[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>> I chose just to do the layering challenge to the weaves. It’s something I’ve wanted to work on a for a while so we focused on that. I ran Emmie first the from the side I felt was ‘easier’ for us.

I am glad you worked this skill – it is currently one of the incredibly fashionable trends in course design at the moment, we all need to teach it to our dogs. It also has to be a verbal-only skill because the judges are either making it impossible to be close enough to show the weaves with physical cues, and/or making it better to NOT go near the weaves based on what is coming up after them.
>> My question is, how would I break this down if I couldn’t get this? Like for example the attempt from the other side with Emmie? Distance type skills are something I’m not very confident in training.>>

Both of the dogs got it – but you were relatively close to help with physical cues. There are a bunch of ways to break it down, here are some ideas:
for the weave independence, take a ‘easy’ set of poles and only 4 or 6 of them – put them on the other side of a tunnel and send through the tunnel to the weaves: verbals only 🙂 Start the weaves as close as needed to the tunnel exit! But you don’t move past the tunnel entry.
over time, you move your 4 or 6 poles further away… then make them 12 easy (open) poles. Then tighten them up.

Separately, you train the concept of “go do the thing” out on the other side of a dog walk: replace the weaves with a tunnel! So the dogs would go tunnel-tunnel. Then replace the tunnel with a jump! The tunnel or jump can be as close as needed and then work them back out to bigger distances. And eventually, you replace the 2nd tunnel or jump with the weaves 🙂

>>Then we tried the other side and aborted that lol.

That would have required either an independent turn away verbal, or a physical cue – the obstacle verbal alone would not work all that well because it implies the obstacle is on the line she was looking at.

>> And you were right for both of them. Kippy was faster to the right by a bit (could be where I compared the videos because it was a tougher comparison for him). But for Emmie it seemed a pretty clear winner to go to the right. This is great info since so many coursed are starting like this now!

Yes, this is also a popular course design trend! And true confessions: I designed it to have a faster line turning the dog to the right and not to the left because people will naturally want to turn left, and I wanted to make a compelling argument to turn the dogs to the right LOL!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>When I looked at this course compared to the others this was my favorite course and I thought I’d be able to get it done pretty quick

yeah, it is one of those training courses that looks lovely til you run it LOL! So many little intricacies! But that is fine, it is great for training!

I think for both dogs, the main thing is this as a mantra: “Be quick, but don’t hurry” (a quote from John Wooden that I use to keep myself from being too twitchy :))
When you were quick but connected and showing the lines: things were great! When you were hurrying… things were going sideways. Here are specifics:

Emmie:
On the opening, you played with the BC 3-45 versus the serpentine on landing of 4
good BC 3-4-5 at :04! The 2nd BC was a little wide of the line at :06, so stay super tight to the jumps on those. You had better position on the 2 blinds at :50 but changing toy from hand to hand delays them both in terms of connection – I think the connection works better when you leave the toy outside the ring on the big courses.

I like the serp as a choice there at :29! But then on 5 at :31, the cue did indeed look like a RC: you decelerated, turned your feet and backed up. That was a don’t-hurry moment – you wanted to get back to the next line, but she needed one more step forward.

You had a better line of motion at :42 but then you faced forward too long so she read off course tunnel – that is a ‘be quick’ moment where you can see her committing to 5 s you can be quickly moving away, all before she takes off.

The spin at 1:47 totally helped you get the turn and keep moving up the next line! Nice!

On the 6-7-8-9 section – Running too much to takeoff of 8 at :12 could have pulled the rail – she didn’t drop the bar there at :57 and 1:52 but running to takeoff adds a collection cue she doesn’t need there on those reps.

You were really strong with the circle wrap on 11 at :19! Really nice! You can also compare the timing of that section to a threadle into the other side of 11 and slice it to the same exit line to see which is faster.

