[Christina Wessel]

Hi there – great day in America, right?!

I played the turn aways with him when we were at TCOTC last night – nice to have a full size tunnel. The space was a little cramped though, so I think it kind of upped the challenge to give the cue before he flew from the tunnel over the jump. But we worked through it – despite bad handling 😉

And we did some foot targeting with a manners minder, so a lot more of my motion. I was really happy to see how well he was hitting with rear feet while galloping! I won’t keep doing too much of this here because I know you guys have a whole class on this 🙂 I’m going to do the Katarina one since that’s the path I’ve already set on…but will be interested to see how Julie and Kaladin enjoy the Agility-U one!
I also am changing his verbal to “run run” because “touch” is just way too similar to “tunnel” – and given the discrimination exercise we did the other day, I definitely don’t want to be worrying about that later on!

Thank you!
Christina

• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Christina Wessel.

[Christina Wessel]

Hi there – back home again. It sure was nice to take long walks in the snow with the dogs this weekend – but I’ll have to go back sometime and watch the full seminar 🙂

So, stuff is hard! I started with the obstacle discrimination this evening and discovered a couple things – kennel and tunnel sound alike. And Presto has WAY more value for his kennel and his “place” than he does a tunnel. So, we made a little progress, but this definitely needs some more work! I started with using the kennel, but eventually switched to his station to help clarify verbals which helped a little. It was hard because he really wanted to focus on the kennel/place rather than the tunnel. But this is such an important exercise, so I’m really glad you have us doing it.

And we did a modified version of the lap turns/tandem turns. I don’t think we’ve practiced this in quite some time, so I think it was good for both of us to practice like this a bit before we can hopefully try it with a tunnel later this week. Goodness knows I need to clean up my handling. 🙁

These are essentially another way to call to a backside, right? So, for the dog, are these like a backside wrap, except you are setting yourself up for a different exit line?

Oh, and we did work on downs for his teeter over the weekend…just didn’t set up any camera for that. i am definitely noticing that he wants to target the “spot” before he downs (typically with a bit of a nose touch). So I think you are right that eliminating that with more flat work will help – because he can really slide into a down like a baseball player when he wants 🙂

Thank you so much!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hi! Last minute change in plans meant I brought Presto to TCOTC tonight. 🙂

We did bang game on the teeter with me NOT stopping as he got into position. He seemed to focus on his job despite my movement and also always held position until released. Good boy 🙂 (oh, I did speed up some parts of the video for time in case you think I look/sound weird!)

I also really loved the lead out game. He was brilliant at this – no fussing getting into position, never broke before released, and read the blinds well. For the sake of time, I also deleted a couple of the rewards by tossing back to the start line. And I tried to pay attention to releasing with and without motion. I did notice in the video a couple times he bent his head a bit to sniff while I was walking…but didn’t leave position.

And then we did the serpentine again. His footing is still awkward in places (jumping kind of sideways), although I did see some improvement. We had a couple fails (although one turned into a rather lovely threadle!). Honestly, I forgot about angling the jump to help because it seemed like any issues were really happening up stream at the first jump. I think he read it better when I was a step or two further ahead on the line? I pushed it a bit and did a full three jump serp, although I DID remember to angle the jump for him on that one. I really like how he’s driving down these serps lines with such confidence – even when it goes a little wrong.

Hope Hot Sauce is feeling a little better each day!! 🙂
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Thanks Tracy! The description for the tunnel game makes sense to me and I love the idea of just chilling and letting him do all the thinking 🙂 And I really appreciated the feedback the other day on me stopping on the teeter – definitely don’t want to build in that kind of motion dependence!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hi there!
So, I have a question about directional verbals. As I started to play with some tunnels exits (yep, operation sneak in 3 ft tunnel and 4 bags was a success!), it’s pretty clear that Presto’s go, loop/row, left/right verbals are probably mostly about my position (or the manners minder!). With sporadic access to the really fun stuff, seems like a good time of year to work on solidifying verbals with small space drills to benefit future jumping, tunnels and contacts cues.

