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Good morning!
Great job practicing the walk throughs! I think we can see one element to add here which should make a massive difference!
>>I don’t remember getting so tired from walking a course – too much thinking and getting lost I guess.>>
Yes, plus adding the speed to the walk throughs is tiring! But worth it 🙂 the more you can practice a sequence as if running him, the easier it is to run him. Your handling choices were all really good! You had your verbals and added speed. The only thing missing was connection. Rehearsing connecting to where he actually will be is going to make a big difference in your runs!
Sequence 1: The shape of your plan was really clear and you added speed really well – – you can see it was pretty compelling because he joined you LOL! One thing I look for is if I can see where the dog is in the walk through, based on where the handler is looking.
One thing I notice here is that in the walk through, you cue something then almost immediately look ahead of where he would actually be especially on exits of sends, crosses, and tunnels. That makes things harder in the run because you would need to be looking back at him in those spots (not ahead). By looking ahead, you end up rehearsing disconnection or late timing (or both :))
And even if you do maintain the connection during the run, your brain & body are doing it for the first time… and that is hard for us humans to do at a zillion miles per hour aka Bacon speed! So rehearsing it in the walk through will make it much easier to do in the run, plus you can plan your timing better that way.
On the first run, you were working to maintain the connection and mostly had it! Yay! But that made it harder to keep moving and time the cues, so there were a lot of bars down. The 2nd run had a change of plan (Blind cross 5-6 instead of a FC) but it was late so things came off the rails a bit there.
Add more connection to the invisible dog in the walk through will really help. You can ‘see’ him landing from and exiting the send at 1, so when he is at 2 you are turning your shoulders and starting to tell him about the tunnel. Then when he exits the tunnel, you can start the cross Then connect back to him at the exit of the cross, which he is over 5 – that gives you the timing to start the cues for 6, for example.
2nd sequence – this one had you looking ahead of him in the walk through as well (but the handling plan has him behind you for most of it) So on the first run, it was harder to connect with him AND show the lines. The 2nd run was much better (because connection had been rehearsed in the first run, so it was easier to connect and deliver the cues).
Something fun to try would be to run silently – he drops bars when you talk over the bar but seems to keep them up better when you are quieter.
3rd sequence – the shape of the plan here was good too! It was easy to see what you wanted him to do and the handling for it. With this sequence, the connection will really help too: for example, when you release him from the start line, stay connected so you can ‘see’ him land from 1 and look at 2, then do the blind. On the walk through, you connected on the lead out then released and immediately did the blind – which is what happened on the runs and he correctly did not take 2. Adding connection in the walk through back to where he would be will help give the feel of the timing on the 1-2-3 line there.
You were emphasizing connection in the walk through at the send to the backside and at the exit of the last tunnel – those spots went well in the first run! The backside was not as clear in the 2nd run because the timing of the cue on the tunnel exit was a little late.
The next thing to do with the walk through skills is to take the handling plan then walk it looking at where he would be the whole time. Try to ‘see’ him taking the jumps, exiting the tunnel, changing sides behind you on the FCs and BCs. That will also have you ready for the timing, like cuing the next thing as soon as he is exiting the tunnel.
One other idea: Since he has a lot of send skills, the other thing to consider in the walk through here (and the previous sequences too) is that you might not be as close to the line or need to run as much to the line. That is part of the timing element and ‘seeing’ your invisible dog will really help you know where you will be on the line.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>It is so hard for me to run that way. >>It is hard to run with as much connection as a young dog needs, but it does get easier as they learn more about the game.
A dog training detail that will help the handling:
The toy is very valuable, which is great! However, she is not entirely sure of when it is in play or not, so she is watching it a lot. That reduces the focus on the line or commitment. If there is the slightest blip in handling like a soft connection break… she looks at the toy. Or if you decelerate and transfer the toy from hand to hand… she might come off the jump and back to the toy.Since she is not sure when it is available AND since we want to maintain the toy as a high value reward, you will want to help her know where to look by being clearer with your markers for the toy. When rewarding her, use a ‘toy in hand is available now’ marker (I use ‘bite’). You are moving it then praising – so she is not sure if the movement of the toy means it is available? Or the praise? And sometimes she jumps up at the toy in frustration. The marker being consistently used will make all the difference and she will learn to keep looking at the jump or wing til she hears a marker.
So have the toy scrunched up small in your hand as you run, handle the line, and then say the marker before presenting it. I think it will make a huge difference!
It will also make a huge difference in her mat work. By having the reward in your hand, she was hitting the mat but at the same time looking at you. And since we don’t want looking at you, you’ll want to have a different marker for a thrown reward, or a wing to go around after it then the reward in your hand. Looking straight will be helpful for RDW!
On the handling elements – the connection on the yes tunnel/no tunnel looked really good! She found the tunnel entry on the backside of it with no problem. Super! She had questions right at the beginning, but that was more about the toy – you move it from hand to hand which pulled her off the line, then it was hard for her to go past it. The marker will clear that up pretty quickly.
