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Hi!
He was great here!!! The easier angles were easy for him, so I am glad you tightened them up a bit – he was surprised at first (he had to sit back a bit in the jumping at :28 to made the lead changes but then he was lovely and balanced on the last rep. Yay!
As you pick up where you left off and continue to tighten the angles, 2 ideas for you:
– now that is it becoming more like real serpentining, you can exaggerate your upper body position: dog-side arm back more, shoulders/center of chest rotated to the jumps more (instead of pointing forward) . That will help support the in-and-out of the serp jump more.
– you can use his name as a the verbal cue, or left/right soft turn verbals – I couldn’t tell if you were saying Mo or Go. Mo is fine, because a soft name call to help cue the turns works well. Go is not something I suggest here, because ‘Go’ should mean full on extension and a serp is lots of little turns (which opens up the question of if you are going to use “GO!” as the extension cue because it sounds like “MO!”Lovely work!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This is one of the best first videos of this game that I have ever seen – wow! You made a great choice to use the cot, it has a lot of value! And you had a slightly different energy to your tunnel verbal which helped her out a lot. She seemed to be doing it purely on a verbal and she nailed it! YAY!!!! Very successful session!>>Check out what happened the first time I asked for a “place” after I moved her cot to the other side of the tunnel. hahaha Hey, you moved it!!!>>
That was both so funny and very impressive processing on her part: You moved it, but you said place, so I will go find the place because it is definitely not the tunnel. YAY!!!
Since this went so well, you can add on a little more excitement – send her around a wing about 10 feet away, then when she exits the wing: call out tunnel or place. Wheee! And if that goes well, you can start to move more too.
Great job here!!!!!
TracyHi!
>>I did try this again today. I am a little bit better with my hands but am still hesitating to make sure he commits.
I think you were over-helping for sure LOL!! You’ve trained a lot of strong commitment skills, so now we get to use them 🙂 By stepping back and using the other arm to show him the jump, you are inadvertently opening the slice line on the backside – watching his head position and landing spots, he looked towards the slice line rather than the wrap at :27 (he got it as a wrap when you moved forward again) and at :54, he landed almost out on the slice line. So, as soon as he passes you, move forward, no need to use the other hand or the step back. I do recommend that you stay connected and follow his eyes with your eyes til he takes off. And the other thing that will help is moving very slowly – slow steady motion for now, rather than decel then accelerate. We will be able to build it up to running pretty quickly 🙂
>> I also wanted to toss the treat but the grass is just long enough that it was getting lost. I tried a ball and that was getting lost too! I wanted to use the Manners Minder but wasn’t sure how to place it for this set up.>>
If you are working without a bar, you can put the MM tucked in next to the wing right near the landing spot (we don’t want to put it there with a bar because he will land on his head trying to get to the MM :)) When you are using a bar, you can tuck it into the wrap wing on the takeoff side so he finishes the and comes around to get it. Both placements of the MM are challenging because he has to pass the MM to do the wrap back to it.
Nice work here!!! It looks like weather was almost cool for you, so fingers crossed for more outdoor training time!
TracyHi!
Hooray for decent temps!!! Both dogs did really well here. You can definitely add the jump bar for the next session.<<>>. I’m noticing both dogs looking up at me more on the left wraps. Not sure if it’s because I tend to use the inside arm cue more on the left because I know it’s their weaker turning direction? Planning to add a low jump bar next.
I watched the session with this in mind, trying to see if there was anything different – maybe you were a little further away on the left side, and bending the line a little back to the jump on the other side? Min was the most obvious one in the questions on the left side: when you were further, she didn’t really take it but when you were closer? She took it very easily on both sides.
The other think I noticed was that on the right side, the arm cue was moving a little and on the left the arm was very stationary – so maybe both dogs like the arm cue to be more of shake-then-flick? That might help support the decision to take the wing more? Definitely something to play with when you add the bar.
And they were both great about doing front wraps when asked versus the threadle wraps. Super!!!>> Kaladin has been doing better in very short sessions in the backyard. I brought Nemo back out plus meatballs and he was even doing short easy jump/tunnel sequences right over the mulberries last week.>>
EXCELLENT!!!!!!
