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Thanks, Tracy!
Yes, he loves the milker with a glove on the other end of it. Ha! And I have a hollee roller toy but he’s not a big fan. Ronin was the same, both just ‘meh’ about it. So disappointing! 😂 But I will figure out what to do for an outside toy he likes. I have some ideas and will just have to experiment a bit.
Managed to squeeze in a quick set point exercise after getting home from our trip tonight. I am sorry the session went a little long, but there was a lot of eating time. Let me know what you think of his form and the placement. I am thinking maybe just a little farther apart???
Looking forward to your thoughts.
KristinOff to a slow start, but managed to squeeze in the pregames on Thursday before heading out of town for the weekend!
I may have named them backwards I dunno.
Doing this on my cell so I hope it works!
-Kristin
Hello! Catching up a bit before the final day to submit videos.
1) Two quick videos for serp and threadle and I was interested to get your comments on my arm/body position. It felt right when I was doing it, but on the video I am not sure. Should I be turned a bit more towards the bar? I know these are shorties, but any other comments are welcome!
2) On the lateral leadout, he didn’t seem to know what to do with the wing! How can I help it be more clear? Other advice as I practice this one in the next couple of weeks?
3) Serp Countermotion – I think this went okay except for the first rep where I hesitated for some reason I can’t remember now and it threw him off, understandably.
I look forward to your feedback, and for MaxPup 2!
Kristin
Great feedback, thank you! If you suddenly get an influx of Agility U registrations from MN you can thank Reacher for being such a superstar at his first agility seminar today!😀 It was a 1/2 day rear cross foundation seminar taught by an instructor I didn’t really know but had heard good things, at a place he’d never been. Rear crosses are my most intimidating thing to train so I was looking forward to the practice, but also just wanted to get him out to try a few things and see he how he’d do.
Turns out he rocked it! He was even quiet in his crate! What?! Yes. Truly.
The baby did awesome even though I realized when the presenter set up the first course that it was way over our heads. I thought they were starting at much more of the foundation steps of the rear cross. 😳 But I figured okay, no problem, we’ll just break it down into small pieces and I paid him no matter what. And we have never done that many “jumps” (no bars for him) in a row, and some tunnels. But I never did more than three things without stopping to reward. He even did a moving serp perfectly. I put that target hand out at the perfect spot and to my amazement he came right in over that jump and then pushed out to a tunnel. (!!!😀)
I rewarded for mistakes and successes and by the end of the seminar he was getting the rears with the cues. I was SO proud! People were amazed what he could do at this age and I gave your fabulous instruction all the credit. The precise feedback you give and working with the video has really developed my eye for things over time and that is making a huge difference. Thank you!!! They are probably all rushing over to agility-u to find you right now.😉
One last thing, you’d be proud of the fact that although I accidentally did not have two balls like I thought in my bag, NOT ONE TIME did I do a ball switch from hand to hand.😅 I either ran without or planned in advance which hand I was going to toss with and started it with that hand no matter what. You were in my head!
Thank you, Tracy, for what you do and for making us so much better. You’d have been proud to see us work today.
Kristin
>>I don’t know why he was not going into the tunnel in the first video… who knows.>>
Yes, it was weird and I’m not going to overthink it. I’m seeing a lot of “teenage” stuff happening these days! 😆
Regarding adding a bit of motion on the serp countermotion, is this like what you mean? Let me know how this is looking at then I’ll move on to the advanced version.
I also worked on some simple decel. I got all the way out to the field and realized I had forgotten to stuff the toy in my pocket, so all I had was treats. Ugh. But thought I’d give it a go anyway. I felt uncertain about the stays and it shows. I wanted to reward back to him by throwing but knew he’d never find these treats in the grass. So, not the best set up session but let me know what you think anyway and I’ll give it another go. 😊
Thanks!
