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I think you are pretty darned hip to handling trends! Anna is a great teacher and it is so cool that she comes to your local school! I can’t wait for things to go back to normal so we can all obsess on these trends in person š
Hi!
>>**I liked your big parties when she got it right!!
My sister makes fun of me! I donāt careā¦Iām honestly boring without my dogs! LOL>>
Ha!! I think there is some scientific support for these parties š And also, if we can pair the verbal parties with the frizzer, then the parties become reinforcement that we can take into the competition ring!
>>I struggle with this. I like to RUNā¦Iām not patientā¦I want to run aggressively, I donāt want to run safeā¦but I think my baby dog needs me to dial it downā¦for now at least. My older dog and I were such an easy teamā¦we loved driving each other, and I loved to run balls to the wall with her. But she is a different dog, and we didnāt start that wayā¦I need to keep reminding myself this.>>
I totally relate: we get used to really driving our experienced dogs then we forget how we can’t drive the next dog until they are a lot more experienced. I like the phrase “dial it down” – that can go on your list of things to remember!
>>She has a TON of skillsā¦which are trial readyā¦itās me I think. For exampleā¦last weekend I was doing a blind and she flanked the jump. She flanked the jump because I should have turned my head WAAAAAY earlierā¦I know this! I want to bang my head against the wall and scream at myself! But thatās an example of me wanting to run with the blinds, not wanting to play it safeā¦but also worried about her jumping and not thinking about MY job.>>
So you can put that on your list: commit to the timing. Take the risk š
>>>1. CONNECTION
2. Not to pull away laterally suddenly on jumps
3. Maintain her ābubbleā
4. Remember her verbals and use them (my older dog went fairly deaf at the end of her careerā¦I got used to running quiet)
5. Be smooth, not frantic, but also not hesitantā¦she totally feels that>>>You can make these as specific as possible. “Stay in the bubble” is pretty clear, but you can also add in specifics of how to stay in the bubble (run closer to lines), how much to connect to her (lots! and also exit line connection), plan your verbal and practice them in walk throughs.
>>Skill wiseā¦honestlyā¦what doesnāt she have? The ability to judge the take off of a jump under a variety of circumstances. Everything else is strong except thisā¦itās a big one.>>
That can go into the stay in the bubble/closer to lines/look at her eyes category, she does well with the jumping when you do that!
>>OH! Anotherā¦collection. We arenāt strong in collecting over jumps LOL. With thatā¦I will leave you my video! HAHA!>>
Actually… she is doing well!!! She does best when you are connected and set up the lines without rushing – so she sets up her own collection nicely. Here are specifics:
First of all: OMG your videos are so funny!!! I didnāt even realize your were barefoot!
Seq 4
1st rep – very nice! You can start the spin on 3 even sooner, be decelerating when she exits the tunnel. Your position was good on that jump to start it sooner. The backside looked really good! You can start your backside verbal before she enters the tunnel and keep repeating it as she exits (try not to call her name then say it – the name curls her towards you and we want her to stay out)
2nd rep – you started the spin when she exited the tunnel – so that goes on the list of specifics for trials! The turn looked good there!
The backside verbal was earlier and she went to it from more distance. Yay!!!
The next reps were almost identical (and good!) – nice early timing on the spin and also good backsides! Your verbal was quiet at 1:26 and either very quiet or you didnāt say it at 1:40 – but connection was super clear so she went to the backside nicely each time.Seq 5:
This is going well, consistently! Little details: on the approach to 3 at 1:54, 2:17 and more strongly at 2:41 and 3:02, you softened your connection and āswooshedā her to the landing spot more than you did on sequence 3 (1:05 for example) so she was wider on 3. On sequence 3, when you looked more directly at her for longer, she had a better turn. Your timing was good here so as you are setting up the spins, get strong connection to her eyes and maintain it as she is passing you to reproduce that nice tight turn.
The backside push connection looks really good and then you maintained a really strong connection to the slice jump after it: that supported her jumping effort perfectly each time! Yay!I really see a big difference in her ability to find the jumping effort on these videos – it is VERY cool! It takes some patience in handling but if that is what it takes, then that is fine because you do it really well!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHa! Sorry for the swoosh word, that was too much coffee talking hahaha! It means too much arm moving to point at the landing side. Looks like a swoosh to me š
And based on his feedback, I think looking at his eyes worked best!T
Hi!
