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Good morning! Welcome to CAMP!!!!
You and the boys look terrific on these videos! For some reason, I couldn’t get the sound to work on them – either my internet is being really wonky or the videos don’t have sound LOL! No worries 🙂 Here are some thoughts:
Bob looked great in the tunnel video! he was pretty darned perfect about driving ahead to them and letting you hang back. I couldn’t hear the verbals, so Iam guessing you were using a tunnel cue and not turn cues, so the rewards being thrown out ahead really helped him drive straight and fast.
you can totally add in more of the moving away laterally now – use your one step send to the tunnel plus tunnel verbal after the wing, and you start moving in the other direction – you started at 1:50 but you can do it sooner on that rep, more like what you did at 2:07 – he committed AND turned, good boy! Really nice!Teeter video – this is harder for him than the tunnel! Good job giving him just enough of the one step to the teeter to convince him to get on it before starting to move away. He showed us that he does need the one step to the teeter – at 2:00 and 2:17 you moved laterally from the wing without the step, and he wanted to come with you – but then went back out to the teeter when you did give him a step. His smoothest teeter entries were when you use the one step send cue right as soon as he was exiting the wing, before you moved away laterally.
Question about his teeter criteria: I think he is a 2o2o dog, based on your placement of reinforcement? But maybe he is more of a ‘hit and go’ based on the sequences below? I ask because when you were behind and moving laterally, he want to stop 4on at the top of the yellow. When you were moving up the line with your motion a little lateral but moving past the end of the teeter, he did get into the 2o2o. He is focusing forward on the board but with your lateral position he was stopping higher than needed – so you can use targets or something that helps him drive to the bottom. You can go back to however you trained it (I use targets) and put them back on the teeter to help him drive through the end, even as you add the crazier challenges of hanging back or moving away laterally.Sequence 1:
Bob’s run:
PERFECT one step send to cue the teeter after the wing wrap!!! PERFECT! Great connection and timing 🙂 I love how he drove up the teeter! On this rep, he ran through the end as a hit and go – all the way through the end, which is good, rather than stopping up high. I think the visual of the other obstacles really helped him. The ending was really connected and smooth – your send after the wing to the teeter really set you up for lovely position after the teeter.Good send with the Pete too! He came off the teeter a little high and to the side – so as you add the independence with him, you can use your targets (or anything that you might have used during the original training process) to help him find the bottom even as you change your position to be behind and lateral.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!!!
TracyTotally makes sense! Somehow it is so much easier to build in looking at us with the littles than it is with the bigs. I think it is a little dog thing, because I have had to sort out similar issues with all of my littles. That is why Hot Sauce does the running dog walk through the target and over a flyball jump and to the MM haha!! I needed 75 things to convince her that she didn’t need to look at me.
Hi!
>>There was an actual target. He doesn’t pay that much attention to it here does he? LOL! Am going to work on target away from the equipment and bring up the value for it.
Ha! Good news is that he loves you more than the target. That might also be the bad news LOL!!!!! Yes, you can refresh the target. You can also change the placement of reinforcement to help keep him as straight as possible: the target is in the same place on the teeter, and the reward is then placed 6 feet straight past the teeter. For example, you can leave a Manners Minder or a toy out there. And when he targets, you can use a word to send him to it (perhaps the zing word?) or you can use your ‘regular’ release word when you want to keep handling. We would want to reward straight a lot – and this also keeps him from looking at you as you deliver the reward. Having you deliver the reward, even if you place it perfectly, chains in looking at you. It goes back to the gem from Bob Bailey: everything between the click and the reward gets built into the behavior. So when you click (or praise, same idea) and he looks at you throw or run back to deliver the reward – we get more looking. So if the reward is mainly out ahead and you cue it before he looks at you? No looking at you and no curling in 🙂 But it won’t create wide turns off the teeter because when you use the regular release, he will drive to you (plenty of value there) and plus dogs are brilliant with context 🙂
>>I don’t have one for the weaves – I can’t even really visualize how to use it at the moment.
