Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Good morning!
Overall, these are looking really good, especially the connection!!! And since connection is such an important cue, he did re ly well!
On the rear crosses at the beginning – you are handling them like rear crosses on the flat by pulling and crossing on the landing side of 3 – that’s why he is looking to his left over 3 instead of to his right. Ideally, you’d decel between 1 and 2, then turn him over 2, then drive the RC diagonal so you do the cross on the takeoff side of 3. That’ll put you in better position for the rest too.
The blind opening looked good, and so does the wrap! On the wrap, start the spin part of it sooner so you are done and reconnected when he lands – he had to wait for a moment to see the connection before knowing where to go.
About the bar when you did the landing side blind d at 3:
He dropped it because you were still in the way when he landed from 3 and he didn’t have time to sort out the jumping, so do the blind sooner and get outta there before he takes off.
If you are going to fix it, fix it in the context of the handling (because that is likely what contributed to it) – so put him on the takeoff side of 3, do the blind then release him and hold the reward til you are sure the bars stay up 🙂 if he drops it again, dial back your motion and be even sooner with the cue. If he drops it again, lower the height. Still drops it? End the session 🙂 because something is up that can be fixed by looking at the video.
Doing it from up close, it doesn’t help teach him how to jump within the context of the handling. So, if you fix, fix from within the handling and not just isolating the jump.
Nice work here!
TracyHi! Looking at the video, there are 2 separate things going on:
First is the skills work (contacts/weaves/etc). For those, she is getting a bit of a mixed message about the contacts – she is running them but I think they are trained as stops? And also trial environments produce higher arousal, so the behavior is harder to get. Rather than running standard courses for real, I highly recommend running as much NFC or FEO as possible on the contacts in particular (and weaves too) – you can do a bit of this in AKC but a LOT of it in USDAA and UKI. Bring a toy in the ring and train as if at home, in that environment. It will really help her execute and have clear understanding.Second, the handling:
The most important thing will be to video your walk through, like you did here on these sequences. We can find the errors on the walk throughs and then stomp them out 🙂 And you can have a friend watch your walk through to see if you are staying in motion and making the big connection (I don’t care as much about verbals right now – motion and connection were the 2 biggest trouble spots, you were stopping a lot and looking forward). I suggest only trialing for real on jumping runs for now, so you can practice the handling without worrying about contacts or weaves or the table while yo are training those. Work each line with connection and fast running in the walk through so you can execute it in the run. I think you are over-managing the lines, as you mentioned, and she is really fast so that is where things blow up. Attack the trial courses like you did here, especially when you did Sequence 2!!! You don’t need to manage the lines, you just need to connect more so she knows where the lines are.Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyHi again!
Good job making the decision first (the slice on the outside is likely to be faster for the big dogs here and the yardage will be the same, approx, but remember to walk the yardage if there is a decision to be made).
Plan – generally strong, with one detail:
As the invisible dog exits 5 (tunnel) at 3:58 and 4:19 note how you briefly make connection then look ahead. To get her past the off course, you will need to maintain a a MASSIVE connection til she is past the off course and looking at 6.That is the part that bit you during the run – you had better connection in the run than in the walk through 5-6, but not encouraging so she read it as a cue for the off course – your left shoulder should be further back there to get her to really know where to be.
Excellent adjustment to get that connection on the 2nd run!
So overall this sequence went really well – just look for the BIG connection spots where it is really important that she knows where to be especially when there are off courses.Great job here! The more we make this habit for you, the more you can run the courses brilliantly like you did here!
TracyHi again!
Connection was good in this walk through too – too much time spent doing the verbals without moving and just doing arms – get the motion and the lines going too.
You had more rehearsal of going fast here, which is good! Your plan, lines, connections and verbals were clean even as you added speed. Super!
NICE run – I think the extra rehearsal of going fast fast fast really helped – you were faster in the walk through than in the run which is a GOOD thing as long as you stay connected (which you did here). It looked like on the actual run, you might have felt like you had plenty of time. And that is EXACTLY what we like – not rushing, plenty of time, lots of connection. Click/treat to both of you!
I think more rehearsing like this will lead to more success in the ring!
T
Good morning! Lots of good stuff here to look at and play with!!
There is so much good on this walk through:
Good job making the decision first!
Good job working your connections VERY early in the walk through
Good job working the verbals very early in the walk through!The plan – generally really strong, there is only one spot that I see will possibly cause questions: You were a little too far across the line for the blind 4-5 and don’t lean back there to get the connection – be moving towards 5 to set the line.
