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Here’s our second attempt at sequence opening #4. I thought overall this was a good session for all the things except the last jump in the sequence. Although this is a different sequence there was obviously some similarities from yesterday’s session that I tried to apply here.
<Another place to consider running more connected and not as fast was the line after the tunnel, where she had a big run past the 2 jumps after the tunnel at 4:28. It might have been lack of connection with so much speed and you being that far ahead, so she was following motion and going a little wide to find the connection.>
I was really trying to keep this in mind but I don’t know how well I did. I felt like I ran a little less fast at the beginning and it worked out really nice. This has always been a big struggle for me because I don’t know what to do with myself.
Here is our second attempt on sequence opening #3. I went a little over the 5 min mark so sped up some of the rewarding sessions in the video so it would make time. First couple of reps I was going to try to do the brake arm but completely forgot. When I did try to use it I think I ended up spinning instead. I really don’t want to use a spin on these kind of turns. Is there a different way to do it? I am going to revisit soft turns again at some point for training. I did keep in mind to keep going on the mistakes but there really wasn’t a way to “keep going” on this sequence with the big off course like she was doing – however my rewarding with the toy was more animated. I did continue on with the last few obstacles when she went around them during one of the reps. I was also really focusing on staying connected with her startline which I think I did a good job with but I still think I’m releasing on motion.🫤
Can you provide me with a presentation every time? LOL. This is great feedback – thank you.
So for startlines, I think I need to focus how to line MYSELF up each time so I’m not moving and I”m very directly showing her where I want her to go with shoulders/feet. And if I’m pointing, shoulders and feet need to be the same way as I’m pointing.
<And if it goes wrong? Keep going! Freezing with a quiet demeanor reads as “you are wrong” even though she got the toy. The toy is not really the reward… the reward is continuing plus your excited happy response. So she was beginning to get and get frustrated, making it harder to line up at the start line and hold the stay (because what was going to happen was unpredictable and stressful). >
Gotta work on breaking this habit with her. I got really good at continuing on with my first dog and then Kippy and Emmie spoiled me.
<The other hard part was the commitment cue to 3, where you were early on the first couple of reps so she correctly did not take 3. You told her she was wrong there but that is exactly what the cue would look like if you did want the turn on the tunnel exit… so she was not wrong. Definitely keep going, reward for real, then go watch the video if you are convinced she was wrong (see screenshot 🤣🤣).>
I kicked myself when I told her no and redid this. You gave the me exact same feedback from the first attempt. I knew she was right and I think my overall frustration with the session got to me.
<You were already rotated as she as exiting the tunnel.>
I also knew from your last feedback that I really needed to be facing that jump with my entire body. I think this will be a bit of learning curve for my handling with her because she’s so fast/responsive that I want to make sure I’m giving her cues early enough but she’s very literal. I think I can get away with this with Emmie but need to build up the teamwork still with Lu.
Thanks for the breakdown again. This was very helpful (doesn’t mean I can execute everything in it yet though LOL).
We gave sequence opening #1 another shot tonight. I reviewed your feedback before I ran it. But I felt like I made similar mistakes, until I regrouped at the end. I was also getting pretty frustrated with her startline. Although I can see why she kept going in the tunnel even though I was giving her, her wrap cue (need that extra step with the left foot) she was still breaking pretty consistently. Am I still pairing with motion? I forgot to respond to your feedback but I was really happy with her startline from Sequence #5 where I was really trying to stay connected.
Here is the up and down game. She actually got stuck on this one a few times. She first thought she shouldn’t touch the food and later offered a down.
Emmie has a trial this weekend and Lu will be there as support staff so we can practice some of these games then.
Here’s sequence opening #5. I muted this because it was a friends’ training day so everyone was outside and barking obnoxiously. I tried really hard during the session to stay connected at the startline with her.
<When you are doing jump grids (which I know are not her favorite thing currently) – are you adding motion to those? >
I’ve been going through the Kim Collins’s jumping class progression. We are in the more advanced jumping grids now that are starting to add motion to it so we are working on those mechanics.
Here’s Opening Sequences #4. Another item I’m struggling with is how much to run and how much I need to hold back a bit. I did try running more like I normally would in some of this session and I thought it turned out much better than trying to hold back. Also, I did have the first jump in the camera when I lined it up but as you’ll see in the video the wind was pretty bad.
Here’s Opening Sequences #3. I VERY much wanted to continue this session and try to get it but I’m glad I stopped when I did.
Here’s Sequence Opening #2. This was a terrible camera angle and didn’t realize you couldn’t see the startline until later. I only edited out the time between startline set-ups since you couldn’t see them anyway. Startlines are very difficult for her and we’ve worked A TON on them. I’m not sure what to do with them or if one of the games would help her in these situations? I do think her startline behavior can be indicative of her arousal state. The later in the session/if she’s more tired it’s very hard for her to do it. But, it’s also just an all around issue too. I’ll make sure you’ll be able to see them better in the following videos.
<It might be a matter of how it is cued (and when). She is fast and powerful, so will likely need a ‘brake’ arm style of cue: the dog side arm AND the opposite arm cue the soft turn, rather than sending on the dog side arm only.>
I’m sure this will come up during one of the sequences and we can try it then.
<Has she seen a chiro or soft tissue person since then? She might have something that needs attention and causing her to be a bit careful.>
No, but it seems to very much be the jump grid situation as it doesn’t show up anywhere else. Plus, we are easing our way into the chiro stuff because it’s “scary.”
<Also, you can add more of the forward focus to the jump before the release – will she look at the jump when you point at it?>
We have worked a forward focus cue but I don’t think it’s ready for adding to sequences yet.
So I went back and rewatched all the points and my question is, when will I have to NOT be perfect with my handling LOL. She’s so difficult to handle because of this and her speed. Plus there’s just a lot of situations I feel like she thinks outside of the box and I’m not quite sure what to do. I’ll post a video of a backside wrap issue I had to see what you think as an example.
Here is our unedited session for Sequence #1 Is the 5 minute threshold for each sequence or all the sequences combined?
<She is a really cool dog! Fill me in more on the challenges you are having so we can focus on them very specifically here 🙂>
Here are a couple of items that I think we need just to give you an idea:
1) Going back and retraining soft turns
-She commits so early to obstacles and stays on her line. I think this is a big missing link for us to execute sequences.
2) Soft turns out of tunnels and how to break this down better
-Pretty similar to the item above but this is where it really shows up that I need a soft turn cue. She does great out of curved tunnels, straight tunnels, and if I’m timely with cues she will turn very tight out of straight tunnels. It’s the soft turns out of tunnels and subtly curved tunnels we struggle with.From my end:
1) Plan ahead for my training sessions. If I’m having an issue, go back/review video, and be able to pivot my training. This is a hard skill for me 🙂 I think I do a decent job of planning training sessions, but it’s the reviewing and pivoting that needs work.
2) Keeping Lu happy and her confidence up. I think she is a lot more sensitive than I first thought when she was younger. A good example was a recent jump grid. A few weeks ago we did a four jump grid with an increased height at the end that I accidentally set incorrectly (set it too tight). She did it but finagled her body around and I got scared she was going to hurt herself (pretty sure I said something like OMG when she did it). We’ve done a few since then and she’s been very hesitant on the third jump (adding stutter steps, going around it outside of the grid). We took a break from grids for a few weeks but started back yesterday. And we just worked on very low jumps, adding motion, and lots of rewarding to build her back up. She’s not 100% but I would have never guessed something like this would affect her.
