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Good morning! It looks like the UKI day went really well!
When you do NFC, does he play in the ring if you bring a toy in? I think it will help him if you hide a toy in your pocket or something, or a ball, and play in the ring during NFC runs. Since he is sometimes slower off the start line, you can start as if it is a real run then reward early in the run – to build value for the beginning.
The speedstakes looked GREAT! Actually, they all looked great. And he did smoke you during the standard run LOL! Yay! You seemed to be first dog in the ring after the height change: one thing to play with is NOT going to the start line as early, so you are not waiting there as long. You had some long waits at the start line before they were ready, so you can go in after the heights are all changed and when they are closer to being ready for you. That might make for a quicker transition to the run. I was super happy to see that he was able to do tricks on the start line, like jumping up in the air, and it looks like he also did some nice engaged chill with you!T
Hi!
I think it is great that you can get to a practice show day! It is a great opportunity. I am sad to hear that someone kicked her in that situation, especially when the judge asked people to NOT have their dogs out. That is really upsetting!!It was good to try different things in that situation and she gave you good answers. The #1 answer seems to be that she is not ready to be off leash in that environment yet. She is really young (17 months old?) so that is not that surprising, especially considering that she probably did not get the same amount of exposure as normal due to covid. A couple of ideas for you:
– is she in any group training classes? Doesn’t have to be agility, can be anything – but she needs to work in group situations doing things with other people and dogs around.
– in your next opportunities to train her in a trial setting, don’t take off the leash until you are 10000% sure she will NOT leave you. Your next training opportunities should be on leash just doing behaviors/tricks/obedience in the ring, for the toy.One of the games posted this morning is about how to take the training runs and build up to real runs – the first step is getting the dog comfortable in the environment. Since she is leaving, she is not comfortable and doesn’t know what to do. So, the first step is to get her comfortable in the trial environment. When she is comfortable? Then you can add in some jumps and tunnels. But getting comfortable involves several highly successful experiences with playing in the ring on leash, then doing some recalls dragging a leash or off leash – but no agility.
The agility is the easy part… the focus is the hard part.
She will let you know when she is ready for more challenge (such as adding agility obstacles) because she will be completely engaged and not want to leave or investigate people or dogs. But until she understands how to ignore them, I would keep her on leash and not try to ask for any agility otherwise she’ll be getting the wrong response to the trial environment. You can see more of those ideas in the Transitions To Trials part 2 this week.
Let me know what you think!
TracyI
Hi!
Yuki is totally fun, and totally honest 🙂>>. Could be because she saw where I was and figured (correctly) the jump would be the next obstacle.
Yes, I think that was it, as she was taking 2, you were moving away really laterally to the landing of 4 – if I didn’t know the sequence, I would think the handling was telling her 1-2-4 and she should not go into the tunnel. So be sure to stay connected and take the extra step or two to confirm the tunnel for her, then head to 4. That might mean a rear cross 4-5-6 but that is fine!
>>She also didn’t like my location and cue before the second tunnel – and I agree with her. 😉 She is fun to run, just wish she didn’t yell before tunnels….
I think it was because you stopped moving. That’s good info! Definitely move extra to tunnels, so she totally knows you want it. It might mean you plan rear crosses because you can’t peel away for fronts or blinds, but that is fine – I’d rather do a rear cross than get a refusal on a tunnel 🙂
Nice work 🙂
TracyHi there!
Wowza, this went really well! I am liking the connection on this walk through!! Your plans look good, your lines looked good, you were actively connected all the way through, yelling the verbals. The only thoughts I had were to maybe get closer to 14 after the blind on the ending line? Maybe run faster in the final rehearsal so you feel like you have plenty of time during the actual runs? Maybe on the 7-8-9, go to the other side of the 8 backside rather than do a cross – the other side might be faster because it is more of a racetrack and actually has fewer turns (you would have to walk the yardage to see what the distance would be).
