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Hi Tracy!
Thank you for the feedback & the info on the lead legs!
We did another session of Sends & Serps. I started with the jump less angled than last time and it was a little too hard for her, so I moved it again. I think we were still a little less angled than the first time. I’m losing her when we line up to wrap the wing. I’m not sure if I just don’t have her full attention yet, and I’m starting too soon or if I am too lateral from the wing for her.
Looking forward to watching all the pups in class tonight!
Thank you!
Hi Tracy!
We have beauuuuuuuuutiful weather today!!! We did some things ☺
Hope you had a fun weekend! I got to watch some of the WC Open.Set Point with Moving MM
Set Point Progression
>>I think the order of festivities should be:
– first add the moving target MM-on-wheels with the noodles for one session
– then if that goes well, go back to the stationary MM and put a bar in on the 2nd jump as low as possible and see how she does!We did a session with the moving MM. The distance for the jumps here is the shorter distance we did last time – 30 inches. It was very exciting for her. I have to bend over to get the handle and that amped her up a bit. I think we only got one true stay where she waited for me to actually say “break”. After the session, I moved to the deck and just put the MM on the ground and did some start lines with “catches” and then I bent over & squatted next to the MM before releasing her. She did much better without the jumps in front of her & the MM moving. I’ll do that a few more times today and hopefully, it will help her excitement level on the next moving session.
We did a second session of the Zig Zag game with the wings 4 feet part. I think she did well but what am I really looking for besided that she moves through the wings. Should I be looking at which leg she used to lead off with? If she is moving to her left, she should use her front left leg first, is that right? I could use a better understanding of lead leg/changes.
We did Find the Jump! I used a toy and we even tugged between reps. She magically was both super into tugging but happy to trade for a treat on almost every rep. I left a clip in the video. We are not to a formal “out” yet. It is more like a quick trade before she changes her mind!
Thanks!!!!Hi Tracy!
We have been working on the Minny Pinny between classes since it didn’t involve a lot of running. She really wants to go around the jumps herself. I am trying to hang on to her so that she can hear the verbal first. On the more advanced “sends” where she is turning away or neutral at the center, if my feet are pointing in the direction I want her to go, she does much better. Do I need to fade that out? I’m looking forward to your feedback on this one.
Minny Pinny with Verbals
Zig Zag – 4 feet apart
So the next step for this game is to bring the wings closer together so she gets to practice doing her lead changes quicker and quicker. Move the wings to 4 feet apart and see how she does (your cues will need to be quicker too). And if that goes well, you can eventually move them to 3 feet apart for ultimate lead change quickness!We moved the jumps to 4 feet. She did skip a jump here & there. I am guessing that it was my handling – maybe not obvious enough?
Smiley Faces Calm Your Hands with Water Bottle!
We did it! I still think my arm is too forward but I really tried to stay looking at her as I ran. Bazinga was chasing the water spills! LOL
Thanks for watching!
-KathyHI Tracy!
Thanks for the feedback on her set point & especially about when to mark/not to mark. I like that distinction!Great class last night! It really did help to hear how you progress your serp cues. My current one (which cracks me up) is I yell “serp!” and rely completely on body language and Frankie loves serps, so she reads them well and everyone thinks I have a 3 jump verbal! Bwahahahahaha! I’m really saying “serp” for me so that I get my handling right.
Do you give a directional on each jump of the serp line?Sends & Serps
We did our first session of Sends & Serps! I was happily surprised that she read it. When we tried it a few months ago it was very hard for both of us. She wanted to go fast, so I tried to keep up with her. I’m not sure I really succeeded in opening my shoulders and keeping my arm back. I lost connection with her on the wraps and remembered to look at her & BOOM! It worked.
Zig Zag!
She liked this game even though there was no Manner Minder🙂 haha
Hi Tracy!
>>With her speed, I suggest strong coffee or espresso LOL!!!
Bwahahahahaha! Also I love that you think she is fast!!! Exciting!!!!>>I watched for that and was expecting to hear some big bad momma voice coming out… you were very polite when you said no! You marked the break very quickly and very nicely (on the 2nd one, she re-sat herself, it was kind of hilarious). So you can mark it as long as you are as sweet about it as you were here.
