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Hi! This went really well – it is pretty complex handling and you pulled it off in a small space (which requires things to happen faster). Super!
I knew it was going to be a really good session when the very first tunnel threadle was great! You ran a really clear line and he had no questions.
I think on some of the moments where it felt a little less practiced was that you were having to think about the mechanics of the moves while also running, and that is normal – you were able to keep connection and show him the line (and rewarded for any little blooper – but there were not many of those).
> especially since I kept trying to block his path (didn’t seem like that in the moment, but it sure looks like it on the video).>
On most of the tunnel threadle reps, you are driving the line really well (just remember to be patient and keep moving to the tunnel entry until he locks onto it, don’t stop moving before he gets past you). He followed your line of motion really well and was forgiving if you took one step the incorrect direction before adjusting to the threadle line. That means any momentary step the wrong direction was adjusted immediately so he still had time and room to adjust as well.
An example of a really strong rep with the tunnel threadle is 1:10 – 1:14. This rep had great wraps cues then you took off to the tunnel threadle and kept moving towards it until he drove into the tunnel. Perfect!
One other small detail: when exiting a front cross, keep your arm back to him and eyes on him as you step to the new line until he passes you. At 1:24 you had strong connection on the tunnel exit so he knew to come to your right side but before he got past you, you pointed forward. From his low-to-the-ground perspective, that changes the line and potentially cues a blind, so he stopped and looked up at you, then did a blind. You are really grat at keeping your arm back and big connection going as he exits the wing wrap and heads to the tunnel, so the same practice applies when exiting the tunnel and going to a wing.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi! SO WINDY!!!! It looks like Canada skipped spring and went directly to summer? We are experiencing that too: going to be 36c/97f here today! EEK!!!
The lap turns looked great when you were stationary near the wing. Lovely job getting yuor hand nice and low, tons of connection, and being patient to let her get to your hand before stepping back to turn her away. Super!!!
With her speed, it was much harder to do that when she was doing the wing-tunnel-lap turn sequences. She is FAST 🙂 so what was happening was at :55, 1:04, and 1:11 you were rotated but moving backwards towards the wing – and it was that backwards motion which supported her line to the other side of the wing. You were able to get there soon and be more stationary (no backwards movement) at 1:20 and 1:29 so she got it. Yay!
But since it is so hard to out-run her and be waiting in that stationary position as she exits the tunnel… onwards to the tandem turns! That way you can cue the turns while you are facing forward and won’t need to rotate to face her. And those get used more on course anyway – I think it will be easier for you both.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Brilliant idea about having the phone in my hand during the walk through.>
I used to use a rolled up course map, but I haven’t seen a paper course map since before Covid – so it is either my phone or a water bottle in the walk through (some places are fine with the water bottle, like UKI)
>This arm stuff is such a hard habit to change>
Practice will help rewire your brain and then it will be super easy, even if you are not perfect! Perfect is impossible!
> but I know it’s critical to running Georgie, and says a lot about why we’ve had so few Q’s lately. Like none. For months. Running a fast dog is overrated. And she keeps getting faster.>
Learning to run a fast dog is definitely hard at first!!! Yes, very few Qs… but then things lock in and everything gets MUCH easier. You will have a fast dog AND a ton of Qs – totally worth the work and sooooo fun!
>This might be crazy, but I’ve been wondering if carrying weights in my hands during practice would help create some new muscle memory. Don’t they make some that go around your wrists? Sure, sure, might be a little dangerous, I might strain something, but no pain, no gain.>
I have seen those wrist band things so I did a quick amazon search:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=wrist+weights+for+women&crid=3QSBCTZ4BYAQV&sprefix=wrist+weights%2Caps%2C108&ref=nb_sb_ss_p13n-expert-pd-ops-ranker_ci_hl-bn-left_2_13Some cute colors too, and many are super light so you won’t hurt your shoulders. Maybe it is best of both worlds: handling skills AND the weight training we women are supposed to do 😂🤣I wonder if we can wear it during a run? Hmmm……
> But I suspect under pressure I will revert back to bad habits. >
Not necessarily! Your brain will like the good results, which helps create the habit and mechanics of doing it without thinking about it. And practicing at home or class on sequences will totally help.
