RC – obstacle = reward.
“Yes it is ‘home base’ but still a bit challenging! Is there the potential to drop into other classes there, so the environment is familiar but the people/dogs are different? That might be a convenient way to switch things up.”
Not at this place – she does privates from 10:30 to 5:30 and then one class before mine which I cannot make. I’ve committed to picking up a person who comes out from Manhattan by train and I’m too nice to tell her she’s on her own! I do have two other facilities that I do drop in on for classes. The place with the matted floor and the place with the turf floor. The mat floor instructor has a hard time following my plan, she’s forever throwing in off script challenges that cause him to fail – doesn’t get incremental increases in difficulty so now I ask her to stay seated. The turf facility instructor is great, but it’s another home base type of situation for Coal. You probably know her from UKI – she just had the trip from hell to Chicago. Drove NY to Chicago, senior non competing dog passed on day her knee blew out on day 2 and she had to withdraw from the balance.
“It seems like you are being asked to run silently and that has some uses for handling… but I am not sure if that is helpful for him in challenging spots (like passing distractions). Talking to him there can be very connecting and helpful!”
I agree with you and will keep on talking where I think it helps him. What the instructor wants is for me to think more about what my body language is telling him – also very helpful.
A clip from our class last night. I had a ring crew in the back right and the leash runner / ring crew up front. Instructor had the rewards – he did well with this setup but then again its all familiar stuff to him.
So we did a few CPE runs on this past Sunday – first couple of runs were typical for him, start well and then go check out the ring crew then come back and finish. Last run of the day I got this from him – what was the difference, he was the 1st dog of the class and I had the ring crew for the back of the ring be a bit tardy in getting to their positions. they were waiting in the front of the ring – yes he definitely checked the out on his way by, a clear head turn – but he did keep on going!! slower here that he usually runs but I’m confident that his speed will come back as he gets his head straightened out. Not sure what his issue with the AF was, but he did choose to work with me here – Yay for that.
A couple of clips from Monday night here – overall not his best work that night, I’m chalking that up to his body and brain being tired from the previous few days.
Question – I’m still not clear on the best way to help him realize that ignoring the RC is a good thing and how to best reward it. In these clips, the RC by the weave entrance was never an issue and the boy never got a thing for it not being an issue. When would have been the right time to reward? Last short sequence here, I rewarded by the RC
2nd clip, I worked him around the left side RC and again chose to reward by the RC when I was sure that he was not being drawn in.
Should I be thinking about building a chain here – reward by RC, reward after next obstacle past RC, reward two obstacles past RC – does the reward then become more about the obstacle performance that ignoring the RC?
One of our sessions from Monday’s class – gave him a break from the ring crew, but the instructors hanging coat still got him. So the more different stuff I can expose him to the better – yes? Didn’t stop to fix any of my errors here and no hands in the collar.
This bit was from yesterday – did some pass the leash until we go to the leash.
Attended a seminar in this space on Saturday – he did well, but no real take aways from the teaching. It’s still fun to get out among different people and dogs.
some of our session today – had ring crew out at the tunnel, another gentleman in the near left corner and the wandering judge. We started with jump tunnel – reward for a couple of reps, went well but no video. Then to what you see here – he did pretty good in ignoring the RC so long as they sat still – motion is still real hard for him to ignore
Another round – had some struggles with the DW tunnel discrimination – something else to add to the list of things to work on.
This video is from Monday night – I chose to work the ring crew that I had sit next to the frame Rewarded the contact performance and rewarded the tunnel turn. Question – is he making a connection with ignoring the ring crew here or is it all about the obstacle performance in his head?
Ring crew in the back right corner was never a problem during these sessions.
DW to weaves in this session -he had full view of the yappy PWD out of its crate straight ahead of him – no gate to stop him from visiting – he did great here – a proud dad moment!!
So do I do a few more sessions keeping it easy and successful like this or do I figure out how to make it more distracting?
This is a bit of work we did in the backyard today – some impulse control – pass the cookie to get the cookie and my best shot at recruiting some ring crew. Any value from my RC here?
