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Good morning! Lots of great stuff here! And so many good obsessing opportunities, I am in my happy place now haha!
>>IN – threadle slice
FLIP – threadle wrap
I have worked the FLIP much more than the IN, when approaching from the landing side of the jump with the dog between me and the jump (as week two’s exercise). The IN I have mostly worked with a traditional threadle and in place of a forced-front. Therefore, the IN is more difficult in this setup, from the perspective of “what he knows”. From the “what he likes” perspective, a slice is always preferred over a wrap. >>All valid points, I agree! I think working your ‘flip’ is useful because it is most definitely a fashionable trend nowadays. The threadle slice scenarios you have already worked are very useful and also pretty common lately. I am seeing the threadle scenarios evolving to now be more of these weirdo scenarios on course LOL!! Backside threadle slices, offset threadles, etc. They are beginning to make their way into Premier. (I don’t think they are legal in regular Masters/JWW but I have run across threadle opportunities when courses are set tight or at odd angles (which we see in all venues, like it or not LOL!). The only applications I have seen are the tunnel discriminations which are similar in many ways.
>> I was at a seminar this past weekend where it was suggested that I accept Enzo’s somewhat wide turns and stop torturing us both trying to get tight backside wraps. It was very welcome advice (since we are both sick to death of drilling backside wraps) but I’m not sure how “good” it was. >>
Ha! Torturing! My question is: have you ever quantified how the wider turns compared to the tighter turns? Since you are able to handle him and control how tight or wide the turn is, your answer is in quantifying it. It is possible that the wider turns are faster (that is so often the case!) so as long as he knows where he is going, letting him do his thing is far better than trying to tighten the turns. Based on the tons of timing we have all been obsessing on in the past few years, those pretty turns that are nice and tight are almost always slower 🙂 As long as he knows where he is going, the dog is faster being slightly wider. So I am totally on board with leaving it alone and as long as he understands the skill… let him rip! The only way to know if it is good advice or not is to time the difference.
(Also, who was the presenter? I am trying to get my butt out to more seminars with the 3 youngsters and am always looking for good people to work with, especially when they give permission to stop torturing myself haha)
I had this same conversation with Jenn Crank about my Hot Sauce in June – we compared what it was like to get the pretty turn versus just let her drive her lines and as Jenn said, “She is smarter” haha! Turns out that Hot Sauce knows how to set great lines for herself and is faster on her own lines without my ‘help’ making them tight. I just tell her where she is going then get the heck out of the way 🙂 I have timed her a lot this past summer, and also compared her runs directly to my two large dogs who can post very competitive times. When I let her rip, her 15” tall self is right there with the large dog times.I have also found that on almost all courses – the wrap is not the best choice, the slice line is almost always better. So since he likes slicing – you are in great shape!
>>I am using quite a bit of body language to support the verbals but I think that’s fair.>>
Agreed! I think it is very fair to help the dogs with physical cues. He totally reads your positional cues as well, it was really great to see how early he could read those and set up the line (more on that below). At some point in the future we can proof the verbal without the physical support but that is not needed now.
On the video: You were paying attention to your feet on these, and it makes a big difference for him. The first little oopsies were really you just getting the footwork going then after :16, you had the feet pretty darned solid! For the slice, you had your feet facing forward then turning to center of the bar. For the wrap, your feet stayed forward the whole time – big helps to him!
On the flips at the beginning, I think he was waiting for praise to complete the turn. He is kind of hanging over the bar, halfway between the slice and the wrap, until you praised him (:35 is a good example) So, wait til he completes a choice then praise him 🙂
When you switched sides, like at 1:26, you waited longer to mark the behavior and he had to complete the choice – and so he read the wrap and that is when you praised… perfect!NICE difference in feet at :46 between the flip and the slice
On the next 2 reps, you had a little upper body help too (shoulders turning to the slice line) and I think he really appreciated that – it was really subtle at :56 but also effective. So nice!Looking at positional cues (your running line after the tunnel) – On the flips when you pulled away from the line a bit as he was thinking about how to turn – he found that very helpful and turned better (1:59 and 2:06)
Then compare it to your feet/line on the next rep at 2:12 – a big difference and he found the slice easily. The difference was that you were driving to the threadle positional cue (entry wing of the backside) rather than pulling away – that use of position a BIG thing for him! And being close to the entry wing on the slice is important – you pulled too far away from it at 2:56 and he didn’t read it as a threadle at all (your line of motion took the jump out as a threadle possibility). Compare to the line you ran on the next reps (3:03 and 3:18) – nailed it!
