O.k., time for your first homework!
1. find a way to make your dog run as fast as he can, tape him from the side and study his striding in slow motion or even frame by frame: how far apart his hind feet are, how far forward hind feet reach over front feet, how long and high the stride is, how his back look like and where his head is: many people think you want low head for running contacts, but in fact, you want the head look exactly the same as when running full speed in the fields 🙂
2. have a dog run over the plank, tape him from the side and compare it with the video above - you can tape it at an angle you're currently at. If you're just starting, restrain the dog before your plank, carpet or whatever you're using, throw a toy and release. Slowly bring the dog further away from the plank to really have them come to the plank with full speed. You don't need to overdo the distance, especially if you have long plank/carpet, as finding the plank could be problematic or the dog before you add some more height on it. Mark anything that looks like running in the fields from the first video, jackpot when feet are close to the end of a plank/carpet. Don't forget to click it or at least mark it with your voice! I prefer clicking, but you can also first use a voice and start clicking later, when you know your dog's stride better and can predict it better.
As we already discussed in comments before, we're for now throwing a toy in advance, letting the dog chase it, in order to get full speed. So yes, the dog is rewarded every time with a ball - so make sure that you really make the best tries even more special, use excitement in your voice, a play of tug on his favourite toy or food if that's his real preference - in short: make a party about the really good ones and don't worry about not so good ones - just throw that ball again! 🙂
3. to make it easier for the dog to understand what you're clicking for on that plank, we'll be teaching some tricks that are the best to help them understand how to use their feet and that you might be clicking them for using them. The two things you will try this time is cavaletti work - walking the dog over drawers or boxes on the floor - and teaching the dog to step with front feet on an object and clicking for any movements of hind feet: the final goal is a full circle in both directions, but first click even for just a weight shift and then go from there.
Post a video with all 3 assignments, first two also in slow motion please! This is a good check-up for those who are already running their dogs on a raised plank and a good stride-study that will help you see and mark the correct striding better for those just starting.
Also, read through the comments and see the videos in introduction page, you can learn a lot through videos and comments of others. Once you see your dog is running nicely, with an even stride, hind feet separation and hind feet reaching further from front feet (see discussion and video on that we had in comments!), you can put a brick or something under one end of the plank and have them run over slightly elevated plank - I'll tell you when you're ready based on the videos you'll send.
Left front foot just left the ground, hind feet reaching forward - this is what I mean by hind feet reaching over where the front feet were.
And this is what I mean by hind feet separation: hind feet hitting two different spots as far apart as possible (vs. staying parallel, hitting the same spot).
Opps not sure what happened there…. Trying again 🙂
Megan
Looks great! It was good to not reward the first one, at this point of the process, you are of course selecting for nice, deep hits. Time for the next height!
Really… 😀 Cool thanks!!
Laura with your Phalene …
I have the same kind of difficulties with my terrier border !
I even inpress unless they separate the legs when they give more power?
it’s very difficult to see !!
Hi Newz, I only noticed this now 🙂 I agree it is so hard with the little legs and when they don’t go ahead of you! I would think border terriers have more drive but then again lots of papillons have plenty of drive, my fella is from show kennels, his parents are all crufts champs, this might have been our first mistake 🙂 But I don’t mind, I still have fun working with him, he can be quite a little character when he wants, but sometimes agility training can be more frustrating and a challenge but for the stage I’m at in my life I need a dog that was easier to live with too as we may have a very busy few years ahead of us 🙂 He is a dream ‘pet’ dog, we can’t have it all ways I guess!
C’est pour avoir un rebord en bout de planche plus fin, sans mettre le bip … (c’est vrai que si elle a le bip et la récompense en sautant ça sera pas bien !)
Je vais essayer et comme elle est plus claire que ma planche je verrai peut être mieux les pattes de Fluff !
I can put the electronic mat just to have a thin edge at the end of the plank, without putting in motion the beep … I’ll try! and its color is cleire I can see better Fluff paws !
Hi Silvia:
Just a question about rewarding… When I watch others videos, it’s often hard to tell if the toy has been thrown or is static and how far from the bottom the toy reward lands. Static vs thrown — my dog Tai drives nicely to a static toy (I worked hard on this since puppyhood!). And while I’m practicing, I’m terrible at throwing long and straight so for now I can be much more accurate to place the toy. So…ok to use a static toy? I’m just going from the carpet to the flat plank (video posted yesterday)
Distance from plank…far enough that the dog won’t pounce but not so far that they think they will always drive 30 ft from bottom of DW? Someday they will have to turn 🙂
Thx -- Anne & Tai
Yes, sure, it’s o.k. to use a static toy if you get the same speed. Still, just to be sure, I would throw it here and there, just to check how the dog is running when really excited. When I go to a static toy, I place it at the jump with the bar on the floor that is at normal distance away from the plank -- 6m or so. Once the dog is really searching for a jump, I put a bar very low and a toy on the other side, so it actually is pretty far. It’s definitely better too far as too close 🙂 Anyway, we’ll get there. We’ll also address the turns, that’s another exercise.
