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Speaking of ‘not a lot of caffeine on board’…..here are a few videos from our practice tonight. My brain was spinning trying to get everything right- but hopefully these are at least baby steps in the right direction!
Zig-Zags:
Her focus was gone by the time we got to this one, so we had a few ‘stay’ errors and a few reps that ended up being just straight lines. I cut the video short for the sake of time:
Thank you for the suggestions on redirection and getting her attention!
The Turn Away game went much smoother today after rereading your notes above and rewatching some of the tips in the Live Video 😊.Wind in Your Hair: Mission Transition
This one is fun 😊. Definitely challenging trying to find the right timing- but she likes the moving games, so she seems willing to keep trying so I can figure it out.
Signing off with my new motto:”Run Hard!”
Ah – another bad habit to break ;). After your note about my use of ‘go’ last week, I realized I use it to amp up my older dog and invite him to speed up. Working on breaking that habit.
Still studying my rear cross cues and lines but slowly getting better!As Cindi mentioned – we were SUPER lucky and got to go play at her place yesterday.
Macklynn exceeded alllll of my expectations with that visit. Admittedly, I didn’t have a lot of things planned to practice because I didn’t expect her to focus – especially with an unfamiliar new puppy friend being introduced to the area. But she was lovely and had a fantastic time. I’m sure most of her success in our walk and her relaxing with Vibe was due to my feeding off Cindi’s confidence ;). I trust Cindi, so I definitely relaxed and Macklynn was able to be her happy little self. Significant difference from environments where I’m worrying about judgement from other handlers, unfamiliar dogs reacting, etc.
Here’s a quick video of just her second time in the arena, this time with Vibe and Cindi just behind the camera…
Turn Aways:
Worked a bit late tonight, so was racing to beat sundown again with this video. We had a rough start (neighbor dog was out and wanted to have a barking match and then she wasn’t too sure about the ‘new’ send) but I think she started to get it toward the end.
It has been a big week for Miss Macklynn 😊. She turned 1 on Saturday, was sedated for the first time for Xrays Monday, and got confirmation of closed growth plates and the ‘all clear’ to start planning her spay.
Thank you for the clarification on the directional verbals- that was a huge help.
And we are slowly revisiting the pressure and self-regulating games from MaxPup 1. Thank you for those reminders as well- Im not sure why we are regressing in those areas, but glad we have something to fall back on and reset.We revisited the Strike a Pose Proofing tonight- and it seemed to go better this time around:
Concept Transfer Rear Cross:
I had to zoom out to capture everything, so these look a little funky. This girl definitely favors her Left turns…
Thanks Tracy!
Gave this one a quick “work from home day lunch break” try, just to get a better video.
The neighbor let her dog out mid-way through and I completely lost Macklynn’s focus 🤦♀️. This is definitely a weak spot for us- anytime another dog is around she will not be distracted by food, favorite toys, me being big/loud/exciting… but we are working on it.
Oh goodness, I cannot thank you enough for the screenshots and thorough feedback above.
I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time the last couple days either walking around my house practicing wmoving in the open/serp upper body position, or walking the rear cross lines in the yard (without Macklynn) LOL. The upper body positioning is still very new to me and feels a bit foreign, and Macklynn is very different than my older dog in terms of rear crossing. HOWEVER – your feedback above was incredibly helpful as I went to practice with Macklynn. I was able to do a better job identifying what I had done when she offered a backside approach or followed my errors to another result. Hopefully the videos below show a bit of improvement on my part, at the very least I think I was able to self-correct towards the end 😊
We were still up against 90 degree temperatures at 730/8pm, so the lighting in these two videos is horrendous. I brightened the Jumping Foundations video, so the quality may not be great, I apologize.Proofing Strike a Pose:
Was kicking myself watching this one back and seeing the instances I had closed off my upper body too soon 😉We did attempt the Diamond Handling Game in our arena time and Macklynn LOVED getting to run and practice her turn/wrap verbals and tunnel, but my exhausted brain completely neglected to do the blind cross. I’ll try to do it correctly and get a video uploaded this weekend.
I do have a clarification question on wrap vs turn verbals. In one of the videos (this week?) you mentioned that the wrap verbal was used because the dog is crossing back over the plane of the wing. When I come across course maps, I’ve been mentally walking them to practice/reinforce some of the new-to-me verbals and I realized I’m not fully clear on when to use which. I think the confusion hit when I saw a 360 on a barrel in a NADAC course. I’m hoping my little sketch will attach here….
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ETWtAsMzOoRBmC3yEYEA1koJasK2XB32/view?usp=drive_link
But my understanding at this point is that 1) would be a true wrap (or ‘dig’ for eM), 2) would still use a wrap verbal (?) because she would cross back over the plane of the obstacle, 3) would be a true ‘left’. I’m assuming it’s not necessarily a rigid concept, so a loose interpretation would be the little sketch below in pink? Let me know if I’m anywhere close 😊
Thanks Tracy!
Happy Week 4!
This video is a bit long, I apologize. I spent too long trying to figure out my line and where I was misleading her.Sends n Serps (Correctly 😉 )
I think I got my brain wrapped around this one. Im working on finding the right speed, too fast and she bypasses the jump, too slow and she gets bored and sassy.Hope you have safe travels!
Happy Almost-Weekend!
I was in an absolute brain fog last night by the time I got to work with Macklynn, but she was so happy to play that we made the best of it 🙂
Sends N Serps:
This was brutal – HAHA! I’m going to go back and rewatch the livestream section on this game to maybe help me solidify what I’m missing here.
