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Thank you so much for the feedback. yes, I was thrilled with how she did. I think I am doing better on focusing on the process and making it as successful as I can for her. I wonder if having the walls of the indoor help her focus on the jump ahead but she sure thought it was fun.
Today we worked a little bit on Sequence 3 a. We didn’t get everything but I was happy with how it went. I have to keep letting her know she does great since the errors are my brain, mouth, body doing crazy things some of the time. I can see lots of things from the earlier MaxPup classes that we did successfully but didn’t do enough for her to fully understand the behavior with a verbal etc. I am feeling pretty encouraged.
We also did another startline session.
I thought I would let you know that I have my first session with Bobbie Bhambree on the 18th. We will be looking to see if we need to get medication on board right away or not. Thank you for your encouragement to do this.
Thank you! She was having fun. We will try to work on this tomorrow since we will be at one of her favorite places – Keith and Suzie’s! We were there yesterday and I worked a bit on sequences from the most recent package of games. She was more successful at finding her lines and was very happy. I found that I was not ready to actually think and handle at the same time – Oh, my – I got a little flummoxed and was pretty late getting cues to her. On the threadle cue, when I finally remembered how to do it and looked at where I wanted her to come she did great. We took a break and did a tiny bit on the second sequence and she was very happy to play.
Sequence 1
Sequence 2
It’s been a minute since I have posted, but thanks for the previous feedback.
We played with the releases part 2 today.Thank you. The ground here has gotten a bit slick so sequence work is harder. For the sequence work we are still struggling to get the back side and if she gets a head of steam up going through the tunnel it continues to be hard even with thrown cheese to get her to see that darn driving line again. I am going to try this again indoors hopefully on Friday.
I did a couple of the other games and I think she did great. Fortunately, she has a really good stay.
Leash off engagement on
Releases part 1
Thanks! I can totally have a reward station that I take with me. Would a small cooler work that has the treats, toys either on top of it or inside of it?
I wondered if it would be good to try the engaged chill with a leash and you answered that for me.
Tried the first sequence of week 3 today. It was raining a bit off and on but luckily not slick. I thought she did great but we did have a glitch with the backside. After looking at the video I wonder if I should stop putting my arm forward as that rotates my shoulders? I remember when we were first learning these I kept my arm back and it worked great. Would this be a back side wrap verbal?
Thank you! She really loves these kind of games.
We tried two of the games today and I think she did well.
On the Engaged Chill game. She othen does what I would think of as an engaged chill when I am sitting down – either laying near me while I pet or scratch her or putting her front legs on my lap while I scratch or pet her. We haven’t really done a behavior like this while I am standing, so that is what I worked on. Would you eventually add a verbal to this?
I also gave Remote Reinforcement a try. She was pretty excited about the behaviors and a little worried about where I had the reinforcement. I will try this again in different places.
Thanks for the feedback.
Yes, I have noticed that she is finding the jumps more consistently which is wonderful. I will keep working on getting my body cues and verbals to match. It feels like I am doing it (or in my mind I am), but I can see that it isn’t happening in real life. I understand about not using the get it as a lure. I realized that she was turning when I said it. She is a good a patient girly.
I worked on my end of run routine tonight. We had an interruption of a cat on the course but I was really pleased with how she did. After the Zoom talk tonight and the practice I have been doing, I really see that I need to practice these routines regularly to help us both get them to work well.
Thanks, when I read your recommendation for doing the Find Your Face Game not near agility equipment it totally made sense. I do not want her to think she she not take obstacles that are on her line. Did you want more video on that with not equipment? At what point do I put it back on jumps? Are there things to look for so I will know that or should I keep posting video until I get the thumbs up from you?
Your feedback on the threadle sequence makes so much sense. I tried it again today and realize that either she doesn’t know the Left verbal very well or the excitement of running overrides it. I know that it can take a long time for them to really understand the verbals and I haven’t worked on it as diligently as I could have. On the reminder to be careful about my reward markers I had a couple of questions. On the threadle sequence, if I would say Get It (which is her marker for food or toy on the ground she should run to) that helped her turn from going into the tunnel straight on. Is that okay and what you meant about using the correct marker? Is it confusing to the dog to have so many verbals given in succession, Left, Whoop, Get It?
Here is a short video of trying to implement your suggestions for the threadle work and also me actually doing the blind cross on the first sequence.
Here is our first work on the remote reinforcment.
I heard back from Bobbie and we are figuring it out! Thank you.
I have been doing threadle rehab work over several days with really short sessions. If no jumps are involved she almost always gets it but I found it very hard to get cheese thrown that was obvious enough to pull her towards the threadle line if she took a jump. When I moved to a toy that helped a lot. These are all the rounds that I did today with a session in the morning and then one at later this afternoon. I am so pleased with her happy attitude and I think she is understanding it a lot better. Sometime this weekend I will work on the other sequences and see if we have any luck implementing them.I also did the find your face again doing as you suggested and not involving jumps. She was a good girl with her silly mom.
Thanks Tracy. I have listened to most of the webinars you did with Bobbie and Cathy so I figured that might be who you suggested. I am sending an email today. I sure appreciate the help.
Thank you once again for the good feedback. It is so weird how I think I have my body in the correct place and then the video (I am pretty sure it was tampered with -HA) shows I did not.
I was sure I would have another video to post by now but we have needed to do some remedial tunnel threadle work and then rain and snow has caused a little delay but the weather is looking good for the next few days. I like the cheese throwing a lot. It takes some of the pressure off of me which means it takes it off of her and we both have more fun. I will look for some good areas for the MM.
