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Good morning! She definitely has the framework of the zig zag game here, so we can totally now focus in on getting her turning right as happily as she is turning left 🙂 My bigger pup is exactly the same (MUCH prefers left turning over right turning, and when in doubt he will offer a left turn even if it means going behind me). I think that Keiko is not as dramatically left-handed as my pup, but we can definitely focus on evening her out 🙂 I like your idea of backing up – since she can do this on 5 wings, I know that the eventual grid work will be no problem. So, go back to 3 wings for now… but we will play with the distances to see which ones gets the quick lead change. First spread them out to 10 feet between each (approximately). Do the first rep with the wing on her left side (the strong side) as a warm up. Then (unless that one goes wrong), start her with the wing on her right – and toss a reward to the other side of the middle wing when she goes to it (or you can have a reward hidden on the other side of the wing :)) We are looking for her to bounce/hop to the right to get to the other side of the 2nd wing (she can trot the first couple of feet and then hop to the side). Now, for some dogs, the 10 foot and bigger distances are perfect but for others, we can get this with the shorter distances like 5 feet. I *think* for her the bigger distances will give her more time to organize the leads, but she gets the final say LOL!!
The other thing to play with is placing the wings in an offset line rather than a totally straight line. So with the wing on her right to start, the second wing can move a foot or so over to the left – so it is easier for her to zag to it on the release. It will still be a lead change but an easier one for now, to help bring awareness to her right leads. Let me know if that makes sense, I might need more coffee 🙂Because we are training these youngsters differently, we are seeing these side preferences earlier – so we can brainstorm ways to balance them out earlier, which will be great for when they are 18 months or 2 years old and ready to start trialing: they will already be balanced! yay!
Tracy
God morning! This is exactly the right set up! He did a great job! Having the stay totally helps so you can lead out. I did chuckle at how he looked at you like you were crazy on that first rep LOL!!!! This first session or two is designed to teach the pup the framework of the game by getting the in-then-out between the wings. I think he was totally getting the idea here, so now we can tweak it to get him to bounce it more (bounce back and forth). He might just start doing it because he recognizes the set up now. Or, you can spread it out to get the bounce: try for 4 feet between the wings if you have room (will probably be outside if the weather is decent or if you have a long hollway with carpet? If you don’t have easy access to more room – 2 wings will still work perfectly to create the skill (after all, a serp jump only has 2 wings haha!!) You can spread the 2 wings out in the space you used here to be 4 or 5 feet – lead out a little past wing 2 and then play 🙂
Great job! He is doing so many wonderful things!
Tracy
Good morning! Sends’n’serps looked fabulous!! His commitment was super lovely, even outdoors and even in the wind 🙂 Yay! So exciting! 2 tiny details: when he was on your left side on the first part of the video, you were closing your shoulder forward more like a post turn and not as much like a serp. It is a good camera angle to see it – your arm was out ahead and not pointed back to him. Compared that to when you switched sides and he was on your right: that was much server, with your right arm back towards him more (like when he was coming in to touch the target over the summer). That produced an even better slicing serp line! So on the left, try to have your arm locked back towards him like you did on the right.
The only other thing is that he didn’t commit to one wing send towards the end – a little more connection will help – it was just a little blooper 🙂
You can add more speed now (running through the serp) and also try the advanced game where you move the wing so the serp jump turns into a backside serp jump 🙂
You were using your verbals – it was hard to hear if they were wrap or left/right verbals, but for the serps the left/right is better suited because he isn’t fully wrapping the wing.Finding the jump also looked terrific!! He was just about perfect on finding it – he had one blooper where you were trying to throw early at :31 to reward him locking on the line… and he skipped the jump at the very last moment LOL! He is very nimble haha! You tossed it a little later on the next reps and he was back to being perfect.
He was solid on his commitment when you were parallel (position 1) and when you were way ahead (position 2, his favorite so far :)) So now you can be parallel but not as close to the jump – start moving up the line increasingly further and further away from the jump.