This is our training from yesterday, We are working on pivotting just one side.
How do you see us? I guess we are getting better about running, How many more training sections do you think we should do before raise the plank?
thanks
Well, I would definitely go for at least 5 good sessions on flat board before raising the plank. What you should strive for are the tries just as the last one on a video! I hope you jackpotted it, that one was perfect! Do work on pivoting to both sides!!!
Yes!!! I jackpotted that last try, but some others too 😉 This is realy dificult for me, but I´m happy and having so much fun and I think Acqua too 🙂
This is a video from our training today, on weekends I have more free time so I try to do 3 training section if the weather is good, we are having so much rain 🙁
How do you see us? Thanks 🙂
You don’t need to post every session 🙂 Just keep working until you see good running only and then add a little bit height. Anyway, you sometimes throw too late, try throwing as early as on 12 in 1st session for example. Nice work with the cavaletti! For pivoting, try helping less with your hands! -- The more you help, the less she thinks about what hind feet are doing!
Sorry 😉 I just wanted to make sure we are working on the right direction so me and Acqua can improve
I have a question: once the dog understands exactly what to do, then it will not matter the starting point it will always make its first stride steping on the same place on the plank?
In today’s section I see that when her first stride is in a certain point it goes well but when it is before or after that point, its last stride is not that deep.
Thank you
If works that way, what happen when the plank’s lengh changes?
See my reply to Dawn -- we had exactly that conversation. In short: yes, once you have an understanding and experience, the dog will be adjusting the stride as needed (Bi for example does the dog-walk in either 3, 4 or 5 strides, depending on the entry and exit) -- but it’s still a long way to there and we need to start somewhere 🙂
Hi Silvia, this is my last training session, first video with cavaletti work and pivoting; I raised a litte bit the ladder, I´m locking for boxes to do cavaletti work with diferent distances. Pivoting is now with less help.
The second video with plank work, I raised a litted bit heigth, I don´t know if I jackpotted too much 😉
thanks for your suggestions
Great job with the tricks!!! The plank work is going great too, the hits with both front legs at the end are o.k. too, it was o.k. to jackpot those. With a raised plank, you did jackpot some that were somewhat higher as wanted, but it’s no big deal, it’s sometimes hard to decide without the video 🙂 She is sure running nicely now. Some more sessions on this height and then off to the next one! 🙂
Hi Silvia, I´m little worried because Acqua in last sessions is moving up in the air more than before 🙁
I tried to star from diferent distances, when I found one that works good I keeped but Acqua sometimes jumped too.
What Should I do? Is there something that I´m doing wrong?
Thanks for your help 🙂
Strange, it’s a sign she doesn’t run that fast as she used to… Maybe something happned on the plank? That she stepped to the edge or it was bouncy or something and is not sure anymore she wants to run there? Maybe you can give her a break for a few days and then try again and see what will the trend be, if we can get rid of it on that height and plank or need to go lower with wider plank…
Hi, Silvia.
Meet my sweet Callie 🙂 !!! It’s been a long road to recovery for her…feels good to be working with her again.
Here is Callie’s first homework video. I’ll have to get footage of the fast running tomorrow at a field. She is running on a wide carpet (42″). Next time I film, I’ll take note of which ones I restrained or just released from start position. I was tossing first and then releasing so when I had really bad tosses I could just leave her on a stay while I retrieved the toy for another attempt.
She just started circling one direction so we are starting to work on the other.
Looks great! No big deal if she sometimes runs at the side, don’t worry. The good news is that she is definitely running! Since she is a retrain though, I would keep her on a carpet for at least 7 sessions or so, just to make her understand the game “run to the ball over something” -- and then put on a plank on a carpet so that it ends where the carpet ends. Nice pivoting!
Thanks! Just to clarify and plan ahead/ get materials…when we add the plank, do I add an A-frame size board? Is it the flat board stage or elevating stage that I need to decide for sure if we are going for the running dog-walk?
We will also have a 24″ wide board for Da Vinci as you recommended. So, Callie can run on A-frame size, 24″ or a dog-walk plank. What do you recommend for when she gets to that stage?
You will need to decide as soon as we add some height as you’re doing that differently with A-frame as the dog-walk. But plank work won’t hurt for A-frame either, so I would recommend to do at least few heights as if you’re going for running dog-walk too. For that, you can use dog-walk ramp OR the wider plank you’ll have for Da Vinci, it doesn’t matter if it’s wide, the important thing is that it’s long enough for elevating.
Ok. I’ll just have her run the 24″ or dog-walk plank when we add height since I’m pretty sure we will go for both running A-frame and dog-walk (while keeping the 2on-2off behavior also for dog-walk). If we get to the elevated plank stage and decide differently, I can go out and buy materials for A-frame only work. Does that sound reasonable to you? If we go for running dog-walk, we don’t need A-frame materials at home, just access to one later in the process? Is that correct?
Thanks. Seems I have boards coming out my ears and none of them are what we need at the moment. 🙂
Exactly. Good luck with the planks!