>>He did amazingly well over the weekend. He tagged along to the USDAA trial on Saturday and got to play in the big field with me. He was doing so well with the pattern game and motion override in the vicinty of the ring that we even did a few practice jumps for Nemo.
Yay!!! This is great!
>>Sunday he got to do 3 runs at UpDog and didn’t blink at the soccer games (a field away) or the passing cars (closer and behind him but with a fence). In the first game my rogue roll ended up near the line judge so he kept going and sniffed her (she pointedly ignored him and he didn’t jump up) I went over to him and said his name and then he chased me back to the throwing zone and didn’t go visit anyone else after. In the next game another rogue roll sent the frizzer really close to his happy hour meatball container (which was 15ft away from the “ring boundaries”). He sniffed briefly but then spun around when I called and raced back.
UpDog is do great for getting dogs comfy in the ring. I am glad he had a great time and was able to experience some good distractions! We did UpDog yesterday too – I will post some of the photos, but Hot Sauce, who used to be a little nervous, is now officially deranged. Contraband loves being in the ring. Elektra likes it except when my terrible throws would have required her to go right up to the score table with the speakers, music blaring, etc. Did your UpDog even have frizgility? If not, ask them to do it – it is GREAT for our youngsters. Hot Sauce and CB had some of the highest scores (not top 3 because my throws sucked, but the agility was great LOL!) and Elektra started off concerned and couldn’t do the tunnels… but then got better and better and faster and faster through the tunnels as the game went on. So fun and a great intermediate step to agility trials.
>> Before this weekend I had decided to not enter him in UKI at the end of August and now I’m questioning that…a bit.
I say enter him, and plan to make it all about frizgility or that other great sport, Nemoball. Let Kaladin’s reaction tell you if you should do any ‘real’ runs or not. I hope to get the dogs into the ring for some UKI in early September – Hot Sauce can run for real (she is 3 and has trialed pre-Covid) but the youngsters will run it like frizgility 🙂
>>I pushed the distance and sends & goes more with Min at USDAA on Saturday and she was brilliant. In fact she was so confident I got an extra jump (and the backside which was on her line) in Gamblers when I didn’t spit out the wrap cue soon enough (only dog to carry out that far in Gamblers but she was correct). I will have to go re-watch my videos to confirm but I am pretty sure I didnt’ say yes or yay nearly as often as I normally do. She also put on her cape and launched off the DW (penultimate obstacle in standard) so we Fix & Continued for a brilliant running contact on the 2nd try and headed out for her happy hour meatballs.>>
Perfect – we are going to need a ton of distance, I think, for US Open and I expect the dog walk to spend quality time sitting in the middle of the course. Also, another common trend right now is running past things in the way – I started that in the Games Package 4 posted this morning. Not really bypasses, just annoying things in the handler path LOL!
Tracy
Hi!
>>He has lots of questions here for both courses and wasn’t super confident.
They were pretty technical, so there was a lot of starting and stopping which he doesn’t love.
>>Starting out, we were traumatized by a pop up thunderstorm before leaving the house so he’s a bit more aware of his surroundings than I’d like.
One thing that I obsess on is the dog’s conditioned emotional response to the agility environment. If he was already a bit upset by the environment (thunderstorms) then it is really important to make any training super fun and reinforcing: like speed circles for frisbee throws!
The opening line of this course was GREAT for getting any giddy up going and getting rid of environmental upset. You can throw a reward after tunnel #6 rather than risk an error at 7 where you stepped back so he jumped too long and then couldn’t see the connection of the turn: stand still on the takeoff side for 7 and make a massive connection. You had the massive connection at :32 and later at 2:11 but the backward steps to commit him sent him wide (backwards motion reads the same as forward motion :))
At :55, heading to the tunnel threadle section, you got real quiet weren’t moving much so he checked out. If you are decelerating and sending, switch the energy into big loud verbals so he can run run run even if you aren’t.
1:11 – your in in was actually a little too early so he didn’t take 12 – make sure he sees the jump and then cue it, I think your timing there was much better on the other reps at 1:35 and 2:28! Coming in after 11, stay a little more call him a bit so he comes right to the jump and doesn’t drift (looking at he DW maybe?). And if in in is the tunnel threadle you don’t need a tunnel cue as that means something else – tunnel entries each have separate names: ‘tunnel’ means to drive the straight line to a tunnel and ‘in in’ names the inside entry of the tunnel.