But otherwise, it was really strong. And definitely good trial prep!!How did the runs feel? I thought they were pretty darned awesome. Hero was almost foot perfect! Ruse had a little question about the send to 14 but you were connected, saw the question, and helped her. Hero has more independence at 14 than Ruse so that is something to remember: get closer to the lines. I think you can do that for both, because Hero will be fine and you had plenty of time getting to the backside on the 2nd to last jump. I really liked that tight blind 12-13 with BOTh dogs – fast and tight!!!!! Well done on all of it and extra click/treat for that section 🙂
Yes, the walkthrough and the runs almost matched. The pace matched Hero really well and was a little ahead of Ruse’s speed, which is fine 🙂 You have it locking into place, so now I will move to bugging you to always work your courses like this. It will get easier and easier – you nailed this one and your total walk through was 3 and a half minutes! So the more you rehearse this process, the easier it gets. And I am excited that you were able to lock into it this quickly!!!!!!!!! When is your next trial? Let’s video your trial walk throughs!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
For youngsters, 7 minutes over 90 minutes can be a LOT – factoring in heat, especially. I think 7 minutes over 90 minutes in 65 degree weather with low humidity is doable. 7 minutes in 80 degree with humidity? Very hard. You can take the 7 minutes and do it 60 seconds at a time: 60 seconds or less, big reward, into the pool… then rotate through the other dogs. Then, 60 seconds or less, big reward, into the pool… then a break. So he might get 3 maybe 4 turns spread out over an hour or 90 minutes, but he will not be out there long enough to say “oh wow, it is HOT and this is not as fun.” That is how I work Elektra now, she is very sensitive to the heat. I used to work CB that way too but he has developed a better tolerance so his sessions are longer now.
T
Good morning!
Hooray for the new job! But BOO on the intense heat – what a crazy weather summer it has been so far!
The sequencing looked great. The main thing is a contrast is what works for connection for her on the side changes… and what doesn’t work 🙂 And, assume all errors in the handling are yours and reward all the things 🙂 So I will try to really isolate those moments so you can see the difference – you were making really good adjustments!
First video:
Seq 1 super nice! Both reps! great connection, nice loud GO before the tunnel and she did a great jobSeq 2:
I think you can be 2 or 3 steps further ahead before you release to get the blind earlier – she saw your motion & position and the beginning of the blind so she turned, but you didn’t really get connected to her on your new side so she went ot the tunnel when you said tunnel (good girl!) I would TOTALLY reward that because she was correct. When something goes wrong, always reward as if it was right – because she was probably correct 🙂Rep 2: you got your eyes back to her more but your arm was pointing forward so she wasn’t exactly sure. To really guarantee it, get your eyes to her like you did here at :45 but point your dog side arm back to her nose. Pointing to the jump ahead blocks the connection and young dogs really need to see the full connection.
She is starting to collect on the last go line, so have the reward ready and throw it nice and early.Rep 3 & 4- this pointing ahead to 3 blocked the connection here at 1:00 and so she couldn’t find the correct side. You had a lower arm and a tiny bit further back at 1:11 so she found 3 but was not sure and hit the wing
Again, don’t mark it as incorrect: reward her, then connect more and better on the next rep. Handler errors are human errors, so Indy should get rewarded for doing her best to find the lines. If she gets marked and reward withheld on something that was your error, she is going to slow down and we don’t want that. So just assume it was you, reward like it was perfect, then connect more. And if you don’t know what happened in the moment, watch the video and then it will be more clear what to adjust.
The last rep was the best! Note the lower arm and it was further back so she read the line better (1:18). But to get it consistently great, bring your dog-side arm back and point it to her nose (not down at your side and not forward to the obstacle). it is a big of an exaggeration of connection, but that is what the youngsters need as they are learning sequencing. Then as they mature and get experienced, it won’t be as important 🙂
Video 2:
1st rep – you don’t need quite as much arm motion to 2, a little more stationary position will help her know to collect more.
