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Reply to backside exercise:
Hi, Tracy.
Thanks so much for the clarification. I really thought there should be some body motion that helps with the back, even if we’re not using our dog-side leg. the shoulder thing makes tons of sense – guess I was doing a bit of it instinctually. I couldn’t tell if you were giving us that cue in the video, so I’m really looking forward to your new video later today. 😀. KristieHi, Tracy,
Here’s our shot for the day on the “Accordion.” Measuring was fun – thank heavens for jump bars. 😉 I used different rewards for the various runs to see how she responded to a couple of new items. She still loves her flirt stick! When she saw it come out, she couldn’t wait (hence the break of her start on the 4th run.) Since you suggested we only do 5 runs, I decided to let that one go. If I pull out the flirt next time, I’ll focus on her wait better. She is usually so good!
How do her hops and skips look? Thanks, ~KristieHello!
Here’s our first work on the lateral lead-out. Keiko has been doing lateral lead-outs for a while, and has handled them well. I have just included a couple of her runs in this video of the baby level, 2 from each wing side position. I did your “side and forward” walk a few times, then did some diagonals. She seemed to handle all the lead-outs well. It will be interesting to see how we handle the advanced steps.Hi, Tracy,
This backside exercise was very informative. Keiko has been doing backsides, even from a distance, but usually with an leg or arm ( or both) to help the verbal cue. Not using my arm or leg in this exercise made it much tougher on Keiko and the first couple of tries she hesitated and had to think about what the word meant. There was one time she went over the jump from the front and one time she went around and into the tunnel. I believe I left one of those in the video here. At any rate, she picked up what we were doing quickly, but this tells me I need to do more work on our back verbal. I did move the wing over more in line with the jump mid-stream, and that didn’t seem to bother her. Do you see anything about my motion that could be improved? Thanks! KristieHI, Tracy,
I did think my timing was better, so I’m glad you saw that, too. 😉 I love blinds – I’ve had knee surgery, so when I can do a blind instead of a front, I’m happier. 😉 Thanks, too, for the feedback about the arms. My other dogs haven’t seemed to be bothered by my way of doing this, so it’s good I can keep my handling consistent.
Take care, ~KristieHi, Tracy,
Thanks for pointing out that I need to wait a tad before I step back so she sees it when she is close and can follow the cue with confidence. Since I tend to wait too long on some things, I guess I was “jumping the gun” on this one. Connect-pause-cue. 🙂 ~KristieHello!
I also wanted to work on the Get Out exercise and see if putting the wing and jump farther apart would make a difference in my timing on the front cross and blind cross. Here are a couple of sets of each. I think I turn on the blind fairly quickly. However, I have always had a tendency to pause and want to be sure my pup goes over the jump on a front cross. This makes me late. Keiko has good obstacle commitment, so I’ve just got to send and turn. I believe these are slightly better than last time, but could still use improvement. The other thing I noticed was my arms. I used the dog-side arm for sending “out” and Keiko was fine with that. My other arm tends to go out at the same time as a balance. I guess I’ve always done that, too. Do you think that’s a problem? Thanks. 🙂HI, Tracy,
I wanted to re-visit the Lap turn exercise. I was fine with our work on tandems. However, the way I’ve been doing lap turns since I was first taught them is not the way you did them here, and I wanted to see if I could control my inclination to take small steps backwards and instead just do one definite step back before turning her head. I did it from both ends of the set up, and also on both my left and right side, and Keiko seemed to read things just fine. I notice I used her name on one of the sets. I need to watch that and be sure I save her name for times when I need extra focus in tricky spots. This exercise is not one of them. 😉 Take care, ~KristieHello and good afternoon! Rain due later today (another 3/4 inch!) so we got out and did this when the temps reached 40. You can see by her pace and focus that she is returning to normal and much more willing and ready to play with me. 🙂
Okay, so here is our first shot at the direct and far tunnel ends exercise. I thought she did well. She slowed a bit here and there for the “far” end just to be sure that was what I wanted. Seems like she has retained the verbal pretty well. The trickiest part for me was being in the right position for the far end in the midst of the big circle runs. Switching gears can be as tricky for us as for the pup. 😉 Take care, ~KristieHi, Tracy. As always, thanks for the ideas and info regarding handling. I’m going to have to go back to your video and see how you’re getting in place for the lap turn. It just felt awkward to me using only a wing and not coming off of or going to something else. It’s all in my head, I know. 😉 Again, thanks. ~Kristie
Hi, Tracy,
Days of pouring rain followed by snow (way too early) that froze when temps dropped to the 20s….Sun came out and cleared a big enough patch in the yard for us to do this exercise. Yay! I found it awkward to do the lap around a wing, so I hope I didn’t mess her up too much. I was taught to do a lot of backing up before turning the dog’s head, so this was a tad different for me. Love tandems. You’ll see an oops on one of the tandem sets, so we just did it again. More rain tomorrow, but maybe it will be later in the day so we can get outside again. Keiko seemed happy to be doing an exercise. 😀. Take care, KristieHi, Tracy,
Once again, I have to say how much I appreciate your feedback! Your specificity makes things so clear. Also, yes, Keiko does let me know what she’s thinking. 😉 It makes absolute sense to me that strong visual connection is really important to Keiko, especially in spots where there could be more than one choice of action. Seeing me looking at her as she rounds the bend says “yes!” and she’s good to go. 😉 I realized that I did have trouble with my timing and speed changes in the beginning (when she was on my left.) Then I smoothed out, and connected, and the other side was much better. We took a play break, and I could tell she was done, so I didn’t re-try the weaker side. Will do that once she’s back to herself. Hopefully, we’ve just got another week or so in this heat cycle.
BTW, I saw Kim’s note to you about a part 3 for our pups. I’m hoping you’re planning on something to get us through the winter months! I’ve done agility in the rain and even the snow – and your exercises have been short and sweet enough that we can do them in bits if necessary. Please say you have another class starting up right away! 🙂
Take care and thanks again, ~KristieHi, Kim,
Just dropping by. I loved watching Sly think and try to work it all out. He does seem to really enjoy this, and loves working with you. He really stuck with it! What a great little fellow you have! I’ll be watching Tracy’s reply to see what she says about a class part 3. Keiko and I would love that, too. Take care, ~KristieHi, Tracy,
You’re being kind. My history with front crosses is a series of lates….but I keep trying. Here is a set from the Windy Transitions exercise. You’ll notice my first couple of FCs are quite late, then the last three improve gradually. Keiko’s pace and energy were variable today, so we quit after trying both sides. KristieP.S. Is that rain or snowflakes we see in your videos this week?
HI, Tracy,
I just went back to look at the FC and BC – yes, my crosses were quite late. One issue is, of course, the wing distance, but I could certainly have moved sooner and more quickly. Front crossing “on time” has always been an issue for me – I know she’s got good commitment and she will certainly land all by herself – yet, I tend to pause. It’s a long-time habit that’s hard to break. I’m working on it, and hope we’ll both see some improvement on my part in this area. 😉 Take care, ~Kristie
