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Hi there!
So, I went back to weaves on Sunday and it was one of those days when I wish I had a training partner that could have tapped me on the shoulder and said, hold on a second. 😉 I also think I remembered instructions a bit wrong. Anyhow…what happened, happened and good news is, we ended with what I think was a really strong rep.My first session was not so great. First, I think I was supposed to start with all poles at 1″ then go to all poles at 1/2″ – but I started with all poles at 1/2″. 🙁 Then I used a different toy, and I think it was a distraction. I played a bit with opening up the polls and changing to a MM. I also realized a couple I had too much motion. But bottom line. We were 0% – with most of them him just running by. Finally I got smart and just stopped.
We took several hours off for me to do some gardening and came back in the evening. This time I started by opening them all to 2″ with his normal toy and as there was success, moved the poles down to 1″ one by one. But I didn’t get all to 1″ with all poles because I knew I was way past my rep limit. I also discovered he was more successful starting on my right, so I figured out do to the first rep with a pole tighter with him on that side and then switch to the other side. Basically, I went back to last session’s goals. But, this time, I really, really liked his final rep. It looked like he jumped right into the swim footwork and was also turning his nose through the poles – AND he focused forward AND my toy delivery was good. 🙂
I’m updating this because I ended up doing a very short session today. I set a limit of 4 reps to keep moving the poles in a bit more. And it went really well!! I started the session on his “good” side at yesterday’s set up and he had immediate success. So I proceeded with closing poles 5 and 6 with the other 3 reps. And his striding is settling into consistency. For this session I used his yellow frisbie target and raw food – so a little more looking at me as I was moving to place the reward (so my speed increased too). The only thing I’m wondering about is his powering out with both feet on the last pole – I wonder if I should add in another set to make it 8 just to see if he adjusts and keeps his nice rhythm…or if just wait and sort that out later?
Thanks!
ChristinaHi Tracy!
Did the teeter thing this afternoon with more of my motion, pre-placed treat and the target out further. And it was on the louder/rougher teeter. He’s still a little slow on the down (and a couple times he had his butt in the air!). But otherwise he is looking comfortable and confident. Nice focus forward. I’ll admit, I was kind of surprised I managed MY role in the game successfully – but it was easier than I expected!
I did notice he was stopping a little too far forward and putting his feet over the edge – he would adjust them back as the board dropped. But I did add the target on the board again for the last few reps to try to get him to stop in the right place – and it did seem to help. So, I’m thinking I might keep it there for now until just to discourage paws over the edge – I don’t want any pinched toes!!
Edited original post to add another session from Saturday. So, you leave me unattended for one day and I just go and do sh*t. 😉 I did another session today at TCOTC and added the wing for more motion. It went pretty well, but definitely did change things up for him and he is sorting through the motion. I also used really high value treat – chicken – so I think that also amped him up a bit. I put a target on the teeter, but I don’t think it made a difference once he got more motion going – as you noticed, he is more focused on the target on the ground. Hopefully we didn’t get too far ahead of ourselves with this session!
Hope you had a good Saturday 🙂
Thanks!
ChristinaThanks Tracy! So, just to make sure I got it clear 😉
Next session – poles 1 and 6 should move to 1 inch too.
From there, if he is ok with the entry, exit, should I phase in going to 1/2 inch by pole like I did with moving to 1 inch?
And I was thinking afterwards that I tried to eliminate all other variables, but kept the speed. So, totally makes sense to back that down a bit.
Hope your Saturday away is for something fun! I have to say, you totally spoil us by providing feedback every single day!!! Katarina is a strict “weekdays only and off on holidays too” 😉 But Presto just graduated to a full size dog walk (but not the whole thing yet) so I’m super excited not to have to find help to lower it all the time! Now that he’s close to playing on all full size stuff, I’ll soon be taking his training on the road to anyone who will let me play on their equipment – and lots of great folks around here for that!
Thank you!
ChristinaHi Tracy!