Based on course design challenges I’ve seen on European courses, I have added a weave threadle verbal – I wouldn’t bet my dogs truly “know” it and it is a low priority, but I have added it in for the future. I will grab a map to show you where it might be helpful. We don’t need it yet, here in North America… but it is coming! Maybe in a year or so, we will need it.
I think the rest of the verbals list covers just about all the things! One thing to think about:
>>threadle at jumps is in in
Is this for a threadle SLICE on the jump? Because… a hot new trend is going to be those threadle wraps. We will begin working on those here in this class soon because they are the newest trend coming our way. I think they are kinda stupid but we do need to train them. I have added a verbal for that but like with my weave threadle verbal: lower priority and I wouldn’t bet you any cash that my dogs truly know it yet 🙂
>>have added zing for a reward thrown ahead to drive on to get.
way to go is the lets go together and get a reward
get it is used for both starting a tug game and a dead toy on the ground, also used for directing to a treat on the ground not driving on away.>>Zing and way to go are both very clear, I think. The get it might be a bit muddy if it could me the toy in your hand or the toy on the ground. I added a separate cue for the in hand stuff because my dogs were having a bit of trouble know where to look: at the one in my hand or at the one on the ground.
>>get your leashie is to get a leash at the end of a run especially during relay and for our new transition to trial exercise.>>
Perfect LOL!
>>I have one question – I want that ‘zing’ to be a drive on looking forward reward, so I don’t think that’s appropriate for this week’s transition to trial game.
Based on your descriptions, I agree – zing is not the cue.
>> Think it’s still ok to use get it to mean get a treat and grab this toy either in my hands or on the ground?
I think those are two entirely separate behaviors and he might be wrong or he might choose based on value: if you have a frisbee in your hand but toss a cookie – which one would get it mean?
>> I guess I could change the word for grabbing the toy in my hand and still use get it for either toy or treat on the ground.
That is what I am currently using with my dogs and they are fine with it. I also say ‘get your ting’ (thing) when I want to be more specific about the toy. Some folks have separate cues for toys and for food.
>> It’s worked in the past because I really used only one reward word. It meant they were now able to interact with the thing to play or eat whether on the ground or in my hand, so kind of a release from a self control behavior of not grabbing things before given permission. I hope that makes sense.>>
I like that we are adding more, but I also recognize that we somehow trained our dogs in the past without it LOL! The key is to be minimizing frustration while maximizing clarity. And remember that dogs are brilliant at context. But I do like that I can carry the frizzer (highest value of mind-exploding joy for Contraband) and he won’t grab at it in my hand until I say ‘bite’ and he also will go get the cookie off the ground when I use the get it (and cookies are not even close in value to DA FRIZ). There is more clarity… and he is so far a lovely balance of motivation/speed and zero frustration on course. This is different than Voodoo at the same age, who was motivated and fast… but also had some frustration because I was lacking clarity in some situations.
Food for thought! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>We will be / are doing running contacts on both the AF and DW.
FUN!!!
>I have been asking for a down at the end of the teeter. My real purpose is too keep her body weight low at the end. She is running almost to the end and then she doesn’t get released until the down. Sometimes the down happens just before or at the yellow line, but then when released she will hit the yellow. I need to decide what I want the criteria to be and stick with it.>>
You will want her to run alllll the way to the end of the board for the down, not to the top of the yellow – that is both faster and clearer for her.
>>Maybe I should try training with Holee roller. She brings the big one back to me so I can throw it again.>>
Perfect! Have 2 of them – so you can reward her with tugging on the 2nd one when she brings the first one back 🙂
Hi!
>>“On the wrap, though, a little detail – you will get better collection on it if you drop your hands into the front side of the jump and not swoosh to the landing side. You handled more of the front side on the other side and his turns looked better there too.”
