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Hello!
I wanted to send one more video before concluding the course. We only got 4 reps in before the thunderstorm rolled in! You might even be able to hear the thunder and the rain. But it passed just in time to get a tiny bit of sun before sunset where we got a few more reps! I thought Kashia did way better this second time than the first video. Not that she did badly, but she always seems so much more fluid the second time around! No mess ups to the tunnel this time between jump 2 and 3.
Thank you for all your help over the last 4-5 months. It’s been so wonderful taking classes from you. Kashia and I have learned more than we could have ever imagined, especially in such a short amount of time. I’m sad it is coming to an end. I love having your lessons to look forward to each week. It makes practicing so much easier! But I still have all the material so I know I can keep going over all of it and perfecting our skills. You are a wonderful trainer and teacher. The best dog trainer I’ve ever used. We’ve really enjoyed our time with you! You are so helpful, encouraging, and so positive. I hope we can take more courses from you in the future! Thank you for all your time, dedication, and kindness. It’s been an absolutely amazing experience! Kashia would never be as far as she is without you. Thank you so much!
<<<Did your older dog have any visual distraction when she did the same thing? >>>>
I guess she sort of had a visual distraction too. When I was practicing with her, Kashia was chewing on a bone near the fence, somewhat near the tunnel entry. Definitely a distraction that would catch her eye before turning to enter the tunnel. Huh, either way it was weird. They’ve never done that with this tunnel before. I’ll have to move it again and see if that helps just out of curiosity!
Yesterday I did a quick practice session during lunch break! We tried the deceleration concept again! Kashia did well! No bar knocking this time. She came out of the tunnel a little hot going to the right so her initial turn was wide before going over the first jump. Is there anything I should have done to correct or help this? I think you can see it on a few of the reps.
I think we are pretty much caught up now! I’m just going over the last couple of weeks exercises because I did not get to try a second session after receiving your feedback on some of them. š
I’m adding to my earlier post since you haven’t replied yet. When I was going back through to see if I finished everything, I found a game I missed! Forced Front Cross Sequences. Kashia did pretty well. In the first sequence, she had a little bit of a struggle seeing jump 3. She kept going to the tunnel. I tried to really concentrate on getting her attention and turning my body. I’m not sure if it helped or not. She got some reps but not others. In the second sequence, she had a lot of hesitation on that move where I pushed her over jump 2 by stepping backward and facing away from her. She questioned what the heck I was doing but she got it each time. It was a little awkward for me too since I haven’t done that before. Hopefully, I’m up to date on all the games now minus the second video attempt on a few.
I didnāt have time for much today. With the time we had, we tried the Wingin It Yes No Go Tunnel again. Kashia did great!!! Itās amazing how just one day can cement so much learning and the second attempt, several days later, she comes out a total rock star! I loved her energy!! She was amped today! She only had one blooper where she ran into the tunnel and couldnāt find the opening right away. Ironically enough, my other dog did the exact same thing but only on that side. I must have had the tunnel positioned weirdly on that side. Itās also super flimsy so that doesnāt help but thatās a first for them to do that. Speaking of position, I purposely put it on the opposite side of the yard to see if it would look different and make a difference to her performance. I donāt think she noticed in the slightest. Such a good girl!
Hello!
<<< I am especially excited about how well she was moving in terms of speed and happiness when you were not moving. When I first met her, she thought handler decel was STUPID hahaha and she would slow down or lose motivation. Now she powers through it with speed and tight turns.>>>>
Right!? Isn’t it crazy how far she’s come since December!? I’m quite impressed myself. She has so much more motivation overall. I can tell it’s starting to make sense in her brain and she’s enjoying it! I have your classes to thank for that! Without them, I’m not sure where Kashia and I would be but definitely not this much improvement!
<<<The only knocked bar I saw here was at :19 turning to her left (let me know if I missed others on this video).>>>
I went back and watched my video and my snippets again. You are right, I only had one knocked bar in the video. I had to edit down that video a lot because I did several reps of each step and we had a lot of pauses re-watching your video in between reps. She had another knocked bar also turning to the left. Same side as the one you saw. I’m going to guess it was for the same reason you mentioned. Very interesting observations on each direction of turn that I did not catch until I rewatched my video after your feedback. She didn’t turn as tight to the right but it definitely seemed more powerful and fluid, like you said.