A note about reinforcement for him: he loves the frizzers, but he has a particular way of loving them: at 1:20 and 1:53 he told you frizbees are for throwing not for tugging 🙂 and also towards the end of the video – he will kinda tug on them but he doesn’t like it as much if you throw it to him – he much prefers that you throw it away for him to chase.
For the wraps at 14, a little more decel will help tighten them up and also staying on the takeoff side, you tend to run to or step back to the landing side – one thing about these wraps (here and at 7 also) – position is critical because he will jump to your position. By moving to the landing side, he thinks he is supposed to jump long and he finds it not-so-fun to jump there (correctly) then have to make the turn after landing (it is hard on the body too) so for the wrap at 14 (either direction) 0 stay on the takeoff side, don’t go past it – and if you get there early, stand still and cue the wrap. 🙂
Course 3 –
I can’t see the tunnel exit but I think he probably should have taken the jump after it more easily, that is a good place to reward him looking for lines as you run past and not just running past the jump.For the BC at 4 – you can draw him in to 4 by making it more of a serpentine: try to open up your shoulder, bringing your left arm way back and make eye contact so your upper body faces him (feet keep moving forward) to bring him in for the serp. Your shuolders were closed forward (like at :39) so he kept running forward, parallel as if it was a layering moment.
Using the BC there can be really effective, juts make the massive reconnection on the exit so he sees the new line at :51. I think you made it harder on yourself by sending him to 3 as backside – it changed the line so 4 became a threadle and it got off kilter. Doing it from the tunnel at 1:40 was much smoother but then you were trying some fancy dances moves that I don’t think he needed – rotating too soon on 4 for the spin so he was not sure if he should take it or not.
Going back to conditioned emotional response:
>>He’s still working which is super.>>
Yes, he kept going but we want him frothing at the mouth, chomping at the bit, more like he was on the first course. He got the end smoothly but was not very into it, I could tell by his tail set before you would get him started that he would do it but he wasn’t going to drive it. Thinking about conditioned emotional response – you can make most of the sessions about chasing you for a toy, speed lines, having a fast fun time, throwing frizzers – with a little agility thrown in. So if you are out there for 3 minutes: 2.5 of those minutes are about partying and then 30 seconds, spread out, is about doing fast fun agility. I think it is the opposite right now – a lot of hard agility with a little bit of fast fun time thrown in, so you lose him sometimes if conditions are not perfect (storms or technical sections or incorrect friz offerings LOL!). I don’t mind if dogs are thoughtful when they are learning the agility – but we can help them flip the switch into speed demons by making their time in the ring mostly about partying. A personal example: that is why my dogs tend to be a bit later to the party, in terms of the super technical handling skills – I won’t put those skills into big courses or repetitive training til the dogs are all in for the training, every time. I spend most of their early days teaching the technical stuff by itself in short sessions hidden among big party sessions in the ring and lots of giddy up lines. When the dogs are wild for the game? Then I add in more of the hard stuff 🙂 I think Voodoo and Hot Sauce are great examples of this: they were not jazzed up youngsters so most of their ring experience early on was partying. Then when they got jazzed up, simply be being there (Conditioned emotional response)? We add the hard stuff 🙂
I bring it up because I think we can shift focus a little to getting him to be more ‘all in’ and less thinking about it, and not checking out as much. So for the next session – do lots of friz throws, a couple of massive simple speed lines – and one technical spot, without repeating it a lot.
Setting up his sessions like that will really flip the switch into that ‘all in, all the time’ that we want.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyAnd one more! You’ve been busy!
On the opening line: 1-2-3 looked good, good position for the threadle! Yay! You can let her find 4 on her own, because it is part of the chain cued by the threadle verbal. On the first rep, you had a big arm motion and jump cue and then said something else and she dropped the bar . The 2nd rep as smoother but she was a little wide – you can cue the threadle and then as soon as she turns her head to the bar of the 4 jump, leave for the teeter to help tighten up the turn.
With stopped contacts – layering might not be as effective because you stop moving – os you can go un closer to the teeter and keep moving so she doesn’t turn into you after the teeter on the way to the weaves.
You’ll still eb able to get to 8 without the layering – I think a BC there after the tunnel will help you reconnect to show 8 sooner at :15 and 1:44.