He seemed to have a harder time on the right turns than on the left turns on the wraps. The left turns just looked a bit more fluid for him here, which can also inform your handling choices – he got it tight on a right wrap at 2:43 but he slowed way down to make it pretty.
The balance reps looked good, and also he is making my point about finding the slice lines -when he was on your left doing the threadle wrap on the line after the tunnel, he was doing it but it was hard. When you pushed to the other side of the backside to set up a push to a slice… fast and tight!!!
So if this is still set up and you feel like quantifying, you can take that wrap to the right (like at 2:43) and compare that sequence (tunnel, threadle wrap, last jump) to 2 things:
– wider line on the threadle wrap, like the line he ran at 2:52 which was not as tight but certainly really nice! You can decelerate and crank down a little to get the really tight turn versus more motion and less cranking down to let it be wider, and compare times
– pushing him to the other side of the backside jump after the tunnel and slicing it as a serp or German (I would time both, because I am obsessing on this now hahaha)And time all 3 (ok, all 4) 🙂 On Tuesday we have some independent backside push work coming so that getting the backside push after the tunnel in this situation is easy!
Because obsessing is my favorite thing (especially over morning coffee) I did a quick hand-timing of the super tight wrap versus the wider wrap at 2:43 and 2:52 – the wider wrap was about 3/10s faster from landing of the jump before the tunnel to landing of the jump at the end of the line. It lends some credibility to the wider is faster theory and also I would want to compare it to pushing him to the other side of the jump for the serp or German.
Now, sometimes the threadle wrap is indeed the best fastest (and sometimes *only*) option – we can help him set up a better wrap on these without obsessing or torturing. More experience with seeing it on course will help, and using that pulling-away positional cue also helps. But he can set himself up better physically (the later reps in the video were pretty different than the earlier reps, he got much better at setting the threadle wraps up!). One option is to just use a wing there so he can think about the mechanics – then add a bar back in. You can also do a double wrap sometimes – where he does the threadle wrap then another one on the same jump, back to back. That is not my favorite thing but can be used sparingly to help the dogs set up their weight shift and turn. And the other option is to angle the jump more, so the slice exit wing is closer to the tunnel and the wrap entry wing is closer to the last jump. That creates a visual where the slice is MUCH harder and the wrap is much easier, so he is going to find it easy and maybe even fun to do the wraps 🙂 Right now, I think the slices are easy for him (and perhaps fun too LOL!) so he prefers those (understandably).
And the bypass balance was easy peasy for him, he never looked anywhere other than at the line you were setting. Good boy!
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
You can send her around the wing from either direction – but be sure you know what she is looking at when she exits 🙂 Depending on how it is lined up, the jump might end up being a threadle so be sure it is a relatively easy line to both the tunnel and the jump.Tracy
Hi!
I think part of the timing stuff is that it is very dog-specific. One of my demo dogs (Hot Sauce) can hear the right verbal in the tunnel and will apply it to the jump. Tulsa is more like my other dogs, who would apply the right verbal at that timing to the tunnel exit. So it is perfectly fine to noodle around a bit and see what works best for the dog 🙂 I reward all the responses because it is basically like asking the dog what she needs and when she needs it 🙂Tracy
Hi!
>>Made it back from TN last night and sort of managed to focus on work today. Kaladin got to sub in for Min in her international skills class so she could take a break. He rocked all the fancy skills in the course (minus the DW and a-frame), did 2 sets of 12 weave poles, and decided the new Galican saloon-style tire was no big deal.>>
Welcome home from a kickass Cynosport! Congrats on your massive successes. Time for you and Min to rest and recharge a bit.
