[Nancy Little]

But, we need to train the dogs on it so we are starting it here on Monday lol

I’m looking forward to that.

What about something with the letter F starting it? I don’t think you have any F words on your list LOL! Like ‘flip’ or something?

I am going to ponder some F words for this special occasion. 🙂

Pose, Course 1

I liked the striding effort she had 1-2! But it was a hard jumping effort over 2 at :03. She pulls it off but watch how she had to dip her shoulder over the bar – I think she just needs to see that striding over a slice more and then she will be fine.

I think she’s struggling with the ground. it’s very dry and hard and that particular area is the worst.
For the first time ever, I think the OTR mats are better than my agility area. There are some areas that are still okay – but the edge is rough.

She does that little shoulder dip on all of the right turns on that jump on the first repetition, actually! When you did it again on rep 2 – she nailed it, no shoulder dip, full on extension.

I think she’s missing the really bad area that is straight ahead of that jump. I could be wrong.

Off course after 4 on rep 1:
At :05 she was making her decision and you were moving and facing forward. Compare it to :12 and :35 where you were turned and she got it, no questions asked.

Yes. I did see that. And probably with me that far ahead at 6s, she’s not really seeing the jump for the turn.

She is a little wide/looking straight over 5 at :13 and :38. This is a good place to compare, within the same session: if you send and leave sooner to get her to turn her head over 5, is that faster (like it is for Contraband)? Or do you let her rip and trust her – is that faster (like it is for Hot Sauce)? My guess is that just turning your shoulders sooner for earlier info delivery and then letting her do what she needs to do will be the right answer for Pose.

I totally agree with you.

On the 2nd half of the sequence

Be sure to keep more connection and parallel line (don’t turn away too early) on the 6-7 (jump tunnel) line at :38 you turned away too soon and she turned her head to look at you (compare to the first rep at :15 where you were more connected and the opening here at :34 and we didn’t see the same head turn). That head turn is costly for time to the tune of about a 1/10th of a second… but we don’t want to lose that fraction.

I remember feeling awkward at 6-7 because I was too far ahead on the turn (trying to help her get that #5 jump). Eek… looks terrible.

I didn’t time this session versus the previous one, but I did time the reps of 8-9 and the turn over 11.
The first spin on 8 was a little later so she landed wider. I liked the timing of the 2nd rep MUCH better, plus I think there was a bit more decel to it. So guess what? No real difference in time LOL! And, on the 2nd one which looked better: her jumping effort for 9 was harder because she was on a more severe angle so she put in an extra stride there to sort it out. I would have to look at an overlay to see which was faster there in that section, by about 1/100th.

That’s so interesting!!

Looking at the wrap – you were earlier on the 2nd one and it was a nicer turn! And definitely faster. She didn’t respond with a ton of collection before the jump that so many people want… but she seemed to 100% know where she was going and pulled it off without having to slow down. In the next set of games, we will be comparing a whole lot of things like that and it will be very interesting to see!

She’s getting better at understanding what she needs to do with her body on wraps. I’m looking forward to learning more about what’s best for her.

Differ:
Nice opening line, though, giddy up!!! Woohoo! And she moved because she wanted me to time the difference on the opening lines: the curved one on the first rep was about 3/10s slower than the straight one on the 2nd rep. Good to know!

That’s very interesting and it’s a lot of time.

On the 2nd rep, when she went off course to the last jump: at :38 you were facing straight as she was taking off. Same happened at :50, still facing straight as she was taking off (small dog, BIG commitment :)) Compare that to :11 on rep 1 and :58 at the end: you were turned well before it.

So for both girls, something about you saying “jump” might have too much energy and it is causing you to face forward too long. A softer delivery (mine sounds like a question: “jump?”) might help you keep turning.

She is tiny, but her commitment is mighty!! And I pay her ALL the time for her off courses. I think what would solve both issues (and many more) is that I am generally not very connected when they go off course. And that’s probably causing more “Go” in my “Jump” cue.

I REALLY love the idea of adding a question mark at the end of “Jump”. That’s a great idea!! Thanks.

