[Kathy McClung]

Hi Tracy!
I hope your RV is fixed!!!

>
one suggestion to get you to be able to move forward faster:
As you cue her to go past you to the circle wrap, you can keep your dog side arm arm going across on front of you – you can think of it as transferring her from your dog side arm to your other arm, then using that other arm to supper the connection shift back behind you. I try not to let my dog-side arm go past my dog-side hip. That way, there is less rotation for me… and less rotation means I cam move forward faster 🙂

Thank you! That is valuable feedback! I’ll work on that form for sure!

We worked on the Send sequences. We started off with the sequence of 4, took a break and did the longer sequence and…she was perfect! I was perfect! aaaaaand I forgot to hit record. hahahahaha!
We repeated it and I think we still had a pretty good session. We had some oopsies but I could tell as she got going she really thought it was fun to have so many obstacles. She wasn’t sure what was coming next and she dialed up her attention.

Beginning session:

another session from a different angle:

Thank you for watching!

[Kathy McClung]

>She gives really good feedback bout what she sees 🙂

I’ll remember this!!! 🙂

>>That was :37 and after that – what was happening was you were running parallel to the bar with a closed shoulder, so she was staying out on her line. She would need you to open up your shoulders towards her with your dog-side arm back so she sees the cue to come in (or turn your shoulders towards the house to cue a 180).

I see what I was doing wrong with my shoulders now & she was such a good girl for staying on her line like she was supposed to! Thank you!

We did another session of the sends and that change helped so much! I think I was not as good at executing it when I moved to the 2nd side but she still did a good job of coming back over jump 2.

We also tried the Maxpup version of the Shifting Connection session. I think she really read this well!

Thanks for watching!!!

[Kathy McClung]

Hi Tracy!
Thanks for the feedback. I can see how I changed my body position now. I’m not sure why I did that.
We did a session of the Sends today and the same thing happened. She started out strong and then we lost it. I’m sure it was my body position again.
In the beginning, she was really confident & even took jump #2. Then later I tried to move across from jump 1 to 2 (like a serp) and something about my movement or body position pushed her off jump 2. At the end, on the misses, it looks like I am very bent over. I don’t know if the side change messes with my head and I change my posture.
I tried to correct my body and we got one easy, last rep & ended the session.
Tahnks for watching!

[Kathy McClung]

Hi Tracy! Thank you for the feedback about my arm position! I think the prop was amking me hold my arm weird. I’ll pay attention to that.

We did the combo sequences. I used the Manners Minder as a target. I was very happy that she was able to take the wing & move away from the MM and then come back & get her reward.

I think we did really great on the front cross reps. I did have to remember to look at her and not ahead to jump #2, but as long as I did that, she knew what to do.

We got some spins in on the first side (Bazinga on my left). Once we switched sides, something changed and she was running behind me. I went back to the other side to see if that helped re-set us and it did help. I’m not sure what I was doing differently. Maybe I am turned too much during the decel?

Am I doing the spins correctly? I’m sorry. I am just so weird about “moves” I’m really trying to get this one burned into my brain (I know now that it is not muscle memory!) I’m still working on timing with Bazinga when I can see her commit to the jump and then I can turn. A few times, I was planning a spin but just didn’t feel it, so I did a FC instead.

Thanks for watching!

[Kathy McClung]

Thanks for the feedback!
I went out and practiced with Frankie – she loves to be my guinea pig! Hahaha! Here is Bazinga’s latest session. We got the spins in!!!

I am just so blown away by how the connection works for Bazinga! It is magic. It is like, learning how to drive her. If I do the connection right, she just gets it. My big takeaway is that I need to get my body language fluent so that I don’t have to think about it and I can concentrate on our connection.

[Kathy McClung]

Hi! Thanks for the great feedback on the last video. I’ll be keeping an eye on my pony tail as I watch my videos now – Hahaha!
We did an exit line session last week & I never submitted it. I got hit by the sick truck hard and have been mostly just sleeping. I can tell that I was dropping the regular connection on many of the reps where she didn’t take the 2nd jump. I also was having brain-farts on the Spins. My head gets stuck in it. I have been practicing by myself at the jumps too. so I’m surprised at how awkward I am being with them. Any ideas to help me? I think it is because the way I learned to do front crosses, they were this elaborate 4 step move and I never learned how to do spins before I took your classes. I’m just making it bigger than it needs to be, I think. Even the tight blinds, I am overthinking them.

