Great job so far everybody! Again, please see as many videos of others as possible and read my comments to others too - I'm trying to bold the answers you really want to read, but the more you read, the easier it will be to understand what you're going for.
But things are mostly going well now, the only problem that I'm seeing more as expected is "up-in-the-air" movement. It looks like some dogs are leaping in order to get away from the plank. I think it's mostly due to the fact that everybody is going for those narrow planks and those are hard to run full speed on + they might sometimes be stepping on the edge and that can be uncomfortable and make them want to leave it as soon as possible. So again - it's no hurry to get to a narrow plank!!! If you can use two, side by side, with a carpet over, that would be perfect!
Anyway, here is your new list:
1. gradually make that plank higher&higher, still jackpotting the best hits, but make a criteria for a jackpot somewhat more strict and at this point also already stop clicking the highest hits even if the dog is striding equally - but at this point, don't click anymore the highest 20% of the hits you're getting (meaning that from 10 tries, don't click the highest 2 hits). It's no problem if the dog still gets the toy, just take it immediately when he comes back. When it's good, praise and tug and when it's especially good, be especially excited and play especially enthusiastically 🙂 And yes, dogs are smart enough to know the difference.
2. as the dog is probably already searching for the plank better, slowly start throwing sooner&sooner. Don't rush it, but you eventually want to throw that soon that the dog is technically running to a static toy. But again, you don't want to get there sooner as in 3 weeks as it's only then that we'll start using a static toy - you do want to throw it for those 3 weeks more! It's better to throw somewhat longer if necessary - usually not an issue with BCs, but with my puppy, I needed to throw VERY long to keep the speed and focus - if any of that gets weaker when you start throwing sooner, go back to whatever gives you back the speed and forward focus, we can deal with that later!
3. as you are still throwing a toy, your movement and position probably won't affect the dog's performance - but just to be sure, do try to run with the dog here and there, just to check if that's correct. If it does affect your dog's performance, add movement gradually, by first walking slowly along, then walking faster, running slowly etc. You don't need to do it on every try, especially not if it doesn't affect the performance, but do try it here and there.
4. another difficulty we can slowly start introducing now is changing starting position of your dog. Don't use the best spot all the time anymore, but vary it a little bit. If it makes their hits too bad, go back to the good starting position. But bad hit here and there is good, that's how they learn the difference between what gets rewarded and what doesn't.
5. new trick: shape a dog to go with all 4 feet in a box that is ideally as long as he is. Then gradually use smaller&smaller objects, your goal is the dog is standing with 4 feet in a small bowl. Good for balance and rear legs awareness! Also, teach backing up with you standing still, by throwing a reward for them first for one step back, then two and then add more&more distance. Great for rear legs awareness and coordination!
Send videos of the tricks and the plank work. For slow motion part of a plank work, PLEASE cut out all the parts where I can't see the dog! It's very time consuming and not much fun to watch just the plank or you, throwing a ball, in slow motion!
Also, here is a video showing different striding on a dog-walk. My puppy Le is showing the most common striding: two hits on up plank, two in the middle, two on down. Bu has this same striding. Bi can only do that if I start her from such an angle that she has no speed coming up. Her normal striding is 4 steps on whole dog-walk, on down ramp rear feet hit first and then she lands front feet above the contact, hind feet in the middle. I think that since US dog-walks are significantly shorter as mine, many of your BCs might end with this striding. Bi usually does shorter dog-walks in 3 steps (our dog-walks come in different lengths) - you can see one of those tries in this video too. She is pretty high on my dog-walk, but comes deeply in in 3 strides on shorter ones. At the end, you can see what big area she is covering with one hit, thanks to good reach forward and hind feet separation - with one hit, she is touching almost 40% of a down ramp, that's 1,5m!
Hello,
httpv://www.dailymotion.com/video/k16jlakaWH4nea2b2nl
Dernière vidéo, le % de bon est remonté autour de 70% dans les dernières séances. La planche est un peu plus haute et j’ai changé l’endroit d’où elle démarre. Je pense rester comme ça jusqu’à obtenir plus de 80% de réussite en travaillant prudemment les variables (un border terrier est mis en doute assez vite !!!). Qu’en penses tu ?
