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Oh my gosh her understanding is looking AMAZING!!!!!! Like really amazing!!! So Yay!
I really would not worry about it at all — yet. It makes sense to me that she is still hitting that way because of her size and breed I think it would be unfair for us to assume that she would be on the same exact path — however, your concerns are valid. I don’t think we are there yet though because she is not running full speed. With her size the wing wrap on the DW will be a slow entry approach (very good for training and building thinking).So my bet is that if she is still doing it at full speed then lets chat again about it. I also think that so much of this is about their confidence as well. My guess is that she will gain that extra confident side a bit later in the process so I think you will start to see more of that in the end of the process. It is more important to me that she is understanding her job and she is very well!! So keep adding speed and we will see what we get. If she does happen to start any with only FF or only RF still reward — and extra JP for only RF.
Is this all making sense?
Looking amazing!!!! There were a few hits in there that you rewarded that were really high — so just watch out for that. You might find that her sweet spot is a bit farther forward that it was before because of the change in height. So don’t be afraid to give that a try if you continue to see the higher hits. Although she had SO MANY amazing hits!!!!
Yes, great plan. Next toy around the clock. Then wing around the clock. Then adding some handler motion into the wing around the clock. Then full DW wing around the clock with some handler motion. then 3 wing game with directional verbals 🙂 So we have a little while but not too long at all!
It looks so amazing!!!!
Yeah I have a 2o2o of the teeter. I taught it with the nose target with Dan Shaw. I thought that was great.
Wow!! Those were both amazing sessions! No trotting way to go 🙂 Yeah sometimes a break is really good for them. I am super happy with how he did in these sessions! Continue working through all the different exits — and as often as you can work on him driving forward ahead of you keep throwing that into your sessions. It might help him if you put a couple of tunnel bags under the plank so that the plank doesn’t move at all. For some dogs that can be a challenge for them. And they will not hit with as good separation. I don’t think that separation will be an issue for him at all. As he is starting to run faster that will continue to get better. However, I could see him struggling with the movement of the plank so if we take that out of the picture for now that would be very helpful. Great work!
Yeah that is looking great!!! The barrel for him does seem to really help. I like your plan of continuing to use the barrel and moving it around the clock. Yes, it is to be expected for some more misses when you increase the drive and excitement. I was really happy to see that he did not slow down on the next attempt after a miss but still tried very hard to hit on the next rep.
Oh my gosh!!! Yes… that was a typo, sorry!!!! LOL
Yeah having a helper toss the toy would be a good way to do it too! The tunnel also could work but that might be too much excitement and cause him to not think as much which could be both good and bad for him. So it would still be a good thing to try. Just be sure that if you start to see things go really down hill stop and go back to a set up where he is thinking more.
Yes, him driving past you would also be a good thing! And could be a great in between step!
That wasn’t very good session! I am super happy to see him running more! Any opportunity you can to work on the low Dogwalk I would definitely take it. I think that’s Going to help him a lot.Be careful using your motion to get him to run faster.It will be super important that he learns to run equally as fast driving ahead of you. And you’re not always using your motion to encourage him to run faster. That can be an issue for dogs like him only because they learn to really rely on you to get them to run faster. On the other hand of that, I would rather him run faster and then Be able to deal with Adding him to run ahead of you as well. So I would just keep doing Like five repetitions of you running ahead of them and then one repetition Of trying to get him to run ahead of you. So really slowly adding that into the picture for him. He is doing a great job! The understanding is there now it is just adding speed/confidence 🙂
First, this session was awesome! She is really starting to understand this game really well!One big thing that I would changeIs to start saying your “check check check” verbal A lot earlier. Part of our goal is that she will learn toGo to the next obstacleAnd hit the contact at the same time. And part of that is to make sure that you are queuing it early and on time and she’s learning to hit the target regardless. In our end goal when she is doing the full Dogwalk you will be telling her to get on the dog walk from the bottom before the up ramp, then as soon as she hits about half way on the dog walk you should already be telling her the next thing to do whatever obstacle that is. So the wind wrap helps a lot with that because you can start telling her your check cheque verbalAs soon as you say”go”So she wants to tolerate listening to the verbal, Hitting the target and going to the wing. It is also for this reason I don’t really addA lot of verbals in the beginning either Because Based on where the dog is starting we should already be telling themThe verbal to go out afterwards. I we will add inThe right/left verbalFor 90° turnsBecause sometimes in situations like that you need some sort of a bypass passed an obstacleAnd so you can’t start giving the obstacle verbal until a little bit laterBut most situations you would already be saying the obstacle verbalThat you’re looking forBy then. So I filled it up so they understandMostly how to hit the target while getting the obstacle verbalAnd then laterAdd in more turn verbals. Does that make sense?
