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Hi!
*I’ve posted slightly more than the 5 minute cap. We only ran the 2nd course two times, and it went pretty well once I cleaned some things up on the 2nd round, so please feel free to focus feedback on the first run.
We took another shot at the Jumpers course from package 3. I think my biggest issue on the 2nd and 3rd runs last time was I was physically tired. I had mowed the grass, moved everything, and then set the course before running her; this was also on a day last week that was pretty hot. I clearly don’t have realistic expectations, lol. Good lesson to remember, though! Don’t run if I’m exhausted or it will be a disaster, haha.
<<I think that is too long of a lead out into a blind for her to be able to visually process your position and her jumping >>
I’m positive that this is why she knocked the bar. Any time I am ahead of her, a bar down is much more likely. I have to drastically change how I run courses with her because of the physical support she needs on jumps. If she wasn’t so darn fast and opinionated, it wouldn’t be so hard. As you know, she wants me to be right there by her jumping, but she also gets mad when I can’t keep up with her and tell her where to go next. And she doesn’t like countermotion, so I have to wait longer than I’d like to before leaving in a lot of situations. In this opening, I don’t think it made too much of a difference, but I do think I could be farther down the line to show the threadle wrap if I was able to do the blind since it keeps me in motion. I also felt like I had to wait longer to move so that she didn’t bypass jump 2. It always drives me crazy when people do a nice long lead out and then just stand there until the dog gets to them and then they’re no better off than if they had run with the dog. That’s what I felt like I was doing, haha. Since we were turning back the way we came eventually, it wasn’t too big of a deal.
On the first run, I stopped after the tunnel because she had a pretty nasty fall on the jump prior to it. She landed on her head, and I wanted to make sure all of her body parts were still attached. They seemed to be, so we did continue with training. I think this goes back to the issue I just mentioned with me being ahead. I don’t know that I could have connected any better with her being as far ahead as I was or I’d have been running sideways like a crab, lol. But if I waited for her to catch up, I would have been so far behind for the next line.
She did much better with the threadle wrap at 7. I did the middle of the course a couple of times that I didn’t include video of where that wrap was really nice. And even when the turn was wide as in the reps I did share, I was happy we weren’t getting a refusal, and I know we can tighten that up with practice.
<<She had questions on 9: you were sliding her then flipping away on the flat and it was not that clear so she barked at you 🙂 You can clarify that line for her by doing a blind cross (German turn)>>
That was how I wanted to run it, but I couldn’t ever seem to get there on time because of the big straight jumping line before it. I was worried about leaving her to sort out the jumping on her own and take out the bar right before it since that was an issue on the first round I submitted. I did finally manage to get one in on the last rep, though! Even without it, I think I turned her a bit better on the flat most of the time.
Around 1:45, I was attempting to use brake arms because on some of the previous runs, she turned very wide and thought she was going in the tunnel. I really don’t want to discourage any forward drive that she shows me, so I’m really trying to get the hang of brake arms so she knows ahead of time where she’s going, not to mention it’s obviously better on her body to know earlier. Brake arms are still very new to me (just learned about them in camp a few weeks back!).
On the second attempt, when she got to the weaves, she saw a butterfly and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to chase it, lol. You can’t hear it in the video, but when I was looking at her after she came back, I was asking if she thought was going to actually catch the butterfly this time. She seemed pretty convinced it was a definitely possibility and next time she’ll try harder. 😂
We also did the jumping 2 course from Package 3. The first run was a little messy, but it had some good parts, too. I only ran it a total of twice because I thought the 2nd run went so well! I was late connecting on the blind before the tunnel, which gave us problems the first time as well. I wasn’t confident about doing a blind there, but there was no way she would have turned away after the tunnel and then layered that jumping line on her own. I thought about turning her on the flat after the tunnel and then running with her for the jumps, but I thought I’d be too far behind at that point. There was really only one other problem spot towards the end on the backside before the last tunnel. I actually walked it with the threadle wrap and even practiced just that wrap with her before running the whole thing, but I got on the wrong side for it twice, lol.