It was smart to put her behind the fence so you can run for real 🙂 That is an important piece of the puzzle 🙂
You also ran out of time a bit, so you can hurry up the early parts of the walk through to get to the fast-moving parts without running out of time. 5 minutes on 12 obstacles simulates the normal 8 minutes on 20 obstacles that we generally get at trials.When you did the fast walk through, I think 4-5 looked really good. But it was only once, as compared to the several times you walked it being too far across the line and leaning back. On other little detail was that 10-11 had too much sideways motion, remember to decel and stop your motion on those wraps.
On the run – because you worked the connections so much, they were fully in place during the run and that is HUGE. Yay! You ran 4-5 like most of the rehearsals, which was too far across 4 and leaning back to connect (stopping your motion) so she couldn’t read the line. And then you stopped moving a bit on the last line, so got behind and ended up being in her way for the 12 jump.
So in general, about this walk through: work on getting to the moving faster, sooner, so you can really get the lines in your soul 🙂 And remember to keep moving through the blinds, connect and run so you can maintain the pace and execute the plan.
Onwards to sequence 2!
TGood morning!
Hooray for gentle agility! My guess is that it means a relatively steady pace, no sudden starts/stops and also no twisting moves (so we will limit front crosses). I like how Keiko was supervising your walk through haha! And I think you set it really well, the lines looked good!
Based on your plan to send her to the tunnels, I think you can confidently choose to do the “ahead of the dog” handling you were playing with at 8-9 (jump to the 2nd tunnel) and and at 11. When your Achilles has permission to do more, I will bug you about adding more speed to your walk through but for now it is all about planning and getting connection 🙂 And even though you are not running yet, you can still give the loud verbals in the walk through.
Your opening with Keiko looked fabulous 1-6! I think you can trust her send more to 7, which puts you further across 8 which allows you to blind cross on the landing side to get the tunnel. You were executing the plan but missed the connection point where she landed at 2:58 and stopped moving – you can see your head looked up towards the tunnel before she had a chance to figure out where to be on landing, so she guess it was a blind and ended up off course (I like off courses with young dogs, it means that they are going fast and driving lines!) And you were 100% correct to keep going and she finished really strong. I don’t think you arm was all wacko like you mentioned LOL! ( I think that is what you said) but it did make me laugh when you said that 🙂
The 2nd run looked great. The opening was great again. On the 7-8-9 line, you kept moving and you were super connected, and she ran it perfectly. And she finished even stronger. Yay! She looked GREAT on both of these, she is super happy to be running with da momma 🙂
So on your next walk through, 3 things to consider:
-trust your distance skills to get ahead for the handling
– plan to keep moving
– plan massive, exaggerated connection all the way through so she can see the line the whole time.Great job!!!! Have fun with the next one!
TracyGood morning!
Great update about the mat work! 1 oopsie out of 20 is a really high rate of success, especially if you can identify the variable that might have been hard enough to contribute to the miss. You can approach the lateral position more gradually. But it sounds like a 95% rate of success and that is spectacular for running contact work!!!On the video: this is going really well!!
First rep – good! She see,e to really pick up the line after the tunnel beautifully with the blind on the landing side of #3
The 2nd rep with the FC on the tunnel so you got between the tunnel and #3 went well too! Watch her when she exits the tunnel there- you had moved back away from 3 to pick her up then forward again – and her line matched that line (she exited straight before heading to 3) – which basically means that she is watching the the handling closely (yay!) and also that she can see you earlier in the tunnel than we would expect 🙂 So as soon as you get to the correct side of 3, move forward to 4 so she can whip out of the tunnel towards 3 like she did when you were on the landing side.
RC reps – another good landing side blind at 3! You were really good about being sure you got connection and she was so quick getting to you there. She did read the RC but. I think you can start the RC pressure a little differently to tighten up the line. When she lands from 3 and is sorting out 4 (jump before the RC), decelerate and turn to face the RC line for 5. That decel between 3 and 4 will turn her better over 4, at which point you move up the RC line and get a tighter rear cross. At :46 and 1:06, you drove to 4 with some strong acceleration so she landed wide, and didn’t turn to 5 til she landed which made the RC harder to do. But the RC line was really good so she got it, then you had a GREAT line down to the tunnel for the ending!
Great job here!!
TracyHi! She did great here! The angled entries were no problem at all, and she was easily able to let you do the RC too. YAY!! You can add challenge to the RC by sending her to it more (like standing at the base of the teeter and sending her to the entry, around the boards, without moving to it with her – kind of like a backside send!).
>> At 1.00 I lowered the end.
Yes, she was surprised – if there is a way to change the tip more slowly, I think she will be less surprised. Ideally, she barely notices the change 🙂 So you can change the tip by a half inch each time so she does perceive any big changes, by moving the holder out a tiny bit each time.
Great job here! Let me know what you think.
TracyHi!
