[Cindi Delany]

Hey Tracy,

Thank you for all of this good information. I think we’re just going to really double down on jump mechanics, strength training and handler distraction proofing. Plus, I’m going to try not to rush him. As I’ve worked toward more getting ahead there are times I send him and rush away and I do think he finds that distracting. I think both him being able to handle that more and me trying not to do it too abruptly will be good as well as just getting him a little stronger.

From your last post (where’s my html formatting when I need it):
Grids with speed and arousal vs sterile
Zig zag grid to full height with running
Grids with slice or wrap at end

1. We do some jump grids – could do more. I also have added less of the sterile type with more movement and varying cues and intensity of verbals. We’ll keep working on that. We also just watched a “Bar knockers anonymous” webinar on Fenzi and it did include some more independent slices and working up to handler full speed while dog essentially does the zig zags.

Strength:
Mountain climbers for quads

2. We do our own little workout for rear/core strength. I don’t think I’ve been doing it as consistently as I should be so we’re working on trying to do 2 short sessions a day. I call them “Bed Burpees”. We use his cato plan for a good start position then either do sit on board to paws up on bed, sit on board to hand touch a little higher and more explosive over the bed, sit to hop up on the bed from various distances. We also do all of these from a stand and from a lie down. We do them straight at the bed as well as at progressive angles, ending with his “hop ups” from the angle where he wraps around my body as he jumps up. Really does work rear legs and core and the angles help put more load on one leg or the other.

Stopping for bars

3. I’ve seriously avoided this for years since I have feelings about negative punishment, but I really don’t think he much cares if he hits the bars and especially when they are the tail bump or tail wrap type I’m not sure he’s always totally aware of them (the late bar drops especially). And, it’s definitely hard to get the timing right, especially if the bar drops late or if I haven’t already told myself I’m going to stop for a dropped bar. Anyway, because he is also hitting wings and they sometimes fall over in his path I’m trying it for now just to see if it helps him notice. I don’t get mad or fuss at him, we just stop so I can reset the bar. Right now the bells are more for me to notice the lighter hits that could become harder ones.

More conditioning

4. We do have a more thorough conditioning routine that I’ll need to get back into with him, including some nice side to side exercises and using some unstable surfaces. I have an online course that I pop back into and add exercises to our routine over time. I just need to be more consistent.

We’ll keep at it.

Today we did Hot Topics Sequence 3 – while we’re doing all the jump mechanics, strength and running contacts work I’m trying not to overdue coursework (plus the freaking heat) so we’ll likely do more of the short sequences even though I’ve got a good amount of space.

This clip has all of our reps. I think we did 3 or 4 of the first version of 3 and then 3 of the 2nd version but I just varied the handling each time – front to threadle, German turn, blind to threadle on the handling challenge/discrimination at 5-6. He had 1 bar during this session with about 30 jumps total so not horrible.

• This reply was modified 10 months ago by Cindi Delany.

[Cindi Delany]

Okay, so on jumps/bars:

1. We do grid work (could always do more)
2. We do conditioning work (we could always do more)
3. He drops bars mostly on slices and wraps but also on somewhat softer 180 type turns when he knows where he’s going next and is hugging the wing the turn is on and taking an efficient path to the next jump.
4. Very often it is actually his freaking tail that is hitting or wrapping the top of the standard, causing it to wobble and the bar to fall
5. Often I know that’s what happens because the bar drops much later than an actual hit
6. This is tons worse on light/flimsy wings
7. The jumps I’m using in these exercises are the ones he wobbles the most so I made a point of buying a set of them a couple of weeks ago at a show to see what we could work out
8. In the past I’ve mostly ignored bars but its not improving so I’m trying to become more aware of when he’s touching wings/bars (using the bells) but also trying to pause when a bar is down and assess before continuing
9. I’m generally on the fence about marking dropped bars but think at this point stopping for a second at least makes us both aware of what happened and maybe able to adjust something in the moment

In this video we did Sequence 2 of Hot Topics and I added slow mo zoom ins of the bars he knocked showing that the hits here are his tail as he curls it in the air to make a turn.