This is going well, she is really reading the difference between going straight or going to the jump! She is reading your lower body on these, I think: at :17 and :24, she is moving to the get out jump as she came around the wing because your feet were generally pointing that way. Then she was able to NOT go to the jump when your feet were forward. Nice! The upper body cues looked really clear so now you can see if you can keep your lower body even straighter – the goal is that your lower body is the same on all reps, and the upper body shows the difference between the get out and stay on your line.
Nice work here!!
TracyHi! He did really well here, even with the oopsie moments!
The serps and backsides at the beginning looked great – he was SO funny on the wraps trying to get to the cookie bowl! I think on those you can feed from your hand for a while to help him shift the value away from the line on that move and back to your hand for the tight turns. It was pretty funny to see his expression: he would wrap then leave for the bowl and look at you like āNailed it! Whereās my treat?ā LOL!! You did get a reward in from your hand and that helped (:59) so he was able to make the turns after that.
On the backside slices after that, you can move the bowl back to the landing side position to help him want to come back in on the jump. He didnāt get to the backside at 1:22 and 1:32, and 1:41 it looked like you turned your shoulders away too soon – you can keep your connection to him very directly there as you give the back cue – that opens up your shoulders to point to the backside line which helps with commitment. At 1;45 and 1:54 and 1:58, you were more connected and more parallel which helped – and that connection carried over into the last 3 backside reps where you were moving away sooner but also super connected and he got it each time.
And wow, food has such an impact on him – the one cookie from your hand on the wrap changed the game and he retained that so the wraps at the end also looked great! Good boy!!!Great job here! I am planning a MaxPup 3 – I am trying to figure out how to make the āPutting It Togetherā level work for winter in a way that folks can do things in smaller spaces too. I hope to have it sorted out this week š
Tracy
Hi!
I think the get out session looks really good! Yes, he is not quite as fast following you on the line to nothing LOL but he is doing it and not flicking away, good boy! Your get outs looked really good! Yes, he was surprised on the first one when you added the cross (he did not know such a thing existed! Ha!) but then was great on the rest. You asked if you were on time or not – I think it takes a moment to trust that he has actually turned his head and then start the cross so it might feel late. But when I freeze the video with him over the bar: at :35, your blind is basically finished before he took off. I would call that on time! Same at 1:03. At 1:17 and 1:43 your FC was basically done before he took off. Same with the BC at 1:30. So the timing is great! He has a lot of value on the landing side for this skill, so you can shift the value for chasing you out of the cross by running and calling so chases you for the reward. Super nice session!!About the 1-2-3: if he is looking at your body but just not at your eyes… makes perfect sense to me. If he needs to release and take a jump and read a line, then we really donāt want him thinking about looking up at your eyes – it makes it harder to see a line. If he is acknowledging your position while also looking at a line? Perfect!!!
Great job š
Tracyhi!
>>Now I just need to figure out how I want to address it for his class as I am hearing that eye contact for ready123 is a condition of his eventual graduation.>>
Hmmmmm maybe tell them you taught focus forward on your feet? LOL!
>>And he can still get fixated on movement or a sound when he is not at home. Heās slowly growing out of that and is better about focusing back on whatever we were doing but that has been more of a challenge with him than my other Shelties (not sure if the intact Male part is playing a role there as my last boy was neutered at 6months before I knew about agility and growth plates)>>
It might be a combo of slow to mature and pandemic meaning we haven’t gotten our boys out to as many places as we normally would have. I am in a similar boat: Contraband is the same maturity level of Elektra (who is 6 months younger!).
T
Hi!
>>I get a kick out of how hard you are āsellingā this on the video. I get it! I get it!>>
Ha! I have to sell it because it is a different training approach LOL! One silver lining of the pandemic, I guess, is the extensive revamp of the puppy foundation program – the puppies are doing amazing things and everything is different than what it was even 2 years ago.
I am glad it made sense to Enzo! I think the video looked really good. The backside wrap should be very easy to get because you can be closer to the entry wing – the independent slice is the hard one. As you are doing the parallel path – make the big connection but don’t be so big that you turn your feet and move sideways – feet always go forward š That is why I use the outside arm with Voodoo (and to start with the puppies but I plan to fade it with them). You were rotating a bit on some of them. At :24 when you added the jump before the backside, you gave one big moment of extreme connection and outside arm for a heartbeat – that was all he needed to get to the backside. NICE! And it looks like you were way ahead and connected on the exit of that jump – very cool!
