Tiny Bitey Hellbeast News

Hopper's training log

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Cue List

Verbal cues and their meanings

Bring -> bring the disc to me

Give -> release to hand

Shank -> I dun fucked up that throw

Other way -> turn around to find the disc

Flip -> flatwork 180 turn away from handler

Pass -> through legs, direction as told by body language

Short -> short throw

Bounce -> rebound/swimmers turn

Tap -> vault off of body

Chill -> Stall onto body

Catch -> Dog catch

Beep beep -> backup

Go -> lead out for distance

Floor -> it's a roller

Bide -> stay out in the field, a disc is coming to you

Zoom -> tight return back to handler

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2024-11-18 Large Area Practice

Work on intercept catches and shifting down during approach

(Crouching) Big Over prep work

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Attempted to see if Hopper would be fine with direct to face discs for timewarp as well.

No confidence problems at all. She rushed the discs full speed and smashed her mouth open, so maybe not that

Though she would have gotten a mid-high 80s timewarp score so maybe a sometimes.

Managed to clear 26" with confidence. Feet drag knocked the bar down at 28".

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2024-11-18 Large Area Practice

Work on intercept catches and shifting down during approach

(Crouching) Big Over prep work

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2023-10-17 Kneeling butterfly leg vault

Attempt using fly-tap for the butterfly leg vault cue to see if the anticipation from the tap cue is muting the fly when using tap-fly.

Intro leg weaves with treats

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No difference between tap-fly and fly-tap since the position is enough for anticipation. So put any effort into impulse control instead.

Leg weaves intro went well. I also counted the weaves until cookie. Numbers are turning into keep repeating behaviour while numbers happen.

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2023-10-17 Kneeling butterfly leg vault

Attempt using fly-tap for the butterfly leg vault cue to see if the anticipation from the tap cue is muting the fly when using tap-fly.

Intro leg weaves with treats

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2022-07-13 Random disc stuff notes

We've been taking it easy since nationals prep and run up kind of burnt us out.

I pushed her a little bit more to deal with teenage brain today. We started with some jumping form stuff then moved onto LHBH and RHFH work. She nailed LHBH but needs some work with RHFH - it seems most like a timing issue since the setup is a bit different.

After a small break we tried mini crossings with RHBH and RHFH and it worked better for her. We then did some hot corner practice and she nailed that. I'm going to have zero tolerance for premature disc droppings so she should be a 4 quad dog in 4wp.

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2022-06-15 Left hand/side intro

Initially we started with teaching a go around from the left side with the clicker and food. Then we moved to baby throws with the left hand.

She doesn't quite catch them as well and in hindsight, I should have introduced using a left hand forehand throw so the spin was the same way and introduced the countersink using a right hand forehand first. Or done rhfh before anything left. Lessons learned for NextDog.

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2022-06-14 Arena disc practice notes

We are down several teeth so it is hard picking up and holding discs. We worked around this by having fast spit cues and working on having her stay out when going after discs.

She is still trying to jump pounce on rollers because jumping is fun, but I'd rather that and less roller success than her being head down drivey.

We also did some flanking and counter flank work. Her counter flanking spins is good but when flanking she is only paying attention to the right hand. We might have to start adding in heavy left hand work.

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2022-06-08 Flatwork practice

We're in the wobbly awkward teething legs stage so taking a break on in-air stuff.

Work on comfort between legs

Passing through legs based on body position

Reward with treats

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Worked on this over the past few days and we are at the point where I can use the same hand cue as my go around and where she moves is based on my foot position. Leg weave intro is next on the list.

We also worked a bit on backing up directly even when she is not facing me so we can eventually move it into a scoot or orbit.

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2022-06-01 Plan

Get video of over jumping discs to analyze if it is a learning approaches thing or an overarousal thing

Add some duration to chin rest

Start dog catch training

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Late update. I did get video and sent it over to Ron to double check because I'm paranoid. He ended up going over it a bit here:

So it is a baby dog learning thing and not an issue and I'll keep on keeping on.

I did start the dog catch training and initially tried with treats, but I'm switching to toys since she is a little more confident going after those.