>Now I’m reaching the more difficult part, I don’t think I have enough space for the sequences. I will do my best to find a field where I can work them because I think these skills are critical.>
You can pull the tunnel out and replace it with a wing or barrel to go around – that way you can still do the blinds but it might fit more easily. I also use weave poles as jump bars when I need to fit things into smaller space!
>So…girl dogs. I’ve always had girl dogs. Until I listened to the BDA podcast where all the presenters said boys were the sweetest, I didn’t fully realize…..my other girls were amateurs next to Georgie.>
I think boys and girls are sweet! My girls are super sweet to live with. The difference I have seen is that my boys were a bit slower to mature and more tolerant early on in their training if my handling was ‘meh’. They would just go a bit slower but didn’t get as judgey about it all. But it evens out and now they are all pretty tolerant about my moments of ‘meh’ handling. I attribute it to always paying them very well for their efforts and never blaming them when something goes wrong.
> I’m a slow learner, so it took me a while, but eventually I learned that when she jumps in my lap and cuddles, it’s not because she loves me, it means she wants something. Usually food. >
Ha! I am sure she loves you too. She just loves you AND food, and wants both 🙂
>She barks at me when I make mistakes on course,>
I call that ‘feedback’ hahaha 🙂
>and she tries to trick me into giving her treats. Good thing she’s cute.>
She is a huge personality! So fun!!!!
Keep me posted on how things are going!
Tracy
Hi!
Since your blind cross timing and connection looked great on these too, we can add in looking at how strategy on the lines got you to better positions and better turns.
Looking at the first 3 reps into the blind, I would call your line good, better, best!!!
On the first run, you were a little too close to 3 so even with good timing on starting the blind, it was hard to get the line to show him 4-5 and get the turn cues to him at 5 (he was a little wide).You were further away from 3 on run 2, and even further away from 3 on run 3! Both of these runs had great turns on the exit of 5 – in particular, run 3 (and then on run 4 at 1:06 and the last rep as well) with you further away from 3 was terrific!
Yes, I grabbed screenshots of this too, I am obsessed LOL
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1tZqL0AHU07Sn3_wHr0WCycWrq38zOeDDwfoAjJbjSD4/edit?usp=sharing
You can also apply the line strategy into the cross 7-8. Getting close to 6 at :50 made it hard to get past 7 to be on the line to start the FC so it started at takeoff (:52) The reason he ended up in the tunnel instead of turning wide was because you were still moving to get to the line – in that case, you were moving backwards but backwards motion reads the same way as forward motion 🙂
You moved backwards less at 1:14 and even less at 1:30 – but he still needed to see the info sooner so he can turn before takeoff. That is where the line strategy comes in:
after you get that fabulous turn on 5, you don’t need to run to (or past) 6. You can send him to 6 then support 7 with parallel line motion as you get between 7-8. And when he is committing to 6, you can start decelerating into the FC, so your feet are turn and your motion is heading towards 8 as he takes off for 7. You would ideally send to 6 from as far as possible then slide by the inner wing of 5 to get to the FC 🙂
The line strategy is going to smooth out the subtle lines, and that paired with your great timing and connection will make you unstoppable on the blinds! Yay!
Nice work here 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! These are looking super! The timing of starting the blind and the connection when you finished it were spot on, each time. Yay!
Because your mechanics are looking really strong in terms of timing and connection, we can add a bit of strategy to get to the blind cross line even sooner: basically, you don’t need to handle each jump, you can set the line and move away from it sooner.
