[Nancy Little]

I took your advice and gave the serpentine exercise a try at the advanced level. The toy is in my hand because she’s not ready for that yet.

I didn’t do the best job setting up the “strike a pose” stature. I have to laugh at this because that’s Pose’s name – Strike A Pose. I used a jump with the bar locked into place at 4″. The jump bumps are too big for her and the other option (piece of scrap wood) I thought would get lost in the long grass.

[Nancy Little]

I will use the same verbals that I use with Pose:

Jump
Jump Wrap left: Seek
Jump Wrap right: Cap
Soft turns: Left/Right
Backside: Push (contemplating a BS slice versus wrap verbal)
Threadle: Look Look
Tunnel change of line: Me Me Me
Generic lead change/Soft turn away: Turn
Get out
Straight tunnel wrap left: Chi Chi Chi
Straight tunnel wrap right: Cha Cha Cha

[Nancy Little]

Yes, the scientific terminology is “ass-over-tea-kettle”. She did have a little trouble – both issues were in the same area.

I gave her a break today on this and I’ll go back to it tomorrow – if it’s not raining. Good plan to stick with the 3 jumps.

[Nancy Little]

I’ve worked really hard on her tugging and toy play and I’m very happy with it. She also goes back and forth easily between toys and food, which I love, too. Her tugging is amazing!! She will tug on a toy until she drops. She has jaws of steel for a small dog. It’s crazy!! She’s a better tugger than my Border Collies – because she’s not distracted with motion. And she will tug ANYTHING!

She’s actually pretty good about not grabbing toys close to my hand. I think in this exercise, she just lost track of where my hand was occasionally. The hollee rollers don’t necessarily help her target because she will also tug on handles. I have some great tug toys with little hollee roller balls on them and she grabs those balls, but she also loves the handles, too. She’s not consistent with what she loves to tug – it’s whatever she grabs into her mouth.

Great suggestion about the setup of the send and to not use “go”. I will use her release word instead.
Thanks!!

[Nancy Little]

Thanks so much for all your thoughts on this. Very helpful. I went back to the 3 jumps and started her closer to the first jump. I also eliminated my motion. She was generally pretty good, but she still occasionally does that out-of-rhythm weird front feet split. I tried Lever on the same exercise and he had even more issues with this. He did the same thing with the split front feet – just like his daughter.

I decided to experiment with Lever, and I raised the jumps to 12″. He was remarkably better. Then I raised them to 16″ and he was SMOOOTH!!! Much better.

As you recall, Pose can do some very weird things with her feet at high speed (remember our running Aframe and running dog walk?). I decided to try the 3 jumps at 12″ and she was instantly better at it. See what you think on the video. I was very happy!!

I also did the 5 jumps slightly open. I started her at 12″ and it looked good. Occasionally in these (both the 3 and 5 jumps), she hits the wing. But in general, she’s figuring this out and using her rear nicely.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by Nancy Little.

[Nancy Little]

> Slow motion video being so easily available has been so helpful to see what is
> happening when the dogs are moving this fast!!! I don’t remember being able to see
> things this well when Lever/Voodoo were babies!

I think we get better at it with more experience. Technology is also so much better now. And of course, the slow motion is also better, too.

Yesterday I worked on the 3 jumps zig zag. it went really well. Today, I set up the 5 jumps. She did well when they were opened up. I’m posting 3 videos of the 5 jumps from where they were opened slightly, then almost closed, then straight.

She had no trouble with the first stage where they were opened slightly. I didn’t add the slow motion to this. It seemed fairly fluid.

In this video, they were closed a little more – almost straight. She started having some issues. But it seemed like she had issues going one direction when she was on my left.

I thought a lot about whether to try these straight, but did them anyway. They weren’t any worse. She was still very fluid on some reps and had some issues with organizing her body on others.

In your response above, you mention that she might need the jumps raised a little to help her organize herself. Maybe that’s what I should do? I decided to post these here to see what you think. It feels like she’s almost got it. But missing something.

Looking forward to your detailed obsessive analysis.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by Nancy Little.

