Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi! She did really well here! The bypass was great, hopefully we don’t see any at the Open haha!
The German (backside serp/blind on the 1st rep) and the forced blind (last rep) all looked good – the forced blind was faster because she had the exit line all to herself 🙂 On the pushes to the backside, I think being one more step further across on your push will allow you to be more off the line as she exits so that she can drive out the same way she does on the forced blinds.Nice work on all of these!
TracyHi!
>>(What exactly is a German turn by the way? Am I doing one without realizing it?)
Oops sorry for any confusion! A german is a backside push slice where you do a wrapped blind cross on the exit. That’s a mouthful! You’ve done a gadzillion of them. They look like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMeDiMk3KtI
The goal is to be passing the exit wing before the dog takes off.>> Happy to report he passed the “raised hand cue” test and got to catch the frizzer on the start line twice.
Good boy!!!!!! That is the hardest part!
The videos looked really good!
Min – first sequence to the tunnel looked great, of course.
On the 2nd sequence – it looks like she was lined up straight to 1 then had to turn to find he backside entry. If possible, try to line her up on a very direct slice so it is a straight line to the entry wing (there might have been a tree in the way here, making the straight line lineup impossible LOL! )Your handling at :14 is a German turn with the wrap/blind exit. You are a little in her way on the exit line – ideally you would send her to the backside from further across the bar (you would be closer to the exit wing) so you are already past the wing and on the takeoff side before she starts to jump. That will set the most perfect line for her.
The backside blind looked great at :20 (couldn’t hear the verbal you used – I use a threadle verbal because it is the same behavior for the dog). and so did the push to the serp after it. The backside blind at :39 was also good, but the timing of the one at :20 was much better (earlier, before she got to the entry wing). This last rep was a little late (she was already past the wing) so she hesitated. The collection cue on the exit was good! You can also use a physical cue there by doing the blind without stepping towards the jump – do the blind then step away to help set a great turn.
Kaladin – he pretty much has this all mastered. The throwback was strong, so was threadle – the threadle position looks a little like it is hard to twist, maybe? You can find a really comfy position by either dipping your shoulder or separating your feet, which might allow the upper body rotation to feel more comfy? If it is really comfy, then ignore these ideas 🙂
The tunnel rep and the threadle reps look good, ideally with a straighter line up if there is no tree in the way 🙂 And adding distance on the threadle looks good too! He really seems to have no questions.On his 2nd video: all good here too! The threadle to tunnel versus the wrap exit were both strong, and he did really well with the FFC to the tunnel and the throwback too. Yay! The only thing I would add is having your hand and foot fully in position for a moment before you release, rather than dropping them into position as you release – that will help him continue to separate the release from the movement.
His only question was at 1:20 as you mentioned. It could have been that yes, you did move over and he could see you between the uprights more – having your feet separated can allow you change position while giving your upper body more ‘reach’ to still show the threadle. It is also possible that he was offering the front side because dogs do tend to offer different things when we repeat the sequence several times, even when they are working at a high rate of reinforcement. So he might have just been guessing that maybe there was something different you wanted there, so you an cue more front sides mixed into the sequences.Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Keeping things balanced in training is hard, especially when we start threadles. My dogs want to then threadle every single jump LOL!For the MaxPup, adding on the supersized can be done for $25. I can send a PayPal invoice or you can send it to reboundexport@yahoo.com
Thanks!
TracyHi!
Ah yes, I know Diane! Fun times!
>>without actually measuring it, I can believe in slices over wraps.
Yes, agree – almost always, slices. In terms of measuring, I was thinking of measuring the difference in the wraps between asking for the tightest possible wrap by cranking down on the handling versus showing the line as best as possible and letting him set it up however he likes. That will show us if we need to leave it alone or if we need to train more. We are probably squarely in the ‘leave it alone’ camp though 🙂 I also measure the difference in slice lines too – tighten them up, or let the dog NASCAR it?