The 8-9-10-11-12-13 section looked good, really nice!!! You can start the push cue for 14 just before she finishes the weaves so she doesn’t look for you when she finishes the weaves –
then move out of the way more at 14, rather than hanging out on landing side and sending her ahead – maybe she got off balance driving up the dog walk ahead of you? (This is where she took a spill off the dog walk, poor girl!) It might also have been fatigue…. she slipped and couldn’t hold on – she has done a lot of course running in these videos.On last little detail at the end, the weaves have a ton of value now… so remember to call her name at 18 to get the turn to the last line.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
On this course, one thing to look at is the countermotion for the wrap exits of serps like at 3 and 9 and 17. Ideally you will be on the takeoff side when she is also on takeoff, so she sees the collected exit before she has to take off. Cue the serp but then keep moving, don’t stay there to help the landing. If you are on landing side when she makes the takeoff decision, like on jump 3 at :04, she will land long. Compare it to 1:28 later on where you were moving much more past the takeoff spot and her turn was a lot better.With a stopped a-frame, you will have to keep moving if you layer 3 – the instant you stopped when she was stopped, it drew her to you at :13.
The countermotion on the 9 jump is important too, getting to the takeoff side of the jump when she is arriving at the takeoff spot. You stayed on the landing side which is what was causing her questions:
At :19 – you said jump and pointed but the rest of your body indicated the 17 jump so she ran into you, ouch!
at :26 and :45 (she was not a little shit there, LOL! she was correct, I hope you rewarded her) you got off the line but did not show the countermotion so she took 17 correctly.
You stayed at the landing spot at :35 and :52 and used lack of motion and connection, so she was wide (based on position) but made the turn there. Towards the end, you stated moving through a lot better in the 2nd session on it: 1:33 was better and 138 was MUCH better, that was really nice countermotion there!
The rest looked really strong, only 2 little suggestions: a ‘get out’ cue to get the slight turn away for the wave entry, and get a little more to the takeoff side of 17 at hte end, ot keep working the countermotion to get the nice turns.Great job!
TracyHi!
You are either going to laugh or cry on this one:>>We struggled with threadles on this one as well, so I included what I did to try to work them back into the course. >>
They weren’t threadles, they were front sides LOL!
On the opening line: you made this opening a little harder: 3 was a front side.
For the threadle, you would need a turn cue on 2 (left verbal or strong name call) then the threadle, or run into it with double blinds.
Same at 9-10: 10 is a front side on the map :). But if you wanted it to be a threadle, you would need to start that process when she landed from 8 – at landing of 8, you would start the turn cue from 9 (or a blind cross), so she would be ready for the threadle cue at 9 to show the line at 10. When you did get it at :34, your cues were starting much sooner so she could se it happening before she took off for 9.She is reading the weaves on the other side of the DW really well now! It set you up nicely for 6-7!
Remember to keep moving to 13 and also to 15, before and after the dog walk – she missed those because you pulled off too soon.
Also check your backsides on the 16-17-18 line – only 1 is a backside, I think you did 2 of them as backsides? That put you behind for the RC on 18 to the frame – you can totally put more pressure on the rear cross diagonal so she reads the RC before takeoff.
At the end you did a bunch of threadle practice – when you do this, be sure to mix in balance by showing her the other side of the jump – she had learned the sequence by then so just doing threadles doesn’t really give you an accurate picture of her understanding. So go back and forth between front side and backside to make sure your cues are spot on and she is reading them.
>> Here original threadle verbal is the long come, but I see where I switch to the repetitive “panic” version when I can tell I don’t have her during a run.:) Not sure which verbal is better????>>
The better one is whichever one you use more consistently 🙂 Most of the long drawn out cooooooooome cues are not natural to humans while running, so you would want to rehearse them a lot. And also, what happens before the threadle verbal (other turn cues) help prepare the dog for getting the threadle)
>>She’s also been having a hard time with her rights and lefts (like off the dog walk with me behind) or rear cross at :52. She is fine on 180’s where she can see me moving laterally. I was thinking to go back to the exercise where you had us send to the wing then up the line to a straight jump and then either a left or right rear cross to the reward. Is that a good exercise to help clarify things for us? Also wondering if my timing could be better for her on the rears?>>
Yes, you can revisit the game where we work the left and right verbals counter to our motion – when you were late with your motion here, she was unable to do them independently so she followed the motion. The rear cross was late, which is why she did not read it, but a more independent directional verbal can help!