Good boy Kaladin! Yay! I am sure the young man was happy to step up to the big leagues. Super!!!!!>>Questions on the week 2 Backside trends/course openings. So I should use my “come” threadle slice cue when doing the threadle handling for the opening? But the forced FC handling “cue” is just releasing him over the first jump?>>
I use the threadle slice cue for both because the dog’s behavior is the same (get in between me and the jump, and slice). And based on the line up, I do release the dog over jump 1 because the dog is facing it and my release word means “take the jump you are facing between me and you” then as he commits: switch to the threadle.
I don’t release with the threadle cue in that scenario because in theory, the dog should threadle jump 1. (Disclaimer: my dogs are NOT that well-trained and there is no way they would threadle 1 haha)
>>I’ve been using the off arm for my threadle wrap and the inside arm for my threadle slice. In this opening sequence threadle handling, it looks like the off arm would have more emphasis and be clearer, but will that be confusing when I don’t normally use the off arm for a threadle slice?>>
Ah, threadle arms… just had this discussion with Anastasia Egorova (sp?) the Russian handler who taught a seminar locally that I took the youngsters too. She made excellent points that I agree with:
– mainly, whatever you choose, be SUPER consistent 🙂 – so if you only every use the dog side arm, that is the cue, always. For my bigger dogs, I use the outside arm up high as the threadle slice cue – always, at this point. I used to have the dog-side arm for some types of threadles and outside arm for others… but that was a little inconsistent and plus the situations where the dog-side arm was used were few and far between. And for threadle wrap, it is both hands, lower, and used differently (shoulders used differently too). However, that up high threadle slice arm is really not all that visible for small dogs like Min, and they might have to look up to see it which we do NOT want them to do. So if I had a small like Min or I was running one of the Papillons, I would train the dog-side arm like you are mentioning (Anastasia also has a small dog and she said the same thing, which was nice to hear!).
Kaladin is same size as Hot Sauce, so he can see it if you want to use it.– and train the dogs to understand rather than rely on handling (you are already doing the training, no problem there)
The Russians are phenomenal training, so it was great to hear her thoughts on it. She uses the cross arm for her big dogs and the dog side arm for her small dog.So if you want to continue with the dog side arm threadle slice like you have been doing with Min, you can make it more salient with a shoulder-dip to get your hand low and even shake the hand a bit. That is what I have my Papillon students do and she is a little bigger than they are, but not by much. When I was running Nacho in agility (he is 11.5 inches tall), I used the shoulder dip successfully and dog-side arm. Thankfully, there are no threadles in flyball hahaha (one of the reasons I enjoy flyball so much :))
Another disclaimer – with US Open in a couple of weeks, don’t change what you are doing with Min 🙂 If you want to play with the shoulder dip and shake hand, that is very much what you are already doing so try it out. But if you want to use the opposite arm up high for threadle slices, that is cool – but do it *after* the Open LOL!!!! Min is in the middle of her BIG EVENT SEASON so I would change nothing. Just keep the skills sharp!
Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyHi!
This session went well – we can see what she is really confident with and what she wants more help with 🙂One thing I notice is that, depending on the skill, she is needing varying degrees of motion to help. So the next session can focus on getting rid of the motion and seeing if you can emphasize verbals only.
Going to the tunnel versus the wings at the beginning went well! She needed a foot step or two to help, but not much.She was correct at :22 to take the jump on the other side of the tunnel 🙂 Jump is a forward verbal, you said jump, she took the one on the line she was on. Coming in to take the other jump would have needed a strong wrap cue on the wing and a lot of motion change on your line. Having 2 jumps and the tunnel out there does create a 3-way discrimination, so hopefully she got rewarded for that one 🙂
Something similar happened at :26 when she took the tunnel – You were blocking her at line moving forward getting ready to throw so she took the tunnel. Ideally she would not have taken the tunnel but we want to give her clear lines for now. You moved over a bit on the next rep at :32, but you can see how she had to threadle in front of you a bit to get to to the jump. So to make the lines clearer, you can move the wing over so it is more centered between the jump and tunnel and then you won’t have to move as much or worry about your position on the line.
At :42 she did have a discrimination error, coming in for the jump rather than getting the tunnel. She got it at :47 but you moved into it, plus when you added the backsides she needed a decent amount of motion help. You can revisit the tunnel versus backside without the wing before it, just holding her collar, saying the verbal, then letting go. That way you can isolate the verbals a bit more. You can start the session like that, then add in wrapping the wing – but with the wing wraps, try to handle very little and just work it as mainly verbals.
