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Good morning!
It is great to see that you still have grass and decent weather to be able to do sequencing!Looking at the grids:
>With the single jump leading in, she jumped relatively tucked and upwards, but with two lead in jumps, she was much flatter and extending through her rear.>
I see the hind end carrying versus pushing, and I think it had to do with her learning the grid and also the toy probably being too close (and your position being too close to the last jump). If the toy is too close, she will be preparing to stop over the last jump rather than push off through it. The further the toy is, the ore she will jump it with hind end push, so have the toy at least 15 feet from jump 3 (maybe more). I like to drag the toy (while I am walking) so it is moving and encouraging the dog to keep moving through the grid and not prepare to stop.
The other thing to add is you being out at the toy and not near the 3rd jump – that will create a question about whether she should collect or not (and she does look at you a bit there). Having you at the toy, 15 get away, and dragging it will make it clearer for her.
The sequencing went really well!
She has some bar questions on shoulder turns (might be a combination of processing handling and processing 14”) so just be extra connected for now and she will work it out.
First sequence went really well!
>I tried to walk it with a blind 3-4, but it just didn’t feel right, felt like extra steps compared to a front cross.>
Based on where you were (ahead and decelerated), the FC did make more sense there and worked well!
>Second sequence leaving out that 5 jump, also felt most natural to put the front on the landing side of 4. Putting it between 3-4 felt like I would pull her past the tunnel entry.>
Based on who it laid out on the ground, I think placing on the landing side of 4 worked great!!!
2nd run was very good first run was bars and disconnected
2nd sequence – nice change in position to get the new line!
>Then I decided to try the first sequence with a rear on 5, which meant I’d need to go deeper to 3 to show the right motion for the rear and that was harder than it seemed! I got a few turns the wrong way on 3, or not committing to it (I’m sure it was all me, I tried to reward her on each).>
Yes, it is hard to be ahead and decel into a RC!! Doing it without the lead out worked best to be able to set the line. On the reps where she turned the wrong way like at 1:35 – 136, she correctly read the left turn – you pushed in towards the center of the bar on the turn cue then stepped backward (right leg) which crossed the RC line.
At 2:16 and 2:37 she might have come off 3 because you pulled away fast/disconnected, and she had just been called into you there a couple of times for the reward 🙂
But on both of those reps you mogit have been over-helping the turn: as she is at 2, start to tell her about 3 (2 hands is useful like you were doing) then keep moving along the line towards 3 rather than pull backwards, as that was pulling her off. You moved forward through it at 2:47 and it was lovely!And you did set up really nice RCs at 2:51 and 3:09 – she was able to drive ahead and turn the correct direction. She was sorting out her mechanics so you’ll see it get even smoother as she sees more of those.
>For second sequence I also bumped up jump 1 to 16”.>
That was hard for her for a couple of reps! That is where you can take more time to let her look at the bar for a few seconds after you have arrived in your lead out spot but before the release. And setting her further back seemed to help too
Great job here! Fingers crossed for more good weather!
Tracy
Hi!
The countermotion game is looking great! My only suggestion is to walk around the jump with your arm in serp position the whole time: partially to get him used to that picture, and partially so he doesn’t associate arm movement with the release.
Since he did so well, you can continue to add motion by continuing to move forward as you release, and by gradually moving faster and faster 🙂Great job here and with all the games! It has been super fun to watch him develop!!! Have great holidays and see you in January!
Tracy
OMG that is so cute!!! He is very well-spoken LOL! Thank you! And Merry Christmas back to you, from me and all of my various dogs 🙂 See you in the New Year!!!
Hi!
Good job moving closer to the cone at the beginning – I think he didn’t quite recognize the setup for a moment!You locked into the mechanics pretty quickly – you were calling yourself rubbish but actually it went really well when he was starting on your left side. On your right side, it took another moment to lock in the hand movement – the lower the hand, the easier it will be. It is a cued behavior (not offered) so you can put your hand right near his nose to cue the head turn. You did that really nicely on your left – are you lefty? You started to get it at 3:40 with your right hand – I think he might also be a righty, so the left turn side (on your right hand) was harder for you both.
He was jumping up a bit after the turn away, but I am not worried about that because we fade out the hand movement pretty quickly.
He did ask for a tug break at 2:00 by trying to steal the toy 🙂 so you can totally break it off. These slow cookie games might be a bit boring to him, so breaking it off to tug more often is great! He did get a good tug break in here and then came back strong for the rest of the session.
>(and that tui singing in the background is lovely.)>
So cool! I will have to play it for the app on my phone that recognizes birdsong. I love to confuse the app which does not think it will hear a tui in Virginia, USA hahaha
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Hi!
