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Hi!
I feel your pain about hauling tunnel bags! I have a little cart to lug them around in 🙂 I think the tunnel game went pretty well, not awkward at all! To be honest, I think running a young dog just feels awkward 🙂 All the reps looked strong for the most part. You needed a little more connection at :39 (you were ahead and not connected, so he went to you rather than the tunnel) but overall it went well! Two things can help make it feel less weird: using a toy 🙂 Food is not a stimulator in this situation for him, so you will get accuracy but not a lot of speed. I think he is ready for the ‘more speed’ part of things. Also, as you mentioned, spreading it out – more distance will also get more speed, which will feel less awkward (but is also more difficult). You had more distance on the last rep and he liked it 🙂>>On the plus side, he was SO focused! There were some people walking by and cars pulling in and out and he really did great. Lots of smells, as this is a park/nature preserve. Super proud of him. Even after about 15 minutes of training (with breaks and play), he was still looking at me like, come on lady let’s do something.>>
That is *awesome*!!!!! Based on his focus, it looked like you were in a deserted area. But he was simply ignoring all the distractions – I love it! Good boy!
Great job on the minny pinny: Exactly what he needed! More speed so he was bouncing not trotting. Yay! With the added speed, he was sorting out how to to track his rear end behind his front end (still figuring out the bending). He did a great job for the first time being asked to bounce! He will get even more bendy as he gets more experienced.
>>I think this class is actually finished?! Is that right? I’ll see you over in the next class – can’t wait!
Yes, we are wrapping up! I am excited to start the next class on Saturday!!! See ya there 🙂 Great job in this one, it has been really amazing to see the progression!
T
Good morning!
The bending on the wings looked really good, and I think you added the bars at just the right time – he had sorted out the bend on the wings and was moving faster, so he easily transitioned to ‘bouncing’ when you added the bars. Nice! When the bars are in – do a couple of sessions where you do *not* move away as he is doing the pinny. Moving away as he enters it was adding a lot of countermotion – so he was generally good on jumps 1 and 2 but was consistently hitting jump 3 (he was likely rushing a bit to get to you as you moved away). So, you can stay there for longer, no motion – which is really challenging because he is going to have to sort out how to fit all that body into the turn (and he will sort it out :)) Watch that 3rd bar – when he can do a couple of sessions and doesn’t touch it (you will see it vibrate), you can add in motion away, starting as he is taking off for jump 3. Then eventually you will work it back to starting your motion pretty early. The same goes for sending him into the pinny – don’t use too much countermotion yet, be relatively stationary, because he rushes a bit and touches the bars when you are moving (like at 1:21).
The toy is also relatively exciting 🙂 so when you are adding motion, start with food (yes, we do kinda want it to be a little boring for now LOL!!!)
I think he will sort out that 3rd bar really quickly and then it will be easy to install the motion. Have fun!Tracy
Yes – just taking the jump in front of him (front side), with you moving on a parallel path, rather than all reps going to the backside.
THi Deb!
Great job on this run, it was lovely!!! Your connection overall looked REALLY strong, you were working to be connected in each section and she was able to read the lines and cues really nicely. That is so important, and you nailed it! Yay!!!!
A few ideas to play with –
on the opening 1-2, you can play with handling jump 1 as a serpentine (dog on right, feet facing tunnel, on landing side of 1 – that way she can see the turn before the release and you don’t have to time a FC there 🙂
The rest of the opening looked great, and a very nice push to the #4 backside! On that backside, you can play with keeping her on your right and moving forward, then do a blind cross to get her to your left for 5 (German turn). You did a FC at :13 on landing side which worked but it allowed her to catch up to you – the moving ahead without the FC (doing the blind on the exit) will keep you further ahead and that is always a good thing 🙂You were a little late telling her about the tight turn wrap on jump 10 at :25. You can cue it sooner with a bit of deceleration, which will commit her nicely and allow you to rotate sooner on the FC at 10-11, getting collection before takeoff (which will also make it easier to get the turn to 11 and 12.
The rest looked lovely – I think you took her to the wrong #14 jump (you cued one that was further away), making it harder to get the weave entry – but she absolutely nailed the weave entry! YESSSS!! Very cool 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Ah, lucky you, another normal-ish looking dog show! I don’t think I will anything like that til 2021~
He did really well. Something got his interest in the first part of the video, was it the Go in the ring? Dog running the course? Or the other dogs lining up near the jump? All of the above? He wasn’t out of his head, he was just feeling the need to look at the environment. He might have been a bit too close to the ring when he was doing the kangaroo thing 🙂 So you can move him back if you are going to cue a behavior. The other thing you can try is just letting him assess until he can return his gaze to you (don’t ask for a behavior during this time). It might take 10 seconds or so (it will feel like the longest 10 seconds of your life haha) but it can help in the long run, because he will not feel the same need to assess the environment in the future. Now, if you let him assess and he ends up *not* being able to return his attention to you (or if he ends up getting to stimulated by the other dogs and starts to bark/pull/etc), then you can totally interrupt and move him away, and help him by asking for other behavior.
