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“Great! When is the next time they are doing this?” Unfortunately I don’t know the answer to that. these are few and far between.
This is one of our class sessions from last night. He did fairly well with the ring crew so is it time to make them more distracting – maybe food bowls in their laps?
Kept him at the start line for a bit, waiting for the PWD ro finish crating right behind us – that probably got him a bit amped up, hence the broken start line
Trying hard not to grab his collar – giving him the responsibility for sticking with me – habits are hard to break!
I was pretty sure that the blown weave entry was my fault, so I let him finish and take the tunnel and get rewarded
Have to build those treadle wraps, pretty sure it’s a skill that I’m going to need,he does have the ability to get ahead of me!
One of our runs from today’s match opportunity.
There were 3 ring crew seated up front and the one in the back left corner – she was seated very close to the jump so I focused on her. The background noise was a recording from the last trial here.
Did not work on handling here, much of the run was made up on the fly. My criteria was take the jump, ignore the RC and get a reward. Around the 3.20 point, almost lost him to the the motion of the bar setter but he recovered.
Simple and successful = better neural pathways??
1st round was very similar, with the addition of a judge type person walking around.
“That is really the last piece, the ring crew people in the corners (he is ignoring the leash runner really nicely!) so it seems appropriate to shift focus to that in the NFC runs.” Agreed!! I’m thinking that the visiting is being driven by his need to get rid of his pressure buildup from the cue and startline, so more patterns and more chill to help him. I think he’s often on the downslope of the backside of the arousal curve when coming to the line and is really taxing his brain trying to keep his act together. When he’s like this, does volume dial help or hurt?
A run from yesterday – had a ring person in place, he checked her out, I rewarded the next obstacle once he took it and then life was good!
Another run from yesterday, I brought him out early to help him get used to the ring activity, then the ask was that we run it with no verbals, using body language only, surprised myself here!
I’m going to give him a break today and tomorrow, we’ve done a lot the last few days.
I have an opportunity Saturday for a couple of runs in a full floor agility match with ring crew – same venue that we run CPE in. My thoughts are to concentrate on passing the ring crew – obstacle, pass ring crew, obstacle reward. Repeat and if it goes well, up the challenge by having two people sit side by side – your thoughts on how to use my time – I’ve got 2 4 minute slots.
Also have 2 more UKI opportunities in early March if I can talk myself into the 2 hour drives.
So, I’ve been working thru a tech headache. Dropped my phone and killed it. Replaced it with a new android and am now having video editing headaches. Used to video with my phone, upload to drive and then download to my ipad so I could edit in I-movie. The download to Ipad seems to have disappeared so now I transfer from phone to laptop and edit there. I’ll figure it out.
Did some trialing this weekend UKI on Saturday and CPE on Sunday
UKI Run #2 this was our best of the day and I talked myself out of getting greedy and stuck with my plan
Uki Run #4 – tried to work with the just keep going philosophy here. The dog following us had his snout poking thru the ring gates here, that’s what grabbed Coal’s interest.
CPE Standard Run – again worked with the just keep going philosophy here, ignored anything he missed.
Definitely a work in progress
“so I am curious about if he went to check her out first thing, or later in the session.”
Chair by the triple was 1st
Chair by the tunnel mouth was 2nd
Chair mid DW was 3rd
Chair by the backside to threadle wrap was 4th – my favorite!!I’m thinking that the difference between the 1st and 2nd setups was that Judith was already sitting in the chair before I brought him out to the floor vs being out and watching her walk to the chair in the tunnel mouth setup. Movement is tough for him to ignore. I’m thinking about taking my time in bringing him out to the floor in our trial runs – wait until the barsetters are done and seated and the judge is in position before bringing him to the line. I can still bring him out early is classes and reward for for pattern games and volume dial work, maybe helping him acclimate to the movement in the ring.
“He seemed perfectly happy to get the treats from it! Was he able to chase the bungee lotus in your hand and maybe even tug with it?” – a work in progress, some chasing, no tugging, not his thing yet. Happiest chasing it after I tossed it.
We also had her Havanese sitting in a chair on the other side of the ring gates for all of our sessions.
Judith will also be attending this coming Saturdays UKI trial – any thoughts on how to best use her as a helper if she’s willing?
