Great job so far everybody! But again, please see as many videos of others as possible and read my comments to others too - the more you read and the more videos you watch, the easier it will be to understand what you're going for and see it in real speed too.
Anyway, here is your new list:
1. gradually make that plank/set-up higher&higher, still jackpotting the best hits, but make a criteria for a jackpot somewhat more strict and at this point also stop clicking misses and almost-misses, even if the dog is striding equally. Jackpot really good hits only. It's no problem if the dog still gets the toy on every try, 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 PyrShep puppy, I needed to throw VERY long to keep the speed and forward 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 the rest 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. If you use a low DW, you can use different approaches instead. 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!
Hi, The set up is the same as yesterday, double planks about 12″ raised but I decided instead of always staying behind him and throwing the ball that I would move with him or be a little bit ahead and that changed a lot. He turns his head to look at me and does not drive over the plank nicely. Should I not be moving my position yet or should I keep moving it and eventually he won’t look at me so much??
But… You throw WAY too late! He is looking at you, wondering when are you going to throw -- can’t blame Cooper, *I* looked at you all the time too, wondering why are you throwing only now! You need to throw before he even hits the board and if you do so, I’m sure you can move as much as you want 🙂
Ahhh got it, I just went and did a couple more reps throwing before the plank and me ahead and he was right on again!! Thanks! More videos tomorrow -- having a blast learning and getting the hang of the video editing. Congrats on your recent huge successes with your dogs, really fabulous.
Hi Silvia -- here is tonight’s video. I still don’t have my aframe back yet, soon, I hope. Meanwhile, Amy brought over a short, non-regulation aframe over. We had the bright (I hope you agree!) idea to use these 2 short aframe ramps propped up against a low table, thereby taking away the apex! The table in between the 2 short ramps makes this set up ‘almost’ the length of the full regulation aframe. What do you think?
I also have a question about what you said on someone else’s post:
You said that with a BC sized dog, if you are running them across a 12 foot long plank, that their front feet hit the ramp first, then ultimately their front feet hit again somewhere near the contact, and then the rear feet often ‘overreach’ the entire contact zone, making it difficult to get rear foot hits (I’m paraphrasing your comment here). Do I have this correct? So is it not a good idea, if you were wanting to train a RDW with a BC sized dog, to practice with 12 foot long plank only, for too long? You should do 2/3 of a dog walk to prevent this, and try to get 2 rear feet?
Just want to make sure I understand that correctly.
Also -- I have a question on cik/cap… Can I post/send you some video about that? And if so, where should I put it? I don’t necessarily want to mess up the RC class! 🙂
LMK what you think re: this video’s setup…
Actually I said that if a BC size dog hits the plank with front feet first (especially if it’s not at the very beginning of it), their normal fully extended next stride would take them so far they would miss the contact area completely, so they learn to shorten it some and hit the contact with front feet, but because of shortening the stride, the momentum pushes them in an overreach. As the contact looks good, people often jackpot that and then get an overreach also on real DW and the dog only knows to either hit the contact with front feet or, when front feet are too high -- but hind feet would be nicely in -- they overreach and miss the contact completely. That’s at least what I think happened to some of the BCs in this class who are overreachy. I never had this problem before, with my students, probably because we don’t work on flat plank so long + we start with younger dogs (but only train them twice a week) who have somewhat shorter stride, so they don’t need to shorten it to be in. AND, my planks are actually 13 feet as they’re FCI length and that length allows some BC females to do 5 strides DW (Bu does 5, Bi does 3 or 4, but she is unusually long-strided 🙂 ) anyway.
And yes, to avoid that, I think it’s better not to stay on flat any longer as getting nice running and work on hits as such in the process of raising the plank. When raised with a table, they usually don’t go so far with front feet that they would need to shorten the next stride OR, if they do, you can always change the set up (use double table or up ramp or yes, 2/3 of DW). Facing the shorter US DWs now, I’m actually more&more fan of using a low DW as soon as we get nice running.
Anyway, your new set up is good as it gives you hind feet separation. Real A-frame will still require somewhat different striding, but running as such is the first important thing to work on, so this is definitely good practise for him. you next set up can be adding another, smaller object, to raise it some and make a table area smaller so that it looks a little bit more like A-frame, but still not too much 🙂
And sure, you can send your cik&cap video, the best is to post it under “our training -- cik&cap”.
