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Almost able to use the full Jumpers course on my field at home (just gotta get the darn A frame out of the center of it).
In the meantime some more weave work. He hasn’t really had any issues with popping out of the weaves before but in his IRL class last night he popped a couple of times on a long set so I decided to work on commitment to the poles/exits today.
I’ve got a bunch of his tug toys in front of and after the weaves and am marking for the last pole here while adding in some seeing me doing handling moves or being at a distance but staying in the poles. Last night I think the big challenge was the weaves were aiming straight into the center of a U shaped tunnel that was the next obstacle and the instructor really wanted a front cross before the tunnel in a tight space. Next session I’ll work on more crosses on the exit end of the poles.
“Working Ripley” is the problem and he barks, begs, throws a tantrum, leads me to the door (or the cabinet with his training) stuff if he doesn’t feel like he’s had enough training. Then everyone else in the family pays – including all the other dogs (and my wife).
I remember you mentioning the soccer coach help years ago at a Power Paws camp. Made total sense, I just haven’t ever gotten serious enough to train myself.
As far as this exercise, yes, this is the first time he’s done it. He literally is a sponge and loves concept training. I don’t do tons of luring but when I do I add a lot of small pieces of variety and fade the lure as quickly as possible and I think he appreciates that. He doesn’t appreciate being babied or talked down to. He just wants me to explain the concept and then get out of his darn way.
I feel like we’ve seen that in Max Pup where you’re like – “Okay, now do the cha cha, followed by the rumba” and I’m like “What?” while Ripley’s like, “Got it, cha cha, rumba, now what.” 🤣
Yeah 1:13 on that last video cracked me up. This kid of mine. 🤣
He was a bit jacked up before bed last night so we did some quick behind-the-back start training so that he would hopefully sleep and not drive us all nuts.
I like the idea of more options to not start flat-footed with him. I feel like my 0 to 60 is much slower than his (it’s one of the reasons I think I’ve been avoiding too much decel on course – since too much and it’s really hard to get back up to speed).
With the heat my agility space is getting all cracked with ruts and divets so need to drag it to get it safe again. In the meantime here’s a first shot at the weaves independence exercise.
We’ll circle back to jumpers courses when the field is good to go.
Okay redo of ESC package 1 sequences 1,2 and 3 plus first attempts at 4.
I’ve got the jumps back up to 20” which he hasn’t seen much of the past few weeks since I’ve had him at 16” a lot (but he’ll jump 20” “for real”).
He’s knocking some bars here and there and feels like we just need to fine tune cues, timing, motion, etc.
I am using way too many “go ons” here watching this back and not giving him the info he really needs. Also feels like I’m coming in too hot to the wing wrap in sequence 4 and should be showing some decel and giving the verbal sooner instead of a go on for the jump after the tunnel.
I’m totally behind in CAMP so will look for that verbal discrimination game there or here as I catch up.
We did CAMP stuff in the AM when it was cool out and Rip is bugging me like crazy to play with it 100+ degrees out so we settled on a slightly longer lazy 2o2o game to try to amuse him.
He’s good at offering 2o2o when he thinks there’s any chance that’s what I want. Basically once he’s in position he’s going to stay there (especially in this kind of game). I tried a few different positions and played with toy reinforcement in addition to his normal kibble treats.
Okay, I tried to get caught up in MaxPup 3 so we could dive into CAMP stuff a bit.
This is Package 1 ESC Sequence 1, 2 and 3. These are all of our reps just cut out tugging and lineup between reps since I know you’ve seen plenty of that in MaxPup lives.
This is definitely the stuff we need now to try to figure our timing out together. I really like how some Decel and a tiny bit of tunnel break helped him find that tight right out of the tunnel on sequence 2 and 3. Also seeing that veering in toward him to get the line 4-5 on sequence 2 was slightly annoying to both of us and layering that middle jump of the pinwheel gave him a nice straight extended line to that 5 jump.
He’s going to that single jump after the tunnel with some collection each time. I think it’s because my dog walk is there and a fence and he’s preparing for a sharp right onto the DW or just slowing to avoid the fence. I can place a toy out there to show him he can extend at least to that point but wanted your input first.
Thanks for the feedback on that last session.
This morning we worked on the countermotion exercise.
Pup’s feeling a bit nutty today and had a lot of fun. We took a break half way through for some hose play then finished up since it will be too hot later.
Watching it back and knowing him, I could be leaving earlier on the wraps but just ended up distracted by which verbal, which wing, etc.
Was there a “Verbals” exercise somewhere in our content (I saw Levy working on something that I don’t remember seeing in what I’ve looked through so far).
Hi Tracy,
We haven’t posted in a bit but the last live was great and we’ve been working on MP3 stuff, just not always taping.
Today we worked on teeter independence first. I tried using the Manner’s Minder for remote reinforcement straight ahead after the teeter and it was a bit perplexing for both of us at first but he caught on to it. Not a ton of reps as it’s already getting hot out there. When he’s on my left I can only go so far without 1st smacking into a tree and then a fence. I’ll have to move the teeter to do much more with this.