I would like to take you up on the offer to put me into contact with some of the behaviorists about getting some supplements/medication etc. for Caper. I think it is possible that as the hormones leave her body she may get much better, but I don’t want to take the chance that something could happen in that time frame that would set us back or that it doesn’t happen at all Thank you.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for along fall!
That was some great feedback. Thank you – we have lots to work on.
I did the first two sequences throwing cheese. On the second one I couldn’t get to the blind cross spot due to cheese tossing so I tried some with her in a stay before 4. She seemed very happy but I am not sure why she zoomed off to the tunnel after the blind. I wonder if she could have been feeling a bit too much pressure. Regardless, we both had a lot of fun. I took a break between running sequence 1 and 2 and before each one I did pattern games and then gave her the snuffle mat when we finished. I think this was really effective – thanks so much for clarifying when I should do these. I don’t think this is on the video, but I did the pattern game and then we heard two big gun shots and she gave no indication of hearing them or any worry at all.
What type of medications are you referring too? I want to be able to give my vet as much information as possible.
The book I am reading that talked about the dreaming rats is mainly about octopuses and is called The Soul of the Octopus.
Thank you so much for all the commnents. It is good to know that her running past the jumps is not that uncommon. I will be getting her into the vet to have her thoroughly examined.
She has always been pretty noise sensitive but more like just noticing noises but not acting as scared and anxious as she has become. One litter mate that I see a lot does not have any noise issues and I will try to find out about some of the others. I have been doing a little herding with her and my instructor mentioned that she is very sensitive to noise (not as in a bad thing but that she really notices) she knows her breeding and her parents (all from Wales) and said that the Welsh specifically breed for noise sensitivity since the collies have to pay attention to the shephard from long distances over rugged ground.
Yesterday, I tried the first sequence for week 2. I tried throwing cheese but had trouble getting over to throw the cheese after the tunnel to help set her up for the next jump. We did some non-cheese runs too and she really did a lot of nice things. A friend was here who has a great eye and helped to remind me when to give verbals since I can still be so late with them Is my motion to try to get over to the jump after the tunnel creating pressure to push her beyond the jump or is it more her teenage brain just not processing things quickly enough. I will try more with the lazy game but my aim or timing seemed off on this.
You mentioned keeping it short – I try to keep the sessions to 2-3 minutes which includes tugging etc. and you also mentioned decompression in between. Would a snuffle mat be something that you would have her use?Today I did some of the ARE games. I finally have a video for the Volume Dial. It is interesting how I can visualize how I will do it and then how clumsy I am with getting it done. She did great. I need to really work on the out command for the toy though.
Next, I did the find your face. She was really good at this I thought.
I finished off with the decompression game. Again, I felt clumsy in how I implemented it. Is this practice designed to help them understand how to bring themselves back to a calmer frame of mind after being very aroused?
You mentioned that you would give me some ideas on novel places to practice the just like home games and if you have a chance I would love to hear them.
Finally, I am reading a cool book about animal minds and they talk about how by looking at areas of the brain that light up in sleeping rats that have been taught to go through mazes, they see that the brain activity patterns when dreaming match the patterns when they were doing the maze. In effect they think they are practicing the mazes in their sleep – Maybe this is how latent learning happens.
Thanks again I actually had done some pattern games with her when we got there. She did okay with them but not as good as usual as she was quite distracted by everything. I will try to do more of those before we begin. I suspect as she gets more familiar with this place that it will be easier for her. Is there any value to trying the Just like Home exercises in novel places. We will not be doing any trials NFC or FEO in the near future so actually doing anything at a trial is unlikely.
The video is my last effort to do sequence 3. I didn’t show all the reps but this gives you an idea on what was happening. I tried to follow what you suggested but had very spotty success. This is over 3 different days with a couple of sessions each day. On some of the places that we threw the toy on the line it didn’t seem to change how she took the previous jump. I finished with just throwing cheese after each obstacle and that certainly helped her stay on the line. I am concerned that she has practiced running past jumps a lot so will give this a break. If you have any ideas on using baby steps to help us so she looks for and can stay on a line that would be great. I totally know that that would help a lot.
I also have a question regarding using pattern games to help her overcome her fear/aversion of a lot of agility equipment that manifested when she was having her homrmone issues. Things are definitely better now but she doesn’t want to go near the tire (which is on the lowest setting and I have never asked her to go through or even asked her to go up to). She heard it rattle once and that was that. She is scared of the teeter having seen her brothers go over it when it was set to only drop about 4 inches and avoids strongly – I have not asked her to go up to it since but she did the mountain climber in the last Max Pup and was okay with it. She is worried about the dog walk plank that I have on the ground on bricks and it doesn’t move – she was fine with this in June but no longer. I wanted to start her on two x twos and was going to try guide wires for the first time. The second she saw them she wouldn’t go near at all. I now have them sitting in my living room and have not asked her to approach them and over the last week she has gotten more comfortable with them.
Should I do the pattern game near these things? I am really stumped as she can’t really do agility and never do these and she wasn’t scared of them pre-hormonal nightmare.
Thank you very much for the critique. This makes me feel like there is hope after all LOL We got a lot of rain but the field should be dry enough tomorrow for me to give this another try. I really appreciate you breaking down how to go about working on the rest of this sequence.
So today I took Caper to a friend’s barn that she has never been too. She was quite worried and anxious about this but I wanted to try the “Just like Home” exercise. I think I need to have a little clearer picture on what I want to do, but I was very proud of her efforts to work even though she was so worried. I need to do more of this in other places. Apologies for the not so great video quality.