Hi!
<<And the cats were not helpful LOL but she seemed to be able to ignore them really well>>
They are always in the middle of EVERYTHING, so she is pretty used to it. She has no qualms about shoving them out of the way, lol.
We did another session with the lazy contact game (no video), and it went pretty well, so we applied it to the teeter bang game. It was a bit messy at first, but I was able to do one rep with a lure and then she seemed to understand it was the same game. I have a question about the target. How important is it that she actually touches the target? I’m assuming she needs to so that she’s not just starting at me, and it keeps her body forward??
We tried the tandem turns again and added on threadle turns. They are definitely challenging, but I’m pleased with how well she did. I tried to keep my arms lower this time, and some of the turns were definitely better!
Hi!
I hope Crusher is ok and will be on the mend soon! It’s so hard when our pups are not feeling well. 🥺
Rather than drag a crate around the house or outside for the discriminations game, I used a Cato board since she has a pretty good stationing behavior on it and likes that game quite a bit. She seemed to get the hang of the game pretty quickly. I was mostly excited about this game because I had a reason to use my tiny 4′ tunnel that I bought a few months ago, lol! Katniss thinks having a tunnel in the house is just about the coolest thing ever. So that you don’t think I ignore your advice 🤣, Nox was in another room even though she sounds like she was right next to the camera, haha. She’s just really loud, and dogs going through tunnels gets her very excited.
We also played the Lazy Contacts Game. She is starting to understand the concept. I am still undecided about what contact method I will use with her for dog walks and a-frames. I will do a stopped teeter contact, though, so this game is valuable to us even I go with running for the others.
Hi!
<<But when you are not working the trading places skill, trying white noise or leaving music on so she can’t hear (and can’t see) along with anything that is rewarding with her in a crate might help her relax so frustration doesn’t build up.>>
Unfortunately, there’s not much that’s going to drown out Nox. 🤣🤣🤣
<< No more rewards from your hand! Getting the reward on the line and off your body will make a huge difference in her understanding of completing the turn.>>
You can see in the video why I don’t like to throw the reward as much as I should, lol. I am at a loss for getting her to bring the toy back without a victory lap first. In this case, since we weren’t at home, she did a lap and since she got near the fence and found a dog in its crate that she wanted to be friends with. The dog was showing her all of its teeth and clearly telling her to go away, but she just wiggled her butt and entire body at her. She is more likely to bring it back after the first few reps, but I really need it on the first rep! I’ve tried just working on bringing it back in a non-agility context, but that is more of the same (if not worse since there’s no “agility” to be rewarded with). I sometimes let her win our tug sessions, but she again runs away with it. It’s very frustrating!!!
We also played the tandem turns game. I started with a cone in the house and then took it outside to a wing. I think it went pretty well!
Hi!
We tried the 3rd sequence with the layered opening from Live Class 2. It went really well the first time! I shouldn’t have tried it a second time, lol. I was playing around with where the best place to stand was for the lead out, and I decided it was not where I was the second attempt, haha. Sorry about the barking dog in the background. 😕
<<she totally thought you were NUTS on the first couple>>
Well, she’s probably not wrong!! 😂😂
I will work on breaking down the tandem turns and threadle wraps skills. I did throw in one threadle wrap in the big jumping course we tried. It went about as well as you would think… 🫣 I couldn’t figure out a better way to run the course without the wrap at the time. I think I might try it again getting on the other side of the #6 tunnel and doing a backside wrap to a blind. I’m not sure if I’ll get there in time, but I think I’d have a better chance of making that work than the threadle at this point.
Hi!
<< It is highly unlikely that she is relying on it, and more likely that you are in a rhythm of timing the verbals that is a little late and coinciding with her takeoff moment.>>
I can’t believe you’re suggesting that I might sometimes be late with my verbals! I don’t think that’s ever happened before! 🤣🤣🤣 I unfortunately don’t think I videoed that particular run when the comment was made. I can’t find it anywhere.