Your June camp sounds fun! I will have to enroll my other dog if we have the equipment to do it! She got 3 Qs in Open during her first trial at the Open level last weekend. If it weren’t for a knocked bar, she’d have 4 out of 4 Qs for a two-day trial! I’m not saying she’s ready for Excellent level or anything. But I’m proud of her for doing so well in her first trial at the new level! She’s pretty consistent at everything but the weaves. I think she would probably have fun with the June camp! Although some of the basic breakdowns of skills that you have me doing with Kashia are not always as easy for my older dog. She didn’t have the same type of foundation training so some of those skills are tough for her. Like the decel exercise from yesterday. That was much harder for her than it was Kashia!
Today we did layering. I’ve done some layering at the agility arena with my older dog. She has some super strong days at it and some super weak days. When we tried it at home today, she had some trouble with it which surprised me. Anyway, I came out too confident for both dogs on this drill. I did my best to visualize your setup and replicate that. I had the layered jump way too far away from the send jump for both dogs. You’ll see Kashia struggle quite a bit. She was getting hot too. So I gave her a long break, moved the layered jump much closer, and tried again. We had more success the second time. I didn’t expect my original setup to be as hard as it was. I guess I need to give my dogs the benefit of the doubt next time and start them with an easier setup!
During this exercise, I also felt like a super sloppy handler. Like I was doing something wrong to not paint a clear picture to the jump. I know I lifted my arm too high, again. In the moment I think I’m pushing them away or pointing to where they need to go. Which I know I’m not supposed to be doing as drastically as I do. It’s hard to break that bad habit. Is that what was confusing them? When I watch my video back, I just feel like I look like I have no clue what I’m doing. It feels like really ugly handling. But at the same time, I’m not really sure how I would improve upon it besides the airplane arms. At one point, I finally started throwing the toy over the jump to show Kashia the line but I’m not sure how much it helped.
We also tried the banana line again but with added speed. Kashia struggled on the left side a bit. The heel side. Same side she tends to revert back to obedience training. I thought maybe my arm position was confusing her so I tried to keep my arms at my back. It may have helped a little bit, I’m not sure. She got the right side very well.
It’s been a crazy week! I feel so behind! Today we did concept transfers deceleration and winging it tunnels.
Concept transfers. What caused her to knock the bar a few times? I did balance reps. I just kept them out of the video to save as much time as I could.
Wingin it. The first couple of reps she got the backside of the tunnel entry really well. When I put it all together, she missed the tunnel entry a few times. Was I miscuing her? I didn’t include the basic tunnel reps in order to cut it down in length but we did still do them.
Do you have any more classes coming up or do you take the summer off? I can’t imagine how much time responding to threads takes each day along with all your other training and video recording you do!
Today we kept it simple. Mostly because it was too windy for my wings to stay upright and I was too lazy to take them to the barn…
Banana lines. Kashia read this well. She only skipped the mat once when she was distracted by smells.
Plankrobatics. I tried to elevate my board a bit but it was kind of wobbly. I helped support it at times just to be sure it wouldn’t have issues underneath Kashia. She was nervous at first but she seemed to work out of it quite well. I thought her performance was pretty good! We have access to full size contacts at the arena we practice at but I wouldn’t have anything to prop the full size teeter up so this is the best we can do. I practiced the full size teeter the day before the trial. Kashia was timid but worked out of it quickly. At the trial she was timid on it again but she only got one rep on it so I wasn’t surprised. Next time I go to the arena I’ll have to bring the cream cheese to build up that value again.
Yesterday we tried to do just a little bit since she had the trial today but Kashia was clearly not in the mood. I felt like her energy level was lacking and she was not engaged or thrilled about practicing. Comparing to the day before where she had a lot of enthusiasm and speed! Once I recognized her lack of desire, I stopped training. It wasnāt fun for either of us at that point.
I considered not sharing this video compilation just because it was definitely not our best. I got a little confused some reps so thatās why a few donāt match what you were asking us to do.
It wasnāt until I started practicing with my other dog that I realized I should have ran closer into the tunnel so I had more room for the rear cross. However, you also said to get right behind her on the tunnel exercise of rear crosses so I was kind of doing that a little bit but I also felt like I was crowding her a bit too much.
The few times we wrapped the last jump I tried to decel better than the first lead out videos but Kashia still went wide so I must not have done that very well.