Great job sorting out the decel on the wrap jumps! It is a bit like goldilocks: At
:41, there was too much cue – you decelerated and turned at the same time like hitting the brakes and turning the wheel all at once so she came off the line.At :54, it was a bit of a ‘not enough’ moment: better deceleration but not enough clear connection – your arm is forward and turning your shoulders away/blocking connection (plus toy distraction). So she came off the line.
The next 2 reps were just right! 1:23 and 1:35 were great – clear connection and clear decel until she was almost at the jump, then you rotated for the FC.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I hate to be “that student” who needs extra just to understand but it was brilliant.>>
I didn’t consider it to be extra! I think we humans like visuals and video doesn’t always isolate the moment. So freeze frame moments can often help, and it was worth it to try the 2 hands lower and earlier timing (I mean, it might not have worked because every dog is different).
I was very happy to see that the cue immediately produced the collection before takeoff to 2. YAY!! Did Casper, as a young dog, know entirely what to do with all of that collection and power LOL! He was ‘fishtailing’ a bit in the jumping and couldn’t quite get the right turn over the next jump. But that will come with experience – I think he is more used to turning on the flat rather than turning before takeoff, but he will sort that out.
>>As you can see, I belong to the “prove it wasn’t a fluke” school of dog training.>>
Haha! I belong to that school too 🙂 It was very cool to see him repeat the behavior! Yay!
>>Even the dread BC.>>
Yes! That was great to see him reading the BC – your timing of starting it was good. You can be moving more laterally to 4 on the BC reps, so that there is really no forward motion on the line to the tunnel (1:21). The earlier you start that blind, the easier it is. You did the blind right after liftoff to 2… since he has AKC in his future, try the BC starting when you would bet $5 that he is going to take the #2 jump (well before takeoff). It is a low wager bet so that you won’t worry if it is too early 🙂
1:02 – don’t say ‘go on’ before the tunnel cue. A name call (and brake arm!) would help him get the turn
>>naturally, I moved on to the backside discrimination. And I clearly need more backside work: he is clipping the wings and doesn’t really understand the difference between “push” (wrap) and “around” (s-shaped slice). Plus he is dropping the bars when the cueing isn’t perfect and sometimes when it is. grin>>
I think that he needs some of the jumping skills work on that more than more handling – he didn’t really know where to look (looking at you a lot) or where to put his hind end (his butt ended up over his head a few times there). Have you done the zig zag grid with him? He can start on 2 jumps, low bars, with a placed reward to keep him looking forward and not at you.
And the fitness games that Stefanie presented are specific for the slice jumping, so you can definitely try those!
And do you remember the sit-before-backside-wrap game (we did it with Enzo when he was a youngster) – Casper can use that game to sort out the wrap jumping. Let me know if you need me to find the visuals of those – I will grab them after more coffee is on board 🙂
>>I see in the user guide that the last day for Video Review is 9/18. I’m guessing that is the “hot summer extended date”; correct?>>
Yes, hopefully the weather behaves for the next few weeks!
>>I try to correctly praise/reward the bit we are working on, although sometimes a different mistake happens or I get greedy and try to get a bunch more stuff. But I am aware and do try. However, when I get too concerned I remember that we don’t teach children in a logical manner. If a child says “Daddy just come home” we only correct it if, in fact, it wasn’t Daddy but Uncle Carl. So we say either “Yes, Daddy came home” or “No, that’s Uncle Carl” and the bad grammar is ignored. And yet, most kids grow up with grammar as good as their parents’. An interesting analogy, don’t you think?>>
SUPER interesting! Back a million years ago in college, I took a psych class that had a lot of info on language acquisition and there is a lot of science about how repeating the ‘correct’ grammar will result in a child’s brain consolidating the learning of correct grammar (more than telling the child the grammar is wrong).
The science of learning in animals doesn’t really look at language acquisition the same way (except maybe in primates) but what we do have some good science on is a couple of related things that keep me sane:
– Just like parents don’t need to hear correct grammar to know that the child is learning correct grammar, we don’t have to actually see the correct behavior to know that the dog is learning the correct behavior. This made my head fall off when I first learned about it.
We are not likely to see it after the dog has slept on it (learning is consolidated in sleep). I have seen this to varying degrees in all of the dogs I’ve trained over the years, but the whippets are the most spectacular examples of this – I often do NOT see the fully correct behavior *at all* in a session, but reward the pieces I like without adding pressure (or freaking out haha). It seems like zero progress is made (they are still saying “Daddy come home”) at the end of the session but then when I revisit it a few days later: they are saying “Daddy came home and he brought a pizza for Uncle Carl as well as crab rangoons for the rest of us.” It is wild!
– as long as we get the element of “surprise!!” when delivering a toy or treat, we are getting learning via the dopamine coding of a reward prediction error. So that first moment when you rewarded the collection on the brake arm? It was a big moment!
On this video, you were basically throwing a PARTY when Casper got it right. That big happy response and toy delivery is highly likely to spike his dopamine. When we deliver and it is not a surprise to the dog? That is fine, it is rehearsal, which is also valuable (but no change in dopamine levels so no ‘learning’ the way we think of it).
