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Those jets may very well be the same ones!
I have never tried an outside arm for an out. Actually, I’ve never used an outside arm for anything! After watching your video about teaching threadles with an outside arm and seeing this comment here, I have a question. I was talking to a friend recently about using the outside arm. She is very successful with her dogs and does not use it. Her reasoning is that it causes too much handler focus and then it’s hard to switch them back to the line or next obstacle. What are your thoughts about this? I’m trying to figure out which technique and cue I want to teach Nox. 🙂
It’s funny you suggest the throwback there at the jump after the weaves. My friend I was training with, Nicole Davilli (not sure if you know her), said the same thing. I need to work on that skill. Again, I haven’t progressed very far with the puppy foundations self-study class now that camp has started, but is it safe to assume that the prop game helps teach this? She gets a bit sticky with the prop game after a couple of reps because she really dislikes countermotion!!
We are a little late on this one! This is from Package 1. Our main issues were with the threadle to the tunnel and with the German turn before the weaves. I have watched the videos you shared with me about how to teach threadles, but we haven’t had a chance to actually train it yet (too many things, not enough time!!). I think the German turn on the jump was just a matter of me figuring out the correct place and time to do it. I just learned that move a couple weeks ago on the first jumpers course, so it needs a bit more practice. 🙂 We ran this course last weekend and again on Tuesday (took me a while to get it edited and posted). Since then, you’ve told me about taking that extra step to get commitment, which was an issue a couple of times for us here.
My jumpers video finally finished processing, woo hoo!
This is Package 2 Jumpers Course 1, round 1. This was a super fun course! I think Nox did so well with the layering last night because we worked on it Tuesday in this course. We haven’t gotten to the layering EOS yet, but since the live class set up was so similar, I’ll probably set that next just to get some more practice, especially with balancing the skill of NOT taking the outside line (that requires less collection, lol!).
I had so much fun with the live class!! I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I really enjoyed the format and the sequences. I’m so glad I got the opportunity to participate.
The opening was tricky at first because I had to figure out which side of jump 2 I wanted to be on. It felt good once we got it!
As far as decel goes, I Shays forget it’s a thing, lol. It’s a totally new concept to me to SLOW DOWN while running agility! It makes complete sense; I just forget to do it. Same with taking that extra step for commitment since I know I will be behind after that. I’ll keep working on both.
I’m not sure how independent her contacts are yet. I tried desperately to train a running contact with her, but this was also a new concept to me and I did not do well, haha. I took Trkman’s online class but I needed more guidance than that. (Maybe you want to teach one online in the future… 😀) we switched to stopped contacts and have been doing them for a month or so. She’s great if there’s a physical target on the ground, but if I take it away, she wants to creep and wait for me to go to the bottom with her. I’m not quite sure to fade the targets yet. I’m thinking of using clear targets and cutting them smaller and smaller until they pretty much disappear. I’ve never had the truly independent contacts that I want/need with Nox. My previous dogs have all been much slower! I will try releasing with motion with a lead out since she is stopping at the target, though. I don’t think it would translate without it right now.
For big lines with jumps, do you think a jump chute would help? I’ve been told I can try putting jumps in a line at varying distances (15-30 feet) and have her run that with me in different places and adding motion gradually. I’ve been told jump grids will help (I’m not very good at adjusting things in terms of spacing or troubleshooting when things don’t look right…), but I didn’t know if that would help with the big lines at full height since most grids are tighter and lower (at least what I’ve gotten to in Susan Salo’s book).
I’m working on editing a couple of other videos from a few days ago. That takes way longer than training and running them, lol.
This is our first attempt at Package 2: Standard Course 1. We did pretty well overall. Our problem spots were the weave entry (put the gate back in to help), the wrap after the weaves, and the left turn after the a-frame. One of our sessions didn’t get videoed because I failed at hitting the record button correctly, lol. On that one, we focused on those problem spots, and we were making some progress, but we still need more work. If you don’t watch the whole thing (it’s a little over 3 minutes), I’d really like your opinion on what went wrong with the last jump she took at at the very end. She landed really hard, and I was concerned she had hurt herself, but she seemed ok. She doesn’t do that as frequently as she used to, but it’s really scary when she does!! I know you said to keep connected when I’m ahead, but I don’t know how to run fast in one direction while my upper body is completely turned around 180 degrees, lol.
I will keep working on the independent weaves with countermotion. I think this will be a skill that takes a little while to work on!!
I will also try out putting the MM IN the tunnel. I’ve never thought to do that to build drive away from me. I was thinking about the tunnel and how I can send her to the other end of a tunnel (with me standing near the exit or even a bit away from it), and she will send from a good distance. I couldn’t figure out why this skill was so much harder other than the lack of motion from me (it’s even hard if I use motion). I finally realized that when I send her while I’m near the exit, I’m sending her away but she’s coming right back to me, which I think is reinforcing. I thought I’d been working distance all along, but it wasn’t the right kind for this skill!
I also wonder if mastering the send away for a discrimination might help with countermotion skills, too. 🙂
Tracy, does it matter if I use wingless jumps vs winged for the layering EoS sequences and Live Class set up? I have all of my wing jumps in the standard course, but I have 5 wingless I can use for the other ones and keep both set ups. If it makes a difference, I can pull the wings out of the standard course and leave the bars there to put them back, but if it doesn’t matter, I will use the wingless and save myself some time and effort! 🙂
We are a bit behind for this package thanks to being busy, rain, and the heat! We’re working on catching up, though. 🙂
This is our 2nd attempt at independent weaves. She really struggled when I added countermotion. I started way too hard and then made it easier. She was able to get the entrance each time but couldn’t continue with the rest of the poles. I ended up getting rid of the rear cross to try working on just the lack of forward motion from me. She did ok when I stood still, but if I go to other way, it’s really hard. She doesn’t have great form or speed when I’m not moving forward with her. I did move the Manners Minder farther away from the end to try to get her head down, but I’m not sure if it worked, even in the beginning when I was going with her a bit more.
