Time for a new lesson! And a "catch-up break" 🙂 With every class, we do a two weeks break for those who got somewhat behind to catch up and for those who are on schedule to give a dog a little break from plank running. I'll be answering your questions till Tuesday 4th October night and then again after 14 days, from 19th October morning again. Please don't post your videos during this time, I won't be reviewing old videos as things can change in 2 weeks.
If you're behind, make sure to complete lesson 1 before you start with lesson 2 and that you complete lesson 2 before starting with lesson 3 - you can't jump steps, there is a reason I'm giving you this assignments in the order that I do!
1. switch to a static toy, position it at the bar of a jump with a bar on the ground. The jump should be straight forward after the plank, about 7m away. The goal is the dog starts to look for a jump, knowing the toy is there. Occasionally, still throw a toy in advance, but mostly, have it there. When the dog already knows where it is, put a jump bar very low and a toy behind it (close after it, but far enough that the dog can land normally). Keep it there long enough that the dog is expecting it there. When you see the dog is pulling well towards the jump, knowing the toy is there, stop leaving the toy there and throw it after you click the contact, so that the dog gets it after the jump.
The goal is to switch from a static toy that is there as a target for the dog to focus him forward to a jump as a target to focus the dog forward and a toy as a reward we throw AFTER we see the contact is good. You need to be pretty quick as you don't want the dog to wait for the toy - so quick that I sometimes throw it before I realize the contact was actually not THAT good - but it gets easier 🙂 I guess this step will finally make everybody worried about rewarding leaps happy as now, you can withhold the toy for unsuccessful tries. HOWEVER, make sure the dog successful rate is high for this step as otherwise, you can loose the speed and get the dog checking back with you if you're throwing a toy or not. The same can be dangerous if you're late throwing a toy.
This is usually an easy step for BCs who will run full speed in anticipation of the toy, but can be a very hard one for some other dogs. For Le, that was the hardest step. She was running beautifully if the ball was still rolling when she saw it, but if I threw it that early that it was already static when she saw it (or when I positioned it there), then she didn't extend well enough. What finally worked was going few steps back with height, exciting her a lot with a toy, throwing it at the jump and sending her quickly to the dog-walk. That made her striding good enough to continue long enough to have her look for the jump and then I quickly switched to a toy, thrown after the contact is done, over the jump. That temporary caused some checking back with me, so I needed to go back to a stationary toy again, but then she finally got the idea to keep running full speed towards the jump/tunnel and trust the toy will appear then 🙂 and that again gave me the beautiful striding I had before trying to get rid of a toy, thrown in advance.
If the transition to a stationary toy is too hard, another way to try to avoid that phase is to pretend you are throwing a toy in advance, but then only throw it after. OR, using a tunnel as a way to focus the dog forward and throw it after the tunnel - works great with tunnel crazy dogs, didn't work with Le. Try and report back if you have problems.
2. keep adding height. If you have an option, it's also time to try the real thing. If you don't ahve a low DW you can use a normal dog-walk with additional plank at the end. Start with down ramp only and then slowly put the dog further&further back until you run the whole dog-walk.
When trying this or any other, new variable, don't vary other variables - make it as easy for the dog to succeed as possible. You can also lower a criteria somewhat. Normally, your criteria about hits by now should already be to be deeply in the contact - but temporary, you can click for good tries on a limit too, IF hind feet are well separated and the dog is not leaping.
3. new trick: have a dog back up on something very low and preferably soft first (folded blanket, low pillow) - then slowly add height, so that they need to pick up their hind legs higher&higher. At the same time, you can teach a "pee trick": click for lifting the leg, searching for an object, before they touch it. Make sure to try to get leg lifts on both sides - they usually prefer to go up with the same leg, so try to sometimes position them somewhat diagonally in front of an object so that their preferred leg is too far from it to start with that one. Also try climbing stairs backwards and cavaletti backwards.
Have fun! I'll be back to answering on 19th October and will publish new assignments on 7th November, so you'll again have 3 weeks to work on this assignment in class form - and 2 additional weeks to either catch up or take a break 🙂
Silvia, Here are my recent sessions. The last one today (10/31) is of were I pushed the top of the DW out over the edge to make the down ramp steeper. It is now close to what it would be if the DW was set at full height. There is no where for me to add the up ramp on the ground.
Tomorrow morning I need to put the DW back together for my students in the afternoon.
Looks great! I would raise the apex some more and if he adjusts to it just as nicely as he did to those two changes, I guess you can try a real DW without a hill next again, at about half-height. Keeping the fingers crossed it goes well this time! A-frame is easy, I don’t start it flat but just somewhat lower from full height, but I prefer they run a real DW at at least at half height before, so I wouldn’t rush it.
Silvia,When training the Running A-Frame are we going to have to put it flat on the ground. When can I start training it. We will have snow here in the next 4 to 6 weeks.
