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Hi! Hope you are having fun with the US Open! The courses are, um, a bit “different” from the ones were ran at the Canada Open, especially today LOL!! I am sure tomorrow’s will be lovely 🙂
The lateral lead outs look good! I liked your mechanics on the release on the second rep: Super clear and he read it perfectly.
Now remember how you were saying that he needed to learn focus forward for his in-person class? Watch his head as you lead out starting at :39. He was looking away as you moved lateral. When you started walking up the line to 2 (:41) – he looked at you walking the line, then look at the jump (:42) then when you got into position and it looked like you were about to release: he completely focused on the jump (:44) – PERFECTAMUNDO! That is showing a balance between seeing where you are going and reading the line. Impressive for a pup that is barely a year old! He basically did the same thing on the next rep – but settled into looking at the jump for longer.
No worries that he came through the gap at :50, he fixed it on the next rep. Good boy!
He had a big question at 1:21: check out you feet. When you released, you stepped forward with your left (opposite) leg which rotated your feet towards him – dog-side leg (right leg) remained back so it looked rotated and he wanted to come to you (correctly) but then he saw your arm and went and took the jump. Super!!
At 1:34, you had a great step with the right leg so he was totally going (but you rotated a little too soon – fixed it on the next rep really nicely).
The last reps with you on the backside of 2 had great commitment to 1! He went to the ‘wrong’ side of 2 at 2:19 – when I look at that one, I think you stepped in towards 2 a little? When you fixed it at the end, you slid outta there and just used connection to get 2: Nice!!I don’t think that this oopsie will be an issue when he is seeing this on a big opening, where these are jumps 2 and 3 and he is doing 16″ bars. One one low jump, it is very easy to collect for that turn but with higher bars and coming in from another jump (therefore, more speed), he will do a 90 degree turn, not a wrap, unless expressly asked for one 🙂
And BIG gold star for ignoring the squirrel!!!!
Great job here!
TracyHi again!
This session also went realy well!! She is finding the line really nicely. The hardest part for her was setting up the turn over the bar on the first couple of reps, but then she was doing a great job. On the first rep, she didn’t quite figure it out and then you threw the toy, so the bar came down. She turned better on the 2nd rep and you delayed the toy – clean jumping effort there 🙂
As the session progressed, it was cool to see her setting herself up to turn before the jump like ar :22 and :28. She tickled the bar at :28 but I think that was because you were moving away and she was like trying to multi-task 🙂
There was an oopsie at :34 with you on the takeoff side of 2 – you might have been too forward to the jump on the release? Or the distraction of the visual of the other jump was challenging? You made a slight adjustment at :40 – you stepped towards the takeoff spot more (and less directly to the jump) and also you started your step before you gave the release (I found that my dogs liked that as well!) Note how she shaped her set up to get a great turn at :40! The next rep looked strong too.At :52, you indicated forward to the jumps rather than to the takeoff spot of 1, so she came off the line and towards you (freeze your chest laser there – it was pointing to the line she took :)). Compare it to :58 where you were sideways to jump 2 and really indicated the takeoff spot: freeze your chest laser there! Very strongly indicated the takeoff spot, so she nailed it. Yay!
The 2 oopsies were very helpful – we can clearly see a preference for you stepping to takeoff on these, rather than indicating the jump ahead of her. I think she is really reading your shoulders/chest laser, so remember to be a bit sideways to the 2nd jump so you can really indicate the takeoff spot, almost stepping towards her rather than turning away from her.
Great job!
TracyHi there! She is doing well! I see what you mean about adding the stride in the 2nd rep between jumps 1 and 2 – I think part of that was her looking at the line and saying “wait, what??” and part of it was that the first distance might be one foot to long for now. Was it 6 feet? If so, dial it back to 5 feet for now – she is young and figuring out her body, so it is possible that 5 feet is the magic interval for now, and when she is a mature adult, it will be 6 feet. She was making strong, thoughtful decisions on this grid, which makes me SUPER happy because I know that she also really enjoys the wind in her hair 🙂 Because she loves to go fast, seeing her choose balanced striding is *fantastic* because many young dogs like to fling themselves LOL! I think she did really well adjusting to the one- stride distances then coming back into the bounce distance at the end.
