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I had a post typed up and lost it by somehow clicking a link. If it reappears, I’m sorry!
it is more important to rehearse the run than it is to actually run the dog. And if time is up at a trial and you are still feeling un-rehearsed? Don’t run it with a young dog – run an FEO or NFC portion instead. I might consider running it with an experienced dog who can cover my *ss more, but not with a youngster.
I don’t think I understood putting more significance on without dog rehearsal because I felt like the only learning tool I had was to do it.
If course 3 were at a trial, I’d do FEO with Fever 100%. His trialing right now is so limited, I want him to be successful and happy the whole time.
I also scratch Callie if I come across a course that will be demotivating or asks for a skill I don’t think we have or haven’t rehearsed recently.
It’s a bit harder when you’ve driven 8 hours and it’s the only run for the day but still.This means planning for and rehearsing short lead outs for now, but a high success rate is much more important.
This is also a good point. Callie has not the greatest start in trials. In practice hers is really good! She gets nervous when I leave her and is really hesitant to sit at all. We played UKI and I loved that I could just send her to the backside of the first jump. I could get where I needed and she has to start off chasing and it was great!
What’s funny is that for both dogs in practice, I tend to do much larger lead outs than I’d ever ask for in a trial.
I do feel like I rush the start in practice and in trials which can lead to issues so I need to work on that as well. I just love a tunnel start because no lead out required.Ohh this rehearsal lessons made me tear up. I know I sound like a broken record but it’s just so nice working with you and having your knowledge/insight!
I really undervalue the importance of walkthroughs with practice because I learn best by doing. I always have. I need a lot of reps to learn. In PA school learning anatomy, I’d have to write things over and over again. I’d have to pull up every cadaver to see the variations of structures because I can’t picture it.
I’m very lucky that Callie is my first agility dog because she can handle high reps. However, Fever is not a fan. I also was working with someone when he was young who was very unflexible to our needs.
I do need to remember to use my words. My initial agility instructor was anti verbals so I lost them for awhile. Having helped me add them back- now I have too many. But it’s made Callie much more confident in running also!or look at the course while you do the shadow handling – muscle memory really helps and you’ll still get a great rehearsal.
I do shadow handle at trials. That my marker for whether I know I can stop walking. If I can’t shadow handle it, It hasn’t been learned. I have been struggling with the AKC courses that have multiple pinwheels in the middle- which seems to be really popular with some judges 🤷♀️.
I have found some folks do well with pairing muscle movements with particular smells: for example, the mechanics of the run paired with the smell of vanilla (or any smell you choose).
This is a very interesting suggestion and thank you! I’ve never explored this personally in learning. I know that I have strong emotions tied to some scents so it’s definitely worth exploring. I feel like I’d need to read more to understand how to fully implement this.
The other thing you can do is have Carrie watch your final walk throughs and see if she can tell where your invisible dog is
Excellent suggestion. Thank you.
You asked about our discussion- typically we will talk during our walk through- usually about a line choice or cross. In an actual trial I have learned the course before hand and know where I need to plan crosses and map paths. Those decisions have to be made on the actual course for myself.When you went from your last walk through to your first run – because you had not fully rehearsed the connection, verbals and speed
How do you handle rehearsing speed for dogs that have a variable motor. This more so happens with Callie but Fever too. Do you plan for the run to be fast?
So for as many positive emotions I had about course 2, I had just about as many negative emotions about course 3 and they all centered around 5-6.
I didn’t think layering was a good choice for him. I hate layering to begin with. I don’t do it much. Both of my dogs usually get it correct when I need it.
Here, I truly felt like the line I needed to set required me to be on the other side of the off course jump. This was HARD for me to learn. I needed my essentially entire 5 minutes on the walk through. You can see me struggling with where I need to go. I almost crash the jump once without my dog.
With that being said, I knew it would translate to a problem with the dog. The actual line itself was fine but then we bobbled at the backside after. I do feel like with either dog if there is a spot that mentally takes a lot of focus for me in course walking or handling, that usually will be where runs fall apart (Probably not unique to me). Whether that be due to the complexity or after because it just took so much of my concentration.
