Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Good morning! Really good session here with a super hard skill!
Finding the tunnel at the beginning (and end) was hard – those poles have a lot of value! Giving her that one extra step helped, even when you were hanging back – it seemed to affirm that yes, you wanted the tunnel 🙂
The weaves went really well when you did *not* praise the entry (praising later in the poles seemed fine). She came out of the entry just about every time when you said “yes” when she entered. This is probably because ‘yes’ is a reward marker and she thought the reward was coming and it caused her to look at you 🙂 So the easiest thing to do is not say it until later in the poles or when she exits.
Also, letting her get past you into the entry helped – when you had too much motion like at :51, she thought you were cueing the tunnel based on motion.
The countermotion skill on the soft sided entry (starting dog on left) was harder than the ‘hard’ side entry (starting dog on right) – she was getting it really well by the end, so definitely keep going with letting her get past you into the entry and moving to the countermotion but not quite running yet – too much speed was pulling her out.
She had an easier time on the ‘hard’ side entry, so you can start adding more speed on that!
You added throwing the toy early to help keep her straight and moving through the poles – I thought that was a really clever idea and would be very helpful!!! Roux didn’t agree LOL!! So even though we humans thought it was a good idea, she was more successful when you threw it as she finished the weaves.
The countermotion on the exit was great, it looks like she had no question on that! Super! You can do that on 12 poles now because you can get further across and throw in a blind cross too!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Both dogs had no questions if they went through the tunnel and I stayed on the other side of the DW sending them to jumps on their side.>
Great! This is a useful skill that is popping up everywhere in agility!
>And one day I actually made up a course with independent weave challenges with a tunnel and a jump. I set up 12 weaves next to gating next to a straight tunnel next to a jump like a sandwich. I found a lot of challenges with that set up.>
That is so fun! IT is good to embed the challenges into a course and see if the dogs can ‘find’ the correct obstacle (and if we can cue the correct obstacle 🙂 )
> Alonso needed the come or out command then the name of the obstacle to take earlier than Mookie. I also needed to keep my arms low with Alonso. >
That might just be the difference in their experience levels showing, and Alonso needs cues earlier and clearer to be able to process the cues.
>I will need the water bottle training for life 😊>
Ha! I think we all do!!!
> It has been a challenging summer with the heat. Very little backyard time which I love. Both of my agility boys are showing that they have nice skills. And Buddy’s nose work training is going great.>
Nosework and flyball have been great sports this summer… because they are air conditioned! It has been a brutally hot summer to try any outdoor agility – all of the demos were filmed at about 6am, and it was still terribly hot. Ewwww! But the boys are doing great!!!
Thanks for the update 🙂
TracyHi!
I am sorry to hear about your mother’s passing. And it sounds like your father will get good results from the surgery but the 10 week of recovery will be hard!
Looking at the videos: In Synch is doing really well!
Video 1 – Ex 1: very nice! Yo can decelerate into the FC wrap to tighten it up. Great job staying in motion!Ex 2: this went great! You had the decel on the wrap so she was very tight, followed by a lovely send down the line to the tunnel. That allowed you to easily get the BC to the backside after the tunnel. Super!
Ex 3: The beginning was a little cut off from this one but the rest was GREAT. You had a great balance of tight lines on the wraps and BIG use of distance to let you get the blinds. Really great!!!
Ex 4 – this went well too! For the wrap on 3: You can decelerate and rotate so your feet are almost facing the tunnel, and then you can use your hands to turn her away for the wrap.
Nice job getting her to the backside!! Doing the FC on the landing of the backside jump did indeed show the line to the off course jump that she took. You can use the backside jump as more of a serpentine tp pull her across to the next jump – and you can blind it to get her on your left, or keep her on your right and serp the next jump.
Looking at the Go after the tunnel – she did the first one brilliantly but then was curling back to you – this was all likely due to reward placement The rewards were all coming back near you, so she thought the skill was about coming back to you (where the rewards were). After a few reps, you went to a toy (maybe a ball on one of them?) and things got better. For now, move the jump in closer and throw the toy or ball very early – that way as she exits the tunnel, she sees the jump easily AND the reward is already in motion. That will really help build up the skill.