I’m relieved – thank you! I’m not big on marking mistakes, but sometimes they slip out. Does it help them to learn to mark the misses (nicely)? I guess it depends on the dog. I don’t want to squish her spirit. I usually just reset & try again.>>I want to try the set point 6 inches smaller and see if that is the sweet spot – you can also have her a few inches closer to the first jump, about 3 inches away.
We did another session! I set the jumps 6 inches closer, so we are at 30 inches between the jumps. I think she landed more in the center at this distance, but want to hear what your thoughts are.🙂 She knocked the pool noodle a few times. I think it is a little “bendy” and was curving up. Do I need to change my set up? I have not put bars up yet for her, I wanted to hear when you thought she was ready. My bars don’t fit in my jump cups to lock them in.
She did much better with her stays when I did not bend toward the MM! YAY!
We also did some easy stays & breaks to the moving MM (not on this video). She’s into it!Thanks for the great feedback & for watching!
Hi Tracy!
Tahnks for the feedback. I like how you mentioned changing the volume of the soft turn cues so they are not as loud as the Go! I will do that.>>Think of the two of you giving cues to each other: you cue something like the tunnel, and keep cuing it and moving to it until she cues you that she’s got it and you can move to the next thing. She will cue you by looking at and stepping towards the line you want.
I love this description! Thank you.
Calm your hands with a drink:
>>I think you did this with Frankie? Or am I making that up in my head? LOL!I did!! I used water with Frankie, I may use tequila for Bazinga! hahahaha
I’ll re-do the Tunnel Exit exercise with a water bottle.🙂
I feel like your feedback about looking at the dog & not the line and using magnet hands (no flailing) are 2 huge holes I’ve had in my handling. I am committed to working on this and improving!
I’ve been watching your videos to see how you accomplish this & how do you keep your bearings on the course while watching the dog? You are brilliant at it.We worked on set point. I moved the MM further away and it increased the difficulty of the stay. Do you think I should do some less challenging setups with the MM closer (even if it is not the best position for her jumping) to be sure she is successful? We had a few false breaks. I said the “no” word in this session & died inside. Bad human. I don’t want to do that again. 🙁
I think her form looked good when she jumped. The rug was moving beneath her when she pushed off, so I’m going to remove that for our next session. Maybe I’ll keep the one in the center so I can do some “catches” and she can find the treat. That did not seem to give her an issue.Our wheels came and I tried them out but it didn’t speed Bazinga up. I think I can’t move them fast enough to mimic a toy. Is it ok if the MM is just moving in general or does it need to be a chase? I let her get used to the moving MM and tried 2 reps from jump 1 to see how it looks & there is a short clip below.
Ste Point
Manners minder on Wheels
Thank you!
Smiley Face:
Thank you for detailing the difference where I am looking ahead and losing connection. This is super helpful for me. To my eye the difference was so very subtle, I doubt I would have ever noticed. I can see in the examples you pointed out that she looks at me instead of looking ahead but my inexperienced eyes would have assumed that was her being connected to me – because she is looking at me. But now I can see that it is a question! She is looking to me to figure out what is next vs. knowing what is next & just continuing on. INTERESTING!!!!Set Point:
>>Her form over jump 1 is perfect. I think the MM might be a little too close to jump 2, because at first she was a little leapy, going more up than over, but that is normal when we use the MM, we get some leaping Then she smoothed it out but she was decelerating over 2 rather than powering over it, so moving the MM another 5 or 6 feet away from jump 2 should give her room to land powerfully, take another full extension stride, then get to the MM.I’ll move the MM further and see how this goes.
We got our wheels for the MM delivered last night! Can’t wait to try this out for Moving Set Point!We did the Tunnel Exit game. I got 2 toys that are treat holders & are covered in rabbit fur on the outside (sorry bunny😞 ). Bazinga is loco over them. She did not want to trade for food. What? Yes. Would not trade for food. I’m happy that she is so into the toys. Now my challenge is to work on a cooperative “out” because when I try & snatch the toy from her, she jumps after it so high and I don’t want her to get hurt.