When we do NOT deliver a reward, and it is also not a surprise to the dog (“yes, I broke my stay, sorry not sorry human”) – no shift in dopamine, just a rehearsal, no worries. But when we surprise the dog and do NOT deliver? There is a dopamine dropout and that causes arousal shifts, frustration, etc. That is why it is so important to either keep going or reward the dog when there is a possibility of handler error – the dog brain is likely predicting they were correct (and they were probably correct!) so being told they are wrong is very surprising in all the wrong ways, when learning is involved 🙂 This is hard for us adult humans.
I believe the human language acquisition studies show this too: the child or adolescent brain might totally think they are correct with “Daddy just come home” and the brain will be surprised if it is corrected/told it is wrong. But the rehearsal of “yes, came home” continues the language acquisition via social learning (lots of forms of that) without the dopamine drop out. Of course, they are not slicing open human brains or putting electrodes in so it is all built off of primate studies and other mammals, but it is really cool stuff. Learning theory is wildly complex once we humans get past operant conditioning.OK, enough geekery 🙂 and back to dog training! Ha! Let me know if you want me to dig up the jumping videos. Great job here with Casper!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
I agree, this went really well!!! She is showing a lot more experience with the crazy layering challenges and is also able to nail tight turns mixed in with all the extension. Love it! And I think the physical cues were generally very clear – my only question was at 15 but I think you clarified it on the 2nd run 🙂 Good job continuing if things didn’t go as planned there – she was reading you correctly and you kept going as if you meant for it to happen (click/treat for you :))About the turns – she is beginning to set her own turns up really really well. What I mean by that is she is getting the info and using it to turn as much as needed (nice and tight) without bleeding off speed by collecting too much. That is exactly what we want 🙂 As much acceleration as possible while still turning directly to the next line when cued.
Opening line – the angle of 2-3 (dog walk) is hard here, so you can send and stay moving away sooner, so she lines herself up. That is a good skill for RDWs so you don’t have to manage the entries. In theory she will only ever see straight line entries to the DW but the reality is that she will see turns to get on.
The circle wrap at 4 worked really well – excellent cues from you, excellent commitment from her!
When she is more experienced with the RDW, you can hang back more at 1, send to 2, and do a blind cross to a threadle wrap on the exit of the DW to 4 🙂 It is not really important on this course, but it could be super useful on one of the gigantic UKI or FCI courses.
The line from the teeter to the weaves worked well (she got off balance in the 2nd set of weaves, no worries) – you did the more collected route. I am curious to see the time difference if you took her to the other side of 7 (the backside closer to 10), keeping her on your right then either doing a FC to a RC on the weave entry or do a spin to get her back on your right for the weave entry. It might be a shade more yardage but it is fewer turns/more extension so might be fastest.
Nice turns 9-10-11! And great job getting 12-13-14!!!!
I thought you wanted the right turn on 15 on the first run, and needed more decel. But on the 2nd video, you had a much clearer left turn cue and she got it really nicely!!
And she almost got the backside of 17 in flow. That is HARD and she is getting the idea to layer AND expect that layering is not all about the front side – super!! And on the 2nd run, you showed the font of 19 more clearly and she had no questions.
Really well done here! It is it still up, you can try from 4 to 11 two different ways and we can time it 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
The lead outs went well! She was reading the lines quite nicely 🙂 One suggestion for her is to start her further back so she has more room to take off for jump 1. She has a strong stay (yay!) so you can put her 10 feet away from 1 for now so she can take a big stride before takeoff. She was really close to 1, so dropped the bar a couple of times.
Your timing was good on these so you can spread out the spacing more so it will be even easier (and closer to competition spacing) – try for 20 feet!She is reading all the cues really well (BC, FC, lead out push). Your connection was good! And timing was good (you were early on one rep, see below). One adjustment to make is to set the turn at 2 with a positional cue, heading towards 3.
For the BC, be running towards 3 the whole time. You were running straight past the landing of 2 while doing the blind, so she was jumping straight and that made it harder to get the turn to 3 smoothly (she went past it at :22 because your line was very straight and not towards it. So lateral motion towards 3 will get her turning over 2 and looking for 3 sooner.
For the FC at :42, you were right on the wing of the 3 jump (great positional cue!) so she was better able to make the turn on 2. Compare where she was on 2 at :43 (FC) versus :32 (previous rep blind cross) where you were running a straight line – she was turning over 2 on the FC rep but jumping straight over 2 (based on your position/line of motion) on the BC rep even though the BC timing was better.
At :54 you lead out on a straight line for the FC so she jumped straight at :55. So for a stationary lead out like the FC or moving into it like the blind, be heading towards that wing of 3 the whole time to get the best turn.
The lead out push position should be right on her line 2-3 so you are also heading to 3 sooner: you would be standing pretty close to the 2 jump, between the uprights, basically where she would ideally be landing.