Last video,% good is ascended around 70% in recent sessions. The plank is a little higher and I changed the place from where she starts. I think I will stay like this until more than 80% success by working carefully the variables (a border terrier is in doubt fast enough !!!). What do you think?
Looks good! You can slowly add more&more variables yes and if that goes well, go to the next height. You have a whole dog-walk right? If so, your next step could be a plank on a down ramp already and slowly starting her further&further back, on a real dog-walk already.
Hi, Silvia.
Here is where I am at with Da Vinci. We added our first bit of height for this video…things got a little crazy and confusing, but then seemed to iron out. By the last couple days, we were trying to pin point Da Vinici’s sweet spot. This ended up being the most consistency we’ve had. I only restrained so we could find the starting position that gave him the most success. I think we found it…do you agree? I know we are not up to speed with the rest of class, but not really sure where we fall at this point. Can you explain to me what step we are at and how to progress during the couple weeks you are away?
(The setup with the bench was an experiment with Callie…which is the only reason Da Vinci ran on it. It was there and I was curious. Not my best decision ;)!)
Thanks,
Kristin
O-ow, what’s all the leaping in the first session about??? I don’t think I ever saw him leap that much… But yes, it gets really good by the end of the video, so I would keep that spot for a while and first add some more height. Once you’re at the height you have in the middle of the video, start with challenges from lesson 2. What you can do right now, though, as you are using stationary reward anyway, is to position it at the jump, as described in lesson 3. Food is especially hard to fade, so start working on it right now: position it at the jump first, then behind it, then you can also try positioning it behind a short straight tunnel etc. to eventually refocus him on an obstacle instead of food.
Thank you, Silvia.
Since he is a puppy, should I have him jump onto the plank as it gets higher or should I transition to an up ramp sooner than Callie?
Should I be using a word with Da Vinci at this point or do I wait? Right now, I just give him a generic “go”.
I have not taught him to jump yet. Should I place a no-bar jump out in front or use something he knows? He knows hoops and LOVES the tunnel.
About lesson 2 challenges…when trying different starting positions, do we still want to keep the dog starting in line with the plank and just vary the distance they start from it/ around a cone/ through a tunnel. Or, are you wanting us to be working toward starting a bit to the side of their entrance to the plank as well (ex. tunnel exit a a couple feet offset from their line to the plank)?
Kristin
By putting the jump after the dog-walk, I didn’t mean real, high jump! At first, I put the bar on the floor and later on, I put it very low, like 10 inches -- even if the dog is jumping higher otherwise already -- as this is not a jumping exercise, it’s just to teach them to search for obstacles. They don’t need to know anything about the jumps yet for this to work, as for now, you have toy/food after it anyway. A short straight tunnel is good too, you can use one one day and the other another day.
By varying starting position, I meant the distance, you don’t want him coming to the plank from an angle. I mostly simply use “go”, I add obstacle name much later. When to switch to an up ramp is on you to decide. It doesn’t hurt if you use it already now, especially if you’ll be setting it up for Callie already.
Dans mon jardin je n’ai que une descente de passerelle prise dans mon club (j’ai pas la place de mettre plus). Pour travailler sur une passerelle entière je ne peux que au club, donc pas tous les jours. penses tu que je pourrais mélanger les deux méthodes sans la perturber ?
In my garden I have only a descent DW taken from my club (I have no space to put more). To work on a DW I can only at my club, so not every day !; do you think I could mix the two methods without disturb?
I think that it would be good for her to learn it’s the same thing at agility field, so do try to practise it at your club sometimes, but maybe make it even easier with even lower plank, starting her from her favourite point. If that’s good, you can slowly start moving her further back. Of course, still do the plank work at home, this is just to make her see it’s the same exercise.
séance catastrophique !!!!!!!!!! j’ai même arrêté car je n’avais rien à cliquer … Comment expliques tu que plusieurs séances soient bonnes et tout d’un coup une séance catastrophe à 10% 20% de bon et encore !!??? Que du saut !!! C’est décourageant. Je vais réessayer ce soir, j’ai baissé la planche …….. Si il faut que je rebaisse régulièrement la planche je ne suis pas prêt d’y arriver un jour !!!!!!!!!
session disastrous !!!!!!!!!! I even stopped because I had nothing to click … How do you explain that more sessions are good and all of a sudden a disasttrous session at 10% 20% good and yet !!??? She jump, jump! It is discouraging. I’ll try again tonight, I lowered the plank …….. If I must regularly lowered again the plank I never get through !!!!!!!!!