[Nancy Little]

Thank you for the great comments and especially for making me feel better about Sequence 3. All the dogs had a 1 hour massage today and she was really good, so there was nothing physical wrong with her. I suspected that because she was jumping nice otherwise. The dogs’ massage therapist is doing massages while I wait outside. I’m so glad that she and their chiro are both still accessible.

I’m going to try the zig zag grids tomorrow or Friday. She’s done them before, but I didn’t raise the height. Could you do me a favor and repost the 5 jump zig zag? The 3 jump grid was posted twice.

Love that you pointed out the short step that got such a nice turn on sequence 2. I knew that I didn’t take an additional step, but noticing that small detail is great information.

Thank you!!

[Nancy Little]

This is a session on wrap commitment. I’ve done some commitment with her on jump wings, but I loved your hamper and I found this on Amazon and fell in love with it. It’s perfect for us because ….. well, we need to smile more. And Differ does make me smile.

I was having some technical issues occasionally with the tug toy because it’s so long. I need it to be long because she likes to leap for it. It was in the wrong hand occasionally, but I think many of them were in the correct hand.

[Nancy Little]

I’m such a slacker!! It’s been two weeks. We are working hard…but I’m spread between 3 dogs and too many online classes. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. 🙂

We did the walkthroughs and runs for the Novice sequences yesterday. I’m pretty happy with my plans and also happy with her general performance. I addressed some knocked bars on the way to the tunnel and had some issues in Sequence 3 with knocked bars, that I will talk about later.

Sequence 1
Walkthrough

Run
I had the opportunity to address some “Go Tunnel” bars down. I did stop the run to fix the bar. My protocol is to stop and set the bar, then let her tug. This works for her because she is pretty sensitive and stopping the flow is enough for her to understand.

Sequence 2
Walkthrough

Run

Another opportunity to address the dropped bar before the tunnel. This happened on the first jump. I was looking at her and she completely misjudged the jump. Also, the number 8 jump came down. I was late on that blind, but you will see in Sequence 3 she could not keep that bar up jumping in that direction. I will talk about that more below.

Sequence 3
Walkthrough

Run

Okay, this was a train wreck. Bars on the backside slices – consistently down at 2 and at 7. I was thinking something was wrong because we have never had so many bars down and she usually doesn’t have an issue with a backside slice. No matter what I did, that #2 bar was coming down. Later on in the day, I tried another backside slice on another jump and she did it lovely. No issues with her jumping. I went back to this jump and she knocked it again. I looked at the ground and it was a little uneven and I think she was having a hard time with that. You can see her jumping funny over it at 13s. I felt really badly for her. She was making so many mistakes and I should have let it go. My bad!!

[Nancy Little]

The flapping kangaroo behavior happens when she gets super aroused.

Great suggestion for the serpentine/threadle exercise. I’ll take a look at the advanced level and figure out how to train that.

Thanks for all the other suggestions as well. Super helpful.

[Nancy Little]

OMG – that video is a PERFECT description of Differ. I’ve never heard this jingle before. Probably because I haven’t watched TV for a few years previous to the year this was published in YouTube.

And, yes – she looks like a kangaroo jumping backwards and waving (actually high waving). She’s a character. I’m so lucky that the Border Collies are teaching her so many good habits.

Life got in the way lately. I’ve been training a lot, but since I have 3 dogs I have had to prioritize what to work on. Plus I went back to working the BCs on sheep and that didn’t exactly give me extra time LOL.

I’m having trouble with the nose touch prop because she is learning a retrieve. I will have to come back to the nose touch later because it’s confusing her right now and I don’t want to build in bitey behaviors to a nose touch.

Today we started the lap turn. I turned the phone vertical to get more height in the video and you can see me here. She’s turning pretty well. Is it okay to feed her before I toss the food forward? She is a bit of a Kamikaze food chaser and it’s better for her if I can feed her in position and then get another piece of food to toss. She will be an interesting girl to train because she doesn’t care what she does with her body for the sake of chasing a toy or food.

Here’s where we are:

I’ll try to do the tandem turn tomorrow.

