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Good morning!
Both dogs did well here – a slight tweak in positions can help them both! I think some of the hesitation on the marking forward for the send was positional.For Min:
To maximize speed and minimize collection (she is one of the few dogs that can make this a tight turn without having to slow down to collect), you can set her up on a slice facing the landing spot. Then you can be a bit further away from him so it is really clear that you the slice wing – really facing it (it does make connection harder but the arm/leg/verbal are clear for the dogs).
You are both too center-of-the bar on the first rep (more collection for her/less speed, and potential rear cross pressure from you) At :47, you were more but your position was more on the the right turn side and your body is pointing a bit to the right turn (but wanting a left turn)… so she jumped up a bit then turned right at 1:04. Compare that to your position at 1:09 – definitely clearer that you were facing the left turn wing, and she had zero questions there! So in this scenario, when she is n your right side for a left turn, you can face the camera more. And when you want the right turn (she is on your left) you can face the fence more like you did really well at :43.
Let me know if this makes sense or if I need to try again after more coffee haha!Kaladin also did really well! He had some questions about starting the forward/marked sending, but I think it was more about “is that really my release word?”. Once he moved, he did really well with his commitment!!! You can try a bit of opposition reflex to help affirm that yes, it really is the release 🙂 by holding his collar or gently pushing back on his chest in that ‘marked’ position (your foot will be forward), saying the verbal, then let go.
The backwards sending looked a little more confident in that he was totally sure he was released to go, probably from the baby stuff we did with the prop in Maxpup foundations.>>. I might use the mark method if it’s a wider turn and the backwards send/throwback if I need him to wrap close and drive out at more of an angle>>
I think this is a good philosophy! The backwards send is also great if you need a spin or FC right on that first jump, as it is easier to make the side change when you are already rotated than if you face forward then start the rotation.
>>Looking at the rest of the games, I think I will do a bit of the independent backsides and the threadle success with Min before the open. I did some of the obstructed path work in the summer camp. The switch aways look a bit more involved and she has an OK switch away from Gamblers practice already.>>
Good plan! In your copious spare time 🙂 take a look at the maps I posted yesterday – threadles and backsides are a given for the Open, but check out the uses for the obstructed path stuff. Some of it looks just like the jump boxes in the game I posted – lordy! I hadn’t seen those maps before filming the game.
Have fun!
TracyHi! I checked it on 2 devices and it is playing normally. Where were you seeing the issues on the video? It is hopefully just YouTube misbehaving, as it is sometimes known to do.
Tracy
Good morning!
This went really well, just a couple of small suggestions for you:
For these relatively tight blinds, being close to #2 is a good thing because the closer we are the to the line, the tighter the turn 🙂 Working out timing of when to tart it and then turning towards 3 (rather than going long past 2) really helped him set super lines!You were a little early on the 1st rep for the blind, he needed you to make a connection between 1 and 2 to commit him to 2 before blinding. You got that connection at :22 but then you were a little late starting the blind. Connection and timing looked great at :31!
The last 2 reps also looked really good – be sure that your position line up position for the backwards send is more parallel to the wrap wing, and not near the center of the bar – if you are nearer to the center of the bar when you send/step and leave, if there is any added pressure can start to look like a rear cross cue. This is what might have happened when he turned to his left instead of to his right at :09 – a slight pressure towards the center of the bar, partially based on how you stepped into the send and partially because of the location of the tunnel cramping your position a little, pushing your position closer to the center of the bar and less outside the wing. When you are sending backwards and there is any question about possibly showing rear cross pressure, you can wait an extra heartbeat to be sure he knows which way to turn – being fully rotated and far away gives you lot of extra time to play with 🙂
Great job! And a very recent course map with this backwards start just came across my desk, I will posted it up later today 🙂 Let me know what you think!
TracyHa! They are threadle machines only when I don’t want them to threadle LOL!
You should now be able to see the MaxPup classroom – it officially begins on November 16th.
TracyHi!
I agree that he did really well!!The first rep was easy for him, he never looked at the tunnel. On the 2nd rep – stay closer to the wing so you don’t have to step to the jump. Stepping to the jump definitely opened up the tunnel as a valid option, he looked at it because you moved towards it but then responded to your verbal. Yay!