The 4on might just be for that individual dog for the bang game 🙂 You can totally encourage the 2o2o by placing the reward where the 2o2o target would be, so that the front feet come off the board and onto the ground 🙂Tracy
Hi!
I really love that you are taking the time to do this systematically – I think the only element you need to add is more connection and maybe a little of the visualization if you are distracted using the walk through (EMMIE! Haha)!The little bobbles you have here and there are connection bobbles, from lack of obsessing during the planning stages. When you obsess on it and plan it? You nail it. So by obsessing on connection, I think you are going to be consistently running clean and fast with both dogs, which is going to result in lots of podium appearances!!!!!!
>> So my normal habit is to 1) walk dog path 2) pick handling choices based off that 3) walk handling 4) run at speed. I need to really focus on adding the verbals in now too. My weak point.
I agree that verbals are a weak point for all of us 🙂 Verbals and connection, both hard! So that is why I have moved them both up to a higher priority in the walk through order – starting to work both as soon as I start the handling after deciding the dog’s path. That way we are rehearsing them the whole time. Add in your connection as soon as you start walking your plan – always be along where your invisible dog is 🙂
You probably don’t need to walk the whole dog path either – just look at the trouble spots and then make decisions – walking the whole path takes a long time! I don’t mind having the dogs walking around during the slower parts of the walk through because it is as distracting as having a crowd of people LOL! But I do put the dogs away when I need to really run in the walk through because they like to join in LOL!
You did add in good speed by the end but not enough connection, so really emphasize that. Did I mention that I think more connection will help smooth out any of the little bobbles? Ha! On that last walk through, your pace was good but you were looking ahead a lot – you did have moments of connection like after 7 and after the tunnel exit at the end, but I think you can really emphasize the connection the whole way through, almost over-emphasize it 🙂 I couldn’t really hear the verbals but it could be that my air conditioning here is REALLY loud LOL!
if you have another person who can run in place of the dogs, have that person run and ask if they can see your eyes the entire time. It is an informative game!
Emmie’s run – I think you ran your plan for the most part, but didn’t really lock into the connection til jump 8 or so. The opening will be smoother with more connection rehearsal.
The forgotten section where you were a little late crossing 6-7: be sure to work in the visualization, even in the 5 minute walk through. I also use it to make myself a little nervous, like I would be at a trial, which is great to remembering the plan too 🙂 I am really happy with what she is doing on course so it is about the connection and verbals now – subtle, but so important 🙂Kippy’s run
Bypassing 3 was a connection moment – 3 is a serpentine, but your shoulders were closed forward from walking it looking forward, and you were slightly looking ahead so he didn’t come in. You can open up the shoulders there like a serp and make dramatic eye contact. It was better on the 2nd rep but I think you changed motion more.
And yes, you can plan to cue the turn for 2 when he lands from 1, rather than driving through the opening. But I am not too worried about that turn, that bit of wideness will go away when you connect for the serp at 3 as you leave laterally.Great job on these – I am going to keep bugging you about the connection because it really is the last piece of the puzzle for you and both dogs. Are you going to the US Open in November? This should help prep for it!
Tracy
Hi there!
>> While I briefly read the exercise description, I confess that I didn’t watch the whole video until after I’d done my walk through, so the walk through you see is “my” style. The 5 minutes went by super fast and I still wasn’t 100% certain of my handling choice for 7-8-9.>>
It is fine to stylize the walk through so it suits you and the dog! As long as the walk through rehearses and produces very successful runs, we go with whatever works best for the dog and handler. I think having set elements of the walk through keeps me on track so I can finish the walk through without feeling uncertain of the choices.
In the walk through here, you didn’t start adding speed til the 3 minute mark and then you slowed down, so it was hard to gauge what the pace of the run would be.
You had some really good moments of rehearsing connection (like after the BC 4-5) but then moments where you looked ahead too quickly while your invisible dog was still behind you. After the 4 minute mark you had more speed, but I think the elements of super connection (which is so important with young dogs) and verbals and speed are something you can keep adding to the walk through.Was the walk through at 4:40 after dinner? Well done running and yelling on a full stomach LOL! That had fabulous speed and also nice loud verbals! You were looking ahead too quickly, it is something everyone is doing: if the invisible dog is behind us, we need to keep looking back. Most folks are doing what you did here: make a heartbeat of connection back to the dog then immediately look ahead. The dogs are fast… but not THAT fast LOL!
The run went early well! The walk through handler was MUCH faster but honestly – that is working out for all of us LOL!! When we walking faster than the run, we have more “time” during the run to work the connections like you did here. So, keep working up to that speeeeed but also add in the big connection, really emphasize and obsess on it during the walk through so you see invisiPresto every step of the way (so important with baby dogs!).