It was perfect to stop in! And yes, dog show time is different – always put on the sunscreen so you don’t get burnt to a crisp when the 2 minutes turns into a longer time LOL!T
Hi!
The threadles are going really well! He did SUPER well ignoring the cookie until it was time to eat it – did you see the look at the cookie target at :52? LOL!! Good boy! And the placed reward is doing its job of getting his head lower. He did well coming in from different angles with you moving. As he passes the entry wing, you can keep your threadle arm in position until he turns his head to the bar. That way you won’t accidentally build in any shoulder turn which indicates he should jump – and leads to more independence in the future 🙂
Serps went well too and he was picking up speed – and getting a little high in the hind end over the bar 🙂 Since he has a bar in this setup, you can also work on set point jumping stuff separately so he gets his hind end pushing off more and more balanced.
The tunnel rocking horses also went great! I think he might be looking at you because you are not full out running, so there is an element of decel he is reading perhaps especially when you are not as far ahead. But in your defense, it is hard to run in dirt/winter boots/winter coat LOL! So yes, you can accelerate more but also, you can throw the reward past the barrel as he passes you, to help emphasize that you really like it when he looks ahead and drives ahead 🙂 And with more experience, he will continue to look ahead more and more.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi! This went really well! I am loving how fast she is driving those lines!!!
I think on the first 2 runs here, the reward was placed out at the end of the line which helped her for sure. It was a little close to the last jump on the first run which is why she dropped the bar, but it was further away on the 2nd run and was perfect!
>A couple of times she has gone round the last jump but I’m thinking that is just baby stuff.>
Yes, young dog stuff as she is learning the line for sure! She did that here at :26 – I think it was a combination of the reward not being already out on the line (so she had an eyeball on you :)) and she saw you getting ready to throw it, so curled in a bit. But no worries – she will begin to trust that the reward will be out there and keep looking forward (like on the last run here)
Definitely keep throwing the toy on the line, and you can randomize it a bit – sometimes it lands after the last jump, sometimes it lands between the last two jumps, etc. That will keep her looking forward for the jumps.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
The countermotion exits to the serps are looking good! She is so tuned into where the reward gets placed that she turned back to the original side on the first rep of the new side. But then she got it nicely after that 🙂
She had a little trouble tugging (1:40 – 1:50 approx) because it was a short toy and as she was trying to grab it, you were moving it out of reach and then your hands were right there. Using a longer toy that she can grab easily will really help!
Using food went well and on that section you were also moving away from the cone sooner. Super!! She is ready for the next step, where you show her the full serp motion by moving through the line then releasing her as you get to the exit cone (or wing, you can use wings too).
The decel game is looking strong too!! Great job mixing in some stay rewards. She was beginning to release when you connected to her after leading out and stopping in position, so definitely add in stopping, praising, take a few heartbeats… then either release or throw a reward back.
For the extension reps, more connection very directly to her eyes and being closer to the wing will help prevent misses like at :31 (and almost misses like at 1:37) when you are ahead/past the wing. She did well with the extension when you were not as far ahead.
She was perfect with the collection on the right turn from the very first rep! Super! The left turn side was harder – it might have been because it was the harder side or the end of the session and she was brain-tired 🙂 So start with left turns (dog-on-right) on the next session and see how it goes.
Great job here in class! She looks fantastic and I am excited to build on this in MaxPup 2!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Chiro didn’t really have a sense of what might have caused the soreness; could have been jumping off the bed (hard to keep her from doing that), playing hard or just generally being Jazz. >
Yes, puppies… could have been anything! And if it doesn’t resolve, test for tick stuff because even though it might not normally be an issue in your area, it is becoming more prevalent everywhere unfortunately.
>Chiro said Jazz would self monitor her activity level on her own, so no need for me to confine her (thank god). >
I am glad she is not needing to be restricted!!! I chuckled about self-monitoring… Jazz is a good girl to self-monitor because none of my dogs would self-monitor LOL!!!!
>She’ll have a recheck in early January. I went over her pretty thoroughly when I groomed her the other day, no indication of soreness, >
Excellent!!! Chiro can really work wonders.
>and given her exuberance and high level of play etc I decided to go ahead and “work” with her again. Played with the Tunnel Wrap Rocking Horse exercise. She loves this one!>
Yay! She looked like she was feeling fantastic: super fast, happy to engage, and tugging! I think her speed surprised you on the first rep! But then you were more prepared for the little rocket after that 🙂
This game is all about connection in the early stages, until she has enough experience to predict that she should keep going to the next wing even if you are not perfect. The main suggestion here to get her to the wing after the tunnel is to look back to her eyes and keep your arm back/shoulder open to her. That will show her which side of the wing you want (she was sometimes unsure of which side to be on).