We did the Hot Topics from Package 3 again the other day (I finally got around to editing the video, lol). I did a few reps of training the threadle wrap opening. I have a few more reps than 4 since it was just the opening and there aren’t multiple reps of the other sequences; I hope that’s ok since the threadle wrap is what we’re struggling with. We still need a lot of work on this skill!! I wanted to go back to the baby level of teaching this skill, but I couldn’t find it in any of the Max Pup classes. I honestly can’t remember if I’ve done it with Katniss yet, lol. Is it in one of those classes??
ETA: Nevermind! I was taking notes for the other half of the Wingin’ It games, and I see the threadle wrap games, lol. I’m thinking I should start with the tandem turn game and then go to the threadle wrap? Nox did not go through the Max Pup classes since I didn’t discover them (or you for that matter!) until after she was already well into her training. I really wish I started her as a pup with all of these games, but like I tell my students, you don’t know what you don’t know! 🙃
<<The reward placement will help a whole lot there: as soon as she turns away to the jump (especially on the threadle wraps), throw the reward to the landing side as you start to move forward. You were rewarding, but the reward was on the takeoff spot and near your feet >>
I tried really hard to get my reward placement better in this session!! For the threadle wraps, I threw the toy behind me (although sometimes it ended up somewhere crazy off to the side, haha). I was still getting a lot of barking and stopping from her. Watching the video, I think I see why I’m having a hard time timing the throwing the reward; you said to throw it as soon as she turns away to the jump as I move forward, but she doesn’t ever turn toward or even look at the jump. In the first rep, she only looked the correct direction at 0:08, but there was already stopping, barking, and frustration at that point. Should I be throwing the reward as soon as we reach the wing so it’s more of a lure that I can fade out by delaying it as we progress? Again, I think I really need the baby levels of how to teach this one. 😁
For the big straight lines, I threw the reward pretty far away before she looked at me. 🙂
<<The canine PT folks and massage people say they feel the difference in the dogs when they do too many circle wraps, and they want us to train them at lower heights and do fewer reps.>>
This is good to note!!
Hi!
<<Will Katniss chew a bone or lick a lickimat or eat from a toppl or kong?>>
No, she gets too stressed. She’ll eat it and it’ll keep her quiet unless I’m actually working Nox. If my husband is home, she can hang out with him in his office with her favorite obnoxious grunty pig, but he’s not always home when I am training. And he won’t go sit in the car with her piggy with me when I go other places to train. I don’t know why not! LOL!
<<(Taping it closed is VERY important LOL!!! Ask me how I know about the importance of taping it closed :))>>
HAHAHAHA! So far she hasn’t figured that one out yet. Yet being the key word, lol.
We will keep working on the contact games!!
We did the first half of the Package 4 Wingin’ It games. These games were a good test of my connection, haha! They went well overall. I did have to break down the circle wrap skill a bit, but that didn’t surprise me since we really haven’t done too much with them yet. We got through the ladders with 3 wings.
Hi!
<<Either we get out there at 6am, or we don’t get out there. Last night was pleasant after the massive storm blew through! But too wet to do any agility so we just toodled around while the whippets raced LOL!>>
I’ve tried the early mornings, but everything is usually soaked with dew until about 9 or so. I managed to get a couple of days of training in, but it looks like this tropical storm rolling through this week is going to get us further behind. It wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t trying to keep up with Max Pup 3 at the same time, as well as get in some fitness work and jump training for both dogs, lol. I need about 20 more hours in the day plus an indoor training facility where weather and time of day doesn’t matter! 😂 Whippet toodling sounds like fun, lol!!
<<One note for all of the sequences – since a lot of the big lines and layering is setup with a tunnel before it, you should cue her to go jump *before* she enters the tunnel. You were cuing the tunnel but then getting quiet and the jump cues were coming as she exited. If you cue it before, you will get more locking onto the next line (and throw lots of rewards out on that line).>>
So, I have a question about this. I get the concept of cueing before going in the tunnel, and I should definitely have been doing that. But…. recently someone watched me running (I can’t remember if it was for something I videoed or not), and they told me that Nox often jumps when I give the verbal jump cue. Is it possible that she’s relying on my verbal to tell her where to take off? If so, is something that could be helpful and reasonably sustainable? I hesitate to become responsible for that skill since I’m not sure how good I would be at it. I don’t even know if this really is happening consistently or if it was just a coincidence. But if it could help support her, I’d be willing to consider the idea.