Well, study the video… However, what you call a jump, I call a miss. On your recent videos, she was never jumping, but was sometimes missing, thanks to doing one stride less as normally. Maybe today, she was extra fast and was going for one stride less all the time? It’s hard to explain without seeing a slow motion video of her normal striding vs. her striding today… See my reply to Pauline to see what to do when the dog is doing one stride less as normally OR when the dog is doing his normal striding, but without enough extension.
It’s been a rough training week in our house! Here is Callie’s video. Besides the fact that my hand was clicker happy and I couldn’t seem to select only good ones until later in the week, Callie decided to skip the boards altogether. I was concerned that she wasn’t comfortable jumping up onto it so we tried that short ramp in front. THAT didn’t go well. Seems like she needs more room so she can place her front feet at the beginning of the down planks?????? So, we got rid of that. She did skip the boards some more after that, but now I am suspecting it is because she is tired…not sure.
I got a little better at NOT clicking everything, but almost put the clicker away and went to “good girl” for running and jackpots for good hits.
Toward the end of the week, I worked on finding her good starting position (same as we did with Da Vinci). I think she did well from this spot. Do you?
I have the same question as with Da Vinci. I’m not sure where we are in the progression. Can you tell me where we are and what to do for the next couple weeks while you are away?
She is running on two boards side by side with carpet over. I do have the ability to give her a nice approach ramp when she is ready to go to a regular plank. We have two 12 ft. teeter planks and two 12 ft dog-walk planks so plenty of boards to make something that will work. I can even put one of the planks leading up to the double…whatever you recommend. That car ramp I used in the video wasn’t long enough and very difficult to position her on.
Yeah, starting her from stand still wasn’t too good, her hind feet separation is not nearly as good as normally. The first and the last sessions are the best. You can add some height and yes, to not have her jump on it, you can make her an up-ramp, also single up-ramp will be o.k., but I would keep double down ramp for a while. You major focus at this point should be to try to get her understand the importance of getting all the way down, so when you get a nice series of nice hits, challenge her some more with new variables (different starting point, your movement, more height etc.). You can also try to switch to a toy, thrown later, as described in lesson 3, so that you can withhold the toy and make her see the importance of putting an effort into getting all the way down even more. At the moment, she is definitely running nicely, but not yet actively trying to get in -- that should be your focus now. -- But it takes a while for the dog to get that, so it doesn’t hurt if you’re raising the plank meantime. Just make sure to have enough good hits -- and when you have plenty of those, you can try to make her fail by adding variables for her to learn the difference.
Hier, mardi, jour de ma dernière vidéo que je t’ai envoyée c’était bien; les mauvaises sont juste les 4,11,12,14,15,19 et je suis d’accord avec toi c’est plus un problème de foulée ratée et pas vraiment du saut pour certaines.
mais aujourd’hui mercredi catastrophique ! saut, saut, saut ! du vrai saut pourquoi ?????????? J’ai réessayé au club une dernière petite séance pour pas rester sur cet échec ……….. des sauts et des bonnes ! un peu mieux, je n’ai pas de vidéo de ce mauvais jour. J’espère que ça sera mieux demain. Je ne comprends pas.
Je ferai une vidéo demain
Yesterday, Tuesday, the day of my last video I sent you was good, the bad are just 4,11,12,14,15,19 and I agree with you it is a stride problem and not really a jump for some.
but today Wednesday catastrophic! jump, jump, jump! a real jump WHY ?????????? I tried again at the club one last little session for not stay on this failure………. jumps and good! a little better, I have no video of this bad day. I hope it will be better tomorrow. I do not understand.
I’ll make a video tomorrow
Oh, so she was really jumping this time? Well, it happens, I usually simply end the session real quick and try again in a day or two…
Hi Silvia
I’m having a few problems with Bilbos running contacts so far.
