[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>I’m just putting the videos here in case you would like to see how he is looking on various things.

I think his contacts and weaves are coming along really nicely!!! Yay!! A couple of things on the crosses at the beginning – blinds are indeed very strong turning cues, if they are in the right place – on that line to the teeter, I think a FC would have turned your feet to the teeter sooner than a BC did, so a FC is likely to be faster & tighter. But on both of them, try to be closer to the wing of the jump and run right on that perfect line as you execute the crosses. On the first one, you were late starting the blind (he was already taking off plus you ran a wide line and didn’t have any exit line connection, so he did not pick up the line you wanted. In those moments… don’t blame the dog LOL!! Reward him because he was trying – I think sometimes you tell him that he was wrong when actually the issue was handler-induced (almost all issues on course over jumps are handler-induced, for all of us!) He did get pissed off there and told you off a bit LOL! Your 2nd attempt at the BC there was both earlier and better connected, and he got it better. You did go back and try the FC there – it was more on time too but getting your position on a better line and with stronger exit line connection will tighten it right up.

>>At the end of this video we are working on “GO”. He has such a good go usually….I guess that jump off to the left presents a different picture from any other “GO” drills we’ve done.

Yes, and also it is possible that the triple was not a go jump but actually and out jump – there is a slight lead change to the right happening. So, Go would imply stay on your left lead, which is why he was wanting the other jump. When you said out or handled like it was an out (with pressure into the line) even when you said go – he totally changed his leads and got out. Now, would a big dog likely find that line very easily on a Go verbal – yep, my 2 21″ tall dogs would probably read it as a go. Would any of my small dogs consider that a GO? Nope, that lead change was enough to make it an out.
Now if you are way ahead, you running line shapes the lead change and you wouldn’t even see it. When you are parallel or behind – you need to handle the lead change specifically especially with a novice dog.
Also, on all go lines – be super connected to his eyes (or the back of his head when you are behind) and lean forward into it, like a sprinter. You were leaning back/getting upright with your shoulders back, which tends to curl the dogs into us. You got clearer with the physical cues as he went along, but note that the clarity ended up become out cues (physical and you threw in the verbal too).
As with the BC on the first video – if something goes wrong, don’t blame or tell him off about it. It is entirely possible that it was handler-induced 🙂 I prefer to fix it in tha moment by getting him to take the jump and rewarding, or do a trick for a reward, then try again. If we humans take the blame for the errors and find ways to reinforce – our dogs get faster and faster and faster with more resilience to any errors on course. If we blame them or withhold reward… the dogs slow down a bit to be sure of things and avoid errors, and become less resilience. I like speeeeed so I always take the blame (and I am generally correct that I am the one who was wrong hahaha!!)

Great job, he is looking good!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

These are looking really good!!!

>> I think after I do about 67,000 more ball drops I can increase backside understanding. 😁.

Haha! You are getting there! My Voodoo is fabulous at this skill now – but he is 7 years old and has probably had the 67,000 toy drops. I am sure that my young dogs will take some time to learn this independently too 🙂

> I’m babysitting the landing bc I’m not convinced she will come back over the jump.

I am not sure I would call it babysitting – you were connected and your arm was back, but you were not hanging out or rotating your feet. So you were supporting her but not babysitting, if that makes sense? Support is fine as you keep building the skill 🙂

>>I also find myself depending on my convergence to get her to the backside. After “reviewing” my runs, I should have given her more opportunity to take the backside with me further away, and not quite in her path. Right?>>

Again, I think you are making great progress in the right direction on this skill – you are generally working it on connection with less and less convergence. And most importantly, you are not flinging your arms and not doing giant steps to the wing. There were a couple of spots where I thought you converged more than needed (see below) but those were either you got too far ahead or you were praising her too much hahaha She is getting more and more independent on these – I can really see the progress!!!!

On the video:

Nice job randomly throwing in rewards to help create the default jumping on the backsides! Remember not to rotate as you do it, just keep running through to the next line as if you were still handling.
Seq 1:
Nice push to 4 at :08 (you can have the toy in the hand ready to drop), :21, 1:06! I think these are getting pretty darned independent!

Nice ending line! on the 2nd and 3rd full reps, the backside is getting more independent so you got a nice wrap (REALLY nice exit line connection out of the wraps, she was NOT drifting at all) and a GREAT line back to the tunnel!

