[Barb VanEseltine]

Yup — all good now. Barb

[Barb VanEseltine]

Tracy — looks like Game 12 Through the Box is missing. 🙁 Barb

[Barb VanEseltine]

Hi Tracy,

What fun! I had a bit of time today so we worked on the fun ones.

First up: backside slices. https://youtu.be/60lIYTJ7sSM
I really, really want a perfectly independent, verbal backside. So I worked on it a bit. It seemed to me that if he’s lined up to the backside, he will go there even when I move across the bar. Then he was “backside crazy” so I had to send him to some straight jumps. Then back to backsides. I tried starting with him way out to the side and moving hard across the bar – mostly with good success. I got one refusal to jump but mostly it looked good. Tell me how to continue to progress this. <grin!>

Then Serp/Threadle/Tunnel: https://youtu.be/-VDn4o5ida0
I put out the blue marker to help with “around the clock”. I think he did this extremely well. 😊 I went to the point where I thought, irl, I wouldn’t use the threadle in that manner.

More tomorrow or the next day. These are fun!

Thanks,
Barb

[Barb VanEseltine]

His sister is Michaela Krohnand’s Wynn. 🙂

[Barb VanEseltine]

Hi Tracy,

Love it. Happy to be moving on. Enzo sees a chiro on a monthly basis. Next one is on the 10th. Unless I see something else, I’ll just keep my eyes open and wait.

So, moving on.

Game 7: https://youtu.be/hje-2qiGICo
I have to be happy with this: once we got warmed up he was brilliant. “In’s” were good and he committed early to the tunnel and drove.

Game 8: https://youtu.be/NK_rMIg7erU
I did this with the tunnel which is set up for tomorrow’s course and my RDW mat. His DW “touch the mat” command is “zing”. 😊

Game 9: https://youtu.be/6E554zIcKy0
I wasn’t very good at throwing the toy. I feel like he “knows” a German turn but you couldn’t prove it with this session. There were some oopsies which surprised me; I thought he knew “around” by verbal alone but NOT TRUE. Apparently, by verbal alone with NO motion. Once I add motion, he needs more help. We’ll work on it.

Left/Right: https://youtu.be/yjDBJRTqnGE
On the left-right turns, I forgot the objective at first: I was trying to get him to bounce all the way around. AND, shockingly, I reversed left and right for the first little bit. Then I remembered what I was doing and he did pretty well.

(In exciting news: Enzo’s sister just earned a bye into the World Team tryouts at the Texas Hold’em ISC cup).

Thanks,
Barb

[Barb VanEseltine]

Hi Tracy,

First, what I think is this: one reason I keep taking classes from you is that you can deliver feedback which is informative and doesn’t make me feel like a doofus. Thank you. (There are other reasons but this is today’s gift.)

Second, I don’t think we’re progressing – maybe even going backwards. I don’t think he turned his head before takeoff on any of these.

At the end of this video, I even tried to just isolate the left head turn. Short of removing the jump entirely and circling a cone, I’m not sure what to do.

As I look at the video for the n-million-th time, I consider that he is on his right lead exiting the tunnel. Therefore, in order to wrap left, he has to do a lead-change. I should probably take a few minutes and work the problem with the tunnel going the other way to see if it matters.

😊

I may just pick up the new exercises when they come out and leave this alone for a while. (sigh)

Thanks,
Barb

[Barb VanEseltine]

Hi Tracy,

Hmmm – committing with a head turn on a wrap. I think this is one of the most important things for me to work on with Enzo. So, when I had a little time today, that’s all we did. Also, I didn’t trim this video very much so you could observe and critique the reward versus jackpot.

Funny thing, however. When I studied the video at slow speed, it seemed to me that he was turning his head pretty well most of the time but not adding a “good enough” collection stride on the less excellent efforts. At any rate, since I left in a lot, you’ll be able to see how I judged them at the time. I mostly agreed with myself (how nice*) during video review. Except for 3:50 where I gave some eye contact help, I mostly tried to be “the same” for every rep.

Sorry about the length but it isn’t that many reps.

Thanks,
Barb

* My biggest initial problem with training the running DW was that it took me a very, very long time to develop my “eye”. Being able to see front feet versus rear feet on a zooming BC is a big deal. So I had the uncomfortable experience of watching myself do a poor job of deciding whether a given rep was good or bad. Hard enough to learn that skill when you are getting correct feedback. Almost impossible when the feedback is bad.

[Barb VanEseltine]

Hi Tracy,

Not sure what the deal was with me today. Maybe it was the 3 Zoom meetings in a row (noon, 1:00 and 2:00) that did me in. At any rate, I did a lot of training but very little taping. <sigh>

This is Game 5 but not the first session. I think it is interesting how he does really well on the right (dig) side but struggled some on the left. Especially considering that we went right first.