The other thing that can help the backside there is to angle the wing so the bar is closer to being parallel to the tunnel. Having the bar a bit perpendicular to the tunnel sets up a 3-way discrimination (front of bar, back of bar, tunnel) so she might be more successful if she only has the options of backside of bar and tunnel. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂Nice work here!!!
TracyNice!!! Sounds like a great run! Bummer about the ending. And one thing I liked about most of the Cynosport courses were that they were set better than they were mapped, meaning the judges really put nice line in the ring for the dogs (only one course could have been set SO MUCH BETTER and that was Steeplechase Semifinals – you nailed that one!)
Hi!
Good questions here!
It would be nice to NOT have to add more verbals LOL!! I am not sure that she totally thinks left/right are turns on the flat here in agility. I think her turns on the tunnel exit had more to do with your timing of the right cues, and also a little more value being needed for the go lines. Looking at the timing, your right cue was too soon at :09 and :18 (she was in the tunnel hearing it) plus you were turning as she was entering the tunnel. At :36, it sounds like it started before the tunnel, so she was totally correct to apply it to the tunnel exit.
So you can try giving her a go on the tunnel exit, then a jump cue, then the right verbal – the timing would be go (before she enters) then jump jump jump as she is exiting then when she is maybe halfway between the tunnel and jump (for now) – the right verbal. With more experience and timing, I think it will be easy to apply the right/left cues to the jump.
I also recommend using go go go for the full go lines, rather than a jump verbal – jump tends to mean a slight collection and go can emphasize the big extension.The only other suggestion is to make the reinforcement more obvious, so she doesn’t have to look for it. You can place something bigger, or throw the reward – that can help her drive to the line without collecting or looking back at you.
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi again!
This video was mainly about threadles, kind of combining the threadle exercise with the backside-at-2 threadle stuff.>> Tried yur suggestions. Nuptse is not responding!
Gotta change what is going on. At any distance, he cannot slice the jump w/o my handling!>>I agree – I think we need to break it down and do the training side of it for a bit, rather than trying to emphasize the handling. You were doing a lot of different things in this session (threadle slice, threadle wrap, adding motion) so he was relying on handling rather than being able to discriminate the verbals.
And since we don’t want him to rely on handling to be able to get the correct line and commitment to the jump, here are a couple of ideas:
– separate the threadle wrap and the threadle slice into different sessions, so he can really process just the one threadle type a a time. You can balance it with front side of the jump, rather than the other type of threadle.
– for now, take out motion into the threadle, just go stand in position and don’t move until he has landed from jump 2 🙂 We can shape him to look for the jump. Start really close to the jump and only very gradually move yuor position away from the jump. This will take several sessions, because we really want to build up a big reinforcement history for him looking for the jump without you moving.
– when he does take the jump, you can toss the reward (after he is in the air). Or, you can have it placed out there in advance and use a get it verbal (rather than motion) to indicate permission to get it (if you think he needs permission LOL!) And when the reward is out there, you definitely don’t need to handle to it, we want him turning to look for the line.
>> I thought that I should try fencing to show him the path.
I am not a huge fan of fencing because it is too massive of a visual (makes it harder to fade out) and also limits his options. I prefer to break things down and shape the behavior, so that he can get it right easily without the risk of running into a fence LOL! If we are going to use a visual, I would rather use a placed reward as the aid, because it is easy to fade and also makes for quick reinforcement 🙂
So, since this is a hard one for him, I think breaking it down and shaping it over the course of a few sessions (standing still for a couple of sessions, then adding motion, then changing position) – only adding tiny bits in each session if his success rate is high, He is super smart and will figure it out really quickly 🙂
Let me know what you think! We can get his threadles on track pretty quickly 🙂
TracyGood morning! Hopefully the storm is over and decent weather is returning!
