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Hi!
Don’t be embarrassed about the walk through! You worked your plan then nailed the run. Part of what we are doing with these walk throughs is looking at time management and also looking at decisions.
Part of making decisions is being able to do them quickly and confidently – the changing them if needed (also quickly and confidently LOL!) So if the big takeaway is to come into the walk through with most your plan in place, then hash out the rest quickly – that is good to know!
From what I could see on this walk through, part of the trouble might have been adding complexity to 6-7 and 11-12 when you didn’t need to, in the form of extra blinds. You did a blind at 6 then a blind on the flat to 7. And you added a blind on the very last jump too. Both of these blinds worked… but I don’t think you needed either of them. You could ‘serp’ 6-7 all dog on left, and run to 12 with him on your right (no additional blind needed). It was those 2 spots that took up most of your time in the walk through – so one thing to add to your walk through list: when you are working really hard on one spot, ask yourself if you are over-complicating things and if there is a simpler way? Often, there is a simpler way. If not? Carry on with the obsessing in that one spot 🙂
Overall, your had great connection, verbals were in place, and you did a great job on the run! Yay!!!
TracyHi!
Yikes, I am ready for lovely weather with a whole lot less humidity. Sounds like your area got some big storms last night!His opening looked really great on the first run! 2-3 looked great! You might have been calling him too much, one extra “come” at :12 so you can try these with a ‘come weave’ and see what he does in terms of finding the weaves without more help 🙂
Slice versus wrap:
3 steps is significant! 3 steps difference in distance on a wrap, versus a slice – that slice is likely to end up being faster. I timed it from landing of the previous jump to nose-passes-wing of the decision jump – to that point, the slice is faster (the in in was slower but that was just because it is a harder skill). So then if the weather ever gets nice, you can try it through the tunnel – he *might* be able to explode out of the wrap and have a faster line to the tunnel, but a lot fo BCs are still finding the slice to be the fastest line even with the extra turns to and through the tunnel. But most importantly, you have all the options in the toolbox and that will be super useful.Great job here! Stay cool 🙂
TracyHI! Welcome back from the beach, I hope you had a great vacation and fun at the seminar too!
About the lead outs – throwing back the rewards definitely feels weird but the dogs find it helpful – “we get paid here when the momma is THERE? Cool!” You don’t need to say yes before you throw, you can just say catch and toss the reward. The ‘catch’ is a marker equivalent to the ‘yes’ and it also tells her exactly where/when the reward is coming.
The handling looked really strong! He commitment looked great on the 2nd jump in the middle of the setup which means you can be earlier on moving through the cues:
for the blinds, you can start them as soon as you see she has landed from jump 1.
For the lead out push, you can start moving more towards 3 (and wherever 4 would be in this situation) as soon as she has landed from 2 🙂
Your connection and positions are looking good, so now you can totally challenge her commitment with the earlier timing (I think she will be fine 🙂 )>>We’ve been doing most of our mat work with toys. This morning I did a session with the treat trainer and she was definitely less drivey but she hit it every time. Also was able to be more precise working through different approaches since her brain was on instead of being 90% on the toy and 10% on task.
When you do the training with a toy, how successful is she in terms of hitting the mat?
>>Just now we picked a shady spot and did some more with me staying stationary with a high value toy in hand. She got 80% of the hits and the other 20 I spun her back around and she thoughtfully hit the mat before flying off for ball.
80% is good for a starting point – I suggest repeating the session twice more – if the rate of success remains the same or drops, then the food is a better choice. If it rises – keep using the toy 🙂
>>I’ll try to get some new remote batteries so I can share footage with you but I’m thinking though the drive wasn’t there with the remote trainer, the accuracy was, so maybe I should continue to train this both with toy and with remote trainer?>>
Accuracy is more important than speed for now – and also, where is she looking when the toy is in play versus the treats? If she is accurate for the food and looking ahead – bingo! It is easy enough to get more and more speed. If she is not accurate and/or looking back at you for the toy… stick to food for now (it is easy to get speed but harder to convince the dogs to NOT look at us). If she is pretty accurate and looking ahead (not at you) with the toy? Then train the ‘newer’ concepts with food (like different angles, more motion, etc) and then when she is successful, work them for toy rewards. Let me know if that makes sense! Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>but in this last class, she decided perhaps she could run with someone else, and had a great time.