“Since he wants to check people out, does he get to meet and greet people outside the ring? That can also be helpful – visiting them so he can check them out, which can make it easier to ignore them. I don’t think they should give hi treats for now 🙂 but it might e good to add some meeting folks and see if that helps him ignore them.”
Yes, I had asked you about this a few weeks back. I do give him some chances to socialize during walk thrus and other quiet times. Cookies will probably always come from me for now. He’s such a foodie with a super memory. Give him a cookie once and you will be the center of his universe. And yes, only outside the ring
>Your thoughts on letting him be a bit more social at class and trials. I generally want him minding his own business but he does have a “go say hi” and then come back to me for reward cue.>
I think it is fine to do that outside the ring. Inside the ring might cause a bit of conflict if he is looking at ring crew as potential sources of reinforcement (they never will be inside the ring – outside the ring is a different context so I think it is fine, as long as it doesn’t cause any confusion and he can snap back into work focus very quickly.)
I am working hard on losing the NRM’s It’s a looong bad habit from my past training methods. I do think I’ve gotten much better about rewarding him for my mistakes!
Did some training today with a helper. Used her as seated ring crew in various spots out on the course where I thought we would grab his attention. Kept the sequences short for a high success rate. Didn’t fix any of my handling oopess – wasn’t what I wanted to work on
Also introduced him to a lotus ball on a bungee here.
Wanted to use some sound distractions today but it turns out that my phone wouldn’t multitask – no tunes and video simultaneously
This one scared poor Judith, sitting right next to the tunnel mouth like that. This was also his only disconnect for the session.
Class went fairly well Monday night – started with just a leash runner, stationary for the 1st rep then moving for the next. I’ve probably got to work on getting off the line faster, gave him too much time to ponder on the 1st rep.
Rep 2 there is a leash runner in the back corner who blends in nicely with the black wall. My thought was to work on driving a line towards the ring crew, that seems to be hard for him. He did give the person a good look on the 1st time he passed her, but did not stop. Next couple of passes were good.
“he feels the need to check weird things out so that was definitely a little weird and different!” – yep Coal is definitely an I don’t know what that is so I better go find out type of guy – the exact opposite of Cody
Hey there, still plugging away. I’m finding that the hardest part of the process is getting the helpers to follow directions LOL. The more is better mindset is prevalent when it comes to distraction work.
Did some work on thursday with ring crew having the reward and tossing it after he passed them – that went well until the RC decided to start waving the lotus ball in the tunnel mouth while he was approaching. Also got in a good sequence with a person sitting on the floor in the middle of the ring – No video
My Friday group was better at following direction, they got stand there and do nothing LOL. Got is some good reps with a leash runner behind him. No video
Saturday, I volunteered as a demo team in one of the facilities. We did a bunch of chill and MYOB in a fairly busy environment – went well. Also did a couple of short demo runs which went well. Video attached for this.
Tonights plan is to set up some short sequences and reward after passing the leash runner or ring crew.
Saw your input on my last post when I got back from my Monday class will incorporate some of the feedback at my next opportunity.
Decided to concentrate on working with the leash runner to help slice it down for him. That said, I did get a volunteer unscripted ring crew walking out on our 1st rep which “got” him.
My thoughts on slicing it down for him
– Work with just leash runner
– Work with just seated ring crew
– Work with leash runner and ring crew
– Work with leash runner and moving ring crew
Did my just me and him ring rental yesterday – the toy dog in the chair was no problem. Started with the chair and dog past the 1st jump for a rep or 2 and then moved it back to the start line. Next rep added a couple of fit bones and a toy basket out on the floor – it got him the 1st time out but after that all was OK
I’ll have more opportunity to work with some people tomorrow and Friday
Next trial day will probably be on 2/15 UKI if it’s not going to be too cold
yes, we did 3 more runs on yesterday. Challenge of the day was taht we were consistently the 1st dog of our class – walk the course, go get Coal and go run the course. Definitely cut down on our prep routine for the run and much more notecable stress for him – a good head shake at the startline for most runs – not always holding his startline and generally the 1st couple of obstacles and then a disconnect to go process his feelings. A restart after he’s had a chance to process things led to nice work – the boy is good when his head is clear!!
We also gave keep going after a disconnect a try – I see the potential. I made up the course we ran here on the fly, but he didn’t need to know that.