Fusion’s video: since this is all about the walk through, that is what we will focus on 🙂
On thing in common on all of these sequences is that the walk throughs can be expanded to help get the handling more prepared so when you run her, you are very ready for all of her speed and drive on the lines.
As you walk the course – add in a lot more connection and verbals… and running 🙂 On the walk throughs, you had the handling you wanted planned – but hadn’t rehearsed ir enough yet in the walk through so the runs had some moments where she needed up f courses or with bars down.
That was mainly because during the walk through, you were looking ahead and think thinking about the handling – but you were looking forward at the obstacles and not moving that fast or dong verbals. So when you ran her, your brain had to hash out those things for the first time, which is really hard to do with a fast dog.
Things got smoother wieh you ran her throw it the 2nd time or so on each sequence, but we want you to be able to nail it on the first run 🙂
So for the next set of walk throughs, set a 5-minute timer. In those 5 minutes. Plan your handling (takes less than a minute) and spend the next few minutes running the walk through while looking at your invisible dog, saying the verbals to her, and going as fast as you can. If you are not out of breath, then you probably haven’t walked it enough 🙂 Then after 5 minutes, take a break to catch your breath… then run her. I bet the runs go really well
>I am really struggling with the some actions the turn away or when come back on me. did the one with the layering with weave tonight and was not happening will try and post tomorrow will need to rewatch videos as think i am right and then it is awkward and not work>
Post video if you have it! It might be that the cues to turn away were late – they are generally hand cues that start at the previous obstacle and some deceleration too – and a little bit of rear cross pressure on the line helps too!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!!
>My next few sessions for Enzo are going to be refreshers on the contacts and start line stay. I will spare you looking at that!>
Ha! I am sure the refreshers will go well. I am very excited that he is cleared to play!!!!!!! Truly a bright spot!
>Basically, this is the picture I think we are going for (head down, drive around wing). If so, I’m in pretty good shape. If not, I need to understand why not.
> Yes! This is the picture!
. We are seeing it consistently now and that includes with a toy on the ground (he had trouble with the toy on the ground a while back, and now he is doing great with it). I think before we fade out the plank and the sit, I would ask him to do this at 18” then 20”. You can move the plank a couple of inches away from the bar so he has room to lift his front feet up without touching the bar. He did well at the height here, so now we can add in a higher height. If that goes well for a session or two… we lower the bar back to 16”, leave everything the same in terms of setup. But don’t ask for the sit anymore. He goes over the plank, organizes his feet, and jumps directly (verbal cues and physical cues will help fade the sit out, I am sure it will fade out very quickly).
If we like that at 16” then 18” then 20” – we fade the plank. He is doing great!
>Question: doing a complete circle on the backside is pretty unusual in AKC. Mostly a backside wrap is: go, do it and return. I did a few of those. Comment?>
This is true, I have not seen the full circle wrap in regular Masters and JWW (and very rarely in Premier). So your FC on the landing side, for example, worked great! It is a higher priority challenge for him to be able to do that than the full circles.
I’d say the highest priority will be the slices, like for serpentines or hard angles – those will probably be what he sees most of. Then front side wraps, then the backside semi-circles 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Oh no!! That is a bit sad 🙁 It is a BAD time of year for biting bugs. Hopefully the weather cools off and they all go away!!!!!
Good morning!
The old dude was really excited by all the speed and fun! I am glad he got a turn 🙂
Looking at the go-straight reps: you were really far ahead on the first rep, with clear connection, and she read it great!
>And then we just couldn’t get it (not all failed reps included>
On that rep at :56, you were not as far ahead and not as connected as she exited, and you were decelerating before she exited the tunnel which was a little too early.
>I stopped the session to watch the video and troubleshoot (click, treat), and as I did the solution occurred to me to try starting more lateral and using some convergence to keep her going straight after the tunnel which worked great. >
Yay for video watching!!! Definite click/treat!! The convergence also added more motion and more connection… all of that worked together to get great lines at 1:07 and on the last rep. Super!!