>>Now, we’re off to week 3 (not sure how far behind we are: one week? two weeks?).
You are not too far behind – week 4 gets posted tomorrow, then there are several weeks to complete it.
I am glad the backwards starts went well! The more you can train the handling, the easier it is to get the turn you want and get waaaaay ahead. Enzo was great!
>>especially when we made a game out of Enzo running south and me running north!
Yes – his understanding of countermotion was fabulous on those and even if you never choose to handle a start like that, you’ll find it helpful in other places on course where there is a lot of commitment and countermotion.
He did really well on the ‘marked’ starts and I literally snorted at the Border Collie dramatic expression from Enzo at :23 when you marked jump 1 LOL! Border Collies are too funny LOL!!! He did really well – nice turns and good drive around the wing, which will be even better when he is on grass or turf – he did not drift at all.
Backwards sends were SOOOO tight and he was GREAT with the countermotion! So which one you choose will depend on the course – if it is a slightly wider turn, you will want your forward “mark” send because the backwards send will be too tight. But if you want to do a FC or a spin, the backwards send gets the nice tight turn and also gets you waaaay ahead on the course.
If you want to have a little more fun, fun a tunnel out there – can he still do the backwards starts with all that countermotion, with a juicy tunnel nearby? I have seen this on courses, and it is very sad when a dog gets an off course at obstacle 2 LOL!
>>Also, I have to put in a question about threadles. I am trying to work with a simple threadles (pull in). Enzo usually is successful but he goes SO FAR past the first jump, I think it must be enormously expensive in yardage = time. I created a setup which I hope will help me understand how he is doing.
This video confused me because it had no dog action and it looks like you were holding an American Eskimo? LOL!!!
Also, you are going to chuckle… we address this very directly in the week 4 games, including a setup that looks very similar to this. Yes, the dogs want to jump miles past the first jump which eats time on the clock and makes the threadle much harder.
>> I tried using his wrap word but that didn’t result in much better results (instead of just IN-IN, I tried Check-check-IN-IN). Ideas? Should I try to teach a collection cue?>>
Yes, I recommend a collection verbal on the threadle but I don’t recommend teaching a new one – applying existing verbals will help. The hard part is that the physical line we run on the threadle does not match what we would be doing on the wrap verbal, which might be why your wrap verbal was not effective. Not yet, at least 🙂 Tomorrow’s game works this specifically (on an easier setup first then going to this one) to help the dogs understand how to respond to the collection verbal before a threadle – and also a bit of a handling idea to help the dogs respond (a brake arm before the threadle arm – the brake arm can be faded after the dog understands to process the verbal). I think it will really help! I am about to post the games, so I will just have them go live if you want to read them tonight for pre-obsessing 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Years ago I tried to teach Annie a “Switch” rear cross verbal. Many refusals later, I realized that what she actually learned was “immediately turn away from Mom on the flat when you hear Switch”. Ever since then I’ve tried unsuccessfully to find ways to use this really cool skill (the one she learned, not the one I was trying to teach).
Ah yes, that is what a lot of people wanted switch to be: a rear cross on the flat. I have seen it here and there (when I am out of position haha) but mainly in gambles. I have not see a lot of use for the switch on the flat recently other than distance challenges.
>>Usually I would try it when I couldn’t get to where I wanted to be and I had no other options.
Same, same…. or if I chickened out of a blind or something LOL!
>> The problem was that Annie would turn away, but I never knew how to control how tight the turn would be.
On the flat or on a jump, for the switch aways, the key to level of tightness is deceleration, just like it would be on a FC. More below on that!
>>Seeing the setup for this week’s Switch Away game, I think I was making it way too hard too fast.
I think she did well, unless you edited out a ton of failures LOL! She seemed to transfer he turn-away skills to this really nicely!!!