One little suggestion to help her – lead out further before you release her, so you end up 12 feet or so past jump 3 – and try to have to toy on the ground already (or place it when you release her). This will change her focal point so she looks more directly at the line and not as you or your position, relative to jump 3.
This is a GREAT start to a hard grid. YAY!!!Tracy
Hi!
>>I also have seen comments that indicated you had knee surgery? Wishing you a full and speedy recovery! I’ve had an ACL repair myself so I know a little about knee stuff!>>
Actually, one of my young dogs had surgery to repair a luxating patella. Poor girlie, but she is doing well!
>>As far as my previous post: And btw some of those “tics” (not all) were Juno hitting sprinklers! FYI>>
Ah! That might explain it! I didn’t feet really touching bars, but I heard something happening.
>>So…More arm to the jump, and eyes to where I’m going vs supporting the takeoff and landing that I’m so used to doing?
Yes – more arm to takeoff spot and eyes to him or where you are going. And he does not appear to need support to landing at all on his wraps – it causes him to go a little wider and his commitment is lovely without it 🙂
>>On Seq 5, obstacle 4 to 5 felt very awkward for me. I would be more inclined to do a FC after 3 to a left wrap/blind on 4, and a spin/throw back to the left on 5. I’ll have to try both and time it!>>
Timing it is fun! There are a ton of options on that line, and my suggested option was probably the hardest – suggested for the whole extreme connection – disconnection purposes 🙂 It might not be the fastest line there, but it is a fun skill set to work on for when you use it elsewhere 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi! Glad the rain has stopped and the weekend weather looks lovely!!!
I have a soft cone on Hot Sauce… she cannot be trusted to not lick or pick at the incision, plus she will chew off a surgical suit – so cone it is.
Lots of great work with Kindle here!!! Some ideas for you:
On the grids you can actually click the MM sooner so she doesn’t look at you (or put the frizzer on it?) we aren’t really marking anything specific so you don’t have to wait on it – I generally trigger it right as I release, so the dogs look ahead (I don’t use the beep, but they hear the grinding noise LOL!)Add in a little more motion now – jogging! That will help her still think about the jumping even when things are more exciting. She as definitely looking at the line and sorting it out. She started to fatigue a little by :43 (the lowered head and a little stutter is one of the first things I see with fatigue) because it is soooo plyometric. She was set up in a good spot for jump 1 and 2: she had to get on her rear! Good job not letting her lean forward in her stays, that would not be helpful to her form 🙂
On the 15 and 18 foot distance she experimented with a little fling to see if that would work and then adjusted to adding a stride. I think next time, start at 15 feet then 18 then 21 then 18 then 15 and see what she does there.Sequences: These are looking really good!!!!
seq 1: really nice first run! Great connection out of the tunnel and lovely send to the backside on all of these! You can turn your head forward to the blind sooner on the backside – it looked like she was immediately coming in and not waiting for you on these. Nice!! And I bet you can turn your head forward out of the wrap as soon as she passes you – really trust her commitment, she is going great! No need to see hr take off or land on the original side – you can skip seeing her take off and go to seeing her landing on your new side 🙂She experimented with a definite fling at 2:29 – you marked it, but try to mark it sooner (and not just with decel, because we don’t want your deceleration or stopping to be associated with a marker that something was wrong) – she got the marker when she exited the tunnel, so ideally you can say something when she takes off! I use stuff like “turkey!” It is quick, light hearted and also seasonal LOL! Her jumping there at 2:49 was much nicer – you were more in the bubble at 2:49 maybe? A little less acceleration up the line to the tunnel? It was pretty similar to the previous rep but the motion was not as accelerated and you might have been a step closer to the line.
seq 2: 2 great runs! Woohoo!!!! Super connections really helped set up the brilliance: clear push to the backside after the tunnel, awesome exit line connection there, clear connections and transition on the wrap then a great threadle!!! Wheeee! If I had to nitpick about something – at 3:37 you might have been pushing in a little too much towards the center of the bar on the wrap jump, she almost considered a rear cross there.
