FROM SUSAN BROWN, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA
In answer to the question, what is the best thing you got out of this course?
I would have to say the relationship between Max and me has grown in leaps and
bounds with this course. The time spent together has taught me a lot about him. I can tell
when he's up for it, when he's too tired to pay attention and when he's just being a brat
(adolescence dogs can be a pain! Thanks for the heads up on that one!!!lol)
Second best thing was keeping the working journal. Although, it took awhile and a few different approaches I'm coming up with a system that's working well for us. The journal keeps us moving forward in an efficient manner and even though I was getting very slack about my reports to you, Max and I rarely have missed a planned training session and the sense of accomplishment when I look back is very positive.
Thank you so much. Your positive supportive manner and your dogged approach to getting to the bottom of challenges we were facing left me feeling very well looked after as a client.FROM JEANINE COLLINS, SOUTH AFRICA
Gaia continues to be a joy to train, and loves her clicker/reward. She turned 18
months on Sunday, and is entered in her first trial on May 18. I'm not sure which of us
has benefited more from your courses -- I have a neat dog who loves to work, and I'm much
more aware of the success/failure ratios in training. This thinking has carried over into
some of our other training, but I'm tracking repetitions, and looking for high ratios of
success to attempts, and cutting my training into much smaller chunks. My dog loves to go
out to train, and isn't afraid of making mistakes.
FROM MARY COMCASKEY, WALLINGTON NEW JERSEY
(Mary just completed the second module, Laying the Foundation, in which we start
training the individual obstacles. She has this to say about this module.)
All activities are so well thought-out with planning that makes sure you'll be successful. It was easy to see the progress that was being made and how it coordinated with all the activities from TEAMWORK BUILDING BLOCKS. The chats were great with the opportunity to ask questions and get good advice from other "students" and Helix. There was always a helpful answer to problems.
Every agility trainer in the country should be using these modules to start their training. They have given me more confidence in working with my dog and they have resulted in a dog that is really happy to do the obstacles. The amount of practice and repetitions means that the behavior becomes second nature for the dog and the handler.
11/04 NEWS FROM AMY HANRIDGE, AZ !!
Rio is not even two years old yet, but he's already been in Master's level in USDAA for two trials now and he's only a couple Standard legs away from getting his MAD. He's doing very well....and I attribute a big part of it to taking your cyberagility courses while he was still very young. Most importantly, your cyberagility courses taught ME how to teach my dog, in a methodical and "testable" way. I learned record keeping! I'm now an obsessed record keeper in all sorts of areas of my dog's training and our competition. And after taking two of your courses, I began to learn how you attacked the problem of training a new complex behavior to a dog....in very tiny steps that are clear and non-stressful to the dog. That has helped me learn to think out similar ways to train new behaviors to my dog and to solve issues we come across as we're competing now. And most importantly, it has taught ME to take responsibility for my dog's behaviors.
From Megan Cruz, OR
In answer to: What is the best thing you got out of
this class?
Learning how to really split behaviors into tiny pieces and plan each
training step. I thought I had been doing adequately with that before,
but now I see a _huge_ difference in every aspect of our training
together - we really feel like a team now, and I see a lot more
confidence in him! He is a quick and happy learner - as long as *I* have
a clear picture of where we're going. I understood all of this in theory,
but this class showed me how to apply it in concrete form.
Record-keeping would definitely be a close second!
In answer to: What did you like about the class?
Not only is your dog learning behaviors in small increments, you are as
well! I appreciated being able to ask specific questions during the
chats, and I thought the feedback provided for the weekly reports was
fabulous! The "lesson plans" for each behavior are clear, well-written,
easy to follow, and very readable (i.e., not at all "dry" or "boring")
They are organized in a very logical way, and make it very easy for the
teams to succeed. The video clips were _very_ helpful for me, as I often
actually need to _see_ what I need to do.
I'm so glad I took this class,though, because I got out of
it everything I
had hoped for - a great foundation for whatever training endeavors we
pursue. It was AWESOME!
