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Hi! Very nice session here!!!! No worries about not doing a lot of wraps – he is great at those so you don’t need a ton of balancing right now.
On the serps – the angle at the start Seemed to help at the beginning, and then it looks like you angled it back into the ‘flat’ position pretty quickly. He did a great job!! And, 2 other factors helped:
On the first side, the toy placement made it slightly more of a post turn than a serp, but that is fine because it made it easier to take the jump and build value, with the toy being less of an obvious distraction. And, doing it on sand slows him down a little so it gives him a little more time to process haha!!!
On the second side – the toy placement was more challenging – I couldn’t see it on the video but his line made it pretty obvious 🙂 he did REALLY well!!! So…. next step is to make the toy placement harder and more of a true serpy slice by putting it out basically parallel to the exit wing of the serp – he will kinda be able to see it as he comes around the send wing, but will need to be able to serp on a tight slice to get to it. You can place it out there and then angle the jump to make it easier to get it started at first. The jump angle can be even more obvious than what you had here, because the toy position will be harder.
Great job, he is really figuring it out and this will allow you to be able to run run run run and not have to help much on the serps 🙂Tracy
Hi! Yes, the 4 footers make the brain hurt because it has to be so quick! That is why I prefer 5 foot bars: easier for both the human and the dog LOL!!
He looks really good in these – lots of good challenges but also so much speed and focus on his work. Yay!!!!
Sends and serps:
the sends are looking good!!! And all of the balance reps looked great, you had good timing, good connection, good verbals – it looks like he had NO questions. He almost popped behind you one time (2nd rep of the fc I think) but that was because you had hit the MM and looked forward, so it was more about a slight break in connection as you cued the reward.
On the serps – a couple of ideas! You can give him a bar to look at – that can help provide a strong visual on the serp jump to draw his eyes off the MM 🙂 And, since he missed it on the first rep of each side: move more slowly through the serp. Motion is the devil sometimes 🙂 so if you are moving slowly, walking, he is more likely to be able to see the serp jump and not just run to the MM. You will need to send to the wing from further away to be in position near the serp jump to move more slowly, but I think he will be fine with that 🙂
One other thing – try not to help by dropping your serp arm back. You can look at your hand or call his name – but I think adding arm motion will end up causing a little too much reliance on it, plus it will cause you to have to time the motion as a cue – too early and you will get a threadle (that happened towards the end of the video, you dropped your arm back as he rounded the wing so he read it as a threadle) . And too late and he will run by the serp jump. So, just leave the arm out there and let him read it 🙂 It will make your life easier in the long run!
One really notable and exciting thing is how well he is already reading the slices – it is a really hard skill for ALL dogs and he is making it look easy. YAY!!!!I loved your first tunnel session!!! Great camera angle. Having the toy out bright and early is helpful!!! Lures are not a bad thing as long as you fade them quickly… which you were doing by the end of the session. It was cool to see that he was turning his head in the tunnel on all the left and right verbals before he exited! And having the toy out there early was good because he was turning in the tunnel but the toy placement added clarity on the exit line. By the end of the session when you were (appropriately) delaying the toy throw, he was already turning to the correct line on both the left and rights. LOVED it!!! And without motion, the GO verbal is harder but the early toy placement really helped! So on the next session, add in a bit of motion – one step sends and then let him see you step away laterally for the left and right. And big acceleration for the GO GO GO! You might need to start further back or from a wing, because his speed was impressive and he was SUPER excited to play 🙂
On the second tunnel video – actually, this is a pretty good session too! I know you mentioned it was harder, I think it was probably just uncomfortable but overall went really well. You got progressively earlier on your left cues (and he maintained commitment) and there was a clear difference in the verbal/handling for the GO plus you got ahead to make connection when you wanted the go line to the far wing. The only thing I would tweak is on the left and right verbals, let him see the body language to match it – a little decel/standing up then and obvious turning away (exaggerate if needed :)) Your verbals were good but you were turning and facing forward, so that adds more propulsion than we need on the left or right. So if he hears the verbals and see you also turning, he will turn tighter. He *was* turning left and right, but still figuring out how tight the line was and a little more body language will help establish it. His commitment looked great and his wing commitment also looked great! And you were rocking the connection. So I don’t think you need to play a smaller version of this, you can do this big crazy one and you’ll see him continue to get better and better at it 🙂
Great job!!