The only other thing I would recommend is to put the toy in your pocket or something – you were switching it from hand to hand, which delays your handling a tiny bit. Everything else looked good – choices, connection, lines, verbals!
Great job here! And congrats on an amazing debut – baby boy is looking great and things will keep getting more amazing from here! So exciting!
TracyHi!
This didn’t feel like a lot of start and stop, because it was “great job on the sequence, here is your reward” rather than “something went wrong, let’s try again” if that makes sense. And he can feel the difference for sure! But I think the session was too long – it was already long when he left for a break, then you did a couple of minutes after it. 2 minutes in the heat, tops, total, that is really all the youngsters can tolerate.
I think he was great here! He had some questions, but they were minor and that is what these sequences are designed for 🙂 He was definitely paying attention!On the video:
Jump – wing sequences at the beginning: really nice on both sides!He had a question about ignoring the tunnel at :51 and 2:21 – you were too far out of the picture, so you can get right there on the wing to help him not go into the tunnel like yo did at 1:27 – and also revisit the proofing games with the wing right near the tunnel entry that we did over the winter.
When you did the wing- jump – wing sequences: looked really good!
He needed a little more connection at 2:02, great job making the adjustment and he was already better at 2:43 🙂
There were 2 minutes of blank time, it was hard to hear what you were saying? Was that when he called an Uber?
As you were passing the tunnel, to establish the skill you can move slowly at 5:23 so he can REALLY see the connection (more like what you did at 5:35 and on the reps after it) so he can see the connection and which side to be on. He just needs to see that such a crazy thing exists, then he is fine with it LOL!
Yes, at the end, you were a little disconnected and late turning so he serped into the other tunnel – he thought he was correct, it was a fast reward 🙂 Definitely better than rolling your ankle!!
Great job here! I think the main thing is to really limit your session length, spread it out over several days when there is a lot to do (you might notice I had 3 demo dogs for this, because it was blazing hot!)Nice work 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>> In addition, I am considering teaching a running A-Frame. I have not taught one before; although, I have started running Cowboy through a PVC square. Because, I have not combined running and stopped contacts before do you believe this will cause confusion (i.e. will Cowboy be more inclined to run through the end of the dog walk and teeter)?>>
Dogs do really well with a stopped contact on one obstacle like the teeter, and a running contact on another like the a-frame. The key is consistency and clarity of cues and reinforcement! I think he will be fine with that!
On the teeter here – I think he has 2 areas of confusion, which are causing the questions. He is not 100% sure if it is a 4on behavior or a 2o2o behavior. He knows it is something about stopping with the MM as the focal point, which is great! But he is not sure exactly where to stop.
And, I think the release is a bit unclear too, you were using different releases (I think you had break, the MM beep, and maybe even a get it as releases?).
So we can clarify both of these and then he will have an easier time 🙂The release is the key to the reinforcement, so you can consider his front feet hitting the ground to be the “doorbell” to open the door to reinforcement. As soon as his feet hit the ground and he is fully stopped (make sure it is not a running teeter haha), use your “break” and click the MM.
Now, to get him to put his front feet there – I would go back to the target at the bottom of the teeter, on the ground. I think every time you add a new layer of speed, you will want to go back to the target – it really helps him with the behavior. Then you can ‘warm up’ the behavior with some bang game on the end of the board into 2o2o to the target, then release to the MM (as you show him the new layer of speed). Then do a couple of sessions with the target, then fade it out. That should help get rid of the confusion about where to put his feet and allow you to clarify the releases. Let me know if that makes sense! He is doing well, so these might just be the final steps 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHA! I feel your pain about head exploding on tandems – they are harder than lap turns, I think! But you were focusing on the mechanics and nailed it again! Yay! She was looking at something in the environment but still got them right. I think one thing that will make the tandems feel less weird is if you are moving more (they are cues. That are used when we move, unlike the lap turn where we stand still more. So on this small setup, you can move in closer to the tunnel so yo can be moving up the line to the wing a bit more – that should make them feel even smoother.
Great job on all of these! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning again!
The main thing with the lap turn is the patience to let her get almost all the way to your hand, then you turn her away – and you nailed that perfectly! Because you were patient and let her get close to the hand before moving, it didn’t matter as much what your legs did – you kept your feet together and allowed her to drive to your hand. The ONLY cue she ever sees like that is the lap turn, so I felt she was prepared and did a great job. So keep remembering to be patient, and then you won’t need to worry about your leg stepping back as much 🙂 Perfect connection on those too,
She definitely liked the race track – remember to keep your arms back and down so she sees connection – yo were looking ahead a little at :29 and :30, so she looked up a little at you.
Great job here!
Tracy
