[Julie Heller]

Hoping class is still open for another day or so. I thought I had posted these last weekend but must have forgotten to hit the submit button or something. Luckily I had them saved in trello.

Lift & Kaladin – Layering- 4/5/26
I fit these in earlier on Sunday since my calendar and the weather report are not aligning well for me to do much more before the class is over. So this was done before I got your feedback from Saturday. It’s also 2 sessions mashed together. After the first session, I told myself to remember to keep the opposite arm more out than giraffing into the air, but I had variable success with taht for the 2nd session. (The Giraffe urge is pretty ingrained)

When you’re doing a switch (to a layer) out of a tunnel, should the switch cue happen before they go into the tunnel? It feels like it’s late if I’m waiting for them to exit, but I also am trying to be deliberate about the hand motion and not flip them around too quickly and get (mostly Lift) spinning 180 and back into the tunnel.

When you talk about the layer/extension line being more of the default, that’s when it’s not a discrimination too, right? I felt like I did have to use the opposite arm when I wanted the jump just beyond the tunnel for these.

Lift

Kaladin

[Julie Heller]

Lift & Kaladin – Layering – 4/4/26
Here’s some pre-Easter Training MN-style (aka with falling snow)

Lift

Kaladin
He knows “switch” is flip away and layer in extension. I feel like the rep at 0:40 he was cueing off the switch since the opposite arm was pretty late and didnt’ go up until he was already on the layering line to the jump. And then the rep where he thought I meant serp but the eyes of desperation and the get out got him to turn back out again.

Question on the inside open arm threadle slice. What is the difference for the dog between that and coming in over a serp? I moved to the opposite arm threadle slice a while back because I couldn’t figure out how to distinguish serp vs threadle slice.

Lift & Kaladin – Backside Push – 4/4/26
Did these right after the layering since it looked like the snow was just getting heavier and not about to stop.

Kaladin

Lift
Looking at these I think my opposite arm is often not out in front at enough of an angle to open up my shoudlers back to her enough. That and it’s coming up late. The last one at 1:20 was better where you can see the opposite arm extending across and in front of me pointing to the entry wing.
The rep where she shot way out of the camera frame was where she thought it was a get out and that I wanted her to go wrap the 2 wings I’d pulled off to the side from the previous layering exercise.

[Julie Heller]

Kaladin – Invitational
Thanks so much for your FB chat coaching while I was in Chicago. I was really pleased with how he ran (and mostly with how I ran -minus the tumble at the end of Pent Jpg 2 on Friday – but good news – the red light voodoo magic (Blue & Maxie’s term) thingee really is magic and I was able to run with it wrapped and it actually feels pretty good now) On paper he had 2 clean runs (Pent Stplch & Biathlon Jumping), 3 Es (Pent Ag 1 & Jpg 1 on the first day & then Biathlon Agility), had scores in both Games for 8th overall, and faults in the other 3 classes. He ran the finals course 8.5sec faster than the 1 clear round dog that won it. (ended up in 4th due to contact faults – the only a-frame he missed all weekend was in finals). Still need more work on driving ahead of me down those big ending lines, but he’s definitely faster off the start with lead outs (vs me running with him), nailed all but 1 weave entry (Biathlon Ag where he sort of tripped off the end of the DW before it), did all the layering (plus 1 bonus tunnel in Snooker – lol), and had really tight turns thanks to my new opposite arm skills. (he even powered through his backside wraps)

And course building just isn’t a party without you running the show. We had to settle for the regular volunteer raffle and snacks. But glad you didn’t get stranded on the road when your RV decided to crap out.

For threadle slices – do you use all open arm (thats the inside arm being open & behind, right?) or still use some cross arm threadle slices? It is easier to run without a cross arm, but I think they might work for Kaladin because the cross arm ensures my shoulders are open back to him more than an inside arm hanging back.