Looking at the 8-9 line:
I think the spin asks for too much collection for her – she did well with it on the first rep but she had to collect for 8 and for 9 – I believe the let’er rip will be faster as long as you send and leave laterally for 9 early enough so she can see the line. On the 2nd spin rep, your outside arm came up early prominently so she looked at you and barked – that question made it slower than the first rep.

She had a right to bark at me. That arm should have stayed down. She responds with a lot of collection on wraps when my new arm is raised (Pose goes wide when I do that, Differ collects). In general, I should probably not raise the arm for Differ, either.

She was a little faster on the 2nd rep of the wrap at 11 – I think there was more motion in and out of the jump, and the cue was a little earlier. One thing I noticed on both was that by leaving 11 early, you ended up decelerating near the tunnel and looking forward – which caused her to look up at you. Questions are costly in terms of time (and frustrating to the dogs, she was yelling LOL!) so it would be fun to look at wraps with you getting up to the wing and then stay for a heartbeat – then drive to the tunnel so you don’t decel and can connect more. In sequences where you don’t have a tunnel next, it would probably get the fastest line! If you had a big long sequence after it, I think the send and go go go would be better. Different contexts can set up different handling and ideally she has no questions on any.

Totally agree with you. She did not like me there ahead of her (she never does) and even starting to rotate 🙁

Really good stuff!! Thanks!

Pose course 3:

Nice send to 2! You can move forward sooner to be able to clear her landing line – she didn’t look at you when she landed (you were just past the line) but she didn’t accelerate as she normally would. You were sooner on the 2nd rep but I think she was still being careful, so you can drive in there to connect sooner and affirm the line for her with connection.

I’m wondering if this is also related to the footing in that area??

Because it requires you to be at the exit of the tunnel (which is not always possible because of her speed) you can play with going the other way on 5 (similar wrap as the one at 10 on that jump) – you would do a BC on the tunnel exit and send her to the other backside wing on your right, then do a FC to 6.

Never even considered that because of the wrap. Great idea.

Or a threadle wrap, dog on left. KIDDING!! Haha I would do whatever I needed to do to get the blind and not do the threadle wrap there LOL!

*snort*

She was a little wide on the tunnel exit at :30 and the jump after it: you can give your turn verbal before she enters the tunnel and let her see you start the BC to tighten the exit of the tunnel which will also tighten up the turn on the next jump a little (but you only need it to be a little tighter).

Definitely late on the blind and I forgot the turn cue out of the tunnel.

Hooray for the new dig cue! She looked great there and the lines were good too!

I was very happy with that.

Thank you so much for all of this. You gave me a lot to think about.

[Nancy Little]

Lots of good stuff to discuss 🙂

No kidding!! You really helped me with your comments. It’s so helpful to have someone else looking at my videos and noticing little things that I don’t necessarily pick up. Thank you!!

Regarding verbal cues:

– a general jump cue which is basically: take the jump and turn a little (that grey area between extension and the soft turns). It gets used when you need a commitment cue of some sort but it is not a true left or right. You might already have this cue.

Well, before I did some training today, I thought I had a “Jump” cue. The meaning was to go on to the jump ahead and sometimes the jump was a slight turn. However, as you will see from the redos from Sequence 1 and 2 – both Pose and Differ went straight ahead on the cue, “Jump”. It might have been motion/body override (but I think I was mostly good – could have always been clearer) or else more likely, it was the tone or energy of the “Jump” verbal. I know from verbal cues in herding that the tone of the cue changes they way the dog takes the direction. See what you think…

– a jump threadle wrap On the happy side, we start training it here in CAMP beginning next Monday! And it cannot be the same as the jump threadle because jump threadle really implies slice and the courses are making it so we cannot ‘be there’ to show the difference with physical cues. And my goal it to really love training it by the end of the summer hahaaha

Along with avoiding/delaying the teaching of rear crosses with my dogs, I have also avoided the threadle wrap while everyone else is teaching it. I better get going…..

