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I also just realized I’m switching the toy in my hands again 🙄 I swear I’m trying to keep that in mind.
I keep going into these exercises thinking I’ll be able to get through them quickly. And then I realized I have a completely new puppy I’m learning to be a team with and become humbled 😂. These are really good exercises for us. I need to maintain better connection with her and learn how to help her succeed better in our training. I left basically all the reps in here because we only got to the front cross and had to break a lot of stuff down. The first rep was hilarious to me because I’ve just never had a dog flank out away from me like this. All my dogs are next to me. Looking back, I do think I should have set this up on an easier and more open part of the ring. I think I’ll move onto the next lessons for now as well.
<this also means I am 100000% *against* dogs beginning their trial careers at 15 months or 18 months because there is simply no way all the pieces are in place enough to be in the trial ring>
SAME.
<The set point and the striding grids are the first to see the higher jumps, and I make sure there is motion added onto those before I bring higher heights into handling.>
I have been taking a separate foundation jumping class to focus on grids. We are taking a break from it but I’m going to start back up with it in the spring when i have room to train again. I’ve never focused on jumping before so this is a learning curve for me. I actually might take it with Emmie because I think it would help her confidence for some of the obstacles as well. I feel like I need to focus on it with Lu because of her physical maturity. She’s very athletic but her legs/body are everywhere right now LOL. And her mental maturity I see the same thing. She has laser focus for working but is so puppy in everything else.
<When she is happy on the grids, the heights can come up in handling bit by bit – this will vary based on how familiar she is with the skill and how well she can do it. If it is a familiar skill in a familiar location? The bar can come up. Unfamiliar skill in familiar location? Low bar. Familiar skill in unfamiliar location? Low bar. Unfamiliar skill in unfamiliar location? Definitely low bar!>
I’ll keep this in mind the next couple of months.
<When you went to the other side, you were tending to switch the toy from hand to hand and drop the toy down at your side with the dog-side arm – so she came to the toy but it was not because of exit line connection 🙂>
I was thinking very hard about where the toy should be in these exercises and fighting with her startline. I think next time I’ll do two toys instead or just have someone throw it for me again.
<Compare that to the connection on the other side at :54 – perfect! You definitely have a side preference LOL!!
And look at 1:02 on the other side – the exit line connection is not as well-rehearsed when you added the next jump, so you were looking forward more and she was wider on the line there. So keep exaggerating the exit line connection and showing her to the toy across your body.>
For these reps, I thought I was supposed to be doing it more like 1:02 instead of :54. Good to know!
<So with the spins, I think the most important thing to get great exit line connection is to work on not switching the toy from hand to hand – leave it in the hand it starts in so you can show it to her to create the exit line connection.>
I had no idea I switched the toy. I literally was trying so hard not to and trying to make sure i had it in the correct hand LOL.
<Compare that to :10 and :16, where you were looking forward (maybe seeing her peripherally but not clearly connected so she could see your eyes and front of your shoulders) and getting ready to throw the toy by switching it from hand to hand while she was at jump 1.>
So for this exercise, it’s better to keep the toy in one hand and not switch…versus trying to keep it in dog side hand to throw it?
<When you switched sides – her first rep (:47) had a question…Turning sooner helped her and having someone else throw the reward was great because it really marked the moment she committed to the 2nd jump on the line.>
I felt like I really kept my shoulders open on this one too and didn’t turn as fast like I did in other reps.
Also, separate topic. Lu just turned 14 months this month. She’s my first puppy I’ve gotten during the winter so my timing for training is all messed up. When do you start raising jumps?
Here is exit line connections. We only had time for FC and spins. We have some more time reserved for next weekend so we will have to try for the BC then. We were also really struggling with start line stays during this so I was having a hard time juggling where the toy should be, is she holding her stay, and executing the cross. I think on a few of these I felt like I went too far towards the second jump because I was focusing on her stay.
Hi,
Here is our second session of regular connection. So we broke this down into mini sessions per your feedback with one jump with cheese, then walking, then thrown toy and more motion. We did these sessions about a weeks ago in the yard and then the cold and snow hit. So I’ve had to wait until we could get an indoor rental to set this up again for the final session. We did a quick review prior to this with some cheese and then ran it like I would normally run. There were still some oops on her part and my part (doh!). But I think she’s much improved and I’m not waiting for her to find the line.
<Don’t top moving but also don’t go fast and don’t rotate towards her on the wing wrap.>
What do you mean by don’t rotate towards her on the wing wrap?
I was going to do the competition track with low jumps. We did get out before sunset to try the first exercise. I have started to notice with more movement on my end I’m starting to get flanking behavior. You can see it pretty good in this exercise lol. If it got worse, I was going to put up a little gate to help her out but I’m sure more experience with obstacles will help as she gets older too.
Hi Tracy – I have a couple questions. When is the last day of posting for this class? What is the next class in the series and when is that scheduled to open? What topics will be covered? Is it just advancing the topics in this class or is it going to be contacts/weaves or something like that? Just wondering what equipment I will need available to me and if I will need to look for scheduling time in a building now (sadness).
