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Hi again!
Course 3: Emmie
Nice runs here too!!!
Looking at the opening:
For her, the threadle line ended up being a little faster but when I really obsessed and broke it down… it was the turn at 3 that made the difference, not the turn at. The backside send was faster over 2, but then you gave a big acceleration to 3 so she was wide there. On the threadle, the threadle itself was slower over 2 but you gave a better turn cue on 3, so that was where the time ended up being faster.
I think the fastest line will end up being the backside push and then just connect and cue 3, rather than run to it with a big send.
You consistently got really nice turns on the FCs after the tunnel! One little oopsie where you got on her line at 1:31 but the rest were great.
And good job letting her get past your feet on the rotation at :48 and 149 to set up the last line (you were a little early leaving one the first rep – the patience moment needed there is to let her get past your feet before you finish the rotation).Kippy:
It was interesting to see him read the threadle cue as a threadle for jump 1! You can try setting him on more of a slice line over 1, so it is more obvious to take jump 1 and then threadle – work it as a recall to your left hand there before turning on a stronger threadle cue.
On the opening line, same as with Emmie: Don’t show as much motion or send cue to 3 so he can turn more on it (rather than land long then turn on landing).
It was in
That #5 backside jump was great to work through for him, the way he sets up those lines, he did need a threadle as he still had a decision when he lands (front or back of the jump).The spin sets it! And so does the threadle at 1:21 – it looked like the threadle got you further ahead.For the tunnel exits: this is where I think that 6 foot line will really help: your cues at :37 and 1:45 were getting earlier but still late 🙂 His head was already in the tunnel 🙂 So let him see the FC and hear the verbal when he arrives at that 6 foot line, then have him chase you for the reward on the exit (to help him really want to turn :))
Overall, I think that is the hardest part: tunnel exits 🙂 Once we get that, it will be easier to run him 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Course 2:
Emmie
Looking at the opening and which was faster on 4:
The send-and-go was working out to be consistently faster even though it was not as tight: she could power in and out of it with more speed. She set up a lovely turn on the spins… but had to slow down to do it. You were a little late with the reconnection so she had a moment of looking at you before driving to the tunnel, which also slowed her down a little (there is no break in connection on the send and go, so she had no questions :)) You can play with starting the spin sooner so you are finished and reconnected to cue the tunnel before she lands, to see if that ends up faster than the send-and-go.Comparing the FC to the BC on the next section after the pinwheel:
FC was a little too early at :12, you were fully rotated before she landed from 7 so she was correct to read it as a cue to come to the backside.
She still had a question at :25 but you held position longer so she got it (you were still a little early :)) At :43 you were way early and ran backwards to get it done 🙂 You don’t need to start the rotation til she has landed from the 7 jump so you can rotate and move forward through the FC and not be too early.Interestingly, even though she had a couple of questions on the FC and no real questions that I could see on the blind: the FC was just about identical to the BC in the timing. That is good to know! If you can smooth out the questions, it will be faster 🙂 And smoothing out the questions is just being a little later in the cue (more patient :))
One last thought for her: try not to spin on the 9 tunnel entry, and it cues a tight turn but we want an extension there (at :28 for example). You can do it as a post turn to get the extension exit and not dilute the spin cues.
Kippy:
I thought he read the spin on 4 nicely! You can also play with the send and go to check which is faster. His runs looked good – a little more connection after he exits the tunnels will help: When he exited the 3 tunnel and you were looking forward, he went into handler focus and didn’t see the commitment to 4. Same with tunnel #5 – a little more connection will keep him seeing the line to 6 rather than coming into you.
Try to do the FC in the same position relative to the jump as you did with Emmie (you were a little too far across the bar with him on the FC). As with Emmie, the BC there really gained no advantage in time! So, getting the FC just right will be even faster 🙂Since we are obsessing on tunnel exits for him: the spin at :15 caused him to turn on the tunnel exit, good boy! So don’t spin when you don’t want a turn 🙂
Nice work here too!
TracyHi!
Good baseline! Good connection throughout. On overall suggestion – you can try to control the lines less, and move more – by control, I mean less pressure and hand cue into the takeoff spot, and you can use your verbals and move away more – that will help the cues look different to show the different lines and then you can also have an easier time getting to places on the bigger courses
On the first run: On this type of smaller course, you can run deeper into the tunnel so you can moving and not have to stand still at all 🙂
On place to do less control of the takeoff spot is the 8-9 line – you can be more lateral and tell her sooner (she looked at you on tunnel exit) and you can stay in motion more – big acceleration out of it sent her wide over 9.
