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Good morning!
I am glad you posted this! First: there is a LOT of good stuff happening here! She is focusing forward beautifully and she has an understanding of the weight shift and target position. The down will be very easy to add on. I like your clicks! And you do not appear unsure, even if you feel that way inside LOL!So then why is her performance still a little sideways? You are spot on in your assessment that the teeter is too slippery. She is trying to weight shift and get into position but her hind end keeps slipping out from under her on the board when she tries it. I can see her working good mechanics and showing understanding – but she does not have enough grip on the board to make it happen.
Let’s brainstorm to help her out:
I like your yoga mat idea, it was the first thing that popped into my brain when you mentioned the slippery seesaw before I watched the video. It will work for the bang game and elevator game, but it will not work for the downhills and the crazy elevator game (because a yoga mat will have too much grip, they have more grip than the contact rubber would).The other option is a painting party 🙂 You can repaint the board using a combination of outdoor paint (not the shiny kind, I can go look up exactly what it is called) and sand. I have done that and it works great – lots of grip but not too grippy. Let me know if you are interested in arts and crafts and I can get the exact type of paint.
And the other option is to purchase rubber skins – there are a few places that are good and a few that are terrible. I can get you the list of good place if you want to go that route. But in the meantime, the yoga mat option is great!!
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Most of the reps on this session were super strong! I have one small tweak for the structure of the session: rather than start with the wing to the plank with you adding a lot of motion (her motion and your motion) – give her a couple of high arousal warm up reps by getting her nutty, maybe with some tug – and then doing some targeting right at the end with you moving forward (just like the bang game). That can help set her up for success right away and then you will have an easier time getting to the reps with the wing and running. She is able to do them successfully later in the session, but asking for it right off the bat was a little too much.
And the high arousal warm up will mirror what we do on the crazy elevator game, plus it mirrors how I recommend we move the behavior to the trial ring. So she will recognize it more easily, which then makes it easier to fade out because it will generalize into the full teeter behavior.
She had a TON of great reps in the middle section. It looks like she had one miss, after the ‘break’ in the middle of the video – so that first rep is the hardest one! The high arousal warm up should help get the first rep to be great too.
Nice work!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Good session here, she is transferring the speed of the mountain climbers to this game really nicely!!! And the end position is coming together too. It was hard to tell if you had the target visible for her, especially on the first couple of reps? You can make the target as visible as possible for now even though we are fading it elsewhere – there are so many different variables in the crazy elevator game that the target can be visible for a while 🙂 If it was there, you might need to make it bigger 🙂 Especially for the first rep or two.
The only other thing to remember is to keep your reward markers and releases really clear – I think it was great when you used your ‘catch’ or a release forward for the rewards. When you praised and rewarded but the releases were not as clear, I think she was not sure if she should leave position or not. So keep bugging yourself to use the markers and releases. I plan that before each rep so I don’t forget LOL!For the next session, since she likes to go FAST:
Start her in the stay like you did here, but add your motion just by walking and releasing her when you are moving and almost at the end of the board. Then you can try with some jogging and running! Mainly, that is to add the excitement a little bit at a time so she remembers to stop 🙂 And you can feed her a bit more during the countdown if she is very excited and tries to move to position too soon 🙂If she is solid with you moving… then we add the wing wraps so you are BOTH moving 🙂 I am not worried about her speed at all, she is going to have an insanely fast seesaw (be prepared for the judges to gasp LOL) so for now it is all about reminding her to weight shift at the top and hit/hold position after the board drops.
Great job!!!!
TracyGood morning! This looks great! Speed, accuracy, all the things we want!
>> she had fun with this game, after doing the Bang game on the see-saw, which she doesn’t like so much.>>
HA! Relatable. Weaves are all about running and toys. The bang game is about stopping and cookies. Bleh. My Contraband agrees with Yowza LOL!! But the Bang game is worth it, in the end.
Back to weaves: her striding and forward focus down the line of weaves looks great. So before you make them tighter than they were here, add more of your motion: run run run! Don’t do any reps in the next session where you are standing still 🙂 And in running and if she is fine with that, add in running away laterally and also rear crossing the entry (she was great with you being waaaaay ahead and ‘pushing’ the line of exit). Of course, if she struggles, we dial back the variable of running to fast jogging 🙂 If I remember correctly, she was good with your motion with the poles more open, so this should bring that into the tighter-poles scenario.
