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Hi Tracy,
I swear you and Jess secretly plan our private lesson….we had a good “go” challenge today which was incorporated into our A frame training. This is the first time the A frame has been performed in a sequence. He still did have a question as it was a pretty long distance to GO to the jump after the tunnel. I couldn’t get the whole sequence in the camera frame but the only thing you can’t see is jump 2 and 3…he had to turn left from jump 3 to the LONG straightish tunnel under the dog walk so I had to hoof it to get there to help him find the next jump. And we had a bit of a serpentine too. Anyway, super fun!
– I kept saying “go” but didn’t say “go Jump”…I guess maybe that might have helped keep him more on the path to the jump than turning to question it?
I’ve learned something about Benni the past month…he is pretty sensitive to things that startle him. About a month ago, he was doing well on a low/medium height see saw at home and when he went to class on a totally different name brand see saw and just playing the bang game hopping onto the end of it which was pretty low to make it easy…well he didn’t like it and jumped off the side and then didn’t want to try it again although he did a couple times with encouragement Then we went home and he didn’t want to do the see saw he was used to either. I got him to do it that night so that he wouldn’t go to bed and have the mishap in the forefront of his brain and after that took about a 3 week break from it. Instead I worked him on unstable surfaces including an elevated board perched on some fit discs. He got a lot more confident there in a short period of time and he’s back to doing his own see saw slightly higher than where we left off thanks to the motivation of watching CAVU make it so exciting. So today, at the lesson, I was doing a 4 jump sequence where i was varying handling from FC, RC to BC between jump 3-4…it was a weird line and while going for the BC I kept my eyes on him and ran into the wing…nothing major happened – the bar fell, the wing wobbled…he was approaching the jump but did not attempt to take it. When I took him back to try again, he aborted on that particular jump 2 or 3 times…so we just rewarded that jump by itself, then did it without the blind and ended with a “late blind” so I could make sure that didn’t happen again. So he is pretty affected by unexpected things that worry him. Hopefully, this will pass with time?
Tomorrow is dock diving day for him and then onward to course work!
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
>Seq 2 – very nice too! What were the verbals you used? I heard the release then the jump cue, then he barked LOL! I think you were calling his name but you can also use your threadle verbal there.
Verbal? I said Ben Ben (not in-in)….should have I have said in-in? LOL I guess they kind of sound the same…oh oh.
>Seq 3
first rep – opening line looked good! He read the rear cross nicely, he totally knew to turn left! He was a little wide, mainly because you were decelerated while he was in the tunnel then you accelerated into the rear cross. If you flip that: accelerate while he is in the tunnel then decelerate through the rear cross – he will have a tighter turn on the RC wrap. Plus, it will put you closer to the 5 jump (RC jump) which will let you set the serp at 6 better. You took off at :08 so he just chased you.I was undecided about whether I would need a backside cue for 6 so I didn’t use one and he read my handling as a threadle I think. So on the 3rd rep I did say “back” and he nailed it.
>Serp default: great job on your casual toy dropping, it made me laugh, so smooooth! But perfect placement, well done!!! And he did really well, doing this with very little ‘help’ other than your motion and some connection. He had a bar down at :54, and I think that was because he went a little wide after the wing wrap (wheeee!) and the realized he needed to hurry back and take the jump – and you were not helping all that much AND you had some countermotion – so he just didn’t set up the jumping as well as I know he can. But he fixed it on all the other reps, including the various angles you worked too.
Now, when I say “you weren’t helping all that much”, that is CORRECT for this exercise LOL!! Of course, when running a sequence, we would want you to use a verbal and be as perfect as you can. But in training, you were perfectly casual and perfectly NOT calling him 🙂 I think he did well! Onwards to the backside serpentines now.Good to know I can actually drop a toy in the right place while it is attached to a line….because he would for sure take off with it. I thought maybe it was the toy that caused him to knock the bar that one time. And I totally forgot to practice the other direction. Sigh.
As for verbal on the serpentine…am I supposed to have a verbal for that? You mentioned using a verbal when running a sequence.
YES, backside…can’t wait to try that one….need to work on that for sure and I haven’t gotten a chance to try the backside circle brake hand drill which I thought might be a good one to try or do you think he doesn’t need that so much?
Rest day today and supposed to have a private with Jess tomorrow. Not sure whether to go or not….just so darn humid along with the high temps. She does not have AC in that facility….just fans.
I was looking at the novice courses for this package…looks daunting and I can’t figure out handling for some parts. Have to set it up and hopefully physically walking it will make the light bulb go on.
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
OMG, I didn’t think we’d ever be able to work outdoors with this heat wave and get pkg 3 done but tonight it was bearable to try the novice sequences and the default serpentine exercise.Video 1: Sequence 1
Video 2: Sequence 2
Video 3: Sequence 3 – it didn’t occur to me to try a BC until the last rep and that worked so much better but never hurts to train the RC.
Video 4: Serpentine default drill – I set the jump at 8″
Hopefully we will get the course work in before next week.
Also, as I was building the novice sequence for package 3, I noticed it says package 2 on the page header. Thought you might like to know 🙂
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
I’m glad you thought the run was good. If not for that little tunnel issue, he could have Qd if we were doing competitive runs! That wasn’t the point but nice to think about…he ran a whole course!
Can you tell me if you thought the dig cue was appropriate for that part of the course though or maybe overkill? It wasn’t exactly a wrap back on the course.
Anyway….maybe the Pumi didn’t work out for agility but holy smokes is he an amazing nose work dog. We are competing now towards our Elite 2 title (earning points) and he not only took 1st place overall but got 3 placements out of 4 searches AND got “pronounced” from the judges in ALL 4 SEARCHES! That’s a special acknowledgement judges give for exceptional technique and/or team work! I’m just thrilled. I posted on FB of course 😉
Thanks. Hoping for a break in the heat so we can move on to the novice sequences.
Sandy and Benni
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 BenniHi 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 BenniSo 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 BenniHi 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 BenniHi 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! LOLVideo 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 BenniHi 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 BenniHi 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
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 BenniHow 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 obstacleSandy and Benni