I like Close Close…. but I think it’s too close to Pose. I have a hard time with In In In… Hmmmm… I will think about this.

Voodoo now sings the song of his people when he hears you 🙂 Ha!! Recognizes your voice.

Oh, that’s too funny!! It’s been so long since I’ve even seen him. I miss that handsome boy of yours.

Thanks so much for the suggestions for both girls. I reset up the sequence (it’s been so hot and dry here, I wanted to get the tunnel off of the grass). So, if you time things, the tunnel might not be exactly in the right place. I think it is close…. I looked at the previous videos and put the camera at the same angle and attempted to get everything the same. But unfortunately, there might be minor differences. So time comparisons might not be accurate.

Here is the retry for Sequence 1 with Pose:
My goal was:
1) put her more on the slice from 1-3
2) refrain from using GO at #3 tunnel
3) start the spin earlier from 8-9. Be more lateral with the goal that my eyes are on her when she lands at 8.
4) cap/wrap right at 11, keep arms tight during rotation and when I leave

The ground is very dry and hard, so it’s not easy for her to dig in to turn. Very different for this field that is generally pretty wet.

Here is the retry for Sequence 1 with Differ:
My goals were:
1) start her on more of a slice from 1-3
2) Give a jump cue instead of a right from 4-5
3) run deeper to 7 tunnel so I don’t run past jump 8
4) 11-12 – send to wrap 11 and let her rip without collection

I will do the retry of Sequence 2 when I have more time.

In the meantime, here is the first attempt at Sequence 3 for Pose. I think this is a little over Differ’s pay scale right now. But I plan on trying it. I did have to work her a little to get the backside on #5. So, I guess this wasn’t really a first attempt… I had to do training to get it right away.

Thanks again for the great observations and suggestions.

[Nancy Little]

Thanks for the information about the forum. Very helpful.

I would have loved to see the difference in the Dobie at the Animal Inn seminar – cool! Doesn’t surprise me because dogs that don’t know or can’t predict what’s happening will get frustrated (or spun up, or….) and that causes issues.

Here are my verbals for both Pose and Differ:

Run in extension straight ahead – GO GO GO
Soft turns – Left/Right
Wrap or U turn left – Seek
Wrap or U turn right – Cap
Backside Slice – Push
Backside Wrap – Dig
Jump Threadle – Look
Tunnel Threadle – Me Me Me
Lead Change – Out

Release cue – Okay
Obstacles:
Teeter – Teeter
Aframe/dogwalk – Run up
Weaves – Shoot
Table – Box
Tunnel straight ahead – Tunnel

Not sure if I’m forgetting anything.

One question I have is that I need to change the GO GO GO with Pose. She’s getting confused with that verbal sometimes in trials. I think it sometimes sounds too much like her name. She appears to handle it fine when we are training at home (arousal level is lower). Any suggestions or ideas on this?

Okay…. here are the first tries of Sequence 1 and Sequence 2 with both Pose and Differ. I was really happy with these.

Sequence 1
Differ:

I was thrilled with this!! This was our first try and I’m not sure I would change anything. I was worried more about her taking the off course 8-9 than I was concerned with Pose. The spin there created a great line and she was in full extension through it. I’d be interested if you saw anything there that I could change. I really liked what I saw.

Pose:

I also liked her lines. She was wider than Differ, but that’s to be expected. I think I got caught flat footed not showing her the next line from 5-6, so she jumped long there. So, my handling could have been better there. She had a question on the spin from 8=9, so I think I could have made that clearer. Next time I am going to tie my hair up!

Sequence 2
Differ:

I loved this one, too. Her lines were really lovely. I think I could have gotten out of the send to tunnel 9 sooner to get the blind in before the last jump. She shot out of there like a rocket. She has enough trouble seeing my arms and head connection – she can sometimes squirt by me, so I was afraid of pushing her out. The GET OUT skill has not been trained yet. She doesn’t read arms the same way the big dogs do. Also, I am TERRIFIED of stepping on her I have seen bad things happen to little dogs when the handlers tried to push their little dog out to another object and punted/kicked the dog or stepped on it.
I think I would still go for the blind between 9 & 10, but really get out of the send to 9 sooner here.

