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That is great, having someone be the toy-tosser! And yes, give her lots of that experience because the payoff will be awesome: you’ll be able to run run run and she will commit beautifully 🙂
Tracy
Hi! Nice work on these!
Go reps looked good!
On the backside push slices, great job on the toy placement – you can add in more serpy exits and some Countermotion too.
When you add countermotion, throw the reward sooner to reward his decision to go to the backside and emphasize the bar as something to look at. For example on the circle wrap at :53, as soon as he turns his head to the jump as you move forward, throw the toy back to the landing as you keep moving forward. You were earlier at 104 and he did better !On the threadle reps:
>> forgot the aspects of the threadle toy placement. Those came from my hand.
Yes, the placement for the wraps and the slices will really help him differentiate where to look and turn to.
>>I think this biggest aspect for me to work to improve would be my body work for threadles. I just don’t feel like I’m ever as smooth with them as I am with backsides.>>
I think the biggest difference is that threadles are trained skills, mainly, and should not really rely on the physical cues that much. Yes, the physical cues support the verbals but I think you were mainly trying to sort out the physical cues and you don’t need to emphasize those as much.
>>For threadle slices I struggle so much to get into position with my body and am stiff… I’m like I’m a little teapot. Here are my arms… let me set my feet.
I left the wrap versus slice at the end. You can see I thought I was switching back to the wrap, but my body position is more consistent with the slice.
Interestingly, I just watched a video by Kayl on threadle wraps and she uses a different arm set. I wonder if that would help me/him? >>I think that it is not so much about arm set as it is about line of motion and verbal cues. There are a bunch of different arm styles you can use (I don’t know what Kayl is using lately) but we want it to be generally easy for the handler because the dog is learning the verbal cues 🙂
So on the session, you can get closer to the wing of the threadle jump especially the wraps. How does he do on the wing alone with the threadle wraps? He might need to work the wings with motion before you add the bars in. That way he will learn the skill when you are lateral or ahead and it will be easier for you both! And placement of reward will help too 🙂
On the threadle slices, I think you were trying to converge and help him out by moving across the bar – try to only turn your feet to the bar for now, and not try to move a lot to it – it was pushing him to the other side a bit too much and that made it harder (like at 2:54). And when you do the threadle wraps, don’t turn your feet at all – the physical cue is just a little flip with the hands – foot turning looks too much like the slice so it might make it harder.
>>The other thing that’s challenging in general is the spacing for threadle son AKC.
>>I think the unfair spacing in AKC really plays a role in that. It’s not super fair to them when the jumps are essential 8 feet apart for a threadle in a straight line.I agree, a lot of the threadles you’ll see on Premier courses, for example, are soooo tight! One thing that will help is a turn cue on the jump *before* the threadle jump! So on those crazy tight threadles, I will cue a wrap exit on the jump before and then do the threadle cue for the threadle jump. It makes it so much easier!
Nice work here! Let em know what you think!
TracyGood morning! These looked really good!
Sequence 1 –
Really nice opening! Then Ti said “hurry up, mom!!” And smoked you on the 4-5-6 line. He might be quiet, but he was hustling LOL!The Blind definitely worked better when you had a backside at 6 at :55 (it is a front side on the course map :)) The FC just takes too long for any of us to slow down, rotate, then move out of it.
And Ti’s feedback really helped you nail it with Josie! Really nice! He told you two important things: hurry up! And do the blind! And that is why it went so well with Josie 🙂
Course 2:
On the #2 tunnel – a spin is a turn cue and she reads it, so on the first course the spin worked really well on the#2 tunnel because it turned her to face the line to 3. On this course, though, it is a straight line to 3 so the spin turned her and she had to go back to get 3. You can see her head come towards you then back out at 1:34. So, do a post turn here! It is a little less comfy than a spin but will set a better line.On the 5-6 line to get the backside-backside there, be sure to connect more as she lands from 5 at 1:39 to get the backside push. You softened the connection for a moment so she thought you wanted the front. You did get her back out to the back but it made you late for the exit of 6 and a wide turn on the tunnel exit.
great job on the opening of sequence 3!!! That tunnel threadle moment 3-4 is no joke: it is a speed line where they are looking right at the wrong end of the tunnel and you got it really nicely!!!!
