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Hello!
Glad to be back with my girls practicing agility! I didn’t have much time today so I only did one new lesson and two repeats. I’m definitely falling behind from my week away! Hoping to still squeeze all these lessons in this week but probably won’t be 100% caught up. We have a trial Friday and Saturday. Kashia’s first AKC trial! She’s only competing in Fast on Friday but she’ll be there all day both days hanging with her sister. 🙂
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 she’s forgiving of my silly mistakes sometimes so that’s 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 don’t have any verbals for these things yet. I wasn’t sure how she’d do so I didn’t want to add a verbal until I knew she understood it. I also didn’t 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 didn’t really know how to incorporate the verbal and Kashia doesn’t have a verbal for it yet so I just used my body and “here” or her name.
Ha ha ha there’s nothing relaxing or exciting about work! I’m 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 she’s going into the tunnel just in general if I’m waiting her to turn left? I guess I’m just wondering if my timing has been off this whole time! I’ve never really broke it down like that so it’s very interesting to me. I don’t think I’ve 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! That’s the same for chiropractic adjustments! Especially in horses. A good head shake shows signs of relief during an adjustment! 🙂
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 I’m 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 jumps…Kashia’s 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. I’m 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 wasn’t 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 didn’t 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. I’m 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 she’d 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.
Here’s Kashia’s second attempt at discriminations! I thought she did really well!
We will get to the other games this weekend!
Iowa!?!? That’s nearly half way across the country! I enjoy your trainings but I’m not that dedicated! Ha ha ha Utah could be doable. Still a long drive but if it comes to fruition, I’d consider!
Yes, Kashia’s place cue is done without motion a lot. It just means get on something and sit, whatever is in front of you that I’m asking you to place on. Sometimes I point, sometimes I stand close, sometimes it’s just the obvious thing in front of her, it just depends. Either way, it’s not with much motion. I also realized I didn’t make her follow through with sit when I told her place….whoops! Bad mama training.
So with the teeter game…I watched your video over again and I didn’t get the explanation I need so I’m going to ask. Hopefully it’s not too dumb of a question. How does the target play into this long term? I love that Kashia understands to paw her target before she gets a treat but I don’t know how I’ll possibly translate that to the teeter in a course environment because I obviously won’t stop to reward that. Is it just teaching her where to target her feet and eventually the target is phased out?
Also, with your suggestion of starting to slowly walk when she gets into position, where does the target and rewarding come in? Is my back turned to her but face watching her? When or where do reward if I’m slowly walking a couple steps past her. What you are saying makes perfect sense in my brain. I just can’t picture where the rewarding comes in. Essentially this skill is teaching her to stay on the teeter until released even if I’m in motion, right? Do I use any verbal like stay or just let her figure it out and offer it? I’m actually really enjoying these offering drills. It’s fun to see the dog really have to use their minds to figure out what I want!
Thank you for always giving great feedback and advice. It’s been so wonderful. I hope you know how appreciated you are. 🙂
Speaking of which, my friend who recommended your classes to me said you sometimes travel to teach seminars. Do you happen to have the west coast on your travel list this year? I’d love to take a lesson in person one day!
Today we did Contact Foundations: Beginning Discriminations and Teeter Foundations: Angled Entries. These were actually great timing because I wanted to be a little easier on my girls so having stationary type drills was great!
Also, Hot Sauce is adorable!
Contact Discriminations was wayyyyy harder than I expected. One, I’d never done that before so I didn’t know what to expect. Two, I think Kashia is still unsure about going ahead of me. Three, she also seemed confused because I had no motion. Either way, the first “tunnel” took over 1:30 to get her in. I kept getting closer and closer until her head was basically in it. I didn’t include that rep. lol All of the reps in the video are in order. I just edited out some short and long ones to condense it as best as I saw fit. Many of the “blooper” reps took 30-35 seconds to get her to respond to the correct word. I only included a few but in between those bloopers, she’d do pretty well. Why do they back track like that? One minute we get 3, maybe even 4, good reps and then all of a sudden it’s like we are back to square one with not knowing which to do. I didn’t get frustrated with her about this. I’m just curious about that. It’s her first time so I don’t expect it to be cemented in her brain yet. It just seemed like she’d understand well and then revert back to not knowing at all. I could see her trying though. Many times she just looked unsure if she was supposed to run ahead into the tunnel without me. This was a really fun game though. My girls need some work with discriminations for sure!
