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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.
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)!
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”?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!!!🙂
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? hahahaWind 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!
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?
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.
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.
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!
KathyTracy – 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!!! <3Hi 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!!!!Hi Tracy!
I have some questions ☺For the Accordion setup for Bazinga, should I start introducing a bar? We have not yet transitioned to bars on any of the exercises. I think we were trying to find the right spacing for her with the setpoint game first. We had been doing 30 inches and that was working for her. Should I do a set of the regular setpoint and add a bar on the last jump before I do this new game? If so, what would you recommend I set it to? My jumps don’t have jump cup strip. They are a single, slideable cup. I think I can approximate 4 inches (it may actually be a little lower than that). My bars won’t lock in on the cups though, so they will just sit in the cup.
I missed the beginning of the class chat this week about Weaves & Teeters & Contacts. Will these classes ever be offered “live” again or should we sign up for the independent study versions?
When does MaxPup3 start? Or is MaxPup2.1 the next class?Should I be signing her up for group classes to get her used to a more distracting environment or should I wait until the MaxPup4 class? We are going to a puppy agility seminar this week and I’m curious to see how she does in that environment. I’m going to bust out the super bowls and Resilience games when we get there 🙂
Thanks!
KathyHI Tracy – thanks for the feedback on the RCs! I’ll try the transition exercise next time we do this one. I’m going to circle back to some of the exercises that we still need to work on to get to the advanced level next and the new ones of course!
We tried out the Tunnel Threadles! This video is a little long (I’m sorry!) and maybe my session went too long, but I wanted you to see what happened, so I kept the details so you can see. She was brilliant in the beginning & middle and then we seem to have failures towards the end – even when I went back to the simpler moves. I am thinking maybe I was crowding her on the way to the tunnel for the threadles on the later reps. What do you think?
We did a quick session of simple tight blinds – just with wraps on the wings too. I used food on this one to keep it simpler for me (so sad- lol)
Hi Tracy!
I’m back! We did a grind commute and drove all day Saturday & got to FL Sunday. It would have been fun if we had time to slow it down. I would have loved to have met you & hopefully a bunch of noodles & puppehs too!We had another try at rear crosses. I worked lefts & rights. I was really concentrating on looking at her as she came out of the tunnel. I think I still need to get closer to her to push the line than I did in this session. I was concentrating on the center of the bar so hard that I didn’t really clear the jump laterally as I came behind her on some of them.
>>It looks like Newberry is between Charlotte NC and Columbia SC. There is a TON of good agility and flyball around there (one of the top multi-breed teams in flyball has a Boston terrier on it!). Let me know what you are ready and I will get you hooked up with fun people!!
That is great news!!! Maybe Bazinga will get to try flyball after all. I don’t think I’ll have an area to practice there so I would be psyched if I could find a training facility close by where I can practice. Hopefully there are some agility trials in the area too. I’ll check back with you when I start going up there ☺I may even get to your seminars from there!!! Fun! THANK YOU!!!