But that is a tiny detail – the runs were really lovely!!!Great job here! And hope she had fun on her dog walks too 🙂
Tracy
Hi there! Hope you are having a great weekend!!
Overall, this is going really well, she is not having any trouble finding the lines even when you disconnect 🙂
Seq 1 – good commitment when you disconnected! She jumped a little early on the last jump so this is a skill she probably needs to have more experience with.
Seq 2:
I think you did a great job getting up the line and turning your connection back on as she was taking #3! On the first rep, you were rotating but still moving forward, so she jumped a little long and missed the jump after the wrap because you left a little too laterally. On the 2nd rep – much clearer decel and she had a better turn AND saw the line because you stayed closer to it. Nice! On reps 3 and 4, you were even clearer in your transitions so her turn was even tighter and she easily found the next line. Really nice turns and lines!
Once you showed her the jump after the wrap, she seemed to have no trouble with you running, using verbals and not really connecting 🙂 Yay!Seq 3: I see what you mean about having to help a bit with her coming in and taking the jump after the backside. At :46 you tried to disconnect and she did not come in. :52 was better and 1:05 and 1:16 were much better! You were still a little connected but further ahead each time. You can embed a bit of training on these sequences to help build the default behavior of coming in: when you see her going to the backside wing, drop the toy in on the landing side (before she makes a jumping decision) as you disconnect and leave. That will help condition her to look to the bar more and look at you less there.
Backtracking – on the push to the backside, keep moving forward on the line rather than rotating into a send – your upper body was goo but your feet wanted to rotate 🙂
The only other detail on this one is to give her a little more connection on the exit of the rwaps at :57 and 1:09 and the last rep – you got a really nice turn and then looked forward out of the wrap – she got it here but you will want to stay connected long enough to make sure she is heading to the correct line and then you can disconnect and yell your verbals 🙂Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Sorry to hear about the snow 🙁 The video looks so warm and sunny!!!
The tandem turn games are going well!!! One general note is to call him right before he enters the tunnels so he is expecting to look for you on the exit. You were using verbals, but it was at the exit and a ‘heads up’ cue before he enters will also help (in this scenario, a name call is perfect)
First rep – looked great! You were ice and patient on the tandem turn: you turned him away *then* you stepped in. On the second rep, you stepped in as you were turning him away, so he ended up on the other side of the wing. You can reward that – those moments are handler-induced 99.99% of the time – and he was frustrated at :23, thought he was getting the reward, and jumped for it. The next reps at :30 and :40 were lovely! :48 was good too, but it looked like you might have pulled too far away, he almost turned right instead of left? Hard to see in the shadows of the trees 🙂
1:03 was really nice again 🙂 And so were the last reps on the green wing closest to the camera. Yay!!
On the race tracks, you might have been a little far ahead on a couple of them, which made it harder for him to see the wing & connection – you can drive closer to the tunnel in those moments, so he can see the wings fully. His turns on the tunnel exits looked great!(side note: we have been working tunnel exit turns with ALL the levels in the last 4 or 5 months, from the puppies up to the Masters dogs online – and that Speedstakes course today was ALL about the tunnel exits! Eek! Voodoo has been the Masters demo dog and his exits looked great, thankfully!)
Great job on these! Now I have to get off my bum and try that Speedstakes course with the 2 Papillons… wish me luck, they are feral and have no independent skills LOL
Tracy
Hi! Sorry to hear about the snow 🙁 The video looks so warm and sunny!!!
