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Hi Tracy,
Yes initially urgent care said no fracture. So I waited 2 weeks and started PT….immediately it ballooned up and became more painful than the original injury. So I went to the orthopedist this morning. Fracture is at the base of the radius near the thumb. Hoping the pain subsides soon.Do you have a different angle video of you and your dogs doing sequence 4 on the serpentines? I can’t picture how I would stay close to the tunnel exit to send him to the jump and get far enough ahead for the serp. Sigh. It was a much easier line heading towards the tunnel than coming back up the line for sure!
As I plan out the next 2 weeks of training, did you want me to work anymore on the set point (last one we did was 10″), ladder grid with handler motion or the progressive distance grid (also last done at 10″)? And also, where do we go with our young dogs next? Will you be offering something appropriate for this group of dogs?
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
Just finishing up week 4 with serpentine sequences and a review on the bending grid with middle jump at 8″ as recommended.Video 1: Serpentine sequence 1 – it seemed to me with dog on right he went a lot wider
Video 2: Serpentine sequences 2 and 3
Video 3: Serpentine sequence 4 – yikes…coming back after the tunnel was HARD and I hope I was not flailing my arm too high… was guessing at what verbal might work (“right”?) or should he get some sort of verbal before going into the tunnel….I don’t know but he was blasting wide out of the tunnel which was not helping get the line to the next jump. So I look forward to help with this one. Of course, “right” isn’t all that meaningful to him yet…
Video 4: Bending grid, spacing 4′, middle jump at 8″, other jumps at 4″
PS…after 2 weeks and still so much pain, went to an orthopedist…radial fracture…
🙁Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
I’m a little confused on right/left verbals….I thought they were more for soft or 90 degree turns. On the serpentines the dogs are doing more of a wrap as they send away and come back in for the serp. So I am trying to decide what the verbal should be for my handling vocabulary or at least understand when/when not to use a directional cue.Thanks.
SandyHi Tracy,
So on the bending grid….you previously said left wasn’t as smooth as right and so I did the middle jump at 6″ turning right and 4″ turning left. Do you want me to put the middle jump at 8″ for both directions now?Thanks.
Sandy
Hi Tracy,
Outside serps…MUCH better. Thank God! LOL. Jumps are set at 8″Video 1: one jump
Video 2: 2 jump dog on left
Video 3: 2 jump dog on right
Video 3: 3 jumps
Later afternoon session to revisit the bend grid as recommended…bending R middle jump at 6″, bending left middle jump at 4″ with the addition of the wing wrap
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
What is your take on the 10″ jump height for him? Should I only do random jumps at 10″ and some at 8″ or continue to shift more towards 10″. I felt like he had the skills for those tunnel FC drills to be able to handle the 10″…perhaps that affected his commitment? I kind of feel like he’s not really jumping at 8″ and so if the increase is affecting his commitment then at some point I need to be training a bit higher than 8″ as long as it isn’t something hard or confusing…like the serp which I did at 8″.Also, as much as I wasn’t that happy with the session, I thought his sends were great 🙂
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
Fair warning on these videos…not a good feeling for me at the end of the day. We’ve had a lot of rain so I wanted to squeeze in something for the week before it rained again tonight. Anyway, since the tunnel was set up I decided to do the pinwheel to tunnel exercise…I didn’t think it was going to be a difficult exercise but I just couldn’t get it right and kept pulling him off the jump before the tunnel. I did decide to see how he would handle 10″ jumps so I have no idea if that had something to do with it or not. Oye…here they are.
Video 1: pinwheel right to tunnel
Video 2: pinwheel left to tunnel
Later on we went into the basement since it was raining to try some serp work which again I didn’t anticipate so many issues. When we did them in the past, he did quite well. So maybe my mechanics got worse and sorry for the camera angle so you can’t see my face and what I am looking at on the 2 jump exercise. Sigh. But he did some really wonky stuff on the 1 jump exercise. Something we need to work on more. I think in March I used my outside arm more as a stronger cue and maybe that is why he wasn’t getting it today…although we haven’t worked on it since March…my bad.
Video 1: 1 jump serp
Video 2: 2 jump serp, dog on left
Video 3: 2 jump serp, dog on right
Video 4: 1 rep, dog on left with the second jump angled
Oh well. Hopefully we do better in a couple of days when we try again.
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
Today we worked on the bending grid per your instructions to raise the middle bar from 4″ up to 6″ without the wing and at 4′ spacing. We also did the wing wrap bending grid with all jumps at 4″ and 4′ spacing (last time we did 3.5′). Here are those videos:Video 1: 4′ space, middle jump 6″ (did bending right twice because he ticked a bar)
Video 2: 4′ space, all jumps 4″ + wing wrap
Then we finished the week 3 homework on the wrap FC BC:
Video 1: wrap left FC, then FC/BC – I think this was the one I forgot to say “tight” on the first run.
Video 2: wrap right FC, then FC BC
I set up the cones for the fast/slow zones…I hope it made a difference in my timing? If not, I will keep practicing.