And then if that goes well for 2 short sessions… onwards to poles that are even tighter. I think we will have them straight sometime this week, depending on your training schedule 🙂
And one more thing that I am telling everyone at this stage: do weave pole math to count the number of reps in each session and total each day. Even though the poles are not totally closed, the dogs are doing real weaving – that means we need to limit the # of reps. I prefer to limit the total to 5 sets of 12 weaves in each session (that includes misses, not just successes). So that means no more than 10 sets of 6. In this session, there were 19 reps, which is just under 10 sets of 12 weaves, which is a lot on the dogs’ bodies. The way I think of it is that I would get mad at the judge if I was asked to do 10 sets of 12 poles in a trial day, so then I need to self-judge and not do that many sets of weaves in a session LOL! That means I do short sessions and force myself to count reps and stop – but it also means we get really focused on the variables and setting the dogs up for success, which results in things getting done really fast and successfully 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
She seemed to have no trouble at all with the various angles of entry! Yay, good girl!!!!
She is wanting to trot, though – could be the complexity of the sequences and entries, could be that the temperatures are heating up and she is not acclimated yet, or both. The trotting is causing her to still work out her striding into the entry and then into the 2nd set, so she wasn’t bouncing her. I take it as a sign that she is processing and we should not add difficulty yet in the form of more poles.
The dogs are good at giving us the thumbs-up when they are ready for more: if they can produce the striding, speed AND accuracy for 2 sessions in a row, really driving to the poles: then they are ready for more 🙂 So I think for the next session, you can see what variables might be causing her to slow down: try it first thing in the morning when it is cold. Or try it as a way for her to get her first meal of the day 🙂 And if she is still thinking, try having more open space (fewer obstacles) so there is less visual ‘pressure’ around the poles.
And it might be none of the above, it might just be she needs to process it and let it wire into her muscle memory. My youngest dog just needed a whole bunch of sessions on 4 poles before she “got it” and now she is very speedy and consistent with striding.
Play around with a couple of more sessions and when you get the same giddy up she had when the poles were a little more open – then we go to 6 poles.Personally, the hardest part is getting the 6 straight and it takes the longest. But then things are VERY easy after that to get to 12 poles 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! These look strong!!
He is seeking out the entries from all angles. Your work on the ‘hard’ entries has balanced them now so he is much stronger on those! Yay! We can revisit those isolated entries here and there as needed, as the poles get tighter.The other thing I like is that he recognizes the rhythm and loop of the session – the MM is much higher in value now because it has been paired with the frisbee. And he seems to be in a really great state of arousal. Perfect!
So, that means we are officially in the “that looked good, let’s plan for the next sessions” mode 🙂
Using your Find Em set up, for the next session(s):
– move the MM a little further away, like 6 feet or so, so he runs more after the poles and collects less.
– on the next session, keep everything the same except 1 thing: no more line ups. What I mean by that is after he gets his MM reward, have him come tug on the frizzer, then get him on your side (not between your feet, no sits) and then send him around the wing.
The purpose of this is to layer in a little more arousal. The line up and sit is a bit of a soothing moment and now we can add a little more arousal 🙂 It will take some good mechanics from you to get him on the proper side before the send, so play around with it before you add the weaves. I like to do that by tugging with whatever hand. I am going to send with, tugging to get back into position for the next send, then making eye contact and doing a bit of “ready, ready”, then sending 🙂 He is ready for the higher arousal level!If that goes well for a session or two: next step is to do it all again but now tighten up poles 1-2 🙂
We are likely going to get real striding at that point, so you can then switch to your real weave cue.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>> Here is a bit of work with the get out game. I used first the trailing arm cue with a bent arm as well and then just the trailing arm and verbal cue.