As she exits the 3 tunnel, bear in the mind that the threadle there creates a rear cross on the tunnel entry – so you will want to connect a lot on the tunnel exit and drive her to 4 so she doesn’t zig zag in and out like she did at 2:04.On the ending line at 2:06 – the FC there was quick and pretty timely but then you were blocking her line a bit so as she came around to the takeoff side of the backside, you were standing where she needed to be which contributed to her running around it. MUCH better on the 2nd time through there, you were out of the way so she was able to take the jump.
On your ‘whoa’ for the tunnel exit, add in a little more turning of your feet before she enters and then the run will be perfect.
Great job on these!!!
TracyGood morning! This was really fun to watch!
First is Ruse:
Little details on the walk through:
Definitely keep working that connection, it is paying off! One place to add more is at the very beginning: See her (invisible Ruse in the walk through :)) land from 1, don’t release then look forward.
One other little detail is the push to the backside. You had a bit of a wind-up arm on the push: you are dropping it back when she lands from 4 at :10 which could pull her in to you before sending her to the backside – which might make it harder to get the push back out. You can try having it back to begin with then just swoosh it forward a little on the backside push.The bobble on the run itself is a really useful learning moment! The exit of the tunnel does point directly to the backside of 3 and she drives out of tunnels like a rocket. So…. that is good to remember! Check your tunnel exits in the walk throughs for her. Your walk through assumed that she would exit the tunnel facing 3 and it was interesting to see what happened there (watch it in slow motion):
- you did a timely spin on the tunnel exit
– She exited, looked at 3, then at the instant you said “jump”
– she changed her mind and took the backside.It might have been because she mistook the strong jump cue for the backside cue? Or that the jump height is tall and she bought herself more time to organize by going to the backside? Or…? Hard to know but good to experiment with: you can try just calling her there and not saying jump.
The rest was really good, just work the spin sooner on the very last tunnel to geT a tight line line.
O the 2nd run she didn’t have that question – it was hard to tell but I think you were calling her there from 2-3? So definitely keep a note that you will want to look at tunnel exits and call her to be sure she knows it is the front and not the back.
The overall pace looked really good and so did the connections, the walk through and run really matched! And the blooper 2-3 is great because that is going to be a really good thing to remember – I literally keep a written list of things to remember for my dogs so I can try to remember everything to do during the walk through and run 🙂Hero, sequence 3:
I liked the pace and connection of the walk through! Keep telling yourself connect more, connect more! It can always be more perfect in the walk through but you can already see the results with both dogs in the runs! Pace, connection, timing and verbals really matching up. It made me laugh to listen to the side-by-side herein most spots, your verbals matched almost exactly! So cool! And the run reflected the preparation: he is your less-experienced dog, but good rehearsal made for a great run. Great job to you both!!!!Ruse’s rehearsal and run were great too – the bobble at 3 was more of a decision error (deciding she would naturally be on the line to 3) but now we know to double check tunnel exit lines!
Well done with both dogs here – onwards to the big courses! I think a goal here is to keep sharpening your tools, practicing like this, so you can trial like this – get all of the learning and bloopers done now so that you can peak at NZDAC 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning! Congrats on the new job/contract! That is exciting! You are having a great week: winning things, new job, fun time in Austin – I’m going to live vicariously through you LOL! And the Austin folks are *terrific* so I know you will have a great time and also have a safe time.
First video – the walk through was fast and connected, you were really emphasizing that connection!!! I could see where your invisiMin was and that you were thinking about her position and timing and all that jazz, while also running your lines. Yay!