At 1:04 you were on the straight line position and a little too early moving away from 2 (1:06, as she was landing from 1, so the motion cued her past 2) so she did not take 2. If that happens… cue 3 and reward. It is a 99.99% chance it was handler error so don’t withhold reward to fix it (it is my job to keep bugging everyone about that 😁)
Note the difference in your timing at 1:31 – much clearer indication of 2 so she committed all well! If you are closer to the jump (standing on the line you want her to take) she will jump 2 already turned to face 3 rather than jump it straight. You will be off that line by the time she needs it 🙂
The turn aways went really well! You got ‘bigger’ with the hand movement as the session progressed and that really helped her – the smaller hand movements at the beginning were harder for her to process. As you are moving her through the turn, you can also let your eyes follow your hand as that will also help her set up the turn.
She was going a bit wide on the tunnel exits and that was making the laps and tandems harder… but that was a timing question. Since we need a turn toward you on the tunnel exit to set up the lap and tandem turns, be sure to call her before she enters the tunnel (6 feet before entry). You were calling while she was in the tunnel or exiting it, but that means she is already locked onto the straight line exit so all of the turns happened after she exited which delayed the lap or tandem info. Calling before entry should make a big difference in the smoothness of coming to the correct side of the wing.
The left or right verbal should not happen before she goes into the tunnel because that should get a tight turn on the tunnel exit and not cue her carry out to the wing.
You had good position near the wing facing her for the lap turns! The Tandems can have you moving up the line a little bit more forward with the upper body doing the turn cues, rather than pull and push to turn her away. The rep at 2:14 was a good example of moving up the line parallel to the line you want her to take, and using the upper body cues to set the turn – nice!!
The sequences went really well – great connection and motion on the left/right lines around the wings, and a very clear difference in cues for the lap and tandem turns. Calling her before she goes into the tunnel will smooth it out even more! And as you add more speed and motion, you can add a bit of decel into the tandem turns – if it is all one motion/speed then she might not catch the turn cue away (3:10).
The tandem turns quickly turn into threadle wraps… have you decided on a verbal cue for them? You can add it in! Call her before she goes into the tunnel, then switch to the threadle wrap cue as you set up the tandem turn on the wing.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
She is doing well with her collections on the jumps! You can see the sometimes she was not sure if she should commit or look at you. That was a connection question:The commitment cue for the wrap is connection then decel the rotation. If you are not connected enough, she curls in towards you for more info as to where she should be on the line.
So when you were connected as she came over the previous jump or out of the tunnel: great commitment and it allowed you to decelerate on time. You can see it was definitely more clear at :13-:14! If you were not connection and looking ahead, she was looking at you like on the first rep and at :26, for example. On some of the reps, you were able to step her back to the jump but ideally you would be connected the whole way through so she doesn’t look at you at all.
Here are some visuals for you so you can see the difference. Connection points your shoulders to the line, which is why it is so important for her.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TKDjMHajlnKZXIhm_qMCwq4GMii-ZoKtXNCqOWkauKc/edit?usp=sharing
The yes-tunnel/no-tunnel game looks good! At first you were controlling the line past the tunnel more than you needed to by slowing down a bit, calling her hard… your connection was great though, so she had no questions. You moved through it really well at 1:20 and 1:35 and she was perfect!
Finding the tunnel entry from that angle requires a lot of collection and she was definitely surprised! We haven’t really asked for challenging tunnel entries like that yet 🙂 Straightening it a little so she could collect more easily to find it was totally the right thing to do – she was able to collect and find the entry really well! YAY!!! You can inch it back to the harder position as you work the skill, so she can sort out the collection into the tunnel.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi! Good session here with the brake arm! We got lots of good feedback from him 🙂 The key is going to be getting him to change his takeoff point at 2… which means you start those cues as he is over/landing from 1. Most of your cues were happening after takeoff for 2 and then you had rotation (FC) and decel to get the jump. If you did the FC but kept moving backwards, he took the tunnel. Backwards motion is the same as forward motion (was it Linda Mecklenburg who said that originally? It is totally true LOL!!)
Looking at the video, I took screenshots of what he saw as the takeoff for 2 was in play:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kSzmPUydIboGF1iYRklUq5abt3MSyfpa_QwriyQu8qQ/edit?usp=sharing
You can see that the off courses were pretty forward looking (or running backwards rather than finishing the rotation, so backwards running cued the tunnel).
The brake arm was timely at 1:01!