>> I did get a head check at the end of the weaves that I didn’t notice until I saw the video. I’m guessing the cue was too late, but since Annie is a pole popper, it’s hard to know when it’s safe to cue the next thing. >>
Her head checks after the poles got smaller on each rep. Her turns to the tunnel were really tight and fast!!
>>The jump switch cues seem late too, but … refusals.
Yes, a little late but not too much, she definitely knew she was turning before takeoff (like at :51). One thing I think will help will be your hand cues – I use my hands on these so I can minimize my feet. You were using footwork and a bit of RC pressure to help, but your hands can also get involved. That can also help you decelerate – the hands can ‘grab’ her attention as you slow down and also indicate the jump, to help eliminate the refusals.
Speaking of refusals… if ‘switch’ has been associated with turns on the flat, then you should leave it as turns on the flat and use something else for the jumps. I am using my existing verbals for wraps or left/rights, because they are associated with the jumps and never ever turning on the flat.
>>I’m really curious to know how I can develop this skill
To help develop it, try the hands getting involved with the cue, kind of like a tandem turn – but without turning your feet. And play with decelerating, so you can tighten or loosen the turn, depending on the course (and using verbals to match as well).
>> I’ve tried it on some hard weave entries where Annie wasn’t really able to see the poles as a potential obstacle unless she turned away, but I couldn’t figure out the timing.
The thing with weave entries is that they are a trained skill, so timing should not be the deciding factor – you can break it down for her and start close to the entry for her to turn away and find it, then move further away – you can even start it on 2 poles to help her learn to find the entry, no matter where she is coming from. This skill is getting popular too, a bit of a threadle weave entry (I have started my young dogs on a separate verbal for this too because I expect they will see it regularly later in their careers. Sigh, another verbal, LOL!)
>> I’ve also thought it had potential for tunnel exits (straight and curved tunnels) where Annie might not see me rear cross at the entry. This resulted in a confused, spinning border collie at the exit, although she knew something was up and was trying to figure it out.
Ooooh this is a great spot for it! When you need to turn the dog away to find a jump behind the tunnel, especially when you do not want to be behind the tunnel (or can’t get there) – we had something like this on course on Saturday – it was wicked! I will post the map. Treat it the same as you would treat a jump: work the skill on a short tunnel, maybe 5 or 6 feet. Before she goes in, you can be showing her the switch away cue (verbal, hands, feet) so it is easy for her to switch away when she exits (and reward on the opposite side of you and you can even have a jump wing out there or something). Eventually you can fade out any rear cross motion, and extend/curve the tunnel. This can be handled at the entry if the dog knows it really well, or at the exit where the physical cue is more visible – but either way, this is a great application for it. If she is spinning and confused, then either you were late or she doesn’t understand it. This is also something that hands will help with – I use a double-handed turn away, so the physical cue can help support the verbals.
>>Another idea was to use it when my path is obstructed by the dog walk (and Annie takes a shortcut under it through a tunnel) and I need to change her line and cue something while I make my way around the dw.
Yep, this is getting as popular as bell bottoms and disco in the 70s 🙂 That is why we are working all of the various distance skills too – that dog walk is migrating to the center of the course! Totally in the way. What will help is minimizing your motion – on the last rep n the video, you were using a lot of physical cue – you can use this same setup to be able to basically hang out on the takeoff side of the 2nd jump, use your verbal and hand cues and turn and go – no footwork needed to show RC pressure. It might take a few sessions to fade it – and then you can move yourself further and further away, emulating the distance that will be used when there is a dog walk in the way.
>>By the way, this dog walk idea resulted in the most confused border collie of all.
Yep – the dog walk in the way shifts everything squarely into the dog-training realm, because it basically takes out most of our motion-based handling. Obstacle names, directional verbals, hand cues etc all take on massive importance. So keep playing with these distance and switch away games, gradually minimizing your motion as you build up more distance 🙂
Let me know what you think! You are totally on the right track 🙂 I will be adding more maps soon to give you more ideas 🙂
TracyHi!