When you broke out the push to train it, start it from further away so you can movee into it, it is awkward without motion into it and that might be why you felt like there was too much convergence happening.

Sequence 2:
This is going well! A little strategy You can go in deeper to the tunnel entry so you don’t feel like you are waiting for her on the backside push. An you can give her a GO verbal before she enters so she exits straight – you were calling her name so she was looking at you and turning in when we want her to stay out here.
She did well committing to the 3 backside at 1:39 and 1:56 – more motion into it will allow you to stay more parallel to it rather than converge into it. 2:10 didn’t quite have the same connection as you had on the other reps as you were saying push so you had to converge more

At 1:42 after the 3 backside, you didn’t show any exit line connection so she picked up the wrong side of you. When you looked forward, she might have thought you wanted a blind cross. You had MUCH
better exit line connection after 3 at 2:25 and 2:46 and she got the line perfectly.

Coming back down the line to the 5 jump: you were blocking the wing at 5 at 2:39 and 2:51 so that pushed her out a little wider. Plus the wrap on 5 is the longer/harder (for her)/slower route back to the tunnel… I recommend the slice 🙂 The slice handling in this case is harder for you (easier for her) and definitely faster 🙂

Seq 3:
Really nice job getting the correct tunnel entry each time here! I could see your confidence blossoming on it! Maybe give her an earlier verbal or turn verbal at 3 at 3:02 and 3:21 maybe, to help guarantee the turn. You had really good line and position on that line, I don’t think she ever looked off course here. The rep there at 3:43 was a little late but she was paying attention to your line of motion so she still read it really nicely.
You had more motion coming into the backside a 5 at 3:06 and especially at 3:47 so she got it with you further away! But you spent too much time praising her at 3:26 and she almost took the front LOL!!! I think the dogs prefer information over praise in the moments when we are continuing the sequence: information (the next cue) can be just as strong as praise 🙂

On that last backside wrap – a little more connection needed on the push cue at 3:09 – you were looking forward so she took the front. But then you fixed it with much better connection at 3:30 and 350, she really left to go find the backside so nicely! !! Yay!!

Great job here, I am really enjoying her independence on the lines and also she keeps getting faster and faster!!! Fun!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

It sounds like you had a complete comedy of craziness trying to get home. It was bananas – LITERALLY! LOL!! And I totally understand the ‘i need to get home before my bladder explodes’ thing too. Eek!
And yes to special guests hahahaha!! I live so far out in the boonies that it is not even the middle of nowhere… and yet my “neighbor” sometimes drives his tractor over to chat while I am trying to run or video something. LOL! I have gotten good at smiles and conversation even when I want to throttle him LOL!!! And Chloe was very supportive!!!!

The good news is that even with you being stressed, you still ran really well!! Your connections held up and my only suggestions are little strategy tweaks.

>>So on the spins for 3: trust her a whole lot and as soon as you see her approaching the takeoff spot… disconnect and leave to get the new connection before landing 🙂

>>Ok…don’t kill me…but I know I still can leave earlier here too…why why why can’t I seem to get this???

I chalk it up to muscle memory – the art of disconnecting and leaving is probably much newer than stay connected and stay near the wing. Especially in your region – your area was heavily influenced by a lot of takeoff spot and landing spot handling, which became habit – and now we re-wire all of that 🙂 So keep practicing disconnecting – you are likely to need to actively think about it for now and with enough rehearsal, it will become natural 🙂

And yes, I totally see regional differences in handling, based on handling trends in each region. It is really interesting! The MidAtlantic versus the Southeast versus California versus Washington State/Oregon versus the Midwest and so on. Very different! And then there is Canada…. haha!!

On the runs here:

Sequence 1: my comment on run 1 was to leave the tunnel send sooner so you were further past the exit to set the line (you supported the 3 tunnel for too long so her turn on the exit of 4 was a little wide. You made the adjustment, though, and the next reps were all really lovely!!

Sequence 2
run 1 was strong, you were a little late on 6 but I think you had gotten lost for a moment.
Here is a strategy tweak – because the timing of the turn at 6 starts just after she exits the tunnel, you can stay closer to the exit of the 3 tunnel and send to 4 and 5 more (don’t go as deep to 4) so you are further ahead on the tunnel exit. You were a little late starting the rotation for 6 at 1:29 because you went all the way to 4 and had to really accelerate to get back up the line for 6.