Happy Halloween! Cooper gave me more tricks rather than treats today running our new beautiful aluminum rubberized plank. We seem to be going backwards a bit. Today I think our problem was he wasn’t running fast enough because his stride seems especially short? Maybe too distracted by all the squirrels in the yard?
Better today, same height no barriers and he stayed on the plank no problem. Got some lower hits today 🙂
Hm, yes, it didn’t start so well, but he was running really well towards the end with you in front and moving, so maybe just try more of that for now to get better striding. But hey, all his feet were grounded this time, that’s really cool!
And oh, only saw your second video now, but yes, he is actually running better as ever before, with just one ungrounded foot in the second video and nice separation! So keep working like this, just fix that plank better!!! It’s moving too much under him!
Hello Silvia,
here is our yesterday training. We made two sessions. And I raised the DW a little -- about 15 cm.
This time, she didn´t jumped few first sessions and so I needn´t backchain the dw. I mean she runs pretty well, she usually does 4 strides and often when she does it, she miss the contact. When she does 5 strides she hits the contact. In the second session she does 4 strides and she hits mostly. But I don´t mean she jumps -- I think she just doesn´t handle the striding. What to do with this? Just exercise?
And when is the right time to raise the DW a little? How many lessons like this we have to do? Will the striding be better when raised to full heigh?
In some tries she slows down -- to do the 2o2o. I realised it is mostly when I am too close to the contact -- when I am behind she runs full speed. And when she stops at the end then I need to throw the ball nex few tries. How can I eliminate the stopping at the end when I am close to the contact?
Looking forward to your answers and comments.
Vendula and Kiwi
Yeap, she is running nicely, but looks like she will indeed need 5 strides on full height, so maybe you can raise it relatively fast (by 15cm by the time, every two or three sessions if she is still running, not leaping and mostly in as more height will give you more strides. Still, it’s important for her to learn to adjust, so you can still do some work by starting her at different positions on DW sometimes, trying different approaches etc. If she tries 2on2off, don’t reward of course and it’s o.k. to then throw her a ball in advance for a few tries to help her be successful again. I think she reads your presence as a pressure to stop, so try to stay pretty far laterally when running with her and also throw a toy in advance in those cases if necessary.
Hi Silvia,
I posted this on page 6 but you may not have seen it so I am reposting. I need help.
I let the pups run over the A-frame today. As I looked at the video, I quickly realized that I don’t understand what to reward now. There are two behaviors now, crossing the apex and striding to the bottom. I cut my training short until I understand what to reward. HELP!
Snitch, I ran several times. He had several hits that I like as in #2,3,5,8. #6,7 are slow but not scary. If I take a lot of speed out of him by me walking, giving a short approach, no toy then he will walk or trot across the apex but I don’t like the walk, I want the enthusiasm. What do I reward and how do I help him get the speed, safe performance and correct striding.
Juice is just scary so I stopped at 4 reps. I’m sorry but I am a bit confused now. Thanks for your help.
Snitch
Juice
I replied earlier today, was away for trails for 3 days. Did you find my reply?
Hi again Silvia!
Now Ninja and me is back 🙂 We took a break and then we´ve worked our way up to full height.
This is Ninjas first session on full height:
His speed wasn´t as high, he often used five strides and there were some big leaps… But for the first time I think he seemed to think about what he was doing and tried to change his striding when he didn´t get his reward!? He slowed down of course… I was not happy about that 🙁
But we tried again the next day:
Now the speed was better! Until he missed some contacts and slowed down again. There were (too?) many frontleg-hits. And we need to work more on the up-contacts too.
Do you think I´ve raised the dw to quickly?
I think it’s o.k. to work on this height as he is still running nicely, no jumping and yes, he does seem more deliberate about his (front feet) hits and that’s definitely great, but I wish he could understand hind feet too as that would make things much easier for him and he wouldn’t need to slow down so much. Are you doing the hind feet awareness tricks too? Did you try socks on hind legs again, maybe something on his hind feet would bring his attention to them? Anyway, keep jackpotting hind feet in the contact and I would also reward somewhat high hits with one hind foot in high to see if we can get more of hind feet too.
Ninja knows lots of hindleg.-awerness-tricks. He can put all four feet in a small bowl,backing up on things and moving hindlegs around with fixed frontlegs etc. But he still doesn’t seem to think about them when he’s running… I’ll try the vetrap again. Is there any other trick you can think of that can make him work with his hindlegs when he’s in motion? Maybe I can teach him to limp or something 🙂 Don’t you think I should worry about his low speed and him using five strides now?
I think his 5 strides pattern is connected to the fact that he thinks he needs to hit with front feet: he can’t get in with front feet if doing 4 strides. That’s why I would reward him for 4 strides tries that are somewhat higher as you would eventually want, but at least go in the right direction towards 4 strides. It’s of course great that he can do 5 strides if necessary (ugly approaches or exits), but I think you need to loosen the criteria some to get 4 strides and hind feet hits (meaning rewarding hind feet hits even when on the very limit of missing) -- if you insist on deep hits only, it will be hard to get him to go from front feet 5 strides hits to hind feet 4 strides hits as those require significantly more extension. And for that, he needs to think and worry about getting deep less and run more 🙂
And yes, you could also teach limping, hind leg dance (clicking for lifting one and another up in the air), cavaletti backwards, stairs backwards etc. -- practising tricks he knows already should help too to remind him of his back legs.