The tandem turn games are going well!!! One general note is to call him right before he enters the tunnels so he is expecting to look for you on the exit. You were using verbals, but it was at the exit and a ‘heads up’ cue before he enters will also help (in this scenario, a name call is perfect)
First rep – looked great! You were ice and patient on the tandem turn: you turned him away *then* you stepped in. On the second rep, you stepped in as you were turning him away, so he ended up on the other side of the wing. You can reward that – those moments are handler-induced 99.99% of the time – and he was frustrated at :23, thought he was getting the reward, and jumped for it. The next reps at :30 and :40 were lovely! :48 was good too, but it looked like you might have pulled too far away, he almost turned right instead of left? Hard to see in the shadows of the trees 🙂
1:03 was really nice again 🙂 And so were the last reps on the green wing closest to the camera. Yay!!
On the race tracks, you might have been a little far ahead on a couple of them, which made it harder for him to see the wing & connection – you can drive closer to the tunnel in those moments, so he can see the wings fully. His turns on the tunnel exits looked great!(side note: we have been working tunnel exit turns with ALL the levels in the last 4 or 5 months, from the puppies up to the Masters dogs online – and that Speedstakes course today was ALL about the tunnel exits! Eek! Voodoo has been the Masters demo dog and his exits looked great, thankfully!)
Great job on these! Now I have to get off my bum and try that Speedstakes course with the 2 Papillons… wish me luck, they are feral and have no indepedent skills LOL
Tracy
Hi!
>>I am not always sure when to use the right left verbal vs the wrap verbal but from what you just said when going to the tunnel he is just partially turning compared to the threadle verbal where he is turning a greater radius.>>
Exactly! I think of it in terms of how tight of a turn it is. A left or right is kinda of a 90 degree angle of turn like the letter L, and a wrap is more of a full U turn – extra collection on the wraps.
>>I practiced the set point again today. When I moved the jump to the 12 foot distance he actually bounced. I couldn’t believe how much he pushed off with the rear legs when he realized how much further the last jump was. So I then moved it another 3 feet to 15 feet and he did take one stride.>>
He is a powerful dude! A bounce at 12″ feet for a Viszla is totally a good thing! It is a powerful breed. When he is all grown up, you might find that he can bounce 15 feet!
>> We stopped at that point as the birds were roosting and making all sorts of noise to totally distract him. >>
OMG hardest distraction!!!
>>His sit stay was really good at that point.>>
Perfect!!!
>> Do you want him to take one stride at the 12 foot distance?
Not necessarily, based on his stride and power. He can bounce as 12 foot distance. As long as he is maintaining good form, a 12 foot bounce is fine.
>>I was working on his sit stay. I think part of the problem right now is it is a little colder out and his package is sitting on the cold ground and he lifts his butt up!>>
HA! That is too funny!!! You can try a stand-stay to help protect his package? LOL! The joys of intact boys lol
>>I am using an iPhone to video. Any help with editing is appreciated.
You should have an app called iMovie on your phone. It is a white star in a purpley square. If you click on it, you should see a “+” sign – click on that, and you can click on “Movie” then then you can select your video and click Create Movie
If you click on the video on the next screen, you will see “Actions” with a little scissor icon – click that and then you can use the ‘split’ feature to cut stuff out.It takes a moment of playing with it to get used to it, then it is easy 🙂 Now my list is from an iPad so here is a video for the iPhone 🙂
Tracy
Hi! Looks like you are having super nice weather!!
Set point – he was a really good boy and I like how he was looking ahead and setting up a nice arc over the bar. He has good jumping form! He got the ‘bounce” on that 2nd rep – you set him up nice and close, so he powered in and lifted from his rear. Yay! My only suggestion is to have to reward another 6 or 8 feet past jump 2, so he can land, take a big stride, then get to it. The reward was close there so he was landing on it a bit LOL!