From Sharon Savage, Columbia, MO
Thanks for making this course available to anyone with a
computer. I
was a bit doubtful in the beginning that an agility class without any
obstacles would be worthwhile. Instead, it paid huge dividends when we
returned to working with equipment. I think we made a lot more progress
in 3 months of NO agility equipment (just Cyberagility) than if we had
instead practiced everyday on the equipment. Savvy can steer like a
dream now, sticks his contacts, and was easy to teach directional
commands thanks to his Cyberagility understanding of how to read human
body language.
From Feedback Questionaire, Akiko Tamano, San Diego, CA
What is the best thing you got out of this class?
We got so many great things out of this class, it's hard to single out the
one best thing; but I guess I would have to say learning how to progress
very gradually so as to keep Blossom successful; and, on a related note,
how to gauge not only her performance of the exercises, but her attitude
and response to distractions, to measure the success of our training.
Some of the most exciting things that happened during this class--like
Blossom being able to make eye contact in the midst of huge distractions,
or wagging her tail while training in a strange location, or eating treats in
situations where she used to spit them out--had nothing to do with the
f\ormal exercises, but had everything to do with the methods you outlined
for the training.
What did you like about the class?
*I *love* the detailed lesson plans! It was great to have the tests to help
us decide when we were ready to go on to the next step. And the steps
were in such small increments that I was really able to see what it means
to keep the dog successful at each step (i.e., the next step was small
enough that the dog didn't have much, if any, trouble with the progression).
This will be really helpful to me in planning my own training in the future.
*I like the structure of the class in general. The weekly reports kept me
accountable, and writing a summary of our accomplishments each week
really helped me to gauge our progress.
*I like that we were required to keep records; it got me in the habit, and
seeing our progress on paper provided positive reinforcement for me! (I'm
still trying to figure out the best format, though--I started out keeping records
on my computer, but that got kind of cumbersome, and I ended up taking
notes on loose pieces of scratch paper, with separate log sheets to record
reps/times. With the way I've been doing it, I have to hunt and peck to see
everything I want about a particular exercise, though. I keep thinking someone
should come up with a computer program to track training--you just plug in
the numbers, and it gives you information by date, exercise, dog, etc.! <bg>)
*I like the structure/content of the Web site; it was easy to navigate and
et whatever information I needed (lesson plans, video clips, online schedules, etc.).
What else would you like to say?
Just a big THANK YOU for all the help and encouragement you have
given us! We have been through several training classes in the past,
but not one of them ever addressed getting Blossom comfortable enough
to work well; we just got launched into whatever exercises the class was
learning. There's a big difference between her being able to do the exercises
half-heartedly, and being enthusiastic about them; and you have really
helped us with that crucial element. We will really miss you and the
rest of the class!
From Kitty Bradley of Boulder, CO:
I want to tell you again that
your training materials
are excellent. The way these exercises link together
is really helpful. I teach agility locally and if I
could get students to slow down and do things in
smaller increments it would be wonderful. Everyone is
in such a hurry. What I like about your methods is
that they produce results with little or no stress on
me or Ziggy. A year from now we will not be behind
anyone in our training...even though those young dogs
look way ahead of us now (and I believe they have too
much pressure).
From Shelley Malan of Washington State:
I'm really sad that the Cyber Agility course is ending for
our group - I'll
miss the support and ideas that you and the group members have shared.
You've been absolutely fantastic to work with - your course is so well
organized and has sooo many wonderful insights to offer. You've really
created a great product that fills an empty niche in the agility world. I'm
so glad I've had the pleasure of getting to know you better through this
course. Your knowledge level of dog behavior and training is so solid and
I'm glad you're willing to share with others in such a fun venue - the cyber
course! You're always so POSITIVE and sharing in your praise and
encouragement!! Thanks is too weak a word, but Thanks anyway!
Shelley
THIS JUST IN FROM JAN HICKS!
I just wanted to share with you the success I am having
with Maggie (my BC).
I took the laying foundation course and your first obstacle course.
Maggie has been in 3 agility trials in the past month. She has taken three
second places and one first! She now has 2 legs in both NA and NAJ.
I just wanted to let you know how much your cyber classes helped me when training Maggie.