KristinHello! I am going to go back to the rocking horses with race tracks and also more work on the moving threadles, but for now wanted to move on to the Tunnel Rocking Horse and Serp Countermotion to make sure I got some feedback before the forum is officially closed. 🙂
Adding the tunnel was… interesting. I was surprised that at first he seemed to be avoiding the tunnel. I’m not sure if it’s because wee haven’t done tunnel work in awhile or if was a lack of connection or both.
In this first video, we had enough tunnel bypasses that I stopped there where the video ended and decided I’d regroup on it:
That last session was early morning, and so then I went out for two more short sessions later in the evening. Those went a lot better! Still, I’m not completely happy with my connection to him on the tunnels. I think it needs more but tell me what you think. Also, as hard as I was trying to remember not to switch the ball in my hands I busted myself doing it a couple of times. This video is over two sessions separated by a short break. It’s all the reps but I cut out a bunch of the play just for video time’s sake.
Here is the Serp Countermotion. I confess this was the second round of this one. I did one round except turning the other way (he went right instead of left) but the video angle was so poor I’m submitting this one. His response was pretty much the same on this one. I think on the first rep or two I was not supposed to be turning my head towards him after throwing. These are all the reps, but I cut out the tug time. Let me know what you think:
Thanks!
KristinHi! The moving threadle is proving to be quite the challenge for Reacher. Practice since this last post hadn’t been going very well, so I had to make some adaptations and go back a bit. Unshared sessions included taking the movement back out, removing the MM, and putting a wing on it (now have Beyonce stuck in my head! 🎼😀) Almost got the hand target back out too, but then he got a bit better. So now I am here:
The rocking horse on the wings seemed to go fine:
It’s so interesting that he is finding the threadle so difficult. I think Ronin got that one easily but struggled on other things that Reacher is not. Dogs are so complicated and different!
~Kristin
>>This session went well! You have it marked as threadles but they were serps>>
Oh, for dumb – yes those were serps!😂
We tried the actual threadles and had some errors so not sure what I should try differently to make it easier. Should I practice a few more times without adding the movement? Unfortunately I lost track of the # of errors and did way too many. BAD HANDLER! I will be more conscious of this in the future! But for now, how shall I change it to be more clear?
Thanks!
KristinHi! Question about the switching-toy-hand-to-hand issue…I’m happy to practice with the toy in my pocket for now, but it made me curious if you ever run with two toys, one each hand? If I wanted to break my habit but also have the toy ready to throw at the perfect timing and not fish it out of my pocket, is two toys a viable option to try?
We worked on Find my Face and I think this game was easy for him:
Tonight we also worked on the moving threadle. I think I was maybe a bit two forward pointing with my body even though I did have my hand back, but what do think? Should have I had more rotation towards the jump?
We did also practice the turn and burn with a wing now, but somehow I screwed up the recording and didn’t get it, but I think he did fine. At first when I just tried to shape it he didn’t seem sure what to do, but the second I added a little bit of motion towards the wing he totally got it and started turning around it easily and quickly. I was surprised that he didn’t do that when I was motionless, but perhaps I was too far from the wing at first and he was pretty fixated on the toy I had also. But he was happily going around by the end of the 2 min.
Finally, I keep forgetting to add this, but shortly after our last tunnel threadle practice I caught Reacher napping in the tunnel! It was too cute!
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=6294168713970205&set=pcb.6294174523969624
(I think you can access this – not sure how to embed a photo here)~Kristin
30-Jun: Whoops! Here is the Minny Pinny WITH bumps:
Thanks for the other feedback also. I believe I had the same with Ronin about switching the toy in my hand. I thought I could be sneaky enough, but of course THEY KNOW. LOL!
Yep, we’ll be practicing a lot more sitting on grass by itself! And it was such dry stuff right now that I’m sure it was exceptionally pokey during that practice.
1-July ——Edited to add below items—-
I have two more Rocking Horse videos for you.I wasn’t sure which one to use because they both have different problems, I think. In the first, that I took yesterday, I could NOT stop switching the toy in my hands. It is just so automatic for me! I think on one of the reps he stopped because he was choking on a treat.