You were hurrying on the next reps at 11:
at 1:01 you didn’t let her get past you to the wing (your running line was blocking it) so she came off the wrap there when you pushed into her line – I would reward her for that, she had never even had the chance to turn her head to the wing so she was reading the cue properly.
You pushed her off even sooner at 1:14, then told her no – but she was correct… so you owe her a steak dinner now LOL! She can’t get past you to take the wing if you are blocking it and then run into her path. Note the difference at 1:25 and 1:57 where you showed the wing and didn’t leave for the tunnel til after she was past you and turned her head.
The reps at :19, 1:25 and 1:57 were all great examples of be quick but don’t hurry.

She had a little trouble with the weaves when you were moving, she was able to get them when you stopped – that is a good training setup so you can get her to find the entries without having to stop, we don’t want her to rely on decel as part of the weave cue.

On the ending line: you can be tighter/more decelerated into the BC 15-16. I do like the serp option there from your last rep, you can use a softer arm cue to tighten it up.

The bar came down on the 17 jump at end:
This might also be a too much hurry moment: you had a lot of motion to the entry wing so you were late getting around the exit wing at 2:36, so she hooked her back feet trying to adjust. You can mark your running line more towards the center of the bar and push to the backside from further away, so she still gets the backside and you easily get to the takeoff side as she gets there, to cue the wrap exit.
One other thing to play with on 17: the better line of exit on that jump to the last tunnel is on the side you sent her around for the entry – so it would be good to compare the slice the other way: a threadle to bring her into the entry wing closer to the #3 jump and exit on the side closer to #1. That might be the faster line there (the wrap will be slower than the 2 slices there, so it is only worth it to look at the slices 🙂 ).

Kippy
You had a good camera angle on the serp line here! Part of what was going wrong was that you were moving in and out on the line, when ieally the serp at 4 would be on a line parallel to 4 and about an arm’s length away from it.
on the first rep and at :19 – note how as he is approaching 4, you are running towards the 12 tunnel, then you push back to 5 so he is wide and it delays your exit because you had to step back towards it. At :30 you ended up facing the tunnel and not leaving, so he took it. At :35 you did a spin but then stayed there – so he took the tunnel. He is an honest dude!!

You delayed the BC part of the spin at :41 and 1:01but which took the tunnel out of the picture – but you stayed there which created more of a zig zag on 6 and 7. You can delay the BC on the spin, but keep moving: running away with the FC connection for an extra heartbeat then go to the BC connection so he can see the line. Motion will smooth it out – lack of motion caused him to ask a few questions.

And the same ‘keep moving’ will help on the reps at 1:09 and 1:26: you stepped to takeoff at 6 then stayed there so at 1:12 and 1:28he didn’t see the left turn cue for 7 (didn’t take 7 on the 128 rep). The trick to staying in motion and getting the good lines there will be to cue 6 with a verbal and connection, but not running to it: keep your running line closer to the 4-5 jumps as you head to 7-8.

There was a couple of ‘be quick but don’t hurry’ moments on the 8-9-10 lines: A bit of rushing at 1:14 caused you to look forward on the back cue, so he took the front of the 9 jump. At 1:34 – you did not rush the backside cue for 9, but then closed your shoulders forward to hurry to 11 so he had a question there.
Great job at 11 at 1:38! Perfect example of “be quick but don’t hurry”

Then there was a bit of hurrying at the 15-16 line at the end: a bit of deceleration and moving away early will tighten that turn up nicely 🙂

Let me know if this makes sense! In order to catch yourself ‘hurrying’ and figure out the difference between being quick (yay!) and hurrying (no yay!) – check out the Package 4 Walk-Run challenge. You can apply it to the Package 3 courses if you like. It is all about the rehearsal before we run the dog, so that first run can be awesome!

Nice work here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there!
>>I think that I have been lazy!

You are most definitely NOT lazy! But doing walk throughs like this certainly takes things up a notch – I was exhausted after doing the demo videos with 3 dogs LOL!!!

>>Saying the verbals earlier and often helped me feel freer!

I figure we can’t be late if we say them early and say them often haha!

>>I can see that I can pour on more connection in places where Nuptse needs to change path

Yes, I always encourage rehearsal of super big connection on line changes and especially out of crosses, and on tunnel exits (and contact exits and weave exits :)) There are times when we don’t really ned to connect as much on simple line, but when we are changing paths or picking the dog up out of a contact/tunnel/weaves: yes to the big connection.

