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Good morning!
Your mowed area looks great! Hooray for tractors!!!
ASCA nationals sounds like a BLAST!!!!This was a good session to see what he understands and how to get position and verbals to work together for now. The verbals will get stronger when the physical cues (positional cues and motion) predict them, then it gets easier to fade the physical cues. I think his only questions came from when the verbal and physical cues were contradictory. For now, the proximity of the tunnel to the backside wing adds the distraction/proofing element. Eventually that will be easy for him, at which point you can go to proofing the verbal to override motion/position. Here are some specifics 🙂
The in in lead out looked great on the first 2 reps! Nailed it! The tunnel cue on rep 3 was verbal only, with your positional cue being the same as the in in cue that he had just done… so he didn’t tunnel. He needed a little bit of a change in positional/motion, even one step. The other thing you can do to help him out when you want the tunnel versus the in in is to line him up facing whichever one you want. At :19, he was lined up facing the in in, and the bar at #1 came down because the OK release and his position and your position said one thing (come to the backside) and then as he was jumping 1, you changed the info so he tried to adjust in the air. It is a subtle detail for sure, but he is reading All.The.Things and that is good 🙂
That is why at :28, when your arm moved, he went to the tunnel rather than coming to the backside even with the threadle verbal – the arm cue supported the tunnel in the previous reps and overrode the position, so he was trying to sort out what it all means. It think for now matching the verbal to the line up and position/motion will help with the tunnel distraction, before moving to fading the physical support.
You had a whole bunch of threadles where it looks like you moved closer and closer to 3, looked great!!!! Good boy!!!!
When you changed sides, he also did really well – the line up position came into play for him. Lining him up on a slice for he could see the backside wing or the front of the jump when you wanted it will help, but I think the a-frame was in the way 🙂
At 1:04 he was set up straight and I think he could see you between the uprights and not enough of the threadle position, so he took the front side. He got the threadle on the next one but was not set up to see 1 so he went past it. You can have him in his 2o2o on the bottom of the frame so he is lined up to see what you want over 1 🙂The rep at 1:14 was great threadling to 2 and he did a GREAT job of not taking the tunnel when you cued the wrap!!! And then he balanced nicely when you did want the tunnel. GOOD BOY!
Super session! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Yes, these short classes move fast, but you still have time! We will keep looking at vides for a few more weeks 🙂 The weather is holding strong for now, so fingers crossed we have more time before winter sets in 🙂
T
Hi!
The added distraction was probably useful here, similar to what you might see in terms of distraction at a trial. But I think the mechanics of the backside slices were also causing the questions here: when you got too far ahead and turned your shoulders, he took the front. What I mean by that is when he was one stride past the wrap wing, if you were up by the jump and moving laterally, turning a little (with arm up, shoulders turned), the physical cues looked like a front side cue and those overrode the backside verbal. That happened on the first rep, at :26 and at :38.
Ideally, you would be on a parallel path as he exited the wrap wing, so you don’t want to send to that wing and then be miles ahead because then you will have to curve your running path so you don’t run into the jump 🙂 When you were not as far ahead and able to maintain your parallel line of motion, like at :55 and on the last rep, he nailed it. And staying on the parallel path also allows you to maintain great connection!>> I found that by using extra eye contact and less motion, I could get him to do the correct cue!
Yes – when you had more eye contact and less motion, you showed more upper body rotation to the entry wing so it helped… but it also means you didn’t get to move much so that would put you too far behind on a big course. We can have best of both worlds: keeping you in motion while also getting him to the backside. I think the key is in your running line.
So even as you move further across the bar, start closer to the entry wing and move to the backside showing the parallel path. That line of motion supports the backside without having to go near it, and you’ll also be able to connect better without having to slow down. – I think that will make the difference for him, even with the birds 🙂Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I thought this went really well – the backsides looked incredibly independent, with you being able to cue from far away and move up the line, and he got it AND took the jump bar, no problem with commitment. Great job with the placement of reinforcement! I was wondering if he was doing so well because he was patterning, but nope – he had no trouble balancing to the front side then going to the backside on cue. Hooray!!!>> I forgot what a wrap was and only did a U-turn with Nuptse!!!!
