Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi! This went well, the only oopsie was when you threw the ball into the wing LOL!! He looked good in form in general, the slow motion especially at the end looked really balanced and powerful. He doesn’t yet produce that form on ALL the reps, but he produces it frequently enough that we can add challenge. There are about a zillion ways to add challenge to this, so here are my 2 favorites based on his age:
Make the 2nd jump and oxer (ascending double). The first jump of the oxer will be at 5 feet and the 2 oxer jumps will be about 6 inches apart. First oxer bar at 4 inches, 2nd at 6”. This will challenge him to add more power and maintain a rounded form.
The other thing you can do is add motion on the single jump set up you have here. Everything is the same, except you lead out to just past jump 2 and walk forward as you release him. If that is too hard and he rushes, lead out more and move less. If it is easy… lead out less and move more.
Limit sessions to 4 or 5 reps, we don’t want to overdo it 🙂 maybe twice a week, tops. No pressure needed because he has good form developing, so we don’t need to worry – he will have an easy time with the jumping skills getting harder 🙂
Nice work!!
TracySounds good! Maybe start at 3’6″ for a couple of reps, then a couple at 4′ to have a basis of comparison. These medium sized dogs are a bit harder to find the good distances, so you can play around with it. And it will give him good experience ‘reading’ distances while you play with it 🙂
TWelcome to you and baby Maple!!! She’s adorable 🙂 and holy cow, 4 dogs, I owe you a beer!!!!
Her stay was actually pretty good!! No worries about being a bit slow or looking at you, that is totally fine for this game: we want her to be thoughtful about her body, your position, how to use all those brand new legs that keep getting longer, etc 🙂 so I think she did well! The more you play this, the less she will look at you. The only thing I would suggest is not having the other dogs around and watching soooooo intently. They don’t mean any harm, of course, they just want her cookies LOL! But being watched that closely is a lot of pressure on a baby dog, so that might have been causing her to be more tentative. There was less pressure when you switched to holding her – no stay to think about and the audience was much smaller LOL!!!
When you were holding her, you were effectively building drive to the MM and drive ahead of da momma: totally useful and fun!!!! So keep mixing that in 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyOops! Sorry! I hadn’t seen the videos (got all caught up in Le Bidet Turn haha)
On the Wind-In-Hair video – this is going well! He is responding really well to the wrap verbal AND he was driving ahead beautifully. 10 extra points for hitting the camera at the end LOL! Yes, you can put the toy on the ground to challenge the wrap and to get even more driving ahead (feel free to add more distance by moving the wing further away) but also mix in a bunch where you throw. The reps where he was looking at you were because you were throwing when he reached the jump – and at that point, there was nothing left for him to look at so he looked at you 🙂 Instead, watch his head – and the moment he locks onto the line to the jump, throw the toy. The throw will end up being earlier but then he will have the destination to drive to and he won’t look back or touch the bar.
Proofing game – yes, he looked really good on the first part, turning to his left! And so far, I think most of the pups have more value on the wing than the tunnel and that is fine – it is easy to build a ton of value to the tunnel 🙂 When you switched sides: he ‘fixed’ the error by doing the wrap when he got back to you – good boy, you can totally acknowledge that! It can be a bit of praise and a cookie, rather than a ‘no reward’ moment. That can help him understand that yes, it was the wrap that you wanted there, but the big parties are reserved for doing it right away. When he struggled again… got to a physical cue to help him (a front cross works really well for this particular set up). You got the toy out sooner on the next rep, so move up the ‘help’ to be one rep sooner, to maintain an overall high rate of success. Then since you were just working the wrap, a physical cue to the tunnel will help him get it right away (along with the verbals – those were really nice and distinct!). I think the physical cue help that will work best will involve your feet – one step to the tunnel, or a turn on the wrap. You used your upper body but I think that was not quite strong enough – the dog-side leg is going to be your most useful helper. For example, he was having a bit of trouble going into the tunnel when you were pointing or turning your upper body – because your left leg hadn’t moved. But then at 1:32 (and 1:48) when you moved your left leg: boom, right into the tunnel. Now, paying attention to rate of success: he had lots of errors on the tunnel section so make sure that when you get to 2 errors (total) that you help more so he gets it right for a whole bunch of reps in a row (5 or 6 reps). Otherwise, the pups get frustrated – and that is when he tends to get leapy at the toy even if the cue is correct (1:58). So that was more of a moment of lower-than-needed rate of success and not so much a cue moment. When you revisit this, flip the order of festivities: begin by helping him with the physical cues to match the verbals, then fade out the physical cues bit by bit while keeping the success rate really high. He will totally learn to drive away to the tunnel, but for now needs you to step towards it.
