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Hi! Both dogs did really well here! I love that Chief is getting to play too!
I think we can take them to the next level now, where the physical cues are less important and the verbals are more important. They were both looking for physical info, so we can make some tweaks to help the verbals have more strength.
Some ideas for you:
On the first video:
When starting with just the wing and tunnel, holding her collar as you start the verbals then letting go was pretty effective for her – you didn’t hold her in the beginning so she had some questions, but then you were holding her a bit at 1:09 and later and that allowed her to process for a moment, and you let go when you saw where she was looking. Waiting til she processes and looks the right way can help her solidify the verbals even more.When you added the wing wrap, I think she was relying on your first step after the wrap, rather than verbals. Plus, if the first step was towards the tunnel and you wanted the wing, she is unlikely to cut in front of you to grab the wing.
So if you want to use a step, be sure you step perfectly to the corrct obstacle 🙂 At 1:35 you stepped right to the tunnel and she is unlikey to run across your feet to get the wrap, for example.
Chief did something similar at 2:25 where you had a step right to the tunnel – if you freeze the video on your first step after the wing wrap at 2:21 and 2:25, the physical cue is identical so he was reading that as the cue and it overrode the wrap cue. Similar things happened at 2:37, 2:47, 3:04 and 3:15: you are having to have perfect foot steps and that is overriding the verbal – when your feet are perfect, they get it beautifully. But, since having perfect footwork is a pain in the patootie and also we want to strengthen the verbals, two ideas:– You can start closer to the wing wrap and just walk up the line (no send steps) in t he general direction of the obstacles
– or you can send to the wing wrap and stand still – no steps, only verbals. Wheee!
Both can help the verbals gain power so you don’t have to worry about your feet as much.
Did you bean Chief in the head on the last rep?? Poor guy LOL!!!
On the 2nd video, I think the footwork was also coming into play when the dogs had questions. Because the 2 obstacles were really close, if your first step had any sort of direction towards the tunnel, they both headed to the tunnel (like at :25, :53, 1:17) they did take the jump if you were more stationary, but we can also tweak this so that you can do minimal handling and just use verbals 🙂
You can move the wing wrap over closer to the white building, so when they exit the wrap they can see both the jump and the tunnel basically on a straight line. And all you have to do is move forward and say the cue (no steps or sends needed). Or you can stand still and say it 🙂 That way they can look for the line without waiting for a foot send or deceleration.Because the AAC requires such difficult gamble skills, I recommend you do both standing still and moving forward (not at the same time though, hahaha!) because you might be stuck behind a gamble line and not able to show any motion.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Yay, this went well! He was really starting to independently look for the bar which is exactly what we want (he is super smart!!) I think the only thing to change a little is the size or type of reward – he was having a little trouble seeing the reward on a lot of the reps so maybe use something more obvious (bigger?) and not quite as far around the wing. He got better and better at looking for the reward as the session went along, and it also looks like you got a little further away. You can repeat sessions like this, gradually adding more distance and then getting close to the jump again and very gradually adding motion.
>>During that session, his only fault was when I stood on the left side of Jumps 1 & @, and told him to jump, he skipped jump #2.
Looking at when he did the backsides on 2 at 1:29 and 1:38, it looks like he was reading your rotated body position: Your shoulders were fully rotated, arm way back, feet a little rotated, lots of connection, and a bit of pressure to the center of the bar at 2 when you released… so it did read like an independent backside cue 🙂 I think it you faced a little more forward and and were moving forward up the line to the wing closer ot the tunnel, he would take the front side (this is what you did when you were on the other side getting the front of 2).
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Potter did a great job stepping in for his brother! And it sounds like Breeze is improving every day, thankfully!!!
Potter is of the generation where the release means take the front, which would explain why he took the front of the jump when you used the release word LOL! Good boy. So you can do these by starting with a cookie toss so he is chasing a cookie and not in a stay – that would also be the reason this sequence made more sense to him when you added motion: “Break means take the front, mom!” and also “IN is not my release word” LOL But in motion, he was much better at reading it!