You can also start moving the jump further away from the tunnel. I don’t think he will have any trouble with those 2 challenges, so you can add one more 🙂 After the wing wrap, run all the way to the tunnel with him and touch the tunnel so you can’t get too far ahead – then run forward and see if he an find the jump by driving ahead of you (always a useful skill with a whippet!!!)Great job on both of these, I think he is doing really well!
TracyHi! I am excited for your new contact equipment – perfect timing!!!!!
Your videos are marked private, can you reset to unlisted?
I am looking forward to seeing you LIVE in a few minutes 🙂Tracy
Good morning!!
>>I tried to stay connected and let her commit to the wrap before moving. She had an amazing session and I didn’t hit record! >>
Ah! The best sessions are the ones where the camera doesn’t record!! But I am glad it went well 🙂
On the video: she was so awesome about engaging with the wings immediately! On the one-jump segment of the session for the slice jumps – this is going well! The handling and which-hand-goes-where is hard on this, because we are basically doing whatever it takes to get her to slice around the wings LOL!! I though you did fine and she was bouncing back and forth really nicely, a great start! You can go up to the 3 wings for this now, she is ready. For the cookie toss to start, toss it closer to the first wing and I think you will find it easier to show her the lines.
On the wing-to-serp: NICE! Good question you asked yourself about being too far away on the first rep 🙂 You fixed the position on the next reps and it looked great on that side – she passed the serp jump but then you quietly called her name on the next rep and she came right in. The treat dispenser was in the perfect spot on that side. When you switched sides, the treat dispenser was a little off the line, which caused you to move away from the serp jump more than needed – so you can add challenge by moving the treat dispenser closer to the exit wing and then your line will move towards it as well. Now, she is going to want to go fast (yay!) which is going to make you want to go fast – but if you go fast and she runs past the jump, it is because there is too much motion. So, even if she wants to go fast, resist the temptation to for you to also go fast. Move slowly through the serp and she will be able to ‘see’ the line better and come in. We can add your running later on. It is hard to be on Team Chill when the pups start going really fast LOL!!! I feel that pain 🙂
>>I would like to start focus on my chatter though
Do you mean when you are talking to her between reps? I think you are fine, you aren’t over-chattering. You are talking to her while rewarding and setting up – and that will actually help make an easier transition to the ring when you won’t have cookies or toys, all you will have is your conversation. In your chatter, you will find yourself using some words regularly. I say “ready ready” a lot to my dogs in between reps or as I set up. And then the ready ready becomes exciting so when we are going into the ring, I chat with them and they get focused and excited. So keep on chatting her up! And then you will end up with ‘trigger words’ that will help get her focused and happy and pumped up without treats or toys, if that makes sense.
Separately from the chatter – on the wing to serp, you can add in your left/right directionals on the wing. And you can also call her name to help her come in on the serp if you think she is heading directly to the treats 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHello and welcome!!! It has been a blast watching you and Skippy Sue develop as a team – you are putting in the work and we are seeing the results. SO FUN!!!! And great job on the Sunday in the live seminar. I am looking forward to more (and I will be sending your jacket back asap, it has been an insane week of sitting in vet hospital parking lots!!)
T
Hi! Yes, totally great to revisit the games! I am sure Kindle was happy to play. 🙂
>> Can you believe I got the best turn when I used our verbal for a tight turn??? Imagine! Not that verbals override body, but she is a very verbal dog, and I’ve worked hard on them too.>>
Ha! I love it! And when she is more experienced, verbals can and will override body language, thankfully 🙂 It is worth it to work hard on them because you will enjoy the benefits in the future 🙂
On the videos – I had to watch the beginning of the first one a few times because I thought you said you needed alcohol LOL!!!!! Cracked me up!