Ok, thanks for your answers. I still have to ponder the above, it takes some imagining for me to completely understand, but this is totally fascinating, and I do want to learn about the DW as well, as I have a 7 year old bitch who, while at the moment is injured, but once she’s healthy, I want to try to teach her a RDW, as her current DW is horribly slow, she ended up going through FOUR different stopping methods, poor thing! She doesn’t have a clue what to do on it now. It would make her much more competitive, as she’s not the speediest thing, being usually about 3-5 seconds slower than the fastest times, but alot of that is the slow DW. She has a very nice running aframe, which I didn’t train, it just evolved, after she healed after tearing her ACL.
Anyway -- I will raise the table height some (though not sure how I can make the table area apear smaller, unless you have any ideas)?? However, in this am’s session, he still only does 2 hits when he’s doing ‘down’ the hill (the first direction in the video above). He only does 3 hits when he is going ‘up’… But perhaps raising it will help that…
We’ll get it!!
Thanks again!
I know, that explanation was a little more complicated as I wished for too 🙂 But I think the more videos you watch, the more sense it will make 🙂
Anyway, what I was thinking to do was to put another object on that table that is shorter, so there will be less room between one and another ramp -- but I have no idea what would be a good, non-slippery object that you could use for that purpose…
I think I’m getting it 🙂 I’m pretty technical, so keep em coming!! Amy and I have hit on how to make it narrower, I can picture it now.. in effect, ‘gradually’ bringing the two ramps together by making a table ‘narrower’. Right now, my table is 3 feet by 3 feet. If I can find/make a table 3 feet by 2 feet or 3 feet by 1 foot, then the ramps will start to get closer to a ‘real’ apex! Amy was going to look for something, and I have a very handy student who I explained the problem too, and she is going to try to come up with something also! Very interesting!!
Here’s today’s video.. same set up.
Exactly. However, it would be good to switch to normal length ramps once the table gets more narrow.
Yep, I get it…
Here is my first session with same set-up but I have raised it to the height of a full height table
Thoughts?
Somewhat more leapy and less hind feet separation as before… So work some more on that set up to get more equal striding.
Ok, I had a 2nd session of this same same set-up as above, this am (video to come). Here’s what I’m noticing (which may not be apparent in the videos):
Thrill’s Set-Up location: When he’s about 10 feet away (i.e., not coming with a huge amount of speed), he does 3 hits, and usually has a nice aframe, rear fit in.
If I give him a bit more room to get up more speed, he will usually do 2 hits (one stride), and miss.
I’m concerned that I’m actually asking him to ‘slow down’, in order to get 3 hits on this set-up above, as when he is really running, he seems to only want to do 2 hits only, as the set-up is still quite low. But when the apex moves higher, I *will* really need him to be moving fast, and with lots of power, so that he powers over the apex far enough for that 3rd hit to be front feet just above the yellow, so that the rear feet come down *in*, correct? So am I teaching him to slow down to get 3 hits in, on this low set up?
Would increasing the angle get me my 3 hits (still with some kind of table, no apex in the middle?)
Bad Throws: Another thing not totally apparent in the videos: if I don’t PERFECTLY, he leaps… sometimes I’m not perfect (God forbid!) 🙂 If I’m a tad early, i.e., wubba, starting to stop, he leaps… Or if I throw too high, which sometimes happens, then he leaps…
Is this something that he just has to figure out? I feel like I’m REALLY jackpotting the good ones now… but I don’t really see him making adjustments, when things aren’t *perfect*, such as a slightly high or early throw….
Anyway -- am I overanalyzing? Is what I said above making sense? Appreciate if you can clarify… or just re-affirm that he needs to learn to think through these things…
I’ll post 2nd vid of this same set-up tonight.. it’s not better than 50% though…
I think in order to get the wanted 3 hits, we need a normal length A-frame. I wouldn’t go higher for now as he was leapy in your last video and more angle gave us even more leaps, so… Maybe lower would actually be better idea in case the successful rate doesn’t go up. I also don’t like that he is so sensitive about timing of your throw considering for how long you’ve been doing it so I would try to first get him less dependant on it -- once you get good running back (so not yet) start to vary the timing a little first and then more&more. OR, if he drives to tunnels well, you could try running him into a tunnel instead and throwing only after (and only for good hits).
