[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,

Friday night we went to a UKI trial where I volunteered and also entered Benni for one NFC speedstakes run at 8″ since he is not yet prepared to run at 12″. Didn’t matter anyway because it was NFC and his very first time in an “official” trial ring. I ran it as if it was for competition with the toy tucked away in case I needed it at any point.

SOOOO…the issue I had here also happened in class one night. I went back to package 2 skill sets and watched my videos to see if what I did looked any different because in the skill set, he was perfect. The “issue” is on a straight tunnel (both in our group class one night and now this UKI run), I give a brake signal along with my “dig” cue….he runs thru the tunnel, then turns around and comes back thru the tunnel. I finally changed my body position to get him to go all the way thru the tunnel and come out the other end. I will be interested to see what you say about it…am I giving too strong of a cue, facing not quite the right direction….or? I used “dig” on the curved tunnel on the ending and he was fine with that although I need to stop moving forward once I cue it…bad habit I have.

I can’t figure out how to attach the map, but I could e-mail it to you if you want to see it or maybe you can just tell by looking at this video…question – from tunnel 3 to tunnel 4 – it wasn’t exactly a wrap exit but it was much sharper than what a right turn directional would be used for so I’m not even sure if using “dig” was appropriate anyway. Maybe just a bit of a brake cue and his name in this circumstance?

UKI beg/nov speedstakes:

Other than that little snafu, I thought he did very well.

We will try the package 3 sequences in a few days. Since he jumped Friday, we’ll take Sat off and Sunday I have a nose work trial with my other dog so maybe Monday. Supposed to be extremely hot on Sunday anyway. Ugh.

In person seminar you are teaching? Lucky, lucky people! Hope it is in air conditioning!

Thanks.
Sandy and Benni

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
So my intention today was to get back to some foundation threadle training but I got side tracked! I’ve been working on his weave poles and just last week he’s got 6 poles so now I’m working on him hitting them at speed with accuracy while still keeping my motion more subdued. The set up for this week’s skills is perfect so I combined more of the drills and added the weave poles. I did not edit the videos so you can skip the first couple of reps where we didn’t do the whole GO skill set…around 1:00 we do the GO drill with wrap vs threadle on the cone. I didn’t disconnect exactly on the way back to the tunnel…oops.

THEN…I got a surprise….decided to do the backside skill set on the “other side” and it totally fell apart! So was it my handling? Or does he have a side preference….or does he not understand backside…?

Anyway, by the time we did all of this, he was tired so threadles will keep for another day.
I remember kind of teaching the one jump/bar on the ground threadle similar to the serp arm but dropping it back more….so the new link you sent out is using outside arm across the chest. Is this the better way to teach threadle?

Thanks.
Sandy and Benni

[Sandy Mainardi]

So this is different than the drill we started in max pup…I don’t remember teaching it with the outside arm in the beginning. Is this the preferred way? I’m going to try to get this started this weekend.
Thanks.
Sandy and Benni

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Started on the skill sets today. We did not attempt the 2 that involved full knowledge of a threadle. I need to actually train the skill…which I have not done other than the drills we did in max pup. I thought maybe we would just do some one jump training or cone to jump but he got a bit hot and tired with the skills we did so I’ll leave it for some other time. He understands to come in on the flat so that’s a start as you will see in one of the skill sets.

Video 1: GO drill and backside drill. He had quite the zig zag going without the connection on the GO line when we started from the cone wrap.

Video 2: Go threadle vs GO wrap

PS…after being drilled on connection…I felt guilty and weird with the purposeful DISconnection. You are messing with my brain! LOL

Thanks.
Sandy and Benni

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by Sandy Mainardi.