I’m not sure exactly where you are talking. Is that at :10? I’m not getting the “swoosh to the landing side” comment.>>
Oops! I made perfec sense in my head after 2 cups of coffee haha 🙂
It is at :08 – your feet are rotated but your left arm is high and extended out to the landing spot. That causes extra motion and is a bit an an extension cue. So to ask for more collection, try getting your hand stationary and lower (closer to the level of the 16″ jump cup) and on the takeoff side of the jump, when he is still about 15 feet from the jump. That can really help him sit back into collection.>>Looking forward to the new work with verbals. I had no idea people had such varying opinions about verbals until the seminar this past weekend.>>
Eek! I am interested in knowing the various opinions. A lot of people are in the ‘less is more’ mode (which is fine) and they believe their position and motion will cue the behavior they want (ummmm… the judges then say ‘hold my beer’ and they are in trouble). But either way – the training to get the dogs to understand them even when is arousal is key 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>>Regarding your comments about turning away on the weaves, we do have that skill. In your example, I would currently need to go to the “third to last” pole in order to send to the tunnel while remaining on the other side. Based on how infrequently I see this challenge, I am going to call that good enough for the time being.
>> Perfect! The skill is in the ‘coming soon’ bucket of things I think we will need in the 2022 season and beyond.
>> (Speaking of which, when are you next doing an in-person seminar? I had such a good time at Agility at the Farm. You could just slip me an email…)>>
I have Moline, IL in August then the next closest thing might be Muncie, IN during October, still figuring out dates.
>>I am almost caught up to the new lesson you released today. I built the course from week one this morning (temp 78 to 83; going for a high of 91 degrees). If I recover, I’ll run it either later this afternoon or early tomorrow morning. 😊>>
Stay cool! No rush on these, we have all summer and into September 🙂
Hi!
>>Before I was so bad about rushing the wing and motioning with my arm and totally closing connection. In what way can I best utilize my outside arm while still keeping connection?
The outside arm supports the open chest: extend it ahead of you and have it point to the entry wing of the backside, while you are running forward (don’t rotate your feet)
>>We moved the girls but left the jump intact because we could see it was too much. In a scale of pressure in training, was that making it too easy to quickly? Should I drop to a wing first before removing more pressure (ie moving the screaming Roulez)
Because pressure opportunities are so limited, you could keep the pressure and go to the wing. I think you were working the handling skill, so it was wise to take the pressure out. Then you can put the pressure back in and work the pressure skill 🙂 Both need to be worked, so there really is no wrong answer.
>>I love how politely you managed to say unless your cueing or stopping to reward, STFU Jamie 🤣🤣🤣🤣>>
Well… it can also be phrased as:
“unless your cueing or stopping to reward, STFU TRACY” hahahaha I catch myself doing it and it does NOT help my dogs lol it does help some dogs… just not Fever or Contraband or Hot Sauce.>>This made me happy cry into my coffee. Thank you
OMG SALTY COFFEEE NOOOOOO hahahaha go have some more 🙂
>>Also… I was today years old when I realized your course progression is by difficulty and I probably should have started with course 1 🤣😅>>>
Bwahahaha! And note in the games package 2 that was posted today that I emphasize doing these in order – folks like to skip around and y’all are not going to want to do that in the next one LOL!
T
Hi!
Great to see you and the poodles here! How is Riot 3 already?? Time flies 🙂 And it is great to see Pixey also giving her opinions from the xpen haha.Riot looks great – he has grown up since I saw him last and moving beautifully! He is reading the lines like a pro and so it is all about the handling now!
Video 1:
loved your opening 1-2-3-4! Nice blind! I bet you can send to the tunnel more and get a BC 4-5. If you want the rear cross, come in closer to the tunnel exit so you can set the RC line by moving forward, which will help get the backside on 6.Video 2: also nice opening here!
You got the BC on the tunnel exit – NICE! Now I will bug you to call him (your left cue) and show the head turn of the blind before he enters, so he knows where to face on the exit. Ideally that would start when he is still 3 feet or more away from the tunnel entry.
It was hard to see what he did in the weaves but it looked like you were pretty close to him. Getting more laterally away from them will allow you to get ahead for the closing line.
On the tunnel after the weaves, calling him will help too, he had to find you for a moment there 🙂 And add in a little more connection as you are running down the line – you were looking forward a bit so he was not sure which side to be on and zig zagged a bit.