We also did double blinds. I am SUPER BUMMED. We did a great little session and when I walked over to the camera I HAD NOT HIT RECORD. Ugh. It’s going to be too hot later today so I hosed him off and we did a few more reps but I could tell we were both kind of tired and we weren’t quite as brilliant as the first reps LOL. I think it was mostly me being tired and not moving as smoothly, occassionally forgetting one more, one more thing of keeping moving and also my arms were getting flappier as I got tired and started to forget my biceps to sides tag point.
Anyway, it wasn’t a huge failure but just not as lovely and smooth as our unrecorded session.
Teeter Independence:
Double Blinds:
I feel like straight line 4 ways has lots of super important elements so want to stay on it for a bit. Here’s session 2, same direction, trying to incorporate as much of your feedback as I could remember. Started with jumps at 20” then lowered to 16” after the first few reps just because it’s hot out already.
1. Got the toy out there on the straight line and helped a lot to keep him looking and driving ahead (jumps are about 22’ apart here and when he comes in in extension he’s needing to do a pretty short 1 stride).
2. Inside wrap I’m not hating.
3. Outside wrap I’m struggling a bit not to really cross behind him and not just turn and run laterally (even though I told myself to drive in, set the line and drive toward center of the jump for a more diagonal cross instead of the 90 degree turn I’m doing). I’ll have a talk with myself. Also, I’m not decel’ing. I feel like at some Power Paws camp years ago with my 1st generation of dogs I was told to really drive that line and not decel and that’s what stuck even though that was typically for soft turn rears, not wraps. Again, sounds like a little talk is in order.
4. Push is feeling/looking good to me but I know I can turn and burn earlier since once I see him commit to the line I feel confident he’s not going to pull off at this point and feel pretty good he understands the cue to mean go to the back and take the jump.
If this is looking at least better I’ll set up the mirror image tomorrow (or Sunday since I think we have a live tomorrow) and make sure no issues on his part.
We worked on the straight line 4 ways today. I watched/read the assignment a couple of days ago and messed up a little when I got out there – rewarding after the handling challenge each time instead of heading back to the first jump out of the tunnel. We’ll work up to the full sequence next session.
We were at a 4 day show all weekend and I forced him to have a day off yesterday. He’s got class IRL tonight so I was going to post some footage from this weekend for some feedback (I hope that’s okay). If it’s not I’ll come back and delete.
This is NADAC and “Intro” level so very short courses, not lots of jumps and lower than his eventual jump height + they do a double run format so you get 2 rounds of the same course (which is actually kind of awesome for working through issues and increasing a baby dog’s confidence). I haven’t been much of a NADAC fan the past decade or so but am really liking it for baby dogs now.
Here’s our highlights reel (I cut out a lot of our training runs with toy play after the contacts). I don’t train much on hoops and his commitment to them isn’t quite as strong as jumps. On the other hand his commitment to and independence on jumps has swung a bit too far 🤣 (2nd video).
Highlights
Hmmm……a little too independent on what is NOT a pinwheel. 😝. Note the red jump near the umbrella is NOT part of the beginning of this course (whether Ripley believes it or not 😂). The camera doesn’t show jump #1 but 4 to 5 is a 180 and then out to that outside straight line of jumps (so Rip’s trying to add a full extra loop of jumps).
Hi Tracy,
Thanks for the fun live class last Saturday. We had a lot of fun.
Here’s a little bit of rear cross stuff.
I did a little rear cross work last week. He seemed to read them well but that was on a straight send to the first jump and either a soft or more acute turn to the 2nd jump I was using.
Here’s that session to see where I thought we were starting from:
We tried the first exercise you shared as the bonus RC stuff this morning (already really hot out so just did the 1 sequence) and just had a bit of trouble setting the line from jump 3-4 to get a nice rear cross on 4. No real issues reading the rear once I’d done it, but an issue committing to front side of 4 with my speed and pathway and the angle of the 2 jumps.
Rep 1 – was okay, but he swung out a little from 3-4 like he thought it was a backside to 4. I also used “left” instead of his wrap cue “dig dig” for 4 which wasn’t really correct.
Rep 2 – he still had a question mark about what I wanted on 4. I asked for a wrap (wing wrap to his left) on 4 but did NOT decel, just turned. So, that’s my bar and I deserved that head check between 3-4.
Rep 3 – too much decel too early, got a head turn and he read my rotation for the rear as a push on his line to a backside. Poor puppy.
Rep 4 – he checks as he lands off 3, sees I’m heading to his line so confidently takes the backside of 4. He’s not wrong.
Backchained 3,4 then exit of 2 to 3,4. I’m trying to avoid asking for a flick, so trying not to run to the right of jump 4 to pull him toward it and then abruptly rear cross in an old fashioned flick fake out. He’s just not totally reading my shoulder pull to 4. Help needed.
Rep 5 – still buying the backside.
Checked the video, checked my jumps and realized maybe I had set too sharp of an angle to 4 for his current understanding and my current attempts at handling the sequence, so just made it a little kinder for him.
Rep 6 – last rep – he got it so we stopped (I dropped the dig dig but that was just a mistake and he still read the RC wrap).
Looking forward to you setting me straight. 😝