I tried to control my arms on the soft turns (left & right) but I still had them high. I guess I am doubting that she has the verbals and I think I need some dramatic physical cue. I’ll try again and concentrate on not raising my arms so high. Do think she is pretty good on the verbals. It is just me.Hi Tracy,
Thank you for the link. Those wheels are in my amazon cart!Wind In Your Hair:
>> I think her only question was about when the toy was available for grabbing, especially when she was on your right after the wing wrap.
Thank you for this feedback! I will adjust what I am doing. I’ll add more distance and see how we do.Wrap proofing:
>>When you do the combos, she did not go to the off course tunnel but she had a question about the wrap at 1:20 and 1:57. it is possible that you were blocking the wing a little and not taking a step to it (she was fine when you stepped to the wing). So you can tuck yourself in closer to the tunnel so she sees the full wing when she exits – that might help her commit even when you don’t step to the wing.I watched the video and it feels like I was doing a lazy body turn to get the connection & connected later when she was closer to me. Maybe that is blocking the wing or just signaling her to come to me. I’ll watch that in the next session.
We did the Smiley Face & Racetrack games!
I tried to do some advanced “make up your own course” stuff and tried to do a blind cross. I think I was causing the issue with my moves. There are captions on the video.Here is our Set Point. We were doing 3 feet between the jumps when we left off, so I set up with 3 feet. I was still using bumps and not bars & kept that the same. I’m posting both our videos (the first one from a few months ago & this one) as a comparison. She was so little & chubby in March!
Set Point 1: Sept 20 (17.5 months)
Set Point 1: March 21 (11.5 months)
Hi Tracy!
Thank you for the tug videos! I worked with her a little over the weekend and had some success with her letting go when I made the toy go still. I think it helped that I was sitting in a chair too. I will keep working on this since I’d really like to be able to throw & place toys for her. She is still on a special diet so I can’t throw cheese or goldfish crackers that are easy to see in the grass.
>>I have also put my Manners Minder on wheels and dragged it LOL!!! Food based toys are still toys 🙂
This is BRILLIANT! I may do this. The MM is life to my dogs.
Story: Remember how I told you I was having trouble separating them to work each one separately? I heard some people use 2 Manners Minders. 1 for the dog working & 1 for the dog in the ex-pen waiting. They are synched, every time the working dog is treated, the waiting dog is treated too.
Well, I only have 1 MM, so I put it on the setting where it randomly dispenses and left the Bazinga with it behind the gate on my deck and went to work with Frankie in the yard. The MM was so comepelling, every time it dispensed, Frankie ran up the stairs to go see if she could get some! It was pretty funny.>>Thank you for the close up at the beginning. She is just the CUTEST!!!
<3>>(Which reminds me – did we ever transfer her barrels wraps to a wing? You can totally do that if you haven’t yet, and also you can use a wing in the other games too :))
We did! She likes the wings & the barrels.
Also, I was so excited to see your posts about MaxPup4 I was going to be asking you so many questions about how to debut a puppy. I am excited to take the class. Will you be offering it after the MaxMup3 session from this group too?
Here is what we worked on yesterday: Feel The Wind In Your Hair!
I used a treat pouch made from fur, filled with kibble tied to a lotus ball for the Wind in Your Hair session. It seemed like if she knew the treat came from the toy and not from my pockets she didn’t lose interest in the toy. So I think this went well! Hopefully, she keeps that opinion! Ha!
I don’t think we ever walked on this one. She was pretty gung ho! She even knocked the wing over on the jump on the first rep & didn’t even care! I tried a few reps where I was close to the wing and let her get ahead of me. I think there was 1 rep where I got a little ahead of her. I need to be consistent and say Go!Go!Go! and not “Get it!” I think we were both pretty excited about the toy toy!
We did an early session this morning & did the Wrap Proofing. This girlie loves her wraps!
Thanks for watching!!!
Thanks Carrie – thanks for reaching out. It is nice to hear you’re not alone. This has been such a positive & supportive group. See you in the Fall! 🙂
Thank you so much for your reply Tracy!
