[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

> I feel like I’m constantly trying to walk that fine line of waiting till she can think vs waiting and just pissing her off even more. What I did notice was the few times I waited her out until she stopped barking AT me, she focused forward and was able to do it.

Yes, that is a good question! My general philosophy is this:
– if we are teaching something brand new, try to teach it in a quiet way where she is less stimulated.
– if we are working on something that is not as new or needs to be transferred to the trial environment, it is important to move the skill into the trial state of arousal she will be in.

So, since this is not particularly a new thing, it is a variation on stuff she already can do – we need to work it in a trial state. And thanks to Facebook stalking – oops, I mean *research* haha – she barks while she runs.

So….. let her bark during these games. Don’t wait for quiet. Let her bark and be aroused, so she learns to process the verbals even while she is singing.

And if she makes a mistake or two, you can help by moving her closer to what you want or adding a little body language, but I would still ask her to be thoughtful in drive: meaning, barking but listening LOL!

Waiting for her to be quiet and focus forward might be fine for initiating the games and teaching new stuff, but it is going to give you a false sense of her understanding of the skill for when you will need her to process the cue. So…. bark bark bark bark LOL!!!!

Looking at this video, she did just fine barking! Sure, waiting for quiet and focus forward gives you a better sense of what will happen but I think her success rate was strong enough with the barking that you can continue with the barking (unless you edited out failures).

And she is going to bark when you add motion so might as well build the barking in here. And the barking is not a problem – many of the best agility dogs to have ever walking this planet bark while they run, so she is in excellent company!

For this game, you can changed the wing out for a jump and also add a wing wrap to get into it, to add a bit of motion (just walking at first). As always, keep her success rate high! She is doing really well 🙂

>>>My biggest takeaway from this game is her willingness to come back to my hand time and time again and yes she did get multiple cookies just for that.

Yes, she loves the game 🙂 And getting the reset cookies helps keep the success rate high, which is part of the reason she is happy to keep coming back to you, so it is a really nice cycle 🙂

>> This is the stuff that’s going to make or break us when I try and do those hard ASCA elite gambles on top of just getting her more independent and off me so she doesn’t get frustrated with my turtle pace running around the course, LOL!!

Yes, definitely should help those difficult gambles! But will also help the challenges that are coming into regular Masters classes and Premier – it is amazing how much we are going to need distance skills and verbals, based on the evolution of the course challenges!

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Good work on these and good for you for looking at the video between sessions!!!

Presto – night and day indeed! You were definitely a little late on the first session (thus the wide turns and the off course).
Better in the second session for sure… but you can still be earlier (I know, I am a pain haha) – as soon as his front feet hit the ground from the blue jump (#1) he needs to hear and see the next cue – you were moving in forward to the red jump and using decel to get it, so he was responding but the right can be sooner and you can move away as if serping the green jump.The verbal is still happening at takeoff which is still a little late.

You are 1000% nailing the timing of the Go Tunnel verbals and physical cues – as soon as he lands from that blue jump, you are pretty clear about what you want LOL!!! So use that same timing for the right turns, but with the verbal and less running to the jump to decel – send and leave.

When you flipped it, he did a great job on the go line after the tunnel! A little more connection on that first rep can help (where he missed the jump) as you mentioned, but he got it nicely on the 2nd rep!

Nikko’s turn:
You had more send and leave on the right turns, my only suggestion is the verbal can be a tiny bit sooner (landing from blue jump). We can add a ‘brake’ arm (small, low opposite arm) as you send and leave to tighten it up, then time it to see if it is faster or not 🙂 She was a bit wide at 1:49 so I think you might be able to tighten that and have it be faster, without having to decelerate.
Her Go Tunnel lines were great!
On the full sequence – when you do the blind on the landing of the 3rd jump, be sure you are passing the wing of the jump so that she doesn’t have to go around you. The rest looked great!
She did well on her 2nd session too – I liked your send&leave on the first session better than running into the right turn jump for collection – it put you too much in the way on landing of the 3rd jump.

Sole’s first session was interesting to see! The timing of your right cues was early enough that she was collecting to turn – but then you were still facing forward a bit so she had some questions. The best turns were when you decelerated – at a distance in the first session, and close to the jump in the 2nd session. So since you will not want to decelerate on those massive US Open courses, definitely try the brake arm with her. As you are saying your right cue, your outside arm comes up nice and low (hip height) and gets used as kind of a ‘whoa’ cue along with the dog side arm. This gets a nice soft turn collection without you needing to decelerate.

She had a little question on the layer out of the tunnel at 3:06 (looked t the green jump) bit then got it nicely on the next rep and on the full sequence at the end.