Here is the 2nd session same set up as above:
Still leapy.
I just came in from the 3rd session, have to jump in the shower for work, but it’s even worse 🙁 I’m embarrassed to post it! 🙁
So, in response to your advice above:
Yes to regulation aframe ramps, I’m really bummed I don’t have them yet… hopefully this week. 🙁
It looks like I need to go lower, which I will do… and work to desensitize him to my throwing.
Also this morning I tried to ‘place’ the toy on the ground far away… Leap, leap, leap, every time…
I have a question re: running him into a tunnel: what is the sequence? I can send him to a tunnel off of a verbal while I am stationary, but I need to say it ‘while’ he’s on the frame… otherwise, he looks at me, as he was not given direction as to where to go next. I played with trying to send him to a tunnel this am as well, with a verbal, and it engendered leaping… 🙁
Should I run with him, to get him to go to tunnel, and then only say ‘tunnel’ when he gets the contact?
I am still working on his tricks, to try to increase his awareness… he is having alot of difficulty putting all four feet in not even a not very small box… he can do a laundry basket. I haven’t posted video yet because I haven’t gotten to even a large bowl yet… So I really am working the tricks too, I promise!! 🙂
Yeap, it’s definitely too early for a static toy, but do start to vary when you throw some. I would also try the tunnel again (and yes, you need to say it when he is still on A-frame -- and you can run with him), but on another, easier set up. No hurry to get to full height before he gets independent from the toy anyway… Knowing this problem, it would actually be my first focus, so I would go back to the previous set up and focus on that part now.
Hi Silvia: I appreciate these comments. I would have progressed faster with Tai -- who is quite long-strided — if I had moved to a full DW sooner and added height quicker and been able to spot the overreach sooner! It’s been an interesting journey!!
Anne
Yes, Anne, I was thinking of Tai when Silvia posted her comment, which is why I asked my followup question above, as after I got to meet Tai, I realized that he was about the same size as Thrill, and I was starting to see Thrill doing that on a 12 foot plank only… as he got faster… : front feet landing at the beginning, then they were not in the contact, then he was off, without ever touching, which maybe on a 13 foot board, we might not see. Again, I was only messing around with a 12 foot plank, while I have been waiting for my refurbished aframe to be completed (yeah, it should be done today!!), as my aframe I use for classes as wheel supports welded onto it, so it couldn’t be laid flat…
Anyway -- this has really been fascinating, and I’m learning alot!
Yeah, Tai sure taught me a lot too because as I said, from the reasons above, I didn’t really meet this problem before (o.k., once, but the reason was different). But seeing Tai and now some new BCs in this class sure taught me an important lesson. Thank you for your patience!
Thank-you for all your support!
Here is today’s work: I went back to carpet to get him running and to try to get him to run to tunnel… he seems to slow down a bit on the approach to it.. was surprised to see that. One question: When do I throw the toy, and me throwing it is the ‘jackpot’ for a good hit, correct? The tunnel just represents the ‘reward’, is that the way I should practice?
Then we went back to the same ramps (still don’t have mine back yet) with the lower table, and we did have decent success on that. All the throws were pretty good, except the last one was high, and it appeared to me that he made a big effort to run and not leap…
Exactly, the tunnel is there to pull him forward, instead of a toy, and he only gets a toy for nice running now -- for leaps, you just call him back and redo. You can try it with a low table -- A-frame set up now, he sure is running nicely his last tries on a video.
Here’s another session on the low table… Also -- it appears that my vids have reappeared… ? Weird, they really weren’t there earlier, Amy couldn’t find them either, but at least they are back now!
Also -- good news! MY REAL regulation AFrame is back!!! I’ll set up the ramps tomorrow on the low table…
Cool! Now let’s see how it looks like into the tunnel.
Whoops! Didn’t see your comment until after tonight’s session.
Here is our first time on new aframe back! Same low table. I started off try to run him into tunnel, since I’d only done that a few times on the carpet, he was confused, and didn’t really go to the tunnel (even though I told him too), and he was also looking at me… I went back to throwing the wubba, and he ended well, I think!
I’ll work on getting him to run to tunnel next session, and throw toy for jackpots..
Here is latest tricks: Is the sides of the box I’m using at the end too tall?
