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Hi again!
Her commitment looks great here too! So exciting to see how fast she is and how strong her commitment is! I am doing a happy dance for you!
Your countermotion is looking great (so is your connection). You were leaving pretty well, but you were rotated sideways which is harder: you can decelerate and rotate sooner so you are fully turned and not sideways to the jump – being sideways makes it harder to leave because you have to weight shift and then leave. If you are fully rotated so your back is to the jump, then it is easier to leave faster – so you would basically be decelerating and fully turning before she passes you. Harder for her, easier for you 🙂 So it would be almost the same in terms of sending her behind you to the wing, but you would decelerate sooner so you can turn more before the send: your butt will be facing the wing, not your hip 🙂Continuing to look at the jumping up behavior:
At 1:03, as you turn your back on her and walk to the next starting spot, she jumped up on your back and it looks like she gave you a ‘tooth hug’ 🙂 That is a frustration moment for her, where she doesn’t understand what is happening so she jumps up. So rather than walk away to start over, give her something to do so she knows what is happening: a sit stay, or tugging on a toy, or tricks – anything that maintains the engagement so she knows what to do.Great job on all of these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi again!
Commitment looked GREAT here!!! So, not much to say about it other than she was great and you can add the next step, which it looks like you did already 🙂
>>She keeps doing the jumping thing. I make her SIT sometimes. Very annoying. She’s got a lot of bounce. lol. But kinda only in between when she is going for the toy. But sometimes she jumps before she starts out.>>
About the jumping up thing: a couple of thoughts for you:
When you are connected, she doesn’t do it. I think it is partially a frustration behavior when you are unclear. For example, she never did it on the previous video when your connection was terrific the entire time. And you had a TON of reps where where you were very clear and super connected: no jumping up 🙂 But when she didn’t know what to do, like before you sent her or when it was unclear: jumping up. Be sure to be as connected as possible but also ask her to do something before you start – a sit is perfect for that, and it worked well when you did it.The other thing is that I don’t know if she understands when the toy is in play to grab, and when it is NOT in play to grab. Sometimes when you have it in your hand near her, you want her to get it, sometimes not – so since we all train with toys flapping around in our hands, I highly recommend using a cue word that tells her to grab the toy (and if you don’t say the word, the toy is not available for grabbing even if it is flapping around in front of her). So when I train with my BorderWhippet, I often run with a frisbee because it is his favorite toy. But I have developed the habit of saying “bite” when I want him to take it from my hand, and he has learned to NOT look at it or go for it until he hears “bite”. I think Ruby needs something similar: you are saying “yay” and good dog and stuff, but that is stuff we say all the time so I am not sure if she really understands when to get the toy or not. And that way, even when she is frustrated, she will not leap at you (bark, maybe, but not leap LOL!)
Great job here too! Onwards to the next video 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! Lots of good work here on these videos!
Your 1st rep looked great with the go go go!!
On the 2nd rep, she was starting to have a little trouble going to the tunnel: you yelled tunnel but you were already running away (:06) so she never really got the cue to get on the line to the tunnel.
When you started her again with a clearer connection and step to the tunnel, she nailed it and then the go was good there too 🙂
Similar things happened at :24 and :44 – you need to connect and cue the tunnel when she is wrapping to make sure she knows she is allowed to get on that line. That is what you did at :35 and 1:09 and 1:17 – your cues were very clear, otherwise she is correct to follow motion and NOT take the tunnel if you don’t connect or step to it.About the wraps – timing wraps with speedsters is NOT easy 🙂 You can decel sooner on the dig dig wrap: the timing of the verbal is great here but your decel is happening much later so she isn’t reading it. I think you were trying to get to the wrap wing so you were running fast then rotating without much decel, so she didn’t quite read it as a wrap. The good news is that you don’t need to get to the wrap wing: You can decel wherever you are, when she is landing from the previous jump – with her speed, you will get used to not being at the wing ahead of her, and you can still cue it from behind her 🙂
Rear cross looked good! Super!!!! Both reps, great timing and line so she was able to get it. YAY!
Backside – almost got it on that first rep – you needed to maintain the massive connection for longer and get a little more ahead (eventually the verbal will help more but for now physical cues need to be sooner, especially after the rear crosses there on the previous reps). But then you absolutely nailed it on the last 2 reps – perfect!
Great job here!!!