He did well on the bigger sequence reps at the end! He dropped the bar on the jump after the tunnel on the first run with the longer sequence, possibly because you switched to the go verbal over the bar. You delayed the go verbal til after he landed on the next rep and he did great.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This was a good one to look at where she might have questions 🙂 On the first couple of reps, it was hard to see your exact position, but it looks like you can be a little more tucked into the wing – that will get the threadle without you needing to step to the jump at all, which can help her avoid the tunnel 🙂Speaking of the tunnel… :13 and :23 opening up questions about commitment and tunnel discriminations – if you stayed there long enough to get the commitment, you also got the tunnel. At :33 and :40, you added wrap verbal and took out motion, which is exactly what I would have suggested. And then you added a spin, which she also didn’t read. So since you tried the handling things to help her out, the training element is what we need to do to help her by reducing the distraction challenge of the tunnel. There are a couple of ways to do this – you can turn the tunnel entry down so she can’t get in it. Or you can curl it away so it is less visible.
The other option to teach the concept is to replace the tunnel with a jump – you can work the skills with more success, because the jump is less tasty than a tunnel LOL!! Your handling was correct in the early reps (moving away with the wrap verbals for the exit) so this is more about getting her to understand how to resist the temptation 🙂The sequence at the end were strong! She just needed to see you more clearly on the jump after the tunnel to get the backside on that first rep, but then on the last reps she was great 🙂
Nice work!!
TracyHi!
The best parts here were the reps at :26 and :30 – very clear hand cues and I think that will be really helpful! You can keep those hand cues in place for both dogs, and fade the foot rotation. When you have a placed toy, that is helpful! You can also balanced with the placed toy: sometimes go straight, sometimes switch away. That way the toy will not be the cue to turn away, and your hands can do all the talking 🙂When you added speed back in, your hands were still there but got higher, so try to keep them lower – when your hands got higher and you stepped in more. To get the best independence, you can keep the hands low to minimize the need to step in across her line at the weave exit. And definitely add this hand cue in to her jump switch aways (and to Kippy’s too!) – it looked really great 🙂
Let me know if the ideas for the switch aways make sense!
TracyHi!
For Kippy – once the hand cues are added in (check out what you did with Emmie at :26 and :31 below, it was great!), you can start him at the end of the poles and teach him what the cue looks like in that scenario so he can turn back to the tunnel. The low clear hand cues really helped Emmie and I am sure he will find them clear too (start them on the flat, though, before starting next to the weave exit). When he can do it from the weave exit, then let him weave and flip him away when he exits. Low and slow is the key to the hand signals – keep the hands low, eye level for him, and move slowly at first so he can process it. He was getting it when you were stepping across the exit of the tunnel, so adding the hand cues will allow you to fade out stepping across and then you can add more and more distance too!
TracyHi!
For Emmie, you can add in the hand cues you were using in her weave session – that way you can fade out the rear cross motion and foot work. On the 1st rep & 3rd rep, you had the RC motion going which was great to turn her away and set up the layer! Yay! When she is working out away on the line, keeping your arms down will help support the layer. Your arm was coming above your head, so it was turning your shoulders and blocking connection which is why she had a question on the 3rd rep. On the
2nd rep – there was no RC motion so she didn’t read it, it looks like a FC wrap. Addi n the hand cues to flip her away will help her be able to get it when yo uare on that side of the bar (which will set up nice layers!) On the last rep, she was getting it with your feet turning away and the hand cues will make it even easier 🙂 Nice work!
TracyHi!
This was a good session to get the rear cross concept going, especially if rear crosses are not your favorite tool 🙂 – you were using your footwork and running line to get him to rear cross. So the next steps would be to teach him how to do this without you needing to pressure into his line. You can add in upper body to this, hand cues in particular, for when your line of motion or footwork can’t show rear cross. Think of using your hands to grab him and flip him away 🙂
To break it down, start with him at your side, on the flat, no jumps anywhere nearby: and with your feet forward, just use your hands to get him to turn away from you in a circle on the flat.
And when he can do that. add in a wing (not a jump – a full jump has too many options). See if he can flip away to the wing while your feet move forward.
Then it will be easy to add to the bar without having to work your footwork or running line as much.
Really emphasize your hands and not your feet – you’ll find the comfort zone hand use – I see you were starting it on Emmie’s weave session when you used both hands to flip her away at :26 and :31 without having to do too much footwork: perfect! More on that below.About the verbal: If switch means turn away on the flat, use either your jump directionals (left/right or wrap cues) or an entirely new one so he is not confused.
Wen he can do the one jump going straight or turning away, the next obstacle I would add is the tunnel – it will be easier for him to drive to than a jump (the tunnel has fewer options than a jump and is usually an easier visual too :))
But I think the main focus to make it easier will be getting him to understand the hands, then attach the verbal to it 🙂 He is off to a great start!