I think your plan for a BC but you did a good job getting the RC to keep him moving! It was a good save, and that is an important skill!!
One thought on the verbals: what does your go verbal mean? Is it a general “jump” cue or does it mean “big extension on a line”. If it is a general jump cue, then you are using it perfectly! If it is a big extension cue, then try not to say it to help get commitment on turns.Video 3 and…. another great opening. Yay! Love it! Also, you were earlier on your verbal left cue on the #4 tunnel so his turn on the exit was better.
After the weaves, your connection coming down the big line was clearer (even with the big sprinting happening!) so he had a sweeter line (keep remembering to call him before he enters the tunnel)
Then after the BC, grab the connection to get the turn tighter by keeping your left arm (dog-side arm) back more and make big eye contact. You were using your left arm down at your side to cue where you wanted him to be, but that blocks the connection so he was not sure which sied to be on til he saw the jump. It is crazy how the dogs don’t target our hands at all – it is all about the eye contact to get the side changes on the blinds.Course 2 (actually course 3 on the maps)
Video 1 – you made it a little harder with 2 as the front side – 2 should be a backside which would buy you time to get up the line for the 4-5 sooner to get the blind. You got it on this first run, a tiny bit late but still a good turn (it is a really hard angle).Good job getting to the cross after the tunnel without the full set of poles to give you a head start!
It was hard to see him for the timing, but he certainly knew where to find you – you were a little on his line so he had to go around you – try sticking really close to the tunnel exit to clear the line sooner rather than running a few steps wide of it.On the ending line 9-10-11, you can use more of a send to 10 to get the blind 11-12. You turned him well to face the tunnel when you threadled it here – he read that line really well but you were one step too quick to turn your feet so he came off the line rather than pushing into the tunnel. This is a good skill for him to work in isolation so that you can leave that soon. It wasn’t that you were wrong, it is just that we need to expand his commitment so you can do that early departure an he feels comfortable continuing even though you turned that soon.
Video 2
You were a little later on the blind 4-5 here than on the first run – so keep trying to be as early as possible – when he lands from 3, you can cue 4 and start the blind (2 as backside will be easier but even on a front side, a longer lead out can help get you up there).
You had good lateral position on the exit of the weaves at :23 but turned away rather than running the parallel line so it looks like he just came with you to the tunnel exit. You can mainain that position and run forward til he locks onto the tunnel, then pull away so you can get around the tunnel.Video 3 – this one picks up from the weave exit and you had a much clearer tunnel send, plus you were tighter to the tunnel exit so he had a better line to the 8 jump – nice!!!
On the ending line, the threadle worked better in terms of tunnel commitment: you held your feet facing the tunnel for a few more steps. You can turn and face the tunnel sooner like you did in the previous video, you held the slice line (facing the exit of the tunnel) – he jumped a little wider over 11 here because you faced the slice line longer than you did on the previous video.I bet you can get the blind before the tunnel, though! You can get it by sending to the 10 jump (and you can do a spin it if is easier to get out of it) and then drive to the 11 wing for the blind, Easy peasy!
>>His cue for a right wrap is deedeedee, but now I am wondering if that sounds too much like weaveweaveweave?>>
I think it is fine, because the deedeedeed is quieter and you can emphasize the ‘d’ and say it faster. With weaves, it can be louder and also longer: weeeave weeeeave weeeave. I don’t think it sounded like weeweewee, which would be similar to deedeedee 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> It appears that all the pro’s do exercises with 6 weaves, so it should be okay, but it still bugs me. In order to make it “fair”, I spread it all out a bit.
No problem to do it with 12 poles. I had 6 in there because of the small space requirement. Spreading it out to 12 poles add handling challenges on the jumps & wing because the distances are really big!
>>On the first exercise, I turned him “in” at 4 and then repeated it turning “out” at 4. My thinking was that turning out would create a better line to 5 and 6. Also, I think I got a better turn on the “out”. When I took the time off of iMovie, I got 14.3 on the “in” and 13.9 on the “out”. Which is quite a lot.>>
Was the “in” the wrap and the “out” the slice? I didn’t time it but the slice looked fabulous and faster – it checks all the boxes for the faster line, so should be faster. You did it with a switch here and he was LOVELY. On the other side, you did a FC and then a collection cue: It was good but I think the switch might have been gooder 🙂 We can compare on the same side to see if the switch gets better collection in that situation, and which is actually faster.