With the switch aways, it is great that you have a verbal already and also he understands the skill. So now you can take it to the next level, which is fading your motion across the rear cross line. Keep the verbal and the upper body/arm cues – but fade out the motion of moving along the line to just a little bit of a foot turn (and eventually you can fade that too!). That will allow you to send him away so you can drive waaaaay head up a line. It also sets up layering opportunities and I think you will find it useful in Gamblers too!!See below for more threadle ideas!
Tracy
Hi!
I agree that convincing the dogs to stay while we set up the FFCs and the threadle position is often the hardest part here!
>>I don’t think it had to do with the distance but more with either the fact that I’m behind the jump or maybe the motion of setting up for the FF?
I don’t think it was the distance or your position, I think he wants to move on your hand signal when you put your hand down into position, there is a tiny wrist motion. That makes sense as there might be some hand movement built into the release for all of us – oopsie LOL! – you can see it a little when he stood up early on the 2nd rep , and also at 1:10 when he released just befoe your “ok” when your hand moved, you can see that wrist motion. He understands that when you are in position, standing still and that wrist kind of ‘flicks’ – it is go time LOL!
So when you do your rewards for the stay or releases, make sure your hand is in position for a second or two, long enoguh to praise like you did on a lot of the reps, to separate the hand cue from the verbal release.
He is reading the forced fronts pretty darned perfectly! Love it! You can definitely add the verbal and also play with starting your rotation sooner – your timing is really good here but you can press your luck maybe by a stride.
Throwback might feel werid but you are doing it nicely at 1:12 and it totally changes the exit line when you wanted the tighter turn on the “not the tunnel” line 🙂 To make it feel more comfy, you can try a smaller, lower motion? But overall it looked great!You can also move the FFC further away from jump 2 now – but also work the threadle position. I think the threadle position will feel more comfy for you than the throwback and will also get a great turn.
Lovely work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>> My worry in watching the video is maybe my arm was a bit TOO much?
Definitely not too much – I am not sure they saw it on some reps where you turned your shoulders away from them. The brake arm can be a little more visible and happen sooner.
>> I don’t want them to think it’s a threadle arm, especially Sole who tends to be most responsive to verbals.
They should not have trouble differentiating – the arm cues re very different looking. The brake arm is low (down by your hips or lower) and your palms are down, and it is a soft physical motion usually in conjunction with the dog-side arm. The threadle arm is much higher, usually up by our shoulder dog side shoulder, palm to the dog – that drops the dog side shoulder way back and adds in a bit of rotation as you mention. More on both threadle cues and soft brake arms next week 🙂 Thy are both becoming vital parts of handling courses nowadays.
>> I don’t think I’ll see anything like that at the Open, but ACK premier courses seem to love the scenario where they are taking a jump straight on and need to go 90 degrees for a threadle.
Yep, those ‘flat’ threadles are popular in Premier! I am not sure if we will see that at the Open, but we will likely see backside threadles. And I would bet you that we will see backside threadle wraps too.
They all did really well on the video! And yes, the balance is really important so we know if they are processing cues, or just patterning 🙂
>>I think Nikko’s run by the jump was because I was in her landing zone – she will tolerate a lot from me, but that was maybe a bit too much!
Yes, she chose not to run into you there! On that “german” style turn to the weaves (serp-blind) – you will ideally want to be moving past the wing, straight forward, before the dogs take off. You were tending to be on their line too much – running parallel to the bar then blind crossing. That widens the line and eats time. Presto and Sole were chill about it but Nikko voiced her outrage LOL! You widened her line to the weaves at :59 so her normal vocalizations changed – she totally shrieked at you LOL!! Too funny.
I thought your best position off the line was at 1:20 and that also got a really nice turn!With that in mind, it is not always possible to get off the line properly so that is a good place to work on flipping them away to the weaves like a rear cross, rather than the blind.
On the GO lines – I think all of your timing of the verbal cues was spot on – early and often 🙂 They all did perfectly. The only error I saw was when Nikko took the weaves when you did not want them, but that might be because you had not quite turned for the right and your were still facing the poles (:52).
For the turns on the jump, we can obsess on the tiny details of timing 🙂
In general – when you deliver the ‘right cues (verbal, physical cues), the girls collected before the jump and turned nicely. You can see it with Nikko at :35, and :56 and with Sole a 1:17 and 1:27. The cues were later at :47 and 1:12, they came closer to takeoff so the decision was made and they were wider on the turns.