This is great! The most important thing is that she has a great time in that environment – everything else is icing on the cake.
>>There is no way of knowing how long I’ll be unable to run the girls in class. I’m currently in PT for something else, and now the therapist is working on the this injury with me. A total rupture can take a year to heal, so I’m trying to be careful and not turn this into something bigger. >>
Yes, avoiding the rupture seems smart! In the meantime, we keep working on the verbals and independence and confidence in new environments 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
He did well here as you added speed and the tunnel!! The me me cue itself is going really well – make sure that when you are adding speed and the tunnel, that he doesn’t see you converging in towards the jump – that causes the line of motion ti indicate the front which conflicts with the threadle wrap verbal/arm. So, no need to be near the wing, just keep running your line. That will turn out to be pretty helpful because these threadle wrap things are often found when we are nowhere near the wing.
Now that you are adding it to the full jump – when you want him to run by it, call him before the tunnel and turn a bit – we don’t want the name call alone to mean ignore the bar – we often call the dogs on course as part of the cue to take the front side of the jump. So, a bit more turn-of-shoulders will make it clear (if we ever needed to run past a wing and ask him to take nothing, a more formal bypass verbal would work but that is sooooo low on the priority list at the moment that you don’t need to worry about it for now.
One more thing to add: a cue to take the front side of the jump after the tunnel (go or jump) as that’ll make for a great balance to the backside threadle wrap.Great job!!! We add more to this on Monday 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>>I did do that one on purpose and forgot to tell you I modified.
Perfect! Makes sense!
>>It’s Ben Franklin with the key and the kite 🙂
You see it, right?
>>ahhhhh yes! this is what was particularly challenging about what I was trying to do. I told Carrie that I couldn’t use an out to help him distinguish because both sides required a lead change. It wasn’t an in-in and it wasn’t a go….. which probably should have told me that if I didn’t have any of the tools in my toolbox to handle it, the course was wrong. FACEPALM!!!
It was indeed an ‘out’ from 3-4, and your position/connection would make it clear (plus timing of the verbal, which can start before he enters tunnel #3.
Hi!
>>I love his speed, and I don’t even think we’ve reached full gas but I feel so behind always. Even when I’m ahead. I need to keep working this. But you are correct, I usually do a good job of staying ahead.>>
The rehearsals help all of that, which is why we do them over and over 🙂
>>Between the last 2 tunnels, this is another connect to the dog behind you moment – at 1:56 you were looking ahead and also quiet (he was not naughty, he was correct). Compare it to 2:08 and 2:57 where you were looking at the dog behind you and talking to him – nailed it! Yay!
I did both a front or a blind here. Did you have a preference of which one seemed to work better?>>
A blind will be quicker for you to be able to reconnect, but either works well as long as it starts early so you are reconnected before he exits the first tunnel.
T
Hi!
This is one of my favorite exercises 🙂 It went well for you and Sly!!!I think you might have been narrating the walk through like an instructor LOL! That makes it less efficient and effective, which might have contributed to running out of time. A 5 minute walk through goes by so quickly – you had really good sense of plan and natural connection, so next time add in more emphasis on rehearsing verbals and the speed of handling.
The run was really good – very connected, plan was in place, he seemed to know where to go at all times and he was able to run the sequence accurately and FAST 🙂 YAY! One thing to consider – you went silent til you said tunnel for the last jump LOL! That is probably a product of not being able to ‘rehearse’ the verbals at speed in the walk through, so your brain was super focused on the other elements. That wasn’t a big deal here on this one, but it might be on a bigger course, so definitely add emphasis to the verbals and handling speed.
Great job here! Onwards to the next one!
TracyHi!
I used to dread training stays, but I love *having* stays – so making it fun was important for humans and dogs LOL!