The mini-pini seems like an obvious one to return to for working on verbals. But are there other games you’d recommend to really isolate the understanding?

And here’s a quick video of the tunnel set-up I was playing with. With the small space, it’s a little tough to use my own motion too much to cue the exit. And I found the manners minder was kind of luring…although I do have a broken one now I could set out as a dummy to try to make him think a bit more 😉

Thanks!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hello! I appreciate all your feedback and suggestions! This weekend we had a little time at TCOTC, so I took advantage of that to do stuff I definitely can’t in my little basement.

I did a few different things on the teeter between Friday and Saturday to work on approaches, running to the end, and also his weight shift end behavior. I think both of those – pushing through the tipping point and weight shifting, are improving. I got creative and in the third session I had him run all the way to the end like the mountain climber with me holding, then dropping and asking for the weight shift, since, as you pointed out, he won’t be doing the down while still in the air. I put it all together in one video.

With the bigger space at TCOTC, I also did some more foot targeting for dog walk and box work for Aframe (I put them together in the same video upload). Still working on encouraging the hind foot – Katarina’s course had us still reward front foot at this stage, but REALLY reward hind foot hits. For the box, I really like your suggestion to add the box with a jump grip, but I couldn’t do that yet do to my space options. I get having a jump before and after the box, although I was a little confused by the ones on the side – is the idea that he isn’t supposed to go through the box?

I’m thinking next steps with the dog walk I’ll add some more exit angles. And for the box, if I can get a space where I can set up a grid, I’ll do that. But with the box I think he also needs more practice with motion – especially with me ahead!

And then we did a little jump/handling work with serps. The jumps may have been spaced a little too far apart for him, so he had some reps where he tried to threadle the second jump. But with a little angling he was getting the right idea. The video includes session over two days. The first day I was definitely doing some funky connection stuff (looking ahead) and the second day I tried to focus on watching his line to see if that would help.

I snuck my mini tunnel and bags in the basement while Eric was grocery shopping today, so I hope I can get to some tunnel exit stuff soon because I think those verbals need LOTS of work!

Thank you!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hey there – Hope you had a good travel day! It was nice getting a mental break over the holidays…but trying to get back at it now. And can I say again how happy I am you have contacts worked into this course 🙂

The one thing I did train over the break was your suggestion for working on weight shifting for his down on the teeter. I didn’t video it, but I think it was definitely helping to have him back onto a board and then shift back into his “spot.” Next time I have access to a full size teeter (hopefully Friday), I think I’ll do that same exercise with the teeter lodged in the down position to start to transfer that behavior.

I have been doing running dog walk foot targeting exercises with Presto off and on for a couple months. I took an online class with Katarina Podlipnik Capuder a couple years ago and I’ve been using content from that to start his training because I like that she spends lots of time on ground work understanding before moving to a dog walk. So, he’s had experience with foot targeting (although this video is his first time with the manners minder) and my mat is the color/size for that class. She has a new class starting in February that I’m thinking of taking – although I also saw your note about Jordan doing a class soon too – so I’ll take a look at that when it’s posted. Anyhow, he has a pretty solid understanding of hitting the mat and has a good rate of success with hind feet. I’ve started to add a verbal “touch” for this behavior, although I have just been struggling like crazy to settle on a dog walk cue. I use walk it with Nikko and Sole, but I feel like I have too many “x it” commands!

We’ve also been doing the box method for Aframe and Presto really seems to be clicking with this. The video has a session I did today with the box on the ground, and I am super happy with his performance, especially when he is going in the direction of the MM (thank goodness I got a new one for Christmas!). A couple weeks ago I also did a session on a lowered aframe and I added a few clips from that at the end. I was so thrilled with his performance because he really seemed to be adjusting his strides to be sure he hit (he had a couple giant leaps, but immediately figured out that wasn’t the expectation and became even more mindful of hitting in the box). The first few clips on the aframe I was using a target with placed food since my MM was broken, and he did a lot of looking at me. But when I switched to a preplaced and thrown toy, he was awesome. However, while I wanted to see if his success on the flat would carry over onto the Aframe, I also flinched a little to see his body hitting that hard. He turns 1 on Jan 31 and has a visit in early February to evaluate his physical development. So, I’m going to keep his box work on the ground until after that – plenty of valuable proofing to be done!