Yeap, nice hits when throwing, but yes, getting rid of throwing would be my major focus now. Try sending to a tunnel and throwing after without an A-frame first, then maybe start him on the table and send to tunnel and then do the whole thing. Interesting that he finds box trick so difficult… Normally, this height should be o.k., but you can try if something lower would be easier.
Here is 2nd session same setup to tunnel, I was pleased with this session!
3rd session same set-up: not too excited about this one..:(
Thoughts?
I think that’s not too bad, his hind feet separation is definitely much better now and his striding will still change a lot once we make the A-frame higher and create an apex and as long as we can keep him running, he should be o.k. To avoid not taking the tunnel problem, another set up you could try is curved tunnels on both sides and then running back and fourth, so that he still gets the reward of running forward every time, but is jackpotted with a toy for nice hits only.
Ok, makes sense… I can try that also…
Tonight’s session (will upload after I teach tonight) shed some light onto his ‘not going into the tunnel’… He seems to have more difficulty going into tunnel when he’s on my left… for some reason.. the first video of going into tunnel was him on my right, then I switched sides, and he got a bit unsure. Tonight I started with him on my right: much more confident running, and I didn’t even need to tell him ‘tunnel’, then in the same session, I switched sides, and he started to not go into tunnel again… so for whatever reason, he has some sort of side preference for me.. and going into tunnels… we will work on it, and going into both tunnels as you suggest….
Thanks!
Here’s the video where I swapped sides mid session:
Interesting problem with sides, but the good news is he is definitely leaping much less now! Maybe you can raise the table just a little bit now?
Hi -- I haven’t posted in awhile, due to tons of rain, being sick and computer issues. I’ve had to remake several movies 🙁 But I wanted you to see them in order:
Here’s a session I did on 9/28 before I saw your suggestion to raise table slightly. I didn’t think it was too bad:
This next session on 9/30 was on raised table by one brick height: NOT very successful. 🙁
Here’s Thrill finally getting 4 feet into a bowl!
Here is my first video of him running between 2 tunnels. I was really excited at how well he did! I relied on someone else to click, and made a big effort to just run and not look at him, as he had been looking at me so much.
Here is our 2nd session, same set-up. Not so good 🙁 lots of leaping 🙁 Some things that were different: nighttime, no one to help, so I had to watch, so he often looked at me, and I had moved the wings away some. I also noticed I wasn’t running as strongly ‘through’ each down ramp as the 10/5 video, not sure if that contributed or not.
I have 2 more videos of this same set-up that I’m having computer problems getting a movie made: the 3rd session was actually fairly ok, 4th session, more leaps, but better than 2nd session above.
Should I keep working like this?
The class is on break. I’ll be reviewing the videos again after 19th October, so please send fresh videos then, I won’t be commenting the old ones as many things can change in two weeks.
Hi Sylvia
Here are some clips from a session we had last week, towards the end unfortunately so the dogs were a bit tired. I included some turns with Shim, Inks (white head) are all fairly straight. I think I rewarded all bar one of Shim’s turns that was too high.
What do you think? Some of Ink’s hits were a bit high for my liking, but her feet were always separate, and she was hitting lower earlier in the session when she wasnt tired.
Also, wanted to show you Shim’s last AF at the last trial..it was a miss. This is what generally happens when she misses, the first stride is too short so the 2nd is too. It was a bad set up for us, with the table right before it and minimum distance, not much space for run up speed! The DW was a miss or near miss too..that much turn was too much for us (hard in novice!)
Thanks
Kriszty
Yes, those 90 degrees turns with nothing in front can be problematic. Definitely something you need to do in trainings sometimes too. -- Not only in DW training situation with just a DW and a jump set up, but within a course as such, it’s harder. For A-frame, I wouldn’t worry, Bi was sometimes very close to missing at the beginning too, but is now always nicely in. But -- was it because of that particular situation or she always had hind feet together on A-frame?
You training video is mostly black, but yes, the tries I can see look good, you can slowly add more challenges, like putting it in real courses, going into a corner of the ring, many options after DW etc. -- all of those can be challenging.
Hi Sylvia
Not sure what you mean by the training vid was mostly black..I can see it OK? The resolution isnt great, but unfortunately thats the camera once I slow it down.
Yes I think her back legs are mainly together on the AF- is this a problem for the AF too? I didnt realise we were supposed to be rewarding for split legs on the AF..I will have to go back to the beginning if so!