Teeter Foundation: Angled Entries went well, I thought. Kashia loves this game now and doesn’t seem to have any issues with it. I tried to get her excited several times to distract her but it didn’t work really well. lol I may have only included one of those reps. I didn’t figure you needed to see me bouncing around like Tigger trying to excite her. I just realized I only practiced it from one side. I’ll make sure to incorporate the other side tomorrow.
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I personally think this is the correct way to begin a young dog’s trial career: one day here and there, and one SUPER FUN class only 🙂 Build it up as something really fun and then slowly add in the other classes.
>>>>Agreed. She won’t do more than one a month this whole season, if that. I plan to keep her in just Fast for now. We may eventually add in jumpers but not for a while. I think one class a day is perfect for her. And I never trial more than 2 days in a row. 3 days is just a lot for me with everything else I have going on. I have too many other hobbies anyway to be going to agility trials every weekend too. lol I can’t neglect my horses!!!! Or husband! 😂😂
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And a few NQs would actually be good because she is going to move up to the higher levels pretty quickly and a little more time on the lower levels is a good thing 🙂
>>>>This is definitely a benefit to AKC! I kept my older dog in novice all year last year even though she qualified for open. I just knew we both needed more time at novice courses. Plus I’m not chasing titles. I’m just doing it to have fun and build on our skills! I definitely don’t have any desire to have Kashia move up fast in UKI. Doesn’t mean I don’t still like getting Qs though! For entirely different reasons than titling though. Just because clean run feels like an accomplishment for all the hard work we put in at home each week!
Today we practiced wingin it double blind crosses again and next level threadle wraps again.
For the double blind crosses, I moved the wings closer together to make it more challenging. Kashia also decided it was a day of more cantering than trotting so she also made it harder for me which is a great thing! I didn’t do so well with her on my left. I nearly ran her into the wing every time. She figured it out and dodged to the correct side every time. But I felt bad for my mishandling. Did I just not connect with her soon enough between the two blinds?
The threadle wraps were a disaster! I’m not sure why it all fell apart this second video attempt. Hopefully you can give some insight! Remember how I thought going to the left was her stronger side? Well not today! We had a blooper nearly every rep. There may have been more environmental distractions than usual but I still don’t understand why she just kept squirting forward instead of wrapping the wing. On the first rep, I was discombobulated and I messed up the second wing. On the other reps, I don’t know what I did. I finally ended on just the one wing rep for that left side because I was getting too frustrated. The right went much smoother. However, both sides she didn’t get a super tight turn. Her speed was definitely faster than the first attempt where she just trotted most of it. I can appreciate her enthusiasm tonight. It was great throughout most of our training. It also made it more challenging than the first several practices since she was so much slower in those attempts. What was I doing to not show her to tightly turn around the first wing? I know I’m to blame for all of her mistakes even when I don’t realize it. There are times I still felt like she was not paying attention but from what you see, what was I doing to confuse her to not wrap the wing on that left side?
Thank you so much!!! That means so much to me! Even though I’m hard on myself, I always always always want a trial to be fun for my dogs. I try to never show my frustration to them if I happen to get frustrated. I don’t normally but we all have those one off runs. Hopefully I’ve showed Kashia how fun trials are and her excitement will continue to blossom!! I was just so proud of her for the great run!! But I was most proud of how happy she was! That just made me so excited! She was so dang proud of herself afterward. You should have seen it. It was so cute!