There are still plenty of positives, and I am not disillusioned, just not sure where to go next. The main positives are that he LOVES his planks and he does seem to be aware of what he is trying to do (even if its not quite what i want). The main problem I am having is that you mentioned before that he seems to think that it is all about his front feet, and if his front feet aren’t in, he just leaps.
He has now got better at working out his stride, albeit with an interesting way of shortening his stride in no. 6 in the first video below! and also when he wants to lengthen his stride, he is taking big jumps across the top dw plank, which you can see in the second video.
You will also see that he has decided that it is clever to hit the contact with one front leg and then stride off with the other front leg on the ground! I think he takes my praise very literally and is good at repeating exactly what he had just done. My problem is, that whilst I can see whether he gets the contact ok, I can’t see exactly how he is doing it until I slow the video down later.
Away from this, he is developing quite good back feet awareness, but I’ve been unable to get any low down hind feet separation to reward despite numerous attempts, as he mostly manages to adjust his striding to get a front foot in -- any ideas???
Wow, what’s that jump on the middle plank about??? Too funny what he is doing on that middle plank! But yes, he is definitely trying hard to get that front leg down 🙂 That’s how La does her contacts and it’s o.k. other than it’s slower as she needs to do so much stride adjustments -- what is still easier for her with her length of stride as it will be for him. My concern is he will soon be flying over the apex too much to fit in that front leg and he would actually need to stride as Bi does in her 4-strides version of a dog-walk: hind feet on a down plank first, then front feet above the contact, hind feet in. For that, he would need to understand hind feet are o.k. too… -- If you could get more tries like the 1st one in the 2nd video, that would be great… But of course, you need to see those tries in real speed to be able to jackpot those… Maybe you could have a helper for a while to give you immediately feedback and help you to eventually see it? As a separate exercise, you could also try running him over the carpet and see if he sees it as another exercise and you can get some more hind feet…
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k430hOLnEJm36C2bl4b
Aujourd’hui : vidéo avec deux séances. Première avec planche rabaissée, 25% de bon (saut plus ou moins : 2,5,6,7,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16) arrêt de la séance car trop d’erreurs. 10 minutes après nouvel essai avec planche un peu remontée ! 50% de bon (un peu mieux !) ( saut + ou -- 19,22,23,25,26,27,29,30,31,33,35)
Quand il y a trop d’erreurs je pense qu’il vaut mieux arrêter ?
Quand elle saute est ce que je dis “NON” ou est ce que je ne dis rien ?
Et faire des séances plus courtes ? je ne sais pas quoi faire ………….
today: video with two sessions. first with plank lowered, 25% good (more or less jump: 2,5,6,7,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16) stop the session because too many errors. Ten minutes after new test Plank a little rise! 50% good (much better!) (jump + or -- 19,22,23,25,26,27,29,30,31,33,35)
When there are too many errors I think it is better to stop?
When she jump I say “NO” or I say nothing?
And do shorter sessions? I don’t know what to do ……….
Yes, when it goes bad, the best is to stop and try again the next day. You can also give her two days of break maybe and then try again. You definitely don’t want to say NO for bad ones, but you can say an indifferent, quiet no, or, even better, “ups” or something 🙂 As soon as it’s loud or emotional, it’s contra-productive, so it’s probably safer to not say anything. You could also try to change her starting point, she mostly puts in that additional stride when her first stride on a plank doesn’t take her too deep. Of course, once this becomes an apex, she will probably fly over it and might need to actually do one stride less… -- Another reason why you definitely need a good understanding of the importance of getting all the way down already now!
lien vidéo: httpv://www.dailymotion.com/video/k430hOLnEJm36C2bl4b
Hi everybody!!! I came back, this is my first session after 3 weeks of doing nothing, Silvia I did this session changing the start position and I was restraining Acqua, Should I start again from the same point begining with a tunel for a couple of sessions? last session before my vacations we did with a tunel and was better and then aid high or variations?
I have a lot of work, too much to read and too much work 🙂
Cool! That looks pretty good, but yes, when you find a good spot or a good way to start (like a tunnel), keep it for a while, add some other variables (your movement, height or switching to a toy, thrown after) -- I change one and if it goes well, I change another, then another again, altering the variations so that on each height, I also do some other variables changes. But you should only vary them so carefully that you are having many things to jackpot.