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Hi Tracy,
Regarding timing of the cue…
Before entering the tunnel:
Left / Right means turn at the exit of the tunnel
Jump left / Jump Right means take the jump and then turnThis is HARD for Enzo. Is this Right???!!??
If I cue it 6 feet before the tunnel, it is a long time to remember whether or not to take the jump…On another note: how I wish he would trade the plain ball for a treat. Alas, nope.
Thanks,
BarbHi Tracy,
I will try to remember to have him wear a collar so that I can use it to help with discriminations. That is a good hint and I usually have him wear one when we exhibit but he never wears one IRL, so I often forget for training sessions.
Enzo has seen exercises somewhat like today’s. In particular, his “go on” is pretty good. I try to plant a toy at the end of most training courses to support the long exit lines. Alas, when trialing, he has more than once dropped the last bar when I have tried to send him independently on an exit line. Therefore, I try very hard to handle the last obstacles and, often, an obstacle after the last one.
In today’s training session, he had no trouble with the big GO but he didn’t generalize Left and Right after the tunnel. That surprised me and we had to go to the exit of the tunnel to refresh it.
I was using a ball on a rope. It worked well when I planted it but not so well when I tried to throw it. I would prefer to use a Chuck-it ball and thrower but he is not a reliable “let-er go” of a plain ball.
The video is but a sampling of our training. I see that it doesn’t tell the story very well. He had a lot of trouble with tunnel, jump, left/right. He is quite proficient at simple left versus right but, apparently, the chain was too much. I moved to the exit of the tunnel and did a lot of left/right to help him get it.
We were having such fun that it probably went on longer than was wise. By the end, he was becoming much more reliable but we will need to do more training to cement the concept of multiple things strung together with verbals.
Our final methodology involved Enzo hiding in the tunnel (no peeking) and I walked around the big circle planting the toy somewhere. My throwing was so poor that it was taking away from our training. This reminded me of working on directed retrieve in the Utility Obedience Class. It was a bit slower but at least it was where I wanted it for best effect. Besides, it was funny to tuck him into the tunnel to wait.
Video: https://youtu.be/AmW6rrR_EZc
Thanks,
BarbHi Tracy,
Here is some tunnel work. The first part is indoors at my local Kennel Club on mats. As you can see, Enzo is rather careful with his footing on the mats. I think the video demonstrates his skills.
The second part was outdoors. I included some hard entrances which gave him trouble in my class (there was also a curved tunnel which was not a problem).
Although we aren’t there yet, I wanted to work on some discriminations that we have had trouble with. I figured I might as well share them with you. 😉 This is VERY difficult for him. When I am dead-still and he has only the verbal, it is almost impossible. As soon as I give him a hint with motion, his success rate goes way up. 😊 Luckily, we are almost always able to give a bit of a hint (verbal “out weave” versus “come tunnel” or physical: line of motion or acceleration/deceleration).
Thanks,
BarbHi Tracy,
I will get a kick out of working the tunnel skills for game 1, since Enzo is pretty GREAT at it in isolation. At trial speed with other stuff happening, not so much.
I had trouble with him following my motion past the end of a blind tunnel entrance on Sunday, so I worked on it on Monday. Good dog, training went well (the advice I had was to set up a course made up of all tunnels).
Today, I had my in-person class and we had a weave/tunnel discrimination. That was tough but Enzo stepped up. What he had trouble with was collecting for the tunnel entrance at speed with me a long ways away. Instead, he was happy to run the length of the tunnel to the blind entrance and PAST it to volunteer the weaves again. 😊 I realize this isn’t for week 1 but I hope we work our way up to this kind of challenge.
I’ll try to get video tomorrow.
Thanks,
BarbThanks, Tracy.
For the first video (course #3):
The 5-> 9 line is an example of how I am not seeing all the choices to help figure out the best line/handling choice. Once you point it out, the circle wrap on 7 seems like it should be considered. Alas, the course is gone; since I’d have to get timings to decide.Second video: Course #1:
Well, I should probably re-setup something like 10 to 12 because I would never do the blind at 10-11. Here is how I’m thinking: I am likely to be late trying to get to 11 because of how far I have to run. If I’m late with the FC, then it is ugly but clean. If I’m late with the BC then he is lost in space somewhere but not in the tunnel.