On the wrap, though, a little detail – you will get better collection on it if you drop your hands into the front side of the jump and not swoosh to the landing side. You handled more of the front side on the other side and his turns looked better there too.
On the other reps, he really had no questions on the weaves at all.
On the 3rd rep: Soft turn to the weaves and then you driving ahead? No problem at all. Super!At :50 add a collection cue (verbal) on the wing – you had extension cues (go around) so he went wider – and it is also a good opportunity to challenge him to find the poles while you keep running rather than holding a stationary position until he has them.
Good turns at 1:15 and 1:32 on the jump after the weaves! He had the refual at 1:20, a couple of things happened: the verbals changed and that caught his ear, plus then you had a high arm and turned your shoulders. The high arm causes you to turn your line away from the jump as you decelerated to set the turn, and on the big distance that pulled him off. You had a high arm again at 1:35 but the motion of your running line supported is path much better, so he got it. Yay!
Now, since high arms on sends are really not the end of the world and we would like him to commit anyway 🙂 that is a good one to proof on a jump (show him ALL the high flingy arms with shoulder turns and reward him for taking the jump 🙂
And, since you did have verbals going (but they did not override the body language) – check out the games in the Skills Sets posted this morning, where we begin to really focus on teaching the dogs to process verbals even when there is a lot of motion and high arousal. Sooooo many people have told me that this is a big area where their dogs have questions, so we will definitely tackle it this summer 🙂Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>As far as turning away on the weaves (when I am running counter to his motion), I usually whisper “here I am” when I think he might not notice a cross. In this case, he turned away when I didn’t cross but it was artificially set up running counter to his motion. Will have to think about when I might need that.>>
I would use that flip away skill any time I needed to stay on the same side and get away up a line. Here is an example:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TyvKbSbiA1OmLl5HYn7dp0-sjcB6jBxUR9JCD7s9DZY/edit?usp=sharingI would want to flip to the tunnel to be able to get the line 5-6-7.
>>On the teeter, I am using a small lid (peanut butter, I think). I haven’t ever done the lid plus MM at a distance. Will try that technique out. I was at Ann Braue’s summer camp this past 3 days and he was “pretty good” with his teeters. I played a lot of “bang” games before camp and we didn’t embarrass ourselves too much. Without the target he doesn’t drive to the 2o2o position; he stops at a random 4o and then needs another prompt to assume 2o2o. I wish I could pack a teeter in my car when trialing (which I am doing a lot) but I will throw a travel plank into my car.>>
Hope you had a great time at the camp!! A travel plank will totally work. And you can also use the lid a lot to help get the drive into position (to break the habit of the 4on) and I have lots of ideas on how to fade it (with or without the MM). The lid can also be used in NFC runs (as long as it is not placed on the actual teeter).
Tracy
Good morning, hope you are enjoying the holiday weekend!
Remember last week we were discussing how to bring him back to a more centered state of arousal when he gets into humpy mode? It just dawned on me (thanks, coffee!) that you can use the transition to trials game I posted this morning – it is GREAT for centering arousal! I posted it in terms of helping with other distractions but it would totally apply to the internal arousal that causes him to mount your leg. In the situations where you can see it starting… go into the pattern. Or even if it starts: go into the pattern. Let me know if that makes sense!
>>There were random fireworks going off and they terrify Fever. I wasn’t super strict about my contact or stay criteria given this. I was very happy that he was resilient enough to push through the scaries. His DW is usually much better. His Aframe can be sketchy sometimes but it’s still in progress. We had to sub the teeter.
He was a good boy, then! You can use the distractions as training opportunities and just work end behavior. My only suggestion for the handling is to give him a better line up to the a-frame, he was getting on it on a hard angle which was changing the striding.
>>I didn’t make any effort for him to do the weaves, although he found them loosely most times.