When you are playing with this on one jump, for now, one way to do this is to be in position and not moving up the line to show him this – movement means take the front, especially when you are not past the jump yet. He did a great job when you were past the jump, like at 1:14 for example and also when you set yourself up to be ahead after the tunnel sends. And if he struggles when yo uadd more motion, you can have him come touch your hand and get a cookie, then take the jump
Also, he is good about giving feedback on your footwork (which is nice, because footwork on threadles is helpful :)) When you kept your feet moving forward up the line he was great (like at 1:37) If your feet were moving towards the jump, he would take the wrong side. You got better and better with your feet moving up the line so he got better and better at finding the threadle side of things. YAY!
When you added the tunnel: his name really helped bring him to the threadle side and he did well finding the threadle side of he jump!!! The wraps were harder for him so you can stay there at the wing a little longer and move more slowly so that he can make the complete wrap. When you moved away quickly, he read it as a slice.
He had a little trouble committing to the jump bar when he arrived at the threadle side (backside) of the jump. So to help him find the jump after he comes to the threadle side, you can leave an empty food on the line on the landing side – it will be a target to toss the treat or toy to, which will help him look for the jump and turn away from you. And because it is empty, he gets no prizes for running directly to it from the tunnel exit LOL!!!
Remind me how old Promise is now? We can tweak these games to make them puppy-appropriate so she can start learning threadles too 🙂 I don’t do a ton of threadley stuff with baby dogs, but it is useful to show the concept a little.
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Lots of great stuff here! And so many good obsessing opportunities, I am in my happy place now haha!
>>IN – threadle slice
FLIP – threadle wrap
I have worked the FLIP much more than the IN, when approaching from the landing side of the jump with the dog between me and the jump (as week two’s exercise). The IN I have mostly worked with a traditional threadle and in place of a forced-front. Therefore, the IN is more difficult in this setup, from the perspective of “what he knows”. From the “what he likes” perspective, a slice is always preferred over a wrap. >>All valid points, I agree! I think working your ‘flip’ is useful because it is most definitely a fashionable trend nowadays. The threadle slice scenarios you have already worked are very useful and also pretty common lately. I am seeing the threadle scenarios evolving to now be more of these weirdo scenarios on course LOL!! Backside threadle slices, offset threadles, etc. They are beginning to make their way into Premier. (I don’t think they are legal in regular Masters/JWW but I have run across threadle opportunities when courses are set tight or at odd angles (which we see in all venues, like it or not LOL!). The only applications I have seen are the tunnel discriminations which are similar in many ways.
>> I was at a seminar this past weekend where it was suggested that I accept Enzo’s somewhat wide turns and stop torturing us both trying to get tight backside wraps. It was very welcome advice (since we are both sick to death of drilling backside wraps) but I’m not sure how “good” it was. >>
Ha! Torturing! My question is: have you ever quantified how the wider turns compared to the tighter turns? Since you are able to handle him and control how tight or wide the turn is, your answer is in quantifying it. It is possible that the wider turns are faster (that is so often the case!) so as long as he knows where he is going, letting him do his thing is far better than trying to tighten the turns. Based on the tons of timing we have all been obsessing on in the past few years, those pretty turns that are nice and tight are almost always slower 🙂 As long as he knows where he is going, the dog is faster being slightly wider. So I am totally on board with leaving it alone and as long as he understands the skill… let him rip! The only way to know if it is good advice or not is to time the difference.
(Also, who was the presenter? I am trying to get my butt out to more seminars with the 3 youngsters and am always looking for good people to work with, especially when they give permission to stop torturing myself haha)
I had this same conversation with Jenn Crank about my Hot Sauce in June – we compared what it was like to get the pretty turn versus just let her drive her lines and as Jenn said, “She is smarter” haha! Turns out that Hot Sauce knows how to set great lines for herself and is faster on her own lines without my ‘help’ making them tight. I just tell her where she is going then get the heck out of the way 🙂 I have timed her a lot this past summer, and also compared her runs directly to my two large dogs who can post very competitive times. When I let her rip, her 15” tall self is right there with the large dog times.I have also found that on almost all courses – the wrap is not the best choice, the slice line is almost always better. So since he likes slicing – you are in great shape!