These were our last videos for this year’s LYD. We had a blast and look forward to it next summer!
Thanks so much!
BarbHi again, Tracy,
Here is jumpers’ number 1: https://youtu.be/XQfPk7oklYg
Apparently, I didn’t do a final walk – maybe my brain was fried.Some thoughts:
– Enzo pleased and surprised me on how well he read
the 1-2-3 FC handling.
– I decided to do the flick on #6 so that I could be
ahead at 7 and get him looking the correct
direction–toward #8–and it worked
-I got a refusal at #12 (sloppy handling, we were both there)
so I just went around again and continued.Thanks,
BarbHi Tracy,
Drive home was typical – I had to consume a LOT of caffeine but we made it ok.
Thanks for the proofing ideas on the stopped contacts. My previous experience with them was (1) Malinois who got it and was perfect with very little ongoing training and (2) Patt whose contacts slowly fell apart over time. I really need Enzo to be perfect on the stopped behaviors (teeter, table, start line).
I took a quick look at the jumper’s courses; not sure how many I’ll get to do but #3 looked like the most fun, so I’m doing that one first. Happily, I built it on Friday.
Ran it today (8/29). Temp 83; feels like 89.
Here is the last walk: https://youtu.be/EEvuE-7M1us
Here is the run: https://youtu.be/qxv7E_Fo4pw
Alas, we couldn’t get through it clean. I really underestimated how far down to 7 I would need to be in order to be successful with 6-7-8-9. I didn’t go back to 1 but restarted with the weaves. Second time through was the charm. The other part that was sketchy was 13-14-15; I needed more turning cues on 13. Maybe a spin would have been nice. 😊Thanks,
BarbHi Tracy,
Here is this morning’s work on the standard courses from package 5. I did include the final walk with each one but I’m not sure there are more comments on my walk versus run. I’m in a light blue top and black shorts.
Course 1: https://youtu.be/JH0DBUr5FcQ
On course #1, we had two repeating problems:
– Weave entry
– Ending.
I was surprised he had trouble with the weave entry, just because he almost never does. However, I found that if I didn’t cue “weave!” while he was in the tunnel, he came out too hot to make the entry.
The ending was just a case of having an infeasible plan. I wanted a backside slice to a Japanese and pull. I found I couldn’t get myself turned around enough to support the Japanese (after more tries than are in this video!). I had to change to two backside slices and a tandem turn.You can also see on this tape Enzo’s frustration behavior: he chews on the wheels of the dog walk (or any other small wheels). I don’t know why he picked “chew wheels” but when he runs off to chew on wheels, you know he is frustrated/angry.
Just a comment: you can see that the problem I have with the teeter at home is that he stops short (4 on) instead of 2o2o. At a seminar or trial, he comes off the teeter entirely and keeps going. I find this to be a hard problem: when the symptoms are totally different at home compared to away.
Course 2: https://youtu.be/RJ6JP4TPORs
This course was easier for us. As I walked to the starting line, I realized that I could do a blind after the A-frame and make the discrimination on the tunnel much easier. So I walked it with the tunnel-threadle and ran it with a BC and a forward send.Thanks,
BarbHI Tracy,
Wow – Enzo and I had such a great time on Saturday! It was so great to have a difficult (very difficult) course that we could do some of and that, after coaching/practice, we could do more of. So uplifting!
Hope to do it again, soon. You might recall I jumped into this course because a spot opened up unexpectedly. Are you doing any more seminars soon? Anyone else I can contact…?
Moving right along…. For Agility-U course, will the videos continue to be available after the feedback period ends (9/1)? I am skipping ahead a bit, to maximize feedback on the more difficult things. But I will go back and do a more detailed review on the pieces (skill sets & sequences).
(I hope to run some of the package 5 standard courses tomorrow…)
Thanks,
BarbRegarding your comments on jumpers course #2 (“A decision idea: I think slicing the other way on 2 will be faster (going to the entry wing on the side further from the tunnel so he can land facing the tunnel – it should set up a better exit line and also shorter yardage so it will be faster.)”)
I gave that a lot of thought, although I did not run it both ways to compare – the weather is beastly. What decided me was the angle into the tunnel. Going the way I did, it was a straight shot into the tunnel which should yield greater speed. Going the other way would definitely be shorter but it is more of a turn into the tunnel. The way I built it, it seemed like a big factor at the time.