The soft turns to the left and right went well too. Nice timing!!! With the bigger courses in mind – you can play with peeling away laterally and *not* using deceleration to get the turn. If she sees your line before she enters the tunnel, she should turn. We can use brake arms as well – all in the name of getting you way ahead on course.
>And I think this was the first time I’ve ever rear crossed a tunnel with her and I could definitely see her slow down and think REAL HARD as she went in the tunnel… “WHAAAAT?” If only the camera had been set up to see her face!>
Yes, it would be so funny to see their faces when we add new cues LOL!!
The rear crosses went great! The first one at :28 to the left went really well. At 1:28 to the right, the RC info was late – she saw you moving on the ‘go straight’ line then just as she entered, you did the RC.
But compare that to the next RC rep – you started closer to the wing and set the RC line much earlier, so she saw it before going into the tunnel – perfect!!!
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We started the tight blinds to wraps. OMG, half the time I’m using the wrong words, especially when I added the second wing.>
To help with this and with the lines for the crosses, do you walk the sequences as if walking a course before you run him? Walk them first with the verbals – then run them without him. You can video it and then do a quick watch to see if you have the verbals and lines in the right places.
>If any of these are actually correct, then I can do better next time.>
All of the single blinds were correct! My only suggestions on those are too emphasize making the re-connection after the blind quickly and more directly back to him. You were rewarding from the dog-side hand, which is fine but be sure you are using a marker for it (it was hard to hear if you were or not) – that way he will know where to look (at the toy if there is a marker, or at the next wing if there is no marker) when the toy is right in front of his eyes 🙂
When adding the 2nd wing, you were doing a spin on it for most reps and that was good too – you can send more into it rather than go to the wing with him, which will allow you to start the FC element sooner which in turn allow you to start the BC element sooner. That way you will be finished with the BC and off his line as you cue him for the tunnel 🙂 The last rep was a FC on the wing and a RC on the tunnel, which is good to practice too! You can add a bit more countermotion to the FC on the middle wing, and then take him to the other side of the tunnel.
Nice work here!
TracyOh no! Poor Indy!!!! I can ask my flyball folks what they use to toughen up pads. My dogs run around on sightly abrasive/rocky surfaces, which toughen their pads up.
T
Good morning!
>She seems to be doing well with her start line stays.>
I agree – her stay is going really well! A good stay makes these lead outs sooooo much easier.
>>I do randomly reward them but she actually seems annoyed by that. In this session I did try throwing the toy back to her but she didn’t seem to understand that either.>>
Yes, a lot of Border Collies prefer to be released to run rather than eat a cookie in that moment 🙂 She is probably just inexperienced with the toy being thrown back to her – I bet she catches on after seeing it a bit more (she does love the frisbee!)
The sequences are looking really good!
The FC and BC openings went well – my only suggestion is to be closer to 3 as you release her, as that gives her even more early information about where she is going next. And definitely use the stay to get past 2 before you release her – she got mad at you at 1:38 when you released her before you got to 2, which made the FC late.
She read the lead out ‘push’ at 1:29 really well too, that rep had her best turn on 2! When you start moving, you can move more forward to 3 (you were backing up a bit there).
>I also did a rear cross because that is my default behavior. LOL.
>The RC looked great! You can also start her on your right side at 1 and rear cross the 3 jump. That is a useful move as well!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
I hope all is well with your parents!The dogs did well on these videos 🙂
Video 1, backside wraps: she had a couple of commitment questions here –
When she passes you on the way to the backside, no need to keep your dog side arm wrapping across the bar too – it slows down your motion and makes you twist around more than needed.
Instead, after she passes you, you can use your opposite arm to point to the landing spot (or throw the reward to it) as you look at the landing spot. That will help get the commitment while allowing you to continue moving forward.Fusion (2nd video) – She did well here too! For the BC at :12, start it when she is at jump 1. Yo started it as she was arriving at jump 2, so sh was not able to see the side change in time.
2nd run looked really good! Nice connection! Keep moving to the tunnel at :36 (more like what you did at :51). You can also do a blind cross to pit her on your right side, which will set a better line to the side of the tunnel you wanted
InSynch pop out 1: looked great! You wrapped her to the inside (right turn) – on a setup like this, you can place with wrapping to the outside (left turn, probably with a RC) and then we can see which is faster!
