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Hi Tracy,
I’m self-diagnosing with “course map backside dyslexia”! Don’t ask me how I missed a reading a backside on a map AGAIN! (it would have eliminated the issues I had with sequence 3 for sure) Sigh. I will say that we have been practicing backsides (interesting when I actually WANTED it coming out of the tunnel, I didn’t get it at first compared to when I didn’t want it and he was sure that was it! LOL) We have NOT worked on threadles…yet…so no surprise he doesn’t understand them.Anyway, on sequence 1 for the “out” at the end….I guess I’m just trying to make sure he doesn’t curl into me which I understand if the obstacle is straight ahead, the “go” should work if given in a timely manner. I think I also questioned which was going to work for him and which was the correct verbal. So I will make a note of this. And you are right on sequence 2 ending…I didn’t know really if I would be ahead of him, if I would need an “out” or a “go”… I feel like it should have been a “go” but I didn’t do that.
Sequence 3-
If I had done a BC 5-6, would I wait for him to come out of the tunnel to see it or have it done by the time he exited….I don’t quite get how to decide on that. There are certain BC options that make me unsure and I default to where I can keep my eyes on him…even if the BC might be better.And if I had actually done the backside of 2 as per the map…I’m picturing it would be best to push to the backside on the right wing so it’s like a German?
I have to say I was a bit nervous about this assignment on the walk thru/then running the plan all on camera! Oh and YES! He does vocalize on backsides even in lessons! Maybe it’s just exciting! LOL
Wicked rain and winds swept thru, power outages all over, trees down everywhere blocking roads etc. Seems to have passed thru quickly and our power is back. Can’t complain compared to what other areas got. Hope you are safe down there!
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
Because the hurricane weather is due to descend upon us over the next few days, I set up the novice sequences and we did our “walk thru and run” homework. These videos are unedited start to finish. He was warmed up and waiting in the house prior to each run so there are a few seconds after my final run thru before he comes onto the scene…please just scroll thru that.Video 1: Novice Sequence 1
Video 2: Novice Sequence 2
Video 3: Novice Sequence 3 – I couldn’t believe how much trouble we had with the opening. He was determined to take backside of jump 3 no matter which way I handled it. He also (unbeknown to me at the time, had to poop which he promptly did after we finished the last part). Really, he could see a straight line straight to the front side of jump 3 so I don’t know…
Just FYI the angled jumps in the middle were set at 12″ and I think it was sequence 2 that I also set the last jump of the sequence at 12″ for that one.
Anyway, for better or worse, here you go…
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
Revisited the 12″ set point today. I need to set that up someplace else next time. He gets so distracted by something in the woods.Thanks.
SandyHi Tracy,
Today we worked on the set point for the double and triple at 12″ for the top bar and then tried the default backside drill.Video 1: Set Point
Video 2: Backside default – so on this exercise after watching back the video…I was tossing the toy with my outside arm because my thought was if I had it in my dog side arm it might appear as a lure…but then as I watched this, I wondered if it made it look like I was “handling” it with the outside arm. My dilemma with him is dropping a free toy that he will take off with so I wanted to use the toy on a rope. I could try it again with toy in dog-side arm if you think that’s more appropriate…or is the point just to drop the toy on the landing side no matter what hand it’s in?
In a couple of days, I will try the progressive striding grid with a 12″ oxer and 12″ triple. Trying to keep our sessions very simple and short in this ridiculous heat.
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi Tracy,
I am mentally challenged with fitting the size of the course for this week into my space…well I’m basically challenged with course building in general! LOL I do not have much more than maybe 50′ x 60′ max and that’s only if parts of the course don’t extend into the narrower section of my field. So doing the best I could with the set up, I could not fit the jump #15 as listed on course map 3 (it was not used on courses 1 and 2 so when I did course 3, I just sent him back to the tunnel as # 15. Hope that makes sense.Video 1: Novice Course 1
Video 2: Novice Course 2
Video 3: Novice Course 3 –
OMG kiss of death on this one! I finally figured out a better way to keep him from going off course from 6 -7 although I wasn’t crazy about his loopy lines and we never did cleanly execute 10 – 11…I don’t know if I had the jumps 6-7 too close or what but getting him to the backside for 11 was an extreme challenge. He was getting a bit jump happy there for a couple of minutes just going off on a tangent taking jumps even after I stopped. Oye. With the heat, I was trying to conserve his energy but no, he had his own agenda. So maybe sending to 6 and saying “go jump” was not the right cue (that got me the off course tunnel), so then I tried saying “Left” but he still went very wide towards the tunnel before curving back to me do then I tried the BC and saying his name…still very loopy but I knew he was not going for the tunnel at least. I feel like he does not know that when I send and hang back he’s supposed to return in my direction. Do you think I need to practice a skill set on that? I know that the angle of jump 6 along with the presence of the tunnel was a very difficult challenge for him so maybe it was mostly a young dog thing or very possibly my handling wasn’t helping him in the way he needed. Not sure. I was getting VERY frustrated and was hoping to clean it up by the last rep but nope…oh well.Jessica told me that I give my verbals too late or at least I was saying “tight” and “back” too late so I guess I need to work on that. This is why I never used verbals….I was NEVER timely so I felt like it was better to shut up and just handle.
So that’s our workout for the day.
Question on training specialty jumps…I don’t have a triple…can I just line 3 single bar jumps together to practice it and would I do it like the oxer jump as in the set point exercise or should I just let him approach it as a jump without the sit/stay/jump bump set up. He’s seen the panel jump a couple times and the broad jump just once in class. I’m thinking of entering him in novice jumpers in the fall. I need to start thinking about getting him up to his regular jump height before that which will hopefully be 12″…praying he measures 14″ or under as I don’t think I would jump him at 16″ ever.
I haven’t competed in agility in so long…do you know if AKC still has a regular double with the bars set the same or is it now ascending?
I thought maybe in August I might start introducing a jump here and there at 12″ as well as training the set point prior to that.
Thanks.
Sandy and BenniHi 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 Benni
