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I’m not sure I’ve really ever said it, but you’re the reason that Mr. Wager and I were able to get on the same page and compete. I nearly gave up and then you, with your experience with tooth hugs and a dog that didn’t fit the mold, you helped us find our path. In the end, we became a real team – more than I would have ever expected. Thank you and (my thanks to Voodoo <3 ) for all your help and advice Ole Wager Boy! 🙂
Fun class, thanks! I’m still in mud so won’t be able to send more videos even with your kind offer to let me do so this weekend. I’ll finish up and video myself to slap my own hand on my handling mistakes. lol!
Good luck with Elektra’s healing. I’ve been singing the praises of a newer treatment called AlphaFlo. Wager had a partial CCL tear with mild/moderate instability and after the injection and recovery the joint was stable. He was Senior HIT dog at ASCA nationals 4 months later that same year! It’s a restorative treatment. Different from stem cell – uses amniotic tissue. Can be used in a specific location or systemically. Being almost 12 and starting to be slow to get up and do stairs, he just had a systemic injection about 3 weeks ago. He’s moving better and bringing me toys to the point it’s irritating. They told me 4 – 6 weeks to see a change but he’s an overachiever. Anyway, just something to look up – they’ve used this for horses for years under a different name (Renovo sp?) and actually are starting to use it for people! I’m looking into it for my grumpy knee. One vet I know has avoided a knee replacement by using it. Might be worth looking into.
Sorry – in Challenge 7 where we are doing a tunnel vs backside slice. You gave us a bonus challenge of a backside wrap. So while for both the jump tunnel and the jump to back side slice have you continuing to walk forward, I’m wondering if when we ask for the back side wrap we turn back or keep moving straight like we do for the other options.
Thanks! Yeah, I was trying to only do these backside, threadle slices with only verbal cues. I’ll add my physical cues next time. We’ve not had a switch cue before, so I was winging it. lol! That old shadow handling would be turn your dog with the dog side hand then switch to the other hand and maybe that’s why he started with tight turns back. I’ll try just using the outside hand – it did make for better turns.
One question about the next exercise – the bonus part asking for the backside wrap – do you expect them to get it with us doing the same motion down the line or can we turn back when they do?
how in the world did you find time to review a video today? I wasn’t expecting to hear from you until the Open was over. Thanks for your input. yes, when I watched the video I saw he was looking at me at the exit on the ‘go’ lines. Of course, since I wasn’t looking at him while we did these I didn’t know before watching it. It’s good to know for the future!
I went ahead today and tried the switch skill exercise. Initially when I turned him away from the jump to the tunnel he turned super tight, but as we continued we got some better turns. Just for grins, I tried to do some other cues from the tunnel to the jump just to see if he could do it. When I tried the threadle wrap, I realized that was super hard for him – he did it but it wasn’t my best thought process and he was super confused. One thing I noticed was the time I spent saying the switch as he exited the tunnel, he moved slowly and the second he heard what I wanted next he sped back up. That was especially true on the tunnel to the back side slice. Any suggestion for how to avoid that moment of hesitation?
<<<Tunnel sends and layering the jump looked great! The only thing to add here is to use the same exact handler path but get the push to the backside of the jump instead of the tunnel.>>>
oops – I guess I forgot that one. Here it is…
Then I went on to do the Ch 6. We had a couple booboos on this one, lol. I didn’t get the other jumps we weren’t using out of the way at first. You can see the rest. I just BARELY made that blind on the last position of the wing. He’s a super good boy for not crashing into me. Yikes. And of course, you can make fun of his nickname. I just can’t help myself. ha!
Just getting back after a trial weekend. Some good stuff and some not so good at the trial. But, we had great contacts which is our big challenge. yay!
So, we tried the Wk 2 Challenge 5. I did it on the side opposite from your course layout because that seemed to be our weaker side on earlier exercises. Again with the tunnel exit I didn’t cue it well and even on our second attempt I called it close to the tunnel entrance, but at least he came out looking toward me that time. Anyway, here’s our work today. 🙂
I’m back! I made a try at the Wk 2 Challenge 2. I repeated a couple of the reps – threadle wrap and the threadle slice after the tunnel. I’m deciding to kind of stick that second hand in there a little just to help me keep that on side arm straight with fist down. I think I can defend that. ha! Poor Spot, I’m sure he’d be super happy if I’d just choose one thing and stick with it. But I repeated it because I stopped moving. Second rep i tried to keep moving. With the threadle slice after the tunnel he came out wide the first time, so I repeated it to see if I could tighten that turn. I added a little bonus threadle with me on the inside of the jump at the end just to see if he could correct to that. Will do the same thing on the other side tomorrow. I hope the family time was stress free! lol
I gave it another try today, trying to move the same with each rep. It seems to me that Spot gives an obstacle a try and if he gets a reward he does that again the next rep no matter what I say. If he doesn’t get a reward he tries something else next rep. On one rep he missed the jump and took the tunnel and didn’t get a reward, so next rep I tried the opposite, asking for the tunnel to see if he’d just try the other obstacle, but he actually got it that time.