This is going well – you were basically hashing out the transition and timing and I am really liking the results so far! The first rep was late, she jumped big. But then all of the rest were spot on: you decelerated nice and early and rotated before she passed you: so she was able to process how to approach the jump AND turn tight – a much prettier jumping effort and she was also tight. Plus the verbal. All good! And the exit line connection looked great too. And your high energy verbal party along with the reward seemed to really have impact. Happy dance!!!!
Serp exit line:
You asked a great question about the difference between the threadle cue and the serp exit line. There are 3 major differences:
First, the verbal 🙂 The threadle IN IN verbal is a trained cue that we support with the arm cue (inside arm or outside arm, I use both depending on the situation. So the serp verbal will be different.
Second – position – on the threadles we are positioned more in the threadle gap and on the serp were are positioned sliding across the landing side of the bar. (Position isn’t always perfect, though :))
Third – arm and connection – on the serp exit line, in this training process, we are using the opposite arm low and across our hip, very subtle. Then, we fade it down to just the connection and eye contact it produces so pretty soon you won’t need that cross arm at all 🙂 The threadle arms looked different: If I am using a cross arm on a threadle, it is much higher, across my body (above my boobs, at my opposite shoulder). And if I am using the dog-side arm (not the cross arm), I swing it back a bit like I am opening a door (I don’t swing my arm back on serps, I just hold it there and run :). Let me know if that makes sense – I am pretty sure I have a video of the differences somewhere!On the video: what did she do at the beginning? It was hard to see what happened but you ended up on the ground LOL!
On the serp jump: first rep was perfect! Second rep you were asking for an in in, I think, but you had serp position and motion (and it appears like she also likes it when you turn your feet a little on the threadles). On the serp – stay nice and close like you did and now you can start to soften the obviousness of the toy across the body – make the arm smaller but maintain the eye contact, it was fabulous!Sequence 1: this is going well!! It is hard to find the perfect line up spot for that first jump. She didn’t seem to struggle with the jumping effort when she was close here (she was a little pushy on the way :)) so maybe experiment with having her a few feet further back and see if connection helps the jumping effort on jump 1?
Your FC on jump 3 looked really good in terms of timing, rotation, commitment, connection. Nice! She did really well. My only suggestion on the FC (and on the spin) is that you can move your position more to the takeoff side of the jump and less on the landing side. It is a tiny detail but the dogs will jump out towards our position – so being on the landing side was creating a tiny bit more of a slice than needed. More coming on exactly where to be to create the best possible turn. I really liked the spin, it looked well-timed and well-connected, so she was able to bend her body nicely. YES!!! And great exit line connection on that one too.Seq 3 video: the speed circle connection is looking good on the first rep and also on the 2nd rep when you took her to the serp.
The connection in and out of the crosses is looking really good too on the 3rd rep! With this, same as the wraps – you can be earlier. Decel a little (not much decel needed on these, they are not as tight) but definitely start to do the rotation as she is passing you and long before she gets to the takeoff. That will help you get a tighter turn (she was a tiny bit wide on them, because the info was a little late) but also on the spins, it will get the reconnection to her sooner. At :47 and 1:17she had landed and you were still executing the spin, so she looked up at you for a moment – reconnection after a blind takes a while (in dog years haha) so getting it all done before she takes off is ideal. And, if it unveils a question from her about commitment: perfect! That is what we are here to sort out. I like to push the boundaries of commitment to see how early we can be and the dogs still commit 🙂 You were earlier with the rotations on the last rep and she was very happy to commit and turn – so I bet she will let you turn wicked early! The goal is that your rotation is completed in time to see her taking off for the turn jump. More coming on that this weekend 🙂At the end of that sequence, out of the tunnel – we had our first big takeoff of these drills (:51). In terms of commitment: She doesn’t question whether or not to take the jump, it is more like she is asking *how* to take the jump. I think we can tweak