Is wrap the backside circle wrap cue? If so, yes, you’ll want to keep moving through to the takeoff side of the jump.
But overall, really great session. You can add in the front crosses on the start wing now, to add even more challenge to the backside sending!
Tracy
Hi!
Based on what you did here, I would say that rears are no longer your weakest link 🙂
>>No worries about me layering too much! I’m a layering chicken
We will de-chicken you about layering – it is getting to be very helpful on course!
T
Hi!
>> I did feel too many words would drive her crazy. — besides, getting them all out in a timely manner would be tricky or impossible.
It might not drive her crazy, but it might drive you crazy trying to remember them all LOL!!! I believe my dogs know more words than I do, at this point LOL!!
The ‘stuff in the way’ exercise looked great! She really had zero questions here. You got her through the ‘box’ nicely with the tunnel layering – that skill is going to come in VERY handy in the future!!! And sending to the tunnel as a balance looked great. Driving her through the box to the blue jump on the other side was the only place you can smooth out the line, by telling her o go to it earlier – as soon as she is passing the tunnel and looking at the green or red jump, you can already be telling her to get out over the blue jump so she gets almost a straight line.
>>Any suggestions for something we should tweak or try?
The only thing I would suggest you try is driving into the box with her, not layering the tunnel. I think the tunnel layer worked better here because the setup was tight, so if you are not going to layer the tunnel – spread it out 🙂 The goal is having you run between the tunnel and the jumps is to convince her to stay on the line with your shoulder and not bounce away to the blue jump 🙂 I have seen a LOT of that come through on course maps, particularly in AKC and USDAA recently!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
She thought this game was fun LOL! And she did really well too!<>
For the switch aways on a jump, I use my jump directionals – soft turns, usually, unless it is a wrap, so it depends on what type of line I want to handle. You can use your jump verbals, or your cross or switch cues. When you started, no verbal needed on the flat unless you are going to have a separate cue for a switch away on the flat – all of the verbals apply to the jump, meaning “take the jump and turn away”.
She did perfectly on the flat work! And the two-hands worked great.
Moving to a jump: The sit was easy on the flat but totally different in front ot the jump. Do you have a mat or board she can stay on? She might like that better for now!
The cross work on the jump looked good – you were doing a full motion rear cross which is great and totally appropriate for her becaus we had to teach her a ‘normal’ rear cross anyway 🙂 You can add challenge by starting closer to the wrap wing, so you are driving up the line rather than beind ahead and decelerating when you would get too far ahead, she questioned if it was a go or a rear cross (like at 2:07 and 2:13, you can see her looking to her left first then turning right when you cut in) .She loves her go cue! No problems with the balance reps!
You pulled away too soon at the end, and she got mad, thar is a good place for a reset cookie to she doesn’t get too mad at you.
On the sequences – you are going to chuckle: you need to run slowly, for now LOL! Because she is going so fast, you are trying to go fast – but that breaks connection and propels her out off the lines.
>>Wondering if I’m a tad early with my cross command verbal and hands.
No, not too early, except for at :34 where you cut across her line too early and she read it correctly to change the line immediately, good girl! And smart to reward there, she was going to be angry if you didn’t LOL!
>>Also wondering if I’m just doing rears
Yes, you are totally doing normal rears on all except the last rep – but that is fine! She needed to learn rear crosses for real before you could get all fancy. It was a great session!
The cross on the first rep looked good, it just needed a little decel so she can land looking at the next jump (or you can spread out the sequence a bit) Same at :28 – just a little too much motion on a tight setup.
At :13 you ran away from the wing cuing go go go, which broke connection so she didn’t take the pink jump. You were much less fast on the next rep – perfect for now! She nailed it!
After accidentally pushing her off the line too soon at :34, things really came together. The rep at :44 was a lovely rear cross and the very last rep was a true ‘switch away’ complete with layering!