That was a seriously crazy week of weather! Things are calmer this week, I think!
She did really well here, I didn’t see any commitment questions from her.
>>. I have a question about my handling. In the cases where I’m just turning with her, am I turning too soon or losing connection or rolling my shoulders a bit too much?
No, I didn’t see anything that made me think you were too early or disconnected. I think she can have more speed going to jump 1, but that is different (more below).
>> When I first started agility we used to use a shoulder roll (good heavens!) and it’s so easy to revert or get sloppy. >>
Ha! Yes! Post turns were cool, then they were VERY taboo and uncool. But it turns out they are fine and there is a time and a place for them as long as the dog understands and we can stay connected. It really depends on what type of turn you want – they produce slightly wider turns in general and not super tight wraps – but that slightly wider turn is the perfect line on many courses! I ran at a ‘fancy’ event on Saturday and the opening of the last course went really well when I did a shoulder roll/post turn at 2 then rear crossed (gasp!) 3 to set up a massive layering moment with my verbals (the stuff we are working on here LOL!) so I basically ran, yelled some things, and met my dogs in the center of the course rather than run all the lines with them. A bit “old school” concepts combined with heavy verbal independence 🙂
>>So, if you have tips and ideas for how I’m handling these easy “post” turns, I’d appreciate it.
The main thing I saw on the post turns (option 1, where you were sending her forward) and also on the backwards sends (option 2) is that she was not running as fast to jump 1 as she was when she was chasing you to jump 2. That is not that unusual LOL! 3 ideas for you:
– start her from a stay, so you can build some anticipation with a bit of “ready, ready….” before the send
– start her further from jump 1, maybe 10 feet or more, so she can take big strides going to it before collecting. She was a little too close, so the only option was collection
– throw the ball more to landing side of 1 (rather than after 2 or 3, which is near you) so she is happy to run like mad to jump 1 even as you leave early, disconnect, etc 🙂As for which option is better? She did really well at both, and the forward send of option 1 created a pretty tight turn, so it will come down to what happens after 1. If you have a FC or a spin on 1, I think the backwards sending is best as it will get a great turn and show the next line really easily. If you have more of that rolling line or a slightly-less-than-tight turn, your shoulder turns work perfectly.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Glad the kid tested negative!!! That’s a relief! Freakin’ Covid.One thing to consider here is that it is a relatively new environment and big distances, so you can break it down a bit more for him in terms of reward timing. For example, you can cue the GO sooner and then throw earlier on the big go lines. I think you were waiting a bit too long to reward – you can toss it when you see him heading generally straight rather than waiting til he has jumped that 2nd jump. And rather than use more motion, you can bring that 2nd jump in closer (moving the 2 on the sides further away) is it is easier to get to 🙂 Throwing as soon as he is looking down the line can help him predict that when the momma starts yelling the loud thing, that he should run straight because the reward will be straight ahead LOL! So the early throw (or even placing the toy out there) builds more of a conditioned response and that is actually very helpful 🙂
He did well on the left/right turns, those are easier for hm for now, so waiting til he picks up the new line before throwing the reward worked well. One idea to help build the GO up in the face of the left/right options: you can change the left/Right versus Go cue in volume by softening and quieting the left/right and see if that helps turn on the extension for the Go cue when you are super ridiculously loud LOL!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there!
I like the Halloween atmosphere LOL!
The layering went really well with Kaladin! He seemed to do really well with generally understanding and responding in the face of all sorts of different options. Small details to consider:
On that opening line of the first rep with the tunnel – you had the tunnel cue starting nice and early, you might consider a GO cue on the jumps before the tunnel cue – mainly because course design now includes a gadzillion tunnels so we need to indicate directionals on the jump in case the dog can see 85 different tunnel entries LOL! (As an aside: the MaxPup crew is pretty literal about what each line/directional means, I am seeing this over and over with the dogs raised with this foundation: Go means find the line in extension on the same lead, do not leave the line. That is what I think it will work nicely in this situation 🙂 and it is turning out to be a massive advantage!)