Follow up from Jan, 7-8-02
Helix,
I just had to share what a great weekend Maggie and I had. On Satuday, she got a
first
place in Novice JWW. A clean run and almost 10 seconds under course time
On Sunday, I had entered her in 2 UKC trials. Pretty brave since she had never seen
certain equipment unique in UKC. I thought it was going to be a "training"
day at best.
So I entered her in AGI and AGII as I wanted to get my money's worth.
Well so much for a "training" day, she got 4 legs, 2 in AGI and 2 in AGII.
Better yet,
she got 2 placements (1st and 4th). Her first place was in AGI where she had a clean
run and ran the course in 34 seconds (course time was 75 seconds). Not only was this
ood enough for 1st place, but she also received an award for High Scoring Dog in
division 2. Better yet, it also got her High In Trial, my first HIT ever.
I just thought you would like to know how one of your cyber students is doing in
competition.
Jan Hicks
Amy Yoho:
Answer to feedback question, what did you like about the class?
Dogs/handlers move at their own pace. You encourage us to
work at
whatever level we are at before moving on. It didn't matter if we were still
in Step 1 and everyone else was on Step 12. Mia and I felt like we weren't
rushed to catch up (which happens sometimes in traditional classes).
Also liked that how training sessions could be short and dog would still
learn. Very positive, upbeat training methods. I liked watching Mia
problem solve to learn a behavior. Great online resources (online
sessions, email feedback, Step by Step instructions). You always
seemed to have a solution for everything, too.
Follow up from Amy Yoho:
[NOTE: Many people enroll in Cyber Agility with dogs already running full
courses or trialing. Amy's dog was one of those. Here is a follow up from
Amy.]
As former students we had to brag a little. Mia has
had a lot of trial
success in the past 2 weeks. She earned a 1st place Q in NADAC open jumpers,
her NADAC Elite standard title, and a 2nd place Q in USDAA Advanced jumpers.
I owe a lot of this success to your class.
We do 1-2-3 game at the start line and she loves it. She also moves out in
front of me enough now that I can do more crosses to tighten her times
(because jumpers used to be her worst class). Gamblers is still a challenge
for us. But in open and advanced gamblers she took 3 out of 4 obstacles
which is great for her.
I'm very proud of my little girl. Thanks for all the help.
Sarah Morgan of Dublin, Ireland:
Although I'm delighted with Bonnie's progress toward
agility, I am even more
delighted with the change in our relationship. We're partners even when we
aren't training. We've both improved in our ability to read each other's moods
and intentions. I've also improved my general clicker training techniques, and
I'm delighted with how my older girl, Kajsa, is progressiong in her obedience
training.
Thank you so much for putting together a winderful course.
Annette Carricato:
Thank you for this wonderful opportunity. I sincerely
appreciate all of
your time, patience, dedication and knowledge. This has been a great
learning experience that I will always cherish. Anxiously awaiting the start
of the next module!
Annette's post to ARF regarding the course:
I am writing this post to thank Eddie F.,
Tmara Goode and Helix
Fairweather...Eddie for maintaining such an uplifting list, Tmara for writing
the informative post which lead me to sign up for the Cyber Agility Course
and Helix for offering Cyber Agility, an excellent online course using the
principles of OC. Additionally, I would like to thank Bob Bailey for his
informative posts and infinite patience with neophytes like myself.
Participating in this Cyber Agility Course really helped to bring
home
major points that Bob Bailey repeatedly makes regarding rate and criteria.
For the first time, I felt that I was providing my dog with a really high
rate of reinforcement. I was forced to do this by the goals Helix set.
First, she made me practice delivering treats as quickly and consistently as
is humanly possible. Next, she made me improve my record keeping and keep
track of repetition rates so that they could be compared with ideal rates.
Working to reach these ideal rates helped me to keep my rate of reinforcement
high. To my surprise, I also learned that I was still lumping criteria. The
detailed design of this course gave me excellent examples of how to really
split behaviors down to the most minute criteria possible. Changing the
picture I presented to my dog in so many ways also helped me see many new
facets to splitting. I think I have a new understanding of rate and criteria.
Thank you all so very much.
Sincerely,
Annette M. Carricato, V.M.D.