TracySo cool – he is a great tugger too!! I just adore this little guy and you are doing a great job with him!
He had a question on the first wrap – I think because you made it a little more challenging by having him go to the inside (between the wing and the tunnel) and turn away from you. The voice was saying wrap and the body was saying tunnel 🙂 He found it easier when you sent him around the outside of the wing (so he was turning towards you and turning towards the tunnel) – you can start that way and reward all that! That little warm up made it easier for when you repeated the hard challenge of having him come to the inside of the wing and turn away (he nailed it at the end, after the tunnel). His response to the tunnel verbal looks *awesome*!! Good boy!
He didn’t need a lot of body support for the tunnel cue, so you can keep being pretty stationary on those – but for the wraps, try to use a little more connection and make sure your feet are pointing to the wing (not the tunnel) to help him out. He is a smartie, so he won’t need you to do that for long, but it will help get him started on the road to perfect verbal understanding.
Great job!
TracyHowdy! He is so funny – that delay before he released where he looked at you like “wait, don’t you like the stay better than the jump?” LOL!!!
I compared this video to the 3 foot distance – I like his form on the 3 foot distance better. On that one, he organized immediately and bounced between the 2 jumps. On this one, he tapped his front feet on the ground before jump 1 then took and extra stride between the jumps. But… it is possible that he was thinking about the sit and about you, and not about the target. So, you can try the next session with one rep at this distance and one rep at 3’6” and one rep at 3’ – all with you right at the target (looks like a pet tutor?). It is good to obsess about finding the perfect jumping form because it will be so much better for when he is on full courses 🙂
About the start line position: in general, a down is fine for when you are doing sequences or the zig zag game here… but a down for this set point (and the jumping game I am adding this week) will make it too hard for getting organized and pushing off the rear for the first jump. That is because to get out of the down position and over a jump, the dogs have to stand, move forward, then shift back – too hard to do when you are 6 inches from a jump LOL!! On a real sequence, he would be 10 feet away and then he would have plenty of room. So, if the sit is hard or causing stress – maybe a stand stay? I don’t mind that he currently likes his sit stay better than he likes his jumping – that is GREAT because it is easier to shift the value to the jumping than it is to convince the dogs to stay if they already love the jumping. 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense – nice work here!!
TracyHi! I am loving your makeshift course, very clever!!! yay! The exit line connection looks fabulous: just keep moving through it as you exit the cross, because staying in motion will make it harder to get and maintain that connection (plus it increases speed and tightens the turns because she will drive so hard back to you – but we are all good in the speed and tightness department for now, she is great!!)
About the wrong courses or u-turns – On the send, try to keep the send arm calmer, with fingers pointed more to her collar (which also means lower). When you use it to indicate the send out ahead too much, that will break connection which then also breaks commitment. That could be the cause of any errors – using random things like lawn ornaments is great because there is no pre-determined value and you will get a really clear picture of how your connection supports or breaks commitment. 🙂
great job! Have a safe trip home!
TracyHi! You and Cody looked great here!! I watched it a few times and it looks like your connection was rock solid. You even saw the moment on the lead out when he was looking away then looked back at you, then you released. Yay! He was looking out to the side for some reason but you were really connected so it was not a disconnection or handling error. You can turn sooner to get a tighter turn on the middle pinwheel jump: because he is big with a long stride, you can start turning as he is jumping the jump after the tunnel.