Yes, he was finding the entry, good boy! You can still have a training opportunity if they are on course – an open set of 6, or even just a set of 2 poles. That way he can be correct and we don’t get rehearsal of hitting the entry and leaving the poles.
>> I didn’t fill carrie in on what course I was doing so we had action agility shots a couple of times.
Ha! Yes, that brought some entertaining value to it LOL! And I enjoyed her singing voice too lol
>>He was slicing the tire more than I cared for. Not sure if it was the course build or how I was moving down the line that ended up setting him up that way.
A little of both, maybe? See more below 🙂
Thoughts on the video:
On the opening: He was committing beautifully, just needed a better angle of approach to the frame. You can change the set up to get it, just using wing wrap to get him rolling for example.Thanks for leaving his distraction moments in the video: Roulez barking is a big enough distraction that you can totally use to work skills and focus! He had some trouble early on with sniffing – barking plus heat plus fireworks… hard stuff! That pattern game can help here!
Getting the backside at 8 in really hard for sure! Looking at it 2 ways:
from the handling perspective at 1:35, open up your upper body to him, sooner, giving more connection to his eyes and you might even need to use the outside arm or motion towards the wing to get it. The line into it is hard and he was turning to his right there, so you need to add more handling to get him to turn to his left to get on the backslide line.When you went back to it at 2:40 without the girls there, he definitely thought it was the front and the verbal doesn’t yet override the motion. At 2:50 you had definite better connection and a bit of motion converging into it and he got it. Yay! I think you will be able to maintain your original position & running line, and just give that BIG connection at that timing and he will go get the backside.
And you can see that he has the understanding of it with the big connection, you nailed it at 3:09 and he was very independent! Good boy!!!! That added more independent position from you on the exit, so keep working the connection to get him to take the bar and rewarding him on the landing side of it.From the training perspective: young dogs are sensitive to pressure in the environment and in order to get to the backside, he would have had to get close to the plank on the ground next to the fence, squeeze in next to the tub with stuff in it – and run directly towards 2 dogs in an xpen, both of whom were making direct eye contact and one of whom was barking. Pressure! He is no fool LOL! So that is a great opportunity to just take a wing and send him around a wing, with all of that pressure. There is a lot of pressure in the trial environment, so having it in the training environment is a valuable experience.
Moving away down the line looked great! Those lines really looked strong throughout the session.
He had a couple of bars down, they were no big deal . Here is what was happening, which leads to one more thought:
1:47 was you in the way a little, and praising him
1:52 was him avoiding the fence, good boy 🙂
2:02 was you celebrating 🙂
2:57 broken tire – that happened after a big “yes!” and also you were not connected enough (much clearer connection at 3:17 to the tire, so he kept it up). I think the tire slice was partially the course build but he was fine with it at 3:17 when you were more connected and quieter.So back to the other thought: he often has a bar down after you praise him or celebrate – probably because the two of you are still in motion and the praise is not informational. It tells him about the past: “that was good!” and he might even question if reinforcement is coming. And what he needs to really know about is the future: either the cue for the next thing or the cue for the reward. So you can phase out the praise and conversations (like apologies LOL!) on course, and just use cues for what’s next, or a reward marker. That lends a better level of clarity to the situation and the dogs have had an easier time with lines and bars. I tell myself that the best praise when the dog is running is timely info on what is next 🙂
He was a super good boy to get to the backside at 1:59! He was a little wide on the wrap because your position was a little far back and decel was a little late – bit that will all smooth out when he has more experience running these bigger courses.
A note on the lead outs: stay more connected as you leave, to see if that helps him hold the position. When you were walking away without connection, he was moving a bit and looking around (like at 2:11 and 2:25).
You and Fever did a really lovely job on the ending lines in each segment! He was finding his tunnels, finding his jumps, making the turns – all really well with speed and independence! And you are dong a great job with your connections to show the lines. Happy dance!!!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
And stay cool 🙂Tracy
Hi! Hope you are enjoying the holiday weekend!!
Good teeter warm up 🙂 She is really looking good on her teeter!!