After reviewing my video later, I’m a little embarrassed at my poor handling in areas but oh well! I ran Kashia before my other dog so I worked out the kinks with Kashia and was much smoother with my other dog. Kashia’s speed truly caught me off guard though. Physically I could keep up with her but mentally, my brain was playing catching up the entire time so my cues weren’t great! Overall, it was a super easy course. There were only two handling areas that were challenging. The one was at the beginning where she did fabulous. For both of my dogs I wanted to make it super clear that they were to jump and immediately come back to me. What a weird way to start but I didn’t want there to be any temptations for that other jump that was super close to the start jump. The second was the cross in the corner by the purple tunnel. I’m still kicking myself at my poor handling right there where I had to call Kashia off the tunnel and turn right. I’d practice a front and a blind right there and in the moment, I did a sloppy rear which didn’t show Kashia I wanted to turn right so she went towards the tunnel. If I’d done my plan, we could have saved a second or two. It was so sloppy of me! I ended up doing a front with my other dog and it worked nicely but I bet I could have gotten the blind no problem too. At least I was able to call her off the tunnel! Isn’t it amazing to see how much she likes tunnels now!? Thanks to your class they have so much more value!
I also don’t know if I decelerated quite enough on that second to last jump before the tunnel and the end. She had to take a hard right coming over it. That’s the first time where I’ve realized a collection cue would be useful. My other dog is easier to collect kind of naturally so I never really considered teaching her a collection cue. But after that, I’ve thought about doing it for Kashia or at the very least, exaggerating my deceleration better.
How cool about the arousal and performance lesson you mention! I’ve seen several webinars and seminars advertised for arousal performance and how to work through it. Not to say it’s not great stuff to learn but my other dog has never had an issue with that so I never have dived in. I have a friend that has a dog that used to have extremely negative arousal behaviors in trial environments and she’s told me about how much she’s had to work through that. It got me thinking about Kashia which is why I said what I did. She gets more amped in the trial environment but in all the positive ways, so far! Granted this is only her second trial competing and she’s only done one course per day. But still, she seems to thrive off of it. I mean I’ve never seen that kind of speed and focus from her! It was amazing! Not the Kashia I practice with at home but I mean that in the best ways! Ha ha
I truly believe exactly what you mention that scientists are proving. I mean why does my oldest dog get so scared and nervous every time she goes to the vet if she didn’t have a memory associated with it? They aren’t dumb. They remember these things. I’m doing everything I can to keep it fun for Kashia! And I always go into the ring with the mindset you taught me, just run and have fun! No fixing things or putting pressure on any of it. Just let Kashia run and have fun! I don’t declare NFC because I don’t think she needs that. At least not in Speedstakes. She doesn’t like toys enough to make that worth it for her. For us, it’s better to just run it and see how it goes and either way, I keep it happy and light for her! Now I know next time I need to mentally prepare for her to activate the turbos once we get going! Ha ha ha I don’t want her to go flying and leave me in the dust!
Here’s the session I told you about the other day. It was super short and I realized afterward that I was supposed to have the wings in line with one another, not in a triangle. For Kashia being tired and sore, she was quite spunky during training! I was pleasantly surprised!
Kashia did so good today! It’s amazing the positive arousal that comes from a trial environment for Kashia. Arousal has never affected my other dog. Besides being a little more curious/sniffy about certain areas, she doesn’t act much different in trials than she does in practice. But in the first two trials of Kashia’s career, she gets more excited! She unexpectedly kicked in the turbos! I was not ready for that. My timing (and plan) was all off because she totally caught me off guard with her speed! She was faster than my experienced dog! This little bugger might actually have some speed (for her) once she gets experienced and confident! Two Qs and 1sts under her belt despite just going out there to have fun and see how she responds!
So I watched the BB Double Crosses video, normal speed and slow mo for the demo. That was an excellent video. So your “close, close, close” command is telling the dog what? To collect, come in close to you, prepare for another jump, and then jump? Without doing a threadle since I’m at work and not with my dogs, I think I usually face them in between the two jumps. Like I cue the first jump, face them, pull them into me with my outside arm, and then send them over the second jump. I think. Is this wrong or less efficient than the double-crosses? The double crosses definitely seem faster. I also don’t have fast dogs at the moment so if I’m being honest, time is never a consideration for me. I’ll never be a Border Collie type run. LOL I focus more on a clean run than I do a fast run in my experience so far. However, I’m always open to more efficient handling! Blinds seem to always be the harder option for handling crosses but I do them as frequently as I can because if they are executed right they feel super smooth. Plus I’m fast so it’s not that hard for me to run ahead of my dogs when I need to.