I’ve watched the FC BC videos a couple of times. Am I going too much inside the wing to cue the turns? Should I be staying lateral/outside the wing?
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
Thanks. One more question. When raising the middle jump for the bending grid, should I use the 3.5′ or the 4′ spacing?
Thanks.
SandyHi Tracy,
The bending grid height has always been consistently at 4″ (lowest jump cup). He’s a little whipper snapper. He cracks me up. Yes…more connection on the wing wrap lest he take his own path the wrong way! LOL Gotta love his enthusiasm.So a few times over the past weeks you have mentioned for me to go deeper into the tunnel. I kind of get what you mean…sometimes it is appropriate to send to the tunnel and get out of there and ahead and sometimes I need to be more with him as he exits the tunnel. Is there a rule of thumb on this? I feel like I am trying to stay ahead of him to cue him but then maybe he isn’t seeing what he needs to see because of that.
For sure, I have a very hard time with the transitions….this is not a new problem that I have! I’m hoping to get better at it with time. I think this may historically come from the One Mind thing where you run up to the wing and get low before the dog gets there or at least that is how I perceived it with the short amount of training I got with it before CAVU got injured and then I changed to Feet Foward after his rehab. Would it help to set the jumps a bit further apart to give me room for the fast/slow down/cue the turn. I feel like he smokes me and then I don’t have time to do the slow down part hence “slamming on the brakes” (which is a good way to put it, by the way!)
We didn’t get to the FB BC combo yet. Maybe tomorrow.
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
We worked on a few things today. I re-tried the bending grid at 4′ instead of 3.5′ as you suggested and then I put it back to 3.5′ when adding the wing wrap also as you suggested.
Video 1: bend grid 4′ spacing
Video 2: bend grid with wing wrap 3.5’spacing
Video 3: Wrap L FC tunnel/1-2 jumps
Video 4: Wrap R FC tunnel/1-2 jumps (can you see why he knocked a bar?)
Video 5: modified running rewards (no jumps, just wings) as we had done enough jumping for the day
Video 6: actually we did this before adding the tunnel but I almost forgot to include it – Wrap FC 2 jumps
He did have a break between doing the grid work and then the wrap work. Tomorrow is nose work day.
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
Okay! Ladder grid with handler motion backchain. Let’s see what you think about this now. Kept the spacing at 4.5′:
Bending grids. I did this with a 3.5 ft spacing as I remember from some other time we did bend work I think he was not able to bounce it at 4′.
More tunnel exit work trying the dragging toy method you suggested for a better turn out of the tunnel. Either I wasn’t doing it right or I don’t know but I didn’t feel like he was getting it until I decided to pretty much drop the toy at the tunnel exit which meant I wasn’t really able to show handler motion in the direction he was supposed to go prior to his tunnel entry. Well, anyway, I did 2 videos worked on left and right turns with GO mixed in. I had the jump set at 10″ for this.
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
So I have done all grids thru Max Pup 3 until now at 4.5′ and he has always seemed to handle that distance well despite various challenges. Do you want me to keep it at 4.5′ and just revisit the progressive striding grid that way or do you want me to decrease the distance to 4′? I’m looking back thru some of the homework I did the progressive ladder grid at 4′, 4.5′, 5′, 5.5′. And back in Max Pup 3 early on I started at 4′ I think and then 5′ and settled at 4.5′ after some trials to find the distance that was best. The previous efforts in the progressive striding grid, he has been balanced in the ladder grid. Not sure why this time was different.I will try the bending next and see what other game I’m up for. Now the issue is going to be carrying equipment with basically one arm. I’m sure by next week it will be a bit better but not expecting this to completely heal for many weeks 🙁
X-ray was negative on my wrist but can’t move it today, everything is swollen and I feel off so I took the day to rest. Start PT next week. Hopefully I will feel up to working with Benni tomorrow. Supposed to be sunny followed by 2 days of rain. Thankfully he is easy to train and respectful of my body parts.
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
Sigh….after I finished training Benni, I decided to let the beast do a few jumps…and I slipped on the grass and fell hard on my wrist. Went for x-rqys….radiologist will call me tomorrow but they said no obvious fracture. Really hurts so I’m now sporting a splint. Pretty bad hyperextension injury on my dominant hand. Really took the wind out of my sails. 🙁
Anyway, Benni re-visited the progressive striding grid. I left off doing 18′ and 19′. Today the oxer was at 6″ and 10″ and I did a video for the 18′ then turned the camera off because I couldn’t get the jumps quickly reset so the second video will show 19′, 20′ and 21′. I have to go back another day and do 15′-18′ which I haven’t retried yet.
Video 1: 18′ striding grid
Video 2: striding grid 19-20-21′- interesting on the 21’….last time we did this, he added a third stride but not today that I could see anyway.
Video 3: tunnel exit GO vs right
Video 4: tunnel exit GO vs left
I think that’s only 20 jumps for the day.
So you prefer directional cues over using his name on the tunnel exits? I use “dig” for tight turns towards me out of tunnels but other than that haven’t used verbals before for tunnel exits. Trying to get a good handle on when to use what verbals.
Thanks.
Sandy and Benni