Looking at the course work, so much good stuff here!!!
Opening 1-2-3 -4:
On the 2- line, she was taking 2 towards you then landing and turning to 3 at :22 and :41. Ideally, we want her to be turning to her left before takeoff so she can land and power out to 3 sooner (it would look almost straight) 2 ideas:
Using the dog on left that you had going here: ,You can get further ahead on your lead out and drive in more towards 3 to be further across the bar 2-3.
She should see that as she is landing from 1 so she can adjust before takeoff.You were a step further ahead and further across the bar at 2 sooner at 1:37 so she was jumping the center of the bar and starting to turn there, but we can get an even better line by having you push across sooner.
That extra motion towards 3, though, means you would then have to turn her over 3, so there is another option:
You can start with her on your right and run into the opening, doing a BC 2-3 (starting the blind no later than when she lands from 1). That keeps you running the right direction the whole time while getting the 2-3 turn too.Good job on the weaves! She was working it so hard! And great job with the reward out there and mixing in reward moments: it is so helpful to reward her for finding the weaves like that when you are moving away on a line 40 feet away.
Super job there with her staying in the weves at :48 and oh wow did she put on the speed when you turned and took off.It looks like she saw convergence as you took off so at :48, based on your position relative to the tunnel, she pushed out to the backside. You had gone past the tunnel to support the weaves then did the FC and pushed back hard to it. You can call her name more in those moments where there is convergence which should override the pressure on the line. And when she has more experience in the weaves like this, you won’t need to run as far to support them.
When you repeated it at :55 and 1:58 without the convergence she was perfect with taking the front of the jump which set up the nice backside.
For now, it was smart to run straight past the teeter and reward her – she was great both times through there. Was the reward placed out there already? If so, she gets a double gold star for ignoring it until she got there 🙂
I like the handling choice 11-12-13: doing it as a serpentine was lovely an sets a great line 13-14. It will be even easier when she is more experienced on the teeter. Just call her sooner at 1:13 and 2:20 ( call her before she enters the tunnel, you were talking to her as she was approaching the jump) so she drives in hard to you, she had a little question there on 12 because you were a little late.
You remembered to decelerate a 1:16 and 2:21 to send to 13, you can play with decelerating sooner: as she is jumping 12 – so you can send and leave earlier and get an even better turn. The goal would be that you wouldn’t have to go much past the exit wing of 12 to get the send to 13: that gets a great turn and a significant position advantage for you.
Replacing the frame and DW with a jump and a straight tunnel might have forced you to run faster but she was certainly happy with the choices LOL! WHEEEE!
Remember to call her before the straight tunnel (DW replacer): she saw you peeling away at 1:23 while she was still a stride or so from the entry (perfect timing of the physical cue) and you were even earlier at 2:28 (MORE perfect LOL!) but you got quiet: so at 1:24 and 2:29 when she exited, there was a slight hesitation in her striding while she located you and found the line. It was subtle but a name call or directional will get rid of it.The FC at 125 would need to be followed by the spin to set up the turn 20-21 – you’ll need a full rotation – that cue looked like you wanted 20-13.
O n the 2nd rep, you got the spin and she did come through the gap but dropped the bar (2:31). If you freeze it at 2:31, you’ll see that as you completed the FC and started the spin, your feet were parallel to the jump and your upper body was pointing towards the jump. So coming in with all of that speed (3 tunnels in a row, 2 of which were straight :)) it was not a strong enough collection cue – so she didn’t collect as much as needed and tried to adjust in the air (hitting the bar).So a different way to cue that collection can help in those high speed situations: when you finish the FC, don’t turn towards the jump bar at all: turn your feet to her, and use your hands to face her nose (rather than indicate the jump bar or takeoff spot). You’ll find that your back ends up to the wing. That is a stronger collection cue and she will be able to make the turn. It is almost like a half front cross followed by a throwback.