And, although this exercise is technically from the backside class, I’ve included the backside circle wrap stuff with Presto here since he definitely struggled with that skill in the seminar exercises. I think we still need some more sessions at this level of the exercise to build a little more intention into his movements. He seems a little more focused on me than on the wing. So, this is so perfect to help him with this skill!

Thanks for everything!!!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hope you have a safe drive and a good outcome for Hot Sauce 🙂

[Christina Wessel]

Thanks! Your ideas for the teeter makes lots of sense! He does have a back-up command – and I totally agree that getting him to weight shift backwards is key to his working. My Manners Minder broke last week 🙁 But I realized life cannot go on without one, so a new one comes tomorrow. That will be SO much more helpful for all my contact training.

Here are videos of the games I was doing on Sunday with him.

Commitment stuff was good – except when our neighbors’ dogs burst into the song of their people (they are sibling huskie mixes).

The exercise with the backside wraps was definitely the hardest for both of us. I practiced this skill a little inside before doing it outside. But I felt like I was on top of him when sending so I was stepping in weird ways and he struggled with commitment at certain points. Lots of homework for us on this one!

Blinds and wraps. This went well, although I need to be a little braver with leaving early. (Sorry about the bad camera work!)

And the double blind. So, although I LOVE blinds, I don’t think I’ve really utilized double blinds before. But this worked really well for us so I have to try this more with all of my dogs!

It was fun to have more space to work in this past weekend, but looks like I’ll be playing with some small space versions for the next couple of weeks.

Thank you!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hi Tracy,
Your thoughts on the teeter make so much sense – I can see that going into a down when you are six feet in the air might feel a little unsteady 😉 I was at TCOTC early this morning and did the new hind end game – but modified it a bit to work on his down behavior with a target. I think that went pretty well as he had to think how to get into that position from different ways – and he started to offer it quicker. And I left in the bit where he got super pissed because I had trouble opening the new cheese. He is a good worker, but MAN, if you do not pay promptly, he has ZERO tolerance. It will be interesting if that carries into running courses once he learns the game and starts realizing he is smarter than me.

It was also fun that the club currently has a big circle exercise set up. So, for the first time in his life, he really got to RUN. I kept it simple, but I did incorporate a few of the things we’ve been doing in class. So I went through the full circle once playing the lazy game, which I think really helped when I ran it for real because he never bypassed a jump even though I was ahead. It was fun to run like hell and see him catch up. And then we did a couple wraps and blind crosses. I didn’t do too many reps, since I figured this was hard mentally and physically on the little guy. Later I realized I should have been using my GO…if I get to run it again while the course is up, I’ll definitely add that.

It was super fun to watch the class this morning. I hope to join again tomorrow but duck out to do the exercises outside with Presto (weather permitting).

Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hi!
I didn’t realize you’d have contact stuff – so cool!

So, I’ve done teeter work with Presto already and he’s been doing some full size teeters. Although we had a few issues very early in the training, he now is fine with the sound and motion. But I noticed he’s had a bit of a hesitation at the tipping point, so this is a great exercise.

Another thing about his teeter, given I’ve turned both of my dogs’ two on two off into “running” teeters through my bad behavior, my goal with Presto has been to train a “down” behavior on the contact. You’ll see in the video, that needs some work.

1) He is slow to get into his down behavior and is still struggling a little with keeping his legs in the right place in that position. Given he’s under a year and a little leggy, I would expect some of that is just growing up.

2) Also, whenever I pre-placed a treat, he 100% ate the cheese whiz before going into a down. When I didn’t preplace, he would volunteer a down, but still delayed. So, clearly he does not see “spot” as a full chain of behavior of running to the end and going down. I do have a black circle target there – which I first used on the ground before adding to the teeter.