[Sandy Mainardi]

Package 3….oh boy, guess I should have been working on those threadles…

Sandy and Benni

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Video 1 Course 1- I was saying tight at 7-8 however I noticed I say way too many directionals for the tunnel exit and I’m still saying right after he exits…so he hears that and then right away hears tight…need to cut my habit of saying something 3-4x especially when the tunnel is only 10 feet long…I think the spin at 5 just kind of happened in my mind because of the angle of jump 4 and not thinking a send would work? As for the ending line 9-10-11-12….because I wasn’t ahead of him coming out of tunnel 8 and there is a definite push on the line to get to 9…I stayed more in line with jump 10 thinking I’d REALLY get a zig zag if I pushed to stay in closer to 9 and he’d then have to zag left to get 10. Just found it really hard but quite amazing that he followed what I wanted despite the mess! Yes, the “out” on the last jump makes sense…now that I know “out” is a good verbal to have…I think Soshana and Jess don’t use it anymore…that must be who I was thinking about instead of you! LOL

Video 1 Course 2: So I THOUGHT he would need that step to see the turn from 2-3. When I did the do-over in video 2, I actually stood in a different lead out spot thinking that was the problem. So I’m not picturing what I would do without taking that step to jump 2…just do a pivot or position myself with dog on left from the get-go? My timing was never good on those in my previous agility days… I didn’t feel it was a good spot for me to do a blind so I did not try that. Yes, I think I AM trying to “handle” the serp lines…more trust needed!
Video 4: Course 3 How would I run from the tunnel to get the BC between 3 and 4…would I run between the inside wings of 3 and 4 or run past the outside wing of 3 (which seems like a bad handler path so maybe a dumb question…). And with the lead out 1-2….is dog on left the best way or could it be done a different way?

That’s a lot of info to take in but thank you for taking the time to give all the great feedback. All things considered, I was very pleased that he is able to follow my handling despite the imperfections that abound! 🙂

Any “custom” work we should try to do before the next package comes out?

Thanks.
Sandy and Benni

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,

Today we worked on the novice courses. I found it challenging to figure out the best strategies on a few places. I hope by the end of camp, I will be able to do a lot of things better…trust him more so I can get up the line and out of his way, set better lines, get used to setting the turns from further away etc. I’m not used to these kinds of courses so we’ll see how it looks after a few weeks of practice.

Video 1: Novice Course 1 – I don’t like how I handled the ending but I couldn’t figure out how else to do it…talk about zig zag! I also keep stepping back too much on 7-8.

Video 2: Novice Course 2 – Just smack me now….he went around jump 6 three times in a row and I NEVER knew it until I watched the video! As for the ending, I think I finally figured that out better by the last rep. Since he went around jump 6…I went back out for a do-over….see next video. I also wasn’t sure what the proper verbal was for 14-15 as it was a lead change to find the jump.

Video 3: Course 2 do-over on the pinwheel. I took a look at the map and tweaked the position of jump 6 and also replaced it with a winged 5 foot bar. In the end, when I tried the FC (don’t know why I didn’t try it sooner), I thought it actually set a better line for him. I somehow ended up doing a different ending but mainly just wanted to practice that pinwheel to tunnel part. Camera was at a better angle too.

Video 4: Novice Course 3 – Sigh…among other things I didn’t notice at the time was not taking the backside of 5 and then when I broke down the middle part, he took the backside of 4…oye. I did NOT like that RC thing I was doing at 6 but at first I couldn’t figure out what to do with that, then I tried that BC after 5 but I kept getting in his way although he just ran across my feet and did his thing which is good to know. The BC after 5 did get a much better turn on 6. I’m very lucky he respects me and does not barrel into me! Thought the logo on my shirt was apropos for my endeavors….because I had serious doubt I was going to be able to get him through those courses when I looked at the maps! I was kind of dreading what kind of a mess it was going to be! LOL

I did think his tunnel exits were pretty good…
Thanks!
Sandy and Benni

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
Yes, I was practicing RCs because we really had not been doing them and clearly it will behoove me to have them “perfected” as much as possible in various scenarios. Since it requires more strategy on my part to pace myself and show the correct motion I figured it was worth trying various handling on the sequences to see what tools are working for us and how well he reads things. I feel like he is pretty good at covering my butt so far!

I’m getting somewhat better at backsides…I used to run all the way to the wing with him…so now I have to keep working on sending him more and more and trusting him to do it.

It’s so cool to feel our teamwork coming together.

By the way, this was the first assignment that all jumps were at 10″.

Will try the course work maybe tomorrow.

Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,

Today, we tried the novice sequences and one of the master sequences too!
Video 1: Novice Sequence 1 and 2

Video 2: Novice Sequence 3 – I played around with different handling choices

Video 3: Master Sequence 3 – I tried this with dog on left and dog on right for the opening just for practice but I think probably starting with dog on left is the more efficient way. Also on one of the runs at the end I said “switch” and “left”….really should just be a switch in that scenario.