And of course use your directions – you might have been saying it but it is hard to hear because the verbal is quiet and you were facing away from the camera. Or, it might have been hard to spit them out when you are running so hard, so that is definitely something o practice without her: sprinting and saying quiet wrap cues 🙂
That segues us right into the games posted this morning: which cues are most effective for which dogs and when to use them 🙂 I use that more ‘in your face’ style of collection on the tight turn with my 2 very forward black dogs (the blue merle is easier to turn so I use softer cues) to give you a visual. I can also get a camera on what it looks like from the front if it is too hard to see on the angles of the demos.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hellooooo great to see you here too!
I am excited to see Charlee in action!!!
Have fun and stay cool 🙂
TracyAh, the magic of smoked salmon! I would work for smoked salmon too LOL!
He looked really strong here – the more work we can do to associate working on leash without food and in front of a jump, the more we can get him happy at trials. And the smell of the smoked salmon will also help bridge the gap, because he will know where it is at all times. I also used my Manners Minder for this with my foodie dogs – it provided a BIG valuable target for them to work for at trials, even with it sitting 30 feet away from the ring LOL!
He did really well with his focus here and his tricks. I think the newer trick with the circle leaps over and under your legs is not quite fully ready to be done with cookies behind you, he had some questions about that in the first part of the video and couldn’t quite get it. So keep playing with that trick with food in your hand, then in a week or two we can revisit it with the food behind you like it would be at the start line.And you can incorporate this game into his other training games – you don’t need to do it all the time, just maybe once a week or so.
I have added another game that is used to help the dogs relax and get focused in new environments – it should be visible as part of the Games Package 2! That is a good one for bringing Nuptse into the trial environment and helping him relax on the way into the ring while assessing all of the distractions. Check it out and let me know what you think!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
The weather was really lovely, it made for a good day even if there were too many fireworks! Hope you and your crew enjoyed the holiday weekend too!
>> I played around with the Transitions to Trail with a harness and a leash.
I am glad you are tackling this! I think it is an important piece for him, to get him comfy in trial environments. If he is not comfy with that leash & harness, then that will carry over into the trial environment where he is not comfy (no young dogs are comfy in the trial environment LOL!) so he might be feeling doubly awkward in that environment. But you have a ton of good tools already and now we will put them together.
>> I started by showing Watson were the rewards were. I felt he was having some trouble with the harness and the leash so I started the game with rewards on me and transition to getting them from the table. I stayed close to the rewards. >>
Smart!! We want a high rate of success. The harness plus the leash plus the jump plus outdoors plus food on the table – SO HARD! Breaking it down like that really helped.
One thing I see in this video to add: you can reward smaller bits of the behavior, even if it is not perfect.
For example, on the line up when the harness and leash were on: he could line up between your feet but couldn’t sit. You rewarded some of the line up – keep doing that, you don’t need to wait for the sit for now. I know the sit is part of it, but the level of challenge was HIGH (leash/harness/jump/cookies on table) so rewarding the tiny bits of the behavior will actually help the full behavior re-appear because he will be more relaxed and thinking about all the other stuff less.
And on the head-through-loop: you can also take any interaction with it in this more challenging scenario. Move towards it? Look at it? Offer behavior near it, even if it is not actually the “real” behavior? Reward all the things 🙂 You can also lure his head through by holding up the loop and showing the cookie on the other side. That can all help transfer this trick to the harder environments.
>>he did struggle with this and left to chase flies(not on video) 2 times. >>
Tell me more about this – when did it happen during the session? Which trick or game were you asking for? Let me know and we will game plan.
>>My session was too long but I did end with lots of play no harness and his favorite toy.
All the tugging looked great! And it cracks me up at that we all sing to the dogs. Why do we all do that? HA!!!
>>>I want to make sure I don’t lose value for the tricks. He wasn’t able to play the loop game. I am not sure if it was because we were outside or the leash and harness was involved. >>
You won’t lose value for the tricks by rewarding the tiny pieces, like you did when you first taught them. His questions probably had to do with all the challenges being presented at once: outdoors, leash, harness, etc. The other thing to add is taking the tricks like the loop game outdoors but away from the jump and without a leash or harness, to pump up the value in the different environment.
And, separately, add the leash/harness to everyday things such as meals, couch sitting, etc, to help it become part of the routine.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