The 2nd part of the video near the practice jump looked great! He was aware of the goings-on in that busy environment and he was stimulated, but he could also do his stay work! He was a little twitchy because he was excited, but did really well! It is hard to do that on leash, so you can work in unclipping the leash (I do that in between classes at trials, so there are no dogs running in the ring – I am not generally brave enough with a baby dog to take off the leash while a dog is running a course nearby at a trial 🙂The head turning with a toy is going well!
>>I decided to try to see if he could think about it with toy reward and it turned out he could.>>
Agreed, he was just fine with the toy, it didn’t change his state in any way that damaged the behavior. Yay!
>>The first couple of times I had the clicker in the hand I was directing him with and I realized he thought it was something I was giving him, so once I started using an empty hand that was better.>>
Yes – that plus a little bit of distance away from the wing plus turning to his left (which is his harder side, right? I scrolled up and I believe his head turns have always been harder to his left). So sticking a little closer to the wing and using the slower/clear/empty hand cue will help get that nice head turn to his left on the 2nd wrap. Now, when he was turning to his right? Smoooooth and slithery! Very nice! I believe that is simply his stronger side, so having perfect mechanics to help is just not as important. You can warm up the concepts on his easier side then throw in some reps on the harder side – it all evens out 🙂 Let me know if I have it backwards about right being easier than left 🙂
Great job here!!!
TracyHi again!
That is indeed a harder skill, turning away!! A good skill to work, but a harder skill for sure. It is something to revisit because you can add in the head-turn element and then he will be fine. He was a bit wide on those, but I think it was more of him trying to figure out the skill and not because he is a wide turning pup.>>Then the next morning I woke up with “duh” moment. I should have been between Stark and the jump stanchions.>>
Yes – we want the pups turning towards us for these, not away – at least during these beginning stages. When we ‘proof’ it, we add turning away, but that is about a month away. At :58 is when you put youself on the inside and he did much better – tighter to the wing on the reps where you were on the inside and he was turning towards you, not away 🙂 Resist the temptation to do more than one rep in a row, that is a going to fatigue him (or make him say WTF?? haha!) and he will widen his turns. You did have a bunch of reps where he was entering it by turning towards you and those were really nice!!! So keep on with that – you can fade your motion a bit too, to get it on more of a ‘pure’ verbal, but feel free to mix in motion because it is FUN too 🙂
Great job!!!!
Tracy
Good morning! Lots of good stuff here!
He is doing a really great job of going to the backside, so now we can build on that! With all of these, be sure to add in front side reps too so he can see/hear the difference. Ideas for the next steps to make it even more independent:
He as having a little trouble coming in over the bar when he go to the backside, he would go past it or wait til he saw the toy or you turned. So, we can now focus in on getting the default behavior of taking the jump after arriving at the backside, no matter what you do 🙂 That will allow you to move more. Think of the use of the reward a little differently to get it started by throwing the reward sooner by dropping out it on the ground (not in your hand). That way he will go around the barrel and look to go over the bar rather than watch you for more info. The early timing/placement is about a default and not looking at you – think of it as we are rewarding the choice to go to the backside around the barrel by placing the reward in on the landing side – so the reward will be dropped in at the very instant he begins to go around the barrel. That will condition him to just look for the jump and not try to follow your motion. I like to drop the reward in on the landing side either near the center of the bar or closer to the entry wing, to over-exaggerate the ‘don’t look at me’ element – and you are in motion the whole time. Keeping you in motion is what we drop the toy – if we hand-deliver it, he will be too locked onto what you are doing rather than looking for the bar (he will know how to jump the bar based on your motion, but he won’t need your motion to help him commit to the bar, if that makes sense :))
One other thing to add now: because he has such a strong stay, you should start moving up the line on the parallel path and *then* release him with the push cue. Seeing the line of motion is important to help support the verbal, especially as you add being further away like when he was on your right towards the end of the video (where he wanted to take the front). So the order of festivities is: he is in a stay – you start to move forward up the line, parallel to his backside path, after 2 or 3 steps, start saying push push push and keep moving. This should help you get further and further across the bar 🙂
Race tracks – super fun to watch! He is being really zippy around the 2 barrels on both the race tracks and the crosses/spins. Nice! It took a couple of reps to hash out the connection and commitment but then it was clear sailing! Keeping the dog-side arm back like your fingers are reaching for his collar really helps (we all have a tendency to keep our hands low and at our sides, so I remind myself to reach back as if I am going to put fingers on his collar). Next step: more room to run run run run run! You can even get out a 3rd barrel (sorry about your laundry basket, Silas!) and make up 3-barrel courses, yeeehaw!!!)