So I’m thinking that our path to success is not teaching him how to ignore the ring crew but rather figuring out the path to not need him have to go visit – one missing piece of the puzzle that needs to be found.
More pattern games outside the ring to help him with the trial environment
Keep building his volume dial skills -I’m now using a variable reinforcement schedule when playing with him between 1 to 6 reps before reward. Rewarding too much is not going to help the skill carry over into the ring
Your thoughts on letting him be a bit more social at class and trials. I generally want him minding his own business but he does have a “go say hi” and then come back to me for reward cue.
Plan for tonight’s class working on his enter the ring, leash off, 2 obstacles and then back to leash leave the ring to remote reward – all with a cooperative leash runner in place
So, we did 3 trial runs today. In general, He’s getting better at maintaining his cool in the overall trial environment.
Chill and volume dial is going well outside the ring while waiting – unfortunately, the volume dial pretty much disappears once we go into the ring. We would go into the que area 2 or 3 dogs before our run chill for a bit and then play some volume dial before going in. Would then go in and set up, leash off and get going as fast as we could.
All 3 runs we had the pleasure of running after dogs that would non stop bark during their runs – definitely not helping our chill!!
This was our standard run, did loose him to the ring crew in the corner for 10 or 12 seconds, he just about got in the poor woman’s lap. Went and got him for a mid course restart – pretty good after that, ignored the corner person fairly well the next time he passed her.
So what’s my path forward? Short FEO runs away from ring crew to me seems like it’s just avoiding the issue. FEO runs with mid run toy play, would be nice, but it’s not Coal’s thing. He does happily chase tennis balls and tugs in house in or yard or up at the local school, but unfortunately it disappears in the trial environment
So here’s our 1st 2 runs with the rude leash runner in play. Sometimes it’s easier to get the dog to follow directions than it is humans LOL. All I asked them to do was to stand on the blue dot I placed. Yes, he bought into the distractions but he did seem to work thru them and the runs were good once released.
Keep going like this or back it up a bit – make it easier?
So, to prepare him more, can you enlist classmates to come stand behind him like this leash runner, at the start? Or be gate stewards yelling things behind him? He ended up working through it really well, but you can show this to him more so he is more prepared.
So I should have opportunity Thursday and Friday to set up rude leash runner scenarios
What’s the best way to do this? Some of my thoughts –
Bring him in, set up at the line and work his ready cue, have the leash runner approach to maybe 10 feet, if Coal maintains or returns attention to me, mark and toss the ball
Bring him to the line, set up, have the leash runner approach, short lead out and release to call to hand over 1 jump
Repeat while the runner stays in the ring, the idea being to make her part of the normal background
Good morning
“Was he looking over his shoulder at the other dog walking past while he was on the start line? He released well on the 2nd release cue and was SUPER fast!!!” – yes, at least 1/2 of his brain was focused on the PWD here.I am noticing that he does adjust his speed to the surface he is running on – doesn’t like slipping
Sand and dirt = super fast
Turf = a bit slower
Rubber matting = slower yet“What happened at 3:00 – the cue was unclear so he zoomed to his right. Did he come right back?” yes, to the fence and then right back – my plan was for a BC but he got there before I did hence the unclear cue. Right now, the 2nd ring has more draw than the class area – known vs unknown – would doing some short sequences or playing some superbowls at the fence line help?
The video is some ring entrance / exit work with remote reward and distraction. I’ll add in some more obstacles next session
I do have a seminar this Saturday morning with an Arron Froude, the subject is commitment so we’ll see what we can get done there.
Hey there, glad to have this extended opportunity!!
This is from this past Mondays class. I try to make class as trial like as I can. Out of his crate 2 to 3 minutes before his turn. Some pattern games, out of camera here and then down to the ring entry. Some tricks at the entry and then some chill work before going in. What would have helped me here – some more tricks or hand touches at the line He definitely had the Pwd on his mind, went selectively deaf on me for a moment.
For his last couple of classes, I”ve broken out the course challenges and worked on them as short sequences -limiting disconnects and upping the ROR.
He’s got the end of run part down pretty well – knows where the jackpot is and is towning me back there LOL
Long lead outs like I needed here = abandoning him at the line. Add more talk more connection? I needed the lead out to have a chance at getting the blind in after 4. even with it, I didn’t make it there in time – he may be a bit faster than I am