Zig Zags:
We added a fourth wing, and I did NOT adjust my speed accordingly on the first rep 😀
Find the Jump:
I had spent the last hour using my hands to guide/support my other dog in class and forgot to not direct her to the jump, oops :(. TYPICALLY Macklynn will choose to go around a jump in front of her – either to take the backside or go around it entirely (as if it were a wing), so I was surprised that she did choose to take it 🙂
Happy Week 3!
Somehow it was still in the 90’s at 8pm, so we kept tonight’s session a bit short.
Collar Grabs & Line Ups:
Center is her favorite, but I realized I had only ever really trained/drilled one side of the ‘line up at your side’/Behind-The-Back skill. Oops! She started to understand after a few reps, but we’ll keep working on it. She does show one example of her go-to when she’s confused or frustrated; the dramatic ‘down’. 😀
Zig Zag:
Admittedly, I didn’t expect this to go as well as it did. She continues to surprise me 🙂
Fingers-crossed that it cools off faster tomorrow night during our arena time so we can play a bit longer than we did tonight.
Hope you’re having a great week!
I was able to talk to the facility owner last night after Fynnley’s class and get her permission to play with Macklynn as long as she was in panties. So grateful for that! Thankfully that wont put us too far behind.
Smiley Face:
I don’t have enough space at home for this one, so we had to wait for our arena time. She LOVES games like this. Working on remembering to keep my arm back 🙂
Set Point/Moving Target:
Realized after the fact that the running/reward was out of frame, I apologize. Hopefully this still gives you enough to work from. The jumps are a bit further apart than the last uploaded video – but please let me know if they need to be even further.
Tunnel Exits:
Oh boy. I try not to move too much of the equipment that is set up for classes – so that double was a bit of an issue in the left side video. I’m going to go back and re-watch the video for this game- I don’t think I fully understand how to help integrate and help her understand the ‘go’ for her, any suggestions on that would be appreciated! I felt a bit better about it when I started throwing the toy forward to get her to focus on driving forward as opposed to the wing…
Thank you for validating the difficulty level of these games in your last message, haha! That helped my sanity a bit 😉
Thank you for the clarifications and suggestions!
We are in the middle of a little heat-wave here in Sacramento, and it isn’t dropping below the high 90s until it’s dark – so we’ve been having VERY short training sessions :(. Hoping things cool down a bit soon.I’m still relying far too much on movement to pull her in for the wraps – is it ok to continue that a bit longer to keep her success rate higher? Or should I be fading that out faster?
She is still showing her preference for left side turns/wraps 😉
Macklynn is going through her first heat cycle, and I don’t think she will be done by Wednesday night. That means we will lose out on her time in the arena/on the equipment this week. Is it possible for us to post videos of the larger space games for feedback the following week? Or will she be too far behind? I can try to modify for my little yard and minimal equipment.
Thanks Tracy!
Progress Check on Games Package 12!
Rocking Horse w. Tunnel
I apologize for the camera distance! I couldnt move things around, so had to work with what was there. We had a little confusion with the “around” verbal on the wing (usually we use the barrel) – but she got past it fairly quickly.
Lateral Lead Out
I would recommend watching this on mute :). I didnt use the front facing camera this time, and the phone chose to pick up the rooster/chickens/horses as opposed to me.
We started with some rocking horses to dial up a bit (Still workimg to break the hand clapping habit ;)). We are working both sides on this, even though I realized the video only captures one…
Sniffari
She loves these! She does tend to start looking to me for direction/interaction or just deciding to lay down and observe after a short period of time- but Ive started encouraging a relocation which will re-start the exploration.
Ill see if I can be coordinated enough to get a video of a sniffari this week that doesnt cause motion sickness.Verbals Question!
Does it make sense to have her barrel verbal match her jump wrap verbals? Assuming I eventually have a different left wrap/right wrap verbal…
Im still so new to so many of these verbals that Im having a hard time committing 🤣Just a quick progress check before Package 11 comes along 🙂
Wing Wrap/Rocking Horses:
We got to play and record in a much bigger space so we could get some SPEEEEEED!
Happy Stays:
Tried to mix it up a bit more here and release with/without eye contact, while moving/still, bit more toy movement, etc.
Left/Right:
Got to borrow some wings yesterday, so we took advantage 🙂
Thank you for the bowl/treat suggestion for the restrained recall substitute!
Happy Wednesday!
In response to above: I’m hoping to meet up with the Tollers when they get back from CPE nationals and do a side-by-side walk. I also just made friends with a BC handler at last weekends NADAC trial who saw me working with Macklynn and offered her older/seasoned/relaxed BC as a walking partner at the next trial. In the meantime – the “up and down” game was a fun add for her over this weekend. She was concerned about a Poodle that was 50+ feet away and this was interesting enough to calm her down and get her to focus back in.
Here’s a quick progress check for Games Package 10:
Resilience/Find My Face:
Wing Wrap Rocking Horses:
Her first little bobble was because of a tunnel that was just out of frame and far too tempting. Otherwise – she has seemed happy playing this game over the last week, I’ve just become increasingly aware of how uncoordinated I can be 😉Happy Stays:
Not the best representation of her progress with ‘stay’, but I’ll take it! Something clicked for her with ‘stay’ in the last four weeks or so and we’ve been having a lot of fun making up games with speed, toys, etc- hopefully I’ll get a better video in the near future.Do you have any suggestions/modifications for the Flyball/Restrained Recall? I’m on my own and don’t live near many people who could assist.
Thank you!