the connection more to help her and see what happens. On this rep, you were softer in the connection, with your arm low but a little forward/parallel to your body. That means you could see her pretty well, peripherally, but she can’t see you all that well (so she launches). Try those tunnel exits with your arm waaaaay back to her collar (still low like you had it) and a more direct eye contact… as you keep running like you did (I know, I am a pain in the ass LOL!) and let’s see if that helps the commitment we want. On the next rep, you were more connected as I described and she had a much prettier jumping style! At 1:20 and 1:40, you were softer in connection but not as far ahead – so she had a jumping choice somewhere between the 1st rep and the 2nd rep. In places where you don’t need to be as far ahead, you can use this – but I also want you to be able to get waaaaay ahead at times because she is so fast 🙂
One other overall suggestion for this sequence: you were nailing the connection (woot!) so on your next training session (on these or any of the others, whichever you like) – try to see if you can still nail it and stand up a little more on the bigger lines. You were bending a little, and that might slow down your running (again, she is fast, we don’t want to slow you down at all :)) Now, the bending over with a smaller dog is a definite European style of handling the smaller dogs, so if you can bend a bit to get the great connection AND get where you need to be on course…. YAY!! I will be jealous LOL!! But if it inhibits your footspeed, then we will play around with just running in a more upright position (whatever is natural and comfy) and maintain the connection and commitment.
Overall, these were really lovely training sessions – really only one jumping decision that was not desirable, bars looking good and TONS of commitment and connection!! Great!!!!!
Tracy
Thanks! Keep more posted on how they do, feel free to put up a video if you need help or if you want to brag a bit 🙂
The emergency vet visit went well… my tiny papillon made a poor life decision and had to get some teeth pulled. Ouch! But she will be back to 100% and making other poor decisions soon 🙂
TracyHi! Yes, connection is a powerful took and we need to tune it for each dog 🙂
The pinwheely drills looked really good! Great connection, earlier timing, spot on verbals. I liked her turns!! Nice!!!On the exit line connections:
On the FC wrap at :22 and :28 and :39, try to run more directly to the tunnel entry you want on a tighter running line to it. The exit line connection was great but you were moving to the other end of the tunnel, so the physical cue was not the same as the connection line and she had a question (looked at you) as she came around the wing). The spin looked good, but she was a little wide probably to be sure it was the line you wanted. Exit line connection looked really clear!On the serps: on the one jump reps you mentioned being closer to the jumps, I thought you were fine and so did she – nice turns! You can play with being closer just to be sure she can handle the pressure of you closer to the line, but she looked good and her line looked good here and also at :47 after the tunnel, really nice!
On the reps after that – you mentioned using too much connection as part of the reason she was threadling instead of serping… I think it was actually not enough connection LOL!! Look at her a little more as she exits – but also tell her that it is a backside and be closer to the entry wing to support the line. You were far up the line, connection was a little forward and on the first rep where she Threadled, your exit line connection arm was really early: so she said “aha! Threadle! I know that!!” And once they begin to threadle… they need to specifically be asked to NOT threadle 🙂 When she exits the tunnel, the correct serp side is not that clear so it is perfectly fine to give a cue to support it. On the demo videos, you might hear me telling Voodoo to “GO” right before the tunnel, so he would exit straight. He was deep in handler focus mode so he wanted to threadle and the GO verbal (or a backside verbal, before they enter the tunnel) totally helps get the line.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHa! That is funny about the squirrel, the shirt that I am wearing in some of the videos says “SQUIRREL” on it LOL!!
And yes – the more that Cody has gotten confident, the faster he has gotten. He is a big dog with a biiiiig stride, so giving him info before takeoff on the previous jump sounds perfect. We can drench his line in info: say it early and say it a few times so at some point it will be perfect!
TGood morning! Thank you for the pedigree, I will compare it to the whippet daddy of my pup – I have a friend with a young WildOut whippet and the dog is also amazing. Such nice lines and dogs!!!!
