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Okay, we incorporated some of your feedback into our stopped contacts version of contact exit skills today. Did a set of all the jump approaches being ahead and then a set tucking more into the wing wrap. Also some dirty jump handling and effort cookie/hand touch cookie if bar dropped.
Great info and advice, thank you! We’ll circle back to more advanced versions of some of this before we hit the road for Run Wild camp and Canadian Open (we leave on Monday). And, we’ll see if we can do some of this while we’re traveling too with camp and practice ring setups.
We did do contact exits with the running contact behavior today and his new (added yesterday) “Spot” cue for that behavior. It was a nice session. I am still using 4’ bars that are 1/2” PVC and my lighter wings so that any hit will cause a bar drop.
His cue response was awesome, mat hits were pretty darn good, and not a ton of bars and almost all my fault (totally stopping, being in his path, early toy toss). I want to proof against those things so they are explanations not excuses.
I’m still not running and trying not to toss with my left arm (side the chest injury and rib fracture are on) so there’s some weird toy hand switching I would normally avoid here.
Fun exercise! It was really helping me figure out timing on his cues and what he needs when (at least while we’re using a mat behavior cue).
Okay, so still injured and actually found out I did break a rib at that trial 2 weekends ago (found out after 3 days of competing in the West Coast Cup this past weekend) 😝.
So, still not really running at home (running at WCC did not help the healing process apparently). Also still not tugging.
So, we did some lowkey “other side of the dogwalk” stuff from Package 4 skills but with the real dogwalk since this isn’t new to him. Also some of the weave independence stuff from Package 5 skills. Added a couple of clips from 2 weekends ago where we had some of this on our courses – I LOVE it when camp stuff shows up immediately for me in a trial. Including a course with the layered weaves where the same basic course layout was used for 3 classes so I used my Gamblers run to practice the weave layer for the Masters Agility class that came after it. 😉 I’m too short so to see if he hits the entry so I have to like peek under the dogwalk. 🤣 Also added a short clip of layered dogwalk to a jump with a flipaway to the weaves layering jump and dogwalk. A bit of an awkward jump approach since he was already thinking about taking the far side of the weaves but he saved it. He’s a good kiddo.
I want to work on the contact exit skills next so will set that up. He’s still having LOTS of issues with aframes in trials when he extends and just leaps apex, lands halfway down downramp and strides off. At some RDW issues when his stride really extends and his beautiful perfect hit 4 stride becomes a 3 stride that leaves the dogwalk 12″ above the contact.
On Aframe at home and with props (or at home without props) he is perfect almost every time with landing from apex and taking a nice stride down, but the struggle is real at trials. And, if I ask him to try again in that setting it’s variable if he fixes it (at which point we’re usually coming in with less speed and extension), repeats the same thing if I really go back a few obstacles, or even starts to have 2o2o thoughts if he’s not sure what I want.
I’m trying – for the first time with running contacts a “hit it” type cue after the runnning contact obstacle cue to see if that gives him the clarity he needs. I really don’t want to have to use that long term since I really like being able to tell him once he’s committed to the contact with the contact verbal how to exit the contact and to which obstacle, but so far that’s way too often leading to missed contacts when his stride gets really extended.
So, in the past his mat cue was just the running obstacle cue (fly – RDW, zoom – RAF) or “Go,” but I’m adding “Spot” for the actual mat hit and transitioning to a yellow mat. He did great on this today in a short session so we’ll see if it translates and gives him the clarity he needs.
Good points, thank you. We have seen some of those veer around something to get to something. We had a hidden/recessed weaves entry at Run Wild where they had to veer around a tunnel to find a hidden set of weaves that felt new to me.
And yes, on some really fast lines to a backside I have been looking to landing to help avoid drive-bys. So glad that’s in the skills package I worked on today.
Full disclosure, I had a pretty bad fall late Sunday at a trial and have injured ribs/intercostals and a tidge of pericardial inflammation so not able to run super fast or apparently tug right now. So, toned the exercise down a bit and will ramp up with next steps you recommend as it hopefully improves the next few days.
Rip’s a bit confused why I’m not tugging so you’ll see he’s a bit unsure about the dropped toy after the first few reps so we used more kibble to reinforce.
So, I am still only on the 2nd set of content for this class but I just wanted to post more from our 2 day training this weekend because so much of it is dead on what you are saying are course trends. Taner, the instructor (who you know is a UKI judge) has been a major advocate for bringing more international challenges to the US and big on watching for “newer” trends.
He specifically discussed the exact challenges you’ve been helping us master in he first 2 sets of content in this CAMP.