Seq 3: Also good adjustments about leaving early on this one! On the first rep, you helped her find 3 for too long and then you were toast LOL! As soon as you see her going to the 2 backside you gotta go – your upper body cues the tunnel but lower body leaves for the next line. On each rep, you got happier to leave sooner: You were better on the 2nd rep you didn’t go in as deep to the 3 tunnel and on the 3rd & 4th reps – now you are getting confident NOT having to go close to 3! You can probably strip out even that small step to it as well, just using a ‘get out’ upper body cue as so you can really leave (regionally, that step to the line is something that is common in your agility community – I strip it out and that allows us to go pretty darned fast 🙂 )

strategically – you can hang back on the send to 6 to cue it and then leave to get back past the tunnel entry #7 sooner. I know that there is no real urgency to get to 8, but sending and leaving will get a sweeter turn on 6 and guarantee the left turn on the tunnel exit because you will be further past the entry when she gets into it.

Part of that strategy is not needing to get to the wing of the jump at 6 to cue the turn – make sure that you begin the wrap FC cues for 6 when she exits the tunnel even if you are not at the wing- you were driving close to the wing, which was causing your cues to start a little late so she was not as tight as she can be there. Hanging back will allow you to start them really early.

Seq 4 – you ran a great line on the 1-2-3 opening! Nice backside send, she doesn’t need the cross arm to help her come in at 2. That delays you from getting up the next line, so you can send and leave as long as you call her and stay connected like you did here. She was totally coming and the left arm actually pulled her attention off the line and to you, in a place where she totally was looking at a good line. The rest of it looked really good, you handled from ahead but still within enough of a bubble that she had no problem finding the line AND jumping nicely. YAY!!

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Things are going well here!
First run – nice job showing 3 and leaving – but brilliant jump showing 4 and leaving! Look at the turn on 4 at :07! NIIIICE 🙂

Second run – this was not as tight at 3 (:13) as you mentioned – it is hard to get in and out of the FC on time. You might find it easier with a blind cross because that eliminates all the rotation and you can leave sooner!

Third run – very nice! The backside send at 2 was very strong. It was hard t osee where you were coming into it from (standing still or moving in) but it looked like you were there at the send to 2 for too long – moving into it can eliminate that step on the send to 2 at :15 and get you out of there sooner.

Last sequence, with the 2-3 tunnel discrimination – we can interpret this in the Tokaji Handling Method:
You had 3 off course tunnels: Not enough motion out of it at :22 (she doesn’t turn very tightly unless she can chase your motion out of it) At :26 and :31, she might have turned but you opened back up too soon, so she stayed on the line to the tunnel in front of her.
At :35 you waited longer to get her into the correct tunnel entry, but she was correct to turn right at :37 based on where you were as she entered the tunnel. At :41, you had better timing to get her to 3 and get her to turn left. Yay!

But what works best with her to get turns? Seeing you run like MAD to get out of the turn cue so she can chase your line 🙂 So you can tackle puzzles like this with that in mind: You can lead out to 2 (or run into it), cue a FC as she lands from 1 (same timing as you did here, but closer to 2 and moving in and out of it)- then run away from 2 looking strongly over your left shoulder. When she lands from the wrap at 2 and makes the decision to wrap (like she did at :35 and :41) you can do a BC on the flat to cue the tunnel and keep moving so she turns left on the exit.

>> We are working on a new cue to mean take the jump and come back to me….I think momo has too many shades of grey. So she is coming in to me a bit when I release her.>

It might be the timing and position of the cue was causing her to come into you a bit, which is where motion into it can help 🙂 I know it sounds crazy to run in more towards and off course tunnel, but that is where you get the BEST turns from her. Note jump 4 on run 1 on this video! She had plenty of wide turn or off course options there, but she produced a REALLY nice turn because you cued and left so she had to chase you up the next line 🙂

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Good job on this one with *both* dogs 🙂 Now it is SO clear how different they are LOL!!

On both dogs, all rep: perfect connection from the first jump to the tunnel and then from the tunnel exit to the next jump. Yay!! When you connection is so good like that, you will find that you will not need to run as much to the tunnels which will help you get/stay further ahead on course.