Now, because of her age – do more ‘normal’ rear crosses for now, and less layering. It will be super easy to add in layering when you need it later on.
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
I totally bring cheat sheets! I type up little notes then send them to myself in messenger, so they are on my phone. That way I can whip it out to jog my memory when I am training, even if it is just a short list of what to do.
T
Hi again!
I feel the pain of those early morning sessions LOL! But I am loving that you still have green grass!
Min did really well!!!
>> I have a hard time running in a straight line and not moving away from the jump to pull her in.
You were pulling away only a very tiny bit – not enough to put you way behind. So if you need to do a threadle next weekend? Do exactly what you did here 🙂
>>When I started in a sit stay with 2 jumps, I had a hard time seeing if she was collecting so then my threadle (come) cue was late.
Yes – it is easier to see the tiny blur in the sunshine on video than in real life! And her collections will be relatively small because she won’t have to make big collections to pull off the tighter threadles – so even if you don’ see a collection, start the threadle before she takes off. She did really well here and see to really understand her threadle AND took the backside when cued. Yay!
>>And this reinforces my decision to run as many Open Threadles as possible with the double blind.
Yes – the double blind is your strength for sure and in the big competitions, play to your strengths as much as possible. But the other good thing from this session is that if for some reason you are not far enough ahead to do the double blinds, the threadle skill is strong! It is not a situation of “double blind or nothing” LOL! You can whip out the threadle if you need it, and it is strong.
For Kaladin – I believe his stay is strong enough that you can be moving before the release. So when he is in the stay, you start to walk, engage your hand, then release with the directional. I think what was happening in those early reps was that motion and the directionals were all starting together, and motion won his heart LOL! He processed motion before he processed the verbal.
Being in motion will also allow you to be more lateral, to show him the threadle from ahead of him and also at more of a walk. When you are parallel/behind and moving fast, most young dogs just stay on the line. Ideally, you would be past the exit wing of the turn jump while cuing the directional on it, so he can see you in the threadle gap to help control the line. He had some really good reps of getting the collection on the turn jump (like at :52 and the 2nd to last rep) so I know he is going to be great on these!!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Yes, I think Min was having trouble realizing that even on a wing, she should stay on a parallel path at first (she definitely had a WTF expression on her face LOL!) but she was figuring it out nicely! Maybe she was migrating to the jump cups? But by the end, she *totally* had it! So your next steps would be to add that angled bar, and work through the progression again. It will be interesting to see how she feels about it with a bar there!
Kaladin has a different foundation so staying on the parallel path to the backside was easier when he was on your right, turning to his left. Beautiful!
And yes, throwing Nemo was definitely the right decision – dead Nemo is b-o-r-i-n-g LOL!!
When you changed sides – he was either wanting to default to turning to his left turn because it is stronger, or because he just had a whole lotta rewards for that side.
Your motion did look basically the same on all the reps on both sides – but it is not unusual that one side progresses through the positions faster than the other. Being on your right and turning to his left is definitely the stronger side on these. So when he is on your left (turning to his right), you will probably stay at the position 1 line of motion for a couple of sessions until he is very confident on that side too.
So two ideas for the next session for Kaladin:
– switch sides more frequently, so he doesn’t get into a left-turns-only situation (not sure if that was the reason, but it can’t hurt to change sides more frequently :))
– after a quick warm up on the wing when he is on your right side, add the angled bar for him too! I don’t think I would add it yet when he is on your left, but he might surprise you in the next session.Nice work here!!
TracyGood morning! This is good stuff to sharpen up before Florida, the dogs look great!
Switch aways:
Presto – one jump went well , I agree that maybe your hands can lower? It is a style preference, so go with what feels comfortable. I use two hands, kinda low. Good placement of reward on those lines!!!!!I hope he got lots of “Mom’s sorry she used the wrong directionals” cookies after the session haha!!!!! He did turn left on the right verbal when you pushed into the RC line and then at the end of the 2 jump session when you used the outside arm. I notice that all 3 of your dogs are reading the way you are using your outside arm as a switch away, and that is great!