Lift – threadle wrap 1 jump – 3/30 & 3/31/26

Snuck in 2 sessions outside…before it started sleeting today. (sadly not an April’s Fool)

3/30/26 – Put the wing pretty far from the jump so I had time to move to the jump & decel, but still had issues.

3/31/26 – After the day before, decided that I should have helped her a bit more on the flip away, but this one went much better without me using the opposite arm to flip her away. Latent learning for the win or were my mechanics better?

Got Lift’s ultrasound and fecal dysbiosis test results back while I was in Chicago and even managed to connect with my vet on the phone. In good news – ultrasound showed perfectly normal internal organs so no signs of small intestine disease etc (normal small intestine, pancreas, kidney, bladder, spleen, adrenals, liver, and gall bladder). Ultrasound specialist thought the stomach was subjectively less motile than normal which could account for her intermittent vomiting in the car. Fecal dysbiosis came back as “normal”, but she is on the low end of the range for a key bacteria, Peptacetobacter Hiranonis (a type of clostridium) level which is important for coversion of primary to secondary bile acids. Range is 5.1-7.1 and she was at 5.6. Plus she has the slightly low folate. We’re putting her on Proviable Fiber/prebiotics to address the gut biome and also a folic acid supplement. Both of them should be arriving tomorrow. I had trouble finding a 400 mcg folic acid supplement so ended up ordering online. The brand you have is only sold at Coburns out here and they were out of all brands of folic acid when I stopped by. Walgreens had a 400 mcg one but it also had calcium in it. Hopefully the combination will improve her gut biome (with all other associated benefits) and also prevent something like small intestinal disease becoming an issue in the future.

[Julie Heller]

OK – Key mantra for the Invitational – CONNECTION! Got it. (Kaladin says, Thanks, Tracy!)
And now I can say that threadle wraps are not the handling move I feel least confident about (that would be lap turns – LOL – but I think I’m more likely to want a threadle wrap than a lap turn at the Invitational -hopefully I didnt’ just jinx myself!)

Lift – Threadle Wrap sequences- 3/22/26

This was from Sunday morning. Kaladin tagged along just to chase his frizzer on nice footing while I was setting the sequence. Lift actually got to work. I think the first one went the best and then I started thinking too hard about them.

I’m going to try to read/watch the week 5 lessons but I won’t be doing any training on them until sometime next week after I’m back. Also hoping we don’t get more snow since I’ll need to move to the backyard for week 5 – couldn’t get any Fusion ring time until April 18 due to 2 weekends of seminars or trials.

Will miss you at the Invitational (plus your pudding shots!) I had to laugh because the first email I got after I filled out the form to say I could course build was about assigning people to a ring and you telling them which days you could build (Like I know that when I’m stuck in rotation 5 each day and often near the end the rotation). I just ignored it and a few days later another email showed up saying they had rethought that plan and to just jump in whenever you could. So either they saw the light or a little birdie enlightened them.

So – I’m one of those weirdos that trained Kaladin’s threadle slice with an opposite arm (crossed across my body and up towards my torso/shoulder) and it works well for him. Lift doesnt’ have a good threadle slice yet so I’m open to doing something different for her assuming I can keep the different approaches straight.

And Lift had her ultrasound this morning. They’re sending it out to the ultrasound specialist to review but that usually only takes a day or two. The fecal dysbiosis test will probably about a week.

• This reply was modified 4 weeks ago by Julie Heller.

[Julie Heller]

RC on Flat – 3/20/26
Here were the tandem turn/lap turn sequences from Friday’s session.

Kaladin

Lift
She really had some choice comments about my handling or lack thereof here. I had her go straight instead of into a tandem turn at 2:30 to chase her lotus and she started to completely lose it but throwing cheese on the ground did work to prevent the full-blown melt down she had in class a week or so ago when she didn’t track my throw.