Ugh!!!!!🤨

[Cindi Delany]

Thanks for all of this feedback (and encouragement). I just really pride myself on focusing on my dog and his emotions and being his advocate and felt like I let us both down this day. All good, onward and upward.

Yes, on the list of things to check and writing it down. I’ll work on that – typically it’s things like accel or deccel, where are my feet pointing, what is my mouth saying and when, where are my shoulders pointing, what are my arms doing, what type and how much connection do I have with my dog. I’ll work on a mental list to run through in these situations so I’m not just one big question mark of WTF???

Yes, Bob is very sweet and I run into him a lot around here since he’s local to me and we do a lot of the same workshops and shows (Ripley and Blew Bayou even flew next to each other in baggage on the way to Florida – even though she hates him since he’s a “stupid boy” in her opinion).

Poured rain here yesterday and we’re heading out to the UKI West Coast Classic in about an hour so will keep reviewing content and try to post again once we’re back from the show and rested.

[Cindi Delany]

Okay, I’m going to post the “Sad Reel of All the Bad Stuff” video here now. I’m cringing as I upload it to YouTube. I am still frustrated at myself for not doing better in the moment. I did continue to reinforce him but I also know as things went downhill at times there’s no way he wasn’t reading that from me.

Anyway, here it is, the wartiest, messiest day we’ve had “so far…” as Bart Simpson would say.

Unlike most videos I might share with friends, this one is also edited down to just the really bad stuff. I’ve left out most of the stuff where we were brilliant to get the most learning out of it in the shortest time.

I do know that everyone who attended (including the world team type folks and the trainer putting this on – who ran her own experienced dog) had lots of troubles in many places (which was intentional to really put some heavy challenges out there), but still “negativity bias” is a real thing and I was very frustrated with myself.

One thing that contributed and made it worse than the “real” Shape-Up gals workshops 2 weeks before this was that although their courses were amazingly tough and not really meant to be run successfully, this course from the event was shrunken down to a smaller field and so the challenges became even more difficult – especially with a big jump arc, big strided dog like Rip.

Yes, I did review the video between runs but still didn’t have a high enough level perspective to see exactly what I needed to see in the moment.

Here it is. Be kind – I know how bad it is. 😬

P.S. I’m fine, nothing broken (you’ll understand a couple of minutes in 🤣).

[Cindi Delany]

The rain and my dirt ring have been killing us to do much at home. When we have had clear weather/decent footing we’ve been doing some UKI Video At Home runs to secure byes for next year (something I didn’t understand/know about this past year) and I’ve been trying not to work him too much on those days since the courses can be a bit tricky in the smaller spaces (mentally and physically). It would be cool if you ever did some kind of video at home course review/coaching stuff. Maybe some kind of opportunity to post runs we’re submitting for that to get your feedback on where we could improve. Just saying…..

Anyway, we did a workshop with the Shape Up folks from Canada – Justine and Jessica – a couple of weeks ago and had an unexpected issue with our threadle wraps. We hadn’t had to use them in a show for a while and hadn’t had too many shows overall over the past couple of months (and they were a USDAA and NADAC for startline training where we did almost all FEO stuff to remove any Q pressure). Basically, he was SERIOUSLY struggling with his threadle wraps and generally just seeming very confused about them even though in the past this was a pretty solid skill.

Because I was behind in this class I hadn’t gotten to the turn aways content and reminders. Here’s your big hint “As I was staring at him and cueing the threadle wrap with my outside arm and verbal he was looking at me, looking at the front of the jump, slowing down and taking the front.” I put it on my list to work on and stopped asking for them at the workshop and then the rain was out of control. We did a bit of a follow-up workshop this past weekend with the local trainer who hosted that event to do some more international course work and had the exact same issue.

After that event on Sunday we came home, got caught up on the “Get Connected” turn aways content, put out the exercises, shifted connection from extreme connection/staring at him to my arms and MAGIC he could do them again. So, the moral is, “Tracy is always right.” 🤣

I have the videos from the workshops and am only a bit frustrated that none of the other coaches noticed that I was staring my dog down, putting tons of pressure on him saying stay away from me and preventing him from coming in to me for the turn away but I know that they probably weren’t thinking about me having too much connection in the moment and messing up my previous training since I did say this skill wasn’t normally an issue.