Pose:

I feel I could be more connected to her in both of these sequences. On the wrap at 4, I felt I needed to stay there a moment to show her the line on the wrap. If I would have moved sooner, I think she might have drifted wide with the blind to 5. I thought she did a nice job on that wrap and I like her line. She went pretty wide from 7-8. Maybe a send to 7 and a FC between 8 & 9 would tighten that up? I would have to walk that again before I make that decision. The BC felt like I showed her the line sooner (at the time). But I had to be close to the #8 jump to get the turn. I might have been able to be more lateral… or maybe a tunnel threadle?

Sorry this got so long. I wrote the first part this morning. Now it’s 10:30pm here and I thought it was best to add it to the message rather than posting an additional one. Let me know if I should do something different. I hope you had an easy flight and have a great time out there!

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Nancy Little.
• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Nancy Little.
• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Nancy Little.

[Nancy Little]

Question for you… is there any way to set up this forum so that the current messages are at the top and not the bottom? For some reason, I have to log into agility-u every time I start my laptop and that means I have to go through the process of finding the course, clicking on the course (big tiles for each course and the most current one is at the bottom), then navigate to the forum again. Then I have to scroll to the bottom of my topic. Is there any easier way? Is there a way to keep me logged in?

Thanks for the screenshots. That’s what I was seeing on my iPad and I had the advantage of being able to widen the zoom. This was great because it’s easier to see because the screenshots are all in one place. I do agree that it was subtle, but clearly cued her to turn away. She was even thinking of turning towards me as she landed from the jump for an instant, but then saw something and turned/flipped away.

You had originally mentioned that my outside arm wasn’t used on Course 1. It is impossible to see from the screenshots, but when I zoom out/widen the video on my iPad and look at it, I am actually using it…. but it’s much lower. I can use a higher outside arm with Differ and it doesn’t make a difference (everything is high for her, LOL). With Pose, my arms need to stay low.

On to Package 2….

I have spent a great deal training remote reinforcements for both dogs to prepare them for entering the ring. I love the pattern games from CU and this is great!!

For the layered arousal verbals… I’m a bad trainer. I never liked Pose’s sit as a puppy, so I didn’t teach it until I felt she had more strength and wasn’t so rubbery. It’s nice and tight now when she sits on her own. If I cue a sit (somehow), then it’s all yucky. So I generally avoid cuing the sit. Yes, I should take the time to teach her a nice tuck sit that is cued. But for now, it hasn’t been needed. She has a lovely fold back down (not a default for her) and a stop in a stand. Differ used to sit ALL the time when I first got her – I broke that sit because that’s all she would do and I wasn’t sure at the time that she wasn’t offloading something that was uncomfortable. Now I have built a sit back into her repertoire that is built on a signal and it’s done mostly for conditioning.

Neither dog has a solid action based skill that is on a verbal cue (bad trainer). It’s not that I’ve avoided this, it’s that I’ve spent all of my free time teaching other things. 😉

I can probably use a down for both dogs. But I’ll have to think more of an action skill. Most of the skills I’ve worked on with then have been stillness (mental) skills.

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Nancy Little.
• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Nancy Little.

[Nancy Little]

Course 1/Pose:
Love the furthering of weave pole independence ideas of deceleration and also and early front cross (or blind cross).

Love how you are running and using verbals here, really trusting her, and not needing to over-connect or over-help. Happy dance!

She loves it. I’m not as comfortable with the verbals with her as I am with Differ (more time).

Course 2/Pose –

On the opening of the first run, she had the bar down at :08.
The tunnel verbal is mainly a forward cue and #4 here is a little offset, so she had to lead change away – sorting that out a little late is what pulled the bar because she didn’t see the tunnel.