Thanks
Kriszty
Interesting, I can see your video only till 1:25, then all I see is black screen with an exception of three normal-speed runs that I see in between the blackness… And yes, split legs are better for an A-frame too as it gives you more chances that at least one leg is in 🙂 I don’t worry about it if the dog is always in anyway, but it can certainly help with dogs who are often at the limit. My dogs all do it with split feet -- without any training for it, though.
Thats very odd re the vid, not sure why you cant see it.
With the AF- if the dog is doing hind feet together hits how would you go back and retrain for split? By starting on a low AF and only rewarding splits?
And- another Q. I am hoping to have 4 cues on the DW eventually- go on (RDW straight), Go turn (RDW turn to the R not more than 90 degrees), Go back (same but to the L) and target (2020). Firstly do you think it is reasonable to have so many cues and 2nd WHEN would you cue them? On the approach? Or later up the DW? When I cued to the approach before I got Shim backing off a lot..but this might have been lack of confidence. If I cue late, then I get a faster performance, but I dont want to cause them not to trust me.
Thanks
Kriszty
Well, that’s sure many cues! 🙂 Do they know turn and back directionals already? If yes, then I would definitely use it for DW too. If not, I would probably go with just one turn cue. That way or another, I do believe they can learn and understand it all, dogs are very smart and if each behaviour is properly trained, there should be no confusion. -- Well, to avoid it, you do need to be fair and say your cues soon enough. Maybe not necessarily on the approach, but definitely as they reach the horizontal plank. Some dogs are o.k. with some cheating, but you don’t want to do it too often.
Yes they both know ‘turn’ and ‘back’ already..mind you I do use it like your cik and cap, so not exactly the same thing (ie I tend to use it mainly on wraps).
Would you go back to dropping the AF down to mark split feet?
Just broke my hand (by falling over Ink!) so might not be able to train for a bit but will try.
Thanks
Kriszty
Sorry, forgot the A-frame question, but yes, I would try lower A-frame and see if you can get split feet there if you never get it on full height o that you could mark it there… The only problem is that low A-frame often gives you lots of flying over apex and no real running, so in case you get that, you can look at some of Anne&Thrill set-ups (with teh table) on how to make an apex less obvious and less tempting to fly over.
And well, I’m not sure if you want to use your collecting/wrap-around-something word for 90 degrees turns off the DW?
Hi Silvia
Another Q- managed to do some training last night, not taped, but I had a question about dogs falling off the DW. My young dog, Ink, fell off AGAIN last night, despite the DW being rubber. When she doesnt fall off, she seems to be loosing her balance a lot/slipping, mainly on the horizontal plank. She is going fast but not excessively so. I have done lots of body awareness stuff with her and she is really pretty good, turns round fast on the board without falling off etc etc. Any thoughts? I am concerned she is going to injure herself..not sure if this is something she just has to work through.. No access to good small DW unfortunately.
Kriszty
It used to happen to Bi a lot when she was just starting, but then went away completely with more experience. Of course, it would be safer to gain that on low DW, but… Another tactic would be to train many extreme approaches to DW as it takes the speed away and falls are less likely to happen, but it does require to think about keeping all feet on. By extreme angles I think sending the dog on from the opposite end of DW, so they need to run all the way back and then turn sharply. To prevent climbing on from the side, you can again use a pole. I did lots of it with Bi (when training her left turns that are causing us trouble…) and it really helped her to understand how to stay on that plank better.
Hi Silvia and Classmates.
We had our first sessie on a other plank! Benji was great.
i send him on a tree and he run forward to his toy when i was behind… verry clever dog ! i’m proud!
i do always a sessie of 5/6 times because Benji is not also motivated on the end 😉
Yeap, looks good also on a plank! Do some more sessions like that and then raise it some. I’m sure his speed and motivation will keep going up and you’ll soon be able to do somewhat longer sessions too. For now, keep it short and try to do as many sessions as possible.
I am transporting equipment so planks must fit into my car and trying a fenced tennis court for safety purposes with the puppy. Here is a new arrangement: a 5 foot plank leaning on a 4 foot table. I put the carpet over both to make it more familiar and make the transitions nicer for her feet. I am just starting to try an elevated plank.