>>I have trouble with using a brake arm without rotating toward the dog (wind and unwind).>>
You might find the brake arm easier if you use both hands, ‘pressing’ downwards (as if saying to him “SLOW DOWN DUDE”) so that both hands are nice and low, palms to the ground or to him. That will be easier on your rotation so you can show him the collection cue without having to rotate too much to show the opposite arm (that is probably where the wind and unwind feeling comes from). To get the feel, do it without him and carry a cup of water in each hand: as he lands from 1, you can bring the opposite arm over low and low and then do a post turn without spilling the water 🙂
>>Notice that he dives between my legs at 0:13? Ann Braue once told me she only taught that between the legs lineup to one dog (maybe Scream) and he dived through her legs during a run. That was the last time she used it. I really like it and am going to try not to have to give it up!)>>
I don’t think you have to give it up! He didn’t dive between your feet there because of the line up cue – what happened in that moment was he thought he was coming to your left side but hadn’t yet had time to make the adjustment. Then you broke connection and turned forward as you finished the FC, so he was trying to adjust back to your right side because it looked like a blind cross. So between your feet was the easiest/safest thing to do without hitting you 🙂
>Then I went off and worked on skills I can practice almost standing still (contacts and weaves). When I came back, I thought, “Why not try it with the backside?”. Such a surprise! He obviously heard the “around” and looked for a jump. Who would have guessed?>>
He was really good, especially on the 2nd rep where you didn’t decelerate at all. You were in steady motion – not too fast, not too slow, no changes – so he was able to process the verbal. I definitely think you should continue on this path of backside or jumps cues versus the tunnel cue, with steady motion (not too fast) where motion is *not* trying to change the line – you are just strolling forward 🙂
Great job! Let me know how the 2-handed cup-of-water adventure goes!
Tracy
Good morning!
Video 1:
>>I got to be too much, so I tethered her to the deck.>>
Interesting that she didn’t have quite the same commitment as usual when Rosie was out there! You had to be pretty perfect with position and connection, which is really hard to do. That might happen at trials too, so you can have Rosie out there sometimes and throw more rewards on the line so that Lily can amplify her commitment while ignoring other dogs 🙂
>>I couldn’t get the tunnel by layering the jump, so I went between the jump and tunnel. >>
She had some trouble finding the tunnel partially because you were turning away from it before she had locked onto the line, and partially because Rosie was standing there staring at her (subtle pressure 🙂 ).
She got it when you ran straighter to it for longer – so when you add more distance, run that parallel line so you are further from jump 2 and don’t need to turn away. If the layering jump is distracting, you can use a cone or wing so it is less of a visual distraction for her. Having less of a jump visual will help her learn that she can find the tunnel based on a verbal and not need as much support near her on the line.
Video 2:
Rosie did well on sequence 1 finding the jump!
>>She often does this spin at the beginning of a send, but then goes ahead and does the send.>>
When you were sending to the tunnel, she spun because of a conflicting indicator (2 cues happening simultaneously and they are saying different things). Voice and arm said tunnel! But motion (decel) and lower body said turn to the jump (watch your left leg step to your left at :21) She did not spin on the 2nd rep there – possibly because you faced forward for longer before stepping away.
She might do the spin when there is a conflicting indicator so her brain has more time to process things and figure out what you want.
Video 3:
Lily was on the way to the jump really nicely before her pee break 🙂 She got it nicely on the next reps – super nice connection from you on the exit of the blind!To set up the layering, you can tell her about the tunnel sooner: as she is on the way to jump 2, you can be running on a parallel line (a little further away from 2 so you don’t have to turn to get past the jump) and already telling her about the tunnel. You had the straight line towards it on the first run, but at 1:04 and 1:12 your motion turned away too soon. She gets it when you run in close to it but then it makes getting past the exit much harder (she had to dodge around you at 1:27)
Because the parallel line motion is so important in layering, you can use a cone or wing to have as a visual distraction – that will allow you to set the line without having to avoid hitting the jump. The other thing you can add is a jump without a jump bar (just 2 wings or two cones) so you can stay on the parallel path through the uprights. Then you can run past the 2nd cone – but without a bar there, it won’t be as enticing as a jump so she is more likely to go to the tunnel.
And you can drop the rewards at the tunnel exit as you keep moving through, to help her focus on the tunnel and less on you and the jumps.
Video 4:
Rosie also did really well with finding the jump and the blind cross here!You stepped away too soon at :28 (conflicting indicator) so she did not go to the tunnel She got it when you ran straighter to it. Her spin on the last run was for the same reason as when she spun on the other sequence: conflicting indicator of upper body saying tunnel but the decel and big step to your left cuing a turn.
Video 5: She found the backside of the jump really well here!
Adding the cones as wings allowed you to get the blind in sooner on the 2nd rep, which really helped her commit to the jump. You can also drop the reward in to the landing side as you move through the blind there, so she takes the jump more automatically and doesn’t rely on the timing of the cross.She sent to the tunnel really well at :45 and :58!! Your motion really supported the verbal cues and arm cues, so she seemed to have no questions. Super! That same motion parallel to her line will be perfect as you move more and more laterally.
Video 6:
Rosie also found the backside really well on the first rep! She ended up in the tunnel at :22 but that was correct, based on the physical cue: you decelerated near 2 at :21, then accelerated again so she read the motion as a tunnel cue. To help not have to decelerate, you can start closer to 1 and run closer to the line to 2, so she can accelerate ahead of you.The verbal at :34 turned her off the tunnel to the backside, and the line of motion on the last 2 reps was very clear, so she easily found the tunnel (no spins!). Yay!
