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Omg – what a difference it made when I started the verbal before I released her! Who knew? (well, you did, of course!). Yowza is not a fan of having her collar grabbed, and when she was younger, she very much objected when a helper tried to hold her by her harness – so, until now, I have tried to avoid doing restrained starts, or I have done them by holding her chest (which she doesn’t like much either). So in those previous videos, I was not very organized for the starts, and saying the verbal wasn’t happening. Consequently, I decided to try it with her harness on, and it worked much better. We repeated the backside/frontside discriminations, and she got most of them right – the ones that she didn’t get right were usually the ones where I forgot to start my verbal early.
We repeated the serps – this time with the start wing about 10ft away. I used a verbal for the serp jump, though I doubt that I would use that in a trial. I tried to run faster, and to give her the reward from my hand.
Later we tried the Backside wraps. This was completely new to Yowza, so we had to start from scratch. I started with just a wing (but didn’t get this on video), and she picked it up pretty quickly. Then we started reps with the distraction jump. In the beginning she did some crazy things – like diving into the tunnel off to the right (which you can’t see in the video), but I thought she picked it up fairly well. We’ve still got a lot of work to do on this though, as I don’t think the “wrap” verbal is solidified in her brain yet.
PS – Wally is a delightful British term for a person who’s lost a few brain cells 😉Today we worked on Game 2 from Week 3 – Backside slices.
I forgot to walk forward for the first few reps. I thought Yowza did quite well for the most part though.
Later in the day we added balance cues – wraps and soft turns – she had difficulty with a “push” to the right towards the end, but I think it was because her brain was frazzled, so I helped her get it right, and then we finished.
First I must thank you for your feedback on Yowza’s standard run last night. Well, I feel like a wally now for not figuring that out myself! Poor girl was slipping, and I didn’t even notice! – I’m glad you think that it’s something she’ll adapt to, but I hope she doesn’t get hurt. I’ve done the same thing with Matrix -not noticed when he’s slipping – but I did see it in video – not so with Yowza 🙁
Yesterday I decided to do a “discrimination” set up for Week 2 games – so that I could practice MY verbal discriminations as well – I even practiced it without Yowza before we started – haha! – so I think I did better with the left and right cues, but still maybe a little loud?
Yowza did really well when I was walking, but not so good when I added some speed – so I think this is something we will continue to work on. Do you suggest raising the jump height at any point for this exercise?
After that, we took a break, and then worked on Game 1 from Week 3 – the serpentines. I thought she did really well in this – thanks to our Max Pup foundation work!
Well, I had a very frustrating day today – first, we went out to try the soft turns with wings, and this time I moved the wing closer to center of distraction jump, as you suggested, and I tried to run a line so that I was not blocking the wing. But then I found that she came in closer to my line, and took the wrong side of the wing. So then I put in the opposite wing (to make it look more like a jump), and she still went around the wrong side of the wing. So then I put in a very low bar, so that she knew it was a jump – then she got it again, and did both left and right turns correctly most of the time. But then I discovered that I didn’t have the video on (Grrrrr!) – so, sadly you can’t see any of that :(. We repeated some of the soft turns with the jump, this time on camera, and she did better. For each turn, I started with her in a sit, then switched to circling the wing first – I think you can tell the ones with the wing starter, even though you can’t see it. I suppose I should really have added in some “go” reps, but the way I set it up, with as much distance as I could get between the starter wing and the turning wing, I didn’t really have room to send her over both jumps.
Then, later in the day we tried game 3. I thought this went quite well. She didn’t always get the correct type of turn, but most of the time she did, and I tried not to “help” her too much with handling.
As you suggested we went back and repeated Game 1, this time with a start wing. She still had difficulty with the right turn, as she sometimes took the distraction jump.
We tried again a little later in the day, and she was better.
Today we tried Games 1 and 2 from Week 2. She did well on the first game, with turns around the wing, so we moved straight on to Game 2. She did well at first, but I noticed on the video that I tended to move in the left or right directions, especially with increased speed – I’m thinking this is probably a no-no! When I sent her round the stanchion first, she had difficulty with the right turns when I ran faster, so I decreased speed until she got it, then increased it a little again.
Game 1
Game 2
We took a break, and then went back out to try Game 3. I started her from a sit at first – and she didn’t take the distraction jumps, so we progressed to circling a wing before the approach. She was doing well with these, so I upped the ante a little bit, by running a little crazy to the jump – but then she had the bar down, and then hit the wing – so i dialed the craziness back down again at the end….