On the backside game: the key element is your eye contact. On the first rep at :28, he was behind you and you were looking forward, so he couldn’t see your eyes and was not sure where to be. The same thing happened at 1:04 and 1:21 and 1:44, and he guessed that he should go to your left side and did not end up smoothly on the backside. Compare it to the reps at :43 and 2:03 and 2:23 and 3:02, where he could see your eyes much better and went to the backside. Nice!!!! At 2:52 and 3:26 he was starting on the wrong side of you so he was confused 🙂 A lower arm and having your hand more back towards him will really help him see the connection too. So as you work the backsides when he is behind you, keep your arm back towards him (not forward to the jump) and make eye contact so he can see where to be. Then I think it will be easy 🙂
Great job here! Fingers crossed for continued great weather!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>>I did a late FC here and threw out my opposite arm after #6 to keep him on the line to left tunnel entrance – it works but I try to not use it>>
The run looked good! The FC could have come a one step sooner (or a BC would work) but he read the line to the tunnel really nicely! You can probably go in towards the 4 jump by a step or two closer, so y oucan move into the FC or BC on 5. It might have felt like you were too far ahead there LOL! On the video, it appears that he was not going to curl in to the other end of the tunnel, but it might have looked or felt different in real life 🙂 The outside arm can keep him out especially if you feel like you are behind on the line – and if you want to save the outside arm for other situations, I bet you can ramp up the connection and he will do well with that too!
>>So sometimes I just start in another place and move into the skill we are trying to learn.
Makes sense! And it keeps things fresh for him 🙂
He did like the nighttime session! He is a night owl! LOL! The blind 3-4 started sooner and he had no trouble over the bar here (you can play with starting it even sooner, so you are on your left arm already when he exits the tunnel. Verbal and motion can support 3 so the blind can be wicked early. That will give you an extra heartbeat to decelerate into 4 to tighten it up a bit – you were accelerating so he accelerated too, causing him to land long. He has a really good send, so you can do the blind and then basically stay where you are, connected, and send him past you. That should cue the turn and get you back up the next line nice and early 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think! And I totally feel the pain of the time change too – bleh! I like long sunny days 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>>I found disconnection to be more difficult than I thought it would be!
Yes! It can be weird at first – disconnecting *on purpose* haha! And yes, I somehow disconnect by accident so easily LOL!!
>> I had a hard time with some of the BC’s after the backsides especially with Seq 5 after obstacle 4. My natural inclination was to do a FC, which doesn’t work well at all to get the best line from 5 to 6. >>
Correct! It is a really crazy sequence because you have to disconnect and run to get to the next spot 🙂
>>I was pleased with most of these sequences but know there is always room for improvement.
Well, when I was jotting the notes on the runs, I looked at the list and it was so boring because all I kept writing was: “nice!” “so nice!” “Super nice!” “Great!” LOL!!!! So the feedback might be a little repetitive in discussing how well it all went LOL!!! I LOVED this video, so much GREAT stuff! Wheeeee!
Ok, here are specifics 🙂 I do have little ideas here and there of things to make a spot or two smoother, but overall he seems to understand what to do with the bar on backsides (in terms of jumping it and not running past it so you can really trust him! Your connection looked great overall, I could see your eyes looking for his eyes at every moment, except when you were deliberately disconnecting to run forward. I couldn’t really hear the verbals, but that might have been due to the video? Also, he is committing nicely on your rotations for wraps when you disconnect and move away, and his turns were tight! I know you were jumping him low, but he can still turn wide on low bars 🙂
And, your exit line connection looked fabulous: I know you were working on that to helping tighten the exits of turns after crosses and it looked consistently great here! Disconnecting and moving away as early as you did hopefully made it feel easier, because you had more time to get it going and your running lines were really clear.One general idea about the 1-2 start on Sequences 1, 2 and 3:
On jump 1, he was ticking that bar a bit – you can lead out closer to the line to the tunnel so he adjusts for the turn before takeoff rather than in the air.Seq 1 looked great! Seq 2: Nice blind at :18 in terms of timing and connection and line! His commitment was solid so you got that blind in easily.