‌

Kaladin ran at OTR UKI today because I wanted to run Lori Michaels’ Masters Series as a warm up for the Invitational and to get him on turf. He was an amazing dude and I had all sorts of opportunities to practice the opposite arm including brake arms, soft brakes & threadle wraps! We were 1 handler disconnection moment (in Masters Agility) away from 3 clean 1rst places. Also had an almost bobble in Masters Jumping (1:20) where I think the soft arm was a bit much for him or I just botched it as he almost pulled off the red jump. Butn later he did reward me with an amazing switch layer at the end of Masters Jumping even with my giraffe arm (although it was when he was headed straight away from me so it didnt’ make me disconnect from him)

Kristin was setting bars in the back corner and got close-up video of the threadle wrap after the weaves.

Lift rested up at home today so she gets a short Fusion ring time session tomorrow. I plan to try the threadle wrap sequences with her and will try to be closer to the jump but making sure my feet & shoulders are on her line away from the front of the jump. Kaladin is in bubble wrap for the Invitational.

• This reply was modified 1 month ago by Julie Heller.

[Julie Heller]

Lift & Kaladin – Threadle Wraps – 3/20/26
Kaladin – 1 jump

I don’t remember exactly how I “taught” these to Kaladin originally, but I have to say the explanation in this course is great. Now I just need to train myself to point my feet correctly and get the decel, plus keep the opposite arm low (I think it tends to float up sometimes for me). How important is the shoulder pointing too? I feel like mine turn back to him as my opposite arm goes back. And I’m not quite sure what my inside arm is or should be doing. Unfortunately wasn’t zoomed out enough so I’m out of the frame in 1 direction.

I find these harder to do on 1 jump than in a course – maybe because he has less momentum and then slows down as we think hard about it? I decided to go ahead and try the sequences and they went better than I expected. I think I tend to take him wider than I need to on the approach because I don’t quite trust that he won’t take the front of the jump.

Lift – 1 jump

See earlier comment about having a hard time with these on 1 jump. (I did when I was teaching them to her back in max pup too. I think she gets the turn away fairly well but the lack of momentum and further decel pushes her buttons.

For Lift’s GI panel –
Her folate is below the “normal range”, but not by much. She’s going in for an ultrasound and a fecal dysbiosis (sp?) test on Monday to determine if there is some kind of inflammation or issue with the upper small intestine and to see whether she has the right proportions of various kinds of gut bacteria. So hopefully we’ll have more information and a plan to address whatever it is soon.

[Julie Heller]

RC on Flat – 1 Jump – 3/18/26

Kaladin
I kept pointing my feet to the jump as he was coming into my MCH. Poor guy. Well he did get plenty of treats.

Lift
Well this looked smoother than Kaladin’s session but it was actually our 2nd try since there was an epic video tripod fail the first time. The holder part wasn’t tightend so it rotated 90 dec and tipped the video down so that you could sort of see except for the tripod parts in the way!

Her GI Panel results came back today. Slightly above the high end of the range for cobalamin (she was on the high end for the last GI panel in 2024). Folate dropped a bit and is now just below the low end of the range. Cortisol is on the low end of the range, but similar to the last GI panel. We did an ACTH stim test to check for Addisons when it came in low last time and that was negative. Pancreatic lipase was normal. I’m talking to the vet about next steps to determine if there is chronic small intestine disease or something else going on.

• This reply was modified 1 month ago by Julie Heller.

[Julie Heller]

Thanks for the summary of how the brake arm & soft turns are different.
This was from her Fusion class on 3/12. She did 2 great wraps on the pink & yellow jump. My palm is facing down instead of back to her for the less in your face brake arm but this seemed to work for her…maybe because my shoulders made sense for her?

Kal & Lift- Get Out Sequences – 3/14/26

These were from our Fusion ring time with Kristin and Reacher on Saturday. We got snowed out of our ring time this morning. I was surprised how well Lift did with the sequences and the pattern games with Kristin as our distraction. She was very out of sorts/restless/on edge on Friday and I think she might be like Tari in being hyper-sensitive to pressure changes (we had that blizzard looming and lots of gusty winds as the pressure dropped).

