Monday, March 9, 2009

2x2 training day 3

Today we started back with the 2x2 training. In our first session, we just revisited 2 poles and worked as much of the entry arc as possible. This was the first session Devon made a couple of mistakes. 

The mistakes came when I was down on the side of the entry arc with dog on right that required a strong wrap around the first pole; she entered with the first pole on her right. She did this twice, but I held my ground and let her work on the problem. She wandered around the poles and still tried to engage them, which I thought was good. I called her back and on the third try she got the correct entry. We had a huge party. 

I worked other entries and came back to that one. She missed it two more times, but still remained engaged with the poles. This is a huge accomplishment. We have transferred the value and these two poles are important. A month ago, she would have given up. This time again on the third try, she got it. 

I went back to some easier entries and quit on successful attempts. She still had an 80% success rate, so I decided to add the second set of two poles in the afternoon session.

In the afternoon session, Devon was really curious about these other poles out there. I rewarded the first set, then the second time through I let her go. She hesitated for a second, then went through the second set to a great party reward!

I kept rewarding 50% of the time between the two sets. When I delayed the reward for the second set, she started driving toward the second set. After a few more tries, I decided to work down the entry arc. Just as she had in the morning session, she started missing the harder right entry which requires a wrap of the first pole. 

This time I gave her a second to think about it before calling her back. Just like the morning session, she was staying by the poles trying to work through why she didn't get a reward. On the second mistake, she actually took her foot and pawed at the weave base. I wasn't sure if this was frustration or if she was offering behaviors! We've done a lot of clicker work lately with her pawing or smacking something with her paw.

Just like the morning session, on the third request she got it. I continued to work entries, and she was solid on all the other entries. I decided to move the second set of weaves closer to the first (about 7 ft.), and just ask for a couple of low challenge area entries before calling it a day.

A side note about toy rewards. In the morning session, I changed the toy we were using. This new toy was a fleece knotted tug with a tennis ball on the end. We did not have as good of results with this toy. Devon didn't seem to like it as well as the previous toy; she wasn't as "up" with it. She was also biting my hands very badly with it. At one point she grabbed my entire hand in her mouth and clamped down causing me a lot of pain and tooth marks (I yelled and she got the point)! Devon does occasionally get my hand when she's going for the toy, but she has NEVER bitten me that hard. 

A couple of throws later, she jumped straight at my face when I took the toy. This was clearly frustration, and it could have been from the stress of the exercise. But in the morning session I didn't throw anything new at her other than upping the challenge of the entry and the new toy. In the afternoon, I switched back to the toy we had been using and Devon's attitude was much better. She tugged and played, and I didn't have any hand grabbing or jumping at my face, even though I put more "pressure" on her in the afternoon session with the second set of poles. I just don't think she liked that new toy at all.

Overall, Devon continued to have an 80% success rate in both sessions. Her only errors came on the entry I know we have problems with. However, she was getting entries in this right side arc that she would have never made with the previous methods we've used. It was only when I went very low into the arc to really challenge her when the errors happened. Clearly this entry will continue to be our biggest challenge, but she's already doing it better than before.

The weather is supposed to be bad tomorrow with thunderstorms most of the day. I'm disappointed we might have to skip another day, but the weather is supposed to turn very nice for several days after tomorrow. In our next session, I think I'll pick up with the two sets of poles back at 15 ft., but move them back to 7 ft. within a couple of repetitions. For Devon, I believe the next few sessions of moving the 2 sets of 2 poles together will be critical since her problem area has been skipping pole 2 and weaving 1, 3. 

I remember that the DVD says to continue moving and don't stay at one place too long. I'm going to have to balance that with making sure she's solid. The 80% rule should help me with this, so I need to remain vigilant about record keeping.

8 comments:

Kathy said...

Great description of your training session today! Sounds like you're doing very well. I'll be excited to see her.

Deb said...

Thanks! I'm going to give this new tug toy one more try in the agility bag; and if she continues to react badly to it, we can see if Emma likes it!

kgiff said...

I'm enjoying reading about your experiences with the 2x2s. I'm planning on teaching Riot how to weave using the 2x2s when he's old enough so it's nice hearing how it's working for others. Sounds like Devon is doing really well!

tailsofgold said...

Great job! Just one question, what do you plan on doing in class/trials when you come to the weaves while she's retraining? I don't know how you feel about it, but I would caution you against doing any "regular" weaving until she's completed this retrain. I've been through it with Miles so I know it's tough to resist the temptation, but it really helps to decrease frustration/confusion on the dog's part! Keep up the great work!

Rue got her first "weave" session last night as I shaped her to go through one set of 2x2's. I'm not going any farther then that for now. She needs to finish growing first, but it was fun to see her "get it" so fast :)

Kristin

Deb said...

Hey Kristin! I am not doing the weaves in class. Luckily I have two great places to train. I have explained the issue Devon was having and that I'm retraining, and they have been very understanding. Of course, having a track record with my older dogs has helped and the instructors are folks I trial with all the time.

I'm currently not trialing at all, and even if I were I would have pulled Devon by this point. If you go back to her runs the weekend of 2/14 and 2/15, you'll see the behavior at the weaves that made me say "stop the madness" and retrain. That was pure stress behavior from confusion and I didn't want to continue that!

I also took 6 weeks off from trialing last summer (late July through August) to reworked Ian's weaves. I wasn't happy with his performance in the ring even though he'd just earned his MACH (let me tell you, people really think you're nuts when you say "I'm going to stop trialing my MACH dog, because I'm not happy with his performance and I want it better"). I used the "World Class Weaves" DVD you mentioned that you used. This worked great for Ian, and he hasn't missed and entry, popped out or shut down since I retrained. His issues were stress in the ring leading to a deterioration of behavior.

I can't wait to see little Rue jumping into the action! Love your blog!

kgiff said...

Hey Kristin,

I don't know if you'll see this (and it seems weird putting this on Deb's blog), but we did the exact same thing with Riot last night in class. It really is so much fun watching them "get it."

tailsofgold said...

I figured you knew what you were doing. I'm gun shy because a student of mine asked me to help her to retrain her dog's teeter after watching the improvement in Miles, but she was unwilling to stop doing it the "old way" in class/trials. That just won't work, but she didn't listen.

Thanks for the compliments on my blog :) I'm a nerd for record keeping so this gives me a nice place to put it all.

Little Rue has started her running contact training and I should have her first video up on YouTube soon and in my blog tomorrow.

Kristin

tailsofgold said...

Wow, Riot looks just like Rue! I can't wait for the reunion!