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Played the other two games and that was great fun!
Presto definitely got the wind in his hair! He started picking up speed immediately and was doing a fantastic job of finding the jump and driving ahead. I think moving to putting the toy on the ground will help because he was savvy as to where the toy was coming from and started looking for it. But I have to say I was thrilled with how well this went and how much fun we had 🙂
Set point went pretty well too. I have done a little of this before, so I was pretty confident he could do his sit stay. But I kept up a high percentage of rewarding for his sit. The biggest problem was a bit of a sloppy sit when he was on my right…he would slump into me 🙁 So, I made sure he was sitting properly and was sure to reward that. I spaced the two jump bumps 4 feet and that seemed right for him.
I watched the recorded class from Saturday and laughed when you talked about your neighbors. When I was doing the tunnel stuff I was SO LOUD! And I did it with all three dogs. My neighbors think I am a total nut job, but they often ask when I’ll be doing it in the front yard so they can watch. We met one couple while we were out walking yesterday and they were joking they thought the olympics were happening in our back yard 🙂 Luckily set point is much quieter!
Thank you!
I missed the class this morning (doing a seminar with Loretta Mueller sat and sun!) but caught up on a few of the new games this evening. When I pulled together the videos, I realized it might have been a mistake to run the exercises with the older dogs first, because I definitely moved Presto through the different levels pretty fast. Although we had a few challenges, with a little more support from me, he was successful. I did move him to verbals on the wing yesterday as you suggested, so I used the wing today. He is definitely respecting the wing more than the barrel!
We did the wrap discrimination and he did the wing wraps very nicely and actually needed more support going to the tunnel…so I eventually realized that and gave him a little body cue support. I left in a little bit of the toy play in between. Still working on that, but I think using a toy for these exercises brings out more drive than treats, so it’s worth the extra time (I was shocked that it was 9 minutes of video edited down to just about 2 minutes of actual work.) There was also one wrap where he cut straight through to the tunnel entry (rather than going around the wing first), but I figured that was ok at this stage.
And since I had the tunnel out, we played the Smiley Face game. (Um, realized now I was supposed to use barrels, not wings…oops). And I messed up one wrap by using the wrong cue (row, row instead of loop, loop), but he did the right thing anyway. But I was really pleased with that rep because he also ran right by the toy hanging in his face and drove to the tunnel on cue. Doing the “left” cue really threw him…I haven’t done that exercise in maybe two weeks, so he wanted to wrap. But hopefully I adjusted my body to better support it and he did it well in the “right” direction. In watching your instruction video, it seemed like sometimes you used the verbal cues and sometimes you just used physical cues – am I right? I hope to have a chance to go back and watch the live class sometime this week, so maybe you talk about that more there.
One lesson is perhaps I should be sure to print out the PDFs for the games and have them handy when I’m setting up!! 🙂
Wow – this is all EXTREMELY helpful – as always! Our vacation next week might be good timing since I focus on our toy play before the next class starts 🙂
Christina
Hello!
Played a bit more with turn aways today. At first the prop had a little too much value so I had to move it off the line a bit more. But as we went along I could see him connecting more and waiting to turn his head when cued. Turning to his left was easier, but he was even starting to get the tandem turn to the right quite nice with a little work.
I did some tunnel games on Friday evening at TCOTC and other than me forgetting which is my threadle hand, I was happy to see him working better there than last time.
And this last video is probably more about toy play. Last time you wondered whether he doesn’t want to play with the toy – the problem is he REALLY wants to play with the toy. I think just a month ago I would have said that he could be difficult to engage in toy play, but lately he has lots of toy drive and overall his food drive has declined. He’s started weight shifting back and doing some shaking the toy to death. But he’ll jump as high as my face to try to grab it. In this session I was working on tug, release, reward with tug again. I mixed the toy play up with running the racetrack (kind of…I keep accidentally doing a front cross instead of the second post turn!). It was frustrating though because after a couple barrels he was starting to get more focused on the toy in my pocket. Perhaps 5 “obstacles” may be a bit more than he’s ready for?
Throughout the day I do some games to work on his toy self-control. This evening we were doing some tug, release, tug, release, ask for a sit, reward with tug, etc. I did notice in the video that I tend to be holding the toy rather high when I give him permission to “get it” – so perhaps that’s encouraging him to leap at me. I’ve tried to be more aware of holding it down more at his head level. On the positive side, although he still needs to work on a cued release, he is good about bringing toys back to play with me and rarely runs off/away.
