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).
Sylvia, just wanted you to see our progress with transferring from food rewards to toys. I think its possible we will spend this whole class working on only this… : (
In the first video I am throwing a dried trachea for her, which is kind of like a stick but more yummy and when she is more running and less leaping I rip off a little piece for her to chew before the next run. It is the only way I could think to jackpot with the trachea, because she won’t tug with it.
The second video I made immediately when we got home from the park where she had been racing all of her friends to retrieve this broken squeaky pig and beating them almost every time and because of that the toy had a really high value even on the way home. She HAD to carry it home herself. So while she was feeling this way about the toy I thought I would try to transfer that drive to the plank and I think it worked some. Our first session that worked this well with a non-edible toy. Plus she was happy to tug with it for a jackpot. (I think my throwing is getting a little better too! Now if I could also manage a clicker?)
What do you think?
What now?
Dinah and Stella
Yeah, the broken toy is working the best so far… What now? Now you can start the process by jackpoting the lowest hits. I hope the toy stays that interesting!
Too soon to raise the height?
It won’t hurt if you raise it a little… But pay attention to those up in the air strides and do keep working on speed!
Hi, Silvia.
I don’t plan to send you every session 😉 but can you give me your feedback on Callie’s session today? I filmed it from behind. I thought it would help me to review video from the angle I am seeing it from…to better understand what I am seeing from back there and what to look for. Did I reward appropriately?
The video is a little deceptive, but she has about 15 feet in front of the board and about 30 feet after the board.
I’ll give her a couple days off now. She is a happy girl playing this new game…balls AND tug toys!!!! 🙂
Thank you.
Kristin.
Yes, the rewarding was o.k. I do stand a little bit to the side though (as I restrain the dog at my side), I can see it better as from that angle.
Hi Silvia,
Spring is doing pretty good -- she almost never jumps now. Sometimes a whole session without a jump at all. I had to switch from throwing a toy to throwing a small treat as she really likes that better. I was able to go from two dogwalk boards side by side now to only 1 board and she is staying on it no problem.
At what point do we start raising the board? Or would it be better to continue on the flat board? Is there something I should be varying to ensure that she understands? Just wondering what the next step would be if you think we are ready for it.
Anna
Huh, sorry, but that doesn’t sound right… You can never throw a small treat (or any other treat!) as far as you should be throwing, so I’m afraid you’re making her do the contact by how you throw a treat and it will all fall apart as soon as you’re not throwing a treat. This is really NOT my method and I don’t think there is any chance it will give you reliable contacts. Stop the plank work, teach her to fetch a ball for a treat and start all over. Another way you could maybe use food is racing her to a well visible bowl with treats 6m or so after the plank, but I definitely recommend the first option: fetch a ball for a treat.
Anna,
I had am dealing with something like this with my Sheltie. Cash is very much a foodie and doesn’t find toys that exciting. We are working on it so I can eventually use toys with him. Silvia mentioned to attach food to the ball so I put a pressed turkey patty inside a holy roller ball. Cash chases it, I meet him and break off a piece of the patty for him. I hope to slowly work toward a retrieve, but I can at least get him to chase it this was. Sometimes I wedge the food so he can get it out on his own…so he keeps chasing it “just in case”. Just an idea. Hope I understood your suggestion right, Silvia.
Yes, that’s one way too. You can also teach them to fetch a ball for a treat from your pocket -- works equally good, you just need to teach the concept away from the plank first.
Spring knows how to retrieve. The problem is that after a few retrieves she is not as excited about chasing the ball as she is about getting her treat. So when she hears the click she comes back to me for the treat instead of running after the ball or toy. She REALLY loves her treats. She has the idea that click means she did the right thing and she gets a reward. The ball is not as much of a reward for her. If I don’t click, she will retrieve the ball. But then I can’t mark what I like about her running.
I measured, just to be sure, but I can only toss the treat about 5 meters past the end of the plank, occasionally a little farther, but I guess this is not far enough. Maybe I can put the treat inside something to toss as Kristin suggested.
Yeah, I would still prefer not clicking over throwing a treat, I’m not even sure how she can see it??? But still, work on this with tricks: tell her to spin, click, throw a toy and give a treat when she brings it back. If she doesn’t get the ball, she doesn’t get the treat either, just wait for her to remember to fetch the toy first. For plank work, use treats in something that can be thrown or something like a pig ear that you can throw better (and she can see better!) as a treat.
