Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi!
>As far as Roots having an “extensive history”, well I’ve tried teaching this a bunch before, starting when verbals were starting to be a thing when he was 4 or 5.>
I meant extensive history of the physical cue being the most important 🙂 Verbals with 9 year old dogs are harder to convince them of!
>And so far Beat does not do much better at this.>
Wait til you get closer to the 18 month – 2 year old range, as adolescence starts to fade away… she will be able to do as her brain develops.
>how about if within a session or over the course of sessions I just move the obstacles closer and closer until the motion really could be cuing either one and the verbal cue becomes the more helpful cue?>
This is a very clever way to make motion more neutral! Love it!!! And we are seeing obstacles very close together in course design lately… totally try it!
On the video – very successful session here! Super! And the reset treats helped when he chose the wrong obstacle.
Yes, I think he was looking at your hand near the bait bag, because CLEARLY STARVING 😂🤣And the anticipation of getting a treat was overriding the jump cue. He did well with it when you hand was in more of a ‘take an obstacle’ position
Your physical cues were helping a little but there was still a major discrimination element happening. He was also really beginning to drive away past the jump to find the tunnel. And towards the end, he seemed to be processing the jump cue because his interest in the tunnel was high, but he adjusted his course to get the jump when you were cueing it. YAY!!!
Try moving the obstacles closer and see how it goes!
Great job here 🙂
TracyHi!
>Have you ever considered a fall camp instead of summer? 🤣 I’m so done with the heat index being over 100 just about every day!!>
OMG same here! CAMP started back in 2012 when summers were so much nicer!
>she does not listen as well to what I’m saying (in agility or life 😂). >
The joys of adolescence 🤣😂
Overall the sequences went well with finding the lines, and you did a great job getting both dogs to the backside!
>Nox had issues with the backside push >
I think she was strong with the backside pushes! At 2:05 and 2:27 you moved into her space before she was fully past you, which pushed her off the jump. But most of the other reps were spot on, like at 3:06 – 3:09 and 3:31 – 3:34. On both of those, you decelerated while showing her the wing, let her get past you, then looked at the landing spot as you moved forward. Looked great!!
>AND the threadle wrap, but I really didn’t feel like there was any progress with the wrap.>
She was starting to get the idea – coming nicely to the threadle side! But she didn’t know how to turn herself away, especially when you were not decelerating and kept moving forward.
So, the goal is to get her to turn herself away with minimal help from your hands. So after you set the line to get her to the threadle side, decelerate near the wing and stay in that decelerated position as you use small cues to turn her away – don’t move forward again until she has committed to turning herself away.
Two other things that will help build up the behavior:
For now, take the bar out so all she needs to do is turn back to a wing wrap – right now she is relying on your hand cues but we want to make turning back and taking the jump (or wrapping the wing) more automatic without having to think about jumping a bar.
And, for the threadle wraps, put all reward on the landing side so it really builds up in value. The rewards were generally coming near you on the next line, but throwing the rewards away from you on the landing line will make a big difference for commitment.
For Katniss – I think the deceleration will make a big difference. You were trying to keep moving in steady motion, but she needs the decel as part of the cue to set the striding. Then when she turns away to commit to the jump, you can run forward again.
Also – Even though it is the ‘easy’ part in theory 🙂 give strong cues to get into the tunnel. You were disconnected and turning away (like at 3:12) so she was not convinced she could go into the tunnel. Compare to 3:37 where it was very clear and you still had plenty of time to get the BC after it
> I have wondered if this is related to her jumping issues or if she doesn’t like bending her body and I need to do some conditioning work specific to that movement. >
I don’t think that played a role in the – it was more about delivering the info with decel and then rewarding for committing.
>When I am wearing the green shirt, it’s actually two different days. I have 3 of the same shirt, lol.>
Ha! That’s relatable. Or I throw on the old sweaty clothes to just get more sweaty and dirty LOL
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
>So I tried to walk faster than I thought we’d go but I’m having a hard time cueing precisely and I feel really rushed and unfocused. I’m not sure how to reconcile the two.>
You can approach it as a full walk through – at first, walk the course to decide your handling and connection and verbals, then walk it again to put it all together (emphasis on planning timing: starting the cues when the dog is still at the previous obstacle, at the latest). These are not done at the fast pace, they are slower so you can plan.
