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We worked on Send and Go Pinwheels a bit. Moved the jumps onto the lawn since he wasn’t loving the dirt last session (or first thing this AM). It’s getting a bit hot, but windy so we kept the session short and he was shade seeking a bit between reps.
Here you’ve got 1st rep, 2 middle reps and last rep (I cut out 2 additional reps with Jump 2 closer but it looked about the same).
On rep 2 here I think I said Go as a cue to jump 3. But I cued after he had landed and was turning toward it already so looked like a Go at that point. I think ideally I’d be saying Come as he’s taking off for or landing from Jump 2. Since this is kind of a wide-spaced pinwheel for him I could theoretically see saying Come before he takes off for Jump 2 as signaling a tighter turn in the air but worry that could pull him off the path to Jump 3.
It’s kind of hard since his strides are so short and turning is so easy. I’m used to a bigger, long strided dog where I would really need to cue collection for this type of turn from 2 to 3 so end up overthinking it a bit.
We’re really far behind but plugging along. Just worked on rear crosses a bit.
It felt like he was so patterned to driving out ahead that he wasn’t really noticing/responding to my rear cross the way I would have anticipated. I ended up throwing in verbals to help turn him and help him find the jump once I had crossed.
It’s probably just that we’ve been doing a lot of verbal only/ignore my body/position stuff in the past few weeks. That’s due to the exercises I’ve chosen and probably driven by my Achilles tendonitis issue. So, anyway, probably just time to balance things up with more handler focus again. Not a horrible problem to have with this little guy since historically we’ve had an over-abundance of handler focus and not as much obstacle focus/drive.
Hi Diane,
We may need to duck out. Work has been crazy with COVID response projects.
We’ll try to retake this class in the future when things are a bit more settled.
If I can do any more work during the rest of the course I will.
Cindi
We did a bit of the threadle assignment and then did the tunnel jump commitment set the way you suggested backing up closer to the tunnel entrance and sending him ahead.
He hasn’t had any specific mechanical training on threadles and no verbal for that. So, I started out showing him the position and verbal cue “Close” and having him just come into my open arm and getting reinforced there at my front, then progressed to tossing his ball along the next part of his path and we worked our way up to the ball sitting on the slice line. We also moved from him being offset from the wing with a clear path to me, then a bit more in line with the wing, then behind the wing, then more in front of the jump so he had to come all the way around the wing to come into me.
He seemed to do pretty well on this today.
Hi Diane,
Sorry we’re kind of behind on the actual weekly schedule.
Work is crazy with a COVID related project and I had over-committed to online classes not realizing that would happen.
So we worked on Week 1 – Weaves Place assignment this past weekend when we rented our local agility venue (classes and shows canceled for now due to COVID).
We’ll move on to next exercises when our ground dries up a bit or when I next have the location available.
Also, can you clarify for the next part of these exercises which hand you think treat should be in. Here I was behind pole 3, so should have had the treat in my left hand I think (but had forgotten that by the time I got out there to do the exercises) and then you’re saying if/when we have exercises where I’m behind pole 2 I should have the treat in my right hand (makes sense, just making sure I’ve got it right for next time).
Hi Tracy,
Yes, historically I’ve used “Go” to mean take the single obstacle in front of you and “Go On” to basically mean continue along this line taking all obstacles in your path until told otherwise (or until you hit a tunnel or other obstacle that turns you or shapes your path). It’s made sense with my big long striding border collie in the past to let her know exactly how long she can expect to stay in extension. Not sure how much it does or should mean to this little guy and I may not be as consistent with him using it.
After we taped the last exercise we had rented out our local agility location for an hour (the next morning) so both of my dogs could play (since classes are canceled right now due to COVID-19).
I went ahead and set up and did the same exercise – commitment out of the tunnel – just because I’m trying to emphasize acceleration, extension, distance and confidence with this guy to keep things fun for him and try to build his overall confidence/optimism and enjoyment.
So, I taped this before I saw your comments above but am sharing it since it’s the only thing I have taped right now. Hopefully we’ll set something up this afternoon (between rain and a huge work project we’re a bit behind). I like your suggestion of balancing the tunnel exit being closer to the jumps and working back toward the tunnel exit and will try to set that up next if my field isn’t too soggy (or during this week’s rental session tomorrow).
We did a bit with finding a line – committing to going straight coming out of a tunnel.
We’ve been doing some find the single jump work when we’re at a local park (I set it about 30-50 feet away and send either this little one or my border collie out over it). So, he’s been seeing some distance without a lot of supporting motion when we do that (mostly because my Achilles is still a bit off and I’m avoiding running plus it’s really good for him to be brave and do things like that in new locations).
We did the exercises as shown but I kind of faked the running and tried to show just the picture of what I might look like if I was actually running (but not moving much to spare my tendon).