The other backside approaches looked easy š And at the end, the regular line versus get out versus backside: really nice!! He appeared to have no trouble with the differences in t he physical and verbal cues on each.The discrimination work gave him a massive brain workout, I love it! He looked largely successful (a blooper here or there is fine, it means he is getting some challenge :)) On the backside, be sure to move into it as well so he is not making the discrimination on motion or lack of motion. One of the things we add with the pups is sending them into the tunnel then meeting them at the tunnel exit to move into the next cue (wrap or backside) – the motion certainly adds excitement LOL!!
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>āThe backside is all about the opposite shoulder.ā
So, THIS is the thing I never knew!That is why video has been so helpful – slow motion lets us see what the dog is reading versus not reading and Annie is a very honest dog!
>>But it makes me wonder, when do I get to point at the wing ā or more generally, at the takeoff spot?
It will vary by dog and situation, and things have updated in the past couple of years. The European trend in handling (which I like) is to give the cue and assume commitment without needing to step to the takeoff – it allows the handler to get in and out of lines faster. There is more emphasis on rotating sooner, more commitment training and more verbals. OMD has updated to include a lot of this, with the OMD handlers that I know (MEB does a lot of connection work now, and I believe all of the OMD East Coast folks like Jen P, Jessica A, MEB, etc have added a ton of verbals an earlier blinds). So a lot of the rep to takeoff that we would do is now stripped out, in favor of earlier rotation, cuing with the other hand on thing line collected FCs and spins, and moving away sooner (because the commitment is more trained and less dependent on the handling, if that makes sense :))
>>And indeed, pointing at the takeoff spot has served Annie and me very well for years, but I can see where there is a lot for us to gain from Regular Connection (shoulder back). So my question is, can Regular Connection coexist with OMD-style handling where I get to point at the takeoff spot?>>
Yes, and also we can update some of the OMD moves (I don’t consider myself an OMD handler but I do follow the OMD coaches to see what they are up to, plus I do get to see lots of them at seminars when one of the Europeans come over to teach. OMD is REALLY different looking now than it was even a year ago). The trick is to basically figure out what works for Annie, creating her own system within the handling you are comfy with and what she is comfy with š
>>I actually tried out my new Regular Connection at a recent trial (even though we werenāt really ready to debut it) and Annie ran around a *lot* of obstacles. Easy ones, like the 2nd half of a 180. And she flew into *every* off-course tunnel. I desperately wanted to point at the takeoff spot, but how do you point and also keep your shoulder open to the dog? Whatās a girl to do?>>
Do you have any videos? It could have been a ‘goldilocks’ issue, where we need to find what is too hot, too cold, just right in the connection š And it could have been trial arousal causing the errors: young dogs don’t process things as well at a trial as they do in training, or they need info differently/sooner. If you post any video of bloopers that you have, we can look at what works and what is not working to help create the Annie System š Everything you describe is so typical of young dogs at trials, I fully expect my young dogs to do the same when they start trialing in the spring LOL!!!
Tracy
Let me know and we will sort it out š
Perfect! I think the regular ‘get out’ will be more useful if your goal is good commitment on AKC/USDAA style courses. Onwards to sequences!
Hi! There are looking really smooth!!! It comes down to tiny details to sort out which is best š
On the spin reps, I think the 3rd rep was my favorite š They were all good but on rep 1 at :05 and rep 2 at :13, you might have been rotated early which meant you had to hold for longer – so she looked up at you for a heartbeat when she landed from the jump. On rep 3 at :22, you moved in deeper to the tunnel and made a really nice transition into the spin: she was fast and never had to look at you, plus it looked more comfy for you šOn the FC at :29 – another really nice transition! The only suggestion here is that you make a clearer exit line connection so she can know sooner which side of you to be on – she was a little wide at :31 looking for the side you wanted her to be on. You had better exit line connection and :40 and her line was much tighter there.
The 2 spin moves to the other side of the jump after the tunnel both looked good! Strong transitions on both. You got into the BC after the tunnel really well! She read the second spin (rep 2) better because you kept moving out of it – on the first one, you waited to connect before moving away so she slowed down. When you kept moving, you got connection and a sweeter line. Yay!
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
