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Hi Tracy,
I don’t really understand the difference in outside arm position for out vs backside. Also, I had not been using outside arm for a backside cue so that obviously didn’t happen the way it should have.
To me the “out” and “backside” outside arm looks the same except maybe the pulsing of the arm towards the jump for the out. So maybe you can help me decipher this.
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
Today was the first day it hasn’t rained in a week and I was already behind so we did some things from week 3.
Video 1: Get Out Drill, dog on R
I think I must be connecting too much in the simple releases? It was easier to get him to go out than to come to me.
Video 2: Get Out Drill, dog on L
Video 3: Push to Backside from stationary position
Video 4: Push to Backside starting with motion (this seemed much easier for us)- I wanted to do one more rep but my husband was being extremely distracting with the lawn tractor and Benni aborted so that was that
Video 5: Week 3 Short Sequence 1, partial sequence inadvertently
Video 6: Complete Sequence 1, Get Out
Video 7: Sequence 2, Get Out
Video 8: Sequence 3, Get Out
Video 9: Sequence 4, Backside – a disaster
Video 10: Sequence 4, final try
Video 11: Sequence 5, Backside – I really had to go in and help him get those backsides…maybe doing the “get out” drills on the same day was just too confusing? Or maybe it’s just my mechanics are not clear enough….good possibility there…but very frustrating.
I decided to keep the videos separated so it is easier to reference in the feedback. I find that the drills where he keeps having to start from a sit are very demotivating for him and things don’t generally go as well as I know they can which is why I went to using the cone for the backside drill like we had done in summer camp I think it was.
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
Video 1 at about 29 and 40 sec for the BC to the spin….am I positioning myself correctly…seems like he is taking the middle of the bar or is that okay?
Sequence 2: yes, he was kind of setting up sideways…but then he sort of does that at trials which you said was okay for some dogs so I let it be. Might as well see what happens at home when he does it…less than optimal for sure and I prefer him setting up straighter. So next time I will correct that. As for the BC….I thought we were supposed to get the BC completed PRIOR to entry to the tunnel or does that “depend” on what happens next? In video 1 (find the 4) with the last game where I did the BC before he entered the tunnel, it was better early because the spin was coming up next. Different here in seq 2 because it was essentially a straight line over the jump after the tunnel. So I was doing it very early on purpose because I thought that was the correct way. I need clarification on that particular handling scenario apparently…when to complete BC prior to tunnel entry vs when to do it as he exits the tunnel.
Sequence 3: Hmmm…I am not all that comfortable on how RC are supposed to be done. I thought you wanted decel to get a tighter turn? When I was outside working with him, I knew you had not done a RC but I couldn’t remember what so I just went with what came to me naturally which is what would happen at a show. I will review that so I can think about what that would have felt like for me. Not sure I will be setting that up again right now. I need to get better at seeing options rather than getting one idea in my head.
I think my habit has become shift connection to the landing side…perhaps from past training OMD style. It is NOT natural for me to look him in the eyes. And apparently I like to swoosh as well! LOL. Sigh. Well at least I am remembering the exit line connection better than I used to so there must be hope that I can do better on the eye connection. I know we are going for optimal performance but I think even with my mistakes he is doing so well and showing progress and understanding. Always room for improvement.
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
Today, we finished up week 2.Find The 4 Game: God bless him, on the third game, he did not get good information and he kind of bunny hopped over the jump so I retried it getting the BC in sooner.
Sequence 1: handler oops in the beginning
Sequence 2: last rep I tried a lap turn but I wasn’t positioned well so it was wide
Sequence 3: In retrospect, maybe I should have tried a different ending like rearing that last turn even though more yardage probably but maybe better on speed?
Fun drills!
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
Just having time sit and digest the feedback tonight. So I have 2 questions:
1. when should I be using the outside arm to cue directionals…according to your feedback and then with Jessica today, I guess I am overusing that physical cue.2. when you say cue him before he enters the tunnel so he does better on the exits, what verbal am I using here because he really isn’t turning but just coming to me sort of straight out. Just use his name right after I say “tunnel”?
Also, I thought the lap turn and the throw back looked confusing and I still don’t think I understand in this scenario how to make it look different. I watched your videos and the feet are kind of similar? I know the hand and the eye connection is different but as he comes out of the tunnel – to me it looks the same initially. And on the lap turn, there is one step backward correct? But no stepping back on the throw-back?
We haven’t done the longer sequence for week 2 yet and you just posted week 3! I still didn’t catch up with a week break! Tomorrow is a day of rest so we’ll try to get up to speed over the weekend.
