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Thanks for the answers to the above questions.
Here are several videos.
Start line stays – I did this with the toy this time. She was very good. I am waiting for her to offer the sit, but should I ask for it instead?Handling Combos — We didn’t get a ton done because snow was sliding off the roof and it really worried her. I was certainly late on one of the blinds.
Ladder work – She wasn’t really keen on starting in the middle of the ladder so she did the whole thing. She was better about keeping her head low and straight until the end of the ladder and then she looked at me.
Tunnel and tunnel threadles – Edited down but this represents what we were getting. I think Sid in the room barking distracted her, but she seemed to get confused about the threadle. I have a super short tunnel – 3 ft – and wonder if it would be better to start on that. I will also do this at Suzie’s where we can run a bit more.
Lap turn – often if I didn’t have food in my dog hand she was slow about coming in for the turn. I also need to figure out where to position myself in regards to the move and the prop to make it smoother. I tried to remember to throw the treat forward before she got to the prop.
I have some questions and comments – haha
For the sit stay work – I can totally see that rewarding her when she sits with a cookie could come back and bite me. I suspect she will really enjoy me doing some of it with a toy. I will be interested to see how she does with that. Thank you for that.For the Rear Cross work – I will use more space for sure to help give her time to get ahead and me time to cross earlier, but before that I will put more work on the parallel path and her going forward. I know I was not rewarding at all or as enthusiastically if she didn’t actually make contact with the hat.
Leg bumps – I think that should be an easy fix with preplacing the toy.
Ladder work – would an actual ladder be okay to use? We have part of an old extension ladder so it is one piece and low to the ground. I will also work on just sending her forward with a quiet get it or a preplaced treat.Lap turns and tandem turns – She did do much better without the prop which I am sure is due to my handling/training. Every time I say “oops” I think that I shouldn’t have but the brain mouth connection is sort of weak – Ha! Something I will work on. I stopped the video in the places you mentioned my hand and eye position and can definitely see the difference. I will also work on no food in dog hand and no Yes marker.
Questions – I know that there are times we should mark the behavior with a Yes or click and I think I am fuzzy on when to do it and when not to do it. Is there a type of behavior that you would use the Yes/click and a type that you would not, or is this more dog/handler specific to Caper and me.
For the part where I shouldn’t have food in my dog hand, is this after they are understanding the movement of the hands/arms in turning them? I used the cookie especially in the early training of the lap turn but she seems to understand the behavior better now so could probably get away without it. Finally, in teaching the lap and tandem turns would you ever use a preplaced cookie/toy, would you ever throw a toy instead of a cookie?Thank you so much for the fast feedback. I recently listened to a podcast about agility training where they mentioned that “what you learned first is what you learned best” and I think I have had a long time to cement certain behaviors in my handling that I am now trying to change. I am sure I can get there but it is hard sometimes. Having your eyes and positive comments and critique really helps.
The first part of the session is on the lap turn and the second part on the tandem turn. She did pretty well and I think when she turned incorrectly it was due to my not slowing down with the cue. On the lap turn she struggled on one side to hit the prop. I may have not have it placed well but she spent so much time staring at me. I created that issue with Jackson and really want to avoid that so any suggestions are of course so appreciated. She did better hitting the prop on the tandem turn.
Thanks!Leg bumps and ladders – I think I got her a bit too jazzed with the toy on the leg bumps. I don’t know if what she was offering was what I should be aiming for or if it should have less bounding around. I was super happy with the ladder drill and don’t know if I should stay at this for a while or raise the bars.
I tried some more rear crosses. It is still a work in progress but I think I needed to make the prop more desirable which I have been working on and we had fewer failures. Progress I hope!
Beginning start line stay work. I have worked on a stay with her before, but I hadn’t ever incorporated the catch or the driving past me. I really liked this and she did great I think. This was our very first time doing catch and she was a good girlie.
We tried Goat tricks 3 again on the plank. I think she is figuring out it is all 4 feet on it. I was so happy with her willingness to work this out and wait for the cookie.
Here is our beginner retrieve games. She is usually good about this and was great in this short session. In our agility field she will sometimes make a loop before she brings it back – not really running around the field but just sort of one big loop. I won’t be able to show that for a while probably due to the snow, but maybe I can do it anyway. Might be fun. I videoed this before I read all your information on the best way to tug and I need to work on that. I am pulling her up and down and side to side some.
And, here is our first try at the Rear Cross with the Prop. Holy Batman – this was so hard for me and I was so late getting the treat thrown ahead. I don’t want her to rehearse those spins but by the time I see that she is committed I am late in getting the reward in front of her. She didn’t spin a couple of them and that was great but I really want to clean this up. When should I throw it? Should I say get it as I throw it? Thanks in advance.
Thank you for the feedback. Here is our next effort on the backing up. Your idea of using a large dog bed worked great. I was so pleased with how she did. Also, I am lucky and have a good back so staying bent over is very possible. I thought I was being much better with reward timing and placement and sometimes I think I was, but in looking at the video I could be faster with it. I will get there and I think that will make things better for her. Should my marker word come before I give the treat? Should my marker word come as she starts to step backwards or as she lifts her foot to put on the bed?
Thanks again!!!Here we go with the backing up. I just had her back up from the wood floor to the carpet initially and I was really pleased with how well she did. Then I put a sanded board down and she struggled with backing up on that. I moved a little closer and just had her back up with her front paws onto the board which worked and then tried a bit with her hind feet. I think she thinks the behavior with the board is to turn around and come over it again. I did some stuff on a raised board this fall before your class and I think I have confused her. Finally, in watching the video I think I am supposed to be quiet other than the marker word when shaping. If that is correct, I will try to remember next time.
Thank you! I will get rid of the clicker. I haven’t been wearing a treat bag or a training apron but what are your thoughts on that? I wonder if it would help me be quicker getting treats for her.
I don’t think I have 2 planks that are the same height, but maybe we can rig something up.
I am really pleased with her progress. She is proving to be pretty fun to work with. We just got about 10 inches of snow so that impacts some of what we can do. Ha.
Thanks, I will try the combination of the cushion and wobble board, and I think I have a way to easily make a much bigger wobble board to help her not be so scrunched.
In the meantime, here is our effort today (first time) on Goat Tricks 3. I was struggling keeping the clicker and treats organized and I know some of my clicks were late. It totally depended on where I threw the treat as to whether she put all 4 feet on. I will keep working on this. Is the goal for them to understand to offer all 4 feet regardless of where they start?
At the end I asked for her to turn around on it. It was hard.
We were gone over the holiday weekend, so I am just getting back to this. Here is our second try at Goat Tricks 2. I should have reviewed the instructions and done some tugging in between, but I was very happy with her willingness to do this. The session was a little longer than shown here, but I cut out some of the repetitions since they seemed the same. I may have been giving to much body language to encourage her to put all 4 feet on.
1. Thanks, Tracy! I will work on better timing and Brad is game to help.
2. I am only mentioning this because you had commented on 2 of the 4 videos I posted yesterday and I wanted to make sure you had seen the other two – one was on ready dance to the prop and one was our second try with Blind crosses. If you just haven’t gotten to them, no problem and enjoy your Thanksgiving.
3. Is it better for me to add all new videos etc. at the bottom of the page or is it better to reply to the critique of a specific video by hitting the reply that is with that critique (hope that makes sense)?