Adding the tunnel – looked good, and good balance reps too! I love that you had a lot of balance with all 3 dogs so they were listening and not patterning. Maybe add a little decel if you want a tighter turn but overall, he did well and it was great that you didn’t need to do much more than connect and yell things to get the big layer to the tunnel 🙂
Nikko – when your outside arm was really high, she was a little confused. But when it was early and just below your shoulder, she seemed to read it well! Overall, she also looked really strong, even when you didn’t turn your feet at all and that is great – we don’t want to have this cue rely on a lot of footwork.
On the RC wrap – Try just using decel and a tiny bit of foot turn, I think she will get it. You were doing a big decel and rotation, and that might confuse her with a regular wrap rotation towards you – so just decel and the verbals with arm + tiny bit of foot movement. The other thing to play with to get the tight wraps there is to change the hand cue: lower the hands as you decel to really ‘grab’ her attention and then as you are deceling, flip her away to the jump. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
Sole also understood the difference between outside arm and normal arms! That is great! It makes life much easier when you can use the same cue for all the dogs.
For her rights on. the jumps when you added more speed from the wing and the other jump – she needs a lower arm and/or a tiny bit of foot rotation, she is jumping the last jump straight then turning. So, changing the timing and helping with a bit of foot rotation should sweeten up that turn.
It was better at 3:20 when you did turn your feet – remember that you have plenty of time with the layering, so don’t rush away from the tunnel cue after the switch away. That is one my list of things to remember for the Open: run each line, don’t rush, plenty of time.She also can use a little decel on the switch aways to the tunnel, I see what you mean by the girls working switch aways in extension!
When working the wraps towards and away, balance with a wrap towards you and the wrap away from you like at 3:32 so the cues are clear and different. I think the upper body will make all the difference for when you are staying on the outside wing (same wing as the wrap-towards-me cue) because the switch away can have that low-hand ‘grab and turn’ element and a regular wrap won’t need that.Ooh the bigger sequences with the outside arm options – all the dogs looked great – fast and accurate!!!
For Presto – I recognize some of the errors from something I also do with my young dogs: send and rush away 🙂 I constantly remind myself to stay closer to the line and that I have plenty of time even though the dogs are speedy. So – stay closer to his lines, and take your time (be patient, even if you are totally faking it hahahaha. I will be faking my patience at the Open :))You can see the big of peeling away too early at the beginning: on the first rep, there was not enough bowling for Tollers on the send to the pinwheel, you turned forward and pointed ahead too early.You got it by going closer to the jump on the next rep but your position was good on the first rep – more connection and the hand not moving ahead of him will get it with you not having to go as forward to the pinwheel.
The soft turn at :15 was good collection, YAY! Then a loss-of-patience moment when you turned and moved away too early so he didn’t commit. I feel this pain 🙂The sends and soft turns got better as you played with the timing and connection – he got it at :20 but looked at you a little, which means you were a little early with the arm send and looking ahead.
Much better connection on the soft turn at :28! You can ‘release’ the brake arm when he commits to the first jump after the tunnel , and just stay connected .At :36 we got a good video of the send – note how as you start to send (he is over the jump after the tunnel – you look forward, that small brake in connection makes the sending harder for a baby dog
Nice left soft turn at the end – really lovely handling, connection, and patience 🙂
Sole’s turn – she has a better understanding of sends and lines, so you were naturally more connected on your sends and soft turns too! Less pressure to have to show her all the things, and you trust her more (understandably!) Those all looked great.