Thanks.
Sandy and Benni

[Sandy Mainardi]

How do you teach “out”…any drill you can share? 🙂 I used to use it all the time with past agiiity dogs but instructors don’t seem to be teaching that anymore…I rather like it as part of my verbals.

My list:
Go – keep going on your line and take the obstacles in front you until I cue otherwise
Switch – rear cross (change your lead and take the obstacle you see in front of you)
Right/Left softer to 90 degree turns
Tight – wrap toward me (used for both right and left wraps)
Back – backside (I do not have different verbals for slice vs backside wrap)
Turn – turn away from me on the flat and will also probably use for turn away to a tunnel off the dog walk or A frame)
In-In – threadle
Pass-Pass for non-obvious end of the tunnel (have not trained yet)
Dig – wrap exit from the tunnel
Su-Su-Su -come quickly to my side and do not take an obstacle until I redirect you
Out – move away from me a bit further and find a new line to the next obstacle

Sandy and Benni

[Sandy Mainardi]

how do you teach “out”…any drill you can share? 🙂

Sandy and Benni

[Sandy Mainardi]

Wait! I thought you didn’t use “out” anymore!
Sandy 🙂

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,

Another question: do you use directional verbals (right/left) when you are doing FC and/or BC or do you let the handling speak for itself?

Thanks.
Sandy and Benni

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,

Had a group lesson tonight and will have a private on Thursday so our next session involving jumps won’t be until Saturday but I might do the tunnel skills again. I was watching the RC video from my last post and noticed when I was rear crossing for a R turn, I tended to push with my R arm low across my hips but I did NOT do that on the RC L….R turns were better. Do you think the arm cue was helping him or he just turns better to the right? I don’t think I was aware that I was doing it differently. This is from video 4 on June 29.

Then I have a question as I anticipate the sequence and course work and directional verbals. Do I use the obstacle cue combined with the directional? Example “tunnel right” or “jump right”. I just wonder if the dog ever gets confused when you are running on course and gets ahead of you and you give a directional for an obstacle you are not near and not ahead to also give physical cue…would the dog ever turn before taking the obstacle? I have a separate verbal for turning on the flat so that should help distinguish. Just wondering whether I just give the directional or the combined verbal of obstacle/directional.

Just for fun here is Benni on his new A frame 🙂 It’s only his third session on an A frame.

Thanks.
Sandy

[Sandy Mainardi]

Hi Tracy,
My dashboard only shows Max Pup 3 and 4. Not until I then click on “my courses” does Camp 2020 appear – to answer your question.

Today we worked on the skill sets and I also did a very quick re-try at a section of Novice Course 1 from last week….the ending where you said a RC slice could work as well as the inside wrap I had chosen. When I said he doesn’t really know RC, I was right! I practiced it on the one jump a few times and then I put it into the sequence…he didn’t do a slice and he did not turn until the landing side. So this is not a skill that we have apparently.

Also, on the tunnel soft turns, I saw that you had wings to either side of the exit of the tunnel (even though they were not pictured on the map) so I put cones there. I think Benni believed it was his job to go around the cones when I did the right/left turns so on the next video after that I took the cones away.

Video 1: Re-try Novice Course 1 ending sequence

Video 2: Skills Tunnel – GO

Video 3: Skills Tunnel Soft turns (this video has the cones by the exit)

Video 4: Skills Tunnel RC vs same side soft turns (took the cones away). Is it my imagination or is he looking left on the exit but running straight before he actually turns? Right seems better to me.

Video 5: SKills Tunnel exit wrap (chasing toys is much more fun) – I noticed I ran wide instead of staying along the tunnel on the right wrap. Sigh.

Note – the yellow thing on the ground is my 6 foot marker (it was an extension cord with a work light attached so I definitely did not want to step on it. It was more visible than a leash on the ground)

I looked at the upcoming course work….yikes!

Thanks!
Sandy and Benni

• This reply was modified 5 years, 12 months ago by Sandy Mainardi.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 12 months ago by Sandy Mainardi.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 12 months ago by Sandy Mainardi.

[Author]

Posts