So overall – yes, time your verbals nice and early but play with adding that brake arm so you don’t have to slow down with any of the dogs to get the soft turns 🙂

>> And it was nice with him that the “right” verbal was enough and I didn’t need to call his name or extra hand movements.>>

When you can get up close and personal to the jump, doing it with verbal and decel is great! When you want to be further away and/or not use decel – highly recommend that soft brake arm 🙂

I do a bit of brake arm in the videos, and I can also dig up more examples if this doesn’t make sense without visuals 🙂

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi again!
She is reading the FFCs well! For her, try more of a slice line up at jump 1 as well – if you watch her from landing of 1 to entry of 2 on both sides, she has to make an extra turn to get to 2 and a slice set up will eliminate that (she will be able to drive straight to it).

Plus, she will be less likely to run around the jump like she did at :19 when you leaned in a bit (you were fine to lean in, but it doesn’t really show the line to 1 based on her line up spot).

At :25, you took a tiny tiny step back so she took the front of the jump – you were saying the verbal correctly, but motion is still very powerful 🙂

She did well reading these as you moved your position further away too!

She had a harder time reading the threadles – mainly because she could see your body between the uprights – that position overrode the verbal and arm. When you moved to a position more on the wing at 1:24, she got it nicely! And lining up on a slice will help too – her line up positions had her facing directly to the wrong side of 2,so you had to handle the backside more. If she is slicing and all she is facing is your threadle position, you will have a much easier time convincing her that it is not the front of 2 🙂 That will be especially useful when you move further away up the line.

As with Kippy, I think she is better with the threadle too! The FFC is a good tool to have but I am thinking you will end up using the threadle more. As you move up the line and change your position, keep that entry wing in mind to center you position off of (rather than showing the center of the bar at all, positionally). That position on the wing is an indicator of the threadle before you release from the line so you should be able to get even smoother lines.

>> Where she struggles sometimes is not taking the jump when I’m leaving to get down the line. So I think my step might need to be adding me leaving with more and more motion while she takes the jump.>>

One thing you can do is watch her head – don’t leave as she rounds the backside wing, watch her head and when you see her turn her head to look at the bar, that is your cue to leave 🙂 And in training, throw a TON of reinforcement to the landing spot so that she learns to ignore your motion in order to maintain her commitment to the threadle jump.

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>> in a trial setting I’m almost 100% releasing him while I’m motion off the startline.>>

For planning (especially with the Open in a few weeks) I guess the main question is: what are his start lines like at a trial? If he is a bit iffy about holding his stay, you can keep training this but you can also look at leading out a lot less and doing a really independent backside push, then running through on the landing side for a ‘German’ or a serp exit. More on the super independent pushes coming next week 🙂 These threadle openings require a good enough stay to allow us to comfortably get into position and if he leaves early, you risk getting the front side.

A couple of ideas about his session here:
He is NOT a fan of the forced front cross LOL!!! So, based on how much better the threadles were, you can abandon training them and just work the threadle openings. If he is good at threadle openings, you will not need the FFC in the tool box (on the opening line or anywhere else on course).

For the line up at jump 1: Set up more of a slice over 1 so he doesn’t go around it – there is a bit of pressure on these and he is reading that, plus he is really close to the jump so it is easier to go around it.
He was much better at :53 and 1:36, for example, when you had a lot more of a slice line. I like the slices on 1 here, because it takes out the front of 2 almost entirely and gives the dogs plenty of room to take 1 in extension.

The Threadles are much better for him, in terms of commitment and jumping.
And at trials – you can hold your threadle position and you don’t have to move away until he commits to coming to the backside and you see him turning his head to look at the bar at 2 – that will get a great opening and you will still be able to get where you need to be on the next line.

When you change your position – move straight back away from the line of the entry wing (towards the next jump) for now, rather than more across the #23 jump – when you moved across the #2 jump, it was hard to know til after he landed from 1 if you wanted the front or back of the jump there. So, positionally you are in the same spot (near the entry wing) but we just move you further back from it when changing position.

He was reading the threadles really well, so I think they will be really useful! Let me know what his stay is like at trials and we can plan 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

For REAL about the FEO/NFC thing! But at least AKC has those 2 opportunities. USDAA has plenty too. I don’t think there is a lot of UKI in your area? But the food reward boxes in UKI are great, plus in UKI you are allowed to take a toy to the line in ALL runs, not just NFC runs (I love this rule :))

I agree that the layering games went really well for you! I think layering is harder for smaller dogs (they need to take more strides and have more time to change their minds LOL!) but he did a super job!