On the first sequence:
The little speed circle 1-2-3-4 can have you handle it from anywhere. When he comes out of the #4 tunnel, the strategy for your position can change to set up your line back to the blind cross: you can get closer to the tunnel exit line and the line to the 5 jump, showing him the 5 line from pretty close to the jump – and handle 5-6-7 from that line & position as close to 5 as possible. That way, as he is approaching 7, you are running on a parallel line to him but you are also running directly towards your blind cross position after the tunnel exit. I would mean a big send without a lot of motion near the line to 6 and definitely not going past the plane of 6.You were going a bit past it and a bit close to 7, which made it hard to get to the correct line on the exit of the tunnel. You can see the timing and position here:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LkLZ3KVGe009QJufi_l2gVqMp7A7RKfJnUgwMenvpas/edit?usp=sharingHe was able to find the line because your connection was great! But you will see him have to go around you as you continued on the line. Getting you there sooner by using more distance 6-7 will smooth that out and will also keep you way ahead on course 🙂
We can apply that to sequence 2 as well:
start nice and close to 1 like you did, and strategize to get him to go to jump 3 without you having to go past the center of the tunnel (the plane of the 4 jump). That way you are passing through the landing side of 5 before you need to start the blind. That will clear the line to the 6 backside to get a very direct line.At :44, you were almost on the line from the tunnel exit to the 3 jump which delayed getting back to the blind on the landing side of 5 – so on that rep, he was actually going straight for a stride or two (towards the tunnel) before he realized it was the backside.
Compare to :56 where you were further away from 3 (more on the line at the center of the tunnel/plane of 4) which got you across the landing side of 5 sooner and he totally had a straight line to the backside at 6.
You can trust his commitment there – no need to decel and send to 3. Be connected and tell him to go and I bet you can keep moving with no problem at all.
When you did the BC on the takeoff side of 5 (last 2 reps) – you were strategically lateral as he exited the tunnel! He found the line, no questions, so you could nail the timing and also be on a great line. He really flew through those!!
I’ve annotated screen shots of those reps too on the link here:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LkLZ3KVGe009QJufi_l2gVqMp7A7RKfJnUgwMenvpas/edit?usp=sharingGreat job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
Excellent job getting him to go around the minny pinny and feeding in that position relative to the wings. Super! He figured it out really fast and started offering it 🙂 So smart!!And he seemed strong in both directions – that is unusual, usually we see one direction harder than the others.
Adding the verbals was easy because he was so happy to go around the minny pinny.
Since this went so well, you can add the next step of getting him to do it on a verbal only and not needing you to cue with a hand or any movement. Fading out the cues and strengthening the verbals will open up some big independence!
The way to do that is to line him up at your side after each rep, hold his collar, say the verbal 3 or 4 times… then let him go to start moving. Holding his collar allows him to process the verbal before he starts to move. That will be easy here but we have very challenging things ahead that will require him to really process the verbal before he commits to a direction.
> I assume my next step is to move the sides closer to achieve bounces.>
Yes! He is ready for that. If possible, do that on grass outside so he can really grip the grass as he bounces, so he can use his power to bend.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>. I did the toy in the gap, I thought we made progress, then we went backwards>
That was really interesting! It happened after you did a couple of the easier right turn reps – the first 2 reps to the left were great, then after doing a right turn rep it was almost like he was looking at the line, even with the reward there, like it was easier to go around to the right to get the reward than it was to turn left.
With that in mind – you can keep the reward more visible just past the 2nd bump to hopefully provide more incentive to turn left even though it is harder. It is the type of thing that he will also sleep on an wake up one day just knowing it, so you can keep showing it to him but don’t obsess on it LOL!
>I also tried doing the right hand turn from between my legs… he wasn’t keen… but we’re working on it. >
He did well on the right turns for sure. To get the between-the-feet lineup, you can work it as a trick separately from training other stuff. I lure the dogs into position then throw a cookie forward at first. If they like that, I add in holding them and still releasing forward to a thrown cookie. Once they understand it, they love it and then you will see he always offers it LOL!