I wondered why that happened – even when I looked at the video I didn’t notice it. When I walked her line, it looked like it was a straight approach to the tunnel. But it looks like she turned wider than I expected her on the backside slice and the wrap was wide enough to create a little lead change.

or one extra step to square up her line for 3 can help too (but only one step, you don’t have time for more than that LOL!!

Do you mean one extra step before the blind cross on the way to 3?

She knew where it was at :26 so she found it easily without any of that, but I think she was helped by having seen the tunnel line already.

Good point. I was thinking she misjudged the jump. When we started up again in the late fall, she was pretty high and (of course, I wasn’t always perfect) and …. occasional bars. I pretty much ignore the bars in trials. But lately, on some of the dropped bars I will stop and reset it. It’s really helped her focus more on the jumps and not getting distracted by me. We practice this at home, so it’s not something new for her.

You can decel a little on your turn cue on the jump before the weaves at :29 so she has a little collection before takeoff (landed straight then turned).

I had some trouble getting turns on that jump (when I practiced independent weaves separately) with her. I’m not sure why – there was a slight incline before the jump and it might have felt hard to collect.

She turned away as you started the FC at :37 which was really interesting so I went and compared it to what you did on course 1, where the FC there went really nicely!
It looks like on course 1 as you were driving that line at :20/:21, you were a little more lateral and facing the line you wanted a bit more and as you started your FC, your inside (dog-side) shoulder went back as the first part of the cue, no real outside arm involvement until the cross was finished.
On course 2, you were less lateral at :36 by a step or two, and facing forward longer – and at :37 your outside arm came up as the first part of the cue – so that would explain why she was convinced it was a turn away (she sees ALL the things doesn’t she??!! Wow!) because the outside arm does become part of the cue on some of the turn away cues like tandem turns, for example.

She does see all things!! I still don’t see what you’re seeing. It’s difficult to see because of the distance and because my back is towards the camera. But I do see my dog side arm in play on as the first cue on the turn on Course 1. I started using that arm to help her with turns and as long as it’s low, she seems to respond really well to it on FCs. It might have been that my left hand was too high on the turn on Course 2. And there was a goofy shuffle step there after the first two steps into the FC. First two steps happen at 37s. Then at 38s, there is a bit of a shuffle instead of a step towards the next line. I might have lost her there maybe? She landed on her left lead and then maybe with me facing her for a second, she turned away? In course 1, when she landed, I immediately stepped back onto the line (still not the smoothest step, but much better footwork than on Course 2).

I don’t know!!

Ah! On the next rep down that line, you did the blind there at :48 – loved it! Perfect! Great timing, great turn.

It felt so much better!

A little too much ‘go’ at :53 plus the FC can start sooner: strategically, after the BC at :48, you can hang out where you finished it and send her to the next lines, which leaves you in great position for the FC.

This is where the jump, rather than the tunnel made this sequence more difficult. You can’t see the jump (I forgot to widen the view). It would have been easier to send to the tunnel and hang out there. But the sequence ended up being a 270 and it took a bit of pressure to get her to the backside because it was fairly close to the tree line. But I love your strategy of using a send to create better position and a better turn.

Differ course 2:

That jump for the send instead of the weaves is a perfect modification! And it also proved to be challenging!

I thought it was age appropriate!! Another opportunity to work on tunnel sends…

She got the send but then missed the tunnel because you were hustling up the line at :21 (the hustle was correct – it was a baby dog error to run past the tunnel parallel to your line, and a great training opportunity). You ran the same line with a little less hustle at :38 and she got it – it is a spot that requires convergence into your line and that is *difficult* and counterintuitive. You can add more hustle back in and you can also open up your left shoulder as a serpentine to help her come in as you hustle – with more experience, she will be happy to do it while you ran the way you did at :21.

Great idea about the added serpentine opened shoulder to help her read coming in.

I really liked the BC at :48 on the backside!! It might be able to come a shade earlier but honestly, it does not need to be tighter: she was turning in full on extension and I would bet that it is the fastest way for her to do it. On the jump after the BC at :49 – I would be interested to see how the send that you did here (she was pretty wide, off screen for a moment LOL!) would compare to just a decel & leave moment to see if we can tighten it. Conventional wisdom says tighter/prettier is faster, but small dog wisdom says the wider line might be faster. Goddy up! We will start timing that stuff officially in the next set of games but we can look at it now too!