On the walk through video: I think you did a great job planning the run! You can add in the connection and verbals even sooner (during the ‘slow’ part of the walk through) but overall it was a really good walk through. After your walk through, based on what you did, I was fully expecting a really nice run and that is exactly what happened. Yay! The only thing I will bug you about it is the exit of the 5 tunnel to the 6 jump that is about a mile away – during the walk through, you trusted your invisible dog and stayed connected and ran (4:30, for example). It was lovely and put you in a great place for the next line with the backsides.
But during the run, you did not trust your real dog – you rotated and called his name and slowed both you down at :14, so he thought for a moment you wanted the pink jump next to the tunnel. That put you behind for the backside at 7.
So, the lesson here is: trust the real dog as much as you trust the invisible dog 🙂 You still had a clear round on this sequence, but on a bigger course that might put you too far behind and lead to something going sideways 🙂

The only other small detail I see is that on the backside at :23, you were easily able to send him to it on a verbal with some motion support – in the walk throughs you went to the wing there and stepped to the backside: good news is that he doesn’t need you to do that, and I think being able to send him independently made the FC easier and more timely. You can also play with a BC in that situation, to see if it is easier and gets you up the line sooner.

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there!
Lots of good work here! I think he is doing well!!

>I still think he lands and then turns when turning left. Just keep working on it with a low bar?

The wider turns to the left here looked to be handling questions more than anything else (see below). And also, you can tighten the turn way up and then show good handling and timing but let him go a little wider: and compare them in terms of times – the slightly wider line might be faster, as long as he knows where to go!

Some specifics for the sequences:
Seq 2:
Opening 1-2-3: you will get a faster opening with even a couple of steps of lead out – he can extend more on the 1-2 line like you can see at :50 when you led out. When you were just running into it from next to him, he had questions and didn’t really explode out over 1.

About the 4 jump (left wrap) –
I think you were showing consistently good deceleration and he was reading it! On the first 2 reps you had rotation (:06 was a FC, :14 was a rotation towards him then you opened back up to a post turn) – both were a little late, so you can decel and rotate but then complete it as a spin there.

At :36 and :56 – more good decel there, he was collecting, but you stayed by the wing so he jumped a bit long because he didn’t know where 5 was. So – decel, send… and giddy up outta there before he takes off so you are running towards the 5 tunnel before he takes off.

I don’t know which will end up being faster (spin or send and leave) but you can do them both really early, trust his commitment, and I bet he sets up great turns when you are leaving for the new line.

>>I started getting some wrong tunnel entrances. Any tips would be appreciated.

The wrong tunnel entrance on the video was a handling oopsie:

then watch your head at :57 – you took off but looked forward to see where the tunnel was (he started to blind cross, correctly), then you looked back over your right shoulder with a softer connection, so he stayed there until your shoulder closed forward and then he did complete the blind based on the tunnel verbal (good boy). So remember to keep your dog side arm back and maintain eye contact with him so you can get him into the correct side of the tunnel.

On the 7-8-9 line (FC to the tunnel): the timing at :45 was really great! On those 2 reps (:22 and :45) he had a left turn but jumped center of the bar on both – but that was about your handling position and not a left turn weakness. As you were running down the line for the FC, you ran to a spot between the uprights of 8 and closer to the exit of 9 – so based on your line of motion and position, he jumped straight (correctly!) then turned when he landed. So to tighten it, after sending him to 7 – you can maintain a parallel line to 7 in your running path, more towards the center of the tunnel. That position for the FC will help him see the left turn coming before takeoff.
He missed the tunnel after the first FC but I think he was just distracted by something behind the tunnel there for a heartbeat.

Seq 3:

He needs just a little more connection on tunnel exit to 5 at 1:10 to get a nice line to the backside (he had a question there)

6-7-8-9 was really good! You can send to the 8 tunnel from further away so you have an easier time getting the BC on the exit of the tunnel.

