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That is looking awesome! I am thinking with her it may be better to start fading the elevated target by making it shorter but not necessarily smaller. Because here her hits are not as good as they were before and I am not sure if it is the size, her confidence or that she is uncomfortable with the movement from this target. So do a session with the bigger target again, see if it is the all 4 better hits with speed. If it is, continuing adding in the distractions/excitement/speed with that target and start to fade the height but not the size. Continue adding in all of the new stuff from lesson 2/3 on this target. Get her to understand it there and go back to the smaller target. The lower target you will use around the clock with the PT.
Overall, that session on the DW was really good! Continue with this working on the MM all around the clock until she is getting confident with hits all around from the sweet spot. I am super happy with her hits on this session and yes, looks like about half way will do the trick 😉
The stuff with the inverted target that you are working on in the dog room is great too! You can also start adding in some verbals so saying “run” then immediately a jump verbal so she is learning to hit the target and go to the next obstacle. Great work!
Yes, the together RF is because of the way that they get on/off of the target with the back and forth game. Nothing to worry about right now. Usually as we start adding more speed the RF will start separating on their own. I don’t worry too much about it at all. I also don’t worry too much about the pouncing onto the target either. Again, as we build speed that will typically go away but I do see it as a good sign!! Because that usually means that they are starting to really understand the idea and that hitting the target is important. We will go through different running through the target to a wing games and usually that will go away at that stage. If it gets more exaggerated then we could work on it a bit but thats only if he is really dramatically leaping on to it. You could start fading the elevated target by going to a lower target (I wouldn’t go much smaller because we want him to really practice running through the target). I typically will do a cato board to some sort of upside down box to the target on the ground. But when you do the distraction exercises or anything difficult I would start with this target set up.
The ball distraction was looking great but you can slowly start adding more to it by telling him go when he is still looking at the ball to see if he can think through the verbal that you told him. And not helping with your hands at all. I like that you are alternating between challenging reps and easy reps. I think that is perfect for him.
B&F with motion – GREAT! This is looking really good! Especially because in the beginning he was having a hard time with you standing still so just that he is starting to understand this skill with you starting to be in motion away from the target is fantastic. You can also play around with jogging in place but facing away from the target. That might help him a bit in the beginning learn to tolerate the motion in the opposite direction. I completely understand what you mean about the wing wrap. Keep switching back and forth between starting with and with out it and you could also start from a tunnel a bit if that gets more speed as well.
Straight Exits – Nooooo! That is the worst! I am so excited to hear about that though! He is really starting to get more and more confident with this skills so I am not at all surprised that you are seeing a bit more excitement from him even if it is in small bits! Add more distance from the target to the MM. That should keep him running through the target rather than stopping/slowwing down as he is exiting the target.
I like that with the fix of food and toys a lot better! He is less sticky but keeping more of the enthusiasm for the game. He did look great with the bigger target — but he is still trotting to the target. I bet if we can get him to start running to the target and hitting with the pounce/quick jump on/off the smaller target will be easier for him. You also jumped from a pretty large target to a really small challenging target. If you could find another elevated target that is slightly smaller than the large one but not as small as this I bet that would help a lot too. That is really hard for a lot of dogs so you want to try to be sneaky so they never really notice the change in size 😉
I am thinking that adding the speed, distractions and challenges to the larger target will be the way to go. Build that up until he is really running to pounce on/off of the target then I bet going to smaller targets will be a lot easier.
That is good to know about him having a big bubble and yes, I agree, this will be good for him but challenging 🙂
It is so funny how they all learn and think so differently! Crazy!
Very smart!! It is for sure working because her speed has already improved so much! Looks like turning to the right is more difficult for her than turning to the left. Just something to keep in mind as we progress. You will want to do more practice on the right than the left. Oh the handler motion is so hard. One thing that I have done in the past to help is jogging in place facing the MM but close to the target. Then adding distance from there. So your body is facing away because if we continue to help by turning towards the target then I have found it is more difficult to fade. So jogging in place but facing away from the target towards the MM. Start really close to the target then add distance. Then start adding very sloooooow motion away in the beginning. Those BCs are so sensitive to the motion! Shes looking amazing! Great working building drive to the MM!
Oh No! I hate it when I do that. OOps.
This all looked fantastic though! Her speed with everything has gotten so much better!!! I am really impressed. Continue to build up these skills adding more of the proofing exercises into the picture. But she is really looking amazing. Great work!
Inverted Mat – YESSSS! That was amazing! It was perfect after you got him revved back up. Lovely job with your non rewards of just getting him excited and trying again. Keep your sessions pretty short with this so that he is really wanting to do more and leaving the game super excited. Next session try sitting on a chair or standing up! You can also do a toy session with you sitting on the ground.
Yes, I agree. I like this bigger box better as well! Very goods call.
The B&F game is looking great as well. I bet after a few sessions like this only rewarding for turning into you he will figure out that he should turn into you. You can help a little with the angle that he is running towards the box. So had you been 2 scooches to your left (going around the box) I bet he wouldn’t have turned away. It was more because when he was looking for where the box was from your position he was turning away from the beginning (not when he arrived at the box) I am hoping this is making sense! Everything here is looking great! Same thing, keep plugging away with the other proofing exercises — handler positions & adding distractions
Oh my gosh her drive to the PT looks amazing!!!! I love the speed that she is getting all around with this!! So really the next step is to work on this with a slightly lower target. Then after that with the mat on the ground. With this current target you can do sessions where you are starting to work the PT around the clock she she is learning that she will need to go out of her way to find the target then go to the PT. But otherwise, this is looking amazing! You can also start working on adding the distractions in lesson 2, adding more speed to the target by adding a jump/wing wrap before. I am so happy with her forward focus to the PT! Will she drive like that if you are not running with her?