Lift – Get out sequences
session 1 -also did a bit with the soft turn arm for the 180 turns

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session 2
Her martingale leash loop is pretty roomy (deliberately so), but I have sometimes seen her still seem a bit peeved at it going over her head so I am experimenting with unclasping the loop instead. (left that here in the beginning so I had that for my own record). I had originally gotten away from unclasping it because reclasping it so it’s ready for her at the end of the session was another thing for me to do after the leash was off and before we were lined up.

Soft turn arm worked a bit too well on the 1rst rep, 2nd 180 when I didn’t support the 2nd jump so she turned inside it but then did a lovely get out.

2nd rep – got her telling me off for using my inside arm too much as we approached the 2nd 180 turn.

Had difficulty with the backside after the get-out on the first try. Not sure if my keeping my shoulders more open to her path on the 2nd try did it or if it was because I wasn’t quite as far across the jump.

Lift – Pattern Games
I video-ed this session with Kristin moving around the ring (sometimes picking up jump bars) Used her snuffle mitts for part of it, but also rewarded her from my hand for offering attention. I think it may be hard to see on the video how much she was keeping track of where Kristin was. This was between her 2 sessions and she had quiet time out in the car after this and before her 2nd agility session.

Not on video, but I also did a short session with her just outside the ring with her snuffle mitts while Reacher was working including when he passed by about 10ft away (other side of the barrier) on his way out.

Kaladin – Get out Sequences
This was between Lift’s 2 turns and after Kaladin was the neutral adult dog moving around for Reacher. (went quite well but I think Kristin forgot to video it) Reacher is also still in the ring but at the far end and Kaladin flicks his eyes towards Reacher when he was moving towards us(still about half a ring away) at about 0:50 which I think contributed to him taking the line to the get out jump instead of wrapping to the tunnel (I noticed the eye flick but didn’t react fast enough to pause my motion, over-emphasize the exit arm, or do something else to help him complete the turn.

2nd rep – I think I actually managed to use the same opposite arm for the Get out, then the threadle slice and right into the brake arm for the left wrap back to the tunnel!

It wasn’t until after I got Lift out for her 2nd session that I realized we had forgotten to reset jumps so Kaladin ran at 8in!

• This reply was modified 1 month ago by Julie Heller.

[Julie Heller]

Good point on the auto-check-ins and rewarding from the hand. I need to make sure I balance the treat delivery location better. Our vet was at our house today for Kaladin & Demi’s wellness exams (they work out of an RV in addition to their office location) so took advantage of that and had her draw blood from Lift to send in for a GI panel. I figured that would be good info to have no matter who we end up consulting with. We had a GI panel done on her in Oct 2024 because she had some recurring digestive upset then. It was fairly normal & high end for Cobalamin. The folate was on the low end of the normal range though.

Kaladin & Lift – wk 2 – Soft Brake Arm – 1 jump – 3/8/26

This was back when I could see grass. It snowed again after this…

Lift

Not sure if she was responding to the verbal or the soft brake, but she was collecting and jumping in the turning direction quite nicely. I purposely switched to a “go” after the backside wrap kerfuffle and then we got our act togther for a backside wrap after that.

Is there a case when you shouldn’t use an exit line on a wrap or tighter turn? I was thinking about it on the wrap but didn’t execute it well at all.

Kaladin

I think he had better collection and turns from a sit than when we added speed from the wrap. Or maybe it’s because I was late with the soft brake like on right turn at 0:30. The next rep to the left, I used the soft brake sooner and he added a stride and jumped to the left instead of landing straight and then turning. I’m not sure if I have enough differentiation between brake arm and soft brake since I’m not doing the in your face version. Or it is mainly that the brake arm is a bit lower and your feet start to rotate whereas the soft brake you keep them pointed in the new direction.

What (if anything) do you do for 180deg turns?

[Julie Heller]

In answer to your questions –
Yes to names of folks who specialize in gut biome. Calm Care might have made a bit of an improvement but not much. The ferapet calming powder I tried next was about the same. Something is clearly off there.