I have come back to it a few times and it has been so helpful & encouraging!
Thanks for offering this class!Hi Tracy!
I haven’t posted much in here but the live Mental Management sessions have really been helpful and inspiring. Thanks for helping me realize that I was experiencing burnout. I have been working through this feeling of burnout and I thought putting it into words would help. But it feels like an embarrassing confession! I’m sad that I missed out on this fantastic handling class, but I’ll be back for more!🙂I acknowledged and embraced that I was having a burnout episode and that I needed to take a step back and just let myself rest and recharge. It was a really yucky feeling to just not want to do anything but simultaneously feel like I SHOULD be doing something. So I gave myself permission to literally do nothing – and it helped! I had to do a lot of nothing though. Hahaha.
This is a confession that feels both embarrassing & full of hubris to admit, but I had been campaigning really hard to try & make it to the top 5 Bostons for invitationals with Frankie. That was my inspiration goal for the year. I am SO proud that we ended up as #7 (yay!) but it is hard not to be disappointed that I went as hard as I could and didn’t reach the goal. My trialing partners have made it every year for the last 3 years, and I am at the same number of trials that they attend, but we are not as consistent. That being blurted out, I do understand that me & Frankie are on our own special journey and I have so much gratitude that she chooses to play with me in a trial setting every time. The ribbons are not the important part it, is the joy we both experience when we run happy & connected. She has so much courage & spirit to work through her stress to run with me.
I’ve done a lot of thinking and having such a high-stakes goal took a toll on my enjoyment and was very stressful. It didn’t allow me to celebrate the really “celebrate-able” moments that we did have, because in order to reach that goal, I needed “more” so it shadowed our accomplishments. I spent some time thinking about what I want this next season to be like for our agility training & trialing. It is going to be a challenge trialing with my training & trialing partners who do have that goal, and not give in to “going for it” but I don’t want to campaign like that again. But, I don’t want to not have big goals either. I want to keep growing & improving. Instead, I want to concentrate on doing well at AKC Nationals and at our Boston Terrier Nationals this year. I am also excited to be working with Bazinga again and I want to concentrate on giving her the best foundation, supporting her resilience & confidence and having a smart debut plan when she is ready. She is doing better & is healing! We are still working on balancing her biome and are transitioning her to a new food with the hope that we can back off her reflux medication. It is challenging to train with a special diet. I have learned that you can cut canned dog food into tiny pieces and freeze them to use for training!
What were my accomplishments for this year?
Changing my timing to big dog timing like you suggested!
Changing my start-line routine!
1. I dropped the start-line stays that caused her to shut down & switched to slingshot releases that support her better & keep her engaged.
2. I started letting her walk into the ring on her own 4 legs instead of carrying her in & putting her down at the start jump.
3. I’m now carrying my leash during our runs which took the leash-runner anxiety out of the picture for her.
4. Instead of waiting until the last second to take her leash off at the start jump, I have been taking it off right away as we come in the ring (I make sure the dog leaving the ring is under control & leashed first) and if she is connected with me, we do some of our hand touch & spin games! This is so new & she LOVED it!This has really improved her confidence and she is so much happier in the ring. We lost some ground initially because I had to get our new timing down but we seem to have a groove going now. She is happy & that makes me happy & we do so much better when we are both happy! We do have to rely on rear crosses for those super popular AKC starts that force a side change on jump 3, but that seems to work ok for us.
One of the last stress-blocks (or mental illness!) that I am working through that is interfering with me actually doing training is separating the dogs to take each one out to train. I have such a block about that!
In general, I have always had a hard time separating the dogs to take each one to practice. They love it so much & even giving them a stuffed kong doesn’t compare to getting to go out & play agility. Bazinga started throwing crate tantrums when she was not feeling well and that added to my anxiety about crating her to go train Frankie. I have been working hard to reward her in the crate & increase that duration and she is doing so much better. I am feeling better about it now but I feel like I need a better plan for the future.Thanks for reading if you got this far! I just had to get it all out! ☺
Whew! Hi! Sorry for the delay in my reply. I’m doing some processing on all the things that came up that led to the delay. Some were weather related (can not control) and some were that I think I just had a burnout & needed to close a chapter on the way I was approaching competing this year. I’m trying to process it & will post it in the Mental Camp thread since I think it is important for me to make some conscious decisions about what next year will look like. As ugly as the last week or so was, I think I’m on the other side.