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
>>that I’m not getting in some of the other verbals :). Still trying to figure out how to keep more in my head>>Check out Games Package 4 posted this morning, we look at this very specifically!
Nice opening here! Keep training the weave understanding separately, like you did here, I think it is really helping her.
Also, for handling – you don’t need to get as far ahead on the opening line – you can do the BC closer to 6 so as she is entering the tunnel #7, you are moving forward and cuing her to go go go weave – when you pulled away laterally, she was correct to consider turning left out of the tunnel
You were pretty far at 1:44 too for the blind and stopped short after it so she dropped the bar at 6 – this is one of the places where being too far ahead doesn’t help 🙂Other little details: you can send more to 11 and then connect more to show 13 (lots of big eye contact will help there, look very directly at her). When you did get that connection, it also set up a nice line 14-15 at 2:03!
About the line after the teeter: , like at 2:11 with the BC to the threadle:
try moving through it to be sure you are not in the way – rather than getting there and releasing after you finish the blind, you can be moving into it and release as you start the blind. The backside push worked da lot better and was faster because she didn’t have to hold position on the teeter as long 🙂Tracy
Hi there! Hope you had a good weekend!
Bang game –
>>I guess that I have played a lot of calming games with Ria so that when I am on the floor and facing her she takes it as a cue to lay down and settle a bit. >>You can try this standing up a bit, but also you can reward approximations of the behavior (any interaction with the teeter) to get things rolling. At the beginning of the session she interacted a LOT with the teeter, didn’t get rewarded, then got frustrated – then when you tried it again, she offered something higher value (settling). Smart! To undo too much settle behavior: in the presence of whatever you want to shape, you can reward ‘anything that is not settle’ 🙂 Then you can increase the criteria to get more targeting.
Also, since she might be newer to this game and end position on contacts, you can reward all of the approximations of the behavior – you started doing this and the session got much better! How does she do with this game in the ‘lazy contacts game’ setup? More experience with that game will help here on the teeter too. For now, stay closer to the end of the teeter – she was getting the end position really well and then when you moved back, she got confused – so a few more sessions with you nice and close to the end will help.
Serpentines:
>>These could use some more work. The directions said to have the toy sitting off to the side where the second jump would be. Ria just ran straight for the toy instead of going through the jump. I ended up just throwing the toy instead. Acceptable?I think throwing the toy was a really good way to get things rolling in this session – having it on the ground is a separate thing to work through, so throwing it here helped her read the line of jumps. For the handling element: try to be in position then release a second or two later, rather than at the same time, it gives her a moment to read the line. When you got into the serp position, took a breath, then released: I think she nailed it every time. When you got into position and released at the same time, she often went around the first jump. You can also move more after the release now, to help support the next line (which will also get easier when the toy is on the ground).
Back to having the toy on the ground: it is worthwhile to revisit for a number of reasons! It helps with serp behavior (indicated and rewards the 2nd turn of the serp to find the next jump) in a lot of ways, but it also helps with the impulse control behaviors we are layering in too, as in “do the thing I am indicating and not the more reinforcing one you might see out there” 🙂You can refresh that by holding the toy in one hand and having her do a hand touch to the other hand (both hands held out away form your body, like the ‘strike a pose’ game form early MaxPup days). Then have her dog hand touches with the toy on the ground, then put if back on a jump with the toy on the ground like you did here at he beginning.
I noticed that she bit you at 1:56 and 3:54. This is not uncommon with herding breeds in agility! It hurts though, and we don’t want her to bite you if things are not moving fast enough. So you can add in cookies for moving with you back to the setup, as that seems to be when she is more likely to use her teeth.