Cool, that might work for such a small dog. As you raise it some more, you will need something longer though, I think… Definitely not easy when you need to transport everything somewhere!
I have two six foot planks (they are actual width of DW board) connected by hinges so they can be folded and put in my car. This 12 foot plank is more narrow than the short plank in my current video. It is the size of the regular DW plank (length and width) when unfolded. Judging from what you see, should I go ahead and use this 12 foot plank now? Or stay with this shorter, wider plank for a while? Thanks!
I think she shouldn’t have any problems with more narrow plank, so yes, let’s try that next.
I had something happen yesterday in my RC training that I thought I would share with my classmates. I raised my planks to the height of a low agility table. I put both dogs into the tunnel as I had been doing previously. Eli ran great. He was in the yellow deeper than he had been when the plank was on the ground with great rear feet separation. Liberty on the other hand missed every try. She flew off the plank right above the yellow with very leapy exits. After 4 tries I stopped, went inside and looked at tape. I noticed that when she was jumping onto the table, it was causing her stride to be off when she got on the plank which was causing the early leap. I put a plank (8 feet long) on the upside of the table and this seems to have fixed the problem. Not sure why the small jump onto the table caused her stride to be so far off but it did.
Happy Training!
Melanie, Eli and Liberty
Yes, changing a set up can do wonders. Of course, you eventually want them to be able to do necessary adjustments on any set up, but at this point, we’re still trying to help. In lesson 2, we start to challenge them gently -- only that much that successful rate can stay high.
I had an interesting session with Spur. It seems he needs to learn to work into “nothing”. The leap at the trial was basically into nothing, into an open corner of the ring and the next obstacle was off a bit, a chute, but the whole corner was empty of obstacles.
Yesterday’s session I ran him into “nothing”. Big open field out ahead. At first I placed a chute barrel, no fabric, about 20 meters out. Going back towards the house and into the course he was fine, but lots of leaps going into “nothing”. What is not on this movie are two more reps at the end where he was deep in with three strides and definitely into nothing I removed the chute barrel after the break, but they came out so blurry I deleted them. So, at the end of this session he did do three reps deep in the contact. I guess I need to do some more sessions like this with him going into “nothing”?
Thanks! Amy and Little Spur
Hey Amy, Silvia and everyone! Since we took this video at my house and I got to watch the session, I wanted to mention that we were also concerned that the DW being placed really close the house, when Spur was going left to right…. may have put pressure on him causing him to ‘suck back’ a bit on his approach. He was doing the DW in 7 hits, but because he was sucking back on the approach, he was missing the contact. Later on, he did the DW in 8 hits, going that direction, which appeared to be safer?
Actually, Anne, I don’t think the house affected him that much. I don’t have his up ramp in slow motion, but when I watch that on my camera he lands about the same spot on the horizontal ramp no matter which way he was going so I don’t think the house affected his approach much at all. And if it did it should have caused MORE hits as he would have been slower, right? Instead, he was trying for those two on the down. I really think it had more to do with the big open space he was heading into and he wasn’t adjusting an adding that third one.
Interesting that going into nothing makes him want to go for 2 strides. Usually, the problem is keeping the same number of strides, but shortening them and ending too high. But well, if you got some good ones at the end, then you probably just need to practise it more often. How do you reward for the good ones?
At this stage I withhold the ball and food, if he leaps. If he runs it well I toss the ball and he returns it and gets a jackpot of food and big party. He focuses pretty well ahead since we were working with a tunnel after with ball tossed after the tunnel, so he’s pretty good about that and up until recently we were not having any leaps.
Good. To make going into nothing easier I usually sometimes still throw a toy in advance, but I’m not sure if it would help him, considering that he is not shortening but actually extending strides when going into nothing… Very strange. Try some different set ups too to see if that’s really his pattern.
Yeah, I just moved my home DW to make another “into nothing” set up and will try running him on that tomorrow.
This is the third time he has had trouble going into nothing, so it seems a little like a pattern? Remember back in June, I think it was, I sent in this video --
Even MORE nothing as this set up had a HUGE open field sloping down. This was his first time going into nothing and he did a little better in that after each leap his next try was good. But, every time going into the course was perfect.
It kind of makes sense to me, into nothing he opens up and wants to extent. Going into the course he has the pressure of the obstacles ahead and has to think a little more about his next “plan”.