The only place it was harder to keep connection was on between the last 2 jumps – on some reps, you looked a little forward and your arm came forward so the dogs looked at you – a slight head check. For Flint, you can see it at :23, :36 and 1:01. With Zuzu, you can see it at 1:27. When you had your arm back more and a little more connection to their eyes, they looked ahead more and not at you: Flint on his 3rd rep, and Zuzu on the first rep and at 1:41 on the last rep. It is a subtle thing, but can lead to questions or bars down, so keep reminding yourself to keep your arm back and eyes on their eyes when you are ahead 🙂
On this video, you didn’t have your outside arm involved as much – you used it more to just run (and throw the cookie :)). Perfect!!!

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Ah! Now I can see it! The lighting on the video makes the look the same color but they do run really differently and yes, Flint is a LOT bigger!! I was so busy watching you that I didn’t notice that it was 2 completely different dogs LOL!!!!

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

He did well on 5 feet here! How tall is he now? He definitely had to think about 5 feet and I bet we see differences in how he approaches it in future sessions. One thing I like about this session was that he was thinking about his mechanics and made good adjustments – reps 4 and 5 were better than 1 and 2, and that is *awesome*!! (Usually they are worse with young dogs)
2 little details about the reinforcement (because I watch in slow motion and can obsess haha) – have your reinforcement target further past, but at least 10 more feet so he has 15 feet to the reward – that is so he can land in and power out to it. He was landing and already decelerating to it, which changes his form/choices over jump 3.
Also, I think he will have more impetus through the grid (especiall at 5 feet) if the cookie is already on the target, it looks like it was placed there after? If you think he won’t hold the stay, you can drop it onto the target as you release him. More impetus will be good for balance and striding as the grid expands and eventually height goes up.
His 2nd rep was interesting, I think he was sorting a few things out there LOL!! But he immediately went into thoughtful striding for rep 3 and had a nice balanced bounce for reps 4 and 5! Excellent!!!
You can start to add more challenge now – jump 3 can start at 8 feet away, then go 11 (or 12) then 14 or 15 – these will probably be one stride distances so he can learn to extend or compress that stride.

Nice job!! We close this course out on Sunday, if you get a chance to do it again 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>I looked at your video again, and see that I wasn’t even doing the sequence correctly. >>

The exact sequence is not that important, it is more about the concepts 🙂

This is going really well! You are really showing great connection back to the tunnel, so she is getting that line so much better 🙂 One clarification – At :49, she was actually correct in a way to not take the tunnel – you gave her a right verbal on the wing before it so she turned right really nicely (that 90 degree turn, not a wrap – because for her right is not a wrap, correct?) and that turn did not put her on a line to the tunnel . At 1:03 and 1:11 you gave her a threadle cue with your arm/upper body to bring her in which is appropriate there 🙂 So you can either give a wrap verbal on the wing to get her to exit facing the tunnel, or you can move the wing a little so the right turn gets the dogs to exit it facing the direct line to the tunnel (which is what I did haha :)) That Yowza is a smart one and really listening, yay!!!

The tandem turns are starting to get much smoother too! One question – when you do this with your other dogs, do you use your dog-side arm, mainly? On these, you are mainly using the dog-side arm to draw her in and turn her away (then your outside arm comes up to seal the deal) – if that is how you do it with, say, Matrix – cool! We can clarify that for her a bit to make it soother. If you use your outside arm more with the others, then we can use it more here too – and by more, Ijust mean sooner 🙂 She is reading the come-to-momma element perfectly, her only question is the turn away moment. Using the dog-side hand, you can make the turn away moment more obvious and move the hand more slowly for her to process. If you use the outside arm, show it to her sooner as part of the come-to-momma moment, then use it to start the turn away. This will help answer her question at :17, where she came in nicely but did not turn away. Either arm use is perfectly fine, it is a matter of preference (and I like to keep it the same for ALL of my dogs so I can remember it haha – if I cue something a certain way with one dog, then I cue it that way with all dogs for reasons of maintaining sanity :))
Let me know if that makes sense! She is looking terrific so this is just about tweaking the tiny details 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
>>I was trying to practice my SERP but afterwards, realized that was probably not an ideal serp.>>

Yes, it is a weird serp with countermotion and a side change too!