Video 7:
>>I realized I was doing this wrong and not putting in the blind before the threadle wrap.>>
No worries! You were working it a a push wrap, which is also a really great way to handle the sequence.
Her questions about backside versus tunnel had to do with your position on the run. When she ended up in the tunnel (like on the first run and at :43 and a couple of other reps), she as responding to your line of motion: not enough of he backside was visible and it looked like the line of motion was cuing the tunnel. When she got to the backside like on the 2nd run and and 1:24, 1:37 and the reps after that, your line of motion takes you to where the wing and the upright meet so the upright and cone are fully visible.
So as you run up the line, be a little more lateral so you are heading directly to the spot where the bar and upright meet. That should take the tunnel out of the picture as she follows your motion and verbals. Then you can do the blind to your right arm as soon as she is lifting off for the jump.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
Looking at the Bang game – she is super confident which is great! To smooth this out, you can clarify the mechanics of the start of each rep. Have her lined up next to you, facing the bottom board, just at about the bottom of the board (with you to the side) so that you are both facing the target. Have a hand on her collar so you can give her a target cue to get on – she was not always sure when to start.
The other thing to add is a more visible target (like a white lid). I am pretty sure she doesn’t see the small black target all that well (neither did I am I have better color vision than she does LOL!) So the white target will be visible out past the end of the teeter, you will have her lined up and holding her – then you can say something like “ready, target!” And let her go to jump into position. That should help her know where to look (visible target) and when to start (when you take your hand off her collar).
She was also super confident here with the angled approach to the teeter! She didn’t really perceive the broad jump planks as something to go around not over, (at one point you said to her “it is not a jump” which made me chuckle because actually, it is a jump LOL!!)
So you can help her out in 2 ways:
Start on easier angles where you can handle her to go around the planks very easily without potential for jumping over them.Then as you add harder angles, you can put a cone or barrel at the end of the plank for her to have a bigger visual to go around and straighten up. That will help her find the entry and not jump over the planks.
And when she does drive up the board, go with her to the top so she is more careful with the turning around and doesn’t try to jump off the side or top. If a treat might bounce off and she might jump off to get it (priorities! LOL!) then you can use a dab of cream cheese that she will lick and it won’t bounce off.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
>>He’s much better coming out of the tunnel than starting from a sit stay or even wrapping.>>
One thing that will help with this is if you get him into a higher state of arousal before starting each rep. To do that, add in playing with him before each run (especially at the beginning of each session) to bring up his energy and get him engaged. It can be tricks for treats (think back to the Volume Dial game from MaxPup 1) or a bit of toy play. Starting when he was sniffing made for a sniffy start – if he is sniffing as you are trying to start, he is not ready to start. So getting him engaged before each rep will help, then you will have an easier time getting him into the sit or going around a wrap wing.
>>I used a cookie on the nose to keep him with me while I reset bars this turn to stop him from sniffing and trying to mark. He wore a belly band today so no “accidents on purpose” but there would have been 3 or 4 otherwise.>>
Yes, that totally helped! Yay! It helped start him with engagement (like on video 4, versus video 1 where he was not starting with engagement). We definitely don’t want him wandering around in between runs or while you reset stuff especially if he will mark. You can crate him in the ring in between runs, or add a mat or station for him to go to when you are resetting something? That will also help you start with engagement for each run as you call him out of his crate or off his station.
>>I learned leading out to landing of 1st jump was more successful that starting with him or leading out to take off side.>>
Yes – being on the landing side of jump 1, you were able to connect and set the line better.
On the first video, 2nd run – I couldn’t see your lead out position but he didn’t see the line at :46 because you were not quite connected enough and he was ahead of you so he was not totally sure of where to be. Compare to the 4th video where you are ahead and connected and he was able to get it. Yay!
He had a lot of questions about that line of 3 jumps down to the tunnel, so one thing to add in the next training session is to throw the reward on the line there – you can randomly throw it after jump 1 or 2 or 3, rather than working the whole line each time or throwing it when he was done with the line. He was relying on your connection to be perfect – so when it was, he would get the line. But when it was not, he would curl in toward you to see more info and come off the line.
And if he misses a jump – that is your cue to connect more and keep going (rather than stop). Generally when a young dog looks at us or misses jumps, our connection is too ‘soft’ meaning that even though we can see them, they can’t see the connection so they look at us for more info.
Also – when that happens consistently, yes, you can amplify the connection but the bigger piece of the puzzle is building more value in the commitment so there is more value in driving to the jumps. That will also help build up more distance skills because he will be looking at the line even more so you can move further and further away.
And throwing the rewards randomly to different locations on the line will keep things spicy! If it is the same thing too many times in a row, both of you will lose focus. But if you are making the reward more variable? It will keeps things more exciting! That includes throwing the reward to the exit of the tunnel when he drives ahead to you – basically, the reward can be thrown anywhere on the line during the sequence but not near you and don’t always try to get to the end of the sequence 🙂
>>I’m thinking I’ll leave this alone tomorrow and then setup in the backyard on the other side for another session without the layer. Thoughts on how this went and any changes I should make?