Then when you have your plan (handling/verbals, connection, timing) you can go faster and faster, where you last moments are trying to do the full course as if actually handling Muso.And if, after 5 minutes, those high speed walk throughs feel rushed/unfocused? Then practicing them more regularly will help that! This is a skill that is largely under-rehearsed in dog agility. You can start with smaller pieces of courses at first, then get to longer and longer sequences. It should feel pretty uncomfortable at first! That is normal.
Both runs looked really strong! One or two hard parts (as expected on training courses :)) but overall really strong and generally matching the walk throughs. The bloopers also matched the walk throughs.
2 general things to consider:
Rehearse the verbals more so they are actally like what you say during the run. The verbals in the run are very different from the walk through, in terms of what you actually say, how & when you say it, etc. So really shout out the verbals in the walk through so you can rehearse what you want to say.
Also, clarify the teeter release. You need to decide what the actual release is so there is no stress developing. I believe you think the release is the verbal release, but I believe she thinks the release is when the board hits the ground or arm movement (not a verbal), based on trials and other runs at home. So she released on the slam on the first one each time in the runs and you stopped. She also released on the slam at 2:04 in video 1 – and then you released and tossed the toy (she was moving before the release) Then released on the shoulder movement at 2:27 and 3;34 (verbal happened to come with it)
She released on the slam at 2:06 on video 2 – she was successful after she was stopped, but that doesn’t answer the question about what the release is – at 4:43 she moved on motion just before the verbal release.
My guess is that you’ve paired the release with the slam or motion enough that the actual release has shifted to be the slam/motion which is why you are seeing the self-releasing. If you want the release to be verbal only, you will want to hold her long enough to praise while the movement is keep going, then release.
Course 1 – I think your plan was strong – my notes about the walk through were mainly about using the verbals as you would in a real run, plan and walk an actual stop on the teeter if she is supposed to stop :), and getting further ahead for the exit of the 9 tunnel by leaving her in the weaves so you can be ahead to show the cues for the turn on 10.
On the run, the opening looked great! Yay!
You ran a lot of yardage after the weaves so your turn cues were a little late and not prominent at 1:46 – that 10 jump is a place to handle from ahead as it is one of the harder turns on course. It looked SO MUCH BETTER at 3:36 when left her in the weaves to get ahead and really show the decel and started the other turn cues before she even exited the tunnel. Super!
The TW looked good! The only other challenging part was the slice RC on 17 – you turned your feet to the tunnel too soon and pinged her off the RC jump at 2:31. On the other reps, you didn’t quite face the center of the bar enough, s she turned to her left. Try to drive to the center of the bar as if you are running to the weaves.
And on the last jump here and last jump in the next course, be careful of the early throw! Get the last jump then throw – you were throwing early on a couple of reps so she didn’t take the last jump.
Course 2:
>Isn’t 17-18 a front side wrap and not a threadle wrap?>
Based on the line from 17, when she lands she has an option of which side of be on: push her back through the gap to side numbered as 7 on the map to get the backside, or the numbered side of 18 is the threadle side where you have to draw her in to between you and the jump (or do a cross and handle as a push wrap)
or did you mean 7-8, before the teeter? Also a threadle wrap there, same reasons, slightly different line.On the walk through:
remember to decel on your TW cues and turn feet to next line. The decel helps get the collection and allows you to show the line you are setting. Without decel, it ends up looking like slice cues.On the 13-14-15 (tunnel-weave-jump) line, you can send to weaves and layer the 10 jump to be able to push to 15 – that 14-15 line is a serp so keep your arm back and push on her line more, connecting to her til she turns away to commit.
On the run:
Seeing 1 was hard with you behind her, it is a good skill to work on with another jump right next to you! She got better and better at it in this session.
The 2-3-4 line worked well in general, only one moment where you had too much step forward which sent her off course to the jump.
After the 3 tunnel at 1:47 and 4:31 and 5:13 sending to 4 – this was a wide turn each time, for 2 reasons. When she exits the tunnel… don’t say go! Start your decel and say your wrap cue. And this is a good place for a spin, because it cues a tight turn and also gets your feet turned back down the line sooner than a post turn. Your line and post turn after 4 locked her onto the weaves briefly there.