Thanks for the feedback. I know the dogs are going to be happy to play again now that I’m back with the living (mostly)!

[Kathy McClung]

Happy New Year!!!!!
We are so excited to be playing again! We did the Regular Connection session. I used the Manners Minder as the target & she was so excited & really drove to it each time.
I back-chained the jumps before we started, so that she knew there was a bar in place and I think she did great with them. She did knock the 2nd bar on the last rep. I couldn’t figure out why when I watched the video. What do you think? Was it “just a bar”?

[Kathy McClung]

Thanks so much for the advice on playing! I like the idea of the big holee rollers and tug games. Bazinga is definitely liking tug more now that I put some time into training it with a trade/out. I can keep working on that & fade out the trade part. I also can work on getting her to bring it back to me to keep the game fun.

We did the accordion again – 30 inches, 6 feet and 9 feet

>>She did a great job adjusting to all of the distances here! The bounce distances at the beginning and end looked great. She bounced the 6 foot distance but I am curious to know how she felt about it – she didn’t seem comfy, so it would be interesting to see if she would still bounce it or add a stride.

She did not bounce the 6ft jump this time! She added a stride, but she did have (I think) a biiig extension on the last stride for 6 feet.
I’m curious on what to look for moving forward. Do I make adjustments based on how she is jumping or does the exercise itself teach her to self-adjust?
She might be an impatient jumper if that is a thing. Hahaha

Here is her previous session for comparison

We will keep working the other games to get to the advanced levels. Do you think I am too careful & go too slow on the games? I want to get the baby level solid before I move on, but then we don’t get to the advanced levels.

I am thinking about doing the independent study teeter class for the winter. I should get enough good weather to do it and if I remember correctly, I should train the teeter as the first contact since it is the moving contact.

Thanks for another amazing class! I really learned a lot. Bazinga is going to be 100% Pure Tracy Sklenar Trained! LOL Seriously, you are AMAZING! You make it fun for me & Bazinga & I feel confident that I am not going to go down a wrong rabbit hole teaching something wrong that I didn’t realize was a mistake. Thank you!

Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!🙂

[Kathy McClung]

Hi Tracy!
I hope you got some mega-rest!!! Wow you guys were working super hard! The magnitude of setting all those courses! WOW!
Here is what we have been working on:
Accordion
She did great with the dropped toy this time! I switched it in instead of the MM.
I messed up & doubled the distance on the jump that was supposed to be 9 feet & made it 12 feet. I’ll try again and use 6 feet & 9 feet.

Backside Challenge
She did pretty well with the baby level. I tried to get distance and go closer to the center of the jump but it was too hard for both of us. I am not sure I did the exit line part correctly. Am I missing an obvious nuance? hahaha

Wind in Your Hair Transitions
This was fun! She totally read it the first time. I did not do the best job of showing her which side to be on, but she kept wrapping anyway. When she started to have questions, I added our wrap verbals and that seemed to help her. Is it ok to use the verbals on these or are we wanting to teach them to tune in to the body cues?

Questions & Obsessions
I’m thinking I may join a puppy class that is about an hour from me. She has been in a group class environment when she was very little. She did great. A lot of it was on leash/dropped leash but she seems fine with the environment.
I’d like to enter into this next phase with her confidence & resiliency in mind. I haven’t done any classes where she would get a turn & then be crated & then have a turn, so I’d like to start training our ring routine before I start classes. Do you have any suggestions about how to transition her to the class environment? Maybe I can ask if I can drop in on some of her more advanced classes and bring her crate and do pattern games nearby at first?

I have a kind of crazy question that I’m interested in your opinion on. Do you play with your dogs? Like throw the toy, fetch games. I’ve become so paranoid about saving their bodies that I don’t play with them and I feel like we are either training or they are bored. I don’t leave toys in the house for them to play with on their own because Bazinga is an “I’ll eat it” hazard. So they kind of don’t know what to do with themselves when we aren’t training. I feel like I forgot how to just have dogs vs athletes and they are missing out on just pure dog fun.

I’m looking forward to the next class. I’m kind of hesitating on trying to tackle weaves on my own, so if you are going to be offering a course on that I’m definitely interested!