Discriminations – this is hard! You can have the cookies ready in your hand for quick throws for the kennel up cue, but there are other ways to make it easier for her to find the kennel instead of the tunnel:
You can have them further apart and start her more in front of each one, so she learns the idea that something would happen in the presence of the tunnel that is no actually a tunnel LOL! And, start her on the side you wanted for each one – your right side for tunnel, your left side for kennel to make to easier – starting her on your right side for kennel was too hard because the value of the tunnel was so high.Lead outs – the distance and setup where good here! She might think the release is your reconnection after you lead out so be careful not to pair them – you were clear with this reconnection, take a breath and then release at 1:45, for example, also at 2:13 – those were really good! The extra hand cue as a bit of a ‘stop sign’ also really helped her. You can reward lots of stays as the lead outs get longer by throwing rewards back to her after you have gotten to your lead out spot.
These went well, she is reading the handling really nicely! You can start your turns sooner: as soon as she is over 1 and landing from it… start your turn cue (blind or front, they have the same timing). I think a couple of the bars were down because you were a little late. There were other elements too – if the toy is moving as she is jumping, she might drop the bar, so keep the toy in your hand til after she has landed from the last jump.
>> On one run, she took at a bar on #2 and a wing on #3. Too fast? Too slippery? >>
This was at 2:13, and it was a combination of things: you were a little late turning for the cross, then you reached for the toy and threw, plus the mats are too slippery for a fast dog jumping… so she hit the bar and the wing. So yes, any practice you can find on grass/dirt/turf or even the blue mats that some place have will help her sort out her jumping.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Hope you had a good weekend!
Yes, there was some confusion about lap versus tandem turns – the lap turn is fuly rotated, feet basically facing her, not much motion. Those overall looked great on these 2 videos! The only thing to remember is to be a little more patient before you move (you were generally really patient :)) : extend your arm towards her as if offering her a cookie, and hold it there til she is within 3 inches or so then flip her away to the wing. – you were too soon at :36 to step away to the wing. but really good at :06 and :22 and :46!You had more trouble with the tandem turns here – The tandem is more of a motion cue, feet going straight parallel to the line, upper body rotated. The tandems were harder for her to read, because you were tending to be stationary near the wing, a little rotated but you were leaning over and feet facing the wing – so the least visible cue was the tandem arm – it all looked like a cue to wrap the wing, which is why she kept doing it LOL!
Ieally, you would be moving up the line as she exited the tunnel, calling her and showing the tandem arm, on a lateral line like you were on at 1:23 when she got it so nicely.On the sequences
Lots of good reps here! One general thing is to remember to call her before she enters the tunnel – she didn’t get a turn cue so went blasting out then was surprised that you wanted a tight turn 🙂
The lap turns looked really strong here – nice rotation and patience!! And then when you added the race track line to the lap turns – also fabulous!
For the tandems, I think it will be easier to go in a little closer to the tunnel, call her before she goes in (an keep calling her) – so when she exits, she sees the cue and your motion up the line. Eventually we will replace the name call with directionals, but let’s get the behavior with motion first! I think you can see what I mean by leaning over was pointing all of the cues ot the other side of the wing (feet, shouldes, etc) at :51. The verbal and more connection (showing the tandem arm more) really helped at 1:00 and 1:10! But adding in motion (slowly) so you are not stationary near the win should really help too.Lead outs:
>> More about a sit than the stay. I did send her some catches, but edited most of them out. I am still deciding exactly what are routine will be.>>
The most important thing is that there is no arguing… so you can leave her in a stand or a down, it doesn’t really matter which. You can let her choose! She really wants to play -so you can go to the jump, allow her to offer a position – and that is both her cue to stay AND your cue to lead out. It can work like a charm to get great lead outs with no arguing 🙂
One thing I notice is that you sometimes tend to release with a reconnection after the lead out or arm movement – which leads to her releasing as soon as she perceives a reconneciton or ar movement. So be really careful that you don’t accidentally pair the release word with the eye contact or arm movement.She was reading the handling of these lead outs really well! She was a little wider when you were later, but that is easy enough to smooth out 🙂
When you have her starting at jump 1, the timing of starting the cross should eb when she lands from 1 so she can adjust to takeoff 2 facing #3. As you do it, you should be moving up the line to 3 the whole time (don’t go in towards 2 at all), trusting her commitment to 2 (you can use a verbal jump cue to help but that is really all you will need). For example, at 2:21, one of the spots she was a little wide over 2: be moving up the line to #3 so when she lands from 1 you can do the cross You ran towards he center of 2 (so she turned left) then did the cross when she was taking off for 2) .
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there!