2nd run – right verbal on tunnel entry #3 looked great!
One thing for this course and the others too: for her, try to use more early verbals and moving away to get tunnel exits, and less rotation on the tunnel entry. You had a rotation on the 7 tunnel at :32 and 1:12 and it got too much turn for this sequence (she was correct) – just say the word and let her see you move away – we don’t want to dilute the rotation when there is an extension exit.
Your decel on 8 is working ncely, think of it as more of a lateral send so you can move away sooner so there is no big motion to 9. The big motion to 9 is getting wider turns there.At :39 – she rear crossed instead of wrapped – yo were putting a lot of pressure on the takeoff spot, leaning into it, facing the RC line so as she was lifting off at :38, she saw you move to the takeoff spot and in the air, she flipped to a RC
At :58 you were further away on the wrap but still bent over and leaning in. So think of it as more of a soft transition: acceleration facing the wrap wing, decelerate, then rotate and leave without pressuring into the takeoff spot with hands or motion.
Looking at a little bit of timing: the 11 wrap to the end was faster when she was wider even will little question on exit of last tunnel. When you added the rotation there, it slowed her down a bit! And it was slowest when you went tothe other side of the end line. Good to know!Kippy
Looking at the tunnel exits, I think we can play with some timing stuff to help him turn better on the exits. Using a leash or something, mark the line that is 6 feet before the tunnel entry – then when he is arriving at that line, deliver the exit cue with physical and verbal cues. You were quiet on the tunnel entries on the first rep, and :24, then late on the others – if his head is in the tunnel before he sees/hears other info, then he will blast out straight 🙂 So try the 6 feet marker and see if it helps! Then keep moving away on the line you set so he chases you for reward – that will also help create better turns.
You added some rotation before the tunnel , turning towards him at 1:02 and 1:32. It changes the line on the exit but that will dilute the turn cues when you want the tighter turns, and also dilute your position when you need to get somewhere on a big course – he migh be relying on that which is why when you don’t do it, he goes really wide. So I think the 6 foot pre-tunnel timing can really help so you don’t have to rotate.
And be careful not to spin too much (1:06, 1:16, 1:35 and 1:40)- it should be a really powerful turn cue and we don’t want to use it to set up and extension line.
He did well on the pinwheels! You mentioned they were difficult for him – he has a little bit of difficulty with t he jumping effort on the pinwheels (a bit of wideness and some slipping on landing like at 1:04) so try sending into pinwheel from the landing side of the first jump then peeling away with a lot of connection, and not curving with the line – that can help him set up his jumping on the middle jump better.
For the verbals – one thing I have found is that it is not a problem to use the same soft turn cues from the DW on the jumps! It makes it easier to get all the things trained 🙂
Emmie has more verbals than Kippy… but you can just start using them with him and he will attach them to the behaviors pretty quickly 🙂 And for the threadle slice versus threadle wrap, I am going to try to convince you to use 2 different verbals – more on that below 🙂
Great job here!
TracyPossibly – if you think that will handling coming into it that he would still have a choice between front and back sides, then yes to the threadle cue.
Howdy!
>> You can decelerate into 4 and give him a left cue (it was hard to hear what you were saying)
He has no “left/right” cues. I usually just call his name for turns out of tunnels. I might have been saying ‘jump’ here.>>
Let’s train some! It is a skill I see lacking on a lot of fast dogs: we have all the verbals for tight turns or go lines or backsides… but those darned ‘soft’ turns have no name and they need a name LOL! Name and jump don’t give enough info anymore, now that the courses are so much bigger.
The good news is that it is actually really easy to train left and right (used it be a much more complicated process which is probably why people didn’t do it). I will find those videos too 🙂
>>>I have to work on this/remember this with him.
About the arm pointing: I cured myself that with my older dogs by running with an open bottle of water in my dog-side hand. (Then I moved up to coffee, which is more valuable to me, especially in the morning LOL!). That open bottle reminded me to control the arm and when I flung and pointed? I got water on my head (true story). I need to revisit this with my 3 year old dog because she has found a new gear of speed and now I am all clingy/pointy LOL!
>>My only suggestion on that ending line is that we can tighten up the 15-16 line at the end: you can do the FC there closer to the 16 jump so he could see the position cue: you were moving across the center of the bar of 15, so he jumped long based on your line of motion.
>>Julie said this too. Ha.
Ha! It is good to have another set of eyes on things in real time 🙂
OK so I will go find the zig zag grid videos and the left/right videos 🙂
Hi!
>>This week I noticed I was failing pretty miserably giving my verbals during the sequences to success as well.
