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Whoa. We really struggled with the threadle arm. I mean, I’ve done threadles before, but much different than this and with no verbal or anything. I guess I did it more by the line I ran with the dog, and they sliced or wrapped based on my body positioning. I didn’t even try the sequences. This is a pretty advanced move for my girls. I would say the only time I’ve done something similar, I cued it by doing a backside from the take-off side of the jump, and I stayed close to the wing on the take-off side to get them to wrap it and continue on. Your approach is more efficient, but it didn’t translate well for my girls, especially Kastella. I don’t have a verbal for a threadle wrap, since I’ve never done it this way. My only verbal is “back” for taking the backside of the jump, but that’s usually when the dog is on the opposite side of me, not running between me and the jump. I can’t recall when we’ve ever done an intentional threadle slice the way you showed in the balance reps. I guess you could say my girls and I don’t do too many fancy moves. ha ha
Anyway, I only included a few of Kashia’s reps in the video because she started figuring it out. I included some of her incorrect reps so you can give us feedback, but she actually had many correct ones where I could see her brain figuring it out and choosing to go to the backside of the jump and wrap it without luring. I should probably attach a verbal to it now that she’s picking it up. She’s stronger on the left side of the jump than she is on the right, but she did decent on both.
Kastella, on the other hand, (face palm), could not figure it out, and I could not figure it out to help her figure it out. I ended up basically luring her. I tried to keep my line straight and my feet straight ahead, but that was nearly impossible when I had to use my arm to circle her around the jump. A couple of times, I tried saying “back” as I would on a backside, but it didn’t seem to help, and I figured it was just confusing the poor girl more. I was getting pretty frustrated, as was Kastella. I could tell she was trying, I think, but it also felt like she was just anticipating the jump so she could get a treat and not actually thinking about what I was asking her to do. She’s not as much of a thinker as Kashia, but she’s also the first dog I ever did agility with. So she likely has some bad habits from me, since we had to learn agility together, whereas Kashia was trained after I already had some experience. I know Kastella isn’t a lost cause, though. Please HELP!
Week 4 – Rear cross sequences
I’m not sure I have the timing of this cue correctly. Especially with Kastella. Her lines didn’t look super fluid or like she knew what I wanted until last second. On the first jump with wing, she didn’t turn until landing, making the landing look super awkward. Also on the sequences, you’ll see I had to go super wide and then on one rep Kastella still took the wrong side of the jump. I’m not sure where I went wrong besides I really wasn’t mastering where I should be signaling her. I like the premise of the technique but I definitely need some work with it. I didn’t feel like I moved through it super well in the sequences. I liked the way it felt with Kashia though. Kashia flowed a lot better but she’s slower so there’s more room for error.
I should have read your feedback before working on the soft arm sequences. I didn’t incorporate your advice about the tunnel because I read it after I had already practiced. But I completely understand what you are saying, and I will do that next time!
Also, I’m proud of myself because I actually noticed my issue with speed before I read your comments. As I was practicing yesterday, I noticed that the more I move my feet, even if in place, the more Kashia (and Kastella, actually) pick up momentum and speed. You will see I wasn’t doing that at first with Kastella. I was trying to do the drills by just standing around in the middle. Shame on me! I didn’t notice the bad habit until I started practicing with Kashia. Watching the videos back, I still lacked movement, but it was better than the previous videos. I will try to be even more cognizant of it for the next drills. In my mind, there isn’t much movement needed since it’s a smaller space and a circle. I need to remind myself that the dog reads my body language and will emulate that lack of speed! I’m also trying to get a little more distance and confidence with the girls, so I don’t have to be right at each obstacle, so maybe that’s why I subconsciously wasn’t moving as much.
I noticed Kastella was constantly watching and head-checking me. I also noticed I was late on several of my verbal cues with both girls. I’m actually annoyed about that because I think overall, I’m decent at giving them the information ahead of time. It’s one of the things I pick up first thing when I watch others run courses. So why I was failing to give them the information as soon as I should, is beyond me! Was that why she was head checking? Was I not being clear on what I was asking? I also don’t know why my dog side arm is kind of helicopter-ing around. I need to keep that lower so I’m not disconnecting from the dog. I clearly haven’t videoed myself in a while, prior to this class, so I have a few quirks to work out!