So, here’s today’s session on this. I want to work up to not pulling away from him as much and then extend this to those big straight tunnel/puppy cannons to a threadle wrap with me a mile or so behind him that I seem to see more often than I like in shows these days. That ends up being pretty much a verbal only skill since they really shouldn’t be turning back to look at you in the milisecond after the shoot out of the tunnel and reach the jump.

P.S. I do have edited video of the workshop from this weekend so that I could review where we had issues. Watching it back it was painfully obvious what was happening (but not in the moment). I’d like to post it if you’re interested in seeing it. On reflection I also know that I let him fail too many times and that led to an overall erosion of his confidence at times on that day. That’s something I want to try to be much more aware of at all times with him – training, showing, etc. I want to really think about your 2 failures rule. In the moment, with a trainer giving the direction and some pressure of the other folks who were there (including several current and past world team members) I could not see that clearly (and was frustrated that skills I thought were solid weren’t in the moment) and was not the best partner for Ripley that I could be. I did tell the trainer that Rip wasn’t acting like himself and if on his second turn at the workshop he was still acting off I would just sit him out the rest of the day to make sure it wasn’t a physical issue.

Another thing I keep coming back to at these types of workshops is that they intentionally layer challenge on top of challenge knowing that they’ll need to break it down and build it up again. When the trainer does that really carefully I feel like it’s not inevitable that you’ll have failure after failure but when they “lump” it and have you do like 1-12 knowing there are about 6-7 serious challenges in that part I want to get better at breaking it down even more for us to protect his success and confidence. Anyway, I’m definitely rambling. Just need to remember to be a better advocate for myself and my dog in these settings.

[Cindi Delany]

Great ideas on building the sequences so more motion makes sense.

The reconnection/release is also spot on and I’ll keep working on it. It’s better than it used to be but lot of room for improvement. We are doing waits and releases all over the place – in the house, in the yard, when we go jogging (our new thing so I can freaking get in better shape and run in trials), etc. and it’s helping generalize the behavior.

As far as next trials – I’m cutting back on the # a little bit and wanting to focus on more seminars/workshops/camps and UKI trials even if it means traveling. We’ve got a fun match this Saturday morning, then Joe Boudreau seminar/UKI trial starting 12/14 then as a crazy person we are heading up to Argus/Run Wild for their “Winter Camp” with Jordan, Hana and Desiree just before Christmas. Also considering doing their “International Camp” in January too. We have the UKI West Coast Classic early Feb and have an ISC prep camp in Oregon later in February.

I haven’t looked for ISC trials yet but I do also like those for him so will add some in if we can.

[Cindi Delany]

We worked on sequence 1 of mid-course challenges with different handling choices and trying to incorporate more accel/decel even in these short sequences.

Also did a few run thrus at a local trial Friday night before the show started and a few at a NADAC show Sunday morning to work on start lines and contacts (and let him run Tunnelers – his favorite 😁).

He did well. He was able to sit on the Startline for everything except Tunnelers. That one is sooo hard. But, I got a standing Startline even in Tunnelers. And, he only broke his start once (in a different class but hoop tunnel start so same challenge).

We also worked on line ups, go ons at the end of courses and our end of run routine.

[Cindi Delany]

Our field has been a little wet so we just did some tunnel madness and Startline stuff yesterday. I hadn’t read/watched the tunnel game stuff so think I didn’t do it exactly as I think it’s meant to be done. Ended up just having him do a bunch of tunnels and then a Startline or easy behavior.

[Cindi Delany]

Thanks for all the great feedback on that last video. Adding things to our to do list.

I love the start line stays stuff from the last 2 sets of content. I think he prefers and has greater chances of success in trials with all business but I love playing with the volume dial/cartoon mash-up stuff at home and class so that it’s even easier for him in real life when I keep it calmer and more predictable.

So, here’s some start line stays and beyond stuff. My other dogs behind the little baby gate – especially my 14-15 year old who’s talking here (her favorite thing at this point in her life) is intentional as that kind of barking/staring pressure just outside the ring is something that he doesn’t appreciate and is getting better at just ignoring.