2 additional challenges to add now 🙂 More speed! On a full sized course, you would be hustling more: so in the smaller space, put the bars way down and run as close as possible to each jump and the tunnel. That can simulate the feel of a real course and might add challenge to the connection.
The other thing you can add is the verbal cue element – timing it properly. Knowing Cody’s stride length, I think you should try to start saying the verbal as he is taking off for the previous jump, rather than waiting for landing. You can start it and then repeat it when he lands, but starting it as he is lifting off will make it early & timely 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyYes! I will post it this afternoon (currently sitting in the parking lot of the emergency vet – all will turn out OK but hopefully we can get the dog fixed up ASAP!!) basically it is a proofing game that we have been teaching the pups, so I will post it up for you all! Thanks for the reminder, you knew I would forget LOL!!!
T
Howdy!
>>So Kindle is a Blue Cedar dog out of Ginger/Tac. She is essentially/mostly BC/Border Terrier/Whippet/JRT in that order. Everyone thinks she is a JRT because of her color…although you must’ve noticed her whippet body! She is scruffy perfection as far as I’m concerned! >>
I was guessing she was a Blue Cedar! My mixy mix, Hot Sauce, is half Blue Cedar. And my guess Kindle’s whippet line goes to Poeta? If so, they are totally also related to my two puppies. Fun!
>>As for reinforcement hierarchy, that is tough! Kindle loves all things lol.
This is a high quality problem. You can go from super excited voice/body/toy play as the highest value, all the way down to a cheerio and a quiet ‘good girl’ for the not-as-delightful reps.
>>Kindle does care about being right, very much actually
I got the impression that she over-cares, meaning she cares so much she tried soooo hard on the next rep which sometimes results in jumping higher! My Blue Cedar girl is the same way on certain things: “That wasn’t perfect? I will try HARDER”. LOL!
>>sometimes I get so frustrated with her jumping the ‘no’ comes out as a reaction, sometimes she scares me! I will definitely be better about that, because deep down under the crazy, she is a sensitive soul!>>I feel that! Half the time we are just trying to prevent them from breaking themselves in half LOL!
>>Ok…Team Chill…that I’m struggling with! So…my human life…I’m boring as…I am not the life of the party, I’m introverted. BUT, when it’s me and my dogs…especially when we play…I get…excited! LOL
Same here – I am most definitely not chill AT ALL in fact I am rather twitchy… so my mantra is “Fake your chill” with the young dogs. Totally faking it, but the dogs think I am chill so it works nicely.
>> I have found with Kindle I need to handle aggressively, but not be wild myself. THIS I am struggling to figure out!
It is a normal struggle with a fast, young dog: you need to move fast but be smooth. We will get it sorted out!
>>Did I mention how much I hate lead outs? If I were a dog…I would probably be Kindle…we are a good match! lol I have been telling myself I need to LO more…I just have a hard time making myself. Do you teach impulse control for humans?>>
This is where you will totally need to fake your chill 🙂 Fake it til ya make it LOL!!! I carry something to keep myself calm in practice – check out the running with drinks game from the live class 🙂
>> While I think I generally do have good connection (thanks to Kindle teaching me it is a must!) I think I struggle with keeping connection and still handling. That and the whole picture of not running wild, but delivering her the information timely and handling aggressively.>>
I agree that your connection is generally strong! She is only 2, which means she is still learning sooooo many things and you are learning how to handle her – it takes a couple of years to get it smooth and into a good groove.
>>Obviously the spin completely turns your shoulders and gives a more clear cue of the turn than the wrap…do I just need to move sooner with the wrap to get a better turn? Work her head turning on that type of jump? She also had the worst jump form over that one. I felt like she needed to see a rhythm change more as she approached the jump?>>
Yes yes and yes 🙂 I think of it as a transition: as she is exited the previous obstacle before a wrap, you start to decelerate. Then as she is passing you and beginning to commit, you are rotating. That decel is the key!