I think with Presto you were trying to get commitment, so the cues were late at :08 and :21, coming at liftoff. So if he was not committing when the right cues were happening at landing of the previous jump, then you can work the skill without the off course distraction ahead and throw rewards. It sounds like you had a ‘hup’ cue happening for him, quietly? But you can try replacing the hup cue with the right cue, if right means “take the jump and turn right”.
>> I will try to use the “spare” time to write up reminders to bring with me to the Open
That is on my list to do this week too! I need to remember to stay closer to the line for the 2 young dogs and just run rather than use an arm or lateral distance.
Have fun! Great job here!
Tracy
>>>Sorry! I should have mentioned this when I posted. I set both dogs up poorly on purpose from the startline to test their understanding of the verbal on some of these. Kippy I set up because i know he likes to around that jump if he’s not set up on a slice. Emmie it’s more to test the understanding of the verbal because she’ll take that first jump. Maybe it was too much for the sessions for both dogs. Trial setting I would definitely be setting up dogs on slice at the startline jump and not staring them down the middle lol.
Ah, got it! That position does test understanding, but it also requires almost a serpentine cue or a bit of recall to heel to get them to understand that they should take 1, when you present the pressure of the backside cue for 2 – it opens up the line of going past 2. So I don’t think they were incorrect, necessarily, to take it – a jump verbal as the release might help?
T
Good morning!
> I feel like I’m constantly trying to walk that fine line of waiting till she can think vs waiting and just pissing her off even more. What I did notice was the few times I waited her out until she stopped barking AT me, she focused forward and was able to do it.
Yes, that is a good question! My general philosophy is this:
– if we are teaching something brand new, try to teach it in a quiet way where she is less stimulated.
– if we are working on something that is not as new or needs to be transferred to the trial environment, it is important to move the skill into the trial state of arousal she will be in.So, since this is not particularly a new thing, it is a variation on stuff she already can do – we need to work it in a trial state. And thanks to Facebook stalking – oops, I mean *research* haha – she barks while she runs.
So….. let her bark during these games. Don’t wait for quiet. Let her bark and be aroused, so she learns to process the verbals even while she is singing.
And if she makes a mistake or two, you can help by moving her closer to what you want or adding a little body language, but I would still ask her to be thoughtful in drive: meaning, barking but listening LOL!
Waiting for her to be quiet and focus forward might be fine for initiating the games and teaching new stuff, but it is going to give you a false sense of her understanding of the skill for when you will need her to process the cue. So…. bark bark bark bark LOL!!!!
Looking at this video, she did just fine barking! Sure, waiting for quiet and focus forward gives you a better sense of what will happen but I think her success rate was strong enough with the barking that you can continue with the barking (unless you edited out failures).
And she is going to bark when you add motion so might as well build the barking in here. And the barking is not a problem – many of the best agility dogs to have ever walking this planet bark while they run, so she is in excellent company!
For this game, you can changed the wing out for a jump and also add a wing wrap to get into it, to add a bit of motion (just walking at first). As always, keep her success rate high! She is doing really well 🙂
>>>My biggest takeaway from this game is her willingness to come back to my hand time and time again and yes she did get multiple cookies just for that.
Yes, she loves the game 🙂 And getting the reset cookies helps keep the success rate high, which is part of the reason she is happy to keep coming back to you, so it is a really nice cycle 🙂
>> This is the stuff that’s going to make or break us when I try and do those hard ASCA elite gambles on top of just getting her more independent and off me so she doesn’t get frustrated with my turtle pace running around the course, LOL!!
Yes, definitely should help those difficult gambles! But will also help the challenges that are coming into regular Masters classes and Premier – it is amazing how much we are going to need distance skills and verbals, based on the evolution of the course challenges!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Good work on these and good for you for looking at the video between sessions!!!
Presto – night and day indeed! You were definitely a little late on the first session (thus the wide turns and the off course).