Kashia did good in fast today! She was so happy to be running! The send bonus was super tough. Every time Iāve ever done fast the send bonus is a tunnel but today it was three jumps for a serpentine but the novice dogs only had to do two jumps in like a 180 fashion, so half the serpentine. The 180 was on the opposite side of the send line, obviously. It was tough. Neither of my dogs got the second out jump and many dogs in the class did not get it either. It was the toughest send bonus Iāve had to do. But Kashia did everything else beautifully and she seemed to love it so thatās all that matters! The competition teeter still has her hesitant. She doesnāt fly on it like she does my little one. Thatās definitely something we need to keep building on. She did still complete it proficiently. Just not confidently.
Lead Outs and Lines 1.
The blooper rep was totally on me. I mean all bloopers are but I just had sloppy handling! Should I have been running closer to the tunnel so she would drive ahead on the last two jumps? Youāve told me that before but I always forget until later when I watch my videos. Itās just this weird balance for me because I want to be able to send my dogs into obstacles, in this case a tunnel, and run ahead of them but I donāt know if I should be doing that or having her figure out how to drive ahead of me after she comes out of the tunnel. Iām trying really hard not to baby my dogs through every obstacle by getting close to each one but itās a balance because they need to be shown things up close too. I donāt necessarily want huge distance, but it would be nice to have some so I donāt have to be on top of every obstacle with them. Iām exaggerating a bit. I donāt think either of my dogs are that bad at needing me up close but they definitely need me close in some instances and I want them to have the confidence to go ahead or take something ahead.
Leading Out and Lines 2.
This one fun by the end putting it all together into one random big sequence. I thought Kashia did well! Bloopers were totally on me again. Sloppy handling. On the plus side, she stayed dialed in when the Amazon Prime delivery driver stopped at our house. High five to Kashia for that!
The first exercise I clearly could not figure out my hands and upper body. Iām not sure I did any of the three reps right lol the third looked the best until I threw the toy into the wingā¦.whoops!
Your explanation for why it would be a good idea to have tunnel threadle verbals makes total sense. Iāll incorporate a word into that next time. I like the idea of having a completely different word to tell the dog to go to the opposite side of the tunnel. I can see how that would be super beneficial. I didnāt necessarily think of that so it was great to hear! Iām definitely not against verbals. I just donāt know how to come up with all of them or where itās necessarily necessary and where itās not. Like for the exercise I did tonight, I donāt have a verbal so I didnāt really know what to use besides āhereā to get Kashiaās attention. I tried āclose closeā like you did but Kashia doesnāt know what that means so it didnāt help us too much. She had some bloopers. Or actually I probably did. It was definitely a weird concept to me. It was not something Iād done before and Iām not entirely sure I even did it right! lol Kashia was very patient with me while I tried to figure it out and still keep her engaged. She did well in focusing. Again, not sure I gave her the information well but thatās where you come in. Thanks for the help!
Hello!
Glad to be back with my girls practicing agility! I didnāt have much time today so I only did one new lesson and two repeats. Iām definitely falling behind from my week away! Hoping to still squeeze all these lessons in this week but probably wonāt be 100% caught up. We have a trial Friday and Saturday. Kashiaās first AKC trial! Sheās only competing in Fast on Friday but sheāll be there all day both days hanging with her sister. š
Jump Grid. She did good! I tried to straighten them out more based on memory from the first video. Hopefully I did.
Wingin It Turn Aways. I remembered to try both turn away cues this time. I did some weird hand swamping going one direction but Kashia still read it right. lol sheās forgiving of my silly mistakes sometimes so thatās nice!
Wingin It Tunnel Threadles and Tandems. These were way more fun than I initially expected when I watched the video. Kashia did really good for our first attempt. I donāt have any verbals for these things yet. I wasnāt sure how sheād do so I didnāt want to add a verbal until I knew she understood it. I also didnāt know what verbals to come up with. Everybody uses such random words and noises which is just so bizarre to me. Lol but either way, I didnāt really know how to incorporate the verbal and Kashia doesnāt have a verbal for it yet so I just used my body and āhereā or her name.
Ha ha ha thereās nothing relaxing or exciting about work! Iām just attending an in-service work training in Southern Idaho! I hope your time away is better than that!
Great feedback!! Thank you!!!
So about the rear crosses. So is that the correct position for a rear cross? Or is that just what Kashia needs to be able to read the left side? Like should I already be near or on the left side when sheās going into the tunnel just in general if Iām waiting her to turn left? I guess Iām just wondering if my timing has been off this whole time! Iāve never really broke it down like that so itās very interesting to me. I donāt think Iāve ever really considered where my position is when I cross so that my dog knows which way to turn.