TracyHi! That is weird about YouTube making them be shorts! I don’t see any restrictions on them, though 🙂
This was fun to obsess on 🙂
Overall – tighter is better, based on the timing of your rotation. Now, for some specifics:On the left wrap at the beginning of the first video: I think the rotation was a bit late on reps 1 and 2, and that is what he reads. He does not read the step to takeoff as a collection cue (you exaggerated it more on the 2nd rep and he had a little more extension, falling when he landed.
On the other side (right wraps) you rotated sooner at :20 so he was passing you and you were rotating – collection! Really nice! The next rep was a little later on the rotation but really nice. He was lovely on both.
The analysis was fun to see! It doesn’t surprise me that he turned better to the left: partially a better line back to the tunnel, partially better handling to create the sweet turn! And he was almost identical on the comparison of the right wraps – he was maybe a half stride faster on the top video which I think was the later rotation, so not quite as much collection?
On the 2nd set of videos:
Rep 1 to the left – good rotation, earlier than the previous video so he was much tighter!
Rep 2 to the left- very strong and early rotation, MUCH tighter and it seems that rep 2 was faster getting back to the tunnel in the comparison video.Right wraps:
Also good! It looks like the bottom rep in the comparison was the one that was faster back to the tunnel by a whisker.So based on these: he does better when there is less of a step ot takeoff, and more of a decel into rotation so he sees rotation before he passes you and before he makes a takeoff decision – that produced consistently great turns. And the fastest line back to the tunnel (straighter line of exit) made for fastest overall reps 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Your questions here are exactly why we are doing these particular sequences 🙂 Overall – great connection, and your blinds to get ot the other side of the tunnel were consistently great!
I couldn’t really hear the verbals – not sure if it was because my device is being weird or if the video is hard to hear. So we will just assume all verbals were perfect 🙂Based on what I see here – she does great with the fast forward, slow forward, then as you are finishing the decel and rotating: a tiny bit of the opposite arm/“brake” hand. Those were GREAT, especially on the 2nd rep of the left wrap. You also had a lovely turn on the first rep, which was really just fast-slow/rotate.
When you went to a stronger opposite arm/brake hand cue – you were starting the brake hand as soon as she exited the tunnel, like on the 3rd rep and on the reps on the right wrap. If you stood still, she could get the front side. But if you were moving, she read the pressure as a backside cue (and I am fine with that). When you were on the other side of the tunnel: because you were emphasizing the brake hand, it was really early and you were ending up on her line a lot. At :52 and 1:26, that ended up showing her a rear cross line as you tried to cut across the line to get back to the tunnel (she back jumped on those). You were in the way, on her wrap line, at 1:17 and 1:34 for example, so you got backsides there.
So it is a tremendously informational session! This is what I see – she is turning BEAUTIFULLY and you really don’t need a brake arm – especially not a strong brake arm – to get her to collect. It is possible that she needed it to be really strong a while back, but now she is really solid in her turn skills and doesn’t need it anymore. YAY!
So going back to your question:
<< Should I focus mostly on trying to change my handling, try to focus more on decel handling (fast forward, slow forward), see if I can train it so she understands it more?<< Yes - focus on the simpler decel handling and getting to the wrap wing, as that will still get a really great turn but will also cue the wrap you want. I think it is better to be a little late on your decel and rotation than to put too much pressure on the backside line by accident. And you can use only a tiny brake arm - she is driving like a sports car, so no need to really slam the brakes 🙂 This would mean as she exits the previous obstacle that she sees you go from fast to slow (heading towards the outside wing of the wrap) with a tiny brake hand that she sees before she passes you and as you rotate but it is softer and later than how you have been giving it. For the comparisons - I used the blue/green screen,but you can also use side-by-side or picture-in-a-picture! I also sometimes sue a good old fashioned stop watch LOL! Great job here 🙂 Let me know what you think! Tracy
Hi!
Run 2 came through! There are a lot of things that went well! She did really well finding lines when you were parallel to her or ahead of her! And you generally had strong connection, which is not easy with a relatively green dog. Yay!!!