>>I am using quite a bit of body language to support the verbals but I think that’s fair.>>
Agreed! I think it is very fair to help the dogs with physical cues. He totally reads your positional cues as well, it was really great to see how early he could read those and set up the line (more on that below). At some point in the future we can proof the verbal without the physical support but that is not needed now.
On the video: You were paying attention to your feet on these, and it makes a big difference for him. The first little oopsies were really you just getting the footwork going then after :16, you had the feet pretty darned solid! For the slice, you had your feet facing forward then turning to center of the bar. For the wrap, your feet stayed forward the whole time – big helps to him!
On the flips at the beginning, I think he was waiting for praise to complete the turn. He is kind of hanging over the bar, halfway between the slice and the wrap, until you praised him (:35 is a good example) So, wait til he completes a choice then praise him 🙂
When you switched sides, like at 1:26, you waited longer to mark the behavior and he had to complete the choice – and so he read the wrap and that is when you praised… perfect!NICE difference in feet at :46 between the flip and the slice
On the next 2 reps, you had a little upper body help too (shoulders turning to the slice line) and I think he really appreciated that – it was really subtle at :56 but also effective. So nice!Looking at positional cues (your running line after the tunnel) – On the flips when you pulled away from the line a bit as he was thinking about how to turn – he found that very helpful and turned better (1:59 and 2:06)
Then compare it to your feet/line on the next rep at 2:12 – a big difference and he found the slice easily. The difference was that you were driving to the threadle positional cue (entry wing of the backside) rather than pulling away – that use of position a BIG thing for him! And being close to the entry wing on the slice is important – you pulled too far away from it at 2:56 and he didn’t read it as a threadle at all (your line of motion took the jump out as a threadle possibility). Compare to the line you ran on the next reps (3:03 and 3:18) – nailed it!
He seemed to have a harder time on the right turns than on the left turns on the wraps. The left turns just looked a bit more fluid for him here, which can also inform your handling choices – he got it tight on a right wrap at 2:43 but he slowed way down to make it pretty.
The balance reps looked good, and also he is making my point about finding the slice lines -when he was on your left doing the threadle wrap on the line after the tunnel, he was doing it but it was hard. When you pushed to the other side of the backside to set up a push to a slice… fast and tight!!!
So if this is still set up and you feel like quantifying, you can take that wrap to the right (like at 2:43) and compare that sequence (tunnel, threadle wrap, last jump) to 2 things:
– wider line on the threadle wrap, like the line he ran at 2:52 which was not as tight but certainly really nice! You can decelerate and crank down a little to get the really tight turn versus more motion and less cranking down to let it be wider, and compare times
– pushing him to the other side of the backside jump after the tunnel and slicing it as a serp or German (I would time both, because I am obsessing on this now hahaha)And time all 3 (ok, all 4) 🙂 On Tuesday we have some independent backside push work coming so that getting the backside push after the tunnel in this situation is easy!
Because obsessing is my favorite thing (especially over morning coffee) I did a quick hand-timing of the super tight wrap versus the wider wrap at 2:43 and 2:52 – the wider wrap was about 3/10s faster from landing of the jump before the tunnel to landing of the jump at the end of the line. It lends some credibility to the wider is faster theory and also I would want to compare it to pushing him to the other side of the jump for the serp or German.