Thanks – hope you are enjoying the holiday weekend!
ChristinaGood morning! I just saw your response to my verbals question – realized I didn’t have notifications turned on for that thread. That was very helpful. I think I want to use left and right just to mean turn your head that way – makes it more useful for tunnels, dog walks, etc, etc. I have both a left/right and loop/ri-ri (yeah, I do a little H360 stuff ;)), so I think I might use left and right to be loose and loop and ri-ri as tight turns.
We did some tunnel work yesterday and the tunnel is fine (he is looking for the entry)…but rewarding was difficult. I couldn’t get much focus with a toy, so I switched to food and he was more settled. I realize I was doing some leading with my hand from a stable position, but I think I did better once there was more movement. I feel like I skipped ahead a bit to add lots of movement, but he was more motivated that way then when I was settling him into a sit. I also did a little try with the two loops through the tunnel, but on his first time through the tunnel he would just run out to look for the reward. I didn’t catch that on video. I also will have to add some balance in my next session because I’ve been doing about 99% treadles lately – time to do some “tunnels” too.
Started serpentine countermotion and once I added looking back at the barrel rather than forward at him he picked it quickly and I started adding motion.
And heating the porridge. Yep, you were right, this sure felt awkward! I did a session yesterday with a toy and this morning with treats. To my surprise, the toy went quite well. I’ve been working with him on going silent and holding the toy close to me as a cue to let go (for now, until I can start adding a verbal). And he was releasing and not jumping much. The treat felt more weird – I was probably moving it too fast.
And I did a session of the left/right with less motion and we was ticking the bumps/bars less. I might do one more session like that and then add motion back. I took a video – but didn’t load it because not too much excitement there 😉
Thank you! So excited for the next class to start! How long will you be taking homework videos for this class? We’re off on vacation next Wednesday…so we’ll be off the grid until the 16th. Headed to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons for some tent camping. If it’s with three dogs – does that count as a vacation? 😉
Thank you!
ChristinaHello! Congrats on the 1st place finishes in Speedstakes!!! It was fun to see your name show up top in the standings…just underscores that Presto and I are here to learn from the best! But I had a BLAST running Nikko and Sole this weekend and really made me excited about the skills Presto is learning from the start 🙂 But it was also exhausting so I finally pulled together the vidoes from the training sessions we snuck in.
Tunnel threadle. I think I pushed him a little too quick, but with a couple more sessions I think he will really be picking this up. I’m going with your tunnel threadle verbal for this! When I watched my videos from the weekend I realized that “HERE!” is a total crutch for me when I run the girls. Hopefully I can break that habit with Presto.
Went back to turn aways and get out as well. I’ve been adding motion to all of these and other than still trying to get my handling right, he seems to be coming along well.
For the get out, I also experimented with using a toy. I did less editing so you can see how I was trying to work through his lack of self-control/over-arousal with a toy. Instead of just asking for a sit, which he was not capable of in that moment, I had him “line up” between my legs…which seemed to help. But that insane leaping for the toy in my hand continues to be a challenge in our training. While I’m happy to see his toy drive is improving and he is now weight shifting in tugging…it can be a little scary (although he hasn’t hurt me yet). We do start an in-person impulse control class in September. But I also can see how the start line game from this week might be helpful in refocusing his energy. I’m pretty sure I’ll have to start with treats for that.
We played with the rocking horse today. I think I am a week or two behind with this, but I was trying to get my own piece down. Hopefully I’ve got it right here…or feel free to laugh if I’m still making this harder than it needs to be! But I liked Presto’s speed and commitment today. I may need to move to our front yard to get a little more space to work in (hard to do the turn and burn into all the plants!).
And I did get a chance to watch the new games for the week so played with the minny pinny tonight. He seemed to pick it up right away so I added the jump bump/bars. He is ticking them a lot as he goes over. Is that a concern at this point? I tried changing up the spacing a bit to see if that would help.
I also worked serps/threadles with slow but steady motion (stupid phone ran low on battery so it stopped recording!). But I was starting to vary his angles and he is doing really well.
Thanks again!
ChristinaHi Tracy! Running my dogs in the UKI open this weekend got me a bit behind so I missed the chance to ask in the question there…but for this week one game is teaching loose lefts and rights and you use “left” and “right” for that. I am already using Left and Right for my rear cross cues – so I would guess I should use something different for a loose turn that is not a cross situation? Or could the same words be used as long as the cue is turn your head left or right and go that way? I didn’t notice earlier that you list your rear cross cue(s). Thanks!