You added the tunnel threadle at 1:28 – I don’t think you were late with her on the cue, but she just didn’t know it was coming so she made an extension takeoff decision 🙂 So, more of a turn cue on the turn jump before the tunnel will tighten that line – I think you called her and said here, but she didn’t read it as a collection cue so you really had to pull her in at 1:30
She was tighter at 1:45 but that was because of your position. You can totally play with what gets a tiny bit of collection before takeoff: her name, or a left/right verbal. You won’t need a ton of collection (depending on the scenario) but a little will help get her to land facing the tunnel entry
Nikko also did really well! She seems like she is more “forward” on her lines, jumping in more extension. So you can give her the right verbal and brake arm sooner at 1:57, and also the brake arm can be more towards her to show the collection cue. You were earlier at 2:12 and her turn was really strong to the left!
For the tunnel threadle, I don’t think you were late with her either – I think you can ask for a turn on the jump before the tunnel same as Sole would need. At 2:29 and 2:45, she landed somewhat straight then turned. I don’t think she was considering the off course tunnel, but the small turn cue can cut out some extra yardage.
One last thought – when she is exiting the tunnel and you are going to do another send – give her a go cue before she enters the tunnel. At 2:41, she exited looking at you because you were pretty quiet 🙂 Adding the verbal before she enters the tunnel can accelerate her to the next jump with no questions.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! This session looked fabulous!
The wing-to-wing stuff looked great, I am not surprised. You were easily able to move the wing and your running line both over to position 3, no problem. But he was perfect when you added the bar in, even with the staring point and running line far across the bar AND with you adding in independent motion past. YAY!!! Usually the bar makes things harder… but not for Nuptse! Great! So, yes – work the other side for a couple of reps and then go to the full jump on both sides. The full jumps will open up the opportunities to balance with the front side of the jump, and I think he is ready for that challenge.Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!
Based on your recent posts, I figured you would like this one 🙂>> I had to laugh because he immediately fell into the trap of all threadles, all the time!
I feel this LOL!!! My young dog’s all threadles, all the time carried into a seminar the next day too 🙂 I blame it on the high percentage of herding dog in my large dogs. My mostly-terriers or Papillons simply never get into that mode. It is interesting! There is something about threadling that those herding-types love. Did you Belgians get into the all-threadles mode too?
>>In conclusion, I think he comes through on the threadle about the same distance he comes through on the wrap. In other words, a long ways. Perhaps the answer is to fix the wraps? Perhaps the answer is “good enough”. Comment?>>
I think that we can improve the collection into the threadles – it falls into the ‘good for now’ category rather than ‘good enough’. I see it as a learning curve for the dogs – first we have to cue/train the collection on the turn jump before the threadle, and I am seeing tremendous progress with that already. For the wrap collections needed, I think we need to train more but train it very specifically: getting the more ‘wrappy’ collection while we handlers continue to move forward to the threadle jump. Basically… the wrap collection cues from verbal and upper body need to override lower body and motion. Therein lies the problem!
With most of our wrapping, we are giving the dogs a lot of physical cues from the lower body (decel, rotation, position) and with the wrap before a threadle – nope! None of these, ideally. So it makes sense to me that the collections are not as good – after all, we are only giving the weaker parts of the cue.But, we can strengthen it by isolating it: going back to just a wing, which produces wrap collection automatically, we can set up training where we cue the wrap on the wing (verbal, upper body brake arm if needed) while we continue to walk forward (the build to running). Placement of reinforcement for wrapping will help seal the deal (throwing the reward back to the landing line of where a wrap would be).
Then it builds to a wing to jump threadle line, then 2 jumps, and so on. We did this with the most recent generation of MaxPup grads and they are so strong with those collections.I think the key to tightening threadles up is training the collection on the turn jump. The left/right on the easier threadles is pretty easy to get, it is the harder threadles (that we see in AKC Premier, for example) where I think the training will be focused.
Let me know if that makes sense or if I need more coffee. If the weather holds, I might be able to grab a video of what I mean later today or tomorrow morning – my 3 year old really needs this skill!
>>I think I used up almost my whole weekly video allowance on this one. But that’s ok, it’s what I mostly need from this course.>>
Ha! I really am terrible at keeping track of video limits – the limits are just suggestions so people don’t over-train or drill the dogs into oblivion 🙂
On the video: overall he had a nice high rate of success and he was offering some really lovely collection before the threadles. I think we can get it even better on the harder, flatter threadles but the collection on the soft turn threadles is looking good!