On the run – she was so funny, as soon as there was a bobble she was like I AM GETTING MY COOKIES hahahaha
One thing to do when there is a bobble – connect harder. At :17 you got a little off kilter then vocalized it, then lost her at :18 because you disconnected. So in that moment, you were still clean and fast – connect harder to try t o get back on track. I think what happened was when you walked it, you were a little far from the 7-8-9 line so she jumped in more over 8 which meant you had to push an extra step to get the 9 backside. She also really liked the 6-7-8 section and picked up speed, so you had to take an extra step AND had to run faster to get it.
I agree with your assessment that it was a little disconnection that caused the run by, but I think the disconnection was caused by the little off kilter moment. So when you feel that little tiny off kilter moment, the voice in your head should say “connect!”
The only other little details on this run that I see are that she had a question 1-2 on the first run. I think the combo of no momentum because it was the beginning and a little looking forward for you caused her to look up at you. And then on the backside serpy lines, remember to stay close to the jumps – as close as an arm’s length away, to set the lines more easily 🙂Great job here! Have fun today!
TracyHi again!
On this session, you had a toy in your shorts so be sure you don’t have anything visibly on you when working the ‘remote reinforcement’ – he is smart and will figure out the difference between toy in pants versus no toy in pants, and you will see different levels of focus that might be deceptive about what he actually understands.
He was focused and engaged when you took the leash off and said OK at around :45, so now delay the release to run for a few more seconds so he can offer engagement. You can also give him a treat for not taking off immediately, then give the clear go play cue.
Also, another idea: train without the harness because he won’t have it at a trial and dogs are brilliant at knowing the difference in context (he is definitely smart enough to figure out that harness = training = cookies, and no harness = trials = no cookies).
>> ShouldI just keep going with these sessions and feeling how far I can goper session?>>
I suggest doing random, short sessions of this, mixed in with a bit more sequence work for rewards in the sequence. We don’t want ALL of the training rewards to come outside of the ring 🙂
The next step, now that the procedures ar getting established, is to move them into as many different trial environments as possible, so for upcoming trials you will want to play the beginning levels of each game and see how he does – if he is comfortable, you’ll be able to ramp them up really quickly!
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
On this session, I agree that he wasn’t all that into the toy. I think the toy was more ‘work’ than ‘play’, meaning it was a thing to be done rather than just a good time to party with 🙂 And that is fine – in new or difficult environments, if he can’t focus on the toy then you can go to using food only. It is a good indicator of his internal state, and that is fine. As long as he is still happy to eat, all is good.
For the go play section – I think the next step is to be able to take the leash off, he sticks with you, does one more thing… and then you release him to go play. That way he doesn’t take off like a rocket when the leash comes off.
And if he doesn’t want to go play or go for a run, that is fine too because we really don’t want him to anyway while we are training 🙂 I have found that the more we ask the dog to go for a run, the less they want to leave us LOL!
This is going well – onwards to the next video!
TracyGood morning!
All of these looked great. More details below about the serpy stuff, but 2 overall things:
– your connection was terrific on these!!! You were connected to her for just about every step on every run. That is HARD especially with baby dogs and you nailed it. Click/treat for you!
– great job with the start lines – I think she was perfect on each one? I didn’t see any early breaks and it looks like you were not fighting. You had a good routine going of taking a long calm moment before the release – I thought my video froze for a heartbeat because you had the long calm moment! Ha! Looked great.
Details about the videos:Serps n stuff video 1
These are going well! She is driving right in on the serps and also understanding to go back out for the next jump. So nice!!!!
One little suggestion is that after the serp jump to get the last jump, you don’t need as much arm swoosh – you can just keep running the line and she will get it as long as you connect as well as you did here 🙂She had one little blooper at :38 where she came in between 1 and 2 – you were in threadle position and opened up your threadle arm/shoulder, so she threadled. Good girl! Good to know you can get such a nice threadle!
You gave yourself a better position on the next rep and she read it beautifully as a serp. To tighten up the turn to the tunnel after it, you can stay closer to the serp jump there to get a better line to the tunnel and also at 1:00 – you were far enough away that she was jumping towards your position and it was hard to send her back. You can be converging in towards the tunnel the whole time on the serp there and the turns will tighten up You started that a bit more on the very last rep at 1:14 and she read it perfectly!Serps n stuff 2B video
Nice first run! Something a little funky happened at :11, she jumped over your leg or something? It was hard to tell from the camera angle but it is possible that you were a little in her way there? But the rest looked connected and fast!