So, the weaves are closing. Exciting!!I think this session went pretty well. He only had one miss – and I think it was probably because he took off without waiting for me to give him a cue so he was a little unfocused. I could see, especially when reviewing the video, that the narrowing the channel did cause him to try to work through his footing a bit. Although it was subtle enough that I didn’t always notice during the session and saw it more when playing back the video.
I used the MM on this session since Eric had done the spring lawn maintenance earlier this week. And while it should be safe by now, I just didn’t want Presto searching for pieces of cheese in the grass yet. By the next time we do a session, I should be able to get back to the ball again because I think he works for that a little better.
But, I have to admit, despite my extremely careful planning for this session – including writing down in huge letters on a notepad exactly what the progression would be…something weird happened. I moved pole 3 to 1″ first for a couple reps, then pole 5, then pole 2…then somehow I had to move pole 5 again. I watched the video again and again trying to figure out why I moved pole 5 twice…and I have no idea. It doesn’t look like he knocked it back out of position, especially since I screw it in. It was like some weird twilight zone thing. But that totally threw off my count. I was determined to stop at 10 reps. But since I moved pole 5 twice (and during the session I just thought I forgot to move it the first time), I ended up with 12 reps. And that might have led to the weird exit on the final rep…he might have been a bit fatigued and just didn’t push hard enough through poles 4-6. He still pulled it together, but it was a little rough. I didn’t realized I’d actually done 12 reps until I was pulling the video together and saw the whole pole 5 x2 weirdness. I felt really bad 🙁
Anyhow, bottom line, moving in poles 2-5 to 1″ went pretty well. But I think he needs a little more time with it to get a consistent rhythm back into his striding.
I look forward to your feedback! And let me know if including the front and side views is too much 😉 I just found it helpful to get both views with the channel widths changing. Although once his striding is consistent again, it’s probably not much additional information.
Christina
Hi Tracy!
I am super hopeful that this modification to the elevator game will really help him put these pieces together. We had a really positive session yesterday.
Here’s what I took away from the session:
-I’m starting him close to the teeter, so he doesn’t have too much speed, which will mean his down will be a tad slower. But I think that’s good right now as he figures out the order of events.
-He is consistently offering a down without any cues, and in a couple reps he started the weight shift a little earlier, which I rewarded more when I noticed it.
-Preloading the target definitely helps with keeping his focus forward.
-I need to make sure my treat hand is out of sight as he comes up the board.
-I think he did better when I let the teeter drop a little further. Maybe as he feels the board drop more there is just natural weigh shift that helped him get into position quicker? Given that’s what will happen when he’s doing it full speed, not a bad thing.
-I didn’t use any target on the teeter – wondering if I should?
-The actual having the teeter drop with him in a down is not a problem – he seems really stable and comfortable and if he loses his balance at all, is able to make small shifts to stay in place.Thanks so much!
ChristinaHi Tracy!
I super nice session with Presto this afternoon (no weaves tomorrow!). He really seems to enjoy this work and I often have to call him back because he just wants to dive straight in. But he was super solid on the 2″ gap today – 8 reps and 100% success. I had a very deliberate plan going in – try three different angles on each side with me moving fast. If that went well, try a couple reps with a wing and straight on entries. I think he is definitely ready for more challenge with closing the poles a bit more. I might do 1.5″ first for a session and if he is really successful and looks as solid as he is here, then go to 1 inch the next session (all other variables being equal). He has so much confidence right now, I think just subtle change to avoid any sudden “what the heck” moments will work best for him.I also feel like my verbal cues and timing on throwing the reward are getting much better too and are supporting the focus forward. Although in this session, I noticed that when I’m on his left, my right-handed throws are pretty nice and low (well, first rep I was late). But when I am on his right and have to throw the ball across my body, I’m throwing higher. So, either I need to practice tossing with my left hand, or practice throwing better with my right!
Thanks for all the great guidance – I’m so happy with how his weaves are looking!!
Christina
Hi Tracy!