Hello! I too am out of town this week! I’m not sure you’ll get this before you are unavailable but maybe! I was hoping to have time to get through all the lessons on Monday and Tuesday but we just had too much spring ranch work to do. However, I was able to squeeze in 4 lessons Tuesday morning before I left. I’ll be back Sunday afternoon. Hopefully I can catch back up!
Winging It Tunnel Exits attempt 2
This did not go any better. In fact, she seemed to have even more troubles with the left. I thought I was cuing her earlier like you said to do. The only thing I noticed is it seemed to help her when I ran partially up the left side verses staying at the back of the tunnel. Other than that, I was at a loss for why she kept going the wrong way.
Concept Transfers: Lead Outs
I don’t actually do lead outs or haven’t thus far in my short career. The one time I tried a short lead out, I totally lost my dog’s focus and she went into la la bird dog land sniffing. She didn’t move from the stay. But when I released her, her mind was already on something else and not agility. And the start was even an easy tunnel! This has happened twice so I don’t chance it anymore. Better to keep my bird dogs focused on me not scents their noses catch while they wait. Lol I’ve found my dogs are more excited and focused when I verbally amp them up a bit and then release and run at the same time. However, I think it’s still great to practice and I’m not saying I’ll never use it or need it. Just giving my back story on my inexperience or use of lead outs. I thought Kashia did really well actually!
Winging It Turn Aways
These went way better than I expected! I guess she remembers the concept from Winter Camp!
Jump Foundations Zig Zag Grid
I thought these went well too!
Your serpentine suggestions made sense. I attempted to make the corrections and I started the session with angled jumps. I think it went much smoother than the first session! It helped running closer to the tunnel too so I could stay in motion rather than just waiting for her to exit the tunnel before I started moving.
I tried the teeter bang it in motion and it did not go well. Perhaps I did not follow your instructions from one of your replies very well. I could not figure out several things. I still struggled to see how the target translated because it didn’t seem to help her stop her motion. I couldn’t really figure out how to offer the target and stay in motion with the teeter propped up so I finally just got rid of the blue bucket and tried it with a normal teeter. I think I only got one rep where she actually stayed in place like she was supposed to…but I also am not sure any of it was really clear to her so perhaps she did not know what I was asking her to do. I wasn’t really sure what I was doing when it came to trying to follow your lesson or suggestions. I eventually just resorted back to trying the teeter the normal way and expecting her to stop at the end while I kept walking which again did not work so well on most reps. I do not have a verbal for the target so maybe this is why we were both getting confused? I don’t really know. I’m just still unable to wrap my brain around how the target and offering the pawing behavior translates to the teeter in motion. She was trying so I was trying not to get frustrated. But she also was anticipating everything because she has so much value for the teeter now. I mean as soon as I get it out she just sits on it and waits for me even if I’m nowhere near by. I think you hear me in one rep tell her not to jump on it the wrong way because she will. That’s how much she enjoys sitting on the teeter now. lol Thankfully it’s smaller than a competition one but that is still not a habit I want her to have!
We did the Winging It Tunnel Entries and Exit drill as well. If I did it right, I thought it went well. She had a few bloopers on the rear cross to the left exit but she got it after a few tries and a “go” reset.
Interesting about the shaking and what it can translate to! Thatās the same for chiropractic adjustments! Especially in horses. A good head shake shows signs of relief during an adjustment! š
Anyway, today we did Concept Transfers: Serpentines! My video is all in order. I just edit it to take out the fluff between reps. I say that because Iām a bad mama. I always watch your videos at least twice and always once before I practice yet I somehow still forgot to angle the jumpsā¦Kashiaās building up to the sequence went well. She got the reps from both sides using one and two jumps assuming I had the correct motion. Once I added the tunnel, her first 4-5 reps had a lot of bloopers. Iām guessing my timing was off or it was just hard for Kashia to read. Once I switched directions, she had no bloopers the other way at all. It wasnāt until I was done with those reps that I realized I was supposed to angle the jumps to show her the line until she understood the concept. This is one of those times were practicing with my older dog first was probably not a good idea because she didnāt need any angle assistance which is probably why I spaced that part in the lesson by the time I got to Kashia! Bad mama. Poor Kashia! lol Once I realized my mistake, I angled the jumps and Kashia got each rep. Once we did that several times, I put them back straight and she nailed it. Iām not sure if I should have been facing her as much as I did on the first jump? I just felt like I had to kind of pull her to me before taking off for the second one or sheād miss the first one all together. She trotted really slow into the tunnel for this exercise but thankfully picked up speed coming through the jumps.