Checking in
I need to remember to balance the tossing treats with letting her check in. Right now it’s more heavily weighted to pattern games/tossing treats because I don’t want her to rehearse tipping over into charging at something moving.

Carrying in
Yup – and I’ve done that but I’m also trying not to use that as a crutch. Because if she can’t walk into the ring, see something and be able to dismiss it and refocus to me, then I worry about the hypervigilence spilling over into when she is runnning a sequence. It hasn’t yet, but I don’t feel like I want to push it much.

Super bowls
We’ve done that at home and at Fusion. I tend to do the variation of the mini snuffle mat (dusting mop things) on either side of me by the ring or in the aisleway because it takes up less space and is easy for me to drop the 2 mitts down. She can do that within 5ft of the ring barrier while Kristen & Reacher are running.

Recalls past another walking dog
I”ll ask Kristen to play the part of the other team with Kaladin. Reacher and Lift have complicated feelings towards each other (aka – I think each might like to take the other out if the circumstances were just right).
I can also probably do this with another dog(s) in her Thursday class. (Elizabeth and Rocky are in there for instance) And I can also have her do this past walking people (without dogs).

[Julie Heller]

Thx for the feedback!
I’m pretty proud of her teeter. The a-frame & DW are going no-where with winter and all but we do have a great teeter.
I don’t know why my arm keeps floating up so much…I haven’t noticed it up that much with previous dogs but maybe they were just more tolerant of it floating around up there.

I’m sure she’d love 5-6 meatball chunks, but that would also probably make her sick. We’ve been tweaking her treats (her meatballs are now made with no oil – i used to put a tiny bit on my hands when rolling them just to unstick them from my hands a bit) and using Pro-Pectalin if she is at a trial or seminar. Sometimes she still gets sick the next day even with getting very small amounts of meatballs and other treats. It’s super frustrating that food helps settle her but also can very easily make her sick.

>>When she is watching dogs in the ring, can she walk around and ‘check in’ with you by looking at you, without a pattern game in progress?
Sometimes – depends on how exciting the environment is, how much brain juice she has, distance from the motion, etc.

>>What would she do if you took off the leash and lined her up in that moment?
75% chance that she would have lined up but maybe with some delay/25% that she might have started towards Leanne to monitor what she was doing.
You can see at about 1:00 in her first class video where she starts on a path towards Leanne hustling to get out of our path but she corrects after a stride or two and focuses back in on the jump on the pole.

>>Also, what was the rate of success in the session? Had there been bloopers where you stopped running? Any stop of flow can be interpreted as a failure from the dog, even if you give her a cookie. So if there were failures and the challenge of ignoring motion, it might have piled up into frustration.

That was actually her first sequence in that turn. And in the previous turn the only “blooper” was when she started to come off the tunnel-tunnel line. It was actually a remarkably successful night for sequence success until the major madz at the toy toss that you saw.

Would love some flyball/motion games for her. She definitely needs that for her “agility job” and her job of being able to function in an agility environment or other environment where motion happens (like life in general!)
We have class on Thursday night with Christina Wessel. Ring time on Sat & Sunday and at least one of those times Kristin & Reacher will be there.

Here are some recent videos from training with Kristen
2/21/26 – This was after Lift’s first turn. I noticed she was really focused on Kristen who was starting to walk the course so used it as an opportunity to work on it. There’s the initial outburst (right after I had turned on the video) and then she is able to focus on pattern games and some tricks.

2/28/26 – Ring time with Kristen a week later. Definitely keeping an eye on Kristen walking around, but more settled about it. She was also more settled in general that day with a quiet decompression walk the day before (I drove her & Kaladin to some quieter trails in the morning to avoid annoying barking dogs in yards that we had encountered earlier in the week along the trail closer to home). She also had a lazy morning while Kaladin and I were at the USDAA trial.