For the tunnel exits, he wants to look for you so you can throw the toy as soon as he enters to get him driving out straight (rather than after he exits and looks at you) – that will help the distance games (see below :))
He did well with left cue with the tunnel right out there! The timing of the verbal was really good! You can start the shoulder turn sooner – as long as you keep your shoulder open enough to maintain connection.Adding the ‘get out’ cracked me up because I have stuff coming with ‘get out’ tomorrow LOL!!!! To help smooth it out, you can give the cue before he enters the tunnel (and while he is in it, and again when he exits :)) And use your outside arm nice and low, with the outside arm pointing to the jump (one of the few times I encourage pointing to the jump :)) Your cue was a little late at :41 and your arm was high, but you had much better motion on the next rep to support it as well as a lower arm to rotate the upper body to the line for the get out.
Doing the blind cross (german turn) on the jump before the tunnel at 1:05 can totally work – try to stay off his line by being more lateral, so you are passing the wing before he takes off. The other option there is one of the switch aways, to get a sweet turn then layer and get way ahead (not sure if you have looked at those yet).
Most of his session was really strong – I think by 1:22 that the two of your were a bit brain-fried on it – he had had enough, slowing down, you were disconnecting, not using as much motion, so there were errors. I just chalk that up to doing a small setup too many times, so the two of you lost concentration LOL! No worries, the rest was great!Min did really well too – It was fine to drive in with her to the tunnels, and another option is that you can also stick really close to the wing and jump to see if she will drive way ahead. I think she would prefer that in this setup anyway because there will be more scrambling on your part 🙂
A little oopsie at :15, you disconnected a little so she didn’t take the jump – you can play with that line as more of a lateral send where your connection stays open to her and then you step away, rather than rolling shoulders like a post turn, to help maintain the connection. You were clearer on the next rep for sure there! As with Kaladin’s turn: you are going to German the jump before the tunnel, try to be further ahead so you are off her line as she is coming around the wing to the tunnel at :29. Or, a fancy switch away – for dogs that understand them, that move can be much faster because we are out of the way and then they chase up hard up the next line because we are so far ahead.
She has a better understanding of the ‘get out’ cue, so you can start it sooner for her too – giving it as she enters the tunnel should help her exit expecting to move away on the line and not look for you when she exits.Great job here!! Onwards to distance skills!
TracyHi!
He did really well on these! I think the choice of arms is a good choice, although I am admittedly biased because I am going with the same choice haha!
On one jump – The slices looked good overall, and your motion was supporting them really nicely. He did well on the wraps too – you had a different positional cue (pulling away a bit, which I think is helpful for the dogs) – the only thing to note here is to be careful to not move your feet to the bar on the wraps, only on the slices – I think you had a bit too much stepping to the bar in the first couple of reps but then you were really good about keeping your feet facing forward on the wraps. Yay!When adding the start point at the exit of the tunnel and then coming from the tunnel, on the slices – he had a couple of questions – you were pulling a bit too far away from the entry wing (same like you were with the wraps) but that didn’t set up the slice line as nicely, so he didn’t always get the jump. So, positionally, for the slices – be heading pretty directly to the entry wing. This can understandably look a little like your lower body/line of motion is cuing the front of the jump, so you can slow down your motion so he can process the verbal and upper body while you move close to the jump. That should set up the default of taking the jump without you needing to help too much – let me know if that makes sense or if I need more coffee haha! you are too far from the slice wing and then pushing back so he was not really defaulting to the jump
The threadle wraps are going really well even with the motion (they are difficult and you are being nice and patient and clear!) and the balance of the front side/bypass also looks great!One more detail – when coming from the tunnel, the earlier the cue, the better – you noted being a bit late when you called him while he was in the tunnel then started the threadle cue after he exited – the threadle cue was not necessarily late, theoretically, but he name call for attention was which is why he was locked onto the front of the jump. Compare it to 2:36 when I think your timing was pretty perfect: You called before he entered the tunnel, he exited in handler focus, turning to the threadle line, then you gave the threadle cue. Nailed it! Yay!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I am glad he likes this opening – you might see it on course but more importantly, if it makes lead outs fun for him… then that is a big victory!