Work on the lateral motion with the pole method load. Anything new, you want to start with that first. Because there she is like 99% perfect. So you want to use that to keep her rehearsing the perfect hits that you want. So anytime you add new things it is best to start there where she can understand it and be successful rather than where she would be more likely to miss.
Yes! This half height DW work is looking really good. Is she running to the MM? Or a dead toy? So great hits some not so great hits. Do a couple more sessions of trying to find the sweet spot using all different locations on the top ramp. My gut still says that it will be able half way. So keep trying that spot and slightly forward/slightly back from halfway.
Oh good! Yes, we will use that for hard turns. FF in RF hit method. So perfect! That is basically the same thing that we are looking for with the inverted box.
We don’t want to start raising the DW until she is hitting 90% of the time perfectly with all the different angles (all the way to 90 degrees with the wing). So we are going to build up the half way sweet spot to the MM around the clock, then dead toy around the clock, then the wing no verbal around the clock, then the wing with the verbal around the clock until hard turns. So we have a little ways to go 🙂 But she is moving along so well!
Oh that is so smart! Kim is a good one to keep around 😉
Wow! I am super happy with this! I love the food distraction at the beginning! She is really figured that one out. And AMAZING hits! She is really getting the hooping on/off really well. She did really well with the B&F game with the MM too! Really good excitement. I am glad that those cat treats worked so well! The handler motion is really hard for a lot of dogs. You can make it a little bit easier in the beginning by moving in place but not away from the target. So if you see her hits get a little sloppy or anything like that, that is an easy way to work on it. Otherwise she is doing well with it in this video!
Great work!
Try angling the MM a bit more and adding more distance from the target. That will often help them in the beginning because we start with an angled approach. Then as he is understanding and getting really good hits then you can gradually move it to a straight line. One of the biggest things here is distance. You want the dog to be able to break into a run (rather than a trot) when you are working on this. So move the MM another 5-10 ft away from the target. Those couple of changes should help a lot!
Sorry for the delay here! Everything that you did with the reward system homework sounds great! Great work with that!
Inverted Target – The one foot off the target can be a challenge for a lot of dogs. For dogs that tend to do that a lot I will use the elevated target longer and build up a bit more speed and proofing with distractions before going to a smaller elevated target or the inverted target. This is really so that you can build in a habit/muscle memory of hitting with all 4 feet on. I will also say that I worry less when it is a FF rather than a RF and because he seems to more often do that with the FF that is a good sign. You should start to see that going away a bit more when he builds up a bit more speed than what he is doing in this video. Overall with this session videoed he looks great. He started missing a bit more as you backed up farther. So spend a bit more time working on this with less distance. I also think going to the distractions stage with the elevated target will help a lot too because that really emphasizes their ability to maintain criteria while other things are going on. I have found that after adding in distractions with less distance and getting lots of rewards in there then adding distance for them is easier as well.
Target with distractions – Oh good! I am glad I get to see this next! Because this is what I was thinking would really help him. Does he switch between food and toy easily? I am worried that he is creeping to the target so much with the toy reward so i am wondering if you could do a combination of food rewards thrown and toy rewards. Also let’s use the elevated target with this as well. That should make this easier for him and hopefully less creepy. I have a creeper so its not a huge deal and there are lots of ways that we can work around it but we want to try to keep him from practicing it as much as possible. It would be great if we could do both food and toys and get him offering/chasing after the food for several reps then 1 rep with a toy reward then back to food. Because the better that we can get him doing that the easier toys will be down the road as well.
Yes – you will eventually want to go to the smaller inverted target. We will eventually need this understanding for super hard turns 🙂
WOW! The different exits off the DW with the pole load up look AMAZING!! Nearly all of them were beautiful perfect RF hits. I did want to point out that she will get more RF separation as we add speed so don’t worry about that at all at this stage. Be sure to work on more severed turns with this as well! So start moving your jump over so that you are working on the 2-3 oclock hits. With you running lateral and all that. It is really important they understand this with your lateral motion with a slight turn off the DW (we see that A LOT here in the US).
Half DW – OOPS I may have not explained this well. I meant half way on the top ramp not the down ramp. There she has less room so I bet she will have more success with half way on the top ramp. I think using the MM in the beginning with this will be good. Play around with her positioning on the top ramp (half way, 3/4 back, 3/4 forward). Sorry for the confusion! What she did was lovely but I am excited to see what she does with a bit more speed.
Inverted mat – Looking great! Try not to reward the times that he trots through the target anymore. We want him to start understanding to always hit with the all 4. And when he is trotting he is not. So instead handler that just like you did when he got distracted. Bring him to see play with him for a second then resend him to the target. I really like that you are incorporating more toy rewards as well. Also start trying to make a difference between the all 4 hits and the trotting hits as well. You will probably accidentally reward some — not a big deal — but try to make an extra exciting reward when he does hit with all 4 in a run. So he starts to offer that more often.
B&F – Making the box just a bit bigger was smart. He is really starting to understand it though! You can see the wheels turning. The bigger box should help with speed and just building up confidence. Be sure to do both directions (put yourself on the other side of the box as well — I am sure you probably already did but just wanted to make sure).