I listened to the Monday Zoom on my way home from class the other day and am definitely someone who in the past has asked the person coming in after me to “give us some space on the Startline” if the lineup is right in front of where they are anxiously waiting to come in – especially when I plan a longer lead out. And, in the past I’ve also asked them to let me get my leash on before coming in – especially when the course ends close to where it starts. There haven’t actually been any issues with that but it tends to worry me to have him coming in hot and not know how the other dog might react to that. I’ve been doing that less recently but I’ll also listen in briefings if judges mention that is an issue.

I have moved toward taking my leash off as soon as I enter the ring and do really like how he’s responded to that. He’s a ton less likely to want to bolt toward the first obstacles if I take the leash off and then ask for a lineup and a wait.

[Cindi Delany]

We’re wrapping up our big trip to Florida (from California) for the US Open. I’m coming away from this event with some great lists of things that went well and things for us to work on.

My biggest priority was to try to make sure Ripley had a great time. I kind of had in mind that this year our goal was fun without a ton of pressure since we’re still such a new team and need more mileage to push to be super competitive. I think he had a great time and was super surprised (and happy) that all of our focus on “Transitions to Trials” stuff and recent NFC stuff at home really carried over.

Our biggest challenges this past year in shows (vs at home) have been sits on the startline, startline stays and contacts. Over the 5 days of the US Open he sat on EVERY startline with no or minimal delay, only broke 1 stay (and just a partial break – moved forward but didn’t take the first obstacle) and only missed 1 contact. 😁

I’m going to put together some clips to hopefully get some feedback since I don’t want to rush him right back into too much training the next few days.

He did some amazing work and only had 1 run where things really fell to pieces. I think a lot of that was that his tummy was a little icky that morning. A lot of his other runs had minor off-course issues (so many eliminations for everyone at this event) but he always immediately found my face to get better direction and immediately got right back on track with no fallout or frustration.

Posting our last run of the event on day 5 because I was so proud he was still able to do everything I asked after being here for a week. This was Challengers to get the final slot in the National Finals. We had 1 bar down which dropped us to 7th behind the dogs with no faults. But his time was really good (fastest of all the no fault and other 5 fault dogs) and he would have won the class and moved on to Finals if not for that bar. On the video he does look like his tail wrapping the wing on the tight wrap was what caused the wing to wobble and the late bar drop. I’m not sure what to do about that as it does seem like a good number of his bars this is what’s happening. I’ve put bells on our wings and bars at home so we can both know when there’s contact made. Open to any ideas. 🤔

Challengers Round Run on Day 5

Sits on Startlines 😁

[Cindi Delany]

Lol – no they didn’t change them again. We ran 1 UKI at 22” before doing our first USDAA at 22” and at that first USDAA (last fall) the judge mentioned USDAA heights we’re about to change. So we ended up with a UKI US Open bye at 22” and ended up running 20” everywhere the rest of the year until I realized he could only use the bye if he’s entered at 22”.

Thank you for all of the feedback on that last video. I mentioned at camp that I struggle with decel. I think that’s the thing I need to focus on the most, timing and spacing of accel to decel.

We leave before the crack of dawn Sunday to fly non-stop SFO to Orlando then driving to Jacksonville.

I signed up to help with course building/set-up on Tuesday so likely see you then.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by Cindi Delany.

[Cindi Delany]

Rip abraded his paw pads training on outdoor turf last week so we’ve been just doing small space stuff in the house on carpet. I just realized I didn’t list our last training session filmed on 11/1/23.

Paws are better now so we’ll get back out to train (and hopefully video) tomorrow.

P.S. Jumps are at 24” here. He’s jumping 22” in Florida to use byes he got in the 1 UKI show we jumped 22” before USDAA changed their jump height cut-offs (had planned to just jump him consistently at 22” before they did that) and I’m varying 22” and 24” right now to see if we should ever do ISC at his regular jump height for that venue.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by Cindi Delany.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by Cindi Delany.

[Cindi Delany]

So, remember we are starting 2 weeks late. Here’s the first 2 sequences from the first set of exercises.

I tried to make it look more like a trial by entering the agility space on leash, doing a trial type moving to the Startline, running the sequence, sending him to his leash (placed at the end of the sequence like I would have at a trial), tugging, putting it on him and then exiting to treats (just his kibble but he likes it) outside the ring. First rep I also had a toy on me (but that makes him want the toy from me and not his leash) reps after that I think I left it in the other yard outside the agility area.