Hi again!
Yesterday Ninja fell of the dw on his second run. It looked awfull and I got really scared 🙁 But miraculously he wasn´t injured at all. However he didn´t want to run fast over the dw anymore…
Today we went to an other trainingfacility with a dw that´s not as slippery and I lowered it to make it less scary. The over all goal today was to make Ninja enjoy the running contacts-training again. And I think I was successful 🙂
He even made some good runs. But every time he didn´t get rewarded because he leaped over the contact, he slowed down and hit the contact with his frontlegs again.
I wonder if I should entirely stop rewarding those frontleg-hits (like in 1:4, 1:5, 4:5). I know that it´s good that he knows how to do that, but maybee I could stop rewarding frontlegs just for a short while?
Do you think I should have rewarded every run that ended with hindlegs, even if it was leaps over the contact (like in 2:1 and 4:4)?
We also trained some hindleg awareness 🙂
That 2on2off on a bar was too funny! But huh, what a scary fall off… Good that he is fine and running well again! I would keep rewarding front legs hits as it’s really good he knows how to do it and I wouldn’t want to risk loosing it. I would prefer risking some precision and reward misses when the striding is right. Maybe, the best way would be to still not click those (like 2:1 and 4:4), but let him have a toy and play some. What do you normally (on this video for example) do for misses -- recall from a toy or he can get it?
He doesn´t like to return with toys 🙁 So often I have to tell him to stop and go take away the toy. I think that´s why he gets a bit slow and hesitant after he´s missed a contact.
But in the beginning of the last session 4:1, 4:2 and 4:3 I let him run to a placed toy and jackpotted by throwing his favourite ball (before he got to the toy). He likes balls more than tugtoys. That way I could let him have the toy and play with him when he hits with frontlegs and jackpot the hindleghits.
I don´t know what to do when he leaps over the contact… That often happens when he is really engaged in the training and is running fast, eager to get his toy or ball. Somehow I would like to reward that, but then he might think that it´s okey to leap over the contact..? But I really don´t like it when he slows down after…
Yes, that’s what I thought, I agree that’s what makes him slower after missing the contact. So for now, to get more of 4 strides hind-legs hits, I would let him have a toy also for misses, when he is engaged and fast and has good hind feet separation, but is too high. But only reward with a ball too when he is in.
Silvia, I moved the top plank farther out over the edge of the hill and he did well. Started him on the low Dog Walk and he started to slow down and go into his 2o2o.
I think I’ll put away the camera so I don’t have worry about it and run with him so he knows that it’s OK to not have to stop. What do you think?
It looks great on a hill and the first session on a DW… Not sure what was different the second session? Are you throwing the toy at the same time as the first session? Your position seems different, I think he did better with you behind no? Try to recreate the first session and do at least 5 successful sessions like this before you add difficulties, to not confuse him and get the stopping again… He was running beautifully in the first session!
Silvia,I had not heard from you, so I just came in from running him with out taking video. I ran ahead and behind and he did not show any signs of slowing like yesterday. As far as I could see, all of his hits were good.
OK, I’ll run him 4 more sessions and video the last one as long as things are going good. Talk to you in a couple of days.
Bill
Great!!! Maybe it will be even easier as it looked like!
Hi Silvia,
I originally posted this quick video clip back in September. We both agreed that her issue isn’t the understanding of not to “leap” but she just doesnt extend her 2nd stride that much.
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Your advice was to get her to understand the importance of getting all the way down. We’ve been working on this and have changed up lots of variables and exits with VERY good success. Nice deep, rear feet seperation. Yet, when I go to add more height everything goes poorly again. Rear feet together; not extending that last stride. I just dont know what to do anymore. She still refuses to extend that 2nd stride (or atleast offer front feet hits; which she will do if the dw is lower also)
Seems like your video is private, but if I understand well, she is o.k. with all the difficulties on lower height (what height exactly is that?), but everything falls apart with more height -- what height? Did you try raising it slower? But I think I remember her not doing so well on low height and you raised it and it was better? Wasn’t it already good on your last video, on full height?
…last time trying video.
Hi Silvia, Are Jonina and Gin still doing RC in this class?
Jonina is taking a break. Because of the bad weather and bad training conditions.
She will start in the next RC Class.
Great, thank you Gitta, I am very glad she is ok, just missed her and Gin!
Spy crashed in the 1st class and my DW fell to pieces so i kind-of know how it is, Had to re -do my DW and very lucky now we have rubber on, very nice for Spy too to work on, no slipping, and long enough time for her to forget about her crash even though it took a while when we got started again to get her foot work nice again, so that is also why we are back in this RC11 class to carry on. Great happy training.