He did really well here! As we are seeing with all of the dogs so far, Option 1 (marking with a leg forward) creates a slightly wider turn and that is why he ended up in the short tunnel when you switch to the left turns in the 2nd half of the session. The slightly wider turn can be totally appropriate depending on the course design, so it is good to have both!
The throwback Option 2 start was great too! It took him a rep or two to get it but then he was extremely tight – this option sets up a super tight line and gets you way ahead – those blinds between 2 and 3 looked SUPER!!! He missed 3 on the 2nd to last jump rep and you just needed a little more connection which you gave him on the last rep. I really liked his speed on all of these!
Setting up option 1 with the mark requires a lot of patience from the dog in the stay – and I think he lost patience and got distracted when he took off for the fence line. In a trial setting, he might not have that much patience (I know it is only a couple of seconds but dogs have limited patience at the start line LOL!) so you can also try it by holding his collar and stepping into it (or option 2 for trials, he really liked chasing you!)One small detail to watch – it was not a problem here, but be careful that you are always facing the slice wing and not the center of the bar. Center of bar can read as a rear cross if you turn too soon and he might turn the wrong way.
You can totally start leaving sooner and sooner here to challenge his commitment! Great job 🙂
TracyGood morning! Sorry for any confusion!
>>Question on throwing reward sooner. Do you mean after first obstacle, after line of obstacles or both lol? >>
After the first obstacle – throw it to the landing side of 1 a whole lot, especially as you are moving away. So as soon as she is heading to 1, you are throwing the toy and moving away up the line so she maintains her commitment even as you are getting outta there. Dogs are great are going to where they predict the reinforcement will be – so if the reinforcement is after 2 or nearer to you, she will want to drive to you and that might reduce commitment to 1. But if she gets a TON of reinforcement on landing of 1, she will commit strongly even when you leave super early to get to the next part of the course.
Let me know if that makes sense, or if I need more coffee 🙂
TracyGood morning!
I totally know the Bless Your Heart thing LOL!!! It was the first thing I learned here.
>> I saw I left a rep of Wager when I was giving Spot a break. Not intentional, just had the video running and didn’t get it edited out.>>
No worries! It is good to see Wager too 🙂
Spot did well here! He had a couple of questions that we can clarify for him to clean up the trouble posts.
Starting with the Forced Front Crosses,
The 1st 2 reps were good – 3rd rep he took the front, so I tried to see what was different? The release was a little different (ok versus spot ok – more on the release verbals later but it is possible that the name call put him more into front side focus) and you were more visible over the bar (between the uprights) particularly the position of your right leg (outside leg). The right leg was back, so he might be reading your legs as an indicator – on the previous 2 reps, your feet moved forward a little as he was landing from 1.
You helped him more with a more obvious hand cue on the next reps – I think the clear hand cues are very helpful! You can lower your hand for sure on the FFC, lean over a little so he sees it. And be aware of the leg position, keeping them a little closer together.About the release verbals – releasing to take the first jump with an OK or his name plus OK is good, but then you got quiet and that did not differentiate the front from the back. The general release could be for either, and ok is probably used more often for the front side. So, after the release, use your threadle verbal to help him differentiate front from back.
You were using your threadle verbals during the threadle moments and he responded really well 🙂
Another question I see him asking here (on the FFCs and the threadles) is about the default commitment to jump 2. When you are close to the jump and step to it – he commits like at :28. But if you are a little further and step away like at :23 and :32 – he does not commit. He was also jumping with an inverted style over 2 (head up, kind of a last minute jumping choice) which is also a sign of a question.