One thing you can try is a spin on the 10 jump to tighten that turn there – it is also a left turn, but he was wide because of the post turn showing him the tunnel for a moment at 1:21. The spin will take that out of the picture entirely and get you up the next line sooner too 🙂

>> I also had a couple issues with the back side in sequence 3. I think it’s mainly a training issue, but I’d like your thoughts on the BX from 2-3. He wasn’t jumping, but just came around and I think I was doing something to cause that.>>

I think it is a dog training moment, not a handling error there. The handling of 2 was correct at 1:40, but he doesn’t understand the commitment well enough to let you move out of there with a lot of speed. You were quicker on the BC at 1:06 (he wasn’t going to take the jump but then saw the connection so he took it) but he should have taken the jump bar at 140. We have a good angle on it at 2:04 – he was passing it til you made a really perfect BC. The same issue cropped up on 5 at 1:52.

So in order to NOT have to be perfect (because that is impossible to do consistently), we can train him to take the jump as you leave even if he doesn’t see the connection:
send to the backside and move away. As you see him approaching the backside entry wing, toss a reward to the landing side of the jump as you continue to move. Theoretically, the reward is for getting to the entry wing of the backside. But the placement (tossed on the landing side, nice and early) creates the default behavior of looking at the bar and jumping it, regardless of what you do. For the first bunch of sessions, you do not wait for him to choose to jump the bar or not – you toss it as he arrives at the entry wing. Eventually we fade it out, but we need to get the default behavior first. And it is important that you keep moving (fast!) and also it is important that the reward does NOT come from your hands or near you, because we don’t want him looking at you there: we want him looking for the bar.

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>Also let’s keep it southern an appoint you as Parish President

As a former New Yawker, I am more like a City Councilperson, yo!

Thanks for posting the walk through, it provides a good game plan! Looking at the 2 hard spots where there were errors in the real run:

the hardest spot to get in the run was the 7-8 FC to the other side of the tunnel. Note how as you walk it at :13 and 2:06, you do the FC and then while the invisible dog is behind you, you immediately turn your head forward to look at the tunnel entry. You did the same thing in the runs where he kept going behind you.

And also take a look at :14 nd 2:08, where you did the tunnel-tunnel section – he was in tunnel 8 and you disconnected and didn’t really cue tunnel 9, same as you did in the run.

So the super good news is that rehearsal works!!! In the run, you executed the handling exactly as you walked it. That is good news, for realz. Because now we are going to develop a plan to get you to change your rehearsal so then you can execute it and get the run you want.

I think the absolute top priority for now is going to be rehearsing connection – it seems like the connection breaks are the source of most of the issues you might have, plus he does much better when you are connected. The rest will be much easier if you are connected (your pace when you run is good, your choices are good).

So for the connection, bearing in mind that you cannot visualize the dog:
Think of it differently as you rehearse:
If the dog is behind you: look at the obstacle behind you that the dog would be taking, give the next verbal cue to that obstacle behind you. That will fix the situation you were in on the 6-7-8 line: as you finish the FC, keep looking at the 7 jump and say tunnel to that jump (because in the real run, that is where Fever will be).

And if the dog is ahead: look at the obstacle ahead of you, because that will maintain connection to the dog.

And for all of it: keep your arms low and just kinda run, no pointing needed.

If you *only* focus on that for the next bunch of walk throughs, and don’t run the course until you know you are super connected (don’t let Carrie see the course map until *after* you show her your final walk through live or on video) – you are going to experience a new world of success open up! If you show video or do a walk through of a course and the person does not know what the course is… you’ll get GREAT feedback on the quality of your connection and rehearsal!

I am excited about this – by changing how you rehearse connection, you will see instant fixes to some of the struggles you might have been having! And you might see some of Callie’s variable speed go away, because better connection is better info so she can just go fast, all the time 🙂

Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
This went really well!

>> found I was able to obtain a little more lateral distance than yesterday but if I stepped too far to the side, Cowboy would skip the middle jump.

He missed the middle jump at :36, but I think that was more about him wanting to run to the MM than lack of understanding of taking the jump – the MM was a big distraction there, so it was good to work through it. I didn’t see ny other misses – did he also have misses when the MM was not there?