So, I guess I’m wonder what your thoughts are. Should I stick with this and the behavior will get stronger with more practice/understanding. Or, am I doomed to failure 😉

Thanks 🙂

[Christina Wessel]

Thanks Tracy! Ugh verbals. I really noticed that I was not using verbals consistently. It’s like I would use them the first direction and then I was like, “well how do I get him to take the jump this time?” and was using go or hup. Unbelievable. Human training.

But here are the other three exercises we did on Sunday. It was big boy stuff and we had some disconnect, but eventually figured it out 🙂 When I rewatched these I noticed how many times I laughed when things went “wrong”. So, that was nice to see myself keep it light and not get frustrated. He’s such a good baby – that was a lot to work through in just one morning.

Wraps. Watching the video I realize I probably should have put that pinwheel jump much further out because I didn’t have a lot of space to cue the wrap with a decel. As I mentioned yesterday, he again seems more confident on my right wrapping left than on my left wrapping to the right (some of that is clearly due to my handling!).

Blind cross to the tunnel. I’ll admit when I got outside to run this one, I couldn’t quite remember how to set myself up for practicing the blind cross to the tunnel – so that initially led to some miscues. Here again, he had more questions when the blind put him on my left than the other side. But I thought he did a great job of sending and letting me get ahead to blind. This would be even more fun with more space to spread it out!

Blind cross to a wrap. On this, it was really odd that at one point he kept doing rear crosses – because in general that isn’t his strongest skill. I felt like I was exaggerating the wrap cue physically, but clearly he was confused. However, again, so much good stuff here too 🙂

Thanks, as always, for your feedback!

Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hello! I actually dragged my tunnel and jumps into my front yard on Sunday and did the exercises along with the seminar class. Luckily I put it all away quickly because we got of snow in the afternoon. I also attempted to sneak my newly painted teeter board into our basement while my husband was out today – but quickly realized it is way too heavy for me to move it that far. So, I confessed and will have him help me get that moved this week. 🙂

However, here are the videos of the first three exercises. It was fun to be getting back to work. I did notice over the course of the morning that he tended to struggle more with things when he was on my left. It starts showing up here in the connection game when he misses the tunnel entry (or hesitates) a couple times. Anyhow, I mention it here in case you notice any early indications of that. Once I edit the other videos, I’ll post those tomorrow – but he is not as strong wrapping when on my left, and he also was more likely to run by a jump, turn the wrong way…always for some reason when on my left.

Lazy handling. This was actually on Saturday when I brought out my jumps for some practice. I did a lot of editing because the treats were small and there were some long searches. Hopefully that is not too distracting.

One step sends (um, I noticed some bizarre arm movements when I sent him. Luckily he went anyways, but that’s embarrassing stuff.)

And the connection game:

I think there is a speed circle set-up at TCOTC for the holidays. Which would be awesome for getting some more practice in on these…I’m not sure I’ll be able to get my tunnel outside again.

Thanks!
Christina

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by Christina Wessel.

[Christina Wessel]

Hi! I did sneak in another day of training.
So, Presto’s about 18″ give or take a bit (based on how he compares to his sisters).
This time I used a toy, and it amped him up a bit. Yikes. In some reps, I think I still wasn’t far enough out with the toy. I totally measured out the jump distances carefully, but next time I might measure out the reward placement too! I also think I added a little too much distance on the longest one. So I went 8 ft, 12 ft, 16 ft. Should have looked back at your instructions!

Anyhow, here’s what happened 🙂

I also did a session of lateral lead out. I didn’t have the instructions handy, so I didn’t try the advanced. But I added more distance to the baby level and he was doing so well!

Thanks for the feedback – hope you have a happy and safe Thanksgiving!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hi Tracy! I wasn’t sure when you were closing out this course – but exciting for round 3! I just have one more video I was hoping to sneak in…

The snow cleared enough to get in a jump grid, so wanted to get your feedback to keep us going in the interim 🙂 in the live class I had the jumps spread a little over 4 feet. In this session I expanded it to a full 5 feet.

Thank you!!
Christina

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