The line from 8-9 was the hardest part here – at 1:54and 4:37 the cues except verbal said slice (no decel, feet/motion facing slice etc. When you had a little decel and threadled her more at 2:02, it worked a lot better! At 5:19 you tried to rotated sooner and faster, but it still looked like backwards motion into the slice line. So you can handle it similarly to how you handled 18, which looked really good: decel, setting the line with your feet to the next line, and turning her away.
The walk through mirrored the run a bit at 15, but you did layer 10 in the run (yay!) – so more connection and more serp arm will really help her commit to 15, and keep pushing on the line til you see her turn to it. The dog walk to the end looked great!
Nice work here!!
TracyHi! Yes, it has been such a HOT summer! And hopefully your eye is continuing to recover!!!
This was really fascinating to watch her work, thanks for sharing it! Scent sports are absolutely fantastic for dogs and I agree, it does help with agility too. I am not surprised that she is brilliant at it!!! So cool! Very impressive 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
This was a really good session to show him the concept of finding the weaves from the tunnel without you! The only suggestion I have is to get him a bit more ramped up before that first rep – he was not quite in the right arousal state to accelerate ahead of you. You can do tricks for treats will get him going, or you can run him through the tunnel for rewards once or twice – that should help getting him ramped up!
By the 3rd rep, he was fully awake and ready to roll, plus you acceleration really helped too. He found the soft-side weave entries really well, it looks like he was actively seeking out the correct entry and by the last one, driving ahead of you to find it even when you were hanging way back! So you can keep workinadding more distance very gradually, along with flipping it around to hit the other weave entry too.> since I’m spending the rest of my time on running DW training.>
Ah yes, that can time consuming for sure! This game counts as dog walk training too, because it is what happens under the DW haha!!
Great job!
TracyHi!
This went really well! His commitment on the countermotion wraps looked great. One thing to add for you is deceleration. When you were going fast then suddenly rotating, your momentum would pull you back towards the wing for another step – that could lead to a wide turn or knocked bar on a real jump. But when you added decel before the rotation like at :20-:22, you were able to rotate without any backwards motion and then you powered out of the cross beautifully. So a little decel and go a long way 🙂
I think he really liked the race track! You can race him around it to let him really open up. Just be sure to stay connection. When he was turning left (on your right side) you were looking forward more, so he was being more careful. When he was on your left, you were more connected so he was really gaining speed! Fun!
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
> I’m not fully understanding how to set the line before the jump that is before the RC jump.>
As long as you are moving generally towards it, she doesn’t need you to fully face it to get her to commit to it. As you are moving towards it and past it, you can already be facing the center of the bar on the RC jump. Let me know if that makes sense (or if I need more caffeine LOL)
>. I’m embarrassed to say that we have not done any “just wing” exercises. We did some baby stuff with cones but not wings.>
No worries! Cones are very effective for teaching foundation work.
She might have needed a moment to figure it out on the wings, but this session looked GREAT! You were setting the line really well – clear line of travel, your hands and connection were clear, and she was happy to turn away on the wing. Super! You can add the tunnel now to this game – send her to it so you are pretty far ahead when she exits so she can see the handling. You can also work the threadle wraps on the wings.
> I also struggle a little with just wing exercises because sometimes I can’t “see” the big picture without the whole jump.>
To help with the visual, you can put a leash on the ground where the jump bar will be. That will let you see the whole jump… but she won’t see it as a jump (hopefully :)) Working these skills first on just the wing helps the dogs build success, because the distraction and value of the jump bar is not in the picture – so they will follow the cues more rather than look for the jump. We add the jump bar back in soon, when she is happy to do this with speed from the tunnel.
>(if we don’t melt or combust).>
OMG this has been a HOT summer!! And the humidity is double gross here. Fingers crossed for a break from the heat for all of us!
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
This went great!!! He is really responding to everything – that does not always work in our favor but it will get easier as he gets more experienced. What I mean by that is if you are early or disconnect, he will learn to save you and NOT drop the bar. Right now he is very earnest and drops the bar trying to change the line based on what he sees. Good boy!!