Time line –
– next session: continue working right and left turns to 1 wing from the middle of the DW Yes! Keep moving her back a bit farther until she is reliable from the middle. That is generally a good spot because you get a more realistic speed but not so fast they don’t understand yet. Continue working on all the turns around the clock from there.
– start adding the verbals to the turns + straight exits pretty soon (within the next week/2 sessions) Yes, adding turns for 90 degree exits. Otherwise just the check verbal early
– try the 3 wing game to test our verbals/handling Yep!
– start doing the full 1/2 height DW with 1 wing and 3 wing game Yep!
– go to a full height DW (starting midway) with 1 wing and 3 wing game Yep! Some dogs get uncomfortable going from half height to full height. If you see that happen then just do 1 or 2 sessions and 3/4 height. Only if you start to see her miss a lot at full height or doing any weird things.
– do the full, full height DW with 1 and 3 wing game Yep! Starting with low speed then gradually add speed
– add tunnel and jumps after DW Yep!
– test understanding of complete behavior with additional discriminations Yep!Possible full height DW..? This is a tricky one.. I would get her to where she is farther back on the low DW and pretty consistent with more speed that way. Then I would give it a try at full height (still the half way point from the top of the DW) and see what you get. I bet at that point she would be fine. She is understanding it so well on the low DW that I think she would transition to full height really quickly. So even before you are doing the full low DW I think you could try some of the full height half way. If anything starts to go like she is missing a lot, slowing down, getting weird etc. then just go back to half height. I also want to point out that if anytime the dogs are having a hard time with with a particular exit, or are getting rusty or whatever, I just go back to the low DW. It seems to happens all the dogs at some point whereThey justGet rusty or taking a long break and I want to bring them back slowly orThere is one particular exit that theyAre having a hard time with And often just going back to the low dog walk and then bringing it back to full height does the trick. So don’t get worried if that happens to her in a year or two. It happens to everyone. Just Do a couple sessions at low height again And that usually does the trick.
As for trialing with the dogs…I think trialsThis summer for her are very realistic. I generally want the dogs to be able to hit consistentlyAt full heightWith speedAll the way around the clock to 90°.I don’t care if they have collection exitsAt that point. It’s very unlikely that you would see one in a trial anyways. And if you do, I would just send her straight on and take the fault.Because you don’t want toDo anything too drastic in the beginning.Encourage her toRun forward all of that.Make sureThat you are doing dog walk sessions in between trials. I think that is really importantIn the beginning.And if she misses in the trial I want to knowThat she understands how to fix it. So when you are doing Dogwalk sessionsPay close attention to how well she can fixHerself after a mistake. If you find takes herTwo or three repetitions to fix a mistakeThen she’s probably not ready to trial if you finds that she’s fixing her mistake immediately then I would say you could trial. Because I want to know that in a trial if they mess and I use my fixing go to fix-itThat they understand’sWhat the correct thing to do is and how to fix it.So as long as you’re keeping track of those things andShe isDoing well with thought I don’t think there’s anything wrong with trialing at all.I went through a phase where I was retrainingKirby and his dog walk switching to this methodAnd I never stopped trailing with him throughout the entire processAnd I only saw his hits start to get better and better. However, if I were to have seen in the oppositeI would have stopped trialing. AndSo keep that in mind. She doesn’t strike me as a dogThat doesn’t try to do the correct thing.Unless she is getting way over-the-top andThe thinking is gone,I would guess that she wouldBe trying to doThe behavior.But if at any time you start to see the oppositeThen just take a little break go back to Dogwalk sessions.
Tracy and I are working out a plan for extending some time for anyone who wants to continue working on stuff together 🙂 So I will keep you updated on that!
I have LOVED working with you and Sophie! You are a great team and I am so excited to see the DW as she progresses! Its going to be amazing!
The video with the jump looks fantastic! I think that this will be a really good way to go for him. You could use the jump after instead of the wing I would just continue to give either your wrap verbal or The jump verbal and make sure to mix it up so that he learns to hear both.Then continue to move the jump around just like you are working from all different angles. I think that’ll be better because it’ll keep him moving faster. And if you feel like he is super excited one day then try it with just the wing and see how he does so that you can practice both. Another idea would be to start him from a jump wrap going onto the plank. I know we have already tried a couple of times with the wing wrap going onto the plank but I’m wondering if the jump will help him move a little bit faster just like it did at the exit. So that would definitely be something to try!In the second video he looks great his understanding is that there he’s just going a little bit slower. See if you could try starting him From the jump or even farther back When he’s moving a little bit slowerJust to see if we can get him to speed up Into a canter.