Seq 3: Nice timing of the push to 4, nice disconnect, nice blind, set you up for good timing for the wrap at 5. Super nice! It is pretty aggressive, early handling but he looked great. Only one tweak – a little more connection to his eyes on the wrap cue and less indication of the landing spot with your arm moving back will help him add more collection there, to make for a perfect turn. Both reps were really lovely!!!
Seq 4 – so nice! You really trusted him at :51 on the backside push to 4 and did the blind nice and early – and that set up the same great timing at :53, nice early disconnections for the blinds on both – you were reconnected before he even took off which allowed him to see the next line super early, so he was tight and fast there.
Seq 5 – On the practice moment at 1:02 and 1:18, I think this is where you were working through the instinct to FC? You were rotating a little extra there – as you saw in the full runs, you don’t need to indicate the bar after sending him to the backside, just running through to the blind to your right arm works nicely. Otherwise you end up rotating too much on the backside which makes it harder to rotate into the wrap – he was ticking the wrap bar after the backside because you were moving backwards into it instead of forwards away to the next line on the practice reps.
On the full run with Jake – WOW! Nailed it! Great send to the backside at 1:34 then you really trusted him and went right into the next position! He was so fast & tight on the backside! Yay! That allowed you to set the wrap even sooner and the turn was lovely.
On the full run with Juno – nailed it *again*!!! WOW! Great job with the big send then disconnecting to get to the next place. Both boys showed that they can be trusted and you can send and leave 🙂 The only difference between Jake and Juno is that Jake collects a little more when you are backing up and Juno jumps a little longer when you back up – so with Juno, when you rotate on the wrap cue, you don’t need to back up to the wing – you can send him to it behind you.Lovely work here!! Let me know what you think!!
TracyHi!
>>Interesting! So it sounds like the fix is basically, take the backside AND COME BACK OVER THE JUMP. Thank you so much! This is so fixable. I will continue to go back to some of our previous exercises, drop the ball, and work more on “finishing” the jump.>>
Yes! We have 2 options: either rely on handling or rely on training. In the past, we have been relying on handling with this skill and it just is not as effective as when we train the dog 🙂 It is the same as weave entries: weave can either rely on handling, or train full understanding. I like the training 🙂
>>As with my previous submission, working on 1 or 2 jumps feels weird to me, but I can see the lesson is so valuable. We can do this!>>
You can also incorporate the training into sequences: as you cue the blind and see her moving towards it, drop the toy on the landing side as you move away for the blind, for example. Lots of rewards in all scenarios will build the skill 🙂
Have fun!
TracyBumping up! See you all in 2 hours! Fingers crossed that the monsoon weather is only at my house 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! This is looking great. The wing being close to the jump when you started looked really good, and I didn’t see any difference in her responses when you moved it further away starting at :12. Yay! You are doing a good job running straight on the out cues (it is NOT easy to keep the feet straight! LOL!) and so you can play with using less of an opposite arm and see if she stills does well. Your arm use here looks really good, so there is nothing wrong – but we want you to be able to run forward as fast as possible and so fading the arm a little might make that easier (or she might really need that arm cue, we shall see!)
Good timing on the blind at :25! The FC at :30 can start a little sooner but it was still good! She was a tiny bit wide on both – I think it is because the history of the out cue has had all of the rewards thrown long on the line, so that is what she is expecting. Keep throwing in the super early crosses like this, and you can add in a wrap verbal to help her read the difference – and she will add in the collection beautifully when she realizes that the reward comes near you when you rotate. And a big hooray for the straight line (no get out) at the end! After all the rewards for the jump she was a superstar to follow the handling there. Happy dance!
Great job!
Tracy