I see the Minny Pinny video is below, I will reply under it. Great job on these!
TracyGood morning!
>>I think it was a stinger, maybe his knee or toe. I watched video of how he was grabbing the toy from the ground in a different exercise and yeah, he crunches down and then turns immediately so of course he hurt himself.>>
Ouch! Hope he is back to feeling perfect today.
>>I will get a holee roller. I tried some more wing wraps, and changed my position and I do think it is better if I am ahead but now he is anticipating my motion so I need to go backwards a little.>>
I also like to sort all of that out on an ‘irrelevant’ object (like the laundry basket) so I can have my mechanics in shape and the basic understanding in place before we add it to the wing. I don’t want to accidentally desensitize or countercondition hitting the actual wing, so playing with it on different things before it goes to the wing has really helped.
>>I don’t think the pet tutor is going to work, he doesn’t have enough value for it.>>
Ah, I totally feel that! Of the 5 dogs I am currently training/competing with, only 1 actually loved the manners minder naturally. 2 were afraid of the weirdo noises (and one of those 2 didn’t have a lot of interest in food) and the other 2 didn’t have a lot of interest in food in general. But, I love these food dispenser thingies for a couple of things (box turns, RDW, channel weaves, etc) so I built the love with silly sequences like: MM-toy (for the 2 worried girls, it was more of a behavior modification approach and with the 2 non-foodie boys, it was more of a reward-for-eating approach LOL!) Then tunnel-MM-toy, using the best toys (frisbees or tennis balls LOL!). You can build the wrap and the PT together with an easy wrap to the PT to the toy with da momma from your hand (which also takes out the possibility of him breaking himself by diving on the toy.)
>>When does this class end and the next class start?>>
Last day for videos here is Sept 15. The next class starts on the 19th, with the pre-game (it is really easy) being posted today 🙂
T
Good morning! Lots of good stuff here!
Countermotion – this is going well! The commitment is looking good, I think he was correct on all but one, which si a great success rate. You can add in throwing the treat more to the landing spot and less around the wing, which means it is a little earlier. That will free you up to move forward even sooner. One other way to make it feel more comfy to move forward sooner –
Step back less with the leg near the barrel, and look back more – shifitn your connection from his eyes to the landing spot, along with your hand) – and that will help you move forward sooner. The weight shift of the step back is what is delaying you moving forward, and in many uses of this cue, you won’t be stepping back, you will be running forward. So, fading the step back will help.Rocking horses – yes, walking it with the invisible dog at the beginning was spot on – very clear connection and young dogs find that really helpful!
The treat throws were also really good to help build commitment – the goal is that we don’t always have to be so perfect with connection and arm position, that the dogs will commit because we are generally near the wing.
I think your connections were really strong here, nice job with the magnetic hand! Yes, there were one or two moments where you pointed a little forward but because you had put value on the wing, he still went to it (yay!!). He really liked the turn and burn for the toy – tons of speed! I like how he went back to the toy after ll the cookies 🙂 Happy dancing for all of it. Next step: outside with more room, so both of you get to run run run 🙂Threadles – also a really good session, super high rate of success even with all of the added motion. Yay! I a glad to hear he also did well on the other side.
>>So I tried one short session where I did a serp and then a threadle. He definitely doesn’t understand the difference yet, and I know he’s super young still, but is there something I should be doing (besides the threadle verbal) to differentiate them?>>
When you were doing the serps, what were the errors? Was he threadling? Or was he serping? Sometimes, young dogs get themselves into a threadle vortex and the serp disappears. Sometimes they show they don’t really understand the difference so they serp. A couple of ideas to help:
– yes, the verbal is one of the major differences, but also the position relative to the jump is helpful at this early stage. So you can show him the difference by standing in the ‘perfect’ position: near the entry wing for the threadle, with your threadle hand sticking out past the wing, and next the exit wing on the serp, so he clearly sees you between the uprights over the bar.
– show him the difference without motion for a rep or two at the beginning of the session, then gradually increase motion (or dial it back if he asks questions)
– you can consider using a cross arm on the threadle so there are different arms in use at this beginning stage. I often use a cross arm on threadles anyway, because it is one more way to make it obvious for the pups.