About the poles – because he doesn’t fully understand how to sit into his hind end to get in and stay in on that first try, I would do all of this training on open poles (not fully closed poles) – for example, when I am working crazy weave concepts with my 7 year old dog who learned on 2x2s, I open the poles back up by about 2 inches or so, until I can get 100% success on whatever crazy thing I am doing (my 3 young dogs learned on channels, so I open them back up when I am adding new concepts). That way you can teach the concepts with plenty of reps, and less bang on his body and a lot more success on that all-important first rep. Your challenge to him here is exactly what he needs to see (you ahead and running before he enters). But I think he needs to learn it with the poles being more open for now so he can sort himself out and be successful on the first rep. Then after I get success on the first rep for 2 or 3 sessions in a row, I tighten the poles up a little and try another 2 or 3 sessions, and so on. Let me know if that makes sense!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Yay, super! Zuzu is really fun!!!!
Looks like you did 2 rounds of the connection here – both looked really good!! Zuzu was great about riving ahead to the tunnel (especially on the 2nd round). It looks like you were decelerating on the line after the tunnel to the jump so Zuzu was collecting and looking at you a little (you can see it most clearly on the very last rep) so you can keep accelerating all the way past that last jump. Your dog-side arm was nicely back, really showing great connection!! You had your outside arm (left arm) across your chest – you don’t need that here on the regular connection, your connection looked great without it on these lines. You can have that outside arm just helping your run, I would only use it across the body for when you exiting front or blind crosses (or serps) – as long as you keep your dog-side arm relatively low and back like you had it here, Zuzu should be able to read the connection perfectly.
Great job!!!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>You can tell when I wasn’t as smooth handling jump 3…but overall no big crashes!

I think you were smooth, but needed to leave 3 sooner 🙂 Here’s the scoop:

Course 1 (tunnel #5) – very nice connections throughout! But you can get outta there sooner on 3 – you are watching her take off and land on the original side, when ideally you would disconnect and leave as she passes you before takeoff. You reconnected :17 and :27 after she has exited the wrap wing and ideally that reconnection happens before she lands. It was not an issue here, but it was on the first rep of course 2:

Course 2: on the 1st rep, that late leaving at 3, with the reconnection after she was past the exit wing at :37is why she legit thought it was the tunnel again – the rotation on 4 didn’t start til after takeoff at :38, so she was wide on landing there. I would reward that with the instant frisbee because she responded before the tunnel, and not after it 🙂

2nd rep – you were a little earlier on leaving 3 and a LOT earlier on starting the rotation for 4 at :54 so she got the turn quite nicely! Yay!

So on the spins for 3: trust her a whole lot and as soon as you see her approaching the takeoff spot… disconnect and leave to get the new connection before landing 🙂

Seq 3:

>>Sequences 3 & 4…was it how I had the jumps set? I did rush setting up because light was not on our side…but she was drifting after the turn following my movement around the wing.>

I think it was mainly because 3 was a wingless and 4 was a wing jump, so to get around the wing you had to set a wider line. And if you stayed closer to the wing of 3, it was harder to get around the wing of 4. If you need to use the wingless there, you can move it over so that the wingless upright lines up more with the outer edge of a wing.

At 1:09 at 3, you moved laterally away to 4 so she saw lateral motion and thought you wanted the tunnel – exit line connection saved the off course! Nice!
One connection detail that will also help smooth it out – when you are behind and lateral on a go line (like at 1:11), ramp up the connection to her eyes and run towards the bar more to help support the go line (she almost didn’t take 5 on that rep)

You got away from 3 so much earlier at 1:23 and 1:36 (a little late getting to 3 at 1:36 though) and that made getting the Go line soooo much easier 🙂

Seq 4: You got right in there on 3 to set the good line on the exit at 1:50 – that is where you would want to be to set the best exit on 3, but it does make it harder to get 5! On the first push to the backside (1:51), use a little more extreme connection like you did at 2:06 and 2:19, those looked really good! She went to the backside nicely on those and you had good position on the bar!

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Ooh, I liked your course variations here!
Run 1 – nice tandem turn! After it, when he needs to drive ahead, accelerate like you did but try to connect a little more so he doesn’t curl into you. (I remember how hard that was!) Nice blind at :16 so say NOT the tunnel – great connection made it happen.