Well, the Hot Topics games for package 3 were quite challenging for us! Driving lines and circle wraps are two of our weak spots, and these had both, lol. I did not include all of the training we did in the video, of course, but just so you know what we worked on, after there were two failures on the circle wrap on #3, I just practiced the circle wrap and rewarded on her line several times before putting it back together. Also, even though I am wearing the same shirt (I have two of them, haha), these clips were taken over the course of 3 days. The first one is obvious since it’s getting dark (sorry if it’s hard to see!), but the other two days with the same shirt are smushed together. I did the circle wrap independently on both of the daylight sessions. I would get some really nice circle wraps when it was just the one jump, and I got a couple of good ones in sequence, but then right after that I would get the barking and refusals. I watched the videos to see if I could see something different in my body cues, but I am a bit baffled about what was going on. Do we just need more practice with the skill out of this context before adding speed and obstacles before? We are much better with the backside push wrap, but I couldn’t get down the line fast enough most times for that.
<<The #1 thing will be to throw rewards all along the jumping lines… not just at the end of a sequence and not for the tunnel (she has plenty of value for the tunnel at this point).>>
I needed to be better about this on the last two jumps especially in these sequences. I did it a few times on the 2nd to last jump, but not always. I also know I should have thrown it earlier on the last jump to get her to not look at me.
Hi!
<<So for her, as an adolescent dog, I do not recommend having another dog nearby watching – that adds too much pressure and takes up too my valuable brain bandwidth >>
I have been trying to work on some FOMO feelings with stationing one dog and having the other do some relatively unexciting things while the other waits their turn and then switching after a very short time. I’m not sure that it’s actually helped at all (Katniss still usually throws a fit if I take Nox outside in the backyard or out of the car to work…), but that wasn’t my goal here. I was just being lazy by not putting all the other critters away, lol. Clearly it worked so well! You can see the look of defeat on my face after the first few seconds. I realized it was a bad idea (yet I still tried. Hmmm…. 🤣).
<<One of the things you can add now to get the hind end isolated it so start her on a the board in a 2o2o position>>
Done! Here is round 2 of the teeter slam game. She seems pretty confident with it. 🙂
This is the motion override game again. I think it went better than the first time, but it’s still a work in progress for sure! I had a hard time getting her to stop focusing so much on my hands even when I wasn’t trying to use them as part of the cue. I also had the issue of her sitting but then getting up as I continued to move away if I tried to get even a couple of seconds of duration. I didn’t want to keep releasing and throwing the food instantly since I thought it would be hard to add in duration if I did that too long.
This is the Wingin’ It: Countermotion Commitment Game. I think I could have left a little earlier on some of the reps, but other than that, I was pretty happy with it!
Hi!
We’ve been back from our vacation for almost a week now, but it’s just been so darn hot that we haven’t gotten too much done. 🔥🫠
We started with the Live Class Sequences all the way back from package 2. She did pretty well on most of the skills, but we had a few trouble spots. The backside was tricky the first couple of times, but then we got it on attempt 3 (when I got it right, haha).
The layering of the jumps was the hardest part, but I think this goes back to her difficulty with jumping in general. She prefers that I’m near her and then she’s happy to take the jumps. She’s much more likely to go out to a tunnel or something else on her own, which is partly why I think it’s her jumping confidence. I’m not sure how much progress we’ll make with layering big jump lines. I haven’t given up on the skill, but I would never ask her to do that in a trial, so I will have to keep working on other ways to handle things when that’s not an option for us.
We did not put the whole thing together for sequence 2 because she was melting by the end of our session. It was after 10pm, but it was still super hot and humid, so I called it a night for her. We should be able to play with this set up one more time and include sequence 3 with the tunnel layer sometime in the next few days weather permitting. 🙂
Hi!