This looked really good! The best case scenario is if you can get it all on a verbal so you don’t really have to do more than run and yell things 🙂 As you work through this, you’ll see that your get out cue (with and without the outside arm) is rotating your upper body a lot – which is causing your feet to rotate and get pulled in towards the jump rather than keep running straight. So the next step would be to see if you can ‘soften’ the upper body rotation a little but using the same concept but with the emphasis on your feet running straight. That will mean your upper body can’t rotate as much – so give him as little as possible in terms of the rotation, but as much as needed. So if you soften it too much and he fails, add a little back in – think of it as a fading process as the verbals solidify.
>> I’m so pleased that Kip has now learned these cues from all the zig zag work we did.
Yes! That is definitely a helpful benefit of that game! And it helps with the jumping effort on the get out jump because he knows how to do the sideways slices.
>>I like having the bent arm cue for added cue strength when needed!
Yes – and you might find using that outside bent arm is super useful when this cue is followed by a threadle or front cross.
>>We are still working toward tight wraps and powering out of tight turns so we are doing more “wind in your hair 2”>>
Great! That takes some noodling around to find the timing and rhythm of it, and it will change when he is an adult and working on full height bars.
>>I do appreciate the way your lessons come in layers. Also, I did enter the 031 class so now you will get to meet my crazed, adrenaline junkie Pyr-Shep Rik/Rik>>>
Awww, thanks! All this time in front of the computer during this pandemic year has allowed me to try to improve the structure. And I am TOTALLY looking forward to the CAMP class and seeing Rik/Rik get to play!!!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend! Great job here!
TracyHi!
We have plenty of time left – one more set of games is published on Monday, bringing the poles up to 12 poles. Then we have til the end of May to get it all done and submit videos 🙂Tracy
Hi! I think 8 poles will be fine! Warm them up with a slightly wider channel (2.5 inches should be good?) and then see how he foes. I agree that he would be able to get into the rhythm on 4 poles 🙂
TracyHi!
The Get Out is looking REALLY good, and she was a good girl to also NOT get out when you wanted her to follow your line!>>I think I am still late with the toy. Says to throw it when she looks at jump. Yea, I’m late. Last one I went to a better toy to throw. That went better. I’ll try distance and other side. >>
I think you can add a little more distance with the wing further from the jump – that will give you time to get the toy throw in earlier. Plus, that will challenge you to stay on a straight running line the whole time – and with more distance it makes the get out cue harder! But it makes the blind after it easier 🙂 So yes, definitely move to adding more distance on this side and the other side.
Great job!!!
TracyHi!
Yes, there is a lot to show the dogs in a very short amount of time 🙂
I think the main thing for her will be that you can decelerate sooner – she is technically a ‘medium’ sized dog but her timing needs will be very, very similar to your BCs (thankfully – you only have to remember ONE timing and not different ones!) So accelerate like you did out of the wing wrap but decelerate as she is arriving at the beginning of the middle section. When you did that at :32 and on the last rep: gorgeous! When you did it later, as she was almost at the jump: she was wide.So one thing I do is mark the different sections for myself – you can see that I marked the sections for fast – slow – rotate with red and blue cones here. And no matter where I was, when the dog passed the red cone, it was decel time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZqorl5UpIk
The decel will feel pretty early but it really helps the dog to do that 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense! You might have to mark the sections for Ruby too because she is so fast!!
TracyHi! The rear crosses are looking good!
>>The first Right RC at .17 was not too good >>
It was harder to get because you were waiting for her from further off the line, so it was harder to show the RC pressure there. On all of the other reps, you were much clearer on the rear cross pressure, so she had no questions. Nice!!! Yes, keep going in deep to the tunnel because it will make it easier to set the line for the RC.
And she had no trouble finding the wings after the RC! Yay! That was supposed to be hard, but she didn’t think it was LOL!Great job 🙂
TracyGood morning!
This is going really well!>>So she needs some more practice to know which word means which direction.>>
Yes, it does take some practice to get it on pure verbals but she did really well here overall. One note: if she has a miss, like turning right when you cued left – rather than start her on your side after the miss, start her from the between-your-feet position again and see if she can fix it. That will really help her attach the verbals to the correct behavior rather than rely on being on your side:)
Plus, when we add it into sequences, it will be much easier because it will make more sense than randomly starting between your feet LOL!Great job 🙂
TracyGood morning!