On the opening, you were a little late on turning your shoulder so she went past the jump before the tunnel, but you fixed it nicely when you brought her back around. A little more connection will get her into the tunnel there at the beginning (she was following your shoulders, correctly). The rest was strong! Yes, she had trouble driving up the teeter but that seemed more like she needed experience running up the teeter in a course. The only other difficulty I saw was that she had trouble driving ahead of you, like after the dog walk and at the end. You can work on that by throwing a reward out ahead before she looks back (a toy if she likes toys, or a lotus ball for cookies :))
Great job here! Let me know what she thinks 🙂
TracyHi!
The video didn’t come through, can you repost it? We can definitely take a look at the run! There is no specific teeter strategy that can work better than one or the other, it really depends on her understanding of the obstacle 🙂Tracy
Good morning!
Oh crud! Sorry I missed it, I just didn’t scroll up far enough. Eek!
Keiko did well on this session! Very very clear foot hits and you had great clicks! Yuki as a distraction was perfect – just enough distraction that it was hard, but not so much that her head exploded. The outdoor sessions also looked good. I think Keiko thought it was DULL so kept going to the agility field LOL! That is not a problem at home, but we want her targeting to be so exciting that it can break through the distractions at classes or trials – so you can try this with a different reward to see if that raises value/excitement in the face of bigger distractions. You can try using balls or a frisbee, but either tossed to her from your hand or played with right there next to you – the long throws are not going to work in a trial setting 🙂
I agree that you can bring this to new places (keep building value for it at home too). In new places, one idea to make the target more salient: attach it to something that lifts it off the ground a little, so it is easier to see and she can step up onto it a bit. My first thought was to tape it on top of a phone book – but I am not sure if any of us actually have a phone book anymore? LOL! So any book you don’t want to read, or a piece of wood, or something that is easy enough to carry but makes the target less flat and a little higher off the ground. Saliency is our friend in new environments! And you can take this to a lot of different places to get the instant focus game going.
Great job here!! Have fun!
TracyGood morning! I thought this went really well!
Yes, great idea to place the leash as a visual aid! I didn’t see it here on the video (maybe I need more coffee haha) but it seemed like you were running closer to the jumps about halfway through, which is what I was going to suggestion. Ideally, you will want to run the line parallel to the jumps, and about an arm’s length from the jumps. That is so you can stay ahead, set the line, and don’t have to move back in towards any of the jumps because that can end up pushing Cowboy to the backside.
He was reading this really nicely, so only two more little details:
– give yourself more of a lead out 🙂 Especially when the serp jump is jump 1, you can be further ahead and that way you won’t feel like you are chasing him as much 🙂
– when the serp jump is the middle jump – yes, yo can turn your shoulders to face the jump more (this is something you also mentioned). But don’t turn your feet! Your feet were GREAT here, moving forward up the line perfectly. So yes to turning your upper body more (center of chest facing the bar and him) but only turn it enough that you don’t turn your feet.Great job here!! And it looked like you had a whole group of folks there, training together: that is AWESOME 🙂
Tracy
Great questions!
>>1. what do you define as exit?
The line of travel from the wing that the dog passes after he lands from the way you are turning him, to the next obstacle(s)
>>2. How do y ou define a turn?
Anything not a straight line 🙂 a turn can be a gentle curve, a tight angle, lead changes, or no lead changes.
>>3Â What are the start and stop points of the distance calculation?
This can vary depending on the sequence, but in general it is landing of the previous jump, all the way through the decision jump and all the way to takeoff of jump after decision jump.
THi! Poor Indy, she wants you to win the lottery so you can stay home all the time and never leave!!! Ha!
The serps are going really well! At this point in the training, I think the next step is to decide how you want to handle serps with her, stylistically 🙂 Bearing in mind that she is already fast and will be getting even faster, I think we can make it easier for you:
On the reps in the 3 videos, you were doing pull-then-flick serps from behind. And sometimes she got it and sometimes she would look at you (or run past the serp jump to go into the tunnel LOL!). What I mean by pull-then-flick is that you were turning your shoulders away from her, then using upper body motion to turn her away to the next jump.
If you want to use that style, we ca play with timing so she has no questions. But…. (you knew there would be a but hahaha) I think we can streamline it and just keep you moving up the line without the upper body motion pulling her in and out – which will also keep you ahead and get the turns really nicely.
Looking at the first video, your upper body position on the one jump exercises was perfect and on 2 jumps at :20. She read it perfectly to come in and then go back out. Now, that is the streamlined upper body you can use – staying relatively close to the jumps, move up the line with your upper body open like that and she will bring herself in and send herself out so all you will need to do is keep running. I think it will be easier and it will answer the questions she had.
