Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
First video – I think that he is watching your motion a lot here. Many times you sped up then slowed way down when he was going to the target. Instead keep your motion 100% consistent. Even if you need to slow down to help him in the beginning that would just mean that you would slow down from the beginning and go slow rather than run and slow down.
I agree, he is such a tricky one to figure out the perfect combo with rewarding getting him to stay in a run rather than a trot. I believe you are doing all the right things with that. Continue to play with different reward/handler motion/etc just to see if you find something that is really magic for him. The other thing that I want you to try is sending him to a wing after the plank/target. This way you are still encouraging forward focus.
The only thing that I would stop is the thrown toy.. He looks at you way too much for that and he is starting to slow down and not run until he sees that you have thrown the toy. Instead if you send him to the wing then throw the toy after the wing hopefully that will keep the forward focus but still get the thrown toy that he really likes.
Video 2 – This was a very good session. Yes, he had a few misses but he was really running for that food! I think one thing that we need to watch out for is to make sure that the leaping doesn’t become a pattern for him. Try a few sessions where the wing is a bit closer to the plank (that he is starting from) because then he wont get quite as much speed going to the target. Then you can gradually move the wing farther and farther away to add more speed. But finding that sweet spot where he is more consisten but still running is what we are looking for.
The distractions video that you sent looks great! There is not a part 2 to that exercise other then adding more motion, distance and distractions 🙂 I use the inverted target for those exercises as well. It goes a long way for building their understanding of hitting the target and hitting with all 4.
With the plank continue working with the plank (send video when you get a chance). I would not worry about him hitting with feet together right now. As you build speed into the picture he will start to hit with better separation. The most important thing right now is good understanding.
WOW! This looks amazing!! I would stick with the wing from here on (unless you get to a really hard exit and you need to go back to more thinking then go back to MM). She is looking great with the wing! You are doing all of those exits with the wing verbals while she is on the DW right? It looks great! As soon as you feel good with that (wing all around the clock) then you could add a few full DWs in but from very minimal speed. Remember we want to keep the thoughtful brain as we are adding more speed 😉 To do this is start them from a wing wrap going up the up plank very close to the bottom on the DW. Then to add speed I just gradually move the wing father away.
I usually do 3 different heights so they have a between step from here to full height but I dont spend a lot of time at that height.
Hi Katie! This looked pretty darn good!! I think you may be right. She is running through the target pretty well but I am not 100% sure that she understands how to find the target. I like using the elevated target when adding in more difficult turns in the beginning because it can help them learn to be a bit more precise. When you do add that in make sure that you are rewarding only all 4 foot hits. Also make sure that you try to send her more than you run with her in the beginning. Make sure that she understands how to drive ahead of you. We don’t want her to push her for speed quite yet. In your next session also put the MM another 5 ft away or so so she is not slowing down on the target at all.
That looked fantastic!! Were you moving the MM around the clock for different exits or was this all straight? If this was all straight that is okay you will just want to start gradually moving it over little by little. I am super happy with how he did on the plank though! Continue like this adding in angles with the MM.
Hello! Thank you so much for the feedback about the class!
Yes, I say Tik Tik Tik instead of check check. I find it easier to say so I use that for collections wraps around the wing/jump. I use Check Check Check or collection exits on the DW turning into me and Turn Turn Turn for collection exits turning away from me. Ida Ida Ida (same as go go go) for straight exits.
Picking words can be so hard!
Jordan
Nice work! So in the second video that you posted I saw only a tiny bit of him being sticky. He was not actually too sticky at all. Way better then he was doing before! So in my eyes, that is looking great and there is no real reason to do that again unless you want to continue to work on building his understanding with your motion more or work on it for proofing. I also will use it as a warm up from sometimes as well. Otherwise, I think we should move on to the plank with him. So flat plank on the ground and running across the plank &target to the MM. Then working that all around the clock just like you have done with the flat target.
The last video that you sent was of the weaves 🙂
This is looking AMAZING! She is doing a great job with this! I think this would be a great time to add a small amount of height to the plank. I usually prop the one side of the plank up with a couple of tunnel bags. This will start to build in her running down the plank. Continue working on all the different angles within the sessions. She is doing a great job with that. Both of these sessions it looks like you worked her to the right — I am assuming that you are but just in case, be sure to also work to the left 🙂
She is hitting a little bit high on some of those harder turns so keep an eye on that and if she continues to do that we may need to spend some time working on her ability to get lower into the target when working on turns, Great work!
– For “Collection Exits & Turning Away”, is the mat the same size or did you make it smaller?
