Wishing today would have been a day I got training videos. Oh well.
Worked Aayla on heeling with distractions. The distraction was Lynette in a big hat, neck pillow, dragging a scarf and carrying a plastic bag tied to a clip board. She played wacky judge and followed us around. She dragged her feet, stomped, walked erratically...and so on
We found a stage at which Aayla started struggling with these distractions, so we actually had to tone it down. She started lagging and looking off at Lynette. Yet it was perfect because we know what she needs working on. Feet dragging, paired with sudden movement.
Also figured out that sending her to a food bowl as a reward was a great way to work with treats off of me. It added a second distraction as she started pulling off of me for figure 8 practice to look at the bowl. We got to work on her understanding that engagement and heeling was the fastest way to get to the treats in the bowl.
She adapted fast to the ‘judge’ distraction. It really was wonderful. The best part is when you could tell that something caught her attention (ear flick, quick eye glance) but she stayed in heel and very quickly return full attention to me. I feel like it shouldn’t be a problem by the next trial. We got something like 5 weeks to be ready so a few of these practices a week until then and she won’t blink at anything.
On top of that, she was giving me some pretty heeling today. She did all her ring entry behaviors as I wanted, could hand off the leash with very minimal break in engagement. (I don’t mind if she looks at the stewards a bit for this) She had enthusiasm and fun with her heeling and was happily offering engagement. Then even Lynette noticed her forging has decreased and she was in a lovely position on my side this session.
Heelwork is going well, she is slowly starting to get a more correct position next to my leg instead of in front of it. It’s going to take a lot of work to stop the forging. Breaking down the reinforcement history of her forging will take a while. But she is really trying hard which is great.
Her dumbbell training is going great. She has about an 90% success rate of picking up the dumbbell towards me instead of away. Chewing is minimal and she is picking up the dumbbell as she should. Think I’ll start asking for correct fronts soon and recalling over a jump after that.
The drop on recall...is not great right now. She either rolls over. (Who could’ve seen that being an issue while training this...) or is very delayed in her response and is laying down at my feet instead of when I cue her. So we are working on reverse in motion downs...which she is good at. Hoping that’ll start sticking more.
Stand in motion...she is pretty decent at. I really wanted to get her perfect at. I’ve watched a lot of people train the dog to hop to stop forward momentum. So I’ve been trying to teach her that. She is wayyyyy too enthusiastic about it right now. She is jumping as high as she can in the air and sideways. She will stand and stay on landing but it isn’t pretty. A little hop is just not happening and we are both getting frustrated. I think I need to slice it to erase frustration and get it into a smaller hop before moving forward. Any advice @nvbk?? Happy looks so great doing it.
I need to build a broad jump. I don’t have room to store a broad jump but I don’t know how else to train for it.
So Aayla and I have been working on getting ready for Obedience Open. The main focuses have been:
Squishing
This is from the Fenzi course Ring Confidence. Which I wanted because I felt Aayla was a little shut down in the ring. Previously she tended to get distracted, not as enthusiastic and overall not quite herself. I bought it after she seemed to struggle a bit for the first rally class at the last trial, before we went in the ring for Novice (and she happily kicked ass). So I have a lot more faith in that she is enjoying trialing for obedience, but figured the class would be useful anyways.
Squishing is a technique to help the dogs relax before entering the ring, and then getting excited to work when you enter. Kind of like a start of work routine. I loved the idea and am working on implementing it into our routine.
She isn’t getting the relax part yet, but enjoys to flip from me being still into play/work mode. She still keeps being hyper focused on me in the relaxed phase, which isn’t exactly a huge problem, yet she is supposed to use that to assess the ring, her surroundings and get the looky-loos out of the way.
Heeling
We started working with a makeshift shark line. (Extremely light weight string to help her understand correct position) She is really good about understanding that I don’t want leash pressure. So mixing that with rewarding behind her head is helping her move back. We’ve only had a couple of sessions, so we still have a lot of work ahead of us.
We are only working on going straight right now. Hoping to start working on circles in a week or two. Need to get her to stop forging for our left circles and catch up and stay close for our right circles.
Dumbbell
She is doing so freaking well with this. She has a success rate of 80% for picking up the dumbbell from the backside (so she will be facing me on the return). Finally got in the smaller dumbbell, it still almost seems too big but I will see what the trainer says.
She isn’t chewing much, every once in a while she wants to have the dumbbell on her teeth instead of her gums. (she is missing all her premolars) So she sets the dumbbell farther back, which we will work to stop but its no biggie right now. Finally starting to add more distance on her retrieves, and also some less than ideal angles for the pick up. She is coming in nice and straight though to offer the dumbbell. So pleased.