I think she is faster when I send her because she’s determined (and VOCAL) to not be left behind. But I have never timed anything of hers since I was previously just trying to get her to take the jump!! 🙂

Thank you for obsessing over her turns with a stop watch. That’s something I haven’t done yet because she’s so young and inexperienced – I’m just trying to get her to read lines and take the obstacles.

You had even better timing on the BC at 1:13 – I think when you can totally trust her tunnel commitment before that, you can get there even sooner to get it as nicely as you did with Pose.
Gorgeous blind to the backside at 1:18! And you did more of a decelerated send at 1:20, the turn was still in extension but tighter – so I timed it (can’t help myself haha) and she was faster on this rep by about .15 . And she had a great turn out of the tunnel there (I didn’t include that in the timing of the send, but it was also faster) – same good timing on your left cue, but she was gaining experience on how to respond and was really lovely there!!

So interesting!! This is really different than the big strided Border Collies.

Thanks for all the great feedback.

[Nancy Little]

I set up the jumping courses for Package 1 today. I modified the course because my field has a big shady tree in it and I couldn’t quite fit the course into it. So I left out one of the jumps on the left side of the course map (right side of the camera view on the video).

For Course 1, jumps 6 & 7 were combined. For Course 2, that jump wasn’t used. I didn’t have time to try Course 3, but jumps 2 & 3 are combined on that course.

I also got lazy and used a jump instead of the tunnel in the lower right hand corner. I moved it around depending on what the course needed.

Here is Pose on Course 1:

Here is Pose on Course 2:

I did a little bit with independent weaves with Differ on Course 1. First I rewarded the weaves without layering it. That was hard because the exit was close to the wooded area. She was good with that. Then I layered the tunnel, which is where the following video starts. I tried running Course 1 and layered the tunnel on the first rep (in the video). But she started to get tired and was making weave mistakes, so I didn’t do any more with the weaves.

Here is Differ on a Modified Course 2:
I didn’t want to continue with the weaves any more for her, so I added a jump for a mini independent send instead of the weaves. I also started her at the backside of jump 2. I need to work more on backsides with her eventually.

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Nancy Little.
• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Nancy Little.

[Nancy Little]

I am glad you did the ‘toss’ reward at the end, to keep the placement nearer the weave exit and not only on cap on the jump after it.

That was done on purpose because of an issue she has with the weaves when the reward is always after she completes it. I start to get a head check when even scrutinizing the video and finding that the marker is correctly timed and there is no other movement from me. She starts to predict that the reward comes at the exit, so she does more head checking. I don’t know if that’s a little dog thing or just Differ. But because I have put so much history of reinforcement in wrapping jumps, sending her on to the wrap is reinforcing the weaves. So no head checks any more. I do periodically reinforce immediately after the weaves, but I have to keep her moving ahead to keep her little nugget pointing forward. Does that make sense?

[Nancy Little]

I’m such a slacker!! I’m on page 3 in this forum …. It’s not for lack of training, either. Always things to work on….

I’ve been adding more and more independence skills to the weaves for Differ. And my homework for Pose from the seminar was to get more distance skills in the weaves. I had already started working on counter motion with Pose while she is in the weaves and she’s getting really good at that. I have no video of her. The deer flies are HORRIBLE right now and when it’s not 95 degrees and high humidity, there are deer flies.

Here is Differ with some pulling away in the weaves. This was a pretty hot day… she even got hot.

I was going to add the teeter, but we had some issues that came up where she flew off it and lost her confidence. So, I’ve been staying closer for now. I’m actually not all that close – I have some decent lateral distance. But I don’t really want to pull away or run ahead too much right now.

[Nancy Little]

That was my instinct as well. I think this is too much for her and she’s not thinking and processing (not optimal arousal levels). So I agree with you completely and I agree that it’s not ideal to have to help her to do the sequence and then gradually show her the handling.