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
This is going really well – it is a game that is harder than it looks for sure.On the go-straight reps:
You can send him to the wing with you further away, so you don’t end up having to navigate around the wing (makes it hard to go straight) or accidentally cue a backside if you are pushed in on the line. That is what happened on the first rep and at 1:45, he was being really good to read the backside cue!Adding clear connection on the exit of the wing wraps also helped him find the line. My favorite reps of that were at 1:05 & 2:15& 4:09 – perfect connection to get him on the line!! Gorgeous!
Adding the RCs – this is a hard skill so even though you did an excellent job showing the line to the center of the bar, he had a couple of questions. He was thinking about what to do and your line/timing were looking strong, so you can help him by placing the toy (or food bowl) behind he correct wing so he can see it and turn immediately. That way you don’t have to throw it and you can run the line for the RC – and he will have a focal point to make a turn. That focal point can stay there on the straight line reps – the cue to take the reward is activated only on the RCs to help give him the lightbulb moment. If he is likely to grab a toy on the ground without waiting for a marker, you can use an empty food bowl or manners minder so you can control if he gets the actual reward or not 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
>I can explain that I don’t have a good feel for when the dog has committed to the various options. I certainly wouldn’t have thought of running it that way: Enzo might just skip #4 entirely.>
Interesting! I would fall over in shock if Enzo skipped it, based on what I know of him – as long as you don’t finish the blind before he gets to 3 which would cue him to skip it. Sending to 3 and running towards 5 might even tighten the turn on 3. It might be a matter of experimenting to see if you send away to 3 and stay sorta connected as you drive away to 5, then when you see liftoff to 3, start the blind. If he doesn’t take 4, we would do some commitment training. But again, I bet Enzo would commit easily and I also think Casper would.
> I gave some consideration to a tunnel break but, to be honest, I was already doing a bunch of handling and didn’t have room to hold everything.>
That makes sense!
>I think that is part of the trouble I have with blinds: knowing how much support various options need. On this course, there is another good example at the end, coming out of the final tunnel. Because of the RC, I thought I needed more support on that first jump out of the tunnel. And that extra step is another thing which helped make me late.>
I think this is an excellent point! As an outside eye, I have soooo much confidence in Enzo’s commitment that I bet you can rear cross the tunnel and just yell something like “GO JUMP” and be kind of connected… and he takes it. He is a highly trained, super skilled agility grand champion who has also been super successful at the national level, so I would be surprised if he didn’t take it. But the best way to know is to ask him directly, in the moment, by setting it up. This might be a good course to set up in whole or in sections to ask the dogs!
Casper is more of a wildcard because he is inexperienced – I *think* he would take the jump but it would be good to set it up and ask him 🙂Another way to approach it… what would you need to do if you absolutely did NOT want them to take the jump? If the answer is “it would be very easy for them to not take it, you wouldn’t have to do much at all, then yes – you will need to give them more support. ” If the answer is “it would be very hard to pull them off that jump” then you can trust their commitment without needing to step to the line or get close to it.
Being fully disconnected will cause them to question lines… but being mostly connected (head turned in their general direction) plus motion and a well-placed verbal should support the line. It would be interesting to see where they might have commitment questions.
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
These are going really well!>I see her having to swerve to get around me, am I too far over the mouseline?>
I think what was happening was you were getting too far ahead, so you were waiting for her – which then made the blinds the tiniest bit late on some of them and she was not able to respond until after landing. I think the blind at :19 on video 1 and first rep of video 2 were my favorites. And on that first rep of video 2, great job sending her away to the tunnel so you could easily get the blind after the tunnel. They were all good, but we can smooth out the swerve by being sooner.
But how to be sooner and still trust commitment? Motion can support the commitment if you run in closer to the tunnel, so you are in motion the whole time. Then when she exits, she will see you in motion and lock onto the next jump: but you can also start the blind when you see the blur exit the tunnel, so it is a little earlier to show her the new connection.