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2022-05-31 Notes

Totally meant to put a plan up, then something came up last minute at work. 🤷‍♀️ it was our nationals group practice night so she got arena practice around people with the timer playing in the background without meaning anything.

We just did some flanking/counterflanking work with directionals as well as reinforcing that she has to carry the disc until a cued drop or another throw since she had been doing some anticipatory early drops.

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2022-05-30 Barnhunt Notes

We added in two litters covered on the course and half buried the rat tubes. She did good finding them, though there were a few issues when I tried raising criteria too fast. I need to find the sweet spot of marker timing and clarity of her alert. She did start scratching a few of the tubes, so that is probably what we'll end with.

We also did a short L bend tunnels. She needed a light the first few times but was good after that and shot out of the end super hyped.

Quick Disc Jam

We also started working suicidal squirrel/disc at you drills. She had already been introduced to food at her face and ball at her face as well as small in air disc throws so there was loads of ground work done already for this.

Also I love my decision to have used backup as one of the first things I shaped since it is very solid and her default offering. So keep doing that in the future.

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2022-05-25 Notes

I’ve been in a funk since Ratchet passed so we haven’t been doing anything planned. We’ve mostly been doing small little disc jams instead. 

Today we started introing puppy-safe in air catches/controlled floaters. It took a bit for her to catch on, but now she seems to like them even more than rollers. 

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2022-05-19 Bite Club plan

We haven't been training much since we are all adjusting to one less dog in the house.

Goal for 4way play is 20 points. Hot corner at 4 + zone 1 + zone 3 and sweet spot.

Going to try to add a bit more distance to each zone

For TimeWarp, we are going to try the implicit drop between zone 1 and 2.

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2022-05-13 to 2022-05-15 Out of Province Trial Notes

We went to a first long distance, camping over ight trial and she handled it like a boss. No whining while driving and she even barked once (like just one small bark) to request a pee stop.

I had an expen set-up and it was actually very handy to use as a staging area, so I will probably keep hauling it around. I'll need to improve my tie downs, but I have room for it in the car.

We got two catches for far out for 35pts. I'm not too disappointed since I was aiming for 30pts total spread over the three catches. She's still not super heads down drivey for them which is good.

4way play was another quad + hot corner. We tried for the zone 2 as well, but she overran the disc but thankfully not too low. She was dropping early though so I'm going to have to reinforce the give to hand/only drop on cue.

In between rounds, we also worked on a chin rest and now have it on a physical cue. Not her favourite because it is still, but she likes it when paired with a backup to reset since at least there is some action.

My friends from Calgary also really like her and she got to meet a lot of people as well as a few other puppies. She does come on strong to begin with, but backed off after a few snarks.

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2022-05-05 Bite Club Night 1

focusing mostly on getting the right amount of spin so she can catch - I was putting way too much on before

Will aim for sweet spot for every greedy run, since it is short

TimeWarp will try for drop-and-go without coming in for zone 1 to zone 2 transition.

Will do bitework with sacrificial K10 in between

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It was way too windy outside for rollers, so I just practiced in the sweetspot for greedy where I could control the direction. She seems to be bringing back the k10s a bit better and isn't marking them up quite as bad now.

Timewarp was inside. She dropped and went fine, though I was slightly short of zone 2 with my throw. She fast. She dropped a few discs before cued so might have to be aware and work on that. We also got all 3 zones, though we didn't have any extra time.

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2022-05-11 Start mat work

Begin mat work using klimb as position

High cpm on klimb

Eventually move on to flatter, then smaller sizes

Finish session with dead disc retrieves with tug reward for fun

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Stationary work is bullshit - Hopper, 2022

Though she did figure it out pretty quickly. I did have to intersperse some action stuff in between every couple reps to help her focus along a bit

I also used her raised bed instead of the klimb because I didn’t want to go grab it from the garage

We finished the session doing some bitework with a k10 pup and a paraflight. I’m going to have to sacrifice a few K10s for tugging since she is becoming disc aware and not bringing them to hand since I rarely tugged with them.