Run 2 – A little more connection at :39 will help him find the wing after the tandem, plus you added a really nice running line at :51 to help support the line after the tandem!

>>When I went from wing to wing with him between me and the tunnel he surprised me by flicking away and in to the tunnel. I had started to look forward but I thought if anything he’d duck behind me the other way because of that. Guess the tunnel has lots of value!>>

I can see his argument about thinking the tunnel was correct at :52 🙂 the spin was a little late and when you reconnected, the line of shoulders did seem to indicate the tunnel (which was right there) You had a better line at 1:07 but he was still not 100% sure, I think part of it is the moving of your left arm forward to point – it looks almost like you were pulling him to potentially turn him away, similar enough to the start of a tandem – so he was trying to anticipate that it was the tunnel, maybe. Try having your arm back as you indicate the next line (fingers to collar) until he is most definitely looking towards the wing and not at the tunnel.
The tunnel discrim moment looked good! I think you can add more motion in and out of it, he was really responding beautifully 🙂
On last tandem, he was a little slow – I think it was because you pulled a bit too far from the wing, so he wasn’t sure if you wanted the wing or not and slowed down to wait. Driving on the line closer to the wing should smooth that out for him.

>>And I decided wrap-wrap (for a left wrap) is too close to right-right so I’m in search of another word or sound to use. Considering back-back.

Just realized that I missed this above!!
Yeah, wrap and right are pretty similar.
What sounds are not already in your system? Do you have a ‘ch’ or ‘d’ anywhere? Checkcheckcheck and digdigdig are always popular.
I used wahwahwah for one of my older dogs, that is pretty different sounding compared to right (vowels are placed differently in the mouth).
What about noises?
I use chchch and tststs and I also use “kisskiss” – all pretty different

You can do left in a different language (not French haha) and I think most of those are some type of “sin” word, so maybe sinsinsin for left wrap?

Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
On both of the jump games here, I think he did better when you led out all the way to the PT. When you were walking up the line especially on the first one, he seemed unsure if he should be driving ahead or collecting – walking might be too decelerated for him at this point, his question is a valid one 🙂

About the PT – try moving it out another 10 feet past the last jump of these so it ends up being 15 or 18 feet away 🙂 I think when you led out to it, he was powering nicely (yay!) but then trying to stop himself to so as not to overrun the PT so changing the arc of the last jump (or second jump on the set point. You can also trigger it as soon as you release him, so it gives him even more of a reason to drive to it (which will then make it easier to add more motion back – as you walk or jog up the line, trigger it as you release so he powers to it). It is a fine line – too much motion is a big distraction, but not enough motion might cause him to think you want collection… so leading all the way out helps, and also triggering the PT super early helps too.

Here are some specifics:
On the progressive grid:
rep 1 had you moving, and he was a bit short in his striding – not sure if he was trying to process the grid or the motion or both?
rep 2 had a lead out – I liked this one 🙂 Lots of power. Wheee! You can move the PT further away to get even better striding over the last bar.
rep 3 – you had motion on this one and he was shorter in striding.
rep 4 – you had a lead out mostly to the PT and he was better, this was my 2nd favorite after rep 2.

On the set point –
rep 1 – you had a nice lead out and he powered nicely into the gap! But he was trying to sit back too soon here so his butt came up a little higher. If he knows he will have to land and take another whopper extension stride, he will power his hind end into the stride.
rep 2 -this was a walking rep and he was definitely not sure if he should power or not, so he jumped up more than out. You can definitely trigger the PT on the release here, and lead out to it for now as well.
rep 3 – this one split the difference between reps 1 and 2 LOL!!!

So overall, my ideas are more about the session set up and mechanics to get the power jumping on all reps, if that makes sense. His form looks good but he is asking questions about when to collect or not. Then when adding motion back in, you can use the early PT trigger and jogging to see if that answers his question about whether to extend or collect when you are moving.

Nice work!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!!

On the first video:
The Zig Zag grids are looking good! He is finding the bars nicely and changing his leads really well. On the last bar, he is coming to you more than hopping over it, so you can put one more wing on the last bar (nearest to where you were staning) to get a bigger picture of hopping/lead changing over the last bar too.