Overall, this looked great – he held his stay a lot better 🙂 And read the handling really well, every time 🙂 Yay! I will keep urging you to trust him more and move over on the line, especially on the 3 jump reps. At 2:09, you had a great lead out but you were tucking yourself in close to the wing of 2, when ideally you should be tucked in next to 3. He jumped straight on 2 and hen turned after landing, based on your position. The next rep at 2:37 was better timing and also position, so his turn from 2-3 looked great!
Think of it like this: you should be close enough to the gold jumps to touch them by casually reaching out to them, not even stretching to touch them (and not close enough to the blue #2 jump to touch it :))
If he might miss that #2 in those situations, 2 ideas for you:
– lead out a little less but on the lateral line to towards #3 – and move while you release, so your motion also supports the line to #2.
– connect more to him by reaching your dog side arm all the way back to his nose so you can make eye contact as you move up the line. That can also really help support the #2 jump.

Great job on these! If you want more challenges for lead outs and such, check out the courses from Saturday’s live seminar – they build on these ideas with more juicy stuff to play with 🙂

Have fun!
Tracy

• This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by Tracy Sklenar.

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Hope the weather is improving!!!

>>Hero is doing a great job, he tries really hard and never gives up. Thanks for your feedback here. I think connection is the hardest thing for me as I always want to turn my head to see where I am going. Spatial awareness is not my forte lol. That moment of disconnect is enough to lose them everytime. I will definitely enjoy setting up the courses next and practicing the walkthroughs with a more logical approach as explained in your video.>>

I think we can really look at the spatial awareness in the walk through – I try to stay connected by looking at a line or wing of the jump where the dog is, and marking that to help me know where the next line is so I don’t have to look ahead.

>>She was 5th by quite a long way and I definitely want to learn to chop time off. 1st-4th as follows: 34.840, 35.130, 38.520, 38.980 Ruse 5th 39.010

How tall is Ruse compared to the 1st through 4th place dogs? If they are substantially larger, that would explain part of the gap in times.

Hero did a great job in his run! He also broke his stay and that sent the opening almost sideways. You can try to use more distance handling with him, sending him further away and getting yourself more lateral? That can help it feel less wild because you don’t have to run as fast.

I am not sure you could have gotten the blind towards the end (maybe with more distance sending?) but the rear cross would work – just add some deceleration as you move up the line there, so he collects and doesn’t carry out in extension because you are moving in acceleration.

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there!

>>is that I do much better with an actual tangible paper map.

The bad news here is that thanks to Covid, paper maps are becoming a thing of the past – sooooo many trials are either emailing course maps or posting one copy and we take a photo with the phone. So having to look at it on a phone or tablet is going to be a good rehearsal 🙂

On the videos – I would like your first run to be more like what you last run is. The last runs tend to go well because you have rehearsed it a few times. But the problem is, Fever has had to do all of the rehearsing/starting/stopping with you and it is not all that fun for him to do the starts & stops. With that in mind:

And I have elected myself the Mayor of BugJamieToFilmWalkThroughsVille, so that way we can obsess on your rehearsal before the run – yes, there are still some things that are dog training moments where he needs better understanding, but there are handling errors we can fix in the walk throughs!

So – show me the walk throughs, even if it is just the last minute or so of it 🙂 And before you run him, after you do the full walk through, I want you to watch the video to see if you are connecting to your invisible dog at every moment of the walk through. Or, better yet – have Carrie NOT watch your walk through – then, turn off the sound so there are no verbals and let her watch it to see if she can see where the invisible dog was the whole time. If she cannot? Walk it more and add more connection. If she can? Run Fever. The errors here were mainly connection errors, so this will really help!

>> I also tend to hyper focus on one area which causes gaps in others.

Here in BugJamieToFilmWalkThroughsVille, we can fix that easily by filming walk throughs 🙂 and reviewing them before you run the dog.

Opening line:
dang branch! (Could have been avoided by walking a connected opening rehearsal in the walk through, just saying, with love from the Mayor 🙂 )

The lead out went well 1-2-3 there. Maybe your post turn at :13 was a little late which is why he didn’t take 4- but it also looks like he looked at it and chose to go around it so it is a dog training moment. My guess is that, at speed, he didn’t know how to organize for the jumping line so he aborted mission. You can break that down as a training skill and work it with speed on low bars first, then gradually increase the height.