>he was great with the middle jump!>
Yes – the brake arms really helped!!! Well done adding them!
He had a couple of questions on the bars:
On jump 3 at :03, you started the blind too early. The timing of the rest of the blinds was great, so he had no more questions there.
The bar came down a few times on jump 7 (before the tunnel). When you were connected and showing the line? No problem! When your arm went about your head or you added 2 hands/whoa verbal – he was trying to change the line and dropped the bar.
Again, it will get easier when he is more experienced and he won’t mind if one of your arms ends up above your head LOL!! And you were super connected in general so he did really well.
One other suggestion is to run with the toy in your pocket so your hands are free the whole time – switching the toy around takes up a bit of time and he is too fast for that 🙂
I got screenshots of the moments where he had questions, and the moments where you were perfect:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1t73r-WYfvf-sOcrj6oUZQ-UgfHwrfO8Kcn4gsMVaec8/edit?usp=sharing
>I was curious about how he is working for the toy vs food so I did food yesterday and toy today and I do wonder if the struggle with the last jump is because of the toy?>
I don’t think so – I think it was how the cue was delivered, and he is needing you to be almost perfect right now. That ‘needing to be almost perfect’ is pretty normal with fast, inexperienced dogs. But he is doing wonderfully well! You can test the theory and have the toy in your pocket to see how he does!
Great job!
TracyHi there!
It has been a gross hot summer for sure! This went well though!
>Looking ahead she’s pretty good at not sure if the lines you focused on were correct when I did it.
This was good! Walking up the line with you behind her and parallel to her both went well.
>,but sometimes increasing speed is hard for her. She’s more chase me vs take the jump>
Ok, let’s focus on that because we do need you to be able to run run run 🙂 Add in more motion (jogging then running) on the same scenario you used here. And send to the tunnel from further away so you can get miles ahead of her on the jump… but don’t be moving to fast yet so she can take the jump and organize herself. And send any videos of when she doesn’t take the jump so we can sort out why it is happening. She has good jump commitment so we can figure out what it going on (pointing? Disconnecting? etc.)
> Redid my rears and tacked that on the end. I think it’s better but … lol>
The RCs also went well! On the first one, she was looking at the poles (even if she doesn’t really know what they are LOL) because of your motion. That is fine, we want her locking onto a line 🙂 The last rep looked great!
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
This session went great, she is doing AWESOME with the countermotion and the commitment!Almost all of the session was beautiful. The blooper moments fall into the category of “Sighthounds See EVERYTHING” (even when there is Border Collie mixed in there LOL). It is actually pretty impressive!
> other than her mistaking the cue for the wrap from a standstill for the cue to go around my back. >
Yes – that was near the beginning, and on those 2 reps your left (opposite) leg was moving forward when you did the cue. On all other reps, your dog-side leg was stepping back to the wing so she had no questions. It is possible that on the behind-the-back moments, you might be subconsciously stepping forward as part of the cue because that is where you would go next.
She was quite perfect when the dog-side leg stepped back to the edge of the wing you wanted her to wrap. At :58 she took the threadle wrap… because that is where you stepped to (inside of wing). Watch your foot there – sighthounds see EVERYTHING plus left turns might be easier than right turns.
She had one other question, at 1:33 and 1:57 (same question each time) of ending up on your left when you wanted her on your right. What she was seeing there was you were switching the toy from hand to hand as she was exiting the wing before it, then swinging the toy hand back – the switching delays the connection, then the arm going back with toy in hand might have looked like you wanted her there (like a spin or something. Compare to the super clear conneciton at 1:43 and 2:03 – you switched it earlier and didn’t swing your arm back at all (you emphasized exit line connection) so she got it. The easiest answer, though, is to not switch the toy around – and the easiest way to do that is run with it in your pocket 🙂
You can add the race tracks around the outside, and spread out the distances here. That will add challenge because you will be further from the wing and so there will be more countermotion.
Great job!
TracyHi!
Thanks for the video – I have a different perspective on it 🙂
>Here’s a video example of the wingless. Note – this was last run of third day so he is tired but still working well. >
He was working great! The wingless jump here might have been a coincidence – and he was not taking off too early. When he was dropping the bar, you were breaking connection by looking forward pretty dramatically (watch your pony tail LOL!) and with all the other obstacles right there – a connection break can be distracting because there is not a lot of room for propulsion and it could be the beginning of a blind to one of the other obstacles.