I had to give up on the jumping course for week 1. It got demolished by branches falling in a windstorm & then flooded with days of FL rain. It took a whole afternoon to clean everything up & mow, I couldn’t bring myself to build it again. So I’m starting with a clean slate & did the Raise Your Game Part 1 from Package 2.
This was a fun challenge. I am starting to see some courses that would really run best if you could layer so I was excited to try this!Part 1 (Jumps 1-3)
Rep 1 – Frankie did the exact same thing as Hot Sauce & dropped the bar. I’m glad I was ready to reward her since your video prepared me & explained why it happened.
Rep 2 – Frankie did the exact same thing as Contraband! 🙂
Rep 3 she got it! She wanted to curl in but made a great decision & moved back out to the jump!
Rep 4 – She slid coming out of the tunnel 🙁 she curled in a bit but still got it
Rep 5 – got it nicely!
We ran it several times – she was so excited to be playing.
I noticed she was not driving straight into the tunnel if I tried to send with too much distance.Part 2
Questions on the wrap moves 🙂
I have not learned these handling moves yet & I’d love to learn how to work on them from the beginning.
I have never heard of a “Throwback” before but it looks like it is based on the moves from MaxPup where we send them around the barrel with us facing backwards. I watched your video a bunch & tried to copy the move & break it down for Frankie.Turn Away – this is new for us too! Frankie really read this well after a few tries. Do you use a directional wrap verbal with it or is it just a physical cue?
Part 3
We tried to run the whole course. I didn’t remember to stay on the other side of the “fake DW”. We did do a wrap and a Turnaway!
It was too hot to continue so we’ll revisit this after your feedback.Thanks for watching!
KathyHi Tracy!
We did Sequence 3 of RYG! We also went back to Sequence 1 and did some blind cross practice.I needed to walk it several times & a few different ways. I thought I had my plan and then decided to change it to the plan with Front Crosses on my video. I was originally going to
stay on the other side of 5 & 6 and serp it, but I wasn’t sure what to do with the backside on #7. I see now that I could have blinded 6 to 7. It leaves the tunnel very open though. But I think I’ll try running it that way & see how we do.I was very happy she came with me to #4 out of the tunnel and didn’t take #7.
Here is:
Rep1 – went good!
Rep 2 – we missed the backside
Rep 3 – went good!
Sequence 1 Blind Cross practice
https://youtu.be/8Yz-xrOzKfcThanks for watching!I started to set up the jumping course, if we are ready. It may be a little squished when I get it finished but I think we can run it.
Good morning! The weather stayed nice yesterday so we did the RYG #1 & 2 sequences from no distractions, to adding the jump & adding the tunnel. I think she did really good!
On sequence 1, I tried really hard to complete my blind as she landed #2. That was great feedback because when I thought about it, I was waiting until I saw her commit to #3 and that is too late. I need to trust her to commit earlier. I think this adjustment is going to help us get better at this move!!!
I made a handling mistake at one point where I thought too hard about the “it is NOT a threadle” 5-6 LOL🙂 and she felt my brain waves. I left that in so you could see it. That was all my fault.
I left another mistake in on my third video where I used my rear cross verbal accidentally & incorrectly and messed her up. I guess in the moment I felt like I had to push her out and needed the “go”…not sure what happened there – it was a brain mistake.The first time we did Sequence 2 with the tunnel added, she went for the tunnel after jump 4 but I called her & she CAME WITH ME!!! Woooo! The second time, she barely looked at it. Maybe a glance.
Thanks for watching!
I missed watching the live class last night, but will watch the recorded version.RYG Seq1 refresh
RYG Seq 2 rep 1
RYG Seq 1 with jump added
RYG Seq 2 with jump added
RYG Seq 1 with jump & tunnel
RYG Seq 2 with jump & Tunnel