Now, sometimes the threadle wrap is indeed the best fastest (and sometimes *only*) option – we can help him set up a better wrap on these without obsessing or torturing. More experience with seeing it on course will help, and using that pulling-away positional cue also helps. But he can set himself up better physically (the later reps in the video were pretty different than the earlier reps, he got much better at setting the threadle wraps up!). One option is to just use a wing there so he can think about the mechanics – then add a bar back in. You can also do a double wrap sometimes – where he does the threadle wrap then another one on the same jump, back to back. That is not my favorite thing but can be used sparingly to help the dogs set up their weight shift and turn. And the other option is to angle the jump more, so the slice exit wing is closer to the tunnel and the wrap entry wing is closer to the last jump. That creates a visual where the slice is MUCH harder and the wrap is much easier, so he is going to find it easy and maybe even fun to do the wraps 🙂 Right now, I think the slices are easy for him (and perhaps fun too LOL!) so he prefers those (understandably).
And the bypass balance was easy peasy for him, he never looked anywhere other than at the line you were setting. Good boy!
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
You can send her around the wing from either direction – but be sure you know what she is looking at when she exits 🙂 Depending on how it is lined up, the jump might end up being a threadle so be sure it is a relatively easy line to both the tunnel and the jump.Tracy
Hi!
I think part of the timing stuff is that it is very dog-specific. One of my demo dogs (Hot Sauce) can hear the right verbal in the tunnel and will apply it to the jump. Tulsa is more like my other dogs, who would apply the right verbal at that timing to the tunnel exit. So it is perfectly fine to noodle around a bit and see what works best for the dog 🙂 I reward all the responses because it is basically like asking the dog what she needs and when she needs it 🙂Tracy
Hi!
>>Made it back from TN last night and sort of managed to focus on work today. Kaladin got to sub in for Min in her international skills class so she could take a break. He rocked all the fancy skills in the course (minus the DW and a-frame), did 2 sets of 12 weave poles, and decided the new Galican saloon-style tire was no big deal.>>
Welcome home from a kickass Cynosport! Congrats on your massive successes. Time for you and Min to rest and recharge a bit.
Good boy Kaladin! Yay! I am sure the young man was happy to step up to the big leagues. Super!!!!!>>Questions on the week 2 Backside trends/course openings. So I should use my “come” threadle slice cue when doing the threadle handling for the opening? But the forced FC handling “cue” is just releasing him over the first jump?>>
I use the threadle slice cue for both because the dog’s behavior is the same (get in between me and the jump, and slice). And based on the line up, I do release the dog over jump 1 because the dog is facing it and my release word means “take the jump you are facing between me and you” then as he commits: switch to the threadle.
I don’t release with the threadle cue in that scenario because in theory, the dog should threadle jump 1. (Disclaimer: my dogs are NOT that well-trained and there is no way they would threadle 1 haha)
>>I’ve been using the off arm for my threadle wrap and the inside arm for my threadle slice. In this opening sequence threadle handling, it looks like the off arm would have more emphasis and be clearer, but will that be confusing when I don’t normally use the off arm for a threadle slice?>>
Ah, threadle arms… just had this discussion with Anastasia Egorova (sp?) the Russian handler who taught a seminar locally that I took the youngsters too. She made excellent points that I agree with:
– mainly, whatever you choose, be SUPER consistent 🙂 – so if you only every use the dog side arm, that is the cue, always. For my bigger dogs, I use the outside arm up high as the threadle slice cue – always, at this point. I used to have the dog-side arm for some types of threadles and outside arm for others… but that was a little inconsistent and plus the situations where the dog-side arm was used were few and far between. And for threadle wrap, it is both hands, lower, and used differently (shoulders used differently too). However, that up high threadle slice arm is really not all that visible for small dogs like Min, and they might have to look up to see it which we do NOT want them to do. So if I had a small like Min or I was running one of the Papillons, I would train the dog-side arm like you are mentioning (Anastasia also has a small dog and she said the same thing, which was nice to hear!).