I will work on the exit line connection more! I feel like it’s better than it used to be, but I definitely have a ways to go! It’s funny that all the dogs I’ve run in the past have somehow made do with my terrible connection that I didn’t even know was a problem. I’m sure their turns were wide and such, but they always figured out what side to be on. They were all quite a bit slower, so I guess that probably helped them to see the line by the time I was done with the cross. They could also all do rear crosses with me, lol!
We played the teeter slam game. We started on a wobble board, which she has been on as a puppy, but it’s been a little while, and we never isolated her rear feet on the board. The first 50 seconds are really just a long blooper reel, lol. I guess we were working on distractions at the same time? I thought I’d do some training inside one night since it had been too hot to do much outside. I then remembered why I don’t train in the house much, haha. Nox was supposed to be on a Cato Board a few feet away, but she heard me say “break” to Kat and thought it was for her. Then the cats came over to see what they could scavenge. The black one was trying to sneak cookies from my treat pouch. We then took the game outside yesterday to the teeter since she doesn’t seem to have any concerns about movement or noise, and there were no cats out there. 🤣
We also did the Go Straight, Four Ways game. Most of it went well, but I still failed pretty hard at rear crosses, lol. I think I’m just going to make sure I never ever have to do one in a course. I’m just going to get ridiculous distance and layering skills on my dogs and not do any rear crosses. That’s a legit strategy, right?? 🤣 I’m so sad I couldn’t go to your rear cross workshop you did a couple months ago. I think I need an entire class or private lessons on them, haha.
We didn’t get to do the backsides in the sequence because she got too hot and needed a break.
Hi!
<<She had some of the best distance work and commitment I’ve ever seen her do! Yay!!>>
Yes, those runs felt really good despite not being clean! I was so pleased with her!!
<<Small detail for a tighter line: You can give the get out cue with the upper body and opposite arm on the jump after the a-frame as soon as you release from the frame so she turned directly to it, rather than going stride for a couple of strides then turning to it.>>
I think I was worried about getting the backside of that jump, so I was a little more conservative with my handling there. I didn’t need a threadle cue or verbal, but I did consider it when I walked it depending on where she was looking coming off the frame. I wouldn’t have thought to give an “out” there. Interesting point!
<<you accidentally pulled her off the jump>>
Story of my life, lol!
<<She had a question on the RC at 17 at 1:02 – the cue looked like a decelerated FC wrap then you pushed in and she was confused (and gave her opinion 🙂>>
I felt like I got stuck right on top of the jump. I was so worried about getting there on time that I didn’t handle the line, and since it was my nemesis (aka rear crosses), I wasn’t able to think on my feet to save it.
This is our attempt at Package 2, Standard Course 2. It was not nearly as pretty as the first one, lol, but there was some good stuff in there for sure. Since she got the opening with no problem and it was quite hot, I did not worry about doing the whole course again in its entirety. (That’s a really big step for me just so you know, lol!!) She was not as strong on the commitment in the weaves, but she finally got them. We ran this a couple of days ago, and she got adjusted soon after this run, and she had 4 ribs and a shoulder out (probably thanks to a little football player who goes by the name of Katniss!), so that might have been why she wasn’t as happy to do them.
I did not get to the jump early enough to show a backside at 7 the first time through, so I just went with it. We got the threadle wrap the first time, but after that it was tricky. It is not a skill we’re super strong in, but she usually will at least come in for the threadle slice even if she doesn’t turn the right way when I give the verbal. I think I had too much forward motion going into the tunnel, but I also couldn’t get her to look at me for anything, lol. She was like “I got this! Go fast!” In the spot where we missed it a couple times, I ended up calling her name and giving her hand touch cue, and the touch cue is what got her attention. That’s obviously not the way I’d like to continue training that, but it’s good to know it’ll work in the moment, lol. I know the threadle wrap after the tunnel under the dog walk was ALL me, haha!! I wasn’t in the right spot at all and just showed forward motion.