[Nancy Little]

These all look fun!! I want to do them all.

[Nancy Little]

> So serious!!

She is VERY serious. You are the first person to recognize that. She’s a HOOT because she takes things so seriously. That is during work. When she is “off-duty”, she is the happiest dog I know and so sweet!!

> Her little tail… GAH! it was distracting LOL!

I didn’t notice it until I watched the video. 🙂

I couldn’t see your head on the sends, but on some of the reps she wasn’t as fast or head-checked for a moment (:50, 1:02, 1:07 for example) so it is possible that you were not as connected (shifting connection to the target) as you sent.

That’s what I HATE about videotaping little dogs. It’s so hard to get my head in and still get her in. If I turn the phone vertical, I can get everything – but then I’m more restricted on the sides. If I pull away more to get my head in, you can’t see her because she’s so small. I’ll make sure I’m totally in view next time.

What I don’t like about this target is that she pushes off of it and it slides on the carpet. It doesn’t do that outside or on the mats at OTR.

> One other thing to consider, because you mentioned her front feet earlier – in the transitions
> after the reward and back into the next send, she has her front feet in the air a lot 🙂

You have no idea how much LESS those front feet are in the air, now!! Ha ha! 🙂

> If that is something you would like to avoid (or accidentally reinforce with the next send)
> you can help her not do it and also still get the tight turn/drive back understanding by
> tossing the reward past you as she drives back rather than feeding from your hand. That way
> she stays down on the ground, drives back, gets reinforcement, and it buys you a bit of
> time to reset. Now if you don’t care, perfect LOL!

That’s a good suggestion. I’ll try it, but she flips those front feet in the air at every opportunity. I pretty much ignore it if it’s in between reps, but I make sure that they are on the ground before I start and hopefully while she’s working. When I first got her, she would walk in front of me backwards flipping her front feet at me in the air as she bounced backwards. I’m sure it was cute to someone previous to me…okay it’s cute. But I know it’s not sustainable for anything productive in agility.

> I don’t mind it with the littles and my littlest, Elektra, does a similar front feet
> thing which I have put on cue (“Baby Bear”) because it is cute. I have personally not
> found it to be a problem in training or on course or in life, other than some offering
> of baby bear cuteness when she wants part of my dinner LOL! (And I of course give her
> some, because, I am the WORST lol!!!)

I bet it’s adorable!! I had to tone her feet flapping and backwards walking somehow because it’s dangerous how and when she does it. You know how some Border Collies like to get in front of you and walk backwards? I never allow that because it’s dangerous – someone is going to get hurt and it could be me or my dog. It’s the same thing with her, only she’s hopping backwards on her rear feet in front of people. She’s little and she could get hurt. I am not going to get hurt, but I could hurt her. And she likes to put her front feet on everything, including other dogs. Bad habit!!! Or maybe I’m just a curmudgeon. 🙂

> The start station has a lot of value right now so she is not driving off of it on the release
> with as much speed as I know she will have eventually – she did get progressively faster
> and faster on these though, so it is already percolating nicely –

She’s not used to a moving release. I am stationary when I release her with strong eye contact. This is the first time she’s seen me moving. I assume she was hesitant because of that.

> On the mechanics of the blind – give her one more heartbeat of the cross-body connection
> before you go to the collection hand. The collection hand was in play before she had made
> the side change, so she didn’t see the connection as crisply – and the line behind you
> had a bit of zig zag.

Got it. Thanks.

> I felt like I had both hands in play for a moment with the pups here: cross body
> arm to get connection and the dog-side arm to get into the collection. That is fine
> and will help her see the side change sooner.

That makes sense. Good way to explain it.

Thanks for the great comments!!

[Nancy Little]

Thank you! That would be awesome.

[Nancy Little]

Question for you regarding the “Custom Skills Sets: June 22”. Is it possible to get pdfs for each of those skills? I assumed when they came out that you were not going to do the pdf’s anymore. But it looks like the other weeks have had pdfs. I’d love to be able to save those pages on my computer so I didn’t have to log into agility-u each time.

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