The arm position is actually the critical element from what we see here in this session. I think you were looking back at her on all the reps – but if your arm was pointing forward, she didn’t see the connection and the line of your shoulders pulled her off the wing. When your arm was a bit further back and she could see the line of the shoulders pointing to the side of the wing you wanted, she got it every time!
My favorite moment on this video is at :55 – that is where she was exiting the tunnel and you were looking at her and your arm was pointing back to her. So she zipped to the wing smoothly with a ton of speed, and no questions. So having your arm back to her nose will really help!
>Really clear to me that I need to get my verbals out sooner cuz I can’t outrun her.>
Yes, early verbals help! And you can use the verbals to enhance connection by pointing at her and saying them directly to her when you say them.
When you pointed ahead of her, she always came to the threadle wrap side of the wing. This is good to know for when you work on threadle wraps: closing your shoulder/pointing ahead is a natural threadle wrap cue for her!
The other place to connect is on the wing exit. When you got the wrap but then took off – if there was no connection (like at :44 and :58) she read it as a spin and went to the hand opposite the tunnel. So adding more connection (specifically having your arm low and pointing back to her cute nose) will help her drive back to the tunnel.
>Curious how you know Randy Rainbow???>
I love Randy Rainbow! I don’t know him personally (wish I did!) but he has recorded messages in the past for flyball team members through a service called Cameo, so this is an offshoot of that.
Tracy
This is great! I knew there was a 45-second rule, but I thought it was from the Go. Thanks for the clarification!!!
> I figure if I got Roots to the point that he can handle coming in like a normal dog, AND I’m spending quite a bit of Beat’s early days making sure she is a model citizen with this, then I have a leg to stand on making this request that people train their dogs for this!>
Yes, you are also leading by example which is critically important. They are already seeing the results with Beat even though she is a baby dog. The comments in the background of your videos are always stuff like “wow!” “She’s so fast!” “nice turn!” and “good girl!!!”, so people are watching and seeing the results. So fun!
T
High res, slow motion video should show us about the dew claws! Filming in slow motion produces clear video (better than filming at normal speed then slowing it down. I will try to get some on turf because I have access to turf AND decent weather next week 🙂
T
>I included a spiel about GETTING INTO THE RING and not waiting by the gate for the go. I encouraged folks to do NFC runs and work on this routine if they were worried about their dogs. And people did it! I thought I was being annoying and nagging, but people said they were grateful for me explaining the rules around it and actually being open to folks working on THAT as their goal for their NFC runs.>
You are awesome!!! I feel badly for the judges when people are waiting. And as you know, there is a lot of awkward interaction among handlers outside the ring: the judge has told us when to come in, but then the handler before me tells me not to come in until her dog is on leash for reasons like “her dog doesn’t like intact males” or might ‘visit’ or… sigh.
(Side note: In agility, depending on the needs of the dog, we can wrap below the dew claw and just get the feet/pad. I did that with Elastikon for a while and ran like that at the US Open! I think Laura Derrett somewhere said we could not wrap the feet but my dog ran at the biggest event with feet wrapped and approved by Greg, so….. another thing on the list to inquire about)
Hi!
>The dewclaw question is more in reference to the fact that the wraps prevent them from using the dewclaw. We went to all these lengths proving that we should not remove dewclaws because of how important they are for the dog.>
I am a big fan of dewclaws! We need to get close up slow motion video of how the dogs are using them in agility, wrapped and unwrapped. We have this type of video in flyball but not in agility, as far as I know.
> Wrapping kinda mimics removing the dew claw, though of course they still have all those muscles in the forearm working to stabilize the carpus and elbow even if the toe can’t actually move. >
This is where I would want to see video: how much does the wrap change things? I know they use their feet a lot more than we would think when wearing wraps, so I would love to see it in agility. I believe the toe does actually move – let me see if I can dig up good close up that we have in flyball.
>I’ve always thought dogs probably did use their dews to help stabilize them on dog walks and teeters too, although a friend (the judge for this trial) is currently experimenting with the Out N Out wraps for her BC as he was struggling to extend on the dog walk and in one session with the wraps he is offering striding patterns that he hasn’t been confident enough to try in a year (since inuring a different toe). So maybe the dew claw isn’t as important for that as I thought?>
Interesting!!! I have used and discarded commercial re-usable wraps because they simply were never as good as powerflex. And yes, we crazy flyball people have wrapping patterns for toes to support, allow movement, and prevent injuries because… whippets. LOL! Toes are an entirely new obsession of mine because, well, whippets.
It is a fascinating topic and I want to ask the people doing the studies (Dr. Markley and Dr. Jackson) if maybe we can do something with wraps!
T