On the 2nd run, the lead out was a more realistic opening to what you might do in terms of a lead out and the RC at 3 worked well!

7-8 FC to the tunnel at :19 and 1:25 – the error was caused by disconnection after the FC – he never saw the new side to be on, and you said tunnel and he was looking at a tunnel, so….. just keep going there as if he was correct (because he was) and that will reduce the start & stop moments that he does not love.

>>I didn’t understand why he was going behind me to get the wrong end of the tunnel. In video review the only thing that I could think was I should have kept my motion towards the tunnel during the cross?

It was not a timing of cue or motion moment, it is a connection moment. The connection provides the side info and without it, tunnel means “take the tunnel you see on your line” which is the 20 entry
You were looking at him over the bar at 7 and then before he landed, looked forward to the tunnel so he correctly read it as a blind to the 20 side of the tunnel. That is something we can see in the walk through (looking forward when the dog is still behind you) which is why I am bugging you about it)

He got 8 at 2:08 and 2:59 note the difference in your connection – much more eye contact when he landed from 7 and as you said tunnel!

Getting from 8-9 was also a connection moment: he has a turn to his right after exiting 8 to get to 9, so when you ran away without connection at :27, 1:32 and 2:12 (you were looking at him but your high arm blocked connection and turned your shoulders away there) he followed your line.
8-9 at :27 – disconnection

At 2:29 you had your dog side arm back, chest turned to him, very clear eye contact and he got it nicely! Then it becomes a matter of being able to set him on a line with connection and verbals from the exit of the 9 tunnel and still get the backside – the rushing to the backside was causing disconnection and you got quiet, which pulled him off the line (again, we can see all that in the walk through :))

>>you can hear a very enthusiastic yes! Not me this time I swear! I extended a membership to overpraisers anonymous to Carrie on your behalf>>

The yes did not pull him off the line – you were running away so he had no info. Carrie does not yet need a membership LOL!! But you did a GREAT job on all of these reps by only providing info and NOT yelling praise in place of info.

On the back line there, you had much better connection and verbals at 3:08!!! That supports the line so nicely.

For the wrap jump 18 at 1:00 and 3:19 – you can tighten it by rotating your feet more towards him and also staying on the takeoff side of the jump – you were not quite fully rotated and also a bit on landing side, so he jumped wider than needed there.

The ending line at the end of the video looked really good – verbals, good line of motion, great connection: he was a fast and happy and accurate dude! My goal is to bug you enough to rehearse the daylights out of the planning stages that your entire first run can look like that 🙂

Nice work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>Over all I think the slice is faster

I agree! The wraps can be a little tighter but I think the slices might still end up faster overall.

Some specifics:
Video 1:

On this one, the slice definitely faster than the wrap – you can rotate sooner on the wrap (so your feet are already turned and facing the next line before he takes off) to tighten it up but I think the slice will still be faster on this particular line back to where the tunnel would be.

serp versus wrap:
interestingly, the 2 Watsons landed at the same time at :02! So the rest of the line would determine which would be faster.

Slice Watson got around the wing faster than wrap Watson, but the next line would be the make-or-break moment: the position of the next jump here could be faster on the wrap!
Also to tighten the wrap, rotate sooner – at :01 your feet were facing the wrap jump when ideally they would already be facing the next line – so when he lands from the jump before the wrap, you would decel and as he is passing your feet, you would be rotating to point your feet forward through the gap (it will feel kind of like he is running across your feet)

Backside comparisons:
The wrap here was faster but probably because it was smoother. On the slice, he had some questions which takes time (plus the yardage was longer which makes a big difference for the little dogs). Another good comparison to make on this sequence would be comparing the wrap her with the slice the other direction – entering the same side as you enter for the wrap, and exiting on the side closer to the dog walk/teeter. That slice might be the fastest here!