So, change your placement of reinforcement to help develop the default and the head-down jumping – the reward on the very first rep was throw to the slice landing side of 2 (not near you or near 3) – that is the ideal placement (either thrown there or placed there). On all the other reps, the rewards came near you or near 3, so he was driving to where the reinforcement was coming, especially when your motion was moving that direction (it inadvertently puts too much emphasis on following you and not enough emphasis on looking at jump 2). Changing the placement will help create the default of taking #2 and then you will find it much easier to be able to move your position further up the line. For now, keep the bar lower at 2 so he can drop his head and sort out the change of placement.
He did well with the threadles and the in in verbal is very helpful! Nice!!!! As with the FFCs, I suggest a change in the placement of reinforcement to allow you to be able to move your position up the line and leave sooner. For example, at 1:23 and 1:40 the exit of the threadle was correct in terms of your motion… but he didn’t understand the commitment independently so he is moving to the reward placement spot (near you and near 3) so he didn’t commit. Having the reward in your hand so it is a quick toss and he doesn’t have to look at you at all will really help get his eyes on the bar for 2 and not on you or your motion.
He had an error at 1:46 – he was lined up facing the front of 1 and 2, and I think your position had your physical cue a bit hidden by the wing – as you move up the line, you can exaggerate the upper body position and see if it helps him read it. And lining up an an angle for 1 so he is facing the backside wing of 2 and not the front will help too.
At 2:08 you did exaggerate the upper body a bit, nice clear in in verbal and he was totally coming to the backside… until you moved too soon at 2:09 (he was not yet at the commitment line) and he took the front. He needs one more step of patience (I hate that word hahaha) to be sure he is crossing the commitment plane before you move out of the threadle – I would not uh-oh that moment (the verbal is not overriding motion that early yet, and he dropped the bar to avoid landing on you :))
The timing on the last rep at 2:17 was Spot on, pun intended haha! You moved when he was crossing the commitment plane but before he got to the backside – perfect! He did commit to the jump at 2 but it as a bit last minute, all the way on the other side of it – so I think the main thing will be shifting the placement of reward so he looks for that jump bar and commits a lot earlier to it.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Very smart to be rewarding the stays – I think all of the dogs pair the hand getting into position with the release, so they want to break on the hand. Be sure that you reward after your hand goes into position, they dogs read our hand twitches LOL! I also give one more “stay” cue as I drop my hand into position, a little bit of a reminder. It might be totally superstitious and I might not need it… but I do it anyway hahaKaladin’s FFCs and throwbacks all look great, producing the correct turn for each (slightly wider for the FFC, tighter for the throwback). I think you can start rotating sooner on these – when he is still a foot or two away from the entry wing. It might challenge his commitment but it will be good to see if he can still commit as you leave for your next position.
The throwback when you added distance was harder, so you can break it down – start him right next to the jump on the takeoff side, with you in that “slightly further away” position – and throw back from there. Then you can gradually back chain it to him being on the landing side, then closer to landing of jump 1, then full back to the start on takeoff of jump 1. The threadle might ultimately be the better choice on lead outs but you will probably end up using the throwback mid-course where perfect position is less likely, so it is a good skill to play with.
Threadles were great too – I agree that you were stepping into 2 a bit, and he showed us on the last rep that he didn’t need it. GOOD BOY!!!!! That was really cool to see and it will open up all sorts of handling stuff – you can leave for your next cross or position as soon as you see his head turn to the jump, trusting his commitment. That is a high level skill on a youngster!!!!
>>Decided that I may run Min on this with our familiar backside slice to BC handling just as a warm up for the Open, but not going to do anything with the FFC or threadle handling before the Open.>>
Good decision for Min – these are training games designed to introduce new concepts… which I generally discourage when we are 10 days from a big event with a highly competitive dog LOL!! I mean, if Kaladin was running, we would totally train the skills because baby dogs are still learning all the things. But with competitive adult dogs? We are now entering the bubble wrap stage: keep the dogs loose and healthy and sharp with little bits of skills & drills training. Voodoo ran big courses yesterday and is now bubble wrapped… but the baby dogs will continue to work & train because, well…. baby dogs LOL!