We had a great session at TCOTC with 8 poles. I did the first two reps with poles at 2.5, but he looked like he was super comfortable, so I closed it back up to 2″ for the rest of the reps.I was super happy with this session in terms of success – he had one miss with a more difficult angle entry – but he was perfect otherwise with my motion and even with some distance/layering. And he didn’t seem to mind the extra set of poles. And it was cool he transferred what he’s learned on my poles to these without any taking any steps back.
I did notice that on a few reps, he did a two-footed bounce at pole 5. I think this is an artifact of normally doing 6 poles where he sometimes powers out of the weaves with both hind feet. But here he realized he still had two more poles and changed back to swimming right away. I thought it was interesting.
So (with rounding) he did get 90% in this session. 🙂 I did mindfully limit the session to 9 reps since it was 8 poles instead of 6.
Is there a point at which I should throw in any of the find ’em challenges – or still just focus on getting 90%+ in the next few sessions?
Thanks!
ChristinaHi Tracy!
I think this modification to the game worked great for him! He was totally cool with immediately offering a down (after all, in previous sessions I had to treat him to keep him standing!). I did the countdown and released and he also seemed fine with just holding his stay as the teeter fell. There were a couple awkward moments – although I think the big one was because a treat dropped on the floor and he was determined to get it. And at first I was dropping too quickly – right as I said spot. Later in the session, I said spot and paused a moment for him to move his focus to the target and then dropped. I added more height back pretty quickly because he seemed ready to handle it.Another interesting element of this session was that TCOTC has started a dog day care – so the room where the dogs crate is right next to this training space. A few times you can see him look over that way because he hears those dogs barking. It was a useful element of distraction to work through!
Thanks!
ChristinaHello!
Poor Presto, he got one more session with my family around. He had a successful first rep with everyone standing around, which was awesome. But he missed a few – probably a mix of noise (family cheering or Nikko screaming) and possibly the audience movement. It was definitely pretty hard stuff and hindsight is 20-20 and I definitely could have altered a couple things along the way (put his sisters inside!) to not overwhelm him so quickly – but managing a crowd is hard 😉 But, I did get the humans to quiet down and also remembered to slow my own motion a bit…all of which did help him get some nice successes too. And I was trying to throw lower, mostly with success.Fortunately for his brain, he goes back to more normal distractions for awhile. But I am now “counting” missed reps as well in the sessions. Hopefully fewer of those going forward, especially if we go back to more of my movement as a distraction. Although it’s really great to throw people in when you can since that is definitely an element he’ll have to deal with.
Thanks!
ChristinaThank you!
Yes, that all makes sense, I just need to be more self-aware during a session!I do have one question I keep forgetting to ask. At some point, I’ll be doing channels at TCOTC again. I’m thinking just doing a set of four doesn’t make sense at this point since he’ll barely be getting a footing rhythm. So, my plan would be to do the set of 8, but widen them out again to 2.5 or 3 inches at first?
Thanks!
ChristinaOh YES! That totally makes sense!! I really think he can figure it out if the correct order of events is presented…and like we are seeing, right now he just seems to honestly think the down comes at the end. I can’t wait to get on a teeter and try this! Luckily I reserved some early morning time at TCOTC on Monday!! 🙂
Christina
Hi Tracy!
Your advice totally makes sense – create the challenges to proof the behavior before they face the arousal in a competition 🙂 Conquer the crazy!I did a session this morning and it was clear he was like, “new place…what are these things doing here?” So, that was good practice for him – totally what you see young dogs do in trials. I started him on his “easy” side for that reason and after a couple reps (and one bad reward moment) he was doing better so I moved to his more difficult side. Here too, after a couple of moments of sorting it out, he was doing really well and I started moving a little quicker, working angles, adding some distance. But he was showing a lot more confidence and control on his entries.