>> I also had a Covid exposure and wasn’t feeling so hot. Hopefully it passes. I was negative (fingers crossed I got my test timing correct)
Ugh, effing covid. Fingers crossed that the negative test was correct. I had a possible exposure too and I immediately felt sick (but I was not sick, just anxious) – turns out the exposure was a false positive. Amazingly, I felt better instantly LOL!
One overall thing in this video: Good rewarding when things went wrong (and when things went right!) You were really active and engaged during the reinforcement process, so he stayed active, fast and engaged in a nice juicy session in what must have been hot weather. YAY!!! Click/treat for you.
>> These 180s are still hard for me.
I think a consistent thing that was happening was after crosses, you were accelerating out and then there errors after it were a combination of your being late with the next cue, and him not expecting another turn so he was accelerating too (young dog inexperience: “We turn once then we GO GO GO, right?” That is fine, I would rather have off courses than refusals). So, you can start the deceleration into the next cue as he is landing after the cross. More below.
Some thoughts about the different sections of the course:
The opening here is a newly popular design trend. Try going the other way on 1, a right wrap towards the fence – it is a better slice and faster line to the tunnel plus gets you up the next line sooner because you don’t have to stay at 1 and send to 2. You kept getting further and further from 1, probably trying to get u the line sooner but the reverse happens: when you are far from 1, like at 2:35 – you have to stay there longer and step back to the tunnel more to get the turn, making it harder to get up the next line. Turning the other way there becomes a send-n-go that is supported by motion better.
BC 3-4-5
>> I watched the video and think he was going around the wingless at my blind because I was in my landing space. When I reattempted, I moved my blind and they seemed to fix it.>>Totally agree – you made some really good adjustments here!
Doing the BC 4-5 was a good choice – you can do it sooner at :11 and keep moving to get off his line. The timing was better at :33 but you were still on his line – you might need to stay more in serp position, traveling parallel to the bar of 4 and moving to the far wing to clear the line to 5. When you broke it down, you cleared his line at 1:05 nicely!
You put the BC between 3 and 4 at 2:42 – this is the best choice for this line, it looked great!!! And put you in a good position for the next section.
6-7-8:
>>I chose to keep him pretty open and not do any wraps here.Generally extension is best, but I think the 7 line is better for the wrap to the left – the extension line to the right make 8-9 harder.
I think we have some dog training we can do here: your FC at :15 was a little late but not that late that the off course was correct per the handling. It is fine to reward him as you did. You got there earlier so it was better at :39 but then pressured to the backside of 7 by accident. At
:41 you got it – as you exited the FC after 7 – you said ‘good” and drove forward so he went long (same thin happened at 2:50) – this is a spot to begin the cues for the next turn as he is landing from the previous line (and don’t say ‘good’ LOL!)So here is more about the dog training to make these 180s better:
You had a really big decel at 2:44… he sailed past it and off course to the backside. So this is a good spot to work on the bread’n’butter (or beignet’n’coffee) of simple decel. You were deceled just as he landed from 5 – so then stay there and reward him for collecting and turning to you after 6, rather than accelerating straight to backside of 8. If he better understands decel, then you will have a much easier time with the handling and won’t need to rely on being perfect (because perfect is so impossible in agility :))>>Still overpraising here. I’m trying. I swear.
Yes, indeed LOL!! The next set of games posted today will hopefully break that habit because there is more rehearsal and less dog running. I am loving your connection – you are connected enough to really see what he is doing and praise it – but we want to replace the praise with information 🙂
For example, looking at the backside at 10:
nice pass cue at 10 at :46 but then remember to strongly look at his eyes as you move forward and say tunnel and do not say good. (he didn’t see the new connection at :47 and ended up behind you to the tunnel he saw). Much better connection at 1:16 and he landed and you said good and he came to a stop waiting for info. Then there was a wide turn at 130 when you said yes. Then at 2:55 – nice job with your line and connection and tunnel verbal and NOT praising! YESSSS! So when you look at Games Package 4, really focus on the rehearsal of the verbals so we can un-praise you 🙂The line at 11-12-13-14 was good, good blind getting there – he probably needed a little more collection cue on 14 but also running past 15 at 1:37 was a young dog error – another spot for dog training. Send to 14 and jog away, then reward him for picking up the line and taking 15.