Since we were talkng about how to handle errors, I think you did a good job with that here: on 2 of the wraps to her right on the wing, she didn’t commit so you were all like “whee! Try again, let’s go” and she seemed happy with that, no frozen moments 🙂 She was a little more chill overall in this session, but it was proabbly because she didn’t get her normal naps in hahaha!!!!
On those right wraps around the wing, she needs more connection, really exaggerate it with your arm back – that is her more difficult turning side and when you point forward, she follows your shoulders. She is better turning to her left and you are more connected on those, so she was very successful 🙂
Nice work on the transitions! I think one thing that will make it feel less awkward and get her moving is if you accelerate more. I know, it is weird advice to say to run really fast into tight turns LOL!!! But as she exits the wing wrap, if you are accelerating towards the jump for several steps, she will accelerate too – then showing the decel and the turn will be much easier and feel more comfy for you 🙂 You accelerated on the Go reps really well and she accelerated too, so the transition reps can start with the same acceleration (but without the Go verbal) then shift into the decel then rotation. She is super responsive, so I think that you’ll find it gives you speed, commitment AND lovely turns.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Nice work on both of these!!!
>>I find her responsiveness really exciting. >>
Totally agree! She is very good at telling you what your handling reads, it is really cool to see!
On the videos:
Get out – I highly recommend either drawing a line in the sand or laying a leash there so you don’t step in and can just keep your feet moving straight 🙂 Your cues were good with your upper body on the first 2 reps but you can move along a straighter line there and not step in towards the jump. There was an oopsie at :19 – you didn’t quite get connection on the exit of the wing wrap beore the get out cue, and your arm was not indicating the jump so she was not sure where to go (I think you were htinking about the blind :))
The get out then the blind looked much better at :30 and on the next reps! You are paying really good attention to the quick connection mechanics *after* the blind and that really helps her see it.
>>When I tried the blind crosses, we were really wide. Assuming the handler was really late. I thought I rotated pretty quickly on the last one but we were still wide.>>
Yes, they were a little late starting, which makes them late finishing – and with baby dogs, they really don’t respond until we finish and reconnect because they are really inexperienced. You did rotate and reconnect quickly which is why she got the turn and not the other jump. As the pups learn this, they will respond as soon as you start the cue so the turn will get tighter and there will be less pressure on us humans to be perfect in timing 🙂
So for the wide turns: Part of it is she had just been rewarded a few times for going straight and part of it was timing – as soon as you see her turn her head to go look at the jump, you have to start the blind (so much trust!) and ideally, you finish the blind in time to see her taking off for the jump 🙂 But no worries – you can spread this out and make it closer to competition distance, which will give you more time to do it and then the turn will be much tighter 🙂
>>. I really wanted to eliminate the get out verbal and go straight to the tight left turn verbal, but I didn’t.>>
When you are on bigger distances, you will have time for both verbals. The smaller distances make it harder 🙂
On your tradition dances 🙂 I mean, transitions LOL
Trial and error is part of the learning for us humans 🙂 as long as we assume the dog is correct and keep reinforcing, the dog will allow us to try different things and give us feedback 🙂Looking at what worked and what didn’t work on both videos:
On the first video:
Rep 1 – you did the decel and rotate at the same time, thus the rear cross
rep 2 – good!!!!
rep 3 – you never accelerated, so the decel was harder to show. Start really close to the wrap wing so you can drive out of it. The acceleration is an important element of the commitment cue.
rep 4: on the Go balance rep – make it a true go if you are going to use the go verbal, and run run run 🙂 and throw the reward long. Don’t decelerate and reward her for coming back tight to you, so you don’t lose the Go value. The Go balance reps are good to throw in to ‘cleanse the palate’ after all the turns 🙂You had good transitions at :38 an :50! One little oopsie between the 2 of them at :44, where you were not connected and turned your shoulders away, so she read it as a tandem to the backside (clever!!)
On the 2nd video –
The 1st rep was a flipped transition: you did a decel then accelerated so it did read as a RC to her. Then you got into the groove:
:10 better, :20 was good and :27 was GREAT!!! Note her commitment AND her lovely turn. That was the feeling and timing of the transition. Yay!Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