Today is a day of rest, tomorrow I’ll have a chance to work with some live people – my thought was set up RC sitting behind tunnel
sent to tunnel – reward success
1 jump send to tunnel reward success
2 jumps – send to tunnel reward successKeep it simple fun and sucessful – good plan?
Friday will be another rest day and then Saturday I have an AM seminar with an Ana Mrksic – topic is commitment – lets see if we can get him to commit to leaving the RC alone LOL
Some snips from our UKI adventure this past Saturday
Run #1 – the scorer caught his attention while he was on the DW – he did recover and did pass the corner ring crew – a rewardable event but we were 120′ away from the food box – should I have thrown his ball in the direction of the box and just kept running to it?
Run #2 – our best of the day – hindsight when he headed to the off course teeter, I should have gone with it, calling him off it led to “you don’t know what the heel you’re doing and I’m checking out. Did finish nicely here.
Run #3 – lost him to the leash runner here – a very cute little 9 year old – hindsight I should have asked here to move down a bit so she wouldn’t be right in front of him. Did set him up for a nice ending – 3 jumps to reward – should have done that every run. My focus has to be building his confidence / impulse control or whatever his issue is. I know he’s got the skills and drive to do this- just need to figure out how to make it appear.On a positive note, I was real happy with his general demeanor all day – calm, ignored the other dogs, good volume dial games outside the ring which unfortunately disappear when we go thru the gate. Cratedhim in the car, would take him out at the start our class, bring him in and let him snuffle a bit ringside -then some volume dial and then into the ring. it’s a nice venue, generally a small entry – under 30 dogs – and only 115 miles away LOL!
1st run is from Monday nights class – not our best work. I was working on remote reward here. Brought him out to the floor when the bar setters were out, should have probably had rewards for that, bit I had nothing on me – a bit of lumping on my part. He was a bit sniffy again, may have been the bar setters, snacks in the sand or the continuing ear infection.
This was some remote reward work from Tuesday, Not sure this will play for you – used music as an added distraction. Some balls out on the floor and the bowl of cheese on the table – he definitely knew the cheese was there. Ignored all my handling foul ups, not what we were working on. Also did not have his slip leash with me, not sure how much that changed the picture for him?
Any UKI coming up, with a food box? It would be really great to be able to have him go past a person behind a tunnel, get a reward in the food box, run back in and do a bit more, then more reward in the food box, etc.
Yes, I’m signed up for UKI this coming Saturday. The facility does use food box areas, there are actually two of them, one on either end of the front of the ring. My experience in this facility has been that there is only the judge, leash runner and 1 ring crew in the ring. Ring crew is generally sitting at the back of the ring, 120′ away from the food box area so it’s going to be difficult to work passing the RC. I could toss an empty Lotus ball towards the food box and then collect it and run to the box for his jackpot.
What I’ve done here in the past has been to work the front of the ring with short sequences and toss his lotus ball into the food box for reward
Tried to figure out how to attach a photo of the ring setup to this post, my tech skills failed me with that task – what did I miss?
So, the 1st video is a CPE run from Sunday and the 2nd is from class last night – night and day. Still looking for the missing piece of the puzzle. Played around a bit with the pre run routine, added in some snuffling after coming out of the crate. that did seem to help his mindset.
This is our 1st session out on the floor at last nights class. Set up a simple sequence for some remote reward work, kept the ring crew on the light side, wanted to set him up for success – did the full routine from leash off to the jackpot, had one of his dots on the end bench, he knows to go looking for that. repeated it twice and then moved on to some sequencing.
Did the same for our 2nd time on the floor, same result – no video for that
Keep repeating and building the remote reward work?
Morning
“He seemed sniffy in the middle section of the course, which seemed unusual for him.” Might have been a couple of reasons. We only have this facility on Mondays, rest of the week it belongs to the Horses. the run a riding program for special needs students here. Anyway, the footing can often contain many “snacks”. He’s also getting over n ear infection – lots of head shakes.This video is where we are at with our remote reward progress – something I need to put more time into, I’m sure it’s piece of the puzzle. He did pretty good here, I ran these clean, nothing on me. I do want to build more value for targeting the leash.