Signal Discrimination
We are working with a pole right now to help remind her to keep her front paws stationary. She now gets all of her hand signals without any verbal cue needed. (stand took a little while) Yet she wants to creep towards me a bit on these. I’ve had some great reps with her though, but we gotta work on more distance. I figured out today that throwing treats (even if they go behind her) excites her enough that she wants to creep forward. So I have to hand deliver to mouth every time. Also, for the love of god, no toys for this training. She can’t handle the stillness. That was an oopsie and set us back.
We also need to work on broad jump, but I don’t have a broad jump. So thats a no go as of right now.
There was a trial at the end of this month, I was considering just trying to see what she does for Graduate Novice or Open. Its in the next town over and wouldn’t require a long drive. Yet that is a little stupid, the new trainer we worked with said she didn’t suggest it. So we could do rally excellent, but I don’t feel like its worth my money to do just the one class. So we are waiting for a trial in September. I signed up for an agility trial instead.
So I don’t have too much to say because we only did...four obstacles? Essentially Aayla’s strongest obstacle became her weakest today.
She struggled with her weave poles. She would hit her entry but pop out or miss a pole. So while doing FAST she kept popping out. I could have possibly qualified if I ignored it and continued on, but I wanted to make a point of her completing her 12 weaves. So I used up all of my time to get her to complete the weaves without popping out. I didn’t get to the send bonus.
The weave poles were two sets of six, but they didn’t have a base going from poles 6 to 7. So there was a gap. That is where she was popping out I think. So it makes sense that it was throwing her off.
I am really glad we worked through it though, even if it cost us the class.
So overall, we got 6 points out of the needed 50 with 7 time faults. 🤷♀️ No Q of course.
So after I made the last text post, I decided I should actually act like I teach and analyze my training set up and scenario I was presenting to Aayla and look for flaws in my own training. I came to three conclusions.
I was letting the training sessions go for too long (She would get it at first and then loose interest or find other behaviors to offer)
My criteria involving changing the placement of the scented item was too confusing and too much for her at that point in time.
She was not getting rewarded often enough, to remain happily engaged, and therefore was becoming frustrated.
So after letting a good amount of time pass I set up properly. Which looked like:
Only having limited treats in hand for each session, no treats means session is over
Not moving the scented item during a session
It worked. Somehow these small changes helped it click in her head. I did several small sessions and by our last one she was correct 95% of the time. Not moving the item in a session meant she hit the correct cotton square more often. So she got more rewards and more confidence. By the end I could actively tell she was using scent to identify the correct item. She would skim over the incorrect one and jump to the scented item.
I have recently been very very lazy with my training sessions and downright sloppy. So its time for me to shape up and work harder to be a better partner and trainer.
Aayla picks up on things so fast that sometimes when she doesn’t pick it up right away I get surprised. Scent-work is going to be more of a challenge for her. This is good because we can spend more time on it. Though working through her getting frustrated is going to be more of a challenge. She isn’t used to not getting it right away. (Heck she is like me and gets frustrated when she can’t get it within the first few tries)
So I have vanilla extract on a paper towel. She is making no attempt to smell out which hand it is in. Instead she is just randomly choosing a hand to target. If that one doesn’t work she tries the next one. I’ve done 3ish sessions today and while I think we made a bit of progress by the third session (she had a higher rate of first attempt?) yet I don’t know if she is somehow reading me better, or if she is actually smelling out the scent. I notice no normal signs of when she is trying to find something by scent. She just rapidly targets one hand and stares at me.
We will keep trying this way for a while I think? I’m actually considering switching to boxes, might make her think a bit more. I think we have too many hand tricks and she won’t focus enough on trying to actually detect by nose?
I want to do something with Aayla today, some public training or something, but I lack drive and creativity. I am pretty sure my patience level is low, because I’ve been cranky and moody in general. Sometimes working with Aayla helps my mood, sometimes its bad for both of us and I don’t know if I want to chance it.
I’ve also run out of ideas of what to work on with Aayla. I need to get a structured training plan going but haven’t been motivated. She knows a ridiculous amount of things. Yet I really should proof all of these behaviors. Most of them I trained sloppily or I never really finished so she is sloppy in offering these behaviors.
So I’m making a list of everything I want to work on
Obedience
I’d like to get her CD and RA titles this year at least. I want to get her in the ring for Rally Excellent this year. Maybe do graduate novice this year as well? I don’t know if she will be ready for Open, I could get her ready. I don’t think the tasks are that hard, but I also don’t need to rush it. I’d really like to focus more on agility anyhow. I feel at least one GN class would be good before jumping into open anyways.
Novice
On leash Heel + Figure 8
She gets the most points off for this?? I don’t understand
Could be because she warms up for this and does better for the off leash once she figures out we are ‘working’.