Q:What is the best thing you got out of this class?
Katie became much more MY dog - there was a nice
"up" in the bonding
we have. She became more confident overall and that showed remarkably,
especially when I think about the frustration of getting her to do ANYTHING
in some exercises I was pleased with how quickly she then progressed and
I think that was largely due to the way you designed the prgressions. They
were arranged for the dog to win, and she did. I learned a lot about her from
observing her this summer.
Posted to NoviceA Agility discussion list by
Rosemary Burtch
of New Mexico, a recent graduate of TEAMWORK BUILDING BLOCKS:
I attend a weekly agility class with my dog, but there is no
time for the
kind of exercises Helix has developed which are teaching us some very
basic and important skills. In my class, the instructor will tell us to lure
our dogs with a treat so the dog will notice where our hands are so we
can send them over a jump. But, we only do it a couple of times and the
emphasis is on doing the exercise - the jump. In Helix's cyber class, we
work several weeks teaching the dog to focus on our hand movements,
specifically. Then, that skill can be used for *any* other exercise where
appropriate. Likewise, we learned how to direct our dogs ahead of us,
independent of any obstacle, and that skill can be plugged into any
exercise as needed. I guess I would compare it to learning to cook. If
you understand the basics like how to saute, roast, fry, bake, chop,
dice, etc., you can prepare lots of different recipes. Otherwise, you might
learn how to fix just one recipe but not have the knowledge to prepare
anything else.
Posted to an Internet list by Tmara Goode of California:
Wanted to tell you guys about a terrific clicker training
class I am
taking that is going to help me so much with recordkeeping and splitting
skills.
It is being taught over the internet, so we are required to gather data
and keep a training journal. The teacher (Helix Fairweather, a former
physics scientist and professor) is very meticulous and detail oriented
in her teaching; she has provided us with thorough, detailed
instructions about how to gather the data, what materials we need, how
to count and keep track the way she wants us to, what kind of analyses
she wants, what kind of notes, etc. She is splitting with us <g>.
Each behavior that we are teaching our dogs is broken down into minute
pieces of behavior, each of which is a step. We are told what to do for
each step, and how to know when we are ready to move to the next step.
She is showing us how to split with the dogs, and it is helping me so
much in my own training.
I have been trying to develop these skills on my own for a very long
time, and have just not been able to. I needed more support, more help
and more guidance. Helix has provided that.
For more information, see www.cyberagility.com.
I highly recommend this
course to anyone interested in developing their training skills, whether
they are interested in doing agility or not. She does NOT go into the
basics, timing, rate and criteria (other than a brief article). Those
skills are assumed, although we do discuss those basics when problem
solving during our live chat sessions.
Tmara Goode
Re: The Get Lost Game from an Internet correspondent
I am writing to update you on our use of the "get lost
game" for my students
dog that was shutting down on course. We started immediely training the
handler as per the article you forwarded to me. My student practiced
faithfully for several days and then refreshed the dog on eye contact. By
the third day ( I see my student almost daily in a non-class setting) they
were able to do eye contact with a 180 turns and the dog would find her
eyes. They had problems for a few days because the dog thought he was
supposed to get into heel postion every time she turned. It took a little
while to teach him that this was different and he needed to get in front of
her! Once the dog caught on he was almost infallible! So they worked up to
turns with zigs and zags in different dierections. By the end of a week and
a half they took it on the road. Dog class, agility class, the park, a
soccer game, the local riverfront trail, etc.
This past weekend they were entered in a NADAC trial and she took the dog.
It may have been a little soon, but she wanted the dog to have positive show
ground experience. The show they entered is well run and pretty low key. She
went to the starting line with the idea of attempting to run the whole
course to see if the time off over the winter and the positive training and
bonding had helped. If the dog began any stress sniffing, staring, etc she
was to immedieatly go into the "get lost game" and leave with lots of
celebrating. Then the idea was to work on going to the starting line, taking
one jump, celebrating, and leaving. Then slowly adding obstacles every time
they came to the start line.
Well, the dog ran the whole course beautifully! So they continued to run
full courses, but if the dog got distracted or an error was made the handler
froze in place and the dog found her eyes. A quick 1, 2, 3 and off they
went!