Then… connect! Keep your right arm back to her nose and gaze deeply into her eyes. If you move away without connection, she will read the line like she did at :10 but won’t know which side to be on. And… reward, she was correct.Look at the difference in your connection at :25: GORGEOUS! She know where to go. YAY!! ! I think you were surprised and didn’t quite set the rear cross at the end of that rep.
2nd sequence: nice wrap to the left! Nice wrap to the right! We have a great camera angle on your connection to her at :56 as she is coming around the wing: Your eyes on very clearly looking for her eyes, your dog-side arm is back, the whole moment is awesome 🙂
I think she stood up on her stay at 1:09? Something got wonky: she stood then you released or something, so be careful to maintain the stays very cleanly.
I think you will find a BC easier/faster than a FC on the landing side of 3.
The FC between the tunnel and #3 looked great! Then there was a little too much GO on 4, so call her a bit sooner. Reward that, she didn’t have time to process the ‘here’. It was soooo much sooner on the last rep and she was lovely!Great job here! Let me know what you think, and stay cool 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, I agree, there is SO MUCH in agility. I have written check lists and I pull from them to plan a short session. So for the wraps, as you work through them, change only one variable at a time. If you start with both bars low, only change height on one bar if you want to change that variable. If that goes well, change height on the other bar. And you can work them up in small increments, rather than both going up high together. For the handling, you can mark the spots on the ground where you need to do the transitions, so he can see the cues earlier and earlier. I think he did well here! And I also think you can be sooner, by decelerating sooner and rotating sooner. If that is hard with the bar, do it with a wing to make sure you have commitment, then add the bar back in.
On the forced front crosses, one of the hardest parts for him was that he was only looking at the toy, so even when you stepped back, he didn’t know where to go. One way to help that is to have the toy already placed on the ground where you want him to land, and nothing in your hands. Even throwing the toy was hard for him because he was just looking at the toy lol! Yes, toy on the ground presents the challenge of ignoring the toy but that is a great challenge.
To get the forced fronts stronger, start with a full front cross where you fully rotate. When he understands that , you can work up to the throwbacks you were doing here: be sure to step back and look at the landing spot. Then the bar can go up 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Overall, these are looking really good, especially the connection!!! And since connection is such an important cue, he did re ly well!
On the rear crosses at the beginning – you are handling them like rear crosses on the flat by pulling and crossing on the landing side of 3 – that’s why he is looking to his left over 3 instead of to his right. Ideally, you’d decel between 1 and 2, then turn him over 2, then drive the RC diagonal so you do the cross on the takeoff side of 3. That’ll put you in better position for the rest too.
The blind opening looked good, and so does the wrap! On the wrap, start the spin part of it sooner so you are done and reconnected when he lands – he had to wait for a moment to see the connection before knowing where to go.
About the bar when you did the landing side blind d at 3:
He dropped it because you were still in the way when he landed from 3 and he didn’t have time to sort out the jumping, so do the blind sooner and get outta there before he takes off.
If you are going to fix it, fix it in the context of the handling (because that is likely what contributed to it) – so put him on the takeoff side of 3, do the blind then release him and hold the reward til you are sure the bars stay up 🙂 if he drops it again, dial back your motion and be even sooner with the cue. If he drops it again, lower the height. Still drops it? End the session 🙂 because something is up that can be fixed by looking at the video.
Doing it from up close, it doesn’t help teach him how to jump within the context of the handling. So, if you fix, fix from within the handling and not just isolating the jump.
Nice work here!