2nd rep – this opening was smoother, I think you were one step further across the line so she didn’t jump over your leg to get to the backside 🙂 And I loved your hustle to get the FC before the last tunnel! I bet the BC is an option there too – you can play with both and see which one is easier to execute. With her speed, my guess is you’ll find the BC easier 🙂Great job connecting here too!
3A & B video
REALLY nice too!
First run – on the jump after the serp, you gave her a lot of connection and line support with motion, and you didn’t do a lot of swoosh arm to cue jump 4 – it was great! And she probably didn’t need quite as much help to get th backside after it at :11, she can probably get it even with you leaving more – she smoked you there 🙂 And that made it harder to stay ahead to get to the last tunnel. You remained totally connected, though, and cued the tunnel with your outside arm, and she nailed it. YES!
The last run looked great too! Totally connected, she knew where to go, super fast. My only suggestion there is converge towards the last tunnel more at :29 – rather than running a totally parallel line to the serp jump, you can be running towards the serp jump to get a sweeter line to the last tunnel and a tighter turn there, more of what you did at 1:14 on the first video. That convergence is a more of an advanced skill for a young dog, because it challenges her to really drive into handling pressure – but I think she is ready for it 🙂Great job here!!! Your teamwork with her is looking great!
Good morning!
These forced front looked GREAT! I had to scroll up to re-read your previous post because you said they were the bane of your existence… but you nailed them here!!!! Most of the reps were ‘traditional’ forced fronts, where your back was to the jump. On those, you were great with position and connection and he seemed to have no questions. You can add in the throw backs where you start as a forced front but then when he gets to the backside, you don’t rotate to face the jump: you use the same arm that you cued him to come to you with and send him behind you to he jump (it creates a really tight turn on the exit)/At :39, 1:05 and 1:45 you executed those as threadles, where you were facing the jump rather than having your back to the jump. It is a more advanced way to handle the backside and it is really just an earlier rotation (probably easier for you, also!) And, they work really well too 🙂 you nailed those as well.
You can add in a verbal cue too – I use my threadle verbal for these because it is the same threadle concept even though the physical cues are a little different. And mix in some front side balance to keep him on his toes 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
>> In his jump work that calls for a jump with height, like a grid of three 8″ jumps, spaced 5 1/2′ for him, with a 4th jump at a distance, he is jumping 20″. His sit jumps, he is at 18″. His zigzag is 4″. I am moving ahead, along side & behind on the grids.>>
>>Motion is a thing with him, though. I spent much of my time behind him in our running contact work so he would stop looking at me, that now I see he is really affected by my being ahead either stationary or moving. I have him with the low AF for the next several sessions and have started by standing out past the AF and then walking from about half way. I am not sure how else to add motion with jumping other than the pinwheel & tunnel exercise.>>I would build the grids up to where you can run run run run run from ahead, along side, and behind. 🙂 Are you walking at this stage? If so, and he is super successful, you can totally go to moving faster 🙂 Keep an eye on his rate of success so you can keep it really high.
The zig zags are looking good! The main thing is that he does not look up at you, so we need to get the reward out of your hands: he is looking up over the last jump and watching for the cookie. If you are training for food, you can place and bowl on the ground with a treat in it about 10 feet past the last jump, or use a MM. When he is not looking at you, you can begin to tighten up the zig zags so they are eventually in a flat line.
Because motion is also an excitement thing, you take out your motion but then use a toy as the reward, so he gets internal excitement 🙂 When he can do the jumping for a toy, you can add back your motion so eventually you can work with a toy AND you can be running 🙂
Nice work on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHmm, that is odd, my reply has disappeared! Sorry! I wonder where I posted it…. LOL!
You are a brave soul to be heading to Texas but it sounds FUN!