I was happy with all of the turn right work. Then we move to turn left.
:46 huge wide turn
Then that improves and I send him on a “go on”
1:09 weird head-check on the go-on
1:13 same thing – head check
1:16 it took me 3 times to believe it wouldn’t just go away
So I worked through some shorter forward sends until no head-check
1:28 finally got a real one without a head check. 😊
Back to turns and a final, good go-on.

I also worked on Game 6 (soft turns) and I thought it went well but I failed to push the button.

Hopefully, I’ll have my head screwed on tighter tomorrow.

(Also, I didn’t see your latest note before I trained. If I had I’d have delayed my click/”yes!” until the head turn on the wrap. Tomorrow!)

Thanks,
Barb

[Barb VanEseltine]

Hi Tracy,

Well, I’m starting to come back from whatever it was. I made some time today and worked on game 4. What a hoot! We started off brilliantly – Enzo was perfect with the wing; showing good confidence and reasonable speed. So, I decided to move to the next step and put up a jump instead of just a wing. ALSO, because Enzo is brilliant and I might be known to occasionally skip steps, I put out the manners minder (MM). I didn’t like the way I was throwing the toy.

Turns out the MM was a HUGE distraction! Enzo went out 3 times on his wrap cue. I was just about to dismantle the setup and work the pieces when BOOM he got it. Once he got it, he was home free. I did find that working the manners minder button versus a tug toy was a bit of a juggling trick. It was a lot easier to go MM versus click/treat (as I did in game 3). But tug is the thing, so I’m glad I worked it that way. (and I only clicked the MM once by accident.)

I hope to find more time to work on games 5 and 6 this week; they look like fun!

Thanks,
Barb

[Barb VanEseltine]

Hi Tracy,

Just some thoughts (I’ve been a bit under the weather so haven’t trained – maybe later today).

Game 2: Serp
I am torn. My threadle is always accompanied with the threadle cue (“in”) but I do not always use the off-arm. In fact, I rarely do (just shoulder drop). I think for this case, I’m going to use “Enzo jump” and expect the non-threadle side. Hmmmmmmmmm

Looking at game 4 (wrap versus go), it seemed to me that you were always sending to the left wrap off your right side and right wrap off your left side. This is normal and natural. Do you teach a “switch” or just expect the right/left to work regardless of the side the dog starts on?
(This is mostly curiosity for me; I taught Enzo “switch” as “take the jump and turn away” and it seems to be well understood.)

Thanks,
Barb

[Barb VanEseltine]

Hi Tracy,

Wheee! Let’s train some more.

Game 1: https://youtu.be/LIOrLekgNPo
When I was halfway through this training session, I thought: “Wow, he’s got it!”. Only one mistake and he was going great. Then I switched from the “check” side to the “dig” side.
Lo and behold, I saw the little cheater wasn’t making a choice and driving. He was waiting to see if I gave him a hint about whether or not he was correct. It is pretty subtle but you can see it. From 1:00 to 1:30 I worked very hard to not give away any hints. And I think he can do it without hints, he just wants some, if he can get them. Smart kiddo!
Bottom line, this discrimination can use a bit more work but it is really coming along.

Game 2: https://youtu.be/oVne2D3Sq0I
I think I did a poor job of handling the serp discrimination when I added handler motion. Here is what I’m thinking: If I cue “tunnel, tunnel” then I want him to drive to the tunnel immediately without waiting for any further information. If I release him with his name, then he needs more information (handler motion) – HOWEVER, if I am not in the correct serp position, then he is correct that he doesn’t know what to do. Therefore, I think most of this session was wasted because I wasn’t where I should be. When I was (:40, 1:05) then he came in correctly.
What do you think?

Game 3: https://youtu.be/q7sgHPBNNhw
First, I was pretty darned happy with this session, I think he is really starting to get it. Only one error and I followed your advice to start saying the cue sooner. Next time, even less help.
As far as changing how I say the cues, this is a case of: I hear your advice but I don’t think it will work for me. While I might be able to TRAIN using different tones and energies, I can pretty much guarantee that I won’t be able to exhibit that way. I get excited and my voice gets high and (sometimes) squeaky – Enzo will be lucky if the correct word comes out – forget getting it out with the correct tone/energy. (Proof once again, if any was needed, that I cannot expect to be successful in Schutzhund—they use that kind of inflection-help a lot.)

I think today’s work went well. I will probably skip tomorrow and have another session on Friday.

Thanks!
Barb

[Barb VanEseltine]

Hi Tracy,

Here are my homework videos. So excited about how well they went!