>>He has had a lot of jumping days lately, so give him a few days off of jumping and you can play with wrapping a wing and seeing how far ahead he can drive away to get to the tunnel (throwing the reward at the end of the tunnel). That is silly fun that is also super useful for building up distance skills.
Then when he is leaving you in the dust for a tunnel, start building up the line of jumps by randomizing the thrown reward out on the line so he drives ahead and stays on the line, even if connection is not perfect 🙂 Be sure you are hustling along the line too, so he doesn’t ask questions about decel and if you are wanting a turn.
When he is able to drive 2 or 3 jumps to a tunnel (or do a tunnel then 2 or 3 jumps), I think it will be very easy to add the layering. So for now, adding more value on the line will be most useful.
Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>our ‘beautiful 100+ degrees summer’ decided to come back tomorrow and stay pretty much for rest of this week. Sigh. Hope this is last ‘heat wave’ this season!>>
Oh no!!! I am hoping it goes away soon!
>> we ordered set of weaves, “VersaWeaves” from AffordableAgility. Looks like those can be set as channel or 2×2. So we can get weaves class and will see which type of weaves Fly prefer>>
Oh wow, I didn’t know those existed but now I need to check them out! That is very useful and a lot less expensive than buying all the different kinds of weaves!
The Forced Fronts and Threadles are going well!!!
>>And this video is from ‘bad angle’ because my ‘little dog’ is blocking the camera’. But I hope you can see enough.>>
The angle was good, and it gives us a good view of what he sees too! On the first rep and then later at :31, he was set up facing the line from 1 to the backside of 2, so he was very fast and confident about where he was going on the forced front. Your position was really good too!
Compare to the 2nd rep when he was facing the same line as on the first rep, but you were on the other side of the jump. He was not quite as sure of which side (or if it was the front side) because of how he was lined up, so be sure to change his line up position when you change sides so he is always facing the correct line. He was more confident about that direction at :20 and :43.
He had some questions when you started with the tossed treat, because he did not always see if he should take the first jump or not (based on where the treat landed). So the stays worked well, or if you don’t want to always use a stay you can send him away for another jump or around a wing to start (as long as you can get up to the forced front or forced threadle before he takes off for the jump before it.
>> I didn’t turn on camera for ‘forced Threadles’>>
You did have a couple in there and your position was good! He was careful about coming to you on that though – I was not sure if it was because the cookie toss made him unsure of if he should take jump 1 or not, or if facing him for the threadle was too strong of a collection cue. How did he do on the part you didn’t get on video – was he driving in more? The stationary threadle can be too strong of a cue for a lot of dogs, so you can replace it with a forced front or even running into a forced blind 🙂
>>and LOL – I ‘practiced’ with Golden first before I tried with Fly. Golden says ‘thank you it was fun’ 🙂>
Clever!!!! Practicing with the experienced dog always makes it easier with the ‘baby’ dog!
>>I still can’t use my left hand as a ‘normal person’ so my handling is off and I’m throwing treats with ‘the only hand I can do it with’. I think I did try to throw thread with left hand once and oops it still hurts. Just saying that you don’t need to comment on that, I know it…>>
I thought you were good! The handling and cookie throwing went really well. You were maybe a little overrotated facing him on rep 2, but then you smoothed that out for the next reps. Definitely keep protecting your hand so it heals up fast!
Great job here 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
The very first rep of the decel game is the most telling rep – most dogs launch past us on that very first one, then they catch on. She totally nailed it on the first rep! YAY!! Her collection looked great!
She seemed to have an easier time on the right turns than the left turns, a slight side preference but nothing worrisome. It was cool watching her sort out her mechanics on the left turns!
Adding the tunnel was also really good – you were a little late getting into the decel on the first one so she was not as tight in her turn, but then you were earlier on the others so she was tighter. Super cool to see how well she understands decel!!
She had one error at 1:12 when she didn’t take the jump – you might have been a little far from the jump and also she was probably a little fatigued – the physical collection effort is really hard and this was towards the end of her session.
>>Taq says thinks for the chicken on the teeter. I limited reps but will do more since that really helped her drive forward.>>
Oh heck yeah, the chicken was magic! Definitely do limited reps so she can have BIG reinforcement – ideally she sees the teeter and starts to drool 🙂 because driving to the end is paired with incredible reinforcement. The teeter is one of the hardest behaviors for small dogs! So fewer reps with bigger volume/value rewards is key (I often use an entire meal) will be better than more reps with smaller or boring rewards 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi! Nice work here!
Looking at the first sequence – he is reading that well!
Really nice collection on 5 at a distance at :31! Nice decel and connection! You had great timing of showing those cues. He might not even need the spin there when he reads decel that well!
On the 2nd sequence: He read 1-5 really well. Nice connection!!! A small tweak in position & motion will help get him to the backside: Ideally, you get to the spot you were in (fully showing the backside wing like you did) then decel and stay there, slightly sideways to the jump, until he passes you. If you step forward past the wing before he is passing you, it pushes him to the off course jump. That is what happened at :47, where you rotated towards him to pull him in then turned completely forward to the jump… that is what pushed him off course (also at 1:28).