Hi there well to start, i have done a few things i have never done and 1 is videoing ourselfs and playing it back and slow mo! Now trying to get it into a edit program to save as these wonderfell people already know how to do. I did not think that maybe audit would not be so easy, is there any way i can upgrade to video participant? So far i have progressed Spy onto a piece from my dog walk, down plank flat on the ground. Could you explain for us that have started right from the begining now what exactly we should be getting before we progress and is that raising the board and or changing distance to get onto board or do we only do that later? I have read and watched the videos of all but it is sometimes quite hard too know as everyone is at such different places. even if you say watch the video of x and that is what i should be getting then i can go back and watch it. This is how i see it for now, it is about the running and not jumping and or into zone as low as posible for now from the same set up? Is this correct and then? Thank you.
When doing flat work, I will be adding distance to the plank until at least 3m and then “keeping” a spot that gives me good hits for a while. After a week or two of getting nice, fast running on the plank that looks exactly like the video from the fields, I’ll raise the plank a little. The criteria is the dog is running, not jumping for at least 5 sessions. Low hits are not “a must” for now, that’s why you’re jackpotting them to gradually get more&more of them. You can help it to happen by finding a good starting point. Then you do the same at every next height, introducing some new challenges that we will start with in next lesson. For now, just running is enough. And yes, you can still upgrade your account if you want more help 🙂
Hi that would be great can you send me a paypal request so i can upgrade to video please. i do think i have what you have explained but would like you to see my videos to be sure i am doing the correct process. Now i must make sure i get the editing sorted too. cant wait thanks so much.
O.k., done.
Here is our homework Lesson 1 Part 3 Perch and cavaletti
From some strange reason, the second video doesn’t work for me (will try again later), but cavaletti look great, very smooth and coordinated!
Here are Lesson 1 parts 2 and 3
More split on this low plank than the Dogwalk
Hello Silvia,
Here’s a video of Toby’s 3 tries to run over plank, i put 2 planks together for him. at the beginning, i just started walking him over it and treated him, then gradually run with him together after i threw a toy, sometimes he ran off the planks before it came to the end of the planks, how can i fix it? dont reward the half run over the plank?
Thanks
Don’t worry about striding to the side. You can fix that by putting some poles or something at the sides. There are more important things about this exercise as staying on a plank and that is RUNNING. But the planks are somewhat too rocky, could you put them on a grass, that will make them less rocky? Start him further and further away from the planks, to get real running.
Ok, i will try that, then post another video on the weekend. 🙂
Thank you
Here is our running video in two different locations.
Neither of my dogs run as fast on the mats as on grass or sand. Should we expect them to? They do seem to have the same form though in their fastest runs on the mats. In one of my measurements Taari is about 83% as fast and Nessa is 89% as fast (grass versus mats on grass).
I went back to a flat plank since we hadn’t done any plank work in my back yard and I wanted to make sure I could get them running fast enough. There are 2 thin 12″ x 6 foot boards end to end underneath interlocking mats. The first third of the plank the mats are 12″ then they widen to 18″ (I can make it all 18″ if necessary -- previously we were working on 24″ wide mats). The setup is 7 feet of patio stones to 10 feet of grass to the plank and then 30 feet to the fence after the plank.
I have included the times as well as what I thought at the time (eg. jackpot, jump, excellent) and some comments after reviewing the video. I am not sure my timing equipment is always giving me the right values (ball may interfere for example).
Here is Nessa’s plank work (she 1.5 years old). I seem to have “jackpotted” almost everything though I am not sure that I should have looking at the video later. She seems to be running well most of the time but her foot placement at the end of the board is not always good. I don’t always have the speed I would like. I also don’t think that her striding is even on the board. I noticed that her rear feet are closer together the first stride on the board. She has some nice low hits (4, 7, 46). I am trying to figure out where to start her so her last stride is low. I am going to try a tunnel next time. Also working on how to jackpot her, etc. I have been using a clicker with her more.
Here is Taari’s plank work (she is 8 year old retrain that jumps missing the contact zone). I haven’t used a clicker with her as I need to first makes sure she doesn’t always want food after it.
I have noticed a few things with Taari. My instructor wanted to try her on a board so we put down an dogwalk plank and elevated it about 6″ and Taari jumped. We turned it around so that the contact zone was at the top and she stopped jumping. So Taari appears to notices colour and perhaps thinks that it is a cue to jump. So I had been turning over the end two interlocking mats so that she sees sometimes sees a change in colour. She isn’t jumping as much any more on the mats. I went to my friend Shona’s (with Bender who is in the class) and tried her two 2’x8′ boards. Taari ran the first one fine and then started jumping but she was landing with a paw on the board (jumping too far back). Did she have in mind how long a board should be?
I have been working on the pivoting trick for weeks now since I am also auditing the puppy class. Taari has been a real challenge and I finally got a full circle from her (in steps). I have helped her out too much in the past and perhaps rewarded intermediate steps too long. Nessa is much faster at learning the tricks.