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by Kathy McClung. Reason: typo-city

[Kathy McClung]

Hi Tracy – thanks for the feedback on the layering. I will do the mirror image next!

Set Point with a bar set to 6 inches (jump spacing is still 30 inches)
>>Nope! Do another session with her starting in front of jump 1 and using a slooowwwllllly moving MM, and see how she does. She might have just needed to sort it out on this session, and will be perfect in the next one 
 Let me know how she does!

We revisited this & while she was having trouble with her waits with such an interesting target, no dropped bars!!!
I did not give her a reset cookie for the breaks on her waits. I’m hoping that is the right way to handle it when it does happen. I’ll be adding in more “catches” to help her with this too.

We did another session of the Lateral Leadouts. I think my body language & connection is better here?
She was more successful & thanks for the tip to start out throwing the toy in front of the first jump at first. That helped her.
Again, the “wait” was very hard for her. I shouldn’t have picked 2 wait-heavy exercises in a row, so I only did a few here so I didn’t torture her. When I saw it was hard for her, I started adding the “catches” after I walked the “L” to the wing to help with that that different picture. l’ll work up to more with her.

I’m trying to at least get 1 session of all the games videos for you because you have such a great eye & your feedback helps me get it together to keep going correctly.🙂
I’m hoping the FL winter lets us keep practicing to the next class!

Adding a question: For the Accordion, If she is doing 30 inches for the set point, for the last jump in the accordion, I would add 15 inches (45 inches total) for rep #2 and add 30 inches (60 inches total) for rep #3. Is that right?

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by Kathy McClung.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by Kathy McClung. Reason: added a question :)

[Kathy McClung]

Thanks for the feedback on this. I am looking forward to trying again!

We did our first session of the Layering Foundation. I watched the video mucho times and missed the step where I can move the wing closer to the tunnel! Ha! Next time will be easier. I think she did really well on it – I’m looking forward to your feedback.

[Kathy McClung]

Hi & thanks! We will try again with the set point this afternoon & see if she marinated ☺

We did our first session of the Lateral Leadouts. She did great on the very first rep and then we had struggles. I did a lot of catches in between to reinforce the stay. (I edited them out so you didn’t have to watch) After I watched the video I can see that I am too pointy & I did not start with my dog side leg & arm back a little. Do you think that was the issue? I really, really need to overcorrect my body language. I think I am doing it right & I’m barely controlling myself! LOL

Thanks & hope you are having fun! To commiserate, I stepped in dog poop 3x in the last 2 days and it was my own yard! FAIL! I have a row of sneakers to be attended to. Hahaha.

[Kathy McClung]

Hi Tracy,
Thank you!
>> On the set point, you can try the bar at 6 inches. And you can also play with the moving target to help her maintain her form while things are more exciting.

I tried this at 6 inches & we had some dropped bars. It seemed like if she was set up too close to the bar, she dropped it & if the reward (moving MM) was too exciting, she dropped it.
Should I go lower?
We’ve had rain & yucky weather, so we haven’t gotten any good sessions in. I think today we will have good weather!

Thank you!
Kathy

[Kathy McClung]

Tracy – Bazinga did so good at the seminar! It was so cool to see all the foundation work that we have been doing in MaxPup shine in a new, BIG environment! I was so proud of her! 🙂
This clip is so funny & such a testament to your wrap game training! As soon as I got into position – even before I realized it – she snapped into action on her wrap & go line!!! <3

[Kathy McClung]

Hi Tracy!
We tried the set point and the ladder with a bar on the last jump. When I got it set up I noticed that the bar is only slightly higher than the pool noodle. I thought that was kind of funny. I don’t think she really noticed much. I’m curious to hear what you think.
I had the last jump a little too far away at first but I corrected it. I’ll try the accordion exercises next.

I also did a little sequence work with the blind crosses and tunnel threadles. We are still having a little trouble with the left turn tunnel threadle. It may still be me, but I tried to adjust my line.
I think I’m getting better at looking at her as I move. I am so blown away at what a big effect looking at her has on the results!

We have some catching up to do but I am so excited for the new games🙂
I’ll let you know how the seminar goes.
Also, when does MaxPup 3 start?
Have fun this weekend!!!!

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