Thanks!
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
We are on to week 2 short sequences today and wrapped it up with a couple of ladder grid reps which I do every now and then and today I added more handler motion to that. I will include it but you don’t have to watch it if you don’t have time.Week 2 Shifting Focus, short sequences. I had trouble with the last one. I don’t think I am placing myself in the right position for that throw back. Near the end, I tried proofing him between the lap turn and the throw back…hmmm…needs work. I also tried using “in in” vs his name but not sure that is really the verbal I need here? (not to mention, I STILL haven’t trained in-in anyway!) Why do I find it hard to look him in the eyes? LOL…seems weird when I do it or try to do it but I see the value of that transfer from his eyes to my hand on those sequences where I need him to come to my hand. Interesting.
And here is the 3 reps of the ladder grid with handler motion:
Don’t laugh…I never knew there was a pause feature on my phone video recorder so in the past, I have done separate videos for each sequence. Today it was all one video. Do you have a preference? I found it easy to follow your feedback on each particular sequence so I could have it in my brain when thinking about what are saying. Whatever is easiest for you is fine…now that I am aware of the “pause”. I have to review the sequences before each run most of the time!
Thanks!
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
The slackers are back in action! We finished up week 1 sequences and driving ahead connection today.Sequences 1,2,3:
Sequence 4: well, not my best effort but I could definitely learn from the camera angle that although I have the toy across my body, I am not opening up the dog-side shoulder which defeats the whole connection thing. Also, I am not in good position on the cross so I am blocking him from seeing the line which didn’t help much either. Something to work on…
Sequence 5:(my oops at the end is because I thought I screwed up but actually I didn’t…LOL)
Driving ahead/connection:
Thanks!
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
Ah…good to know about the loss of connection on the A frame. It was higher than it should be so I will work on that.Yes, I am determined to get these BCs better and not to chicken out…come what may. At least this week he didn’t get on my wrong side so some improvement I guess even though he had to hop over my foot! I did walk the course with the rolled up map in my hand (in lieu of a toy) but for some reason that upper body rotation was difficult…maybe I drove in too close to that wing?
His JWW time was 17.43.
He is super amped and also quite distracted when setting up at the start line so that is why I “placed” him there…I expect as he gets more used to things (exciting dogs and smells), he will set up easier and more independently. I ask for the high five so he gets his head back in the game with me….part of my established routine…tells me he’s ready to go. He typically will set up straight/facing the first line but he was very interested in something on the sidelines yesterday.
He actually weaves faster at trials! He did another “I don’t like weaving in dirt” in class last week…skipping poles due to divots in the dirt. Sigh.
Because of the special workshop and then the trial, we did fall behind on week 1 and now we have rain for a couple of days. So I hope we have some time to catch up along the way. I’m trying hard to be good and not over work him so we do not jump 2 days in a row.
A sheltie “person” gave Benni high compliments after his T2B run. Proud mom here! 🙂
Benni is studying up on the next assignment:
Thanks!
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
I’m so used to the summer camp videos coming out on Tuesdays! We are still on week 1…Benni got 1st place in novice JWW today and his second leg so far. We also did T2B for training.
T2B:
Novice JWW: still working on those blinds but he got 1st place!
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
We will get to the rest of this week’s work on Saturday. We had group lesson yesterday, seminar with Jess tomorrow so we are conserving his jumping for those.However, I have a question about something we did in our novice class yesterday. It was called “setting lines”…I think it used to be called or maybe still is called V set (?) where you shape the dog’s path on the take off side of a jump to manage what they see on landing. So she was having us step in on the dog’s line and then peeling away to whatever the next obstacle was…we practiced 4 different options. It felt weird to be doing this and I don’t recall anything you have taught us resembling this. The set up was a U shaped tunnel to a jump to another U shaped tunnel and 2 jumps sort of serpentine style off to the right of the second tunnel exit…so it was 1) get the non-obvious end of the second tunnel 2)get the jump to the right of that 3) get the jump to the right of that and 4) V set to get the first tunnel where they started from….3 obstacle sequence each time. Have no idea if you can picture this….I did my by-pass cue to get the non-obvious end of the tunnel when I ran the whole course but then we did this particular drill for practice. It was drill 1 and 2 that she had us shaping the dog’s path…the other ones involved crosses/spins of some sort. Benni went very wide because he has never seen me do this before and I’m wondering if this is a useful tool to have or just let it be that we “tried” it and be done with it? I do have the map of it but have no idea of how to load it into my feed.
Thanks.