When you stayed connected… the bar stayed up 🙂 Video evidence here LOL
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1u-e-aJRhYpCvOrRKgfrXz9mkGdbjNM1rcm6KhHkafC4/edit?usp=sharing
Do you have other videos where he was dropping the wingless, so we can confirm or deny this theory?
>I’ve decided Ven is a 12″ dog. If we get a favorable measurements, we might have the option to run UKI at 12″ without having to run select. We’ll run preferred AKC and Ace ASCA. I have never run UKI but think we might have fun trying it. My fear is the huge ring size.>
Perfect! The 12″ class is very fun 🙂
And yes, the huge ring in some of the UKI events is annoying LOL! But you can skip those classes 🙂 Keep an eye out for the DASH events in UKI, which will NOT have those monster courses!Tracy
Hi!
Kaladin’s backside slices looked great! You can throw in the occasional ‘test’ of not connecting when you are running through the exit line (like you did here) and maybe flinging an arm back, but NOT throwing the toy. You did a little of that on the last rep but there also some toy swtiching so he was watching that LOL
> Decided I should balance with the front of the jump and Kaladin went for extra credit with backside slice.>
He was being good there – The backside is on the line and yes, he had just gotten rewards for it so you needed an earlier cue after the tunnel to change his line over the jump before the former backside jump (name call is probably all he needs)
He also was fast and happy with the circle wraps here! The cheese was very exciting : ) You also had more motion going into them, and he liked that too!
Lift definitely felt the cheese was a great addition to the game LOL! You might have had too much motion on the first rep – it was Kaladin-experience-level speed and countermotion, with you on the takeoff side as she arrived at the takeoff side. You were not quite as fast or far ahead after that – you were still a bit visible on the landing side and that helped! You can add in getting to the takeoff side as she arrives at the takeoff side, but dial back the motion (fast walk to begin with) so she can process the bar and not just your position.
She was doing a great job on the circle wraps too, really working her mechanics to make the turn and commit! You can drive in closer ot the tunnel so she can move ahead of you into the circle wrap. That will add even more motion and countermotion to it by taking out your decel. And Lift says to please keep the cheese as part of it LOL!
Great job!
TracyHi!
Looking at the start lines:
>She is creeping on the start line. Yesterday, it cost us our gamble time at the trial because she crossed the line and stopped again before I released her. How do I deal with this without adding start line stress? She did it a lot on this jump (lattice wings) so I was wondering if she couldn’t see me and moved? It doesn’t happen every time, but it’s a problem and I think it’s getting worse. She doesn’t usually do it once she’s been reset but that’s not a solution.>
I think it could be a couple of things. One is a lack of connection as you lead out. She doesn’t move when you are looking at her (her movement on this video was when you were not really connected). That, plus anticipating the release when you are a certain distance away might be part of it – you can try looking at her as you jog to your lead out position.
The other thing might be criteria maintenance… if she can move sometimes and then get released, then she might offer that behavior a LOT especially in places where it is followed by the release (trials). So be super consistent. This might mean shorter, faster, more connected lead outs to set her up for success.
And build in a TON of rewards thrown back to her at variable times, when she does not move. Most of her reward for the start line comes in the form of the release, so throwing lots of rewards back to her will help keep it solid. Otherwise, she will potentially move – and the reset is a punisher which could add stress if it happens regularly.
Walk through:
I am not sure she is taking 2 based on your shoulders and disconnection at :12 – you can have an open arm as a serp cue to set the line, and move yourself laterally so you can be up the line and still commit her to 2 🙂
The 3-4-5-6 line looked good. A right turn on 7 is ok as long as you don’t step in to 8 too much (opens up the off course tunnel) but left turn sets a better line to 8 🙂
I didn’t see commitment cues to 11 (motion/connection/verbal) on the walk through – you were handling 9-10 then did a BC to 12 🙂
For the 12-13-14 line: doing a BC at 12 to get the push wrap on 13 puts you pretty far from 16-17-18. It is a good spot to keep her on your right for 12 and do a threadle wrap for 13, then you are miles (or kilometers 🙂 ) ahead for the next line!