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>Watching the videos, they were a mess!!! >>

Totally not a mess!!! This particular challenge is great but at first, it is a bit awkward LOL! It gets better and easier as you play with it, and it definitely helps trial runs.

>>y big problem is working out the timing of my cue with Nuptse’s landing and then cuing as you will see after #6 and then cuing 7 & 8. Trying to use verbals and execute lateral motion were similar to patting my head and rubbing my tummy, esp for a 180 or a serp!>>

That is why we work on it 🙂 You can have more of a blanket approach to the timing fomr something like 6-7-8-9″: when he is jumping 6, start cuing 7 and keep cuing it til he is well on the way to it, then switch to multiple cues to turn to 8. My approach for verbals is “early and often” 🙂 that way you don’t need to be perfect and you don’t need to worry about the physical cues as much.

On your walk through: Your pace was good, and perhaps even a bit faster than he goes (that might mess you up in places, so remember that he has to go through the tunnel and cover the ground in order for you to do the next cue – most of us are going to fast in the walk throughs :)) The verbals were pretty clear for the turns but you can add in the spots where you call him loudly or cue the obstacles. And definitely add in more connection during your walk throughs, try to make eye contact with your invisible dog especially after the crosses. On the crosses, you were either getting connection then looking forward too quickly while he was still behind you (4-5, 11-12) or not getting connection and lookign ahead (8-9) – in that spot it was hard to tell if you wanted the tunnel or the pink #2 jump there, like at 2:24))

Run – it went overall nicely! The pace of the run was slower than the walk through pace (which is better than the reverse, where the walk through is slower than the run). You definitely had better conneciton during the run, but if you practice the connection more it will feel even easier and more like second nature. I do notice that you changed your handling for the ending line after 9. That might have been because the different pace made it feel like it was better to ru n on landing side of 10? It worked, but changing plans won’t always work, so ideally it will be something to work out in the walk through.

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Great job setting, walking and running this giant course!
In the walk through, your plan was clear but I think some of the little bobbles on the run were related to not having walked it as his pace – you got caught behind in a couple of spots on the run, and walking it at his pace (in other words, running LOL!) will help fix that before it happens 🙂 I realize it is a zillion degrees out so it might be something to do early morning or in the evening, depending on temperatures.

When you plan with it again, small details to consider: I think doing the full front cross at 2 sent him a bit wide to 3, you can try a jaakko/throwback exit and see if that tightens the line to 3.
You called him for the weave threadle when he exited the tunnel, and I think that changed his line too late. You can add a turn cue before he enters the 4 tunnel and then start the weave cue while he is in the tunnel. I have added a weave-threadle verbal (“weave” super creative hahaha) for situations like this: I would call the dog’s name about 6 feet before he entered the tunnel then start the weave threadle cue when he was in the tunnel (and probably say it 50 or 60 times too LOL!)

It was a little hard to see 6-7 line here but to do the backside to the threadle to the tunnel threadle, you would have to leave the weaves and basically push to the backside while you were basically on the exit wing of 6. Very doable, he has strong weaves! But this is a situation to compare the wrap on 7 to the slice – the wrap might end up being faster here, due to the line from the exit of 7 to the tunnel (fewer turns on the wrap, lots of turns on the slice). Yardage is probably similar or maybe slightly shorter on the wrap? But it would be good to compare landing of 6 to first foot on the dog walk! We timed something similar recently at an in-person seminar and the results were evenly split between the wrap and slice with the Border Collies. And you can also break out the handy dandy threadle wrap cue for 7: backside push at 6 then threadle/wrap on your left side at 7 (or backside push to a blind on 6 then a normal backside wrap with a blind on 7).
Little details for the 2nd half of the course: your FC on the 10-11-12 line after the DW can be sooner, but I will chalk it up to having just sprinted across the field in the zillion degree weather 🙂 And then after the teeter, you can be further across the 15 backside jump so you can get the blind in rather than rear cross there – the blind will allow you to get ahead to show the turn cue to 17 before he gets into the tunnel.

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there!
Bummer about the UpDog being canceled, especially the Frizgility!