Tracy
Hi! Thanks for the update 🙂
>>1) Backwards starts: Both of my boys responded reliably to a break hand start
which is my physical cue for a wrap.Perfect! You will probably see these starts at some point soon.
>>2) Obstructed running paths: I had fun with this.
I really need to use verbal cues and and upper body to override motion to turn Mookie away from a tunnel in his path. Buddy will just follow my motion as I am usually running with him or ahead of him while Mookie shoots by me. I have been afraid of causing knocked bars with my verbal cue timing calling Mookie off and directing him and sometimes I can’t get the words out fast enough. It has been a tough balance for me running Mookie. I am probably holding my breath when I run Mookie as he is intense.>>I agree, it is a tough balance to time the verbals while trying to help him keep bars up. One thing that can help is setting up simple jump grids and talking to him while he is doing it. For example, take a grid that he has done before and add in a quiet GO verbal over each bar – and reward him for keeping bars up. You can tweak the game to make it easier if he struggles (quiet verbals, fewer verbals) or ramp up the energy if it is easier: Yelling the verbals haha! The dogs need to learn to multi-task by keeping the bars up while also hearing out verbals. I don’t get mad when they knock a bar when I am yelling, but I reward them a LOT when they keep bars up despite my yells LOL!
>>3) Switch Aways : I was pleasantly surprised as I thought this would be difficult.
But, Mookie only needed my opposite arm cue to turn away and take the next obstacle in his path in either directly reliably. Mookie already knows this 🙂 Mookie uses peripheral vision and can read my arm position and which arm I am using in an instant. Buddy needed both a verbal cue and an opposite arm cue to switch away reliably. Buddy is slower so I can get verbals out of my mouth for him.>>Good boys! I think you should add the verbal to Mookie as well, not just rely on the physical cue – for when you are simply not close enough for him to really see it. Courses are getting bigger and bigger so having the verbal cue attached will help for when he smokes you 🙂 Plus, the verbal will help differentiate the different opposite arm uses (check out the new games posted today about opposite arm use 🙂 )
>> When is the last day we can e-mail you for about week 4 ??
The last day is November 18th! Have fun at your trial this weekend, looking forward to the next update!
TracyHi! She did really well here! The bypass was great, hopefully we don’t see any at the Open haha!
The German (backside serp/blind on the 1st rep) and the forced blind (last rep) all looked good – the forced blind was faster because she had the exit line all to herself 🙂 On the pushes to the backside, I think being one more step further across on your push will allow you to be more off the line as she exits so that she can drive out the same way she does on the forced blinds.Nice work on all of these!
TracyHi!
>>(What exactly is a German turn by the way? Am I doing one without realizing it?)
Oops sorry for any confusion! A german is a backside push slice where you do a wrapped blind cross on the exit. That’s a mouthful! You’ve done a gadzillion of them. They look like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMeDiMk3KtI
The goal is to be passing the exit wing before the dog takes off.>> Happy to report he passed the “raised hand cue” test and got to catch the frizzer on the start line twice.
Good boy!!!!!! That is the hardest part!
The videos looked really good!
Min – first sequence to the tunnel looked great, of course.
On the 2nd sequence – it looks like she was lined up straight to 1 then had to turn to find he backside entry. If possible, try to line her up on a very direct slice so it is a straight line to the entry wing (there might have been a tree in the way here, making the straight line lineup impossible LOL! )Your handling at :14 is a German turn with the wrap/blind exit. You are a little in her way on the exit line – ideally you would send her to the backside from further across the bar (you would be closer to the exit wing) so you are already past the wing and on the takeoff side before she starts to jump. That will set the most perfect line for her.
The backside blind looked great at :20 (couldn’t hear the verbal you used – I use a threadle verbal because it is the same behavior for the dog). and so did the push to the serp after it. The backside blind at :39 was also good, but the timing of the one at :20 was much better (earlier, before she got to the entry wing). This last rep was a little late (she was already past the wing) so she hesitated. The collection cue on the exit was good! You can also use a physical cue there by doing the blind without stepping towards the jump – do the blind then step away to help set a great turn.