Hi Tracy!
So, we fell behind working serps and threadles, but finally got back to those. I started adding motion which went well – although I think sometimes I was clicking the MM before he actually turned his head. But the darn remote was super sensitive and he also got a few freebies. I noticed that I’m kind of jerking my hand when I release to get attention – is that a problem? I know I do that intentionally with my older dogs as well.
Also worked backside wraps and slices. We started the 360 wraps and Presto was moving nicely. He did like turning to the right more than to the left…although it might have been the heat/humidity was starting to get to him.
Slices were ok too. I was starting to add a little distance. On one rep he did a nice job of correcting himself instead of coming in. And then the next rep after that my path looks off, so my motion was more important than the verbal.
So, I was trying to figure out what I was doing wrong in the wrap video from yesterday and I’ll say my brain is still confused. But I did a few more reps today JUST doing the “blind cross” part to see if I’m understanding the handling correctly – and the video also provides a moment of comedy (no cameras were injured in the making of the video).
Yikes – there are so many skills I’m feeling like some are being neglected…I haven’t done turn-aways or get outs for awhile so I may try that tomorrow along with tunnel. It’s just so darn miserable outside these days.
Oh, and about TCOTC…I watched my videos from there again and I think he is mostly just slower and more deliberate, asking more questions about what he’s supposed to do. A few times he does wander away to sniff and completely disconnects, which isn’t a behavior I see at home. I’m not sure if it is the environment…being pretty much alone in a big building, or possibly its me wearing a mask since I haven’t tried training with that at home. So, I should probably throw on a mask tomorrow at home and see if there is any difference. He has been going to obedience classes weekly at TCOTC since June, so he its not a completely unfamiliar building to him.
Thank you!
ChristinaGood morning! A major yard project derailed us a bit, but we have snuck in some training where we can. So, here is a our progress on a few of the games. By the way it was lots of fun to be a working dog on Saturday!
Rocking horse – moved this out into the yard and went well. I sometimes get so focused on my handling that I forgot to keep connection. I also found that the toy really brought out more drive, although we definitely need to work on toy manners. Overall, Presto has impulse control issues (wants to jump at anything in my hands) which may also be about arousal. Still trying to figure him out…
I started transferring the turn and burn to a wing too. In the video I was playing around with different toys because I noticed he was rather demotivated in the TCOTC environment. I had tried a few other games there but he was checking out. So I switched to wing wraps focusing on keeping him engaged and so I modified the game a bit by throwing the toy a couple of times. The video includes two different days there.
And finally, worked on the tight turns. I started transferring this to a barrel.
Thanks for your feedback!!
ChristinaI’m glad you asked the question Julie – because I have the same issue! I thought I was teaching “in, in” as a tunnel threadle cue, but Nikko and Sole very clearly told me at one UKI trial that I taught them “here.” It cost me a couple Master Series Qs, but their “here, tunnel” cue is apparently rock solid. 😉 But I don’t love it because it is my recall cue in normal life and I also use it to get their attention on course. So, thinking about it, I guess it became the threadle cue because I used it to get their attention off the wrong end of the tunnel and then would cue tunnel – over time they made the connection. So, perhaps its time for a little retraining during this “quiet” time so that all the dogs have a true tunnel treadle cue…or at least one situation where Presto’s training may vary from the girls.
Well, after making it through our tornado warning, here is an update from Presto 🙂 His paw seems much better, so we’ve started expanding our games.
We worked on turn-aways again, starting with a little warm up (I think I’m finally getting that tandem turn footwork) and then adding the prop. He is coming straight to the cookie hand and doing turns well, but was only mildly driven to go to the prop.
We took serps and threadles to the next level by removing the hand target. Presto was great and was starting to read the cue and then immediately turn for the reward. I switched from threadles to serps in the same session and he didn’t miss a beat. It looks like the new games posted are about adding movement to this? Yay!
And finally we started rocking horse. I was careful about keeping connection and tried to make the motion more about the feet than the hand. Things seem to work well when you follow instructions 😉
I was so sure there was a zoom class on Saturday morning…but then realized its a skip week. Oh well, guess that means some time opened up for training! Hope you have a nice weekend!
Christina
Good morning –
Presto had a bit of a hurt paw – crazy puppies – so we took a little break and have been picking up with the less intense games and avoiding too much rotation.We had fun starting “get out” last night and he picked it up very quickly so we started adding some motion.
Although we aren’t doing the rocking horse yet, we did work on transferring the rotated sends to the barrel. In one position he was a little frustrated, but by the second session he was doing all the positions nicely.