This whole thing was ridiculously easy for him, in the best possible way. He seemed to have zero questions. Super! It might be harder with Min? This younger generation is less distracted by the crap in the way and all around them and quite good with following the handling – perhaps because of the proofing games we did during the winter? In my house, the younger the dog, the easier it was. Hmmmm! I am super happy with how he did here and I think you can try the bigger sequences with him!

>>How should you cue the jump to the purple tunnel on the left. It feels like a flick if you use the left arm but you’ve already run past the other tunnel entrance so it seems a bit weird to cue it like a tunnel threadle.

I don’t htink it is a threadle either, but I am sure you could make an argument that it is threadley enough because the dog has to come between you can the tunnel then turn away – I used a ‘get out’ to get the dog to shift away on the line (I use the outside arm for that) then a tunnel cue.

Nice work here!! Onwards to the bigger sequences (or if those are easy, you can make up your own too!)

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Yay! It is all there now. He is doing really well figuring out the stays! You can mix in tossing back some rewards to him especially as you move the MM further and further away, but I really like how successful he was here in the ‘missing’ footage LOL! Hope you are having a great weekend!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! It should open in your email if it won’t open here? I’ll be posting all of the sequences and videos this afternoon, so you’ll have full access to it 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Lots of great work here! My ideas are really only about the little details of getting things as tight as possible and as fast as possible 🙂

First up, Kippy!
The opening 1-2-3 has a right turn between 2 and 3. By leading out to the far side of 2, that kept him turning left for too long so he was wide at :03 and dropped the bar there at :31. To help him see the turn sooner, you can try a lead out push more on landing side of 2 to show the line, or start dog on left and run into a blind on landing side of 2 to show that line.
The middle section looked really good and you had particularly nice lines at 7 each time!

The 8-9 section was the only tricky part for you, getting the cue to relate to 8 and not the 1 jump.
On the first rep at :15, the in in was late and did look relative to the off course he took because there was no turn cue on the 8 jump. You would need to begin cuing a left turn on 8 as soon as he exited 7. Same for the blind on the next rep, it can start sooner. The decel you added at :41 helped, but you were backing out of it then exploded forward so he read backside pressure there, good boy.

The decel cue at :54 but maybe too extreme? Lol but it works! Lol! But slipping like that shows that you can change your decel mechanics to add more of it then move forward out of it. I think you are trying to decel sharply then scramble out of it, which is causing you to move backwards (or slip in a more extreme moment)

A couple of line suggestions to get tighter lines: at :58 before the tunnel (11-12-13), you don’t have to run as much towards the jump #12, you can lateral towards the 13 tunnel. That will get him turning over 12 better and more directly to 13. Moving towards 12 causes him to jump long facing the tunnel exit and makes you a little late on the blind.
You can really see it at 1:13, where he is center of bar on 12 based on your line of motion from 11.

The 13-14 wrap is a decision point, it mirrors the first sequence we did when comparing things. Wrapping to his left might be faster here! Wrapping right worked but be sure to step very directly forward to the 15 tunnel out of it and not backwards – that widens the line there for him. That might be linked to add more smooth decel so you have an easier weight shift to the next line.

On the Closing line, you can run more directly towards 17 and that will set a better line at 1:20 and give you more chance to decel into the turn cue – by moving more towards 16, you were a little late on the blind and then blind then with all that momentum. stepped in to takeoff at 1:22 so he was wide on the exit of 17 and you were late getting out of there. So combining moving more towards the next jump after a blind to execute the cross, with sooner and more decel should make that section super tight and fast!

Emmie looked great! My suggestions with her are similar to the ones for Kippy, all about smoothing out some lines so things are even faster and tighter:
On the opening, trying to handle from landing side of 2 to get a better turn to 3 (lead out push or running into a blind)
The 8-9 section worked really easily with her! Yay!
Also, with her as well, you can move more directly to the obstacle after the blind rather than run towards the blind cross jump (jumps 12 and 16) to get a better turn and also better position for yourself. That will also set you up for the last FC on 17 to be sooner, which will be tighter on the turn and faster to the end.
I think it would be interesting to see the difference in wrapping 14 to the outside versus the inside with her as well.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

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