Sandy and Benni
PS Back to being fussy about weaving in dirt because of dirt divots…oye!Hi Tracy,
As requested, videos from the novice/open only trial we attended on Friday. We did novice JWW for competition and T2B for FEO.Novice JWW – we got two refusals…one late BC and poor exit line connection (boo handler!) so he bypassed a jump and the second was something about the tunnel entrance that he thought twice about and popped back out…oh, and he has a “thing” about barking at the judge and ring crew so you will see him take a second prior to the weaves to say something to the ring crew sitting in a chair there off to the side! I actually don’t run for Qs right now otherwise I would have chosen a FC and not the BC but it was fun to get the ribbon anyway….knowing if he hadn’t had the 2 Rs and the time to fix them, he actually would have placed 1st! He was still 16 seconds under SCT with all the mistakes. 🙂
T2B – this course had some really difficult/funky lines. I ran the course as per the map intending to do the BC at the bottom of the A frame to see if he would read it and not tunnel suck (he did, but probably less than perfect AF performance), next line was very hard and my only regret here was not rewarding him for finally doing the wrap and not taking the inviting off course tunnel, then I wanted to try running for the BC after that middle tunnel and again a horrible jump line which we muddled thru to some awesome weaves (in soft sand which he’s never run on). He has not seen a see saw in sequence yet so he darted off and I chose to bring him back and play a couple of bang games and continue on…but holy smokes ending line….good boy….95% of dogs aborted before the final jump. I believe our “‘GO” games from summer camp has paid off in spades 🙂 I was not really sure what would have been the best handling option for that wrap a couple jumps after the A frame…and the angle of the jump was so weird that it might have actually needed a threadle cue prior to the wrap cue?
This is only his second AKC trial (the first one, we did the same type of runs) and we have done about 4 UKI trials doing NFC. I like where this is going and how he is handling his start line and doing fairly well with focus and drive. Young dog stuff noticing the extra people in the ring should diminish over time and he does get a bit excited and barky and loses his focus for a second or two every now and then but he is SO much easier than CAVU which just makes it more fun and relaxed for me.
And, I’m not sure if I told you but he measured exactly 14″ for his temp height card…whew. Hoping for the same when he gets measured in Dec/Jan after he turns 2. How can he be almost 2 already?!
After watching the live seminar, we went outside to start the week 1 homework:
Regular Connection:
Exit Line Connection (crosses/spins):
Exit Line Connection (serps):
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
Can you please refresh my memory on how to change my avatar (is that what you call the photo ID…?)I want to update Benni’s photo 🙂
Thanks.
SandyHi Tracy,
Not sure if this course is now closed out but I have a question about something. Benni is good on the start line stay but his attention wanders as I lead out. Then I stand there waiting for him to look at me so we can begin. Sometimes I clear my throat and he will look at me. If I say his name, he’s likely to get up. I keep my focus on him as I walk away and try to keep talking to him but sometimes the distraction is just more interesting. Any ideas on how to work on this? It happens in his group lesson a lot and sometimes at the privates as well.
Thanks.
SandyHi Tracy,
He just had massage, stretching and chiro on Monday. The weave thing happened last Tuesday and this Tuesday. He is fine running, jumping, tunnels, A frame in the same dirt footing…it’s just the weaves.He has one day of trialing Sept 13 and one day Oct 2 and will be different dirt each time. The other trial is on grass and I only entered him in T2B that day because JWW is early morning which means wet, dewy grass which I won’t run on…don’t need another broken wrist nor an injured dog. Mainly going because it’s fairly close and they have a VMO there. I want to get him practice measured before he turns 2 in December.
Ran thru the narrowed channels just an hour ago wicked speedy. Decided to proof things using channels to avoid fatiguing him in 12 poles and to keep it more fun for him.
Thanks.
SandyHi Tracy,
Haven’t had a chance to do any more homework this week BUT I do have a question for you….Benni does his weave poles just fine on turf and grass….he will not weave on dirt. We take class in a horse barn. The first week, he was hesitant and very slow but finally did them. I thought maybe that initial reaction would improve second time around…it got worse this week. He did 12 poles once in a short sequence and after that he was avoiding the entry or literally walking thru them and skipping poles. Have you ever seen this before?
I’m curious to see what you suggest but I was thinking I’ll have to find dirt arenas to rent and maybe start back with the 2 x 2s.
After he did that in class last night, I went home and set up slightly open channels, 6 + 6 poles and then right into 12 poles….all of that went just fine. Oh and he has done open channels at the barn driving thru very well.
I have him signed up for novice JWW for one day at two different trials….on dirt…ugh.
Thanks.
Sandy