Is it just laying on the DW or did you attach the target somehow? Mine seems to slip/move if I just lay it on top of the plank.It should be smaller. I use one that is about 6in-1ft smaller than my straight exit mat. To secure both the small mat and the large mat I use vet wrap. It works amazing for keeping the targets in place and when I am fading the target I will take the target away and leave the vert wrap. It works great! I wrap it all the way around the DW multiple times.
-“The Low Dog Walk”… I noticed that the mat is significantly smaller in size now. Are we rewarding just 1-2 feet hitting the mat now? Do you recommend the mat be the same color as the contact zone at this point?
I think that I was using a different dog walk with USDAA contact zones so it just looks a bit smaller. I also have a couple of targets and sometimes grab the small one accidentally. I usually use the same size for a long time. I have not noticed any trouble fading the target and have not ever used the same color as the contact zone. I just use whichever color and at some point take it away but still shape for the lowest hits. I have not had any issues with that so far 🙂
Towards the end of her session see if you can get her a little bit more excited before you tell her to go so she is in a run instead of a trot. She hits really nicely when she is running in a lope rather than trotting so if you are getting a lot of trotting then get her more excited to get her to run or take a break and come back to it a bit later. But when you are getting her excited try not to encourage her to run faster by telling her go multiple times or running with her.
The MM is a bit too close to the exit of the DW. Just put it out another 5ft or so when you are working around the clock. Yes, I would continue with this step until you get her running a bit more consistently.
Adding motion is so hard for some dogs to add motion! I would continue to work on this exercise with a slightly elevated target. That will help her learn to be more precise. Then you can move on with the other exercises, still coming back to this from time to time. You can also start working on adding more forward but lateral motion for her instead of the opposite direction. That will likely be easier for her in the beginning then as she is understanding that better start going back to this one. But otherwise, you can start working on the target all around the clock running to the PT
The small plank will not be a problem at all 🙂 Because we are teaching her to hit a target, it really doesn’t change anything. With the flat plank we are just working on getting her comfortable with a board under the target so it is perfect. Later when we are asking for more speed you will need something longer but this works for now.
Regarding her slowing down after a mistake – See what happens if when you don’t reward you instead having her run to you and jump up, be silly with her and then try again rather then “oops”. See if bringing her up when she has a mistake helps her try again a bit faster.
Your next question about the accuracy vs speed – so first my guess is that if you start playing with her/being silly when she doesn’t do it correctly (but still no food reward) that she will be a bit faster on the next try. Hoping this will help take away some of the over thinking/slowing down. But that way we can hopefully still keep some of the accuracy.With more speed the pounce will start to go away and that is okay.. Because as they are running faster it starts to be physically impossible for them to hit that way. However, shes not getting that much speed right now so you are looking for the pounces OR 2 RF OR 2 FF. Any of those are JPs right now. As she gets more speed and we add in the DW you will start to see more of the 2 RFs. Don’t worry 🙂 I don’t think you need the elevated target anymore because what she is doing in the video looks really good. Unless there is an exit she is completely confused by or something like that. Then you can bring it out. Or is she is having an off day or needs some reminding 😉
I think what she is doing with the target actually is very good. I would stick with exactly what you are doing now and continue moving forward. She is understanding hitting the target and is still developing the perfect style but you can see the understanding is there so the style will come later. I will admit, I have backed off of the perfect style a bit more in the training with my last dog and let her build up more confidence and speed while still getting nice hits but not the perfect style and then the nice style came a bit later. And that worked really well too. The main thing is how well they are understanding it and how well they fix their mistakes.
So the main things are 1) Play with her when she makes a mistake to keep her excitement up and 2) reward the pounce, 2 RF and 2 FF all the same and 3) keep moving forward her understanding is looking great! 🙂
This is a great start. I like your plan of gradually moving the mat to the bottom of the DW. I also think that once you do some work on the plank this will become a lot easier as well. He seemed to do really well not being sticky in the beginning of the session. So when you arre working on this keep a close eye on the time to see if he starts getting more likely to be sticky in the second half of his session and if he does then you want to switch to doing something else before he gets sticky. Even if that means just go off and do a couple tunnels then come back. Sometimes that can make a big difference with the stickiness. With that being said, he may get a bit more sticky as you are working on the plank just because it looks so similar to the teeter etc.
He did pretty well on the full size DW! Next time you get a chance to work on a DW like that in a bigger space see how he does with you starting him from a wing wrap as well. I bet for him the best would be to continue to vary it all the time. Meaning sometimes start from the wing wrap, the sit stay and the just send and go. He seems to get into patterns quickly and will over think when you do that. I may be wrong though (you know him best 😉 ).
Yes, it is always good to go back to the flat work. I would just continue to work on the things with that that he struggles with. So the handler motion and distractions seems to be the two that are always good for him to practice.