I think you did a really good, clear job of committing her to the jump bar on the 17 jump – this is a spot where she might sometimes run past the bar but you clearly looked at the landing spot to commit with countermotion!
You might get the off course tunnel after 20 – stronger cues needed when she is taking off for 19 to get a good turn there.
Looking at the runs:
On the opening line, 1-2-3:
Run 1 – you had a good lateral lead out then did a big step back to 2 which delays getting up the line. You can lead out to that spot and handle it as a long-distance serp (arm back, connection parallel to her line).
Video 2 – you stayed closer to 2-3 and it put you really behind – super nice hustle to get the 5 backside! Woot woot! She stayed on her line really well!> I’m not sure how to get a tighter wrap on 8 – I deceled, cued early and she went wide each time. Earlier, I called and tapped my leg and she dropped the bar, so I am at a loss.>
The video (and the dog :)) agree that you were late there 🙂 At :47 on video 1 and :13 on video 2, you started the verbal and a bit of decel when she was about halfway to the wrap jump and the rotation started as she was taking off (you can see you were about halfway through the rotation when she was over the bar). I am not a huge fan of the leg tap (it may or may not have contributed to the bar) but I don’t think you need it on wraps.
On the 3rd video at :15, you had better timing of verbal starting (over the bar of the previous jump) but you said ‘go byeeee byeeee’ so the verbal was different – and the and decel & rotation were late.
So since being told “you’re late!” is generally NOT helpful 🙂 I think it might be better to talk about when exactly to start the cues:
as she is taking off for 6 (jump before the wrap): hit the brakes with BIG decel and at the same time, start the verbal. To emphasize the decel, you can also use 2 hands. This information should be showing before she lands from 6. And you can keep moving forfward a little in the decel but definitely keep facing forward, until you see her looking at 7 – then rotate (might be when she is about halfway to 7). Ideally, the rotation is finished and you are moving the other way with exit line connection before she takes off for the wrap.Try that sequence in isolation (5-6-7-8-9) and see how the timing plays out!
She had really good commitment to the bar on the backside slice at 9! That skill is definitely getting stronger!
Looking at the 11-12-13 line:
On Run 1, she didn’t take 11 (needed more commitment cue and motion towards it). She got it on the other runs but it was wide, so with whichever handling you choose, bear in mind that the turn cues begin no later than as she exits the wing of 10.
On the 2nd video – you can decel/hang back at 10 to send to 11 as she exits 10, which will get a better turn and get you further up the line for the TW at 13! I really like this handling choice – the hardest part is to be very patience on the threadle wrap (I hate the word patience hahah). On this run at 13, you were too quick to do the hand cue flick for the TW. She did not see the beginning of the cue (still in the tunnel) so when she exited, she saw you moving forward and flipping your hand away. She did get it, but if you decel while she is in the tunnel, let her exit while hearing the verbal and seeing the hand cue low, and hold that cue & position until she turns herself away. You will still have an impressive positional advantage on course, even if you spend time being patient (ewww haha) at 13.
Getting the push wrap at 13 on the 3rd video – it is hard to get the BC on time at 11, and then be sure to suppot the 15 tunnel more. It is a lot of work for no advantage compared to the threadle wrap 🙂
Nice job 15-16-17, great job with the backside slice commitment with countermotion – got the blind at 1:04 on the 2nd video but rotated too early on the send to 18 – the decel and rotation should happen separately to get commitment. Compare to 1:08 where you faced forward longer before rotated and she looked great!
For the 19-20-21 line, a question:
What is your physical cue for a threadle slice? It was hard to tell here – I didn’t see a threadle cue at :38 in terms of an open shoulder, so she was reading motion which read front-of-jump. You got further ahead there on the 2nd run, but your shoulder was still closed forward. Then at 1:12 you did a low one hand cue, and it looked like a TW so she turned to her left – but I think you were using her slice verbal? So we can clarify what the physical cue is (which can also help with getting the 1-2-3 line at more of a distance).