Maybe a little too much decel at 2:01 when you slipped LOL! Ouch!
At 2:17 You added a collection cue there (I think you said left? or check?) which is good unless you did say left, because it is a right 🙂 – try not to rotate into him though – do the verbal and leave with connection like you did and reward for taking the 15 jump.
16-17 at 2:20, on that first rep, you can use more flip away cue or a directional (physical and verbal cues, rather than juts obstacle name) – you said tunnel and he did not know specifically where it was. You did use an arm cue and a little foot pressure on the line and he read the cue sooner at 3:05. yay!
great job here! Let me know what you think! I will be back later with the other 2 courses below.
Tracy
Hi! It is fun to play with all these options with a dog who is happy to let us play with various options LOL! He looked great here and responding brilliantly.
On sequence 1: the tight collection seems faster on 3 (it was a little hard to time based on camera angle, but the difference was significant enough that it was worthwhile to note). Other things to consider: you already mentioned wrapping to his right on 3, that will be interesting to see versus the left wrap you did here because exit line from 3-4 is so fast! The other thing to try: you wrapped to the right on 1 – I bet to the left is faster – more extension and a better line to the tunnel 🙂
On sequence 3: the backside at 3 proved to be interesting too: when you were moving forward into it from the tunnel AND most connected/setting the best line on the exit, those were the fastest reps (last rep in particular ). When you were further ahead from the tunnel, it caused a bit of disconnection and deceleration from the so he slowed down. And when you didn’t leave the exit of 3 as close to the wing and without as much connection: he was wider and slower to 4.
And on the 4-5-6-7 options: extension ruled the day! When you did the more extended version – he still knew where he was going and was fastest (2nd rep) And the slowest rep there? The last rep, where you sent to 5 and gave big decel on 6!
So far what we are seeing is extension is fastest if he knows where he is going, he can just rip on the line. The collection cue being faster on sequence 1 falls into that category too, because the better cue told him where he was going sooner.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi Hope you had a good weekend!
He was really good here! He was finding the threadle wrap brilliantly with no really help needed to turn away for it. Yay! It was interesting to watch his head: before you released him, note how he would look at you then a the jump then at you. I think you found that a bit disconcerting LOL! because you would stop the lead out and re-start when he did that. It is possible he was scoping the wrong side of the jump… but also possible he was scoping the correct side! So next time, keep moving and release him with the cue, and see what happens. And if he is fine with it? Add more motion 🙂 And remember to balance in some cues for the front side, to be sure he is seeing the difference in the cues.
Great job!
TracyHi! Hope you had a good weekend!
>>LOL! Yes! I don’t want to replace refusals with off courses!
Truth! Actually, if you have to choose… off courses are much better 🙂 It means that you and Cowboy are both really going for it! I would rather have blazing off courses that we add the finesse to later on 🙂
On the backwards sends, he is doing well on the left turns at the beginning so now you can start to move forward as soon as he passes you. He had a little more trouble going to his right on the 2nd half of the video, but that might have been that you were nearer to the enter of the bar (rather than the outer edge of the wing) so he was not sure if you wanted the left wrap or the right wrap. You can move your position pver so he sees more of the wing and that can smooth it out for him.
On the 360s, he is also doing well – 2 ideas to increase his commitment even more, so the handling will be even easier:
for handling – keep walking forward as he passes you to go to the backside. Try not to help him by stepping back or indicating the bar with the other hand – as soon as he gets to the backside, we would like the bar to be part of a default behavior without you needing to stay there. I think at this stage, if you walk forward but then suddenly go fast like at :21, he might chase your line and not take the jump – so stay at a relatively slow pace for now.
On the other reps (:37, :58, 1:25, 1:45) you were helping with handling so he got it, but it was causing you to stay there for too long (and he would then smoke you up the next line if it is was a bigger course :)) which brings us to the dog training ideas:As you walk past the backside wing and he looks at the bar – toss the reward to the landing side of the jump as you continue to move forward past it. That will give him incentive to look at the bar and take it (no matter what you do LOL). And as you toss the reward there, you will find it easier to add more and more motion because jumping the bar will have more value in that scenario.
The other thing you can do as you add more speed is to just use a wing – still have your reward tossed where the landing spot would be, but using a wing is easier for him to commit to so it should also be easier for you to add running 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