Both dogs did well. Kaladin needed a little extra support on the backside push to re-awaken it then he was really good with it! That is good to remember: exaggerate the first one in a session or on course so he is comfortable then the rest will be easy.
The Threadles are going well! On the threadle wraps, try to do a more subtle arm cue – at 1:29 for example, you were using a lot of shoulder and upper body, and we don’t want the upper body to potentially read slice. You emphasize the feet: feet face forward on the threadle wrap and feet can turn a little to the center of the bar for the threadle slice so he has no questions.I think you can do the same with Min – emphasize feets 🙂 That should help clarify the difference between the wrap and the slice on the threadles.
To help her read the difference between threadle and front side, you can add more of a ‘heads up’ cue on the wing wrap, to say to her “hey, pay close attention, something CRAZY is about to happen” haha! And on the front side stuff you don’t need a strong turn cue because that is a natural line for her anyway.Great job on these! You can keep working up to adding motion with both of them. And fingers crossed that you get that new job!!!
Have fun!
TracyHi!
>> I gave that a lot of thought, although I did not run it both ways to compare – the weather is beastly. What decided me was the angle into the tunnel. Going the way I did, it was a straight shot into the tunnel which should yield greater speed. Going the other way would definitely be shorter but it is more of a turn into the tunnel. The way I built it, it seemed like a big factor at the time.>>
When the weather is less gross, it is worth timing! When we time it with zippy and bendy dogs like Enzo, the shorter line ends up being faster because of the quickness that these dogs can change their leads. I would consider going the other way with dogs that can’t be quick like that, but Enzo sure can! It is worth it to play around and see when it is not a zillion degrees out 🙂
>> In today’s course, I didn’t even consider turning the faster way until my buddy Mark Bills pointed it out.
>> Ha! Thanks, Mark!
>>The most egregious problem, imo, is the “turn” at 14. You are suggesting a better change of motion but it seems to me I am not in a position to show acceleration and deceleration. When he is in the air over 13, I am almost at 14. I needed to show the path (14 not any of the other nearby jumps). I can see what you are saying but I’m not seeing how to fix it. If I do a hard decel as he is over 13, he will turn towards me and bypass 14 altogether (or take the backside of 15). This is where I try to use my verbal (“left!”) to help.>>
I think the brake arm might be the answer there. I get to try to get you to do crazy things tomorrow, so we will play with it!
>>[As you already know, I am hesitant to invest too much time in rehearsing change of pace during walk throughs, because it isn’t possible to do that in real life. ]>>
2 ideas for you on that:
If you rehearse it at home and it gets comfy, it becomes less important to do it at a trial because you will feel it in your soul 🙂 and then it is already at your fingers tips and you can execute it, kind of like how your connection is pretty natural now and you don’t need to obsess on it as much.
And at trials, if there is a spot where it is really critical to get the tight turn, you can go there at the very beginning of the walk through (while everyone else is at #1) and work that section by having it all to yourself before the hordes arrive. 🙂See ya soon!
TracyHi!
Hi! Sorry to hear about Waldo! I have never had good luck with the RV people, have you tried the generator places to look at it: Onan or Cummings. Can you take Waldo back to where you bought him and ask them to fix it? It has only been a few weeks. Bummer!!!
He is doing well with his agility!!!! This is a really complex course so it was hard, but it is so cool to see him really doing well 🙂
To get the serp at 3, don’t got as deep to 2 Like you did on the first run, or do a FC then FC 2-3, 3-4 – he is too quick for you to race him back to it if you end up halfway between 1-2 🙂
On the second run at :57, you didn’t go as deep to 2 and that got you to the landing side of the 3 jump sooner so the serp worked well!The jump on the other side of the DW is hard for youngsters! To get he jump after the tunnel, isolate that section and yuo can move the jump in closer so he can get it more easily – then you can reward it a lot and then start to move it further away.
He is such a faster learner: he got that jump nicely on the 2nd run which set up a really nice line to the tunnel and the frame! Fast and accurate!His a-frame looks great! And he got the jump after it on the 2nd run, so nice!