Kaladin is same size as Hot Sauce, so he can see it if you want to use it.– and train the dogs to understand rather than rely on handling (you are already doing the training, no problem there)
The Russians are phenomenal training, so it was great to hear her thoughts on it. She uses the cross arm for her big dogs and the dog side arm for her small dog.So if you want to continue with the dog side arm threadle slice like you have been doing with Min, you can make it more salient with a shoulder-dip to get your hand low and even shake the hand a bit. That is what I have my Papillon students do and she is a little bigger than they are, but not by much. When I was running Nacho in agility (he is 11.5 inches tall), I used the shoulder dip successfully and dog-side arm. Thankfully, there are no threadles in flyball hahaha (one of the reasons I enjoy flyball so much :))
Another disclaimer – with US Open in a couple of weeks, don’t change what you are doing with Min 🙂 If you want to play with the shoulder dip and shake hand, that is very much what you are already doing so try it out. But if you want to use the opposite arm up high for threadle slices, that is cool – but do it *after* the Open LOL!!!! Min is in the middle of her BIG EVENT SEASON so I would change nothing. Just keep the skills sharp!
Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyHi!
This session went well – we can see what she is really confident with and what she wants more help with 🙂One thing I notice is that, depending on the skill, she is needing varying degrees of motion to help. So the next session can focus on getting rid of the motion and seeing if you can emphasize verbals only.
Going to the tunnel versus the wings at the beginning went well! She needed a foot step or two to help, but not much.She was correct at :22 to take the jump on the other side of the tunnel 🙂 Jump is a forward verbal, you said jump, she took the one on the line she was on. Coming in to take the other jump would have needed a strong wrap cue on the wing and a lot of motion change on your line. Having 2 jumps and the tunnel out there does create a 3-way discrimination, so hopefully she got rewarded for that one 🙂
Something similar happened at :26 when she took the tunnel – You were blocking her at line moving forward getting ready to throw so she took the tunnel. Ideally she would not have taken the tunnel but we want to give her clear lines for now. You moved over a bit on the next rep at :32, but you can see how she had to threadle in front of you a bit to get to to the jump. So to make the lines clearer, you can move the wing over so it is more centered between the jump and tunnel and then you won’t have to move as much or worry about your position on the line.
At :42 she did have a discrimination error, coming in for the jump rather than getting the tunnel. She got it at :47 but you moved into it, plus when you added the backsides she needed a decent amount of motion help. You can revisit the tunnel versus backside without the wing before it, just holding her collar, saying the verbal, then letting go. That way you can isolate the verbals a bit more. You can start the session like that, then add in wrapping the wing – but with the wing wraps, try to handle very little and just work it as mainly verbals.
The other thing that can help the backside there is to angle the wing so the bar is closer to being parallel to the tunnel. Having the bar a bit perpendicular to the tunnel sets up a 3-way discrimination (front of bar, back of bar, tunnel) so she might be more successful if she only has the options of backside of bar and tunnel. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂Nice work here!!!
TracyNice!!! Sounds like a great run! Bummer about the ending. And one thing I liked about most of the Cynosport courses were that they were set better than they were mapped, meaning the judges really put nice line in the ring for the dogs (only one course could have been set SO MUCH BETTER and that was Steeplechase Semifinals – you nailed that one!)
Hi!
Good questions here!
It would be nice to NOT have to add more verbals LOL!! I am not sure that she totally thinks left/right are turns on the flat here in agility. I think her turns on the tunnel exit had more to do with your timing of the right cues, and also a little more value being needed for the go lines. Looking at the timing, your right cue was too soon at :09 and :18 (she was in the tunnel hearing it) plus you were turning as she was entering the tunnel. At :36, it sounds like it started before the tunnel, so she was totally correct to apply it to the tunnel exit.
So you can try giving her a go on the tunnel exit, then a jump cue, then the right verbal – the timing would be go (before she enters) then jump jump jump as she is exiting then when she is maybe halfway between the tunnel and jump (for now) – the right verbal. With more experience and timing, I think it will be easy to apply the right/left cues to the jump.
I also recommend using go go go for the full go lines, rather than a jump verbal – jump tends to mean a slight collection and go can emphasize the big extension.The only other suggestion is to make the reinforcement more obvious, so she doesn’t have to look for it. You can place something bigger, or throw the reward – that can help her drive to the line without collecting or looking back at you.