He seemed fine with this. Back in the day I used to do a lot of NADAC (when there were fewer venues/fewer shows) so I tend to incorporate quite a bit of distance stuff early on just of have that in our bag of tricks.
Sorry for the late start, work is crazy.
We just worked on the luring exercise for positions 12, 11 and 1.
Sorry for being absent for a week – work is crazy.
We worked on early serp training today. I’m not sure how much I’ve really broken this down for him before as far as coming into that open arm with me at a standstill so I worked it in stages, starting with rewarding from hand, then tossing his lotus ball, then having it on the ground.
So, he doesn’t wear a collar, wears a harness and would probably be horrified if I grabbed it. He’s not much of an opposition reflex guy.
It’s super windy out but we tried to get a quick training session in.
Go – I did try sending him out around a cone and then on to the jump and beyond with a Go. He’s actually pretty good at that stuff. Nice to have that in my pocket for times like now when I don’t want to have to run (Achilles issue still pretty bad).
Setpoint – We did a little bit of setpoint with the toy on the ground.
Mini Pinny- I thought I was remembering everything, then realized you wanted the original stage to be a bounce. So, I messed that part up since this was set as a traditional 180 degree pinwheel and ends up being 1 stride between each jump when he takes it on the innermost part (where the distance is the shortest).
We did a short session of Go Extension to mix things up a bit and will go back to setpoint in the next couple of days.
I’m having an issue with some Achilles Tendinitis so am super gimpy. Also, I am not great at getting the ball low and straight while also running. So many things to think about. 😉
The first 2 tries I threw way too high. He drove out nicely but turned to look at me in the air and on landing because the ball was so high he hadn’t seen it. I cut those out of this clip since they were totally my issue, not his. So, on these ones I was trying to get that ball a bit lower and earlier so he could see it as he was driving forward.
I do use the cue “Go” a lot. Pretty much daily when we play fetch. I give the cue, he starts running straight away from me, looking straight forward and I throw the ball to land a ways in front of him on the straight line he is on (I use a big tennis ball, a ball thrower and am standing still so am quite a bit better at aiming for those ones). So, the cue and use is not new.
We also did a quick session of bending today. I tried it yesterday but used his verbal for going around a thing “Around” and then re-read the lesson and realized you didn’t want any verbals on it.
We’ve done lots of training with various props (agility obstacles, platforms, other stuff) and so he’s got quite a bit of stimulus control to not do the thing without some kind of release or cue from me. So, he was just a bit confused about if he was supposed to do anything. I tried to give a soft cue with my body or a non-specific verbal (nothing I would use for an around or pinwheel). He was a bit faster yesterday when I used his “Around” cue but I think he’ll actually feel more confident with this when the poles are added and then it becomes a pinwheel.
Thanks for your feedback.
Here’s a short session of SetPoint. I have the Susan Salo Videos (???maybe really that old and actually VHS, or maybe DVDs) and remember using them with my border collies and Aussies over the years. I don’t actually think I worked through them with this little one.
Since he basically dropped out of agility school while still in beginner classes we may just not have worked through this (we had sooo many other things on our list that were higher priority in a world full of Bogeymen).
I threw in slow-mo for each jump just because I was already playing around in my Camtasia video editing software for a work project (creating online learning modules for animal shelters to use for staff during the COVID crisis).
Thanks for the feedback on those first 2 exercises Tracy. I tried to incorporate some of this into today’s session.
We worked on a second session of offered jumps – adding some angles and some distractions. I was really happy with how he did. He has seen these white chairs and at least 1 of the 2 pole setters before a while ago. I think I used some of these props about a year ago when we were working on some distraction stuff. I started the clip with us coming out of the house and him seeing them for the first time since then.
In the moment I felt like I was turning my lower body when he was at least 1-2 strides from the jump but when I watch in slow-mo I can see that I really am only turning as he leaves the ground or after he’s in the air. I feel like I need to really work on that timing more. In any event, he’s totally committed regardless of what I’m doing here so far. Early in the session he was using the chairs as a kind of “go around” obstacle so I just moved them closer to the jump like some crazy wings.
We also worked on tunnel commitment 1 a bit. He again did surprisingly well. I have not been giving his next directional cue before he enters the tunnel. I think I usually give it when he’s halfway through or coming out. So, that was totally new to him today. I was really surprised it didn’t pull him off. I don’t think he’s truly yet thinking extension or collection for turn coming out of the tunnel based on my pre-tunnel cue, but I can see how this will come along quickly as I incorporate this into my normal handling with him. He’s actually not much of a tunnel dog, hasn’t really loved them in the past. I felt like he was showing more enthusiasm for them today in general, so really happy about that.
Because we started about a week and a half late I’m feeling a little behind. Should I wait and not submit any more video until next week or continue catching up with the rest of the class?
1. Offered Jump Session 2 – 3/19/20 – with angles and distractions
2. Tunnel Commitment 1 – 3/19/20