– you can also help him by changing where the ready treat is placed – it should be in slightly different places for the threadle versus the serp (on the landing line for each, which is different and that can help ‘tip’ him off – but then fade it to more of a ‘neutral’ position so he doesn’t come to rely on it.The minny pinny is going really well! I don’t mind the bit of motion you were using to help him get in. Motion in this game is more of a distraction than an aid, and he did not seem distracted by motion. He seemed to sty thoughtful about his body – that is SO IMPORTANT for our pointy dogs 🙂 And also, it was exciting to see him remain thoughtful and beautiful on his bending when the toy came into play – he was faster but still bendy, and he was not looking for a cookie. Very nice, it seems like the food & toy drives are shifting into more balance?
Tunnel/wing – he is doing well finding the tunnel! And also doing so nicely wrapping the wing. You were totally working your connections. I think the reason it felt a little like you were turning too far forward was because there was not a lot of room for you to run, so you were maintaining motion by turning your shoulders. So…. outside for more giddy up! I know it is a giant pain in the *ss to deal with the tunnel bags, but he is totally ready for more running here 🙂
All of these are looking great! Let me kniw what you think!
TracyHi!
Arms are not super helpful for cues in agility, as you are seeing here 🙂 Your connection and motion were doing all of the ‘heavy lifting’ and he was able to see clear cues, so he committed beautifully AND you were turning and leaving early. Only one oopsie where you ended up really close to the barrel and slammed on the brakes, so he stopped. But overall – super!!! The getting-too-far-ahead will go away when you add more room to run AND when he gets more experienced (not even 6 months old, right?)
One cool thing to look at here is, because the cues are early and clear, note how he is using his body around the barrel – really zipping through the turns and bending. Very cool! Tight turns AND lots of speed. YAY!!!! Love it!
Have you tried the race track around the barrels, where he stays on the outside with post turns and no crosses or spins?
The cooler weather might be contributing to the GO GO GOOOOOO and less attention to the little details LOL! No worries, he has an impressive brain on his head so it is all good 🙂 Sometimes, BorderWhippets get a little legs-first, brains-second but then they mature out of it. Can’t blame the Pap half on that at all haha! For example, his sister was running in my little yard the other day, all go go go and she was actually using my fence to stop herself (banking into it at full speed). Definitely legs-first, brain-second, so she won the prize of having to go in the house LOL!Great job on the games!
TracyHi!
Yay, YouTube is cooperating! I odn’t know why it likes to post frozen videos.For the backside slice serps (the backsides where you turn or cross look awesome):
2 ideas for ya!
Yes, you mentioned him being old enough for a very low bar and I agree – I think making the bar element more salient will help him “see” it to come in over it. A larger bump or a 4” bar locked into the jump cups should be visible and easy.The other thing is to consider the reward timing as the reward for choosing to go to the backside side of the wing. So as soon as you see his cute nose getting to the plane of the wing, drop the toy in behind you as you move across. So the toy will come both earlier and closer to the entry wing – in the hope of him not looking at you at all and instead looking around the wing to the bar. You were tending to drop the reward in a little later, which will eventually be perfect – but for now let’s get the automatic looking-at-the-bar so that he defaults to taking it. You can see that understanding is getting started on the rep at 1:29, for example – he went to the backside and was automatically slicing back in over the bar. Good boy!!!
Having the toy back behind you will exaggerate the looking for the bar on the path we want, separating it from your motion more.
On the 360s – the extra spins are him asking if it is a rear cross or a backside circle. You were a little too early moving up the line behind him, so some of the reps read as a rear cross line/pressure. For example:
At 1:48, you didn’t really cut past him on the 360 until after he had turned his head towards the wing/jump, so he did the circle. Compare that to 2:01 when you were already cutting behind him and he was just barely turning his head but head not yet changed his lead to it – so he did a spin, asking if it is a rear cross (he is watching everything, which is great!). You were even earlier at 2;26 so he spun again. At 2:41, he was ahead of you and was already turning to the jump when you cut in past him. 3:03 was a little on the border so he asked a question but found the jump.
So to help get rid of the RC question, be later 🙂 LOL! We handlers are not often too early haha! Start further back and let him get a little ahead – you can move towards where the wing meets the bar, even if you have to wait there for a heartbeat). Look for his head & stride to turn towards the bar, then move past him. Eventually I think you will be able to push in like you did here without the spin question, after he has more experience with the context and the verbal.And he was perfect on his parallel path and definitely had no concern about the rain! It probably felt better than any intense heat!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I am glad you had fun, it was great having you here!!!
There is a pre-game coming for the Part 2 class – it will be posted either late tomorrow or Monday morning 🙂Sorry for any confusion! Try to start him in a different position – rather than a straight line to the first jump, have his nose facing parallel to the bar (rather than perpendicular) and his butt will be near the wing of jump 3, so that he has to approach the bar already turning, rather than be straight to it and turn when he is landing. Let me know if that makes sense or if I need more coffee 🙂