Thanks again!

[Nancy Little]

Hey there,
For some reason the second video that had a better session was uploaded as Private.

Here it is, in case that makes a difference.

I think I should go back to tossing a toy out instead of the PT. She loses her mind on that and I’m using it for running contacts. But I love the suggestion of putting it out on the line on the opposite side of the jump slightly. I think that will work great!!

Thanks!

• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by Nancy Little.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by Nancy Little.

[Nancy Little]

Gah… I’m such a slacker. I’m always on the second page. 🙁 Trying to keep up in the class and also trying to keep up with Differ. She is keeping me on my toes. We have run out of outdoor training here because it’s just too cold for her. If she is still for any length of time, she starts to shake. The Border Collies love this weather. This will be an interesting winter for her.

This session happened on Wednesday, but I didn’t have time to edit and upload until tonight. Sorry about the vocalization from Pose. She is usually pretty good, but sometimes when she doesn’t get enough work, she can get noisy. Lever is perfectly quiet.

I learned a lot of things during this session:
1) She is SLIPPERY!!:-) 🙂
2) The Pet Tutor has CRAZY ass value! I swear it’s higher value than the food that comes out. It’s like she’s addicted to the gamble of whether the food will come out or not – she can’t NOT check. The more I train her with it, the better she understands that she needs to focus on the task before she hears PT grinding.
3) I think I got my act together better towards the end of the second video (she had a break between them). I was most likely moving too fast. But the issue was when I was too far behind, she would come through the gap (threadle). I haven’t even worked with threadles all that much, but she sure was targetting me. If I was further ahead as she wrapped the wing, she would do the jump correctly. So that caused me to RUN more than I should have.

I hope you’re not driving in lots of wind!! Enjoy the seminar.

First session with her on my left:

Second session with her on my right:

• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by Nancy Little.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by Nancy Little.

[Nancy Little]

I love your suggestion about tone of voice. It’s so funny because that’s something I suggest to students and I didn’t even notice it when I was working Differ. This is why I love having someone else look at my training!! Why is it that it’s easier to find the right advice for my students, but I don’t review my own videos as thoroughly?

Great suggestions overall and I was lazy and used the slightly bent tunnel that was already set up at the school. I should have the time to remove the bags and straighten it out. I think you’re right!

In general, I want more GO with Differ so she can cover a lot of ground without me supporting her. She’s got enough natural handler’s focus to get turns.

I had some time to do the Left/Right turn in the Minny Pinny grid. I tried to keep my tone lower and although there was some barking when she went to the right, she mostly responded well to the calm tone.

[Nancy Little]

Ha! Pose had bigger feelings in this session. I had to remove her from the station across the gym. Between barking from her and Differ’s new found barking with wing wraps close to tunnels – it was hard to concentrate.

We had some issues with the GO GO GO in this session. For some reason she struggled with the wing wrap on the straight ahead. I think this is just experience and she might be expecting the toy toss and not an additional obstacle after the tunnel.

[Nancy Little]

That barking dog was Pose (who was stationed outside of the ring on a 24″ table – you can see her there the entire time). Pose has big feelings when I train Differ.

You are absolutely right about her not really turning out of the tunnels. When I first taught tunnels, she would head check a lot and I did lots of training to get her to drive forward. I need to balance that out, now. The new exercise on tunnel turns you posted is timely! 🙂

[Nancy Little]

Differ has found her voice. She seems like she’s going to be a barker. This is a first for me. It doesn’t bother me at all – it makes me laugh. She is very serious about her agility, LOL.

It was so awesome to have you here in Minnesota – FINALLY – for a seminar. It couldn’t have been a nicer weekend!! Well, maybe it could’ve NOT rained on Sunday….but other than that, it was pretty perfect. It was so special to be able to run my girl again and to see the other people and dogs that I missed. Thank you!

Back to Differ! I did the Smiley Face handling game. I was happy with her…my handling wasn’t the best, but it was sure fun for both of us.

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