I wasn’t sure if he’s confused because of how I”m moving, so I just took it back to him hearing the cue while still and me standing facing the same place each rep. He seems to get more of those than with motion. What am I doing to confuse this poor dog?
After you thoughts on my cue for threadles, I videoed myself just to see if the two were confusing and yep, I think they might be. Sigh… Here’s that…
But I have to say, I trust his threadle wrap at a trial more than his back side wrap. I looked back at a recent Masters Series Agility run that I remember doing threadle wraps and I have no idea why he actually does them the way I fling my arm around. lol! It’s ok to laugh…I did.
I’ll be gone until Wednesday, so sorry to overload you today, but you’ve got several days to look. 🙂
I’m with you on the idea that they see the off side hand better and I would probably continue with that if I wasn’t paying someone to give me feedback. No point asking/paying for advice then not trying it. lol! I’m still working on changing my evil ways, so my handling isn’t that precise, but he’s really learning to listen to the verbal to make up for the bad mama.
Thanks for the diagram. I appreciate the extra work you put into that. I totally get it and I did a quick redo on the last threadle wrap at the jump. Watching the video I see I still moved laterally a little. But, I think he had a better line to the jump and wasn’t quite as extreme. First rep he almost just ran past then at the last second went ‘oh, i’m supposed to take that!’. Made me laugh. I’m sure it was my late cuing or something but still funny.
Then I did the first part of week 2 challenge 1 with Spot on my left then on my right. Spot did pretty well on my left – I did notice I used a ‘go’ to get the tunnel on at least one of those reps so not really letting him make the decision from the obstacle name. I played with some other handling cues just because he was doing well and I was curious. Then we did the same thing on the other side – not sure if my cues were less clear or if it’s that he was past what his brain could handle or the occasional slow processing that I was telling you about. We did take some breaks to play and rest between the some of the reps on the second side when he started acting less certain. I love the reps when he started to go to the jump and corrected himself. Such a cutie and trying so hard to please. Between these two videos I’ve used half my weekly time allowance but that was my session and I wanted you to see the whole thing.
I have to say – that storm was bad! My area did ok, but 15 miles south had up to baseball sized hail and super high winds. TONS of damage to cars and house windows. So, sorry, today there wasn’t any extra drama, just good old Spot doing his thang. lol
We had fun! I see that you use 2 hands for your threadle wraps. I’ve been working with Lee Gibson and he has made me stop using the offside hand I used to use. Spot is pretty good at just doing threadle wraps with a verbal and little dog side hand cue, although we didn’t get the one at the jump the first time. I redid that one after we did it correctly the first time because I dropped his toy and I sent him back through the tunnel to get it at the end. As far as whether the FC or the BC was better for him before the threadle wrap at the wing, I can’t really tell.
Well, poor Spot had to put up with a sick mom and a storm coming in this. We’re supposed to get a rainstorm and I wanted to do this before it got muddy, even though I’m under the weather (ha – didn’t mean that pun) and not moving much. Had to edit the light on the last 2 because it got super dark super fast.
I did each of the 3 sequences from week 1, challenge 2. Unfortunately my brain wasn’t working that well and I got my fast ‘over’ and slow ‘tunnel messed up. It was so bad on the 3rd sequence that I did that one a second time to try to get the cadence right. Spot was a good boy to do these correctly with me less than on point today. Hopefully by the time the surface dries out I’ll be able to actually run a bit again. lol
I went back to just standing with Spot on the tunnel side of me and said tunnel more slowly, then did jump saying ‘over’ faster. We worked up to him being between my legs and taking one or the other. Unfortunately my tech challenged self didn’t get it recorded. Something about reformatting the card after deleting …sigh… Anyway, he was getting about 3 of 4 right when he was in the neutral position. I’ll continue to work on that until he seems to understand it better. But I decided to see if that made any difference in his ability to do the lack of connection exercise. Did a couple of good slow reps then tried faster ones and he still didn’t get it. I did several slow ones – I have to laugh at the one where he didn’t get the tunnel, but didn’t take the jump either. The wheels were turning, just not all the way getting to the finish line. lol But, by the end I think he’s starting to get it and I even tried to speed up a bit at the end and he did it. I did have a little trouble remembering to say tunnel slowly and over quickly. Old dog here. lol