InSynch’s 2nd pop out looked great too! Like with the first one, you can play with wrapping her to the outside line because it might be faster (due to finding a better line on the next section).
Also be sure she doesn’t start without you 🙂 You can ask her to sit and wait after the leash comes off so you can at leash put it down 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! This went really well, he was pretty perfect on reading the jump cues!
>Did a set of all the jump approaches being ahead and then a set tucking more into the wing wrap.>
They all looked super! So the next challenge is so tuck right into the wing wrap… and release him as soon as he gets into position (rather than run past him then release him). That will potentially put you behind or parallel to him, which makes things harder of course 🙂
And you can sometimes deliver a reward, so he is not only getting released as he hits position, he will also be getting rewarded for hitting and holding position 🙂
>Also some dirty jump handling and effort cookie/hand touch cookie if bar dropped.>
Dirty handling is looking good too!
Your timing might be to a little too good on some of the rewards for the harder jump challenges 🙂 – the toy was thrown but he dropped the bar. To prevent that, you can delay the toy throw to not reward a dropped bar – you can swing the arm as if throwing it, and then only actually throw it if the bar stays up. He was able to call off the thrown toy, but the association of toy throw with the jumping that hit the bar is something we’d like to avoid 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Tunnel sends looked great to start, no problem at all. Then she was a bit on autopilot for the first weave send on each side, and went o the tunnel (the younger dogs all did the same thing LOL) I will chalk that up to lack of experience with this type of challenge – she got much better as the session went on and had very few errors! Super! And the harder entries were actually easier for her, she did great on those.
Two things you can add to this setup to add challenge:
– Curve the tunnel a little so the entries are very visible as she is heading to the poles
– Mix in more tunnel balance rep, so she has to really listen to the cue and doesn’t assume it is the weaves or tunnel based on what she did on the previous rep.
Great job here! Onwards to the countermotion!
Tracy
Hi!
Another puppy? Do tell!
This went really well! After the first couple of tunnel sends, she was definitely in tunnel mode so had a couple of misses on the weaves. She was not perfect when she did get them the first time, so you can reward the effort for getting into the weaves rather than tunneling even if the weaving is not perfect. And definitely mix in some tunnel reps too, so she doesn’t go on autopilot 🙂 That way you can be more sure that she is processing cues and not doing what she just did on the previous rep. She had a little trouble later in the video, but as you said – I think she was trying to go fast 🙂 and needed to slow herself down.
You can also switch sides in the same session – that keeps things spicy and fun if sometimes she is on your left and sometimes on your right.
Nice work here! Safe travels and I am excited to hear about the puppy!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The one jump work looked great in both directions, she was serping really well! Smooth and fast, the lead changes looking pretty effortless!
Adding speed was harder, of course – and as you mentioned, it went a lot better when you were in great position with a clear serp arm on the 2nd half of the session (dog-on-left). Yay!
When adding speed with you running – yes, keep going for the great position and you can also angle the serp jump to face the line ever-so-slightly so she can maintain her speed and still get the serp-in-then-out. That way you can still get the serp without being in that perfect position. This will help when you add the games coming from the tunnel too!
Did you catch what she did from :59 – 1:02? You asked her to sit and then you led out, all good. She started to sniff her butt then remembered she was working, so she whipped back around, all without breaking the stay. It cracked me up!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The wrap timing and cues were spot on, so she wrapped beautifully! You had nice deceleration too, so she collected and was able to turn tight and fast. Super!!
>I think I was using her name way too much. >
Yes, especially when she was on your right side at the beginning – it sounded like you were saying Go then her name, which can be a conflicting cue (to go or to turn?) That might be why she hit the bar, hearing Go and her name. On this type of sequence, you probably don’t need her name at all 🙂
You had some broken stays here – It is possible that she thinks the connection when you get to your spot and look back towards her is the release, or she is following the cookie hand.
You can clarify the release by leading out with connection, making a big connection when you get to your lead out spot, praising her – then either rewarding or releasing. That way she won’t move when she sees you turn your head back to you, and you can have a really strong connection before the release.Great job here!
Tracy