OK, I will bug you then LOL! And also the next set of games will look at planning verbals better: I think most of us are NOT yet good at planning verbals and then we have to remember them on the fly, while running 100mph. So, more planning in the walk through will really help 🙂
>>I have not seen the zig zag grid before. It would be great to see the videos.>>
I will dig up the videos and post below 🙂
>>This is funny because I actually can do rear crosses on the flat pretty well – its’ the “real” rear crosses I can’t do. I was trying so hard to do a “real” one and was so excited I got it after that really bad one.>>
I think you are pretty good at the real rear crosses 🙂 si stop telling yourself you are bad at them. Those real rear crosses require patience when we are not way behind the dogs. And since you have tremendous foot speed (SO JEALOUS!) then you are probably not ever *that far behind… so that little hint of patience to set the line (patience in the form of a decel, sometimes) before accelerating into the rear cross will help. The specifics will depend on the actual course, but in general the real rear crosses are in a “Set (decel, turn to the line) Drive (accelerate up the RC pressure line) Cross (cut behind the dog who is now ahead of you)” rhythm.
T
Good morning!
>> He was a little wide on 3 in the opening – the need to get to the tunnel exit is causing you to lose the finesse at 3 on that line – so you can send and leave with a bit of decel. I liked when you did it all dog on left – if you send and leave to 3 (no spin) then you will easily be ahead of him on your left side to get the weave entry>>
>>I don’t know why I didn’t just do this. It was like I was purposely making this hard on myself. It just seemed like a good way to run it when I walked it initially.>>
I don’t think you were purposely making it hard on yourself 🙂 And it did seem like a good way! One thing that I do in training is that I can’t get it right on the 2nd try, I will watch the video. That gives me a break (it is HOT!) and gives the dog a break. And the video always tells me what I am doing wrong LOL! And if I still can’t tell from the video in that moment? I will stop and look at it again the next day, sometimes are brains need a day for the answer LOL!
>>I’ve been trying to work the fast blinds with him instead of the fronts on some of these drills to get better at them. I’m used to “floating” into the blinds and not just changing sides quickly.>>
I think you are doing a great job! The trick is going to be keeping your arms in really tight ti your ribs: hands down by your back pockets, upper arms in tight to your rib cage: that will make your tight blinds VERY quick because your head turn is all you need. When our arms are extended, the quick blinds take longer because we have to reel in then unfurl our arms, which delays things ever-so-slightly.
T
Good morning!
>> It’s so hard to remember it all but you have such an eye for all the ways I can do better for Arty! We will keep working on all the little details.
Agility has soooooo many little details! And getting to watch the video in slow motion makes it easy to see things 🙂 You and Arty are doing a GREAT job!!!
On the video:
These are all looking REALLY good! I just have little suggestions for you:When you were working on just the jumps:
The Go looked really good – keep throwing this in here and there so she maintains the joy of driving ahead like this!!Left wrap looked good – I think you can accelerate for a little longer (run hard til she lands from the first jump) then decelerate and see if you can rotate sooner to be turned before she takes off. She is turning well here but I bet you can turn even sooner (which gets you back up the line faster and gets a tighter turn) when you have a little more acceleration then slip into the decel.
On the right wrap (rear cross) – she is doing really well, so you can start to move up the RC diagonal sooner – as she is landing from the previous jump, you can move to the center of the bar of the next one to set the line for the RC. She was jumping the center of the bar here, which means the info was a little late (earlier info will get her jumping on the right side of the bar because she has turned before takeoff.
She did well on the Push backside! I think with this one, you can converge in sooner as well – no need to take the one step straight past jump 1, you can already be converging in towards the backside wing with a lot of connection. This is more like what you did at 1:01, when she was beginning to see the cue as she was over the previous jump.
On the Right Wrap at 1:12 where she dropped the bar – you can rotate your feet on that one more (before she takes off) and try not to say ‘yes’ over the bar – that distracts the dogs and they do things like dropping bars (I have the same habit that I am trying to break myself from doing LOL! )
From the tunnel:
The Go looked great again, I am excited that she loves to GO GO GO so much because it really is the most important skill!
Left wrap – it was hard to tell exactly, but it looks like she slowed down a little here? I think you might have decelerated too early (figuring out timing with young dogs is not so easy!) So you can accelerate into it more until after she has landed from the previous jump then decel and rotate away as she is passing you.