Speaking of driving to the tunnels 🙂 When you drove to them in the Smiley Face games, he totally drove ahead of you! When you tried to peel away a tiny bit too soon, he came off the tunnel (:10 and :51, for example). He looks to be committed to the tunnel for sure when he is about 6 feet from it, which is great! We’ll take it, he is only 6 months old 🙂 If he is 10 feet from the tunnel and you try to peel away, the value for chasing you is higher at the moment and that is why he comes off the tunnel. So to commit him, keep facing the tunnel (and moving towards it, even if you are not moving fast towards it) til he reaches that approximate 6 foot mark, then stay connected but you can move to the next line.
His wrap commitment is looking good! As you get ahead of him at the wings, try to keep your fingers magnetically back towards his collar – when your arm is at your side or indicating the wing, he is not always sure of which side to be on and he jockeys in and out behind you a bit (like at :29 and :42). You can also add in running in deeper to the tunnels so that you are not as far ahead on the wraps – then you can work on him driving ahead, which will also let you start to turn and do the FC even earlier. The race tracks around the outside look good, he did really well *not* wrapping in those moments!! Yay!
And great job with all the verbals 🙂Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This looked good! Question about your around verbal:
on the first rep, it was a left cue and on the next reps, it was a wrap. You were using more of an ‘out’ for the left/right turns on the other reps, so maybe that first around (there was one later too) was just an oopsie? I totally throw on the wrong words with the pups all the time – oopsie!The first race track looks really good, she is holding the line beautifully and with speed. The wraps on the 2nd run also look good – you can begin your crosses sooner. As she is exiting the tunnel, connect and send her into the wrap like you did, but decelerate sooner (as she is passing you) so just before she arrives at the wing you can do the front cross and be rotated before she exits. That will help you get further ahead of her and it will help tighten the turns too!
When you added the turn on. the tunnel exit at :50, you got a wide turn. You send her in on a go then turned her on the exit. You can switch the verbals so that just before she goes in, you call her (or give a directional) and let her see you decelerate and turn: that will help tighten up the tunnel exit (I have some games for that in coming weeks). You gave her a right cue at 1:08, but it was after she exited the tunnel so the turn wa sa little wide. You an deliver it to her when she is about a stride before the tunnel entry: she should still commit to the tunnel, but then turn right on the exit. That is *definitely* on my list of things to train with these pups! At 1:27 you gave her a go before she entered and she did no turn wide – I think by this point she was a little tired and wasn’t driving as hard as she normally would have been. And that course ended up being a bit too long, she was she slowing down – 14 obstacles/40 seconds long, which is a lot for a puppy without reinforcement. She was peppier on the last one and you rewarded a lot sooner, which is good! Try to limit the smiley faces to just 3 or 4 obstacles between rewards, because I think she starts to feel like it is too repetitive and loses steam if you go for too long at this stage. Always leave her wanting more 🙂 Her understanding is looking really strong, so you can mix things up but keep the length of sequences super short and fast moving so she stays super fast.
Nice work!!
TracyHi!
Doing this without physical cues is harder, she had some god steam coming out of her ears 🙂 When you are totally motionless and she gets it right, throw the reward (rather than cue the next thing) to affirm that yes, she was correct in that moment.
When you added speed, it was a whole new bar game LOL!! You can meet her in the middle with the motion – rather than running, maybe jog to the wing so she hears the wrap verbal while you are moving but she doesn’t get caught up in the excitement of you sprinting. That will help her process the wrap verbals and be able to override the body language. When you want her to wrap the wing that is after a tunnel (whether it is the one next to the exit or she exits on the other side), call her before she enters so that she knows to expect a cue on the exit – that will also prepare her to process the wrap verbal and then it will be much easier. She is doing really well, which is why we can ramp it up 🙂 Nice work!
TracyHi! This is also looking really strong! Nice tight turns around the wing, no drifting, and she is leaving you in the dust 🙂 On a couple of reps, you were ahead of her so she couldn’t get too far ahead but as you added distance, she had more room to drive ahead. Very nice! As you keep adding distance, you can add in a parallel line past the wing so you don’t end up stuck behind the wing or converging in towards the bar. This will challenge her to find the bar with you more laterally away on the line (I think she will be fine with it). You can move the wing over so that it is easier to run past the wing of the jump.
great job!
TracyAh yay, this is looking good!!!! The bouncing is there very nicely now and she is organizing herself to jump rather than trot. yay! When you see a change in form (like trotting in more than powering in) – my rehab vet friends tell me that it is fatigue and that we should shorten the session. I found that really interesting and it works nicely – the instant I see a form change in jumping grids or in conditioning work, I end the session (and try to do a shorter one next time) and then the form is better than ever in a few days. So, if you see her change her form, just end the session rather than raise the bar. In general, I do no more than 5 reps (even if they are not great) then leave it alone for a few days, so we work other areas of the brain and body 🙂
On the next session… I think we should see what a 6 foot distance looks like. The 5 foot distance was looking a little compressed now that she has sorted it out! But, don’t try it until maybe Friday or Saturday – let this “settle” for a few days so she can wire the muscle memory and recover. it doesn’t look like a lot of work, but it is 🙂
Great job!!!
