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Great question!
No, you do not want to be close to the jump for the rear. When initially training the threadle you are close then gradually add independence. By the time that dog has all the independence trained and understands that well it is really easy to add in the threadle rear because they already understand exactly what their job is. In the rear the difference is that you are staying at the starting position (basically where the cone is) and the dog is running to the non obvious side and you are staying by the cone. So when they take off and land in your direction it is back where they started.
Hey she is chasing that ball REALLY REALLY well!!!! SO I want you to do this again. Instead of throwing the ball and then chasing after her to get it, I want to to have 5 different balls in your hands and run the OTHER way and see if she will get excited about all the other balls that you have in your hands. As soon as she drops the one that she has roll a new ball for her to chase then again run the opposite way trying to get her excited about the balls that you have in your hand. You could also try this with squeaky toys/squeaky balls (if you have squeaky balls that would be really good!). So your end goal is that she will run grab the ball and immediately turn and start running towards you to get the next ball. After about 5 throw be sure to stop (or when you are getting a lot of excitement even if it is just 2 or 3 throws)
4.3 – You could feel that she was going to miss it so you stopped to help her come in, remember keep moving really slowly forward. Also you are moving really fast to get into that position then slowing way down to help. Try to keep your speed consistent the entire time.
4.1 – Try putting the treat box in different locations and use that as a target for yourself to run to because here you moved so far away from the jump that you needed to move back into it to go to the box (and to get her to take the jump). Instead keep trying to move away from the jump so she is learning to take it without your help.
That is looking great! As you are progressing I would start throwing in other verbals that she knows really well (down, spin, sit etc) so that she is really learning the word not just patterning. Sometimes you can also turn away from the tunnel and she should stay with you rather than take the tunnel at all. The other thing that is missing from this is as soon as you are giving the threadle verbal and she is committing it is really important that you add your motion leaving ( you running in the opposite direction). That will teach her to stay committed even though she can feel you leaving/going somewhere. Everything else looks fantastic!
Hi Mary,
That is looking great! You did a much better job with your threadles on jumps, really working on her understanding of you moving forward and letting her learn the independence! Make sure that in all of your sessions you always keep proofing that. Try not to step into the jump to help her.
The tunnel threadles are looking good!
The verbal exercise is looking really great. Just make sure that when you are giving the verbal you are not also doing anything with your hands/body. Because we do not want her thinking that the cue has anything to do with your body/motion we want her to be totally keyed into your words. You can see that when you are saying the word “get it” you are always stepping or lunging forward to get her to run to it but she will think it is the motion that is cuing her to get it.
No problem vimeo works great. I had no problems with the video.
In the first couple of reps you were sending her around the wing and when you were calling her for the threadle you were facing the wrong direction and it is really important that you also have her take the bar. So make sure that you are always facing the direction that you are going. Not turning into the dog then turning back to the jump.
However, the reps after were really good. You were continuing to move forward really nicely. Except right after she made a mistake you then helped her with your motion A LOT. You pretty much waiting until she was on the threadle side of the jump before moving. Instead, if she makes a mistake, keep your positioning on the jump the same (in this situation you were moving forward across the bar and she could see you through the standards).Instead you want to keep moving forward like you were before just slower to help her be successful then gradually add speed. In that rep you just waited for her to come in then moved this way you are moving forward a tiny bit so you are really helping her learn to do it without your help. Is that making sense?
Okay so really quick about playing. See if you can try to incorporate playing with food into your sessions. So you have a handful of food and she needs to chase it to be able to get any. Or like the food in a sock maybe she will chase that? Maybe video a play session when you can and I can help more.
They always have a good direction and a bad direction so you found the bad way 🙂 So now you are going to work on the bad direction a little bit more than the good direction and take it much slower so you can build on success! Just take it super slow with adding your motion so she gets lot of reps in where she is getting rewarded. In 3.0 you are not using the off arm correctly.
Wow look at those threadles she did! Be sure to reward her after every single threadle right now because she is still learning it. The table was perfect for keeping her attention! So just reward the threadle then ask for your other tricks in between so you can start with the next threadle again. In this video you are using the dog side arm so you want to use the other arm. It will be coming across your body.
3.2 – remember to keep moving forward when youare cuing the threadle. You stopped to help her alot when she did this one. Both when you were asking her to come in and when you were moving towards the jump. If you are helping with your speed you want to make it look as much like running forward as you can just really slow then building. Also try a treat container that has a lid that you can put on the ground.
Looking good you two!!!!!
Yay that is really looking great Mary!
The only thing that is not happening here is you want to make sure that you are testing the independence of your threadle cue and you are always running the same direction of the jump. So instead run down the line.
You guys are doing great! It is fun to watch 🙂
Hmmm sorry about that! I will see if I could do a quite video on the difference. The course should have one anyways. I will try to do that this week.
The main thing is that the threadle slice the dog comes in and stays on the same arm. The threadle rear the dog starts on one side and ends up on the other side.