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>Are you able to do an overlay with one of the walkthrough videos (this post or the next) and the actual run? I’m trying to get it done on my software but it’s just not working well. I’m just curious about how accurate it is once I start running.>
Overlays are my favorite bit of nerding out! Can you send me the raw video? I can’t overlay them from the youtube link, but I can if I have the original video. The videos are probably big, so you can send the link via http://www.wetransfer.com to my agilityuniversity@gmail.com address
One thing to try to do is run the course faster than you think she will need you to run it. Then when you actually run it, it will feel much easier 🙂
Looking at the walk and runs: this went pretty well! There were a couple of spots in the walk through where I thought would end up being trouble in the run 🙂 and that is how it played out.
On the first walk through (notes before watching the run):
Good plan 1-2-3! On the line 4 to 5: layering is fine there but you’ll need powerful verbals and possibly convergence to get her to take 5. You can say your forward verbals big, loud, and say them repeatedly and emphatically. Your Go and Jump were single and quiet, making them easy to miss and not as compelling.You can add more connection back to her 5-6-7 – she was behind you there so rehearse looking back at her 🙂
You are definitely getting the off course tunnel after 11 🙂 The cues all set her on that line – more decel or rotation are needed plus big verbals to convince her not to go to the tunnel 🙂
The rest looked strong on the walk through!
Run 1 – you changed your lead out position and release, which might have contributed to the trouble getting 5? And you used different verbals: get out go out out out. So, clarify which verbals will be most effect and start those when she is still 2 meters or so away from entering the tunnel.
The 6-10 section looked good!
You added a spin on 11 at :33 but still got the tunnel – the spin needed more decel and for timing: as she lands from 10, start the verbal and decel into the spin (the verbals started one stride before takeoff which is after the takeoff decision was made). Then as she is lifting off for 11 – call her HARD if you think this type of discrimination needs extra emphasis 🙂
For 14-15 based on how it was set, you needed to pull away more to show the front side (:44) and use your ‘left’ as she exits the wrap at 14. You used it when she was already almost at the backside wing.
The ending line looked really good!
2nd run – opening looked really good here, this matched the walk through more. That also allowed you to really accelerate up the line and use your verbals to get 5. 6-10 lookd strong again! And no off course tunnel after 11 🙂
You hada little decel at :25 on 11 and definitely there was more calling her. She turned to 12 after she landed when she heard the call, so the calling her was helpful. I think the best option is decelerating into a spin with the wrap verbal (starting at landing from 10) and as she is approaching 11, calling her a LOT before takeoff.You had a much better line to 15 (you can still use your left verbal sooner, as she is exiting 14) and the ending looked even better than the first time! Nice!!!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
> Pick may have a fabulous new home soon! So I may work just Roots going forward unless it falls through.>
Yay for Pick!! Fingers crossed!!!
> I thought the show and throw start would be better so he’d hear the word before seeing the motion,>
That was smart!!!!
>This dog is NINE years old>
Happy birthday!!!!! I hope he also got some ice cream or something, not just verbal discriminations LOL!!! He was a good boy here and definitely tried to figure it out.
At 9 years old, he probably has an extensive history ofthe obstacle relative to your positional cue/line of motion being the correct obstacle. This is mainly what we trained 9 years ago in foundation work and how you’ve been handling him until recently when adding more verbals, so it makes sense that his default is to what the physical cue says. And since we want ot keep success rate high (the 2 failure rule stays in place even with 9 year old dogs :)) a couple of ideas for you:
– 9 year old dogs can still learn, so you can break this game down differently for him. The show and throw start can be followed by you saying the obstacle name and then showing gentle motion towards the correct obstacle: my mantra is “as much as needed but as little as possible”. That can help pair the verbal with the existing cue. Then, over time, you can fade the physical cues out more and more as he pairs the verbal cue with the actual obstacle.
– you can work Beat on these games! She has had a different foundation and we have done some of the foundation stuff for this (like the wing-versus-tunnel proofing games). Start her without motion, holding her collar. Then I bet you will be able to gradually build up to adding starting her at the wing wrap and adding more and more motion. I personally have found BWs and Whippets to be impressively good at verbals on course in high arousal (which kind of shocks me, honestly) so it would be fun to get Beat started on these games in small increments.
So both can get turns and be successful! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