Game 1: https://youtu.be/FEkUlDarHDw
You might remember showing me game 1 sometime last summer, so we have played it before. I was very pleased with Enzo, who was working on verbal only with a very high rate of success: out of 9 tries only 1 mistake (88.9%). I think we can add the motion challenge next session.

Game 2: https://youtu.be/B1q4palthio
Enzo is all over serps. He made one mistake and then he was solid. (13 tries; 1 error; 92%). Next session we will add motion.

Game 3: https://youtu.be/5pJOrGzjeTE
Oddly enough, this is the one we have been working on and it is the one we are having the most trouble with. At least he is making both types of error – for a long time he was 100% on “crate” and much less on “tunnel”. I am still working on releasing him when he is looking in the correct direction. Until that is gone, we aren’t ready to advance. This was 11 tries with 2 errors (82%) with lots of handler help.

These are fun!

Thanks,
Barb

[Barb VanEseltine]

Hi Tracy,

Interesting what the definition of “fluent” is regarding, for example, weave poles. I am quite confident that once Enzo starts weaving, he will stay in the weaves regardless of my motion (against his motion or sideways or whatever). I am confident that he can find (with handler support: arms, eyes) very difficult entries. But I know that, if they are adjacent to each other, he will not correctly choose “weaves” versus “tunnel” versus “climb it” on a verbal alone. Of course, I have never actually seen a place where that mattered. 😊

I really appreciate your good thoughts about “jump” versus “jump right” and “jump left”. Alas, I am at my limit for learning new words which mean “turn this way” or “turn that way”. If I just use “right” or “left”, then he might turn before the jump and I’m not sure he would be wrong. Especially because I use them as spin cues in front of me. I do not want to dilute my wrap cues (check and dig) by asking for a wrap and then “unwrapping” his response. I’m going to wait and see what happens once I start showing. Since I show almost exclusively in AKC, I’m looking for the minimum set of verbals which will support Premier courses and National courses. I anticipate that set will grow over Enzo’s lifetime but Patt was pretty successful with very few verbals indeed. 😉

For the next little while, I am going to keep my eye on this set of verbals and see how it goes. Patt was very fast on the tunnel re-direct using the threadle verbal and if Enzo starts to “get it” in the same way, I may hold off on a new verbal. OTOH, that would be a fun one to teach.

I recently got some training courses from Jenny Damm’s Facebook page (because they are a good size to fit in my club’s training building – long and narrow). Even her “easy” courses require more handler fitness and verbal support than we need in AKC agility. So I’ll aim for somewhere north of AKC premier and south of Jenny. <grin>

Thanks!!
Barb

[Barb VanEseltine]

(I wanted to go in and alphabetize the list but stopped myself…!)

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by Barb VanEseltine.

[Barb VanEseltine]

Hi Tracy,

The list is slightly modified from the one I gave you last summer. I think my thinking about verbals is about the same.

Verbals are under constant pressure: which ones am I going to teach and use? Are they truly fluent or do they require support by motion? Based on various tests, I can say that these cues are fluent:
sit, down, stand, left (spin), right (spin), ok, and come.
Switch, Push and Around are very close to fluent but require some support. We work on them all the time.

Everything else requires support. To my shock, obstacle names are NOT fluent and, without handling support, are not much better than 50-50.

Here are the ones I am working with:

Go on! — take the line in front of you, usually the ending line
Check — wrap left
Dig — wrap right
Easy — collect; add a stride
Hit it — contact command on the running A-frame
Jump — jump in extension
Left — turn left off the running DW or A-frame
In-in-in — threadle to slice; “S” shaped jumping effort
In-switch — threadle to wrap
OK — release (start, table, teeter; also use obstacle name)
Push — backside wrap
Around — backside slice
Punch it — contact command for stopped contacts; i.e. teeter
Right — turn right off the running DW or A-frame
Switch — RC – turn away
Jump-right — jump and turn 90 degrees right
Jump-left — jump and turn 90 degrees left
Flip — turn away and find the backside
Zing — run straight off the running DW (or turn less than
40 degrees)

I wanted to add “Tight” (wrap tightly from a lead-out push) but I forget to train it and use “Easy” instead; I think I’ll just ignore for now and see if I really, really need it (after we start trialing).

I see that you have a separate verbal for taking the far tunnel entrance (what’s yours?). I have been using my threadle verbal (IN) for this but I will admit that it doesn’t support speed. When I tested it yesterday, I got a head-check and redirect to the correct end of the tunnel (he was blasting at the wrong end a warp speed). So I was happy to get the correct answer but I would have preferred his blasting to the correct end. On the other hand, with limited training time, which verbals are the best pay off?

So excited about this class!

Thanks,
Barb

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by Barb VanEseltine.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by Barb VanEseltine.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by Barb VanEseltine.

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