[Julie Heller]

Lift & Kaladin – Wk 2 – Get Out Sequences – 3/6/26
Hope your trialing went well today!

This was from last Friday morning’s ring rental.

Kaladin
I combined his 2 sessions into 1 video. Apparently it’s hard not to flap the get out arm but he read my mind and kept getting out to the jump. He was also very nice about staying out on the backside wrap despite the giraffe arm. The get-out to the threadle wrap didn’t go well. Are threadle wraps in wk 4? We need help there.

Lift

And Lift needs help with theadle slices. I skipped the option in the sequences that had one because I knew her head would explode. Unfortunately I seem to have accidentally deleted the video of her Get out sequences from last Friday in my never ending quest to free up more space on my phone. Thought I had already edited and posted on youtube plus moved the video off OneDrive but apparently not. And I don’t remember specifics other than that she did great balancing the get out with the go straight out of the tunnel and she did the get out to backside wrap pretty well. Sometime went sideways too and I honestly can’t remember what!

So enjoy this clip from Lift’s class last Tuesday where we got to use exit line arms on a backside slice and where we maybe should have used a get out for tunnel-tunnel the first time. I rushed my walk and missed that the line there was actually cutting in a bit due to the left lead through the first tunnel and that she needed to switch back to the right for the 2nd tunnel. We got it the 2nd time with me being better about the connection between the tunnels.

Also -I’m noticing the questioning bark she had approaching the 180 on the 2nd rep (about 1:18). Was I turning towards the jump a bit too soon and closing off the connection to her as I was thinking about getting across the jump after it for the backside slice?

And yes, she is definitely getting faster and showing some amazing skills when the stars all align (or mostly align). Unfortunately we’re also still struggling with handling arousal levels around motion which usually shows up as challenges on being able to function while getting into the ring in many situations (certainly trials which is why we haven’t been doing much of that lately, sometimes seminars & classes, but I can work on it better in those since we can pattern game with food around the area or into the ring).

Then on her 2nd turn in class last Tuesday, she had a meltdown at the end of the sequence when she missed/chose not to go for her lotus ball when I threw it with a “get it”. This is something I hadn’t seen from her before…and it was after she did so well going into the ring (without being carried) on her first turn. She also went in on her own power for the 2nd turn as the previous dog was leaving from the other side. I waited a bit longer on the start line because she kept flicking her gaze over to Leanne who was moving a little bit. Then she refocused on me so we started. Maybe all that was just too much for her brain? I think I should have done a treat scatter or something involving food to interrupt the angry boinging, but my brain just shut off. Once she settled enough to approach me and I could touch her, she just melted into me. Touch definitely helps re-ground her, but if she’s too far gone, she won’t choose to be touched.

I’m pulling together some videos of examples of when she lunges at motion. It feels like she’s still struggling with adolescent lizard brain moments (she will be 3 at the end of June) so part of me says to just wait it out and let her grow up more, but I also don’t want her rehearsing undesirable behavior.

[Julie Heller]

Lift & Kaladin – Wk 2 – Get Out on 1 jump- 3/4/26
What a week! Work blew up (in a mostly good & exciting way), the Midwest Classic opened on Wed at 8AM and we had a waitlist for SS Challenge by the end of the day, and I realized the yard had melted enough for me to try the 1 jump Get out work outside. So Yay!

Of course it is still rather soggy in spots so Lift’s lotus ball ended up in a pile of melting snow under the deck stairs on the first toss, but luckily we rescued it and the treat was intact.

Will circle back on your latest comments later, but wanted to get these videos in incase you were doing feedback later in the day. I have ring time tomorrow morning and had questions on the Get out mechanics.

Lift
Realized after I finished that I should have been wrapping her the other way around the wing so that she was on the lead closest to me and needing to switch leads on the get out. Whoops!

Also – how do you throw the reward with your opposite arm if you are not supposed to be flapping it? If I throw it on the first arm movement isn’t that a bit of a lure?