The second regular agility round they went clean and earned 1st place with a
qualifying leg! They still need lots of work and will continue to work on
the "get lost game". But now the dog is getting excited about agility again
and had lots of fun at the trial. Now they are going to take a couple
months off before considering any more trials and work on handling and
strengthening their bond.
Thank you,
Kristen Jones
A post to an Internet clicker list from Debi Davis
about her recent training
successes with her service dogs (Papillons):
SO much of this success I'm seeing now is due to what I have learned
and started reinforcing from Helix's CyberAgility course. I really can't
recommend this course highly enough: it is SO helpful for service work for
general learning, because it's focusing on the WHOLE DOG. It's not just
about agility at all. The lessons in this course can apply to any
focus--therapy, service, obedience, etc.
But that's just one tiny part of what we are learning. There's a
whole
lot of teaching just the handler and going for precision in timing, and
accurate recording of data so we can clearly see the dips before they
become problems, and adjust our teaching accordingly.
Helix has been SO thorough with the lessons, and they are written
in
excruciating detail--so that no matter what learning style you use, they
are accessible. Lots of great illustrations to go with everything, and
little videos to watch illustrating each little movement.
I have no plans to do agility formally, I only wanted to take the
course to learn about it, but mostly, to learn from Helix, who has that
organized kind of mind I so admire and lack. I knew the course would help
me in teaching service behaviors, and it has already helped me more than I
could ever imagine.
I really thought I didn't need much in the way of data keeping to
get
the behaviors I wanted, and get them quickly. But I was so wrong. Record
keeping has liberated me, shown me nuances that I could not see before, and
allowed me to be SO MUCH more proactive. When I chart each session, I can
so clearly see where those nuances are. It's unbelievably helpful!
For instance, I had a breakdown in response with targeting at a
certain point with Peek. He's a paw action dog all the way, and I've been
trying to work on nose targeting with him more. I'm using a 1 pound plastic
coffee lid with elastic stapled on the sides, so I can hold it on my hand
as a target. No problem targeting with the nose when it's high enough off
the ground, but as soon as the target got too close to the ground, out
would come the paw action instead of the nose action.
Charting each session with a numbered amount of treats showed me
exactly where the breakdown was, the weak link.("Debi Davis, YOU are the
weakest Link. Goodbye!"--Hahh!) Before I started charting it, I was a bit
fuzzy about exactly where it started deteriorating, and an inch here or
there is a big deal at that point.
Once I saw the precise place where he began to revert to using
the
paw, I was able to adjust my reinforcement rate, as well as other factors,
to allow us to very incrementally get past that problem link, which I could
hardly even SEE before. I would have sworn I wasn't "lumping" but I was,
because I wasn't getting the behavior I wanted.
And privately to me from Debi upon first signing up for the course:
I'm totally blown away by what you have done with this course, and think it
will set the standard for years to come.Take a bow, gal. This is nothing
short of incredible. I can't even imagine the hours of planning and thought
that went into this project. I am stunned by the quality and clarity of the l
lesson I looked at briefly, and the pictures and illustrations. You really
outdid yourself, and there is nothing like this that I have ever found in dogdom. .
From Roberta Malott and Ladybug (Pom)
I have said it so many times, not sure I can say it enough though -
my deepest appreciation for the entire session - it has taught me so
much about my girl. That I can teach her to do almost anything - if I
present it correctly. And the ability to reason through problems and
come up with a way to teach the exercise that was giving the problem.
I am not very good with words - please accept my heartfelt thanks.
About learning in a cyber course:
I can learn from reading - but have to read over several
times to get
the concept of the exercises, so the visual portions were real nice to
be able to view. The instructions were very well worded - even I could
understand them. The way the instructions were presented made it very
easy to implement each one, and coupled with the weekly reports, my
keeping of the workbook (journal) it was easier to go back and compare
results. The on-line sessions were the icing on the cake - I am sure I
still would not have known about the "beanies" [green beans] for treats
had I not attended the on-line session in the very beginning. My having
to put down in words the results of the exercises - gave a double impact
of the theory of "why" and "how" it worked.