Kaladin – he pretty much has this all mastered. The throwback was strong, so was threadle – the threadle position looks a little like it is hard to twist, maybe? You can find a really comfy position by either dipping your shoulder or separating your feet, which might allow the upper body rotation to feel more comfy? If it is really comfy, then ignore these ideas 🙂
The tunnel rep and the threadle reps look good, ideally with a straighter line up if there is no tree in the way 🙂 And adding distance on the threadle looks good too! He really seems to have no questions.On his 2nd video: all good here too! The threadle to tunnel versus the wrap exit were both strong, and he did really well with the FFC to the tunnel and the throwback too. Yay! The only thing I would add is having your hand and foot fully in position for a moment before you release, rather than dropping them into position as you release – that will help him continue to separate the release from the movement.
His only question was at 1:20 as you mentioned. It could have been that yes, you did move over and he could see you between the uprights more – having your feet separated can allow you change position while giving your upper body more ‘reach’ to still show the threadle. It is also possible that he was offering the front side because dogs do tend to offer different things when we repeat the sequence several times, even when they are working at a high rate of reinforcement. So he might have just been guessing that maybe there was something different you wanted there, so you an cue more front sides mixed into the sequences.Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Keeping things balanced in training is hard, especially when we start threadles. My dogs want to then threadle every single jump LOL!For the MaxPup, adding on the supersized can be done for $25. I can send a PayPal invoice or you can send it to reboundexport@yahoo.com
Thanks!
TracyHi!
Ah yes, I know Diane! Fun times!
>>without actually measuring it, I can believe in slices over wraps.
Yes, agree – almost always, slices. In terms of measuring, I was thinking of measuring the difference in the wraps between asking for the tightest possible wrap by cranking down on the handling versus showing the line as best as possible and letting him set it up however he likes. That will show us if we need to leave it alone or if we need to train more. We are probably squarely in the ‘leave it alone’ camp though 🙂 I also measure the difference in slice lines too – tighten them up, or let the dog NASCAR it?
>>Now, we’re off to week 3 (not sure how far behind we are: one week? two weeks?).
You are not too far behind – week 4 gets posted tomorrow, then there are several weeks to complete it.
I am glad the backwards starts went well! The more you can train the handling, the easier it is to get the turn you want and get waaaaay ahead. Enzo was great!
>>especially when we made a game out of Enzo running south and me running north!
Yes – his understanding of countermotion was fabulous on those and even if you never choose to handle a start like that, you’ll find it helpful in other places on course where there is a lot of commitment and countermotion.
He did really well on the ‘marked’ starts and I literally snorted at the Border Collie dramatic expression from Enzo at :23 when you marked jump 1 LOL! Border Collies are too funny LOL!!! He did really well – nice turns and good drive around the wing, which will be even better when he is on grass or turf – he did not drift at all.
Backwards sends were SOOOO tight and he was GREAT with the countermotion! So which one you choose will depend on the course – if it is a slightly wider turn, you will want your forward “mark” send because the backwards send will be too tight. But if you want to do a FC or a spin, the backwards send gets the nice tight turn and also gets you waaaay ahead on the course.
If you want to have a little more fun, fun a tunnel out there – can he still do the backwards starts with all that countermotion, with a juicy tunnel nearby? I have seen this on courses, and it is very sad when a dog gets an off course at obstacle 2 LOL!
>>Also, I have to put in a question about threadles. I am trying to work with a simple threadles (pull in). Enzo usually is successful but he goes SO FAR past the first jump, I think it must be enormously expensive in yardage = time. I created a setup which I hope will help me understand how he is doing.
This video confused me because it had no dog action and it looks like you were holding an American Eskimo? LOL!!!
Also, you are going to chuckle… we address this very directly in the week 4 games, including a setup that looks very similar to this. Yes, the dogs want to jump miles past the first jump which eats time on the clock and makes the threadle much harder.
>> I tried using his wrap word but that didn’t result in much better results (instead of just IN-IN, I tried Check-check-IN-IN). Ideas? Should I try to teach a collection cue?>>
Yes, I recommend a collection verbal on the threadle but I don’t recommend teaching a new one – applying existing verbals will help. The hard part is that the physical line we run on the threadle does not match what we would be doing on the wrap verbal, which might be why your wrap verbal was not effective. Not yet, at least 🙂 Tomorrow’s game works this specifically (on an easier setup first then going to this one) to help the dogs understand how to respond to the collection verbal before a threadle – and also a bit of a handling idea to help the dogs respond (a brake arm before the threadle arm – the brake arm can be faded after the dog understands to process the verbal). I think it will really help! I am about to post the games, so I will just have them go live if you want to read them tonight for pre-obsessing 🙂
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