I did keep rolling here because I really want your thoughts on this backside thing. What I can’t sort out is if it’s a gap in our training or if it’s just the pressure of me moving and he wants to flank in some situations. His backside going the same direction before the tunnel was beautiful in this run and in course two. Independent, lovely. It’s the same direction so I don’t want to categorize that side as a weakness as opposed to the opposite side. What should I start doing to make this stronger because it seems to be an error that pops up sometimes? Should I stop and reward these every time for now? Is continuing rewarding enough?Also his stays were pretty bad here. I let them be bad because Roulez is screaming and it tends to make him pop up. I should fix it. Another problem that I’m admitting I have and need to continue the other 11 steps towards. My favorite part of this whole video is where I say, well… he broke his startline… Tracy is gonna bust my ass for that 🤣
Course 2 of S4S
This one was my favorite. It was the easiest for me to learn. I really loved the lines. It was just great!
We ran it once. My only two critiques were him not really setting up for the wrap at the backside, and me missing the jump after the tunnel. I had planned for a blind, figuring I should do a wrap like the previous sequence even though it was the end and he could have run it in a slice. I was patterning. I wasn’t where I expected to be. It would have been a fine rear had I planned for it. I also ran this course with Roulez (not included)- and as Carrie said, we blew the roof off this bitch. Really really fun sequence here!
First of all, when you sent the email saying that package 5 was up, I panicked and thought I missed a whole two weeks worth of work 🤣. I’m glad to know I’m not behind 😮💨.
Skill set!So… a fun fact about Jamie is that I don’t have the ability to visualize things in my head. No imagination, no mental picture, none.. just blackness when I close my eyes and try. I LOVE the Harry Potter series and have read the books many times. Can’t visualize any of the world. The term for this is aphantasia if you were wondering.
I bring this up because it does make the way I learn courses (and navigating) a bit more challenging. I have to depend on memorizing- which I acknowledge everyone does, but spacially it’s just a bit more challenging for me because the actual walk through and the map are my only tools. It also makes winning mindset books hard to follow because step one is to usually visualize your success 🤷♀️
I also REALLY REALLY struggle when I course build from coordinates and then try to learn/walk the course. For some reason this is much more difficult for me than just showing up and walking a course. I do feel like I tend to make more errors in these small sequences because I am building them. I would never course build at a big event for that reason.
So knowing all of that you may have a bit more insight into my course walking/learning. I have an understanding of where my dogs speed and line will be. If I’m off frame, it’s because I’m looking at the map.I did attempt the course three times with Fever. He took the off course tunnel which I didn’t notice would be an option because it’s not on the map so I didn’t think about it.
I tried to leave the audio in and talk out what I thought my problems were. I think you can hear it. I do tend to course walk with carrie (my emotional support human) and we plan together so I’m discussing with here handling here. I also included the overlay of my dogless run with our first run.
Volume dial.
So I used the frizz which was probably a poor choice for immediate reinforcer because it’s a crap tug and he really wants it thrown. He played well enough though!
I love his arousal level here. This would me my main place to I’d always like to work himAfter our first five, I tried to make sure my thighs were more closed so he didn’t get to offer a “through” behavior without me cuing.
In the first set, i asked for a roll over. He did what I think was a cartwheel instead. I did reward because he tried- hard. Second video I asked for a foot target. It was probably too concentrated for his higher arousal state.
Random question about agility that’s been keeping me up at night… not really but maybe 🙂
(not really random, I’m marking my course progress and came across the threadle wrap lesson)threadles!
I know that you use both the offside arm as well as an open arm on the same side.
My cuing for the serp with Callie is an open arm. I do feel like it takes pressure off and has the dog come in.Do you feel this a movement that can be used for both without poisoning your serp mechanics? The threadle is on a word an obviously I understand I would need to practice both types.
Mixing up verbals is a rehearsal issue – you’ll fix that by rehearsing the handling properly, before you run him (most folks don’t rehearse handling properly before runs). We work that in Games Package 4 🙂
Oh but if you confidently get them wrong in your rehearsal then you don’t know you’re wrong! This where the tattoos come in handy!
thank you!
I can’t even explain how much I am enjoying your classes and how much we needed this- not just for skills but for the soul
I bring it up because I think we can shift focus a little to getting him to be more ‘all in’ and less thinking about it, and not checking out as much. So for the next session – do lots of friz throws, a couple of massive simple speed lines – and one technical spot, without repeating it a lot.