In the afternoon, we had an audience (although they were off camera for the first few reps)! I was really happy that he nailed the weaves on his very first rep, since I think this is one of the first sessions he’s done that. Plus – I also had prepped dinner right before this session – so pressure was ON!! He had one miss on his good side from a difficult angle, but some really, really nice reps, even with silly people cheering. And he also was doing well from his difficult side. He missed one, but I don’t think it was because of the “wave” – I’m sure I was moving too fast (changed too many variables). On the last rep, I went back to a quick walk and he nailed it. I don’t think he even gave my family a look. I think he actually runs faster for an audience 😉
We’ll have a chance to do one more day of work here before moving back to home territory!
Thanks,
ChristinaHello Tracy 🙂
I was able to get a little teeter work done this past week before leaving town – and also learned that my teeter skin has shipped, so soon will have more options! Yay!
As I work on these games, I feel like his biggest gap is dropping back into a down faster. Off the teeter, I am continuing to work on a fit bone on the ground to build both strength and confidence. I just haven’t been taping any of that work. The fitbone also made the trip to Milwaukee!
When I revisited the elevator game, he still is totally cool with running to the end – sound and motion no issue. But, he isn’t really doing his “spot” behavior, but running to the end and putting his feet over. I did have a target in place (piece of tape – which once got stuck on his paw for a moment of hilarity), but if I do this game again, I wonder if I should go back to the full on strip of yoga mat target? Or, maybe he just doesn’t need this particular game? In any case, I am glad we did it just to check in on the whole running up through tipping point.
And I gave the elevator game 2 a try. As always, my mechanics were sometimes a bit wonky. He was totally nonchalant about the teeter going up beneath him, and when I started the countdown and said spot and stopped feeding…he was looking to his target. Good boy 🙂 And he mostly had focus forward – watching the video again I think I could have done more rewarding him in place on the teeter target to encourage that. I did a very quick session on my home teeter before this (that I quickly abandoned because it was too slippery) but in that I removed the target from the teeter and realized he still needs just a small piece of tape yet on the teeter. As I mentioned at the beginning, I feel like his big missing element is the shifting into down sooner. But peaking at the new games, I wonder if the elevator 3 will help him put that together a bit more. Looking forward to your thoughts!!
Thank you!
ChristinaHi Tracy!
We played weaves yesterday and drove to Milwaukee today – and I even brought my channels along. Eric was rather stunned and impressed when I pulled out the pieces and reassembled them and he had no idea! 😉So, on his challenging side in the morning I did keep his movement with distance, but slowed myself down. It took me a few reps to get the whole, don’t be loud and throw the toy early thing…but I eventually started managing that. Yesterday he actually did really great on that side after one miss. I got to an angle as sharp as 90 degrees 🙂
In the evening I made the rather bad decision of telling Eric I wanted to get him out for a quick weave session before I left to teach when he had already opened the dog food container. So, Presto was thinking DINNER!! and then I took him outside to be a thinking dog. Given that, he was a pretty good boy since he was confident his sisters were still inside eating all his food. But we did have more misses on this “good” side. I kept up my motion and was also working on being quieter and throwing the toy earlier. But I think his misses were mostly about not collecting for the entry, although he was doing a pretty valiant job of trying to make it work. After one particularly rough entry, the next rep he kind of skipped the poles. So, that could have been the angle of the entry, but might also have been a lingering aversion to how he jammed through the previous rep.
So, based on your previous plan of action – another session similar to this with walking on the difficult side and see if he has a higher success rate on his “good” side if I don’t pull him away from his dinner?
Next time, he may also have the added distraction of an audience because I think my family will want to see him in action. Might be several people doing the wave in the background and singing Presto’s theme song.
Oh, you had also asked about the comparison in body size between Presto and Nikko. So, Nikko has a stockier build – she is a solid 1 1/2 shorter at the shoulder and has a wider chest. She also has a shorter back than he does.
Thanks!
ChristinaHi there!
We did a session on Monday and he is doing fabulous when entering on my left side, but still missing some when on my right. I did add more motion – way more fun! To me it looks like he is just struggling with gathering himself to turn around the first pole at angles past 2 o clock. I’m not sure if going a little wider would help with that? Or perhaps starting closer so HE doesn’t have quite as much speed as he approaches?
Thank you!!
Christina