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi again!
This video was mainly about threadles, kind of combining the threadle exercise with the backside-at-2 threadle stuff.>> Tried yur suggestions. Nuptse is not responding!
Gotta change what is going on. At any distance, he cannot slice the jump w/o my handling!>>I agree – I think we need to break it down and do the training side of it for a bit, rather than trying to emphasize the handling. You were doing a lot of different things in this session (threadle slice, threadle wrap, adding motion) so he was relying on handling rather than being able to discriminate the verbals.
And since we don’t want him to rely on handling to be able to get the correct line and commitment to the jump, here are a couple of ideas:
– separate the threadle wrap and the threadle slice into different sessions, so he can really process just the one threadle type a a time. You can balance it with front side of the jump, rather than the other type of threadle.
– for now, take out motion into the threadle, just go stand in position and don’t move until he has landed from jump 2 🙂 We can shape him to look for the jump. Start really close to the jump and only very gradually move yuor position away from the jump. This will take several sessions, because we really want to build up a big reinforcement history for him looking for the jump without you moving.
– when he does take the jump, you can toss the reward (after he is in the air). Or, you can have it placed out there in advance and use a get it verbal (rather than motion) to indicate permission to get it (if you think he needs permission LOL!) And when the reward is out there, you definitely don’t need to handle to it, we want him turning to look for the line.
>> I thought that I should try fencing to show him the path.
I am not a huge fan of fencing because it is too massive of a visual (makes it harder to fade out) and also limits his options. I prefer to break things down and shape the behavior, so that he can get it right easily without the risk of running into a fence LOL! If we are going to use a visual, I would rather use a placed reward as the aid, because it is easy to fade and also makes for quick reinforcement 🙂
So, since this is a hard one for him, I think breaking it down and shaping it over the course of a few sessions (standing still for a couple of sessions, then adding motion, then changing position) – only adding tiny bits in each session if his success rate is high, He is super smart and will figure it out really quickly 🙂
Let me know what you think! We can get his threadles on track pretty quickly 🙂
TracyGood morning! Hopefully the storm is over and decent weather is returning!
With the switch aways, it is great that you have a verbal already and also he understands the skill. So now you can take it to the next level, which is fading your motion across the rear cross line. Keep the verbal and the upper body/arm cues – but fade out the motion of moving along the line to just a little bit of a foot turn (and eventually you can fade that too!). That will allow you to send him away so you can drive waaaaay head up a line. It also sets up layering opportunities and I think you will find it useful in Gamblers too!!See below for more threadle ideas!
Tracy
Hi!
I agree that convincing the dogs to stay while we set up the FFCs and the threadle position is often the hardest part here!
>>I don’t think it had to do with the distance but more with either the fact that I’m behind the jump or maybe the motion of setting up for the FF?
I don’t think it was the distance or your position, I think he wants to move on your hand signal when you put your hand down into position, there is a tiny wrist motion. That makes sense as there might be some hand movement built into the release for all of us – oopsie LOL! – you can see it a little when he stood up early on the 2nd rep , and also at 1:10 when he released just befoe your “ok” when your hand moved, you can see that wrist motion. He understands that when you are in position, standing still and that wrist kind of ‘flicks’ – it is go time LOL!
So when you do your rewards for the stay or releases, make sure your hand is in position for a second or two, long enoguh to praise like you did on a lot of the reps, to separate the hand cue from the verbal release.
He is reading the forced fronts pretty darned perfectly! Love it! You can definitely add the verbal and also play with starting your rotation sooner – your timing is really good here but you can press your luck maybe by a stride.
Throwback might feel werid but you are doing it nicely at 1:12 and it totally changes the exit line when you wanted the tighter turn on the “not the tunnel” line 🙂 To make it feel more comfy, you can try a smaller, lower motion? But overall it looked great!You can also move the FFC further away from jump 2 now – but also work the threadle position. I think the threadle position will feel more comfy for you than the throwback and will also get a great turn.