Starting with the softer threadles at the beginning on 2 jumps working on the collection on the turn jump:
A couple of little setup details: Start him further back from the turn jump, maybe 15 feet, and release with directional. When you release with OK, he is going to make the decision to stride into the first jump with a bit too much extension and make the left verbal late (which is actually a right here but he figured it out LOL!)
He did well with this and figured out the collect-then-threadle really nicely.When you went to the wrap cue – in this situation, don’t rotate as you reward it. Instead, keep moving up a parallel line towards the threadle jump – let him come all the way back around when you are not cuing the threadle, but keep facing forward and eventually even slowly be moving laterally along the threadle line (but continue to reward where you did at 1:40, throwing the toy back on the wrap line)
I already see tremendous progress like the collection at 1:54! This is the track you want to be on!
When you added the tunnel, the collection deteriorated a bit but I think it was because you added a little too much speed before we have independent collection understanding. Both of you were moving fast. So separate that – have him be the one that is moving fast by you sending way away to the tunnel, then walking up the line. That way he can process all the things without the variable of you moving fast too – that will get added in shortly. But his collection at 2:30 is already so much better! He is not jumping in big extension there then trying to find his way back.
A timing thing: On all those good collections… your threadle verbal can come when you see his weight shift/collection before takeoff for the turn jump. That will help him get the threadle and also, it will help him in the moments when you only wanted the wrap. So if you are cuing the dig dig or check check – at collection, the next cue can be either the threadle cue, or his name so he knows before liftoff where he is going next. On some of the wraps-not-threadle moments, he had great collection but then hesitated after landing to see if it was going to be a threadle or a wrap.
And as I am thinking about it… even if you don’t see the collection, switch to the threadle cue before he takes off for the turn jump anyway. Ideally we see the collection… but sometimes we humans are late (NEVER! HA!) so if we missed the window for the turn cue, we can go to the next window for the threadle.
Arms – because the collections into the threadle on the turn jump need to override the line of motion, you can also add in a bit more upper body help. You did have some arm cues going, but also you were decelerating. You can play with adding a bit more brake arm (low hands) but don’t decelerate, keep moving steadily up the line – slow and steady at first, then fast and steady. For now, walking is perfect as long as you are not stopping.
I have found that the ‘older’ generation (3 years and up) are finding the brake arms useful because it adds a physical cue to assist with the verbal cues. That is how they were trained, so it makes sense. And the younger generation (2 and under, the pandemic puppies) are pulling this off mainly on verbals, because we changed up how we trained things and emphasized the verbals being more independent, like the game on the wing where the handler continues to move forward even when giving a wrap cue.
For the threadle – are you using dog-side arm opening up or outside arm? I notice on his most successful threadles , you are rotating your upper body ever-so-slightly towards him. For example at 3:29 – your upper body is rotated towards him even though you are not using your outside arm. I think that rotation is helping him, and in situations where you are not ahead or able to decelerate, using the outside arm might be very helpful. Which arm you use is more os a stylistic choice as long as it is consistent 🙂 but be sure you don’t also use deceleration to get the threadle – for now, keep moving slowly (too much speed right away will be too hard). When you switched sides, there was a little too much speed so he had more questions about getting the threadle, which was causing you to stand still.
All of the balance reps were good, it took a while for him to break out of the all-threadle mode in the beginning but then After that he was pretty balanced! The serp balance was great, along with the threadles and backsides, such a fun exercise!
Great job here! Let me know what you think. I think the main things to consider are:
– isolating the collection cues on verbals only, with motion just moving up the line (no decel, no rotation)
– staying in steady motion when you work threadle sequences so decel doesn’t get built into the cue
– deciding which arms you want to use.Tracy
Hi!
>>Looks like I can pick and choose depending on the situation.
Exactly! It is like shoes: what works best for the situation?
She did really well here! Any handling skill that turns the dogs away from us is pretty challenging!