On the one rep here where she didn’t commit to the jump (:19 on video 2) – you were stationary/super decelerated waiting for her to exit the tunnel so she took it as a cue to to come to you and not get on the line. Moving in towards the tunnel more will definitely help you show motion the whole time.
Then you will be able to add in earlier decel for the turn on the jump after the blind – basically, as soon as you finish the blind, go into a big decel to cue the wrap.
Nice work here! Let me know how she does with more motion!
Tracy
Hi!
Hi!
Yay, more adventures! Sounds like a blast!!!!> We have limited and kind of weird equipment here that we brought with us for our 2 week stay at Run Wild (before a short trip to Canada).
This will totally work! You have plenty of good stuff. To use the 3 wings, put all the jump cups in the center so the purple fabric is on the outside.
He also figured it out really well with the barrels added – it can be either 2 wings (jump cups on the inside) and one barrel, or 2 barrels and 1 wing to make for an easier visual for him.
Let him offer it now without your motion – I am certain he will send himself all the way around without needing motion support from you – he did that at :57 after patiently waiting for you to get the reward ready 🤣😂 Good boy! THe reason I suggest that is you can attach the verbals better and also it will improve his mechanics.
To do that and also let him know when to start, you can line him up at your side, hold his collar, say left or right a few times… then let go so he moves but you don’t move.
This will get the independence and also, it will improve his footwork – he was trying to process his footwork, bending, and your motion while going fast. Mechanics went a little sideways – mechanics are always the first thing to go sideways when motion is added LOL! So if you are not moving for now, he will sort out his mechanics and we can add your movement back soon enough, along with some other fun challenges 🙂
>I added his cavalleti as the jumps when I got worried about him rolling the bars on the ground (no jump bumps with us).>
I agree, we don’t want him rolling bars on the ground. I think the cavalettis are great! Super clever idea on the road!!
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Hi!
I love how he caught himself on the first rep and went back and fixed things to get into the serp 🙂 Good boy! You can shake your serp hand a bit, especially on the harder angles or as you add motion: that will draw his focus to the hand and not just have him looking at motion.
You added the reward bowl in this video, which was the correct next step. He was great on the easy angles, and fixed his line on the first rep of the hard angle. Good boy!!!!
Since this went well, you can add in the threadle game to show him the difference between the two positions (and verbals too).
>He was doing his extra credit mat work last night & had fun! >
Yay! The mat work is probably fun and easy for him 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>We went out early because it has become ungodly hot here! 90’s smh not normal for NY!>
Yep, insanity!!!! It is 97 degrees here right now. I was out at sunrise with the dogs for exercise and to film demos for summer classes. What happened to spring weather?!?!? Eeek!
The birds were definitely trying to distract Sunnie – they were loud – but she was great about ignoring them!
This session went really well! Your set up on the left turns was good! You can add more of an angle to it but starting straight is good too.
Her left turns were spot on, no questions. Yay! And it was really interesting that she offered left turn spins before a few of the right turns! She might be a lefty for sure 🙂 and offering the easier line at first.
One thing you can do to help with the right turns is to hold her collar, say the verbal a few times… then let her go to start moving. That way she has a moment to think about which way she wants to turn before she starts moving. That will help attach the verbals and will also make it easier to add different angles and other crazy challenges in the future.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
The turn aways are going well! Once he is turned away, he is wrapping the wing really well.
Starting him a little further behind you will help, with a stay or a cookie toss – that way you can be showing the hand cues before he gets near you or the wing. The only questions he had were when you were trying to line him up and you moved towards the wing, so he often went to the other side of the wingThe left turns definitely looked harder for him, so slow hand movements helped and you can even put a bowl out on the left turn side to give him a visual aid.
On the perch work video – this is off to a good start! You can use your hands as a target but don’t deliver the treats until after he moves a back foot. I think he was eating the whole time (or at least licking the treats) so he might not have made the connection that it is about the back foot movement. You can also try having him run off to the side to get a cookie, the run back and pivot back to center – that might be easier for him to sort out because he has to offer it rather than follow a treat 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