First video – he definitely likes driving to the tunnel! One small suggestion: you can lead out less on tunnel sends so you don’t have to stop moving (especially on mats, where we handlers are a bit faster than the dogs). And you can name the line sooner – when he lands from the first jump, you can start your Go Tunnel cues so he accelerates ahead and you can peel away

Good work on the right verbals/turns. When you added the first jump to it at :49 and 1:01 the timing of the verbal was really strong! I don’t think you need that step to takeoff – it might actually show a little extra motion to 2 which widens the line and opens up the tunnel a bit. At 1:16 you were setting up for the send which made the verbal late – so you can just take out the physical send cue in favor of saying the verbal and leaving 🙂 There is an additional brake arm cue we can add if needed that can help move away sooner, but he might not need it 🙂

The sequence looked good! You added the go tunnel earlier here – you can say it a few times so he feels confident driving ahead from you. I think that repeating the verbal allows the dog to process it more when working independently, especially as we move away and the physical cue doesn’t support it as much.

He did a great job with the Go after the tunnel on the 2nd video! It is a difficult Go because of the layer and there is a rear cross on the tunnel. Good boy! You can throw the toy as soon as he looks at the jump after the tunnel, he was asking a little bit of a question by slowing down. And you can also add parallel line motion to help support the layering, that is useful there too to help get him on the line.
The timing of your right verbal on the very last rep was perfect! And you didn’t need much of a send or any real digging into the takeoff spot – and he nailed it. Super!!! So you can play with leaving earlier. The goal on all of these is to keep you in motion so yo can easily get to whatever the next spot is on course.

Great job on these!!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
The first reps went really well! Great job helping him with position and standing still, and gradually moving further back. Great job with the toy throws – he was beginning to lift his head to look for them, which is good because it means he is predicting the placement based on the cue, which strengthens his understanding.
When you added distance, stand still for longer to let him still look for the bar without handling help. And also, to assist the independence without any additional handling, you can try tossing the toy with the threadle arm – that way you won’t need to switch arms to throw, as that switching arms to throw could read as handling help to him, and he might wait for that. So it might feel awkward to throw with the threadle hand but can be effective! The other option is to throw with the other hand but wait longer – wait til he has turned to the jump and approached it.

He is doing well with adding distance, but as you saw – needs a few more sessions before you can move away with a lot of speed. As you add distance and add moving away, use slower motion (walking) so he can continue to process the cue. it is pretty complex because we are asking the dogs to do something that is very different than our position and motion 🙂

Nice work here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
I am so sorry to hear about Breeze but so glad that he seems to be improving quickly! I was following your facebook page for updates. Sending healing prayers for the little guy!!!!

We can break all of these down as needed into training skills for Miss Promise. I have always found that getting the pups out for training helps take my mind away from anything else, in a good way. Hopefully that is the case here too! And of course Potter is welcome to play too.

Promise did a great job stepping into the big dog shoes with this game!

On your tunnel sends – try a lower arm and more connection as you move away – think of it as bowling her unto the tunnel rather than pointing up high. A high arm caused a little question on the very first rep. Your arm was lower at :19 and :52 and she had no questions
For the tunnel verbal. You can use your GoTunnel verbals to name the whole line to cue the tunnel sooner – as soon as she lands from 1, you can start go go go tunnel and see how she does. You said over then tunnel as she landed from 2 – I don’t think she needs that 2nd over for the Go line.

For the right turns – she did a GREAT job with that juicy tunnel out ahead! She was turning really well. Try to start the right cues as soon as you have seen her land from jump 1.
At :24, you told her over then the right cue, so the right cue ended up being late and she was a little wide. But compare it to the last rep at 1:08, when you gave her the right cue when she was maybe halfway between 1 and 2 and she was amazing! Tight and fast. Love it!

Because she is young, her commitment is not yet fully developed so she might not yet commit on perfectly timed cues – but that is something that will continue to develop. So far she looks great!!! You can add in more layering but to help her out, use less of your motion by walking through it until she understands it.

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

True!!!! That course looked fun and seemed to run very well if the skills were in place 🙂

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Hope it is not raining too much! We have a lot of wind here but hopefully the rain is done.
Yes, getting the verbals out early and repeating them can be very helpful for the dogs – it gives them a bigger window to process the verbals rather than just once. So if it is something complex, I will repeat the verbal (early and often). Simpler things don’t need as much, usually one cue will be fine 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Congrats on your new title – I am so glad you found a place to use the verbal and it worked out so nicely!!!!!