At 1:27 you’ll see Kashia take the jump rather than the tunnel. Where did I go wrong to send her over that when I actually wanted the tunnel?
I thought I was only one week behind so I was surprised to see you posted week 5 today! Eeek!! I will get 1 lesson of week 4 done today. I go out of town until Saturday but will get the second lesson of week 4 done on the weekend. Again, thanks for having a couple extra weeks into April built into the program so I can get week 5 done without rushing.
Thanks for the detailed feedback! 15-mile run or not, Kashia is just like this 🤷🏼♀️. Her enthusiasm for agility is significantly less than Kastella. However, Kastella was the same way, and she has 1.5-2 years more experience than Kashia, so I’m hoping Kashia will grow into enthusiasm as she continues to gain confidence!! Kashia does really well in trial environments, thank goodness, so at least she responds well to that kind of pressure. Her speed still isn’t what your dogs have, but it’s more than what these videos show and enough to meet the time qualifications in Masters. I couldn’t include all of our reps in my next video, obviously, but by the last couple, Kashia was just trotting the entire course until the last 2-3 obstacles. Her slow pace made my video clips too long, so I couldn’t include many. She’s just too smart and bores easily!!! 🤣🤣
Here is our rough attempt at the “get out” arm. We’ve done a similar thing in some of your other classes, so my girls knew it pretty well. I think the body positioning is more exaggerated this time, but it’s definitely something we were familiar with. Since I’m playing catch-up, I did not practice these sequences before recording. They could have been smoother, but we got some good reps in. I also started to forget all the different pattern options when it was Kastella’s turn, so I just winged it. lol
Thanks for the feedback! I should have just jumped right into the sequences. That made way more sense to my brain as we added a lot of movement into it. I was trying to be methodical about it, but I think sometimes that causes me to overthink it! I felt like both dogs did really well on the sequences with the brake arm and the exit line. I look forward to hearing what you have to say!
Kashia was her usual lolly-gagging self, if you remember from previous classes. She picked up speed once we got going on most of the reps, so at least there was that. She’s a little more amped at trials, but today she was pretty tired from a 15-mile run, so the fact that she still was interested in participating in agility was a bonus! You could see her tiring at the end. My other dog, Kastella, has a lot more enthusiasm overall. She, too, will lolly-gag at times, but she has a lot more forward movement overall!
I’m really glad you built in some extra weeks. I’m so far behind! 🤦🏼♀️ Life. I will catch up before the course ends so I can get my full value of training! Here’s a quick attempt at week 1 with just a single jump. I think I was more handicapped feeling than anything. I didn’t have the camera at the best angle either, sorry about that. I couldn’t really wrap my brain around the exit line. It looked easy when you did it but then when I tried, I felt super awkward so I’m sure I was doing something wrong.
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. 🙂
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 didn’t have time for much today. With the time we had, we tried the Wingin It Yes No Go Tunnel again. Kashia did great!!! It’s 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 couldn’t 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. It’s also super flimsy so that doesn’t help but that’s 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 don’t 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 wasn’t 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 that’s why a few don’t match what you were asking us to do.
It wasn’t 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 I’ve 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 I’ve had to do. But Kashia did everything else beautifully and she seemed to love it so that’s all that matters! The competition teeter still has her hesitant. She doesn’t fly on it like she does my little one. That’s 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? You’ve told me that before but I always forget until later when I watch my videos. It’s 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 don’t 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. I’m trying really hard not to baby my dogs through every obstacle by getting close to each one but it’s a balance because they need to be shown things up close too. I don’t necessarily want huge distance, but it would be nice to have some so I don’t have to be on top of every obstacle with them. I’m exaggerating a bit. I don’t 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. I’m not sure I did any of the three reps right lol the third looked the best until I threw the toy into the wing….whoops!
Your explanation for why it would be a good idea to have tunnel threadle verbals makes total sense. I’ll 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 didn’t necessarily think of that so it was great to hear! I’m definitely not against verbals. I just don’t know how to come up with all of them or where it’s necessarily necessary and where it’s not. Like for the exercise I did tonight, I don’t have a verbal so I didn’t really know what to use besides ‘here’ to get Kashia’s attention. I tried ‘close close’ like you did but Kashia doesn’t know what that means so it didn’t 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 I’d done before and I’m 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 that’s where you come in. Thanks for the help!