TracyHi! Looking at the video, there are 2 separate things going on:
First is the skills work (contacts/weaves/etc). For those, she is getting a bit of a mixed message about the contacts – she is running them but I think they are trained as stops? And also trial environments produce higher arousal, so the behavior is harder to get. Rather than running standard courses for real, I highly recommend running as much NFC or FEO as possible on the contacts in particular (and weaves too) – you can do a bit of this in AKC but a LOT of it in USDAA and UKI. Bring a toy in the ring and train as if at home, in that environment. It will really help her execute and have clear understanding.Second, the handling:
The most important thing will be to video your walk through, like you did here on these sequences. We can find the errors on the walk throughs and then stomp them out 🙂 And you can have a friend watch your walk through to see if you are staying in motion and making the big connection (I don’t care as much about verbals right now – motion and connection were the 2 biggest trouble spots, you were stopping a lot and looking forward). I suggest only trialing for real on jumping runs for now, so you can practice the handling without worrying about contacts or weaves or the table while yo are training those. Work each line with connection and fast running in the walk through so you can execute it in the run. I think you are over-managing the lines, as you mentioned, and she is really fast so that is where things blow up. Attack the trial courses like you did here, especially when you did Sequence 2!!! You don’t need to manage the lines, you just need to connect more so she knows where the lines are.Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyHi again!
Good job making the decision first (the slice on the outside is likely to be faster for the big dogs here and the yardage will be the same, approx, but remember to walk the yardage if there is a decision to be made).
Plan – generally strong, with one detail:
As the invisible dog exits 5 (tunnel) at 3:58 and 4:19 note how you briefly make connection then look ahead. To get her past the off course, you will need to maintain a a MASSIVE connection til she is past the off course and looking at 6.That is the part that bit you during the run – you had better connection in the run than in the walk through 5-6, but not encouraging so she read it as a cue for the off course – your left shoulder should be further back there to get her to really know where to be.
Excellent adjustment to get that connection on the 2nd run!
So overall this sequence went really well – just look for the BIG connection spots where it is really important that she knows where to be especially when there are off courses.Great job here! The more we make this habit for you, the more you can run the courses brilliantly like you did here!
TracyHi again!
Connection was good in this walk through too – too much time spent doing the verbals without moving and just doing arms – get the motion and the lines going too.
You had more rehearsal of going fast here, which is good! Your plan, lines, connections and verbals were clean even as you added speed. Super!
NICE run – I think the extra rehearsal of going fast fast fast really helped – you were faster in the walk through than in the run which is a GOOD thing as long as you stay connected (which you did here). It looked like on the actual run, you might have felt like you had plenty of time. And that is EXACTLY what we like – not rushing, plenty of time, lots of connection. Click/treat to both of you!
I think more rehearsing like this will lead to more success in the ring!
T
Good morning! Lots of good stuff here to look at and play with!!
There is so much good on this walk through:
Good job making the decision first!
Good job working your connections VERY early in the walk through
Good job working the verbals very early in the walk through!The plan – generally really strong, there is only one spot that I see will possibly cause questions: You were a little too far across the line for the blind 4-5 and don’t lean back there to get the connection – be moving towards 5 to set the line.
It was smart to put her behind the fence so you can run for real 🙂 That is an important piece of the puzzle 🙂
You also ran out of time a bit, so you can hurry up the early parts of the walk through to get to the fast-moving parts without running out of time. 5 minutes on 12 obstacles simulates the normal 8 minutes on 20 obstacles that we generally get at trials.When you did the fast walk through, I think 4-5 looked really good. But it was only once, as compared to the several times you walked it being too far across the line and leaning back. On other little detail was that 10-11 had too much sideways motion, remember to decel and stop your motion on those wraps.
On the run – because you worked the connections so much, they were fully in place during the run and that is HUGE. Yay! You ran 4-5 like most of the rehearsals, which was too far across 4 and leaning back to connect (stopping your motion) so she couldn’t read the line. And then you stopped moving a bit on the last line, so got behind and ended up being in her way for the 12 jump.
So in general, about this walk through: work on getting to the moving faster, sooner, so you can really get the lines in your soul 🙂 And remember to keep moving through the blinds, connect and run so you can maintain the pace and execute the plan.