It just occurred to me that I can take full advantage of her stopped contacts to get forward focus on the next obstacle just like a start line. We often have issues after the stop because she gets handler-focused and won’t look at the line. I’m not sure why it took me so long to connect these two ideas, but it will for sure be used in the future! I do release her a lot faster than at 1:12 typically, but since I knew she wasn’t looking at the line at all and it was a rear cross turn moment, I took the extra time and steps forward to show her.
I won’t get a chance this summer to try this course again since it has been dismantled to mow the grass, but I may come back to it at some point. It was super fun and worked a lot of challenging skills! We are going out of town today for a week, so I won’t be posting for a little while. I’ll start back up with the next Hot Topic sequences when we get back. 🙂 I hope your trip to Canada is a lot of fun!!
Hi!
As for training with other people and having them throw the toy, I unfortunately don’t get to train often with other people, and most of the people I could possible train with don’t use toys or thrown rewards (I’m trying so hard to convert them, lol). Every now and again the stars line up just right and I get to run with Nicole Davilli, and she uses toys, but she’s also very likely to hit me in the head with it. 🤣 There’s a story behind that, lol!! I will have to work on planning the reward throws ahead of time and then actually do it!
I’m glad you’re extending camp a bit this year! It’s either been too hot to play outside, it’s been raining, or there’s so much dew on the ground in the morning before it gets super hot (but then it rains or is hot by the time it’s gone 🤣). There seems to be no in between except at 2am!! I haven’t been able to do a lot of the MaxPup 3 games for the same reason. It’s so frustrating!
We did the standard course from package 2 since I did the jumpers one from package 1. I figured I’ll probably try to alternate between them this year since the weather is just not cooperating!
I am soooo happy with how well she did on this course! We didn’t run it clean out of the 3 times we did it (two different days), but there were only 2 trouble spots. Not surprisingly, they were both with the tunnel under the dog walk. I’d get it in one direction and then mess it up in the other, lol. Her lines weren’t perfect, and she had to get back out on the right line a couple times, but I’m just happy she went out and did the things by herself with so much distance! I know that I pulled her off the line when she didn’t take the things. I was anticipating getting to the next spot too much, so I was turning early.
I included the first time we attempted it, but I didn’t add the 2nd run since the video quality wasn’t great; I waited until it wasn’t quite so hot but that means it was getting dark. The second run in the video was our 3rd and final attempt.
Hi!
<<Remember to use your markers for the thrown rewards, so she is continuing to look forward. You did sometimes but add them all the time>>
I still need to be more consistent with this! I’ll keep working on it!
We worked on the fluffy blinds again since there were some spots I needed to work on connection. I think it went better this time! I also added in the front crosses.
We also did the Send and Go and Blind to the Tunnel games. It went well overall. I think she was getting hot in the first couple of reps. She took a break in the AC while I worked Nox and did much better the last couple of reps.
Finally, we did the rear crosses with this same set up. The rear crosses to the right were hard at first, but then I broke it down and just did the rear cross without the speed, and then it went much better when I put it all back together! Turning her to the left was much easier. Do you think her turning the wrong way was due to me not showing the line well (or on time), or is this still just a training issue?
Hi!
I have some videos of the package 2 games that we ran last week, but the videos are all mixed together and copied in different time and in multiple places, so those will be forthcoming soon after I sort them all out. Not sure how that mess happened, haha.😵💫
This was our first attempt at the motion override game. She wanted me to tell you that she thinks this game is super hard and dumb, lol!! What she really wanted to do was run and GO FAST, but since we had to wait until it was “cool” enough to play anything outside, this is what she got, haha. We haven’t done a lot of training on the front porch, so she was a bit distracted by the neighbors talking on their porch across the street and ALL THE BUGS (super fun toys and snacks!). I could not get her to sit on just a verbal. She typically will sit without a hand signal, but with the distractions of the environment and my movement, she just could not do it. I tried adding in the hand signal with the hope of fading it out quickly, but even that was hard. We will be trying this one again for sure!