Setting up his sessions like that will really flip the switch into that ‘all in, all the time’ that we want.thank you for this! I really appreciate the technical skills he has at his age but what’s most important for him and I is for him to be ALL in. Since he does struggle with environment, he’s a much better and confident worker when he’s excitable. Plus it’s really fun when he’s flying.
I also really appreciate ALL of your toy/reinforcer feedback because it’s not always the easiest for me to pick up. I do get when it is not as reinforcing as it could be but don’t quite know enough to make the fix. Toy play guru Tracy! <3
One question I have with speed lines and less technical stuff. I know for these sequences we had missed obstacles and I kept stopping- how do you decided to stop when they have missed a jump in a flowy and relatively straight sequence versus going back to get a jump or just stopping and rewarding.
I think sometimes I get disconnected running knowing that there has been a mistake and thinking too long about fixing/stopping/rewarding leading to further disconnect. I still have so much to learn with running him because it’s still quite the challenge for me. I don’t trust him to take all of the things so then my words get late because I’m watching everything. Or I mix up my freaking rights and lefts. I swear I’m getting my hands tattooed with L and R as well as check and dig.
Course 2 and 3
He has lots of questions here for both courses and wasn’t super confident. Starting out, we were traumatized by a pop up thunderstorm before leaving the house so he’s a bit more aware of his surroundings than I’d like. He’s still working which is super.
The very first opening to 6 was super. I really couldn’t figure out a better way to handle that sharp turn there other than what I was doing. He was smoking me down that tunnel line so that side was my only option.
If I got my tunnel threadle cue out timely, he got it. I was late my first attempt.Course 3
I couldn’t get 3-5. Ideally I wanted to blind 3-4 and do a reverse spin but it just wasn’t working. My break down looks awful here.
For fun, I ran both courses with Roulez with the same handling plans and it worked beautifully. Since my execution with Fever was making me question my handling courses. We missed jump 11 in course to but otherwise was smooth sailing.
Jumping course 1
It’s been so hot so we’ve been laying low. I also had a Covid exposure and wasn’t feeling so hot. Hopefully it passes. I was negative (fingers crossed I got my test timing correct)
My brain wasn’t working fast enough on this course. These 180s are still hard for me. You’d think I could nail them by this point. I watched the video and think he was going around the wingless at my blind because I was in my landing space. When I reattempted, I moved my blind and they seemed to fix it.
I didn’t have room for 9. He couldn’t seem to find that wing and chose to go under the DW- which you can’t see.I chose to keep him pretty open and not do any wraps here.
Still overpraising here. I’m trying. I swear.
This week is miserably hot. It’s 9 PM and dark outside and still “feels like 96°”
We played threadle wraps for a hot second. Left side is great. Right side needs some work. I decided to make things easier after each mistake. This might also have to do with the fact that I couldn’t seem to figure out which was my opposite arm on that side. Idk what was happening with my brain. I had the large frisbee and couldn’t figure out what to do with either hand 😅.
I was really happy with his bypass cue which has been on the shelf since he was about 6 months old collecting dust!
Although listening to the video.. I’m not sure that i realized how close with with with and zip zip zip sound. MFer 🤦♀️.I don’t have any video but we played the focus cookie game ring side and it was the most invaluable tool for him while waiting ringside. It really calmed his environmental nerves and got him excited to be with the mama. There were lots of busy loud dogs and he didn’t seem bothered one bit! <3
We played UKI and it was SO FUN! He did 4 runs and I was a really good baby dog handler and rewarded him before he had a chance to think he made any mistakes and mostly just let him RUN RUN RUN!
We did a brief threadle play too. I had totally forgotten your threadle sandwich advice my first two reps and then remembered. We used to practice these often and I got distracted but training all the things. We are also at a place in training where he needed to focus on easier things. I’m glad we can reintroduce now because he’s ready.
My reward placement could be better.
I also have a tendency to LEAN in my threadle and stop so hopefully when we are actually sequencing with these later in the course, I will do better.One side was clearly easier for him based on how tight he turned.
Course 2
I couldn’t think enough to do the split screen. I did the times for each section – not super scientific, from flip away to reward.
I also filmed the third sequence and he did the most beautiful threadle slice and backside wrap but unfortunately the second video to compare to the first is way to dark from the lack of sun so you’ll just have to take my word for how amazing he was. I also tried to do the blind out of the tunnel to the threadle- a skill I’ve not done with him and it was fairly comical.