I watched the Exie Jumpers in slow mo too…..you did those blind double crosses so dang fast. I’m not sure I would have ever caught those if I wasn’t looking for them. I also don’t know if I could ever get those smooth enough to do so seamlessly in a course! Wow! Nice job! Also, side note, that was THE SMALLEST course dimensions I’ve ever seen!!!! Did you walk the course knowing you would do those or are they second nature so you just naturally executed the blind double crosses where they were needed? If I identified the blind double crosses correctly, they were used on more than just a threadle, weren’t they? My paragraph above is a loose description of how I’ve done a threadle. That description wouldn’t work for some of the instances you used blind double crosses in this video. Thank you for digging those up for me. It helped me visualize it. I still question whether I can execute it or not but practice and experience will get me there eventually! lol
Kashia was panting a little bit in the video. She seemed fine behavior-wise though so that’s why I kept going. 68-70 degrees is hot when you are used to 30s….ha ha ha Way abnormal for us in March but I love it. Anyway, it is about to cool down again so we will be back to our usual temps. She’d just gotten a crap ton of exercise yesterday and was outside with me basically all day from 9am to 6pm. So she was a tired little girl but she offered to practice agility when I got the tunnel out so I let her. My other dog on the other hand was too exhausted for it so I didn’t make her do anything.
<<<So since these are going so well… time to choose a verbal! I scrolled up but I don’t think we talked about it yet: for the tandem turns, the verbal will depend on if it is the front side of the jump and she turns away (that can be the left/right or wrap directional) or if it is the backside of the jump. A tandem turn can be used on the front or back of the jump.If it being used on the backside of a jump, then it is a threadle wrap so uses the same verbal. My threadle wrap verbal is “in in in” which is different from my threadle slice verbal (which is ‘close’).>>>
I’m not really sure what you mean in the last sentence of the above paragraph. I heard your “close” command in the BB Double Crosses video. I don’t really know how “in, in, in” applies. Do you use the word “switch”? I hear a lot of people use it and I’m just wondering if this is one of those instances where that word is used on the front side of a jump when you are wanting them to turn the opposite way of the handler (but not wrap the jump wing). I think I said before that I was trying to teach my dogs left and right commands, most specifically with wraps but also just to change direction on a course like maybe where I’d do a rear cross, but I get my left and right so confused, even when I practice and walk the course, that I think it’s not a good idea for me to use left and right. I guess I just can’t really visual what “in, in, in” would look like once a jump is set up. Do you have an example video? I feel like you may have taught this in the advanced level during one of the exercises in Winter Camp. I think it was one of the weeks that advanced track was too hard for us so we did the Max Pup Track but I vaguely remember something about it or similar.
This evening I was going to post our second, super short, attempt at Wingin It Tight Blinds to Wraps when I realized I didn’t have the wings set up right! Is the middle one supposed to be in line with the outside two? Apparently I didn’t scroll down to see your little course maps because I definitely didn’t do that the first session. I had the middle jump out ahead kind of like a triangle. Was the intent to have short spacing between the middle and end wing so the maneuvers were harder? Hence the word tight, I suppose! You never said anything but I just caught it when I was editing my second video. Whoops! This sequence still gets me. Once again, second attempt, I had to stop a billion times to make sure I was doing the spin right. It just confuses the heck out of me for some reason. Anyway, since I had the wings incorrect, I won’t post my video. Sad though because Kashia actually cantered most of the reps! She was feeling good! I’m not going to practice anymore sequences this week because we have another trial on Friday. I entered Kashia in speedstakes again just for the fun of it. She’s still pretty tired from yesterday even though she pretends she’s not when we are outside. So I’m just going to let her relax the next two days and try to keep her quiet. Nearly impossible because she just wants to play “ball” anytime we are outside…🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
Wingin It Double Crosses. This was so weird to me. I can’t think of an instance where I’ve ever done these before. I obviously listened to your video so I know you talked about real world application. I’m a very visual learner though so I can’t really imagine where in a course I’d use this or if I ever have used it in a course. Either way, we gave it our best shot. I forgot to do the front crosses so I’ll try again tomorrow to practice both crosses.