You can see some of the questions at :36 on 3 jumps: you closed your shoulders forward towards the dog walk, so she read it correctly as a left turn, which is why she did not understand to continue to the 3rd jump (be sure to reward that, because she was correct).
:46 looked good – And we can streamline that too so you don’t have to turn forward to indicate the jump after the serp jump by just having you keep your upper body open and keep moving.
At :55 you turned towards the dog walk and moved towards it, which is a left turn cue, so she was correct to think you wanted her heading to the DW. Same at 1:07 – she was heading to the dog walk and was correct based on the cue.
Now, compare it to what you did at 1:13: you sent her to the backside of 1, so the serp was on that #1 jump and you had the lovely open upper body position as you moved up the line – and she nailed it. YAY!On the 2nd video, when you added the tunnel – she did well on these but you will find it easier without having to do all of the upper body steering and you can just run 🙂 Plus, the upper body steering is putting you behind and you’ll want to stay ahead of your little speed demon 🙂
Later in the video with the line back to the tunnel – the upper body in and out was causing a delay in your running line towards the tunnel entry (because it was really hard!) so on some of the reps she was looking at you then getting i, like at 1:12. And if you are a little late, she rockets past you like at 1:22, skipping the jump for the tunnel. I think the same was happening on the last video too – she was getting it but you had to do a lot of steering.
Let me know what you think! I think she will easily let you do the more streamlined serpy handling (easier for both of you) and you can use the bigger upper body motion when she is working at a big distance away or ahead.
Great job! Let me know if the streamline idea makes sense 🙂
TracyHi! Both dogs are doing well with the threadle wraps here.
I think leaning forward might have been part of her question? It might have blocked the threadle arm a little? But some other ideas for you, especially as you add motion:
It was hard to hear the verbals, so if you haven’t added the threadle wrap verbal, let’s add it. More on that below!
Now that you are adding motion (yay!) you can fade the arm swoosh and go to just a little wrist flick – I think they were relying a bit too much on the arm motion to out around the wing. Don’t let your elbow or upper arm move away from your body.
We don’t want the movement of the arm to be the cue to go around the wing, because if you are a heartbeat too early then they might end up on the other side of the wing (Min, in particular 🙂 I think she was wanting you to be perfect on the arm movement)For both of them, be sure to lock them onto the hand, shake it, look at it, before you release them – they each had a moment of going to the other side because the hand cue is not as strong as the value for the wing (not yet, anyway :)) If the hand and verbal come at the same time or close in time, we can raise value of the hand by moving it up and down and also looking at it.
Which brings us to the verbals – I think you were saying break? I would add the threadle verbal because that will help a lot – break means “take what is in front of you” and the threadle/wrap verbal means to threadle/wrap 🙂 So – onwards to adding the verbal: Line up both dogs near the wing and show them the hand a bit – then say the verbal and let them offer the wrap. I think they will be fine with it and you will be able to add more motion very soon too.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Min looked great here!
Wheee nice opening, fast fast fast! On the line from the tunnel to the weaves: Keep accelerating to the poles don’t stand like you did on the first rep, as she slowed down. You drove her more at :39 and she was faster.On the first run, she saved you on the 2nd jump after the weaves: stay connected and drive in on the line – I think you were trying to remember where to go LOL! Then you lost connection at :25 and she did not save you LOL! That was good handling on the jump after the weaves, nice and fast line, it would be fun to compare it to the other direction but the double blind was a little wide.
2nd run – I liked the acceleration to the poles and the double blind after it! For timing of that double blind: try to get the first blind finished while she is still weaving, so the 2nd blind can happen sooner – when she is almost at the wing but not quite at it yet. You did the first blind as she exited which made the 2nd blind late. You were also quiet there, I would use a threadle verbal to help her out. This is a good skill for her, she will be super fast with it!
Nice backside send at :38!!
Oopsie After the straight tunnels where you forgot where you were going, but you were in a good spot and fabulous independent weaves after it! And it was no fluke, she did it again when you ran it again!! And she TOTALLY showed us why we can’t “yay” them on course when she stopped for her cookie LOL! Min is also a “just the facts” type of dog LOL!
Great job here!!
TracyI wonder if the wrap to the inside is faster!