Needs work not disengaging for a right hand circle. About turn and Pivot she is decent for.
Stand for Exam (Only needs upkeep)
Still surprised as all heck, to the moon and back, that this is our best exercise. Like WTF? I can’t get this dog to greet strangers calmly and yet she stands for exam like a pro. I know its because the judge acts very stoic, and I think Aayla is slightly concerned the judge is a Vet, so she isn’t excited to see the judge but still whatttttt.
Off Leash Heel
She does decently well
Needs work on forging and staying engaged for entire exercise, but I haven’t really pushed time yet. We’ve worked more on engagement than anything else.
Recall (I’m calling this mostly finished??)
Not really any problems here. We always get 1/2 point off? I need to clarify with the judge next time but I think it could be one of three things
Aayla isn’t perfectly straight on her front, or that she stands on my feet for this. (Damn cop cop trick)
She is forging a bit when she returns to heel and sits, slightly crooked.
I tend to accidentally move my hand AND give a verbal cue. I think of it as I’m moving my hand out of the way so she can have her head on my side between my hand and body. But it might be seen as giving a verbal AND hand cue. Which is a no no.
Long Sit/Down
Need to work on this with other dogs around. Both times we did this there were none. The other dogs got a NQ for our first trial and we were the only Novice A dog in the second.
She sometimes gets bored and tries offering other behaviors. Her favorite is look left/right. She looks ridiculous swinging her head back and forth. Sometimes she will even lay down from the sit, or the other way around.
They made this a lot easier though, now instead of having to go to the other side of the ring, you just hold the dog at the end of the leash.
Graduate Novice
Heel Free + Figure 8
Same as Novice
Drop on Recall
I’d say we got this about 50%. She doesn’t drop as fast as I want her to. Sometimes she lays down at my feet, we’re still figuring it out.
Can use verbal and/or hand cue
Dumbbell Recall
I need a dumbbell.
I think I’d prefer plastic, she likes to chew on wood.
She is doing decently well with a PVC pipe though.
Just got to condition to dumbbell and I think we will be good to go.
Have to work a bit on her hold command so I can walk away from her.
Dumbbell Recall over High Jump
Same as Dumbbell recall, don’t think the jump will be an issue
Recall over Broad jump
Haven’t even started. She has seen a broad jump like twice in her life.
This straight approach shouldn’t be an issue
Group Exercise
3 minute sit or down stay, with other dogs, while I’m out of sight
She could be great because me going out of sight/leaving sometimes makes her hyper focus on where I left to and will ignore other dogs.
She could be terrible.
Open
Heel Free + Figure 8
Same as Novice
Drop on Recall
Verbal OR hand cue
We will go with verbal
Retrieve on Flat
Don’t see a problem with this. I think she will pick it up fast with some patterning.
Retrieve over High Jump
Just needs patterning. She will get it fast.
Broad Jump
I see us having a lot of straightness problems.
I have to stand next to the jump, send her over, turn into her and have her front. I see her jumping the corners or coming straight towards me instead of over.
Long Sit
3 minute long sit, next to other dogs, while I’m out of sight.
Ugh
Long Down
5 minute long down, next to other dogs, while I’m out of sight
I have better faith in her down, but still could go either way.
Rally
Honestly, she has almost all the signs up to masters. So its just a matter of proofing everything and going to trials. She needs a bit of work in her engagement just like with the novice heel exercises. A few that I think we need to practice are: (they’re masters signs so we don’t have to work on these for a while)
306 : Halt-Send away sit-return-follow arrow.
We’ve started her send outs and she is doing pretty great, just need to work on it with a cone.
This one is hard because the dog has nowhere to turn to. I hate this sign. How is the dog supposed supposed to spin into you while in the heel position? I don’t like Aayla having to move away from her heel position so she can spin, its awkward and I’m grumpy about it.
Agility
I’m honestly pretty happy with our progress. I’d like to be able to move up to open in all classes before 2020, but I really am content with just continuing with the progress we have been making.
Contacts
I’d realllllllly like more consistency and independence with her contacts. She still requires a decent amount of baby sitting. She stops and waits well though which is great.
She is crooked on the dogwalk, always leaning towards me.
She is too fast on the teeter, so if I don’t tell her easy she flies right off the end of it.
A-frame is pretty good I have to say.
Cue clarifying
Need a word for our out behavior (going to the far obstacle)
I’ve been using ‘out’ which is also our drop cue and push to back of jump cue. I’m terrible with repeating verbal cues for different things. I need to realize this early and stop.
Then I need to actually train it.
Need a word for our back of jump cue
“push”?
Then train it
Obstacle discrimination
I think she is only going off of body language
Which works for our easy courses, but doesn’t help if she is out ahead of me.