At 1:06 you over-helped a bit 🙂 and turned towards him with big come come verbals and then it was too late to get him to the backside so he took the front.
You got the backside at 1:42 with that sideway decelerated position (yay!) but then you were in his way so he dropped the bar there and after it – try to get moving forward as soon as he passes you.
On the 3rd sequence: the ideal timing of the blind is to start it when he is exiting the tunnel. Because it is a clear line to the 4 jump and your motion supports it, you don’t need to show exit line connection on the original dog-ice arm (left side here) when he exits the tunnel – you can go directly to the new side (right side) so you are fully connected on the new side before he takes off for 4.
At 1:53 and 2:04 here, the blind started when he was already over 4 so it was hard to read the side change. He figured it out and the blinds at 2:13 and 2:30 was a little earlier but you can still start them as soon as you see his nose exiting the tunnel :). Starting them sooner so you are finished before he takes off for 4 will also allow you to begin the turn cues for 5 no later than landing of 4. That will help him adjust for the turn before takeoff and keep the bar up.
Those bars on 5 and the bar down on the backside were timing questions, so no worries there.
He had some trouble with the bar on jump 2 at :03 and 1:01 and 2:02 – he dropped the bar there when you turned your shoulders and looked forward a tiny bit early to head to the next line. Ideally, you would always be perfect 😁 but since we humans are often NOT perfect, you can play a game with him to reward him to keep the bar up when we do things like turn out heads a tiny bit early. It is a one jump game where we use a low bar and one jump – and show the dog our common human error while they are jumping. BIG rewards for keeping the bar up! And a chuckle and a try again if they don’t. And live by the 2 failure rule: if they hit the bar twice, it is too hard, so soften the challenge and make it easier. Here are 2 videos of this game for you to check out:
Great job here! Have fun!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Mookie and Alonso had trouble with a threadle backside wrap out of the tunnel 5 to 6. I said my threadle cue as they entered the tunnel and Mookie then got it but Alonso needed the verbal cue before he entered the tunnel and I had to meet him at the exit of the tunnel as well with an arm cue.>>
Instead of the threadle cue as they enter, try a turn cue for the tunnel exit (in this context, probably just a name call) while they were still 6 feet before from entering – that can get their attention on you, so you can either switch to the threadle cue while they are in the tunnel or keep calling their name til you have their attention. And be sure you are turning your physical cue (feet/motion/shoulders/hands) to be parallel to the threadle line and not moving towards the jump which can open up the front side of it.
>>Buddy was fast and perfect with all my cues and nailed it first run. I was like “who is this dog” >> YAY BUDDY!!!
>>The backside to 9 had gone down for Mookie’s first run but I was using all wingless jumps. >>
>>Alonso did better with the threadle cue going into tunnel 2 to 3 but he was knocking bars. I had to say easy jump and he worked to keep them up. He was extra speedy in the yard knowing his tug was being thrown at the end>>For the jumping: These are hard angles on the backsides, so wingless makes it even harder. Do you have wings or cones you can put on the backsides so the dogs can have the visual of a wing? Also, these slices might need earlier cues so that is a good challenge: how early can you give the cues so they have more time to adjust?
On pop out 4:
>>needed the threadle cue in the tunnel and for me to meet him at the exit of the tunnel again for a backside threadle to 9 out of the tunnel with an arm cue. H>>
That makes sense – he would need to know at the tunnel exit, at the latest, which means starting while he is in the tunnel. And meeting him at the tunnel exit might have meant you were turning to the line sooner, which totally helps!
Great job here! Thanks for the update 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>> He hung out in the shade and then totally crashed in his crate. He’s wiped!!!>>
Awwww, good boy! He really worked hard, physically and mentally.
>>It also makes total sense for the AKC distances, he’d need to see the tighter distances more at 24”>
Two other options come to mind:
– start him in regular AKC at 20 so he can ease into the environment and distances (24” jumping is really hard for every dog, no matter what the distance is).
– look for AKC ISC classes. Those distances should be a lot better and they have level 1 classes with a lot of flow!>> Is it harder for them to switch between venues once they have seen the distant difference? ie Is it a lot easier for them to stick with one type of distance?>>
In my experience, for the fast big striding dogs: yes it is hard to be faced with shorter distances if they are used to more room. This is especially true when the dog is inexperienced because the dog has to process a LOT in the trial environment. I personally never begin my dogs’ careers at full height so they are able to process all of the things and jumping is a bit easier.
>>You think you would get use to it, but it’s a bit nerve wracking bringing out the youngster. >>
This is so relatable! I was just lamenting this on Facebook LOL!! Bringing out a youngster is a LOT more nerve wracking then running an inexperienced dog! My youngster will probably debut in about 10 days, so I will spend that time talking myself off the ledge LOL!!!!
Have fun 🙂
Tracy