We took a day off, and Yowza got to try herding for the first time yesterday and today. When we got home, we got back to our verbals training. We repeated Game 2, as you suggested – but this time I made sure to sometimes send to the far jump with the “go” verbal. We have recently been working on this verbal, after a UKI trial, where only dogs with a strong “go on” verbal were running clean (which didn’t include Yowza – haha!). We have been working on jumping a long line of jumps, without a head turn with the “go” verbal, and she’s been doing pretty well. However, in this setup, I think the head turn was inevitable – so you will see, I tried putting a second toy out (to try to eliminate the head turn), but it didn’t really work, as she still wanted me to throw the toy in my hand. Anyway, after the first rep, she did consistently take the 2nd jump with the “go” verbal – so I guess I should be happy with that – ha! I thought her turns were tighter, and I don’t think she hit any bars or wings – so I hope you think she’s doing better 🙂
Tracy – thank you so much for your great feedback – as always, so helpful.
Today we repeated Games 1 and 2, as you suggested – focusing mostly on the left turns, as that was her weaker side. We started with wing to wing, with me walking, then increasing to run. Then I put the jump back in, and alternated left and right, sending to the jump from a wing.
Here is our first video – Game 1 – we did this in one session – I noticed when i watched the video that I did front crosses for the right turns, and post turns for the left turns (not intentional), which I think may have caused her to turn wider on the left side. Also, I forgot to do this game sending her first to another wing.
Later in the day we did Game 2, with the jump in place of the wing. I continued to do front crosses to the R, and post turns to the left (still unintentional!), even after the send to the wing, which I did remember this time – though, unfortunately you can’t see it in the video because of the camera angle in my small space.
Here are 4 rather long videos for Sequences for Success from the Games 4 package. They are long b/c I didn’t edit them – you can see everything – lol! The first video is me walking the first sequence. For some reason I had a really hard time with the BC between jumps 4 and 5, and I ended up doing the BC between 3 and 4 (not planned). This practice is really good for me, b/c, as you can see I am really struggling with multi-tasking (memorizing course, connecting with dog, using verbals, timing of verbals, decel, etc). Anyway, in the 2nd video, I walked the course again, and then ran it with Yowza – she really needed me to stay connected with her….
The next 2 videos are similar to the first 2, this time for Sequence 2. My walk thrus went a little better, but Yowza needed some help with serpentining, and backside jumping – any suggestions for practicing these are welcome.
Your feedback for this 3rd sequence was really helpful – thanks! – just want to check that your suggestion for a spin was for jump #9 (and not for jump #10, which would mean doing a spin with a backside, I think).
Well, it seems the first video I posted in my last reply was again NOT the correct one – so sorry – I don’t know what’s going on – I think something must have got mislabeled on Youtube. So I’m going to skip it for now.
Here is a short video showing our attempt at getting the 3rd sequence right. This time I got the correct side of jump #2, and I think I got the ending correct also. I think you’re right – it is easier this way!
Sorry I posted the wrong video in my last post – so this should be the correct one – this shows my repeat of Sequence 1, after your feedback, where I was trying to dial back the turning cues, and run more smoothly.
<<was there something out there she was looking at? Toy on the ground? Favorite obstacle? She was *convinced* that was the line LOL!!! >>
– no there was nothing at all out there that she likes – I think, b/c we’d already done that outlying jump once, she just liked to swing right out to a jump going that way – LOL!
Today we ran the 2nd sequence again, and this time I went back to using the L and R verbals, and less physical collection cues – I think this went much better 🙂 – I hope you think so too.
Then we tried the 3rd sequence, so this is our baseline, although I missed out jump #9. She did better than I thought she would – only missed the first backside (to that outlying jump), and I think that was b/c I wasn’t connected to her enough.
Thank you so much for the great feedback – I’ve got a lot to work on! So I am really struggling with the verbals right now – I had taught her right and left wrap (check and digga), right and left soft turn (right and left), but I had recently changed my mind and decided not to discriminate L and R, and just have a verbal for a wrap (check) and a soft turn (ch, ch,) b/c I’m not trusting myself to say the correct cues during a trial. However – you will see in the second video here (Sequence 2) that Yowza seems to be confused by my cues for a wrap to the L, but when I said “digga, digga” she got it right away – so now I’m thinking may be better if I stick to Plan A, and go back to using the L&R verbals. And, by the way, “jump” is my generic cue for take the jump ahead of you as fast as you can (i.e. no collection), and “go” means take the jump/s straight ahead of you, even though I’m falling behind.
I repeated the first sequence, this time trying to use less turning cues, and using L and R collection verbals. You’ll see in both videos that she shot out of the tunnel and went straight to the adjacent jump 10, even when I was trying to cue jumps 13 to 14.
Then we tried the second sequence, but had a problem with the wrap, as I already mentioned, then after the exit of the tunnel at the end of the sequence.