Onwards to sequence 2!
TGood morning!
Hooray for gentle agility! My guess is that it means a relatively steady pace, no sudden starts/stops and also no twisting moves (so we will limit front crosses). I like how Keiko was supervising your walk through haha! And I think you set it really well, the lines looked good!
Based on your plan to send her to the tunnels, I think you can confidently choose to do the “ahead of the dog” handling you were playing with at 8-9 (jump to the 2nd tunnel) and and at 11. When your Achilles has permission to do more, I will bug you about adding more speed to your walk through but for now it is all about planning and getting connection 🙂 And even though you are not running yet, you can still give the loud verbals in the walk through.
Your opening with Keiko looked fabulous 1-6! I think you can trust her send more to 7, which puts you further across 8 which allows you to blind cross on the landing side to get the tunnel. You were executing the plan but missed the connection point where she landed at 2:58 and stopped moving – you can see your head looked up towards the tunnel before she had a chance to figure out where to be on landing, so she guess it was a blind and ended up off course (I like off courses with young dogs, it means that they are going fast and driving lines!) And you were 100% correct to keep going and she finished really strong. I don’t think you arm was all wacko like you mentioned LOL! ( I think that is what you said) but it did make me laugh when you said that 🙂
The 2nd run looked great. The opening was great again. On the 7-8-9 line, you kept moving and you were super connected, and she ran it perfectly. And she finished even stronger. Yay! She looked GREAT on both of these, she is super happy to be running with da momma 🙂
So on your next walk through, 3 things to consider:
-trust your distance skills to get ahead for the handling
– plan to keep moving
– plan massive, exaggerated connection all the way through so she can see the line the whole time.Great job!!!! Have fun with the next one!
TracyGood morning!
Great update about the mat work! 1 oopsie out of 20 is a really high rate of success, especially if you can identify the variable that might have been hard enough to contribute to the miss. You can approach the lateral position more gradually. But it sounds like a 95% rate of success and that is spectacular for running contact work!!!On the video: this is going really well!!
First rep – good! She see,e to really pick up the line after the tunnel beautifully with the blind on the landing side of #3
The 2nd rep with the FC on the tunnel so you got between the tunnel and #3 went well too! Watch her when she exits the tunnel there- you had moved back away from 3 to pick her up then forward again – and her line matched that line (she exited straight before heading to 3) – which basically means that she is watching the the handling closely (yay!) and also that she can see you earlier in the tunnel than we would expect 🙂 So as soon as you get to the correct side of 3, move forward to 4 so she can whip out of the tunnel towards 3 like she did when you were on the landing side.
RC reps – another good landing side blind at 3! You were really good about being sure you got connection and she was so quick getting to you there. She did read the RC but. I think you can start the RC pressure a little differently to tighten up the line. When she lands from 3 and is sorting out 4 (jump before the RC), decelerate and turn to face the RC line for 5. That decel between 3 and 4 will turn her better over 4, at which point you move up the RC line and get a tighter rear cross. At :46 and 1:06, you drove to 4 with some strong acceleration so she landed wide, and didn’t turn to 5 til she landed which made the RC harder to do. But the RC line was really good so she got it, then you had a GREAT line down to the tunnel for the ending!
Great job here!!
TracyHi! She did great here! The angled entries were no problem at all, and she was easily able to let you do the RC too. YAY!! You can add challenge to the RC by sending her to it more (like standing at the base of the teeter and sending her to the entry, around the boards, without moving to it with her – kind of like a backside send!).
>> At 1.00 I lowered the end.
Yes, she was surprised – if there is a way to change the tip more slowly, I think she will be less surprised. Ideally, she barely notices the change 🙂 So you can change the tip by a half inch each time so she does perceive any big changes, by moving the holder out a tiny bit each time.
Great job here! Let me know what you think.
Tracy