THi! I think he liked it when your throw went awry LOL! You were throwing sooner and that helped keep his head even straighter. yay! He is jumping a non-existent bar when the dead toy is on the ground, that is interesting LOL!!! Maybe from the baby dog grids? But the toy on the ground was good for the first couple of reps, then he backed off it a little, waiting for you to move it perhaps? I think the ball generally elicits that “kick it, momma! response” so saying ‘get it’ helps and also only doing one or two reps with it on the ground so you get the drive to it before the ‘kick it momma’ kicks in. Are there other toys he might drive to that don’t elicit that response, because they are tug toys more than kick it toys? I think the Nemo ball works GREAT as the throw reward (note how he was beginning to drive ahead!!) but not as well as the dead toy. We can use one of his other tugs for that, complete with you winning the tug toy if you can beat him to it 🙂 And, mix in driving to the dead toy with the thrown toy – that will get both behaviors going really nicely!
nice job!
TracyHi there! I am very glad you were able to get to a friend’s house for this, he did REALLY nicely!!!! Yes, for the first couple of Lala reps you were a little exaggerated but then by the end of that first video, you were using more distinct tones for the lalalala versus the tunnel verbals. He was perfect on the tunnel on the first video and after he got over the little distraction he was also perfect on the wrap. if you see he is distracted, you can use a little “ready…ready….” and when he turns his focus back to you – then you can start the verbal.
On the 2nd video, he wrap was solid right from the very beginning and for whatever reason, he was not as sure of going to the tunnel at first. I don’t think your wing was further away than the other side, I think maybe he is stronger when he is on your right than on your left, in terms of going to the tunnel? By then end he was perfect though 🙂 So a bit more value on the tunnel when starting on your left and the whole game will be perfect – you can start him from the closer to the tunnel and also using body language (stepping towards it like you were adding) will totally help too. I think he is ready for the advanced level!!!
About editing videos together: which device are you using to tape the sessions? I use an iPad and then use iMovie to splice them together – it is easy. I am happy to explain how if that is the device you are using (you can also do it from an iPhone). If you are using something else, let me know and we will sort it out! Also, having them as separate clips is perfectly fine 🙂
Nice work here!!
TracyIf you prefer a more international, think of it as Le Bidet Turn.
Hopefully things are moving along nicely at your house!!
ha! That made me laugh – I also used to put sooooo much emphasis on stay behaviors and stopped contacts. Now I am all like, well, I guess I need to ask the dog what he wants to do about it LOL!!!
Hi! I think the smiley face is going well – he looked hot here, was it hot out? Also, I think he was a bit in food mode, so he was not going full throttle and that was probably why he didn’t go directly into the tunnel a couple of times when he was on your left: following the food and a bit toasty. I think your connection and body language was good here – if you rotate to him more, you will be toooo rotated 🙂 He is still really young, same age as my smaller pup and she makes the same mistakes – just young dog stuff 🙂 So 2 ideas: isolate the tunnel a bit so he gets more experience going into it. And… use a toy at this point, no more food, especially if it is hot out 🙂 Both of those combined will help ramp it up – you only want to do a couple of reps then take a break. As I am seeing, whippets run ‘hot’ and they do not want to do a ton of reps. Do 2 or 3 then take a break for several minutes so he comes back fresh and cool.
The Wind in your hair video is linked to the Smiley video, can you repost? Thanks!!!Hi!
Was this the last training of the day? He might have been mentally fatigued so it was harder for him to process the verbals. You started with a tunnel send and if he had just done all of those smiley faces… he needed a moment to come back from tunnel mode 🙂 But then when he got it, he did great! We can set up the first reps a little differently – wing can be a bit further to start, and start with a wrap cue (instead of a tunnel cue). That can help him be immediately successful, then you can add tunnel cues and move the wing in closer. He got the advanced mini sequences beautifully! I am also interested to see what would happen if this was the *middle* session of the evening. – warm up on the sent point, then try this. Just curious to know if that would help him be in the perfect state to nail the verbals… or if it has nothing to do with it at all, and the distraction is the presence of the tunnel regardless of when we present the game to him LOL!!
Great job on all of the games! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I am glad the magnetic fingers to the collar was helpful! NHis warm up wrap-to-tunnel looked great. Easy peasy.
And on the sequences – wheee! Looks great AND he is starting to turn on the speeeeeed 🙂 You had to turn on some speed too! The wraps are looking good. You can blast into the them more – when he exited the tunnel, you were already decelerated so he decelerated sooner than we need him to. That also happened on the first race track – you were decelerated when he came out of the tunnel, so he deceled too! I think his tunnel send is SOOOOO good at this point and that is putting you too far ahead. So… run into the tunnel more so you are accelerating and scrambling a bit as he exits (then decel and show the next cue). Basically, it adds challenge for you to show the cues, stay connected, say all the words LOL! I am confident he will be fine with all of that, he did a great job here!Tracy