He had a little distraction at 1:14 – then on the line after it, on the other side of the DW, you had a harder time maintaining connection and that is why there were questions.
When you tried it again your connection was so much better and he got it that line so much better!! After the dog walk, you can treat those 2 jumps as a serp to a rear cross, kind of like a tandem turn so that you can use your hands to pull him in then flip him away so you can get him turned to his right. He also did well on the dog walk?
Are you going to the UKI trial at Level Up on the first weekend of September? We can do some NFC and other stuff with him (then there is flyball practice on Sunday after the trial!)Great job here, I am excited about how well he is doing here!
TracyHi!
>> I zero’d in on the drill that may slow them down to think. It didn’t work – LOL!!! >>>Ha! Nope, it is designed to make the human run faster, not slow the dog down haha!! She did really well, I would say any of the bloopers were yours 🙂
The short drills looked really good – jump to wing, then wing to jump around the tunnel.
You had a little blooper on the Jump – to the far end of tunnel at :28. Based on your line of motion, I thought that was what you wanted, I think she was correct you – were blocking the wing there 🙂 Your line of motion there was pretty identical to 1:12, when you did want the tunnel 🙂 So you can reward the off courses because 99% of the time it is you:)
Your line was much clearer to the wing at :46 and she had no questions.Building to the bigger sequences – this is going well in general. Yay! As you mentioned, it is hard to get around the tunnel – At 1:20 you need to either send her so you can get ahead ot start the sequence, or run faster 🙂 She smoked you there and didn’t know where to go.
When she was taking the tunnel behind you, it was a connection issue at 1:34. Your shoulders closed forward, connection broke, she thought you wanted a blind cross to the tunnel. Note how you adjusted the connected at 143 and it was much easier for her to know where to be!
Same idea to fix the oopsie at 2:15: ramp up the connection like you did at 2:33, it was great there!>>I also need to get more comfy with her stay at trials. I don’t trust her and that’s an awful place to be. She’s a pushy one for sure.>>
You can totally do some FEO or NFC runs to surprise her with a reward for the stay! I totally know how nice it is to trust the stay completely 🙂 Some NFC runs will help solidify it 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi!
This is also going well, even though it had more bloopers.Good job continuing after the errors in the beginning, you were able to get some good work in on that first run! She turned the wrong way at :30 because of the pressure of you leaning into her to get her to take the jump.
At the beginning, the error on 2 was a disconnection error: watch your head there. As you were running to the blind cross, you turned your head to look forward at :18, she saw it and correctly came off the line. She had a little trouble with commitment to the bar on the backside of 8 – you can help by looking at the landing spot as you move through, but you can also work the training so she commits as the default – she might need a reminder there of you tossing the toy to the landing spot as you move forward. I thought your handling was appropriate there so it is more about the training.
O the 2nd walk through you had much better connection on 2 which you executed better too, so she took the jump. Yay! You did peek forward and look forward when you saw her committing, so that means you needed more rehearsal of knowing exactly there to run to so you don’t have to look forward there at all. You can work that rehearsal by marking your running line off what you can see without disconnecting, which is the wing so the 2 and 3 jump – you can work the line and connection by sticking close to the wings in this situation which will put you in a great position for the blind without having to look ahead to find the position. You also got it nicely at 1:08, disconnected as she was taking 2 and going right into the blind.
The blind went well! And she found her line to the 7 backside nicely! But she didn’t take the jump at :57 (she did take the bar on the 8 jump though) . She did take the jump at 1:16 but your timing for the backside at 8 was late (verbal & connection as she was taking off for the front, and you were moving laterally away so it did look like a front side cue).
Much better on the last run!
On the last tunnel entry – your running line and having her on your left did indicate the other side of the tunnel, she was reading you correctly. You would need a threadle cue to keep her coming in to #9, or do a blind and get her onto your right side as she exits 8.The side by side had you moving faster than her but again, as long as you obsess on connection, I think that is fine 🙂 So keep up the good work with the staying in motion, and keep obsessing on the connection 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