Lovely work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>> My worry in watching the video is maybe my arm was a bit TOO much?
Definitely not too much – I am not sure they saw it on some reps where you turned your shoulders away from them. The brake arm can be a little more visible and happen sooner.
>> I don’t want them to think it’s a threadle arm, especially Sole who tends to be most responsive to verbals.
They should not have trouble differentiating – the arm cues re very different looking. The brake arm is low (down by your hips or lower) and your palms are down, and it is a soft physical motion usually in conjunction with the dog-side arm. The threadle arm is much higher, usually up by our shoulder dog side shoulder, palm to the dog – that drops the dog side shoulder way back and adds in a bit of rotation as you mention. More on both threadle cues and soft brake arms next week 🙂 Thy are both becoming vital parts of handling courses nowadays.
>> I don’t think I’ll see anything like that at the Open, but ACK premier courses seem to love the scenario where they are taking a jump straight on and need to go 90 degrees for a threadle.
Yep, those ‘flat’ threadles are popular in Premier! I am not sure if we will see that at the Open, but we will likely see backside threadles. And I would bet you that we will see backside threadle wraps too.
They all did really well on the video! And yes, the balance is really important so we know if they are processing cues, or just patterning 🙂
>>I think Nikko’s run by the jump was because I was in her landing zone – she will tolerate a lot from me, but that was maybe a bit too much!
Yes, she chose not to run into you there! On that “german” style turn to the weaves (serp-blind) – you will ideally want to be moving past the wing, straight forward, before the dogs take off. You were tending to be on their line too much – running parallel to the bar then blind crossing. That widens the line and eats time. Presto and Sole were chill about it but Nikko voiced her outrage LOL! You widened her line to the weaves at :59 so her normal vocalizations changed – she totally shrieked at you LOL!! Too funny.
I thought your best position off the line was at 1:20 and that also got a really nice turn!With that in mind, it is not always possible to get off the line properly so that is a good place to work on flipping them away to the weaves like a rear cross, rather than the blind.
On the GO lines – I think all of your timing of the verbal cues was spot on – early and often 🙂 They all did perfectly. The only error I saw was when Nikko took the weaves when you did not want them, but that might be because you had not quite turned for the right and your were still facing the poles (:52).
For the turns on the jump, we can obsess on the tiny details of timing 🙂
In general – when you deliver the ‘right cues (verbal, physical cues), the girls collected before the jump and turned nicely. You can see it with Nikko at :35, and :56 and with Sole a 1:17 and 1:27. The cues were later at :47 and 1:12, they came closer to takeoff so the decision was made and they were wider on the turns.
I think with Presto you were trying to get commitment, so the cues were late at :08 and :21, coming at liftoff. So if he was not committing when the right cues were happening at landing of the previous jump, then you can work the skill without the off course distraction ahead and throw rewards. It sounds like you had a ‘hup’ cue happening for him, quietly? But you can try replacing the hup cue with the right cue, if right means “take the jump and turn right”.
>> I will try to use the “spare” time to write up reminders to bring with me to the Open
That is on my list to do this week too! I need to remember to stay closer to the line for the 2 young dogs and just run rather than use an arm or lateral distance.
Have fun! Great job here!
Tracy
>>>Sorry! I should have mentioned this when I posted. I set both dogs up poorly on purpose from the startline to test their understanding of the verbal on some of these. Kippy I set up because i know he likes to around that jump if he’s not set up on a slice. Emmie it’s more to test the understanding of the verbal because she’ll take that first jump. Maybe it was too much for the sessions for both dogs. Trial setting I would definitely be setting up dogs on slice at the startline jump and not staring them down the middle lol.
Ah, got it! That position does test understanding, but it also requires almost a serpentine cue or a bit of recall to heel to get them to understand that they should take 1, when you present the pressure of the backside cue for 2 – it opens up the line of going past 2. So I don’t think they were incorrect, necessarily, to take it – a jump verbal as the release might help?
T