At least I considered both approaches. In today’s course, I didn’t even consider turning the faster way until my buddy Mark Bills pointed it out. <sigh>
The most egregious problem, imo, is the “turn” at 14. You are suggesting a better change of motion but it seems to me I am not in a position to show acceleration and deceleration. When he is in the air over 13, I am almost at 14. I needed to show the path (14 not any of the other nearby jumps). I can see what you are saying but I’m not seeing how to fix it. If I do a hard decel as he is over 13, he will turn towards me and bypass 14 altogether (or take the backside of 15). This is where I try to use my verbal (“left!”) to help.
[As you already know, I am hesitant to invest too much time in rehearsing change of pace during walk throughs, because it isn’t possible to do that in real life. ]
Thanks!
BarbHi Tracy,
Fooled me. The first jumpers I did was the one which was in the CRCD code. That was #2. Here is #1.
Walk: https://youtu.be/jpKHQmR4SgA
I only walked for a bit less than 5 minutes but I had studied the course map for a LOOOONG time. I felt well prepared.Final Walk-through: https://youtu.be/KhorTMj00DQ
Just the last one at speed. I tried to go fast enough.Run: https://youtu.be/1DzdK6jjag8
There are actually 2 runs. In the first one, I didn’t get Enzo to the #13 backside. As I explained, I couldn’t rely on my verbal (flip) to support that path; I needed more motion. I still think coming inside and flipping was a better plan than sending to the outside, mostly due to the dog’s lead.Compare: https://youtu.be/4V5IWFlxeV4
This time I’m going a bit too fast. <sigh>Thanks,
BarbHi Tracy,
We have moved on to jumpers. 😊
Walk: https://youtu.be/r7OTCl_6hTQ
Only one interruption in the walk (when I shouted “only 5 minutes”) and I was able to keep going. You can see where I grab my course map to confirm that 11 is, indeed, a backside.
(My system is SO SLOW with uploading anything longer than about a minute; when I submitted this note, it was still working on this video. The others were up.)Final walk-through: https://youtu.be/QMhrQYGapuo
Run: https://youtu.be/pEJ3N8Ho1V0
Well, he is running very wide but that’s what it looks like in trials, also.Comparison: https://youtu.be/TDpd2tSZ-yU
This was interesting, I think. My walk-though is significantly slower than my actual run (you’ll recall in standard I was a little slower or almost on time). I tried syncing them up at various places and I fell way behind almost immediately. Huh. Maybe after I mow, I’ll be able to try the next jumpers course and focus on walking much faster.Thanks,
BarbHi Tracy,
I hope to make time to work on one of the Jumpers courses tomorrow and see if we can have more success comparing the walk through with the run. As far as your comments, I agree but also there is more training required on the Tunnel Brake. When he was much younger, and we both knew fewer things, he had a pretty nice one. Now, I think we had better revisit that foundational training.
See you Saturday!!
Barb
Hi Tracy,
As far as those judges, I guess I’ll keep that list to myself. tee hee
Well, I did try #3 but had another technical foul-up. So irritating. One more chance for standard.
This one (Standard #2) is above our pay grade. First, any course which requires me to sprint the DW at about the same time as the dog does, is likely not going to go well. In addition, my handling for 13 to 16 was basically fantasy handling (point and hope). So that, also, didn’t go very well. At least we gave it a try.
At the time I posted this, the “walk” video was still uploading. This is my second try; very, very slow!!
Walk: https://youtu.be/xHwZqK0IpKk
(Even in this example, I was interrupted during the walk and had to restart. <sigh>)Run: https://youtu.be/VyV8nS5qU3c
Although I walked two different verbals on 7 and 8 (7 “around” for the slice and 8 “push” for the wrap), on the first run I used “around” for both and got two slices. Then the “switch” on #9 resulted in a very wide turn — he cast so wide he saw his toy (naughty!).The first time through, he came off the DW to the jump pretty well but not the second time. One or both of us were tired(?). On the second run, I managed to get 6 to 12 to run the way I wanted them to. Still no love on 14-16 and I called it a day.
Compare: https://youtu.be/_f3kFv_MKCA
It only made a bit of sense to do this, since the run fell apart pretty soon.Thanks,
Barb