Kaladin

[Julie Heller]

Kaladin is happy to report that his hooman managed to keep her dog-side arm down lower at the USDAA trial on Sunday so he didn’t get confused. I even started to raise it to cue tunnel to DW in the gamble and then remembered to drop it down so that he continued on his line to the DW. I think he probably would have cut in to me (through the weaves I had to layer) if I had left it up higher. (just like a friend of mine did with his Sheltie running after us).

Lift – Exit Lines & Brake Arms – 2/28/26

Lift got to laze around at home on Saturday morning when Kaladin & I were at the USDAA trial at OTR and then she had her turn at Fusion in the afternoon. And I’m running in socks because I left my agility shoes at OTR (like I often do for a 2 day trial) and forgot to grab my backup pair when I went home to swap dogs (because I usually leave my shoes in Lift’s crate in the car…)

Turn 1 – The bar on the ground caught her attention and she ended up shooting around the back of the tunnel (looking very proud of herself as she reappeared on the other side). Used an exit arm the 2nd time and that helped her get the tunnel.
I ran deeper into the tunnel pocket to prevent that reverse transition thing on the RC and it worked better. I think she shot a bit wide looking at the wings we had across the end of the dogwalk (it was a day for visual clutter for sure!)
Totally late on the opposite arm for the backside wrap around 0:57.
I think she’s trying out for the half pipe free style around 1:13…it seemed like a good time to throw in a fun go at the end of that one.
Next 2 reps suffered from disconnection (bit hard to tell with the camera angle but I’m seeing my inside arm in line with my body or a bit ahead but not behind.) And then she almost did a headstand to get a treat that was lying on the floor…
I”m not sure that my connection looks much better on the last wrap but she clearly thought it was.

Turn 2 – Decided we should try the exit line for backside slices (aka where I almost lost Kaladin at the end of his Snooker run that morning – and yes the courses were surprisingly roomy for USDAA courses – they were designed by Rebecca Hill but judged locally by a combination of Carol Voelker, Meredith & Cody Keraga)

The exit line (with handy bungee tug fur lotus toy) worked for her to know which side of me to exit on. She was pretty aroused heading to the start line, but then surprised me with a quick sit after her shake when the leash came off. Then she was even patient enough to hold it while I sorted out which hand to put the toy in. Looks like I need to work more on independence going into the backside slice as I’m barely getting across the bar to the exit standard. I like the comparison of the 2nd & 3rd reps where on the 2nd rep I started to lose connection with her coming into the backside slice and she did the start of a small boing. Then on the 3rd rep I kept the connection and it was so much smoother.

[Julie Heller]

Thx for the great feedback (as always).

That too high dog-side arm totally bit me this morning at the USDAA trial in Jumpers. Super simple jump on his line out of a curved tunnel followed by another jump and then a BC to get a slight turn to the left for the jump after that. I had my dog-side arm too high as he was exiting the tunnel and turned my back so that I could run to the BC and he came inside the jump (between me and the standard).

Here’s his P3 Snooker run – only dog in Masters/P3 to get 4- 7s for 59pts (7 was the jump & and the 10ft tunnel). I was thinking hard about the brake arm and the exit line with all the wraps. I don’t think I had enough decel around 0:18 because I could see him think about a RC to the right and then he did the wrap to the left (it’s hard to see on the video but I remember seeing that slight flinch to the right before he decided I really wanted a left wrap). The exit arm totally saved me around 0:30 after the late FC on 7a when we were heading across the ring to #2 (yellow jump). 2 was bi-directional so I pushed him to the back to avoid a threadle going to 3. Did a backside slice on 7a (purple jump between the 2 tunnels) because he’d already done a backside wrap for me at 5. I was out of his way and going past the exit standard as he was landing, but forgot the exit arm so my back was to him as I was running to the last tunnel so he was drifting out to the off-course jump behind me when I squeaked and got the exit arm in there and he’s like -Oh – just kidding! Wanted to see if you were paying attention hooman!

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