>>Yes! I do need to trust Cowboy. Once I removed the Manners Minder (he is obsessed with the thing) there were zero errors. I will continue to keep at it!>>
Good boy!!! And yes, keep trusting – you will either be super happy with what he can do, or he will tell you where he needs more training, or he will let you know if you disconnected. It is all good!
TracyHi!
>>I need to work serps with a landing side blind. Well I think I need to do more landing side blinds in general with him.>>
Yes, the backside serp and regular serp jump commitment training will really help – right now he is relying on handling cues, which makes it harder to handle these on full courses.
On the walk through video:
A-ha! I think we are on to something! The bulk of the rehearsal/walk through has the invisible dog ahead of you which is not realistic to what would happen when running him. If we can change that rehearsal, we can change the runs!>>I wouldn’t have done this one with both our energy levels but the lawn person comes tomorrow and tears the course down.
I understand having to get things done between the weather and lawn care 🙂 But, for the youngsters – crank up the energy (cold brew coffee does it for me haha!). You didn’t have a ‘dress rehearsal’ walk through on this, so the run was when you were doing the verbals/connections/speed for the first time. You can eliminate errors with that dress rehearsal – and plus it eliminates errors for him too! An example would be the last two obstacles, 16-17. You handled it in your mind, looking ahead, but never really walked that line: so he was not able to read it. I think you also left out the #6 tunnel in the run? I think you walked it with the tunnel there but didn’t do it in the run (also 8 is a backside, it looks like he did is as a front) which is one of the reasons to add the section of the walk through where you look at the map. The parts where you connected looked really good, like the opening 1-5 and 9-10-11 and 14-15-16! So now we can push to the next level to get the whole run looking like that, the first time, consistently 🙂
You can do the next runs on the smaller sequences if you don’t have the whole course built anymore:
walk with the connection to the dog behind you (adding verbals and speed too of course :)) and then just run him once – if anything needs fixing, re-walk it! And if you are not sure what needs fixing, watch the video.I think we are on the verge of a breakthrough, so be strict with walking it this way and let me know how it goes!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>>And for your delightful pleasure my walk through.
Thanks! I will keep bugging you about it 🙂 If I can get you to change the structure of your course running sessions, you will see an entirely elevated performance on the runs. This session definitely had improvements! But I will keep bugging you about it because it will make a massive difference.
Two things about this session:
– you tend to do most of you walk through (here and on the next course too) as if Fever is ahead of you (or moving at the speed of light so ahead of you immediately after a cross). But the reality is that he is either behind you or laterally away from you on the bulk of these – and having rehearsed it as if he is ahead of you is what is causing the problems. When you worked connection with him behind you, you nailed that section the first time and also Every.Single.Time after that (more on that below).
– during course work sessions, try to complete a run once – then let him cool of somewhere and re-walk the trouble spots or the whole thing…. and then re-run him. I think you are trying to make changes/adjustments on the fly when he is out there, but it is causing too many stops and starts because your plan is not fully-formed or rehearsed. So on a run, if there is an error: either keep going, or send him back over the jump and keep going -then finish the run, reward, give him a moment to cool off…. ad re-plan your handling before trying him again. It is important that you don’t reward then immediately line him up to go again or send him again, because there will be more errors.
For example, at at 1:05 he turned off because he was correct, you were not (you were handling the invisible dog ahead of you, as rehearsed, rather than the real dog behind you, so he was correctly going to the wrong end of the tunnel) – and he saw your change in demeanor even though you handed him the toy. That is why re-walking the plan is so important – partially to keep him pumped up, partially to avoid making the same mistake.>>This double tunnel opener kicked my butt!!
>> I walked it with trying to keep connection in mind but obviously was missing something.>>You missed that 2 was supposed to be a backside 🙂 That buys you a lot more time to get to the exit of 3 to show 4. By rear crossing the entry of 3, there is really no good way to show 4 (if 2 was a front side, handling from ahead would be better: FC or BC or lead out push)
Also, there is a lead change element 3-4 where he has to turn away from you – it needs both verbal cues and handling, more like what you did at 3:20: connection and motion and verbal.