>>I hope you don’t grow tired of me too quick! Luckily my dog is super cool! LOL
Ha!!! I think we will have fun!
T
Hi! It was great to see you at the seminar – it is crazy how well Zoom connects us all! I am glad to hear that the boys did well with the games 🙂 I am not surprised that your youngster, Buddy, needed more support – that is totally normal. Keep up the great job with the magnet fingers and keep me posted 🙂
Tracy
Yay! Yes – the fingers move with the dog. Not ahead of the dog, and they don’t stay behind the dog when you are using distance. Have fun!
Hi Wanda! It is great to see you back here and in the live seminars too!!!!! Always fun to have you in class 🙂 I am glad your pups are doing so well – keep me posted on how they do with these games!!
TracyHello! Yay, fun times with the mixy mix dogs! Give me the details – what is she a mix of, and where is she from? Looks like JRT and Staffy in there? And some whippet? She is adorable and FUN FUN FUN FUN!!!! Can’t wait to learn more about her (I might be a bit biased because I have a house full of mixy mix/BorderJack/BorderWhippet/etc dogs 🙂 )
Apologies in advance for the long reply, I get excited by developing training plans for cool dogs like her!
Thank you for telling me a bit about the jumping stuff that is a high priority: I have found that better commitment and better connection can work to improve jumping! And, you won’t have to run as fast… which also improves jumping because our sport mix dogs then don’t try to chase us as much 🙂 Motion is indeed distracting!!! And since she is just 2, she is sorting out about a million things and trying to do it all while going super fast. Fun!!!
On the first video – this was perfect for us to begin to sort out how to help get a better jumping style! I have a bunch of ideas for ya to get us started – she reminds me of a couple of my dogs, so I think these will help!!
First – because she is so drivey and clearly loves that disc, we can develop a reinforcement hierarchy for great effort, good effort, and ‘we didn’t really love that one’ effort 🙂 A lot of her jumping choices are directly influenced by the handling, so the rewards will help her stay settled in her jumping form while you can play with different handling. The disc gets used for the great effort. A tuggie or great cookies (if she likes those) can be for the good efforts – and a boring cookie can be for the ‘we didn’t love that one’ effort. At this early stage, I want to reward a LOT (but not all with the high value disc) because on the video, when you didn’t reward she would get try harder on the next rep, but that turned into over jumping more rather than settling more. And I think we can take out telling her any “no” type of things right now – the reinforcement hierarchy will do that for us and will also keep her in a more settled form, if that makes sense. Plus, some of the errors where she was told she was wrong were actually handling errors, so that is more reason to give her a lower value reward rather than no reward or a no marker.
so if you see a gorgeous jumping form and/or great response to a cue – go wild with a disc. Wheeee! If you see a really nice form/response: praise, tuggie, yummy cookies. If it was not great, either keep going to reward a great one or if you stop, tell her it was nice and give her a lower value cookie. If she splats a bar – you can stop if you want, but be quiet/boring about it, reset it, try again – then reward instantly if she gets it.Tell me more about her likes & dislikes in terms of rewards and we can plan 🙂
And, about the rewards – on the regular connection lines, we want her to look at her jump lines, so you can toss your rewards out on the line rather than from your hands – that will help her think more about her lines and less about driving to you or to the high value reward. So for example – if she is exiting the tunnel, looking at the jump, makes a nice jumping form: toss the disc out on the line. That will encourage her to look forward and choose better takeoff spots on the lines.
The other thing I think will help is if you join what I affectionately call “Team Chill” – I am a founding member of Team Chill LOL!!! This is when we handlers are very calm, very boring, very smooth, super connected – to allow our very drivey young dogs to sort out how to use their bodies on course. You will see on the live videos (I will be posting them soon) that we did a game where the handlers ran with an open bottle of water in their hands… that was to get them to be on Team Chill and be smoooooth and connected. What that will get Kindle to do is be able to look at her lines and not be quite as excited about going fast and chasing your lines. That would include the start – if she has a stay, I recommend having her in a stay, lead out, make a connection, release quietly 🙂 When you send her behind your back to start, it is hard to get connection and both of you are going full steam ahead – which was leading her to not choose the best takeoff spots.