We did take a water and rest break between the 2 sequences.

Let me know if you want me to continue showing that before and after part on future sequences or not. I plan to do it for every sequence just so that we get super fluent in those before and after moments so that trials really are just like home.

[Cindi Delany]

Just catching up on the other threads and noticed you mentioned to Ginger (who lives in my area and was at the same show I was at this weekend) less control on the way to the start line. I did a seminar at Argus with Rachel Downs where we talked a bit about ring entry and start line stays. The first thing she asked me to do was take my leash off as soon as I entered the ring during my turns to see if I had engagement. I was a little worried at first that in a real trial Ripley would be interested in the previous dog running or just go take an obstacle. It worked really well and we even had a large, fast, loud dog pretend to be the dog before us when we did that and he did great.

It seems counterintuitive (and not something you could do at NADAC since you can’t take your leash off until the judge says “Good Luck” and they fuss if you aren’t ready to start right after that). But, I think it is really helping Ripley to use just a little bit of self control before I ask for an actual Startline stay. We used that entry at our last few shows and I felt his mental state was better. Sometimes I take the leash off and tug with him a bit, others I just take it off and toss it toward the finish. I was surprised but happy to see how’s handling that routine.

[Cindi Delany]

**”This is all great! In your opinion, what really helped him for the end of run behavior? What didn’t seem to help? I like to keep track of all of this so we can use it in the future for dogs with similar questions.“**

1. I got some leashes that are really good for tugging, including 1 that I had made for us with that fingers/mop like material partway down as a great bite surface. Also a nice grip when I want to keep him closer so I can show that to judges if they think I’m bringing a toy in the ring.
2. Taught him to love tugging on his leash and we do it all the time.
3. Taught him to find the leash near us in various locations, just out of sight, or even hidden in another room and bring it to me to tug.
4. I taught him NOT to find/bring the leash until cued. I then left it out during indoor training sessions then in the middle of the course when doing sequences.
5. Sent him to it after an obstacle, then short sequence then full courses.
6. Sent him to it during course work with it in all different locations – obvious to not obvious, right after the last jump, behind the last tunnel, hanging on the ring, on a big chair, on a little chair, etc. to avoid frustration when leash placement isn’t ideal. I even bought a little kids camping chair since a few of our clubs like that.
6. Learned NOT to send him to it over the last obstacle. 🤣. I do my best to wait until all 4 legs are on the ground and then cue it.

It’s made a big difference. I do try to watch my leash runner to know where it will be. Occasionally have to tell leash runners at certain venues to leave it on the ground at the end of the course (little old lady leash runners zombie walking it to him with their arms outstretched is one of my nightmares – we’ve trained against it a bit but still something I want to avoid). I also tend to look for the leash chair during walk throughs and if I don’t like where it is I move it to a better place for the dogs. Or, if I see a leash runner throwing it as the dog is coming down the last line or tossing it 1-2 strides from the last obstacle I am more specific about where I want it.

The show went well. Did LOTS of Fix N Go and FEO (was USDAA). It is SOOO hard for me to maintain my criteria and not continue when his Startline or contacts aren’t a faultable thing but don’t match what I’ve trained. I’m getting better but I 100% have to plan my responses/fixes during the walk through and remind myself right before I run.

We even ran Grand Prix FEO so I could fix more than 1 thing if needed. It was SOOOO hard changing my check-in to FEO because it was a fun course. I did a big lead out, added a layered dogwalk no one else tried, threw in a threadle wrap where it was a little tough. We ran it for real but I knew I’d be able to fix Startline or a contact or a couple of contacts. He was great, just had a bar. Would have been 2nd place to Bob Daigle who just got back from Worlds without the bar but I was happy that I ran it FEO.

I am waiting for him to sit on the Startline. I’ve tried letting him choose and he often chooses a stand but then can’t hold himself back. If he breaks and I ask him to come back he immediately sits so I think he feels better able to control himself in a sit.

Here’s this mornings more pause cheeseball ping pong (this is a go to for us in lots of settings), up down with food distraction and then some volume dial.

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