On the wraps at the beginning where she was turning the wrong way, I think she was reading your lower body, which was slightly rotated and your opposite leg was back – so it looked a bit like a lap turn, despite the verbal cue. When you faced forward and stepped to the side of the cone you wanted with the dog side leg, she got it on the 3rd rep and beyond.

Then you were fading yourself out so the physical cue was not as important. And she did a great job and was super cute, being a bunny for her ball LOL!

When you balanced into the wing-tunnel-wing/jump sequence, she did really well – the GO lines were easy because you had primed the pump there plus it is fun – with the ball as reward, she is definitely wanted to run long 🙂
She missed the first right but was in full on “Go” mode – you can switch to the turn cue earlier in the session and also you can show a tiny bit of handling – timing of the verbal was spot on, so you can turn your shoulders and feet a bit too to help her get it on the first rep. I think her error was more about just running to where the last few rewards were and not necessarily processing the verbals. But verbal plus a little handling will help!

She did a great job not running over the old terrier LOL!! So cute!

She is ready for you to build this into the bigger sequences. AAC has the hardest gambles in the world, so I think this can build into some really cool gamble stuff too!

Great job 🙂 Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

I am so glad to hear Sole is doing well! Whew! I bet she is happy too 🙂

>> My inclination was to move further out from the jump – but I can totally see how that could be confusing for the dogs. I was playing around with more motion with the girls because they have a nice start line at home – but they will NOT at the Open, so wanted to get a sense of how I need to handle it there and definitely seems like I will want to be closer to the jump.>>

That is all good planning! Moving into the threadle nice and close. The other option is a short lead out that is laterally away from the entry wing and pushing to a backside “German” turn (or serp). I like that move with my Voodoo because it gets my butt moving and also was great as I taught him the threadle opening.

Nikko – jump is too close to the tunnel especially when it was parallel to it , she had a hard time fitting into the gap
I think her miss (when she came to the front on a push cue) and Sole’s miss (when she took the tunnel on a backside cue) had more to do with a “how do I fit in there??” moment and not a ‘not listening’ moment LOL! My guess is that if you give them one more yard between the tunnel and the jump, it won’t be a problem at all. And in a trial, they would ave a lot more room between the 2 obstacles.

Using handling is fine as long as they also understand to not just take the tunnel because it is there (and they listen to the verbals. The other thing to do is make sure you are behind them with the verbal and handling, starting closer to the wing and not sending to it and being ahead. Can they still read the handling and process the verbal with you behind?

Doing this with weaves was great because yes, I agree that this is a VERY trendy challenge right now (more on that coming tomorrow). I didn’t post with weaves because the equipment needed for the class didn’t include them but you are definitely welcome to add them in!

The dogs did really well!
Presto had a little trouble with the jump when it was parallel to the weaves – easy time when it was perpendicular and when you were handling too. If you were moving with the perpendicular jump, he had trouble ‘finding’ the backside wing so I would leave it slightly angled so he can see the wing better. Part of his question he to do with you blocking the wing on the first rep (so he took the tunnel) then being too far from it on the 2nd rep (so he took the front). He did well when you were stationary and did a little send.

Nikko had a similar question when the jump was parallel and made the same errors on the push cue, and she got it when you were stationary.

Sole did not have any trouble, but your handling was also crystal clear on those 🙂

One thing you can do with this setup with the weaves is to replace the wing with a chair (for you to relax in) and work this on full on verbal only, not body cues. Don’t use a backside jump, just have it as a front side and use a generalized jump cue and a weave cue. That will help ‘absolve’ you of having to have great handling, and take you out of the picture – we often see incredibly independent weave entries so the more they can find the weaves on verbals, the better. So I highly recommend a chair, a nice warm beverage, and rewards you can throw LOL!

Great job here!!!!! Did you also enter Presto at the Open, at least in Speedstakes and stuff? Have fun with the layering stuff! I saw lots of uses for it on the Cynosport maps!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi again!

Good job with the full sequence right at the beginning! He is still having some questions about committing to the bar at 2, so a couple of ideas for you:
Definitely keep reinforcing on landing side of 2, that will help build the behavior. I think he is still trying to rely on your motion towards the bar, and we need to convince him to do it on his own LOL! So a couple of ideas: start a lot closer so he doesn’t rocket past 2 and don’t move fast yet – you can even stand still because we want him to look for the bar independently of you turning towards it.
So basically you can stand still in position, do the verbal and arm… and don’t move until he looks at the bar – then throw the reward. Start close and then I think it will be easy to move you further back.
I do this standing still at 8:45ish of the demo video, to help remind the dog to commit to the bar at 2 🙂 The commitment to the jump is implied by the position and verbal, so ideally you won’t have to step towards it at all 🙂
When he understands it more fully, you can ‘release’ the threadle cue as soon as his head turns to the bar and just go to your next spot without having to step to the jump.