A couple of other ideas for you:
After the wrap at 1:28 and 2:43, you were handling the dog ahead of you (trying to get to the 11 backside) so he had big questions about 9 and 10. This is a good spot to remember that the dog is behind you so help him see the line. The backside at 11 went well! But you don’t want to sacrifice the 9-10 line to get there.For 13-14, it was a similar thing causing questions – you were lookign ahead and a little quiet, so he was not sure where to be.
Now, compare it to the FC at 15-16, getting him to the correct tunnel entry with 3 off course tunnel entries available:
at 1:53 and 2:54 and 3:44, you nailed it with connection, he totally knew where to go! Yay! And it was because you rehearsed it like that every time during the walk through. That connection to the dog *behind* you is key!Between the last 2 tunnels, this is another connect to the dog behind you moment – at 1:56 you were looking ahead and also quiet (he was not naughty, he was correct). Compare it to 2:08 and 2:57 where you were looking at the dog behind you and talking to him – nailed it! Yay!
So for your next course work session, here is what I want you to do:
– walk it looking at the dog behind you (and the obstacles behind) for the entire walk through. Have your head turned back behind you, looking at the obstacles he would be taking – and if you feel yourself looking forward, turn your head back behind you. Trust me when I say this will make a massive difference.
– run him once and keep going if something goes wrong, no worries, then he gets a break.
– re-walk any section you want to re-try, looking at the dog/obstacles behind you.
– run him one more time.This is designed to change your rehearsal patterns, while also making it super fun for him to be out there and leave him wanting more. By changing the patterns, we will get more of what you were nailing here and get rid of the errors 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>The first threadle wrap ran afoul of me having to duck to avoid the tree and knocking some rain off the leave anyway which landed on Min’s head and got into her ear.
Ha! A whole new set of distractions. Don’t tell any judges about it, I don’t want to see it on course LOL
I am finding this to be a harder skill for the experienced dogs than for the baby dogs! The experienced dogs definitely need some exposure to this, they are all hesitating and asking questions like Min did! On her first run, she looked at the tunnel behind you then didn’t find the jump. She was better on the next rep! When you started the 3rd little sequence at :30, she looked at both tunnels and had to slow herself down to process it. Then she was fine on the sequence after that – just make sure you stay connect and she will nail it (you disconnected at 1:40 so she went past the jump there). I think it will be easier on the bigger courses if she can do it here on the tiny setups 🙂
The biggest question she had was at 1:11 when you cued the threadle wrap – yes, part of it was the tree branch incident LOL! – but also the blue wing was on your line so you were moving towards the threadle wing but cuing the threadle wrap, so she was unsure which side to take.
Kaladin on the other hand was perfectly fine with the challenge (the youngsters are nailing it!), and he was faster than Min (and less judgey about it all too haha)
The off course tunnel at :09 was lack of strong connection as you noted. Then at :25, you tried to pick him up with your dog side arm – didn’t work 🙂 The pick up should be with very direct eye contact, not a hand down low because the hand low closes your shoulders forward, which breaks connection: your right arm can be back behind you so you can look him right in the eyes more like at :32.
He liked the get out tunnel cue! Yes, it can be sooner on the first rep, as early as takeoff for the jump before it.
I think his question about the tunnel entry after that was more of a line of motion question – the running line looked a little too much like the same line you would run if you wanted that end of the tunnel.
At 1:08, 1:22, and 1:49, your line of motion was a little too much towards the tunnel entry and also you were pointing forward so he guessed. I think the motion on that line plus the dog side shoulder going forward (almost looked like you were setting up for a RC on the flat, sorta) caused him to guess it was the tunnel. More connection back to him (no shoulder movement forward) plus being more lateral from the wing to run a path that showed no convergence towards the tunnel can help. He was much better at 1:38 because you had more connection – your dog side arm did not point forward. And at 2:08 you called and didn’t pressure in towards the tunnel, and he was perfect there (in fact, he read your running line so well that he looked at you like “why are you calling me so much hahahahah)The last sequence looked great! Good boy for coming back after the stroller interruption!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