>> Normally when I need more lead out or we are out of stay reps, I cue him back to a treat behind. But with that I can’t really keep connection as he heads back for the treat so we tried to manage without it.
That cookie toss start is something we do with the pups in some of the foundation games – if you toss the treat far enough (while you are already in your lead out position), you can totally make the connection work 🙂 You will get even better at the fine art of cookie tossing LOL!
>>I might end up just having someone hold him at the start line if we are out of stays.
That works! Or if he has a mat behavior or a station, you can try that too as long as it doesn’t slip out from under him. Or, you can do a wing wrap or a cone wrap to start: send him away to a wing or cone and then you will be moving up the line to the official jump #1 ahead of him, same as a lead out.
>> I now distinctly remember looking at the tunnel and not the dog and he’s always going to tell on me when I’m wrong
Ha!! Young dogs are magical for telling us when we are wrong LOL!
>>Just so I’m clear on the timing of the exit line stuff, it’s basically like a flyball drill where we commit them to the box, but start heading to the runback before they make it TO the box. Obviously building up distance as they have the commitment to the obstacle. So my front cross/spin might theoretically be finished before he’s fully taken off for the jump?>>
Yes, exactly – countermotion so that we are turned and gone before they arrive at their destination (jump or box). Do you ever do ‘pop offs’ in flyball training (might be a different name in different areas) where we are close to the box and cue the turn then we turn and exit towards the dog in a 90 degree line, to enoucrage more “snap” and turn on the box – basically an over rotated exit. Not sure I am explaining it clearly 🙂 But it is early commitment and exit to get great turns.
We could really go down the rabbit hole of how flyball and agility commitment behaviors can help each other! My jump line commitment training has saved my butt on a number of occasions in flyball! LOL!
T
Wheeee! She seemed to really like this one and she was terrific at finding the jump! Nice! A couple of little suggestions for this set up then ideas on how to progress it:
– on the reps where you were stationary and sending her ahead, you can give her the go on cue before she enters the tunnel (and again when she exits) so she exits looking straight. She was looking at you a tiny bit. And on those reps, you can throw sooner (as she is one the way to the jump) so she doesn’t collect to turn back to you (that is where some dogs will slow way down or drop bars)
– when you get way ahead (nice hustle!!) she had no trouble finding the jump but she was looking at you a little – I think it was because you were looking ahead. So add a little more connection to her eyes by turning your head back to her as you run, so she can see the connection and will feel more confident looking at the jump.You covered most of the ideas in the training set up! I think the only one you didn’t do was being waaaay ahead and really later (I think it will be easy for her :))
So – you can definitely add more distance between the tunnel exit and the jump! This was a pretty good distance already, but you can work up to adding in another 10 or 15 feet to this 🙂
The other thing to add is getting her to drive ahead as you are behind on the bigger distances – if you go all the way to the tunnel and touch it, she will need to drive forward when that jump ifs soooo far away – and motion might be a distraction for her if you are moving (or not, she might not be distracted by it at all haha) If it is no problem to drive ahead, add in lateral distance and see how far away you can be while she is driving ahead!
She was looking forward really nicely, so you can balance this a bit by cuing and rewarding a turn on the tunnel entry (and doing a front cross before she enters) so she doesn’t go straight unless cued.Great job!!
TracyHi! This is also looking really good! She was definitely thinking her way through it but she got it right 🙂 Nothing more needs to be done with the handling at this distance – it helped her see what she needed to. She was beginning to offer more of a canter than a trot on the last couple of reps, and that is what we want. Usually that develops by the 2nd or 3rd session – so try another session with the 4 wings and see if she bounces/canters more. When that bouncing percolates and she bounces more than trots, you can add the 5th wing! You can also go back to 3 wings and shorten the distances – so that will ask her to make the lead changes faster 🙂 which will also require you to handle faster 🙂 The ideal distance to get it to eventually would be 4 or 5 feet.
Great job!
Tracy