Thanks,
Teresa
Wow, Nessa has amazing hind feet separation for her size! Her plank work looks good, the tries I don’t like too much are 2, 43, 45 as her last stride looks higher to me and that one front foot right at the end looks accidental, as if she was actually trying to land after the plank -- 14 looks the same to me as those tries, just that she actually does land after the plank. I also wouldn’t jackpot 39 or 44 -- that is definitely running, but it’s a high hit, not to jackpot.
With Taari, I think I agree with all your judgments: 17, 22, 25 and 26 look exactly as 2, 43 and 45 with Nessa and I don’t like it, it’s too much up in the air. Most other tries were good, I especially liked those at the end as the hits were all low and hind feet separation was better as at the beginning.
Both are doing great with the tricks too!
I never timed running on plank vs. on grass, but yes, the form looks the right one. When the dog is released, their hind feet mostly start off together for first two or three strides and I think that’s what we’re seeing at the beginning of the plank -- I wouldn’t worry about that, but do try to set them as far back as you can. If you think the color can be a problem for Taari, then start getting her used to it as soon as possible. I don’t think that at this stage, shorter or longer plank would make them jump… I think it must have been something like a surface she isn’t used to, a sound it made when running over or maybe some rocky movement… Hard to say.
Anyway, I think you can start working with some height now, for now still with mats on, but we’ll soon start taking that off and slowly making it look more like a dog-walk plank.
Thank you very much Silvia for your comments. I will try raising the plank.
Teresa
I tried raising the plank today (with the mats on it). Nessa had some good hits. Unfortunately I forgot to press record on my camera at first but did manage to get a few.
Taari was initially running well but not hitting the end of the plank with her both of her back feet. I flipped over the last mat to a different colour and she started getting too much air and missing plank at the end. After the second time of too much air I flipped it back and I was getting too much air in the next four tries. Gave her a break and then too much air for 4 more tries. Then two with good running style. 7 more with air and finally one that had good running style.
I went back and looked at the ones in which her back feet were near the end of the plank from the above session. In these ones she lands on the mats with her back feet. Today she was jumping on to the elevated plank/mats and landing on her front feet. I don’t think that she has the right stride length to jump on to the board and land with her front feet and get her back feet low on the board.
How can I help her? Should I add a flat board before the inclined board? How do dogs land on the down plank when doing a full sized dog walk?
Nessa seemed to handle the elevated plank better as I did get some hits with her back feet low.
Yes, that’s probably why… A flat board would definitely help. With the dog-walk, they usually extend over the apex and land with front feet pretty deep on a down ramp already. I think your dogs will then do one stride more and be on a contact
We have worked on the plank every day, and i have learned a lot. The jumps up in the air comes when i have send Zushi to a tunnel before the plank or if i send her to the plank. If i am holding her right in front of the plank, and release her right after throwing the toy, then she does it right.
Here is our session from today.
I still see some tries that I don’t like… See Teresa’s Shelties, I’m seeing the same problem. It’s definitely much better, but there are definitely some tries you don’t want to click. Maybe next time, you can write which you clicked and which you jackpotted? I didn’t like and wouldn’t click 1, 2, 4, 6, 14, 19 -- as I see some up in the air movement -- and I would jackpot 7, 8, 11, 22 (maybe two more, I was focusing on locating the up-in-the-air thing).
Hello,
Voici une vidéo avec numéros. J’ai laissé la vitesse normal pour voir si j’arrive à voir comme ça, et tu as aussi le “click” normalement. Pour moi 2, 5, 10 sont mauvais, 11 mauvais ?, 8, 13, 14 bons ? et le reste bon (1,3,4,6,7,9,12,15,16); encore 1 ou 2 erreurs de click et de lancé de jouet ! J’ai coupé la séance en 2 car elle se démotive assez vite, elle a vite chaud et ralentie ! (tu n’as que la première série)
httpv://www.dailymotion.com/video/k4ewN0ajplVbNa26ZPQ
Here’s a video with numbers. I let the normal speed to see if I get to see it like that, and you also have the “click” normally. For Me 2, 5, 10 are bad, 11 bad?, 8, 13, 14 good? and good 1,3,4,6,7,9,12,15,16; another 1 or 2 errors click and launched toy! I cut the session into 2 because she is demotivating fast enough, she quickly hot and slower! (you did the first series)
I think 10 is not too bad -- not to jackpot, but not too bad, she is running. I definitely like 10 better as 11! With the rest, I agree, they’re mostly all good now, some are really beautiful! And she is really running! If that’s your normal success rate, I think you can raise it a little now.