Most of our mixy mix dogs need us to be on Team Chill when they are young 🙂 Then when they figure out how to sort out their bodies, we can be on Team No Chill and run fast and yell loud and all the things 🙂 Let me know if that makes sense – speaking for myself, it is HARD to be calm and chill but totally helpful for the dog 🙂
You had a really lovely moment of Team Chill on the first video – at 2:24 when you were adding the verbals…. SO NICE! More of that will get us even smoother jumping because you will be able to show her more connection and also earlier timing. She tended to jump too high when the timing was late, we will keep playing with the timing she needs. For timing, try to keep that good connection and a nice low arm, but turn your shoulder sooner. She exits the tunnel, and you are smoothly turning as soon as she is out. And when she lands from a jump, you are smoothly turning to the middle jump or moving forward to the tunnel. We will see how early you can turn and build up the commitment, which will give her more time to choose takeoff points.Two things that seemed to be consistently hard for her in the regular connection video was good form on the jump after the tunnel when she was on your right side, and good form on the pinwheel jump in the middle. For the jump after the tunnel, I think having a Team Chill style of connection really helped her! When you had your arm low and back and you were super connected and not moving that fast… she did really well!! If the arm was higher and you were moving faster, she had trouble. And on the middle jump, I think it was a combination of you can turn sooner (connection was really good, but if you turn your shoulders when she lands from the previous jump then she can make an earlier adjustment) and also that she does not turn her head when she is turning – the front part of her body is looking straight, so she jumps longer. If we can get her to turn her head as she approaches the jump: boom! You will have great turns. We have started teaching this in the puppy program, here is how to start it. It is in the context of tight turns but it works great for these pinwheely turns too!
Your exit line connection is looking really good, great job using the arm across the body!!! Working backwards from the end of your video: I think your timing on the reps at 1:18 and :57 was awesome, look at how well she turned, YEAH! And great exit line connection. My only suggestion is to keep moving as you exit the turn so she can drive out for the reward. Now, looking back at the beginning of the video – you were a bit later in your timing there, so she didn’t quite know how to jump the bar. If she has a splat moment on the bar, no need to tell her no, because she didn’t have the info in time from you to make the adjustment – try to do the next rep with earlier timing then have a big disc party when the jumping is good. You can decelerate into the turn too – as she is exiting the tunnel, slow down before you rotate because she can process the slowing down and start to shift herself into the turn before the jump.
Nice work here!! Let me know what you think!
TracyOh lordy, DEMI!!!!! Did she just want an expensive spa treatment? I am very glad to hear she is doing well and will be back in action soon 🙂
Tracy
Hello! I was great seeing you at the seminar!!!!! Thanks for coming 🙂
>>I am confused about how long to keep the arm across the body. i set the exercise up with jumps 18 feet apart. Kasoom my 2 yr old is 21 ” and very long strides dog. i found that once I made the connection with him with my arm across my body as he was finishing the turns, I could just move forward and continue supporting him with my inside arm. >>
Correct! If I am understanding you correctly, you made connection then relaxed your ‘outside’ arm and went back to regular connection on the dog-side arm. That sounds perfect.
>>But then I rewatched the tapes (5th time) and saw you kept your arm across your body all the way to the tunnel. i realize we are training new skills for humans as well as dogs, and we are emphasizing things. But it is much easier to run forward, than on the side, once the dog understands the line.>>
Part of that was me exaggerating for the video 🙂 And part of that was probably because some of the demos were with my young dog (the blue merle whippety dog, who just turned a year old) – I was holding the exit line connection until he turned his head the new direction.
So with Kasoom, you might find he changes lines really fast so you don’t need to hold it long at all. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
Tracy