Oh and it is best to vary what thing you are asking her between rep. If it is touch or spins or jumping up or go to a place. All of those are good options but you want to train those tricks away from agility stuff first.
And your questions about your outside shoulder. What you are doing is okay. But in the end you should use your “off arm” as the cue not the dog side arm. Look at my video again and see how my off arm is coming up to cue the threadle? It is also important that you know that the off arm doesn’t help her it is just part of the cue.
Hi Maddie!
WOW! That is amazing! she is doing a great job really looking for the jump without too much of your help. When you are working on this keep working just like that how you are waiting for her to figure it out so that she is thinking through the problem and you are not needing to help her. Keep your motion slow in the beginning and start varying the direction that you are leaving (but still very slow) so she is learning to commit to the bar with you going all different directions.
Lets do a couple sessions starting her from a sit stay around the clock so that she is thinking more about her job. This will also make it so that you can make the angles of the threadle more challenging for her without the added difficulty of the speed from wrapping the wing.
Keeping her engaged is a tough one! There are lots of things that you can do to help with that but it requires that anytime you are working with her you are 100% focused on playing and having a great time with her. Most importantly you want to find out what she likes. What are her favorite treats? Will she chase treats in the tube sock on a string? Will she chase a water bottle with some stinky treats in them that you poke holes in so she can smell them?
Also remember to keep as much connection with her as you can between repetitions. She tends to disconnect between reps. So instead try to lure her with a cookie while doing spins or something fast that keeps the excitement up all the way back to where you are starting the next rep (in this situation the cone).
Also try to just PLAY with her in as many places as you can where you are not really training at all you are just focused on playing with her. The more that she loves to play with you the easier playing in agility will be. When you are playing make sure to add in lots of running away from her, encouraging her to chase you for more playtime. Also KEEP YOUR PLAY SESSIONS SHORT! You want her to think it is the best thing ever and “why are we stopping..?” because then the next time she will be even more excited about it. So you are always stopping when she is the most excited. Plus playing should make you both tired! Play is hard work. You could play your favorite song and play for the entire song then stop and take a break.
YAY!!! The tunnels look fantastic!!!!
To test her threadles on jumps try to vary where you are running more. You want to build this up until you can run a straight line and she will look for the threadle without your help.
Great work!!
Hi Mary 🙂
Threadles on the jump – That looks fantastic! The next step is for you to start varying where you are running to and still not helping her find the bar. It helps to give your self a target to run to. I will often set a cone and use that as a target for me to run to so I am not getting off track. Then you can change position of the cone to make your running position easier or more difficult for her. You did a much better job not helping her with the threadle by backing up when you are giving the cue (a couple times you did) keep up that!
Tunnel threadles – This is still not quite right. You and her should be on the same side of the tunnel facing the same direction. So then you are asking her to bypass one side of the tunnel and come with you to the other side of the tunnel.
Hi Maddie!! I miss you guys and all the agility happening at Argus! I am glad to see you here though 🙂
Sorry that your post was missed earlier – I am not quite sure how that happened.
This is a great start! The reason that you are having a difficult time getting her to find the bar is mostly because you are moving too quickly. In the beginning stages you want to move SOOOOO SLOW so that she can get really good at finding it when your motion is less distracting. Then as she is getting more confident then you can slowly add in more and more motion from you. You can also help by staying close to the jump in the beginning and if she looks at you try to wait a bit longer to see if she will offer the jump and if not, get a tiny bit closer to the jump without pushing her to the jump. So that as you are getting closer you are helping but you are not cuing it with your motion. So then she is still making the choice to take the jump without the help of your cue at all (verbal or hand motion). Is this making sense?
The other thing that is happening here is that when you calling her in for the threadle you are turning into her a lot to help. Instead we want to train her to understand this move when you are moving forward to the next obstacle. So when you are training it try to keep facing the direction that you are going. In this case kind of towards where your camera person is. Or even a little closer to the jump.
One thing that I think could help her a lot is putting a couple treats into a classic flip lid lunch box and rewarding her from the box when she does it correctly instead of from your hands. Sometimes with foody dogs it is important to get them thinking that they could get rewarded away from you otherwise they get too worried about looking for your for cookies rather than doing their job
I start with both sides really quickly and train them pretty much at the same time.
Yes, in the beginning you did not separate your hand signal and verbal. But you did very good at the end 🙂 You can also start adding in other verbals such as down, right & left to make sure he is really thinking not just patterning. I also like that you added in a few straight jumps! This was the right time to do that. I think he is ready to start with these same things on the other side. You will need to start at the easy angle on that side in the beginning and working through the same steps that you have here. Keep moving him farther and farther in the hard direction making the threadle more difficult. And We are ready to add in more motion from you (on the good side). So now you are going to leave him at a slow jog and (with out stopping) ask for the threadle.
You did a WAYYYYY better job at not leading out, stopping, then starting. Keep that up from now on!