I’ll try a couple different set ups and see if it continues. Although, hopefully he will learn to handle it and make his adjustments. 😀 He’s a pretty smart, thoughtful little guy. He wants to be right.
Maybe, if that’s the pattern, then you might not want to reward by throwing a toy into nothing, but the opposite: always only rewarding after the next jump. I do that with Bi as throwing a ball right after makes her want to go for 3 strides and I prefer 4…
Hi Silvia
Here is our latest video. I am happy to report that Maia is doing very, very well. She is running the full dog walk over the driveway and hill. Today, I started running with her a little too and she still did very well. I’m at an agility trial this weekend, so I will not be able to practice until Monday. What do you think our next step should be? I cannot add an obstacle infront of the DW because there is no room where it is located right now. I’d have to move the entire set up to the field, which I can do. I can however, add an obstacle after the dog walk (I had a tunnel there most practices so far)
Thank you,
Looks Awesome Ania!!
Thank you. It’s been a long time to get to this point with her. But when I see her run and how much she just loves it, I know all the work will be worth it in the end 🙂
Yes, Ania, I bow to your patience and perseverence!! You sure have hung in there and things are finally looking GREAT!! Awesome job! You will be more proud having put in this much time. So much fun to watch!!
Amy and Little Spur
You sure earned a persistence award!!! But yes, the smile on their face is well worth it!
Great! I would stay on the hill a little longer, but raise it some more by putting some objects under it. To me, it looks like you could also add another obstacle before DW if you moved it to the side some (so that she needs to turn for 90 degrees after taking the jump to get to DW) -- not sure if she is ready for that or it will give us air again, but you can definitely try and remove it if it gives you two airy tries in a row. Good luck at the trial!
We’ve been missing in action the past two weeks 🙁 Had some breaks in our training schedule, so we missed about a week and a half of plank training time. We’re back now, so we will be working more frequently! Here is video from our last three training session. He is starting from a tunnel about 15 feet before the tables, then running through jump wings about 15 feet after the plank…then I toss a his toy to reward.
I think the set up takes him too far down the plank sometimes, and that is when we get the big leaps. It seems like the farther away he jumps on the table, the more successful he is.
Yeap, flying an apex definitely won’t be a good idea with him. I think his end striding will have to be hitting a down ramp with hind feet first, that’s why I would like to go to a low DW soon. As a “in between” step, you could maybe set up something like 2/3 of a DW, so that he still jumps on a table and then runs first horizontal and then down ramp… That will give him more room for stride adjustments. If that goes well, you could then try a low DW again.
Here are videos of a session we did tonight with 2/3’s of the dogwalk and a table at the start. We tried different starting positions to see if we could find on the would be more successful. Watching the videos I see there are some the probably shouldn’t have been rewarded, it was harder for me to see when I was behind.
If I remember right from conversations before, I think you’ve said one’s close to 6 is what we are looking for??
I was also noticing that he was starting to look at me, instead of the jump after the dogwalk, so I started going back to a stationary toy.
Not sure if I should continue working with this set up or try something new? I think you suggested adding an up ramp to our previous table and plank set up.
Hm, well, if that was your first session on this height, you can maybe do a couple of more and see what’s the trend… If his successful rate doesn’t raise, go back to the last successful set up and then only add an up ramp yes…
We have done three more session on the 2/3 dogwalk and table set up. We tried different starting points. Either him starting on the table and running to a stationary toy. Him starting on the table, and I got stand out past the plank and recall him to a toy. Or starting with the tunnel and running to a stationary or thrown toy.
After reading other people’s posts I started recognizing that when he starts on the table, it seems like he is shortening his stride and often ends up with even feet hits. I don’t know if it is a better option to try and get him extending as much as possible….we tried that the beginning of session 3…starting with the tunnel and throwing the toy. Good split feet hits That take him closer to the end, but still just at the top of the yellow.
Not sure which option is better to work on.
Yeap, starting from the tunnel looked better… -- but still higher as I would wish for… It’s really weird what good hits we can get with a table-plank set up and how impossible it is to get it on any other set up… He is showing many different stridings here and yet he always finishes with hind feet real high and hardly reaching over front feet… Another set up idea would be a full, but very low DW… I would also start teaching him turns on the plank, just to see if maybe that gives him a better idea of how important it is to get all the way down…