That should be the last piece of the puzzle for him! He is coming to the backside perfectly, your positions are strong, and he is ignoring the tunnel discrimination when you are asking for the threadles. YAY!!

Great job on these1 Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! This is going well!

On the first rep – great threadle and then he correctly followed you body line to the far end of the tunnel. Good boy!
Your body line on the 2nd rep was much clearer and he was perfect 🙂
Nice position on the threadles too! This is going to be a useful skill for him.
When working the commitment to the bar at 2, you can move more slowly so he looks for it himself, then toss the reward – no need for the tunnel cue if you are going to reward.
:33 – great example of where you can use a tossed reward to solidify the commitment to 2. The tunnel is the easy part, so no need to cue it til after commitment to 2 is really strong. He had a miss at :33 but then got much better when the rewards starting coming at the landing side. And the full sequence looked great!
More ideas below about threadle openings 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

We are supposed to get a little rain here and there this week (I am going to get outside today for filming after sunrise but before we get some rain) but nothing like what the rest of the country is getting. Ewwwww!!!!!

Keiko did really well with the layering here! The first couple of reps were easy peasy for her. Nice!

As you added the green jump before, we can look more at timing:

At :18, you gave her the over cue and then the tunnel cue before she took off for jump 2 – perfect! You probably don’t even need the over cue for the white jump before the tunnel, you can probably just get a Go Tunnel Go Tunnel going. You can also use it at 1:08, where she is landing from the green jump: you can name the entire line by cuing Go Tunnel. – otherwise she is waiting a bit over that white jump to get the info: is it a turn or the tunnel?

At :25, you gave the over for that #2 jump but then didn’t say if it was the jump or tunnel until she was in the air – so try to cue it before she takes off. You used come here, I think, but you can also use her name or a right verbal. The same thing happened at :52 and 1:02 – you are cuing it as she was over the white jump, so she was a little wide and was considering the tunnel because the cues had not happened yet.

At :31, adding the wing – your timing was good for the tunnel cues… but you were disconnected and pointing forward so she went into handler focus and came off the line towards you. Much better on the rep right after that!!! Those 2 reps illustrate the difference in arm use. On the rep where she did not take the jump or tunnel, your arm was ahead of you and her, causing you to look ahead which turns your shoulders and changes the info. On the reps after that where she got it, you were mainly looking at her and your arm was mainly “bowling” her and not pointing ahead. A subtle but important difference!

She did a great job staying on the line when you flipped things and started with the tunnel! You can add the GO cue before she enters the tunnel.
The full sequence looked great! I think the only spot to improve here is giving her earlier info about the line from the green jump to the white jump – if, when landing from the green jump, you started shouting GO TUNNEL GO TUNNEL, then she can really accelerate to the tunnel (taking the jump because it is on her line) and that also allows you to leave even sooner for your next position. And when you want the turn, I think using your over cue puts her more into handler focus so she is ready to turn. Using Go Tunnel versus Over can help her differentiate, sooner. If it is an over cue for both lines, then she has to wait a bit and we want her to just go go go 🙂

Nice work here! Let me know if the ideas make sense!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! This video is the best Monday morning wake up! He looks GREAT!!! He was patient on the start line, perfect in his response to cues, let you move laterally away from the weaves, and nailed the big ending line. Your handling choices/execution and connection were lovely!!!!! It is so cool to see him running like a pro. The future is VERY exciting!!!!!!!!

>> still getting comfortable between the gate entrance and setup but once he’s set he’s all business!

You will find the rhythm outside the ring. Whatever is happening outside doesn’t seem to be creating any issues inside the ring. He might just need more time to get used to the distractions of being around all those people and dogs.

>> guy. I think he was remembering that for the last several sessions it had been all about the individual verbals at the jump….didn’t really do any tunnels during that time…and he just couldn’t believe it was OK to do the tunnel again 🙂

Ha! That is too funny. I am sure he will fully recover the tunnel value LOL!!

>>Had to smile when I saw the course map for the Biathlon Standard course, it was all about a straight tunnel under a contact. And it ate teams alive!

For real!!!! Basically the Cynosport courses were a walking advertisement for this course – some of the courses included challenges being posted tomorrow LOL!! They didn’t all look good on paper, but the judges did a great job setting them in general so I liked most of them. And it was really really important that USDAA had good courses this year, because that will be helpful in getting more people to come play 🙂

Great job on your JWW run!!!
Tracy

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