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I did a quick run thru on just a tunnel and weaves and she was magically back to her old self nailing the entries. Crisis and mini meltdown/panic attack averted. So we tried Jumpers Course 3. I didn’t get through it but didn’t want to push the weaves tonight and I messed up the rest anyway.
Emmie got to work on some transitions to trial stuff tonight. You can’t hear it very well but our cue is “Let’s go get your cookies.” She loves her toys but going through the pressure filled area of On The Run during a trial is a lot for her (tends to get snarky) so I like to feed her all the way through there instead.
He just turned 8 in May. The way he reads my body language and accel/decel is both a blessing and a curse. He’s my second agility dog and first fast dog so we got to learn how to compete together. Emmie is my third dog and first dog I decided that I needed to push myself outside my comfort zone to train some skills (because I really am a lazy trainer – I just keep telling myself how fun it will be to have a RDW to keep myself motivated LOL).
On the hard spot you mentioned (exit of the tunnel #5) – you can call his name and start the FC before he enters tunnel #5 at :08 That will get you a tighter turn. The FC has to happen REALLY fast there though… so a blind will be sooo much easier to do on time here because your feet can just fly forward and your upper body will show the turn.
This was my goal in that first rep but he was blasting out that tunnel because I was racing to get over there. I switched to a FC because I knew I was going to be late. I switched to all the pulls to get through the course a little tighter on the later reps but I don’t care for them because he does read those as converging on his lines (it’s also why I very rarely do rear crosses with him and if I do they tend to be on the flat). I just don’t know if I can get there for the BC either!
Weaves: if he will allow it (I don’t know how independent his weaves are), you can do the cross and start moving up the line before he exits, so you can be further ahead after the tunnel #10 at :18 and 1:38. He looked pretty independent here!
That can allow you to get the FC 12-13 at :23 and 1:39 sooner (he was already in the air when it started (a blind would work here too :)) Ideally you would decelerate and start the FC when he lands from 11.I should’ve tried that because I think it would have helped him to take 11 without hesitation too.
Course 2:
opening 1-2-3-4 – nice, both times!!!! A little decel on the “in in” threadle at 5 will tighten up the turn to 6 on both reps there.Ha – I tried to slow down that second rep….not quite fast enough LOL.
The ending looked strong too! He dropped the bar on 18 at 2:44 – when you suddenly accelerated. So he finds that sudden accelerations to be challenging!He typically does not drop bars (even during acceleration) so I’m chalking that up to him being a little out of shape ha!
And it is linked to the opportunity to reward him for finding the jump after a tunnel and not running around it, even if there is a sudden change in motion or a bit of pressure on his line.
When I slow down and there is convergence, it is definitely difficult for him (again, rear crosses = our nemesis).
Hi Tracy,
I tried running a jumpers course with Emmie this weekend but she was absolutely positive that the wrong entry was correct. I ended up putting a wing up to help her. We just worked that instead. I’m giving her a couple of days break before trying again. However, my camera got too hot and I didn’t get video. So, here’s my older dog Kip running the first and second jumpers course. He really has only one solid verbal (switch) which basically means turn away from me. He’s got a “back” and “in-in” which are not solid. We are taking a class for fun to try to solidify the threadle cue. Of course he expects nothing less than perfection on my part 🙂 I don’t normally “pull” as much as I did on these courses but we had a really hard time with that second tunnel exit.
I only worked the side in the video. Never tried the other side. Probably would have been a good idea just to see if it was that side only. I’ll skip these for now and move onto jumpers instead.
Hi Tracy,
We tried the first sequences for success course with the weaves. I was not expecting to have any problems with these but for some reason she could not hit her entries. I said before her entries are pretty solid so this was quite weird. She did the same failure throughout the session so I wasn’t sure what was going on. When I watch the video it doesn’t seem like it’s me. And I even attempted to help/handle like I normally would and still had the issue. The only thing I can think of is the bases of these six poles are different than my 2x2s. The poles are pretty new and I just bought them the beginning of summer. My older dog also struggled with the entries initially using these. It doesn’t seem that different to me but I also don’t know what the dogs use as the visual for entries. I switched the base around and had her try it again (rep not on the video) and she still had the exact same failure. I left the entry failures in there and me fixing them so you could see the whole thing. At 0:30 you can see her almost failing the entry and then last minute fixing it. I kept the last rep (although this was not the last rep in our training session) so you could see her regular striding through the poles (compared to yesterday’s). Of course she nailed that last rep and I couldn’t remember what I was doing lol. It’s thunderstorming the rest of today but I was thinking of setting up one of the full jumpers courses tomorrow to change it up for her.
Here’s our teeter session. We did every other rep with me running alongside her and then switching to adding some distance. I had a small target with a little treat out and then released to the MM.
Hi,
I did have the toy and MM out at the same time for the first rep. If we have additional challenges like these I’ll try fading the toy out/in. I think I unintentionally pushed the distance without setting the line. I need a line for myself to follow :-). I was going to do the small sequences with weaves today and finish up the second skills session on the teeter using your feedback. I’m going to keep the weaves closed and I’ll have a toy so I think it will be a good comparison.
Here’s our 2nd skills session with the weaves. I switched them to 6 poles of 2x2s and opened them a bit. Because she’s got her rhythm down, I think it takes her a bit to adjust to the open poles. And plus the added distance from me is really making her think. I added the MM at the end too to have something to focus on. I tried one rep with me holding the toy so I could throw it (not included in the video). She definitely likes the toy going through the poles (she gets going much faster) but it’s a big distraction for her and she popped the poles. So I just stuck with the MM because I wanted her to focus on the exercise and we can focus on the speed later once she understands to stay in the poles the entire way with the added distance. She definitely had to think through this but after ditching the toy the first rep and sticking with the MM, she nailed all the reps. I also noticed I may have made this a little harder by not setting the line great for her.
I trained them mostly by 2x2s but I did intermix channels too. Also on my homework list for weaves was opening the channels to help her swim and speed her up. I did one session of that earlier this spring and it really helped her. I can probably try a little of both (6 weaves + channels) in her next sessions.
I was actually wondering how I could break this down to make it easier for her. Plus I don’t like to do a lot of reps on weaves anyway. So I’ll try some later this week with six poles to see how she does. I think that will make her much more successful.
I’ve only been doing about 1-2 teeters about twice a week since class got over intermixed in little sequences so I’m pretty happy how it’s moving along. I think switching up the distance and then running beside her will work great!
Here is the first skills video. For the teeter, I used a target (with no treats on it for the first time in a while) and had the MM beyond that to keep her focus forward. She’s been getting quite confident on the teeter when I sprint alongside her/past her when we have practiced. So this was definitely hard for her at the tip point.
As for the weaves, this has been on our homework list for the summer already so I figured it would be tough. She typically has great entries (although solidifying those are also homework) but her weakness is definitely popping the last few poles.
I do have a question about the video submissions. Specifically for the skills parts. As an example, can we submit 4 reps of a teeter and 4 reps of weaves in one video if it’s under three minutes? Or are you only wanting one obstacle with 4 reps?
I’m not completely sure when posting for this class will close, but I really enjoyed it. I love how you broke down everything (for both the handler and the dog) with all the different options for different learning styles. I made it into your seminar off the waitlist at On The Run so I’ll see you in person mid-June. Thanks for all the help!