Better in the second session for sure… but you can still be earlier (I know, I am a pain haha) – as soon as his front feet hit the ground from the blue jump (#1) he needs to hear and see the next cue – you were moving in forward to the red jump and using decel to get it, so he was responding but the right can be sooner and you can move away as if serping the green jump.The verbal is still happening at takeoff which is still a little late.You are 1000% nailing the timing of the Go Tunnel verbals and physical cues – as soon as he lands from that blue jump, you are pretty clear about what you want LOL!!! So use that same timing for the right turns, but with the verbal and less running to the jump to decel – send and leave.
When you flipped it, he did a great job on the go line after the tunnel! A little more connection on that first rep can help (where he missed the jump) as you mentioned, but he got it nicely on the 2nd rep!
Nikko’s turn:
You had more send and leave on the right turns, my only suggestion is the verbal can be a tiny bit sooner (landing from blue jump). We can add a ‘brake’ arm (small, low opposite arm) as you send and leave to tighten it up, then time it to see if it is faster or not 🙂 She was a bit wide at 1:49 so I think you might be able to tighten that and have it be faster, without having to decelerate.
Her Go Tunnel lines were great!
On the full sequence – when you do the blind on the landing of the 3rd jump, be sure you are passing the wing of the jump so that she doesn’t have to go around you. The rest looked great!
She did well on her 2nd session too – I liked your send&leave on the first session better than running into the right turn jump for collection – it put you too much in the way on landing of the 3rd jump.Sole’s first session was interesting to see! The timing of your right cues was early enough that she was collecting to turn – but then you were still facing forward a bit so she had some questions. The best turns were when you decelerated – at a distance in the first session, and close to the jump in the 2nd session. So since you will not want to decelerate on those massive US Open courses, definitely try the brake arm with her. As you are saying your right cue, your outside arm comes up nice and low (hip height) and gets used as kind of a ‘whoa’ cue along with the dog side arm. This gets a nice soft turn collection without you needing to decelerate.
She had a little question on the layer out of the tunnel at 3:06 (looked t the green jump) bit then got it nicely on the next rep and on the full sequence at the end.
So overall – yes, time your verbals nice and early but play with adding that brake arm so you don’t have to slow down with any of the dogs to get the soft turns 🙂
>> And it was nice with him that the “right” verbal was enough and I didn’t need to call his name or extra hand movements.>>
When you can get up close and personal to the jump, doing it with verbal and decel is great! When you want to be further away and/or not use decel – highly recommend that soft brake arm 🙂
I do a bit of brake arm in the videos, and I can also dig up more examples if this doesn’t make sense without visuals 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi again!
She is reading the FFCs well! For her, try more of a slice line up at jump 1 as well – if you watch her from landing of 1 to entry of 2 on both sides, she has to make an extra turn to get to 2 and a slice set up will eliminate that (she will be able to drive straight to it).Plus, she will be less likely to run around the jump like she did at :19 when you leaned in a bit (you were fine to lean in, but it doesn’t really show the line to 1 based on her line up spot).
At :25, you took a tiny tiny step back so she took the front of the jump – you were saying the verbal correctly, but motion is still very powerful 🙂
She did well reading these as you moved your position further away too!
She had a harder time reading the threadles – mainly because she could see your body between the uprights – that position overrode the verbal and arm. When you moved to a position more on the wing at 1:24, she got it nicely! And lining up on a slice will help too – her line up positions had her facing directly to the wrong side of 2,so you had to handle the backside more. If she is slicing and all she is facing is your threadle position, you will have a much easier time convincing her that it is not the front of 2 🙂 That will be especially useful when you move further away up the line.
As with Kippy, I think she is better with the threadle too! The FFC is a good tool to have but I am thinking you will end up using the threadle more. As you move up the line and change your position, keep that entry wing in mind to center you position off of (rather than showing the center of the bar at all, positionally). That position on the wing is an indicator of the threadle before you release from the line so you should be able to get even smoother lines.
>> Where she struggles sometimes is not taking the jump when I’m leaving to get down the line. So I think my step might need to be adding me leaving with more and more motion while she takes the jump.>>
One thing you can do is watch her head – don’t leave as she rounds the backside wing, watch her head and when you see her turn her head to look at the bar, that is your cue to leave 🙂 And in training, throw a TON of reinforcement to the landing spot so that she learns to ignore your motion in order to maintain her commitment to the threadle jump.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