So, some clips of focus forward starts, threadle wrap vs push wrap, and lots of discriminations, including some that were very similar to what we did in our homework for you earlier this week (especially jump/tunnel and jump/tunnel/weave) and often where you can’t (or don’t want to be) right there to help a ton and verbals get really important. I’m so glad we just worked on this in AU CAMP.😊
I think I was trying too hard to copy your arm style to see if that would help him get more clarity but not doing it “right” and making it worse. We had moved to a single low inside arm a while ago that works well most of the time. It’s only when the line isn’t set that I feel that doesn’t give him what he needs.
I want to share some sequences from our seminar yesterday to see if your eagle eye can help me with pinpointing what went right and wrong on the threadle wraps. I do feel like he’s super good at them when I can successfully set that line to the backside and he’s got nice commitment and independence on them when that goes well.
P.S. we did lots of push wraps too but the threadle wraps are what gives me anxiety so I’d really like to focus on them.
Okay, sh@*t’s getting real. We need serious help with our threadle wraps. In particular the ones where the dog’s line is to the front/wrong side of the jump and they need to diverge from that line to get to the backside.
He’s generally really good at them when the line is already to the backside or even skimming away from the obstacle. I put an example of that at the very end of this video.
So, we worked on the threadle wrap skill set over several shorter sessions today so you could see various attempts.
One of his most common responses is to head to the front and as he realizes I really am asking for the threadle wrap he does a sudden detour to the backside. It impresses people because it shows he knows it’s not a front side but it’s still an error and I do tend to reinforce when he does it because it’s mostly right. I really want him to adjust his path to the backside when I cue it and don’t know how to help him understand this.
Help please!
We’re at a 2 day Taner Dogan seminar here locally so will need to put any advice to work with whatever setups he gives us.
Okay, we’re back and finally able to set up some of your fun drills at home. Between camp and trials, plus all the time driving through so many desert states with no real grassy parks, we didn’t do much training when we weren’t actually at a facility the past few weeks.
Here’s some discriminations drill work from the 2nd set of content.
Seminar was great. LOTS of running, running, technical challenge, forced layer, running, running. She was nice and Rip loved it. 😊 Lots of the trend of stuff everywhere I feel like we’re seeing more of, where just verbals, tricky skills, and distance aren’t quite enough.
She’s a judge for Canada Open (just entered yesterday) as is Greg Derrett (no freaking clue what to expect from him since I haven’t seen any courses from him since we started doing UKI). 🤷♀️
Day off today and then we just have to battle the wind and heat to get some training in before next Tuesday.
Tuesday we leave for New Mexico (17 hour drive) for Game On agility camp and then head right to Washington state (23 hour drive) for Run Wild ISC/UKI show. I’m gonna take some little jumps and cones with us so if you have any mini mini exercises you could point me at in any of our previous courses with you (we’ve got a ton of stuff in our AU library) maybe I could post some of that while we’re away from our full set up at home?
Very helpful insights and I’ll keep all of that in mind as we go on.
I’m struggling a bit to understand what happened in his class tonight. We were at Marin Humane – so on grass. Doing a Stefanie Semkat course, so technical plus distance. Jumping 24”. Jumps are winged, mostly sturdy Galican and most or all 5’ bars I think.
He didn’t drop a single bar in the whole class. Super unusual for him, but also huge difference from home this morning where he dropped tons of bars in the video I posted for class (and even last night at Power Paws – which is also grass and where we’ll be in a 2 day seminar with Stefanie Mon/Tues – where he dropped a good number of bars on another Stef course last night – obviously folks are doing her courses to prep for an ISC trial she’s judging here this weekend).
Here’s some video from tonight where bars were NOT dropping. I’m still doing some of the high arm stuff (haven’t really assimilated that yet). I do think it’s harder for him to keep bars up in our packed dirt/sand surface at home and of course at home I’m trying to push him a bit with the lighter 1/2” and shorter 4’ PVC. Let me know if this example of not dropping bars gives you a more insight into what I should and shouldn’t be doing as we go on.
He definitely acknowledged the jump even though it looks like he was not staring at it.
Yes, my criteria is just an eye flick – if he does stare at it that’s fine but with the longer lead outs an eye flick is all I need to know he’s aware of the correct obstacle.
We worked on the next set of short sequences today. Our issue is definitely bars. To be very fair I am trying 4 foot jump bars and 1/2” PVC with our flimsier plastic wings starting this week in an attempt to help him be much more aware of his body parts hitting bars/wings. AND transitioning to more 24” jumping (from 20/22 in the past).
I’m trying a few different things fewer, more, quieter, louder cues and also delaying a blind at one point to see what handling variables might make it harder or easier to keep bars up. Any advice in this area (or general handling of course) would be greatly appreciated. 😊
Cindi
Did a short session of focus forward before it gets too hot.
We’ve worked on this skill before since it is showing up so often now. I pushed a bit for the longer leadouts here. He showed good understanding of the concept. 😊
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 end1. 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 quads2. 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.
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 momentIn 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!!!!!🤨