The Lazy Game Contacts Position. This was an 8:39 video. I obviously edited it for posting but I say that because the video will show the evolution of Kashia figuring it out. This was the first time we’d tried the two on two off in a seated position. Prior I’d just done standing, if you recall. I wanted to make sure she could do that before trying the target. She wasn’t sure what to do. She’d just sit and stare at me and then when she got bored of that she’d stare off in the distance. It took several minutes of this. I had to prompt her several times until she started to offer the behavior herself. Once she figured that out, she looked extremely confused when I put the target out. She didn’t know what the heck that was for. Again, I got a lot of stares and questions. It didn’t take too terribly long until I got her touching the target bowl though. I’m surprised I stayed so patient and stuck with it for 9 minutes. Ha ha but by the last couple minutes, she was touching the target bowl with both paws. I was quite proud! I hope that’s what you wanted. It was honestly kind of hard to tell from your video. So let me know if I am off track.
These two practice sessions were after Kashia spent all day outside in our unusually glorious record setting temps of 70 degrees. We went on a 4 mile run and then she went on a 7 mile horse trail ride climbing a mountain. By late afternoon, she was quite pooped but she still gave me this effort so I was quite pleased! I wanted to keep it light and if she wasn’t feeling it, I was going to stop right away. But she was interested in training so that’s why we did a little bit. I just wanted to give context as to her speed or lack thereof in the Wingin It game. I also need to respond to your previous message still because I need some clarification on the verbals. More on that in the morning.
Thanks for all the help!
Next level pup tandem turns. I thought this went fairly well. I’m guessing you’ll tell me to keep my hands and arms much lower. I had them pretty high after rewatching my video. I did the same thing in the Winter Camp when we did this exercise.
Next level pup threadle wraps. I forgot to do a blind on the second wing going to the right. Not sure why. This entire evening I really struggled trying to figure things out each time I switched directions. I blame it on lack of sleep working two 14+ hour nights in a row…so you’ll see this video and the next video, I’m all discombobulated and tired. Kashia is tired too but I needed to get the practice in so we pushed through.
Wingin It Tight Blinds to Wraps. This was so confusing to me when it came to the spin. I’m not sure why but it was. You’ll notice the shift in sun throughout the video. That’s because I had to stop every 3 mins to rewatch your video because I couldn’t figure it out. It made our session somewhat long but with multiple breaks in between. I had so many videos on my phone from having to start and stop. Poor Kashia was a good sport during it all. I mean she clearly had no energy but she still gave me some effort while I struggled through trying to figure out my right and left. It just felt so different in both directions that I could not grasp it. I’m not even sure I did it right but here’s our attempt.
I’m attaching this video in response to your feedback a few days ago. I’m not sure what it is but Kashia does not understand the back up game from a seated position. This is why I haven’t done any seated. This went on for over 2 mins. You’ll see me cut to right when I stood up, she instantly got it and did great at offering the back feet on the board. She did this for 2-3 mins straight which I didn’t all include in the video. I hope this positioning is okay. Is there any reason I need to teach her from a seated position if she understands it this way?
Here is Wingin It Tunnel to 3 Ladder game. I tried to think really hard and lean in instead of out when going around the wing. I made an improvement but there were still some reps were I leaned back. It was much better though. I tried my best to really emphasize the lean forward but watching my video back, I can still do better on exaggerating that. I didn’t feel like I was pulling her with an invisible rope like the time before though.
I tried to change directions just at the exit of the tunnel like you did and it confused the poop out of Kashia and me. My brain doesn’t like those things. So I opted to switch to just moving the wings for the ease of mastering the more important skills. I tried Kashia’s right first to see how she’d do. She had better energy than the day before but I still feel like her confidence is stronger on the left side, despite energy levels. By the end of the session, she was dragging on the left but again, I still felt she was stronger on that side.
I had a couple bloopers. I did pull her off on one rep and I did miss a cross on one of the last ones. She did a blind when I was trying for a front.