Is it an issue that the plank I have on the ground in my yard isn’t the same length as a DW plank? It’s about 10ft.No this shouldn’t be a problem at all Especially in the beginning. I would just gradually start backing him up from the plank so that he has more room to run and therefore is gaining more speed going onto the plank.At some points You will have to start working more on the low Dogwalk And then this plank will be less Used But I don’t think you have to worry about that for little while. It might be a little bit tricky to use if you add some height. So when you and height make sure you’re not doing a ton of speed and then Don’t add a lot of height And as soon as you can switch to the low dog walk rather than spending a lot of time adding height with this plank because he just won’t have enough room to get moving.
For now I’m concentrating on getting him to at least canter instead of trot. He is not running in full extension down the plank so I expect I’ll have to circle back to the foundation exercises when the lightbulk clicks and he picks up speed and extending his stride. Any tips on what to do when this happens?Yes I agree with you. At some point you might start seeing himDo more misses that becauseHe will be starting to run faster but not quite understand how to hit while he’s running the faster speed. One thing that I did with my small dog that didn’t seem to help quite a bit was I used a stride regulator to create a “box” at the very end of theDog walk. I put it6 inches to a foot aboveThe target. For her, she really recognized thatAsABE box to jump in/out ofWhich was just how we started in the beginning.So that could be one thing to try.She seems to understand that at speedBetter than just the target alone.Keep in mind,I was not using it as a stride regulator More of creating a box at the end of the contact.I also don’t think it’s a bad idea for a dog like him to put a hoop at the bottom of the dog walk and just work on getting him to run full speed without paying any attention to the contact that he is doing. Like just throw the toy and get him to just run as fast as he possibly canAnd don’t back and forth between doing thinking sessions whereYou are wanting him to hit the target and running sessions where you were just building up his speed. The hoop at the endShould help him continue to hitThe contactBut keep in mind that it forces the contact and does not really teach him anything. But it also doesn’t allow him to practice anything bad.
How far should we be on the DW training before I try an a-frame? Doing a full height DW consistently? Some other point? Yes, I typically wait until they are doing the full Dogwalk consistently before adding in a frame.However,Again for my small dog,She really needed to build up some confidenceAnd for whatever reason she loved the A-frame and understoodHow to hit the target on the A-frame. I think it was easier for her because she didn’t have as small of a target to hit. So for her, I did do a frame a little bit earlier and started putting it in sequences and building up her understandingOn thatAnd slowly came back to sessions sessions on the Dogwalk. That seemed to help her just build some confidence with the overall skillAt speedAnd then going back to something that was more difficult.I thinkThat could also be a goodInto try with him as well.He also doesn’t strike me as a dog that is going to really sleep. So again, it might be a good way to get him to start understanding the behavior on something that is a little bit easier for him where he can be successful and even build up some speed and then go backTo meMore Dogwalk training or sprinkling In a bit of both.
That is a tricky one. I like using the wing wrap to put it in motion as well. At this point you will probably need to start using a low DW to be able to add more distance/speed that way. The other thing that you could do is have him exit the plank to a wing wrap. That will speed a lot of dogs up and this would be a good time to work on that with him (before you go to the low DW).
I noticed that he was looking at you a lot in this session and a bit in the last session as well. That is definitely something to keep an eye on.
Yesah don’t push for speed right now as they will usually miss the target all together. Use a slightly bigger box on the plank so that he has a bit more room to hit the target. The MM is too close to the end of the DW as well. He is slowing down before he gets to the MM (which is normal) but because it is so close to the exit of the DW he is slowing down on the DW. You can also try having him enter the target from the side then gradually move to a straighter and straighter line.
Oh that makes me so happy! Thank you so much for telling me. It is such a long and hard process so try to keep that in mind too. AND you are getting towards the end! You are closer than you think! Really you are doing such a great job!
The warm up looked fantastic. Next sessions add the wing after into your warm up. So wing wrap jumping in the plank and exit to a wing wrap. That will help her stay in motion a bit more. She really has the understanding down really well. And this is one situation where you can add a lot of speed, work on a lot of exits, and all of that.
The exits to the wing went really well! Sometimes that stage can be difficult for some dogs but Soph seemed to do really well with it. It is definitely the right next step for her. When you were wrapping her around the wing with the DW on your left the wing was positioned in a way that you had to push on her line to get her to turn the correct direction around the wing. Next time move the wing like 2 ft to the right so as she is exiting the DW it is straight to the correct direction around the wing. Everything else looked fantastic. Keep working it around the clock with the wing all the way until you get to 90 degrees on either side. So pretty much what you said your plan was is exactly what I would do next!!
I also agree, I think her working on the DW is more valuable then flatwork. So move forward with that plan! You can go back to flat work if you feel that she needs some brushing up on a specific skill but I don’t think she needs any of that right now. Her understanding is very good 🙂