>> I realized just how much she is relying on my physical motion.
Yes – as you were getting this started, you were using your lower body/line of motion as the primary cue. That is great though, we need to make sure she understood how to turn away from the original line. And in some situations, that physical cue will be the best (normal rear crosses where you don’t want to flip her away while you leave or layer the next line, for example).
But yes, you can fade your physical cues for the moments when you do not want to step across the rear cross line (and also for the moments where there is no rear cross line, like the exit of the weaves or exit of tunnel flipping away to a jump). This will be great for distance work, setting up layering, etc.
So the easiest way to fade the line of motion is to add an upper body cue – I use a 2-handed “grab and flip” move , which is similar to a tandem turn (except the tandem turn also has lower body movement and this 2-haded move does not). Start it on the flat – just using your hands, with ehr at your side, turn her away from you and don’t move your feet 🙂 Then add it to a wing, then to a jump.When you add it to a jump or line of jumps, emphasize the upper body to help her – and you can use a little bit of lower body, but gradually fade it out so it is just a tiny bit of foot turn and not actual motion across the rear cross line. This session had really good motion and she reads that really well – so I think the foot turn will be easy for her to read at a distance when paired with the arm/upper body move.
In the moments when you did fade the line of motion and just used verbals, she figured it out – but the earlier use of upper body will allow you to cue much sooner to tighten up the turns.
>> Can I still use physical cues or do I have to freeze in place?
Yes, I would totally use physical cues, freezing in place causes the dogs to rely solely on verbals which is really hard! Exaggerating the upper body and arms motions will allow you to minimize the footwork, so you can maintain your position at a distance and then set up some really good layering opportunities 🙂
Now about the verbals 🙂
>>Will I confuse her horribly saying 2 or 3 verbals such as “over-turn-lef”?
I think that might be too many words – ‘over’ in particular is the one that might be confusing, because ‘over’ is a general commitment cue that implies turning towards us. So for the switch aways, no need for ‘over’. Now you can use you ‘turn’ cue if it always means turn away – but it doesn’t really tell her how tight so you would also need to add deceleration (easy to do :)) Or, on jumps you can try it without over or turn and just use directionals (left, right, wrap). For the weave exits, you can use ‘turn’ if you like!
Let me know if that makes sense – less is more in terms of verbals, so you can repeat the on verbal like “turn turn turn’ so she has time to process it, rather than process 3 different verbals in a row.
Great job!
TracyHi!
The baby Tasmanian Devil aka SheltieVelociraptor did really well here, especially turning to her right as you mentioned. I find this game to be MUCH easier with the baby dogs because they are not experienced enough to look for off course lines LOL! She was awesome here, no problem on the right at all. Yes, the left was a little harder but still really good!
A couple of details on that left side:
When she was turning left, I think your go was too early – she was still ooking at the off course pink jump out through the box. So you will want to delay the timing of your go cue until she is full turned. Right now, she wasn’t planning any off course adventures, but when she is more experienced, the timing of that go cue will actually cue her to continue to the pink jump.As you added more angle on the right turn side – it is a fine balance of staying more connected but also keep moving. I think some of her questions where related to not enough connection like a 1:36 when she got really mad, or not moving enough like at 2:03 when you were rotated a bit too much with your outside arm showing, and not moving that much, so it pulled her off the line.
She did have some anger moments at 1:36 – if something goes wrong, give an immediate reset cookie or ask for a trick and reward her, just to break the habit of barking/etc when she is frustrated.The other thing that might have caused her to get mad at 1:36 was that it was too many reps of the same thing – you can balance more by mixing in the tunnel, sometimes driving to the pink jump, etc. I don’t think your session was too long – but it might have been too repetitive for her. Too many same or similar reps will cause he dogs to ask questions (even when they are getting rewarded) so balancing will add variety and help keep her happy 🙂
And sorry about your finger! OUCH! At least you have a reason why your throws went a awry sometimes 🙂 Mine go awry sometimes for no reason LOL!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