So I tried again this morning, also when it was a lot cooler out so I also thought he’d be more enthusiastic, but he seemed slower. Granted, he HAD already chased a chippie and dug a hole before this so may have been a little tired. LOL! But also, I do not like my positioning when heading to the barrels – I think I was really blocking his path, yes?? I did remember to not switch the toy hand to hand but wow that took a LOT of my brain power to overcome. Seriously how do I even survive and have a tough job juggling lots of stuff and yet can barely stop myself from moving a ball to my other hand!!! LOL!!!!
Then we worked on sitting on grass and stays (we had worked again on just sitting on crunchy grass last night). This morning it was kind of wet and probably softer so maybe that also helped.
Let me know what you think!
KristinHi! With the tunnel threadle I started helping less and he was getting it about the same. He definitely gets it better when he’s on my left (turning left) than right, which is interesting since I thought he was a righty. But no biggie, he’s doing fine.
We worked on the Rocking Horse Part 2. Oh, and I got a new timer!😀
We also did the Minny Pinny, which he aced the first few reps so I added the bumps in.
https://youtu.be/MiSyVlDug9wAnd then the most interesting finding, Mr. Reacher isn’t much of a tough guy and is clearly not comfortable sitting on grass yet!! I guess he’s never had to sit on grass before today, so that was really new and so we had to just work on that rather than on the Stays like I had planned. We’ve done some stay work before so I thought it would be easy, but oh no, not on GRASS!! It was probably poking his little bum and felt weird.😂
Let me know your thoughts.
KristinOkay! We tried the Double Whammy after a warm up rep. These are all the reps, but I did take a minute to reflect on my opposite arm placement before that final rep turning to the right. I felt a little not smooth on the left ones more so on the right for some reason, but will keep practicing.
~Kristin
Hello!
Regarding the perch work, you said…
>>On the next session, do a couple of clicks/treats without the pole, then watch the video: is he stepping with each leg individually, or hopping them together?<<I did try this again and he did start single stepping. So I added 2 poles back in and he still single-stepped. Whew! I think he was just so excited that first round figuring it out.
Tunnel threadle:
Okay, definitely not the best start by me because I didn’t remember what arm to use and he was really wound up of course, but finally sorted myself out out and we had a few good reps. 🙂
Let me know what you think!
KristinWe again tried the Tight/Head turn exercise after reviewing the first video and correcting the hands. Worked a lot better this time.
Threadle/Strike a Pose 3 went marginally better than with the slice version but I still struggled with getting into position first and get the treat toss in the right spot, and manage the target and with the Manners Minder button and a handful of cookies. I feel at this point I need to prioritize his Stay training to avoid having to manage all that, particularly when taking it outside a treat toss in the grass won’t work well. Anyway, I’ll keep working on my mechanics with all that.
Perch work:
He has done some of this before so we skipped ahead but can go back if needed. I know I did also have several late and non-existent clicks and will improve on that next time.
Backside Slice:
I was not walking in an entirely straight line towards the barrel and instead angling in a bit which “helped” him. Will fix that next time.
Weirdness Gauntlet:
Two objects that have “bugged” past dogs didn’t seem to disturb Reacher. Ronin being loose for one of the runs was unintentional. I realized that some of this was not exactly in line with your instruction, but it happened.
Let me know what you think.
Hi! I get what you are saying with the verbal on remote reinforcement. Makes sense and I’ll amp up the energy on this one to better simulate what it will be like in the ring. I’m glad you found the verbal amusing – LOL!
Serpentine Concept Transfer try #2
I tried this again and was probably only mildly better but he’s still happy so… I find this one so hard to coordinate for some reason! Grr!
Other side:
Head turns:
I forgot to set a timer. Darn! This one went so…oddly. Maybe I was using the wrong hands or I don’t know. It was just off. I will re-watch the into video!
Will be coming to audit the seminar tomorrow!
Kristin