We also tried out threadles. This is the second session, because last night I was a dolt and put the MM on the wrong side of the jump. It was a little hot today, so I felt I was kind of sloppy in my handling – too much looking at him, moving my target hand too soon, probably too centered on the jump…but Presto was still a good boy. He did get a little confused at one point and didn’t go back through the jump to the MM.
So much fun to train this little guy – although I bet he’s the type who will tell me on course exactly what he thinks of my handling 😉
Christina
Whew – busy week, but was finally able to video some training this afternoon 🙂
Wing wraps – I added the burn! I also switched to a food toy with a bit more of a handle and he loved it (perhaps a little too much). On a least one rep I left too early, but today he still completed the wrap instead of pulling off. Good boy!
Strike a pose – After a little more work with the food bowl on the ground without a jump, I added it to the jump this afternoon and he picked up pretty quickly that he needed to touch the hand target first…even when I started pre-placing the treat. He’s also doing better with the tougher angles. He never cheated, even when the food was already in the bowl. I’m doing much better at consistently “striking” the pose and looking at my hand, although the target is still a little high since he is sometimes jumping at it.
Tandem turns – So, those videos you shared on the tandem turn were extremely helpful and I can see the variety of situations where it would be used – thanks!! But it was hard to film this because I feel like a klutz. I practiced this a few sessions with no video before I was even willing to turn the camera on. Presto gets the idea…I just feel awkward. I think I should be using more of both hands – the best rep seemed to be the first one when I switched to the second side (about :40).
Thank you!!
ChristinaHello!
So many fun new games this week!
Strike a pose – I did two different parts. Since I haven’t yet done the advanced challenge with the reward on the ground, I started with that. That went well so we did a session later outside with a jump. Overall, I think he’s picking it up pretty quick – but I noticed that I’m consistently make one or more of these mistakes: looking at him instead of my hand, holding the target too high, and then I also started moving my target hand before he reached it. When I get it right, surprisingly he seems to get it right 😉
We continued on with parallel path working on him driving ahead or catching up (and with a little distance). He really likes this one and seems to have lots of value for taking the jump, even when I screw up!
Turn and burn (you have great names for these games!). He sent pretty consistently and overall had good commitment. He did have a couple where my motion was too much so I decreased the difficulty (was aiming for only one mistake…) So when we switched to the other side, I didn’t increase the difficulty at all and figured I’d wait until the next session to work that side more. I did realize I’m not really burning…should I be consistently running with him as well? I was using a lotus ball with treats for this, and that seemed to be very motivating for him.
Finally…lap turns. He picked it up quickly when it was just me, but became much more difficult when I added the prop. He definitely has A LOT of value for the prop – which is good since he was struggling a bit with the sending stuff. In watching the videos, I think I was doing at least a couple things wrong: I was usually looking at him rather than the MCH and on one side I stopped stepping back at all. Ugh! So glad we are learning lap turns THIS way so I can get my mechanics down before adding the jump. I know this is a move I struggle with right now with Nikko and Sole. But despite me, Presto still started to figure it out.
I also started playing with the tandem turn but realize I need some clarity on where this is leading. I have already started shadow handling stuff with Presto just using my inside hand to turn away for a rear cross. But if this is going to be a tandem turn where he will need to go PAST the jump and then turn, then is adding the off hand helping to differentiate between a rear (take the front side) and a tandem turn (take the backside) cue? In other words, inside hand is a rear, but both hands is a tandem?
Thank you!
Hi! Thanks for the great advice as always!
<< I can’t really see feet when I am watching the pup, but I can see feet very easily when I stare at the prop. And this has helped my running dog walk training immensely (and hopefully you will do some RDW with him :))>> Thanks for this – I AM planning to train a running dog walk with him and have started some rear foot targeting – have that on hold at the moment while we’ve been doing some front foot stuff. But looking forward to that challenge (I think).
We did work on the parallel path with a jump and he picked it up immediately. A little trial and error, but mostly I was able to throw the treat early enough to keep him looking forward rather than at me. I also started to add a little distance.
Also here is the update on tunnels. We did a session in the backyard where I added that treat to get him to come in and varied the entry angle more and he was great. We did a session at TCOTC too and he was a little less confident overall there. Could have been the heat/humidity, the different tunnel, the fact is was curved a bit…nevertheless, I thought he still did fairly well demonstrating understanding and hopefully with more practice there he’ll build his confidence level.
Thank you!!!