She read the rear cross nicely here too – try playing with the earlier pressure so she sees you moving to the center of the bar (rather than straight) as she lands from the previous jump. It is tricky because you want to show some pressure but you don’t want to push her off the line to the backside, so your feet will need to face forward tp the jump bar til she is past you.On the last backside, I think this was when you pump decided to get involved and jump the jump LOL! That would explain why you softened the pressure and turned forward LOL! When yo try it again, you can play with the earlier pressure on the push here too – as she is jumping previous jump after the tunnel, you can already be converging in and connected pretty directly to her eyes, then maintain that connection til you know she has changed her line and is going to the backside wing. And as weird as it sounds, keep your dog-side arm (right arm in this case) back and not moving forward, so she can really see the connection and direction that your shoulders are pointing 🙂
Great job on these! Feel free to swap the jumps and do it on the mirror image side as well 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
Glad to hear you are working the hind end awareness 🙂 At her age (9 months-ish, right?) she sounds right on target of only kinda sorta knowing how to use her hind end LOL!! Keep playing with it, she will sort it out as her body matures. When she is more of a teenager (14, 15 months, etc) then you will start to see it all come together. Same with the sits in motion – that is a hind-end based behavior so it takes a little bit of time to let the pups grow into it.
Double crosses are indeed difficult because of how early and quick they need to be. I feel that pain! One thing that really helps me is to keep my arms in really tight – it make that 2nd blind easier if I keep my upper arms (shoulder to elbow) basically touching my rib cage. Having arms extended delays the 2nd blind in terms of how quickly. I can show the dog that my head has turned – and she is fast so you want to be quick 🙂 I think of double crosses as 2 connection changes: first cross then connect, 2nd cross then connect.
>> as long as there was good connection coming around the first wing, good things happened.
Exactly! Good connection is key 🙂 You were really nailing it!
>>It started being very fun.
YAY! They are really fun and also very useful on technical courses. And great for building up connection in general.
On the first video:
I liked that you redefined early LOL!!! Your first blind was pretty solid on all of them. On the first couple, your 2nd blind was a little late (she was almost all the way to you when you did it, so it was much harder for her to read before getting past you. But then you started doing the 2nd blind basically as soon as you saw her change sides for the first one: YES! That means that you were connected (yay!) and also on time (double yay!)A good example of that nice early timing is at :35. You were also trying to be quick and early on the rep after that at :42, but you didn’t get the eye contact after the first cross so she never changed sides – and ended up reading it like a spin. She was correct, that is rewardable. Compare it to the eye contact at :48 and :58 and she immediately changed sides on both of those reps. Nice!
Adding in the tunnel on the 2nd video went well and she was reading them really well! These were all FC to BC combos and you REALLY made it obvious that they were NOT spins by using your great connection. Super!!! The only suggestion now is to move more through them – the challenge becomes, can you still have that great timing and great connection while running towards the next wing to stay ahead of her? The answer is: YES! Because you were already starting that on the last rep at :37- note how you got it all done really well AND you were running more to the next wing. On the previous reps, you were working the timing and connection more so you were more stationary – add in more of the running that you did here on the last rep.
Great job!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, it looked like you were not moving comfortably to the left, I hope you are less ouchy today!
The neighbor banging something would explain why he got distracted so much – I didn’t see anything in the handling that you did that turned him off, necessarily, so I figured it was heat plus cookies losing value. But loud noises would certainly be the reason too!
Looking ahead at the week’s games:
We have a game from last week which is a fun game for getting more independence and confidence on planks (Lazy Game, contacts edition) and if you have a small plank, you can totally do it indoors if the weather is bad.I will be posted more games later this morning: there is a serpentine game that I think he needs to see (you’ll want to be in the bigger ring for that) and also the tunnel exits game (so you can send and leave on the tunnels and he will turn the way you want, no matter where you are) – a full sized tunnel is great for that of course, but you can also tweak it for a little tunnel at home 🙂
Keep me posted!
TracyGood morning!
Since you already have this skill on board, you can start to fade out the swirl of the hand cue – he seems to be turning himself back around, so I think you can fade the hand cue down to showing it as part of the cue, then maybe a tiny flick of the hand to help him turn back around the wing (not sure he needs that, we might be able to fade that too!)
When you got moving, your footwork was perfect. You were turning your feet too much to the wing when you were standing still, but my guess is that it just felt weird to be standing still LOL! So, keep moving – we will only see this in motion anyway.