While reviewing Da Vinci’s video from carpet running today, I noticed that I got the most hind feet separation when leaving him in a stay, positioning myself a little more than half way down the carpet and throwing as he is approaching. Before that, I was mostly restraining…he was driving toward the ball, but not as much separation. I’m guessing I should keep working with both restraining and recall situations, but jackpot the really nice ones? I still need practice seeing it so I have a hard time marking and really rewarding the good ones during our session. He is getting better at bringing the ball back, but I also took 3 balls out and didn’t focus so much on the retrieve. If he did, he got a treat. Is that ok?
For now, mostly do whatever gives you the best results. And then maybe just “lead out” less and less so that eventually you’re standing further back when throwing? I would probably focus on just one thing at the time, rewarding extra the good hits and rewarding retrieving away from that 🙂
Hi Silvia:
Shona and Bender with our first homework (3 parts). Here is the running. I had some difficulties getting nice video on my own.
After numerous sessions on the 2 wider boards I introduced the teeter plank as the 2nd board. My 2 eight foot long boards are starting to warp and are not lying flat on the ground. Bender started changing his striding to leap over the split! The teeter plank overlaps the edge of the wider board. I restrained Bender 10 -12 feet back from the board, threw a ball and released. This is our first session with the teeter plank.
This is the perchwork and cavaletti.
thanks,
Shona
Great pivoting and cavaletti work! It’s going well with the plank too, the trend in this session was definitely towards nicer&nicer running so just keep working on that set for another 5 or 6 sessions and then add a little bit of height.
Thanks Silvia. It was great to finally add the teeter plank and see nice running behaviour -- especially #7 -- #10. I find it easier to see what his hind legs are doing now with the contrast with the yellow when I’m at least 30 feet behind. I see your comments about jackpotting “low hits”. Do you consider a low hit when the hind feet are in the lower third of the contact zone nearest to the ground?
And yes Bender loves the rear end awareness tricks!
Low hits would be front or rear feet in the lower half of a contact -- both is o.k. Of course, you still reward anything that is nice running, you definitely don’t want to be too strict with the criteria, but you want to slowly make them see that there is something especially good about the end of the plank 🙂
Hi Silvia, classmates,
After the first week of RC training it looks like Keen is having loads of fun and I start believing that we have a good chance of getting there! 😉
I think it’s important to go in our own pace so I slowed myself down (not slowing down Keen of course!).
So, for the moment I leave the clicker in my pocket. The thought behind that is, that it might be better to not “mark” than marking wild and wrong. Correct marking is probably the key to success, I do not want to mess that up.
This gives me time to learn to “see it” without the feeling that I’m doing something wrong. In the mean time Keen learns that this plank is big fun. When we go to our backyard she runs straight to the plank.
Silvia, do you agree with this or do you think it is the wrong way to go?
Yesterday I was pretty pleased. I have some help from Rudy now. During the evening session (the one that’s numbered in the video) we both had the same conclusion. Number 1,2,5 were good with 2 being the best. 3,4 were not that good with 4 being the worst.
When we checked it on the video it seems we were not that far off. What do you think?
What we did notice while watching the video was that Keen’s hind feet were separated during all tries (while we thought they were not during the bad one’s) but she was furhter away from the end of the plank in these tries.
What do you think??
Sure, just make it a fun running game, you don’t need to click it for now -- for now, it’s just about the running and she sure is running on every try, so for this stage, her successful rate is 100% anyway! 🙂 -- With the tries you list being the best yes, but they are all o.k. for this stage! 1, 2 and 5 were for a jackpot. When you have a helper or happen to see a really good one on your own, simply jackpot it with more playing and excitement, you can’t go wrong with that 🙂 But yes, basically, at this stage, it’s just about playing ball with the dog over the plank 🙂 So just have fun! 🙂
I was happy to see this question and reply! Yesterday’s session running the carpet with Da Vinci was really bad. He missed the carpet completely most tries…but he was having fun and running. I started to get frustrated and then thought to myself “this is just a running game right now. Just play and don’t think about the carpet.” So we had a fun time and walked away. I said “yes” if he ran on the carpet, but otherwise we just played fetch really. He doesn’t know he is supposed to run over the carpet yet.
That’s normal. You could use poles or something at the side to make it easier for him to find it and stay on. This problem goes away on its own with added height, so I really don’t want to spend any time on just keeping the dog on carpet…
Hello,
Here is Leia’s 1st homework. Look forward to your feedback. In the mean time I will work on restraining before the board (sometimes she does not like this) as well as my coordination with throwing and clicking (noticed how bad I am from the video)!
Thank you,
Mara
Looks good! You’re sometimes a little bit late, but it’s not bad at all and you will only get better with more plank running! 🙂 If she doesn’t like restraining, you can also start sending her around the jump as you do at first -- it doesn’t really matter how you start, but it’s usually easiest for them to find a plank from a restrain, that’s why I usually do it that way. But then, you could use some poles to make that part easier. Keep working on a flat board some more and then you can also try it with some height. Great job also with the cavaletti and pivoting!