On the get out section – you are not imagining things – I did say to say to wait til he turns his head… and he is not turning his head LOL!
He was perfect on all the reps where you wanted him to chase you line. And your verbals were good! and your get out mechanics were good to cue it! He was *masterful* at going to the jump without ever taking his eyes off of you LOL! Yes, probably waiting for the toy to be thrown but also on some of the reps he was going to the jump but totally looking at you the whole time. Impressive flexibility in the neck LOL!!
So, we can convince him to look at you less in a couple of ways:
First, you can angle the get out jump towards him a little so that as he comes around the barrel, he can see the bar a lot better. You can set up that angle by leaving the wing closer to the barrel where it is, and moving the wing furthest from the bar towards your running line. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂 That way he might look at the bar sooner and then you can reward sooner too.
The second thing to try is a game called “The Lazy Game” where we basically shape the dogs to NOT look at us and to instead look at and go to the jump (all while we can be lazy and walk back and forth). I just posted it as the Pre-Game for the Blind Cross class 🙂 so here is the video:
https://youtu.be/ucps-Z8ilq0
I think the pup in the video was 8 months old when I did the demo, similar in age to Kai. This will help him look forward more at the jump and less at you (and the cookies :))

2nd video:
These are all looking really good! For all of these, a general next-step: spread out the wings so you have to run more 🙂 I know, I know, I am evil hahah but that will help him also open up and run – he seems to really be understanding all of the concepts, so now we can let him fly 🙂
First section: turn aways:
He is reading he lap turns really well, really responding to staying out around the wing versus coming into your side then turning away again. Super!! So now we add more speed 🙂 Other than spreading the wings out, you can send to the wing and then run forward to the next one – then decel and face him to do the turn away. You were facing him and running backwards, so he was correctly decelerating to respect the cue.
Tunnel & wings games – nice job on the tunnel discrimination! Look at him find the tunnel entry independently without needing you to help too much! Yay! Love all of your verbals too – very nice understanding!!! So now… spread it all out so you have to run more 🙂 He is reading deceleration properly, so now you can show him that he is allowed to run run run 🙂 When you were ahead and he chased you, he was really liking it. Your connection was just about perfect – one tiny blooper at the end but otherwise, lovely throughout. And great job on the tunnel discriminations to cue it and support the line, but also to NOT over-help 🙂 You allowed him to turn away to find it and he rocked it 🙂
The race tracks are good too – this is where you can really let him feel the excitement of big running now 🙂 He is understanding everything really nicely so we can let him rip 🙂

>>May I still send more film this week? We have the last week of class to record.

Yes, we still have time to submit (til the 22nd-sih)

>> Looking forward to Dec. class.

it will be a fun winter!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there!
I think she is reading these nicely and responding really well to the cues!
Some of the wideness you were seeing was because that is the nature of tandems, they are a little wider or ‘softer’ in terms of the turn. But also, some of it was because of mechanics – you were cueing the tandem as a pull-towards-you by turning your shoulders away, then turning her back out with the other hand. When you pulled away too much, you got a wide turn. An example is :41, where you pulled away a lot so she was correct to follow that line – we don’t want the pups turning themselves back to the wing, which is why it was wide there. So in terms of mechanics, you can turn the shoulder less away from the line (so it doesn’t look like a post turn), or you can use your opposite arm sooner (so you can stay closer to the line, which will make it tighter.
When you stayed closer to the line, she was definitely tighter like at :08. You were a little early on the RC element of the turn there, but she was able to maintain her commitment and set a nice tight line.
On the tunnel misses, I think on some of the reps you were a little disconnected and accelerating so that contributed to her missing the tunnel. But mainly I think it was just puppy stuff 🙂 – lack of experience finding something *after* the RC on the flat and anticipating the reward as you ran away without full connection. For example, on the very last one: you said “Yes” and she locked onto the toy and never considered the tunnel LOL! A similar thing happened on the first rep, where your throwing arm was already moving so she didn’t take the tunnel. At :09 and :27 : 34 you were more connected and not moving the reward, so she took the tunnel 🙂 So exaggerate the tunnel cue for another session or two, then she will naturally look for it on her own.

The ‘easy’ sections where all she had to do was stay on your shoulder for a post turn are looking great!!!

>>I am wondering how much longer we can post videos…. – am planning to sign up for the next Max Pup course.

We have until the 22nd left on this course, give or take 🙂 I will be checking the forum for another week or so 🙂

Tracy

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