You can definitely work on adding more motion to this skill: Nuptse can be in a stay and you can be jogging then running. Then you can add more of his motion by tossing a cookie for him to get (rather than asking him to stay) so that after he grabs the cookie, you are both moving into it :))
And the other thing to add now, since he is doing so well – the game at the end of the demo where you alternate between showing him the threadle/wrap, and sending him to the other side (normal size :)) of the wing – and then sometimes just moving past the wing without him taking it. All of these are from the same side of you, so we are showing him 3 of the main cues he would see in this scenario.
>> Lst Friday, during our UKI Trial, Mary Ellen Beerry had designed the SEnior/champ agility course such that I was going to use Back-Back in about 3 different places, but I think that they were all just u-turns. Do you distinguish verbally between the u-turn and the full circle?>>
Ah, that is why we are waking up this skill – it is so fashionable right now! Do you have a course map? I would love to see it – I am compiling a bunch of courses to post in the classroom so folks can see places to use this skill.
I think there is going to be a bit of grey area on exactly how much circle we want versus how much slice (either slight grey area or we have to add more verbals which I do NOT want to do!). Basically, I use my regular threadle slice for anything that is “S-shaped” on the dog’s line, where he is going to exit the jump on the wing opposite of where he entered (and opposite of where I am). And in these newer threadle-wrap scenarios, I will use the threadle-wrap cue when he is going to have more turn and exit on the wing I am near and the one he entered the backside jump on – so the full circles, generally, replacing the ‘reverse wraps’ when we are on the other side – or the almost full circles, some of which might be the U-turns you describe. Let me know if that makes sense, I only have one cup of coffee on board so far hahaha!
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think, it is great that he already has a lovely foundation on this skill!
Tracy
Good morning!
Yes, I am glad you switched to the sandwich approach because the between the feet approach made it a little unclear as to whether it was a threadle wrap or a backside send.
For the most part, you did a great job moving forward, especially hen he was starting on your right side. You mostly moved forward on the other side, some little bit of stopping maybe to help tighten the turn? But I will keep bugging you to keep moving – a lot of folks originally worked this skill with a decel or leaning back as part of the cue, but judges are now requiring the skill when we cannot add that decel or lean. Darn it!! LOL!!
I agree that he was a little wider turning to his left than to his right, so you can use your frisbee to help tighten it: rather than reward him for completing the circle, you can toss it behind you to the ‘landing spot’ of the wing so he is more urgently wanting to turn and go there (because, friz :)) And the 2 sides can progress at different rates: on the first side (when he is on your right, turning to his right) – you can add more motion. And you can keep things chill on the other side for a bit longer.One thing to be careful of: when he is in a stay, release with the threadle/wrap cue and not the normal release cue – the normal cue will me to take the ‘front’ side of things, so the releasing with the threadle/wrap cue will tell him more immediately what you would like him to do. I think you mixed in both.
He seems pretty ready for you to also show him the other options: sending to the ‘normal’ side of the wing and the bypass/take nothing line too! Those demos are at the end of the video.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi again!
Little dude was great here!
He did well on the opening line before his visit! He pulled off a TON of high level skills – I could see him thinking hard with steam coming out of his ears but he did it! Understanding of all the skills is pretty much in place – he read the blind on the opening really well, he got his weaves in a new place. He found his lines really well – especially tunnel-backside-teeter. YAY! He read the double blind right before the ‘thanks for ignoring Chaia’ reward and he was super speed in the last line – moving away from the distractions 🙂 You did need more motion support to the last straight orange tunnel – you said left left and he turned left correctly (almost 90 degrees) so I think for him, you don’t need left there: just a small name call or just start saying the tunnel cue.Good rewarding for going past Chaia! I really do think that at this point, it is all going to be about exposing him to high success sessions in as many environments as possible, with big speed lines. That way he gets used to working around distractions (darned pandemic) and then he can turn on the speed that we saw flashes of here. I don’t mind that he is not blasting yet on all parts of the course – he is thinking about what he needs to do, and multi-tasking is hard! But it is really great to see the moments where he says “I GOT THIS” and starts to show us his full speed. FUN!!
Great job here – keep breaking it down, rewarding lots, and getting him to new places. There is no need to work all the handling options with him yet, especially in the heat – let him hit the home run with the first choice of handling and get lots of rewards for being on the big course (which is a new skill as well). His skills look strong so it is a ‘new places’ thing now 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! Hope your air travel went well!
He did really well with his ball cap, of course 🙂And good for him for going right to it in the other room!! Yay! When you take it on the road to new places, the hat might be more salient if you let him see you put it down in the new place – it popped right out to him here, but the distractions of new environments might ‘hide’ it. Bringing him in and then putting it down can get him ‘seeing’ it.
After his vacation 🙂 we can make a plan for going to new places!
Tracy