This is our first round of the jump-tunnel discriminations. I put most of the training session from our 2nd day in the video. She struggled on day 1, mostly with going away from me to do the obstacle. She would take the jump almost every time I asked for it, but she didn’t want to do the tunnel even when she was right in front of it. She would run up to it and turn and bark at me. I think it was just too far for her to have to go on her own away from me with no forward motion. You can see a little bit of this in the day 2 video, but since we improved so much on day 2, I thought feedback on that would be better.
Package 2- Independent Weave Skills
We have been working a lot on weave entries and have just started adding in some proofing skills, so this was perfect for us! I initially used garden “gates” to teach Nox how to weave, so I used one of those instead of a wing since it serves the same purpose and she already knows it. I actually got rid of it after the first few reps since this is a skill we’ve worked on.
After watching my video, I see that I wasn’t varying my motion and position as much as I thought I was. The next time we try it, I will do more with running in the opposite direction and rear crosses.
I used a Treat and Train at the end since she will not work very long for a toy and doesn’t care too much about dead toys. I know that if I throw a Lotus Ball, she will start looking back at me, and I don’t think I have enough stimulus control on a pre-placed Lotus Ball to trust that she won’t pop out and go eat her cookie. Free cookies, lol!!
Thank you for letting me share your courses and games with my students!! It will help me run more stuff with Nox, and I know they will learn a lot, too!
I’m glad I will keep access to all of this info because there’s soooo much, lol. I’ve just started package 2 today, and I feel like I’ve learned a ton!!
I haven’t had a chance to watch the videos about the backsides yet, so some of the issues we encountered might be answered in there, but I wanted to try out the Live Class sequences while I had time and it wasn’t raining. I will be watching those tonight.
I’m not sure if you planned to watch and give feedback on the live sequences for people who didn’t have working spots in the actual live class, but I wanted to edit the videos for my own training purposes (editing them makes me actually watch and analyze them, haha), so I thought I’d post them here so I have everything in one place when I review this forum later on.
Sequence 1a
Sequence 1b
Sequence 2
Sequence 3
Thank you for all of those explanations and videos! I am going to work on those skills.
We did the first jumpers course again, and I was very happy with it! We still struggled with the backside to 14 (couldn’t master the double blind just yet), but we got it on the last rep! Here is that video.
We also tried the other jumpers course. Parts of it were really nice, but we don’t have a threadle cue, and I’m not quite sure how to train it. I’m hoping there is some more practice on that in camp or in the puppy foundations class (we’re going VERY slowly through the games, lol). Even still, we were able to successfully do the threadles some of the time. The video is a little long and has some bits of just trying to work on the threadles. I put a note in the video at about 2:30 (I think…) to skip to 4:07 to see a decent rep at the end.
I haven’t had a chance to set up the standard course, so I will probably save that for another time. Do you think it would be more beneficial to work on the 2nd jumpers course some more or set the live sequences? I am going to try to do one or the other tomorrow, weather permitting (calling for storms). Otherwise, I’ll probably wait and set up the new sequences on Monday. Amy recommendations?
Package 1- Jumpers Course 1- Round 1
Referencing your previous comment of “it’s a connection issue” and the problem of my lower body not showing the right thing, I think that could fix 90% of our issues, lol.
We tried the jumpers course, and some parts were great, and some parts were quite the struggle!!
We tried the 1-2 opening numerous times with the suggested blind cross, but I never felt like I could get the timing right. I either pushed her to the backside or didn’t cue it at all. I only got it twice out of the many times we tried. (I know you say to only let the dog fail twice, but she got a reward after every attempt, and she was happy to try again, so I kept trying to change the timing of my cross.) Eventually, I took out the blind entirely and it seemed to work well. Was I executing the blind incorrectly, or would it be better just not to do it there at all? I would like to try again if there’s something I can improve to make it work. Also, what exactly is a “forced front”? I’ve heard of this before, but nobody can tell me what it means, haha.
In your notes, you suggested doing a “throwback” or “spin” on the exit of 6. What is a “throwback”? Is the “spin” you suggested the same as a reverse spin like I did at the takeoff before 7?
I was super late with my cue for the turn at 7 multiple times. I just couldn’t get there in time to finish the cross with the line I was running. I think I can send her to the tunnel from farther back and maybe get there, though.
For 13-14, I didn’t understand all of your notes. Where would you do the two blinds? How far ahead do you need to be for that to work? What would the threadle look like from that side? I need a demo video, lol! If we had a better backside, I think I could have gotten this part if I pushed to the right, but I cannot figure out how the other side would even work. I technically got her to do it once from the left side, but as you will see, it was a little… creative.
Is the video and editing format ok? I know some people prefer not to have such short clips and want to see more. Should I just keep going and not try to fix anything when running the full courses (a little challenging with off-courses sometimes)? We very much did not obtain the goal of “first run, best run” this time around!
Summary of my questions:
1) What was I doing wrong with the blind after 2?
2) Should I even do the blind after 2?
3) What is a forced front?
4) What is a “throwback” and “spin”?
5) For 13-14: Where would the two blinds go? What does the threadle look like?
6) Is the editing format ok?
7) Should I be trying to fix things on the full courses mid-course or just run the whole thing?