I am sure she would get it and it would be fine, but I also think that at this point we should be playing to your strengths. And, I am pretty sure she is faster when you are hustling and scrambling, She quite enjoys it when you are barely making it to where you need to be LOL!!! So the backside slice/German turn is the way to go for now, as I am 99% sure it will be faster than standing still on a FFC or a threadle for her 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>was a discouraging day when I couldn’t figure out how to handle 180s with my 9 yr old masters-level dog …
That kind of session is insightful, actually, it helps us figure out what she sees and when she sees it 🙂
>and the threadles, don’t even get me started on the threadle disaster which I haven’t posted yet. I thought I was going to have to ask for a pep talk, BUT … Annie just totally nailed the Switch Aways on the first try! I can’t wait to show you the videos. Annie must have known I needed a big win.
Awww good girl Annie!!!!!!!!! Yay! And no pep talk needed for threadles, only cursing and f-words about threadles LOL!!! Threadles are about as difficult as the running dog walk to train: very specific, very difficult, and basically the dogs need to ignore everything about our motion. I have more coming on threadles on Tuesday, so feel free to shake your fist at the threadle gods for now, do some cursing, and we will then figure out what she needs to know about threadles 🙂
Nice work here!
TracyHi there!
>>I was expecting to have trouble with the layering, but it turned out to be super hard to get Annie to take the 180 instead. That said, I’m now totally confused as to why we had so much trouble with the 180 at home. I’m not sure if Annie completely understands her new Round cue, but I still feel like some of my motion must have been showing the 180 and I don’t know why she didn’t read that.>>
After watching both videos… from the handling side of things, your timing of the verbal and shoulder/upper body cue was generally really good! So I think that the questions she had were more about the difficulty of the exercise and not about your handling 🙂
I agree, she needs a moment to process the Round cue. For example, on the first video 2nd rep at :14 – that was some spot on timing and handling! And that was not the only rep – you were generally able to get the info to her before takeoff. I think the latest you were was at :21 on the 2nd video, where she was maybe one stride from takeoff – she should have landed long then turned.
Also on most of her errors, she *did* collect a bit on that jump but then proceeded to the tunnel.She got better and better and then by the end of the 2nd video, she was nailing it and did the full sequence beautifully.
So, game plan: I think that the outside arm really does help her a whole lot! I have more coming about the ‘brake’ hand on Tuesday but instead of using your opposite arm high like a threadle, try using it low, by your hips, pushing downwards – at the same timing as you gave verbal and shoulder turn. That will get a bit more collection and it looks pretty darned different from the threadle cue, so it will help protect the threadle.
You can also give a ‘heads up’ cue” as she is landing from the first jump, you can call her name to basically say “pay attention!” then do the round verbal and physical cues.
The other thing to try is not moving as fast: walk through it rather than run, for now. It is possible that she was collecting and turning on the verbal and physical cues, but there was a lot of motion so she went back to the extension line. So you can slow it down for now (as long as you keep moving, we don’t want you to stop, she is too fast :)) and then we will build it back up to runnng 🙂
>>It was weird because at Teamworks layering is hard for us. I actually love how enthusiastic Annie is in the backyard and I’m hoping to learn how to duplicate that at TW in your Rewards class that starts in a couple weeks. >>
Most dogs are different at home than at trials/training locations – it could be that she is more relaxed at home, so she is more confident. Also it is possible that the rewards are more obvious at home so she drives harder: do you tend to throw rewards more at home, and reward from your hand more at TW? Or do you run without the reward on you at TW (I am guessing yes, at trials :)) We can look at this in the reward class for sure!!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
