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Hi! Sounds like a really fun weekend!
This session went really well, I am so excited by how well the two of you are doing as a team!
Good job with the ‘catch’ rewards – she is fast with a ton of drive, so convincing her that stays are AWESOME will be very helpful LOL!!!
The blinds are going well. Yes, at :16, you were not far enough ahead and late – but note how she saved you and got the correct jump anyway! Always reward that – we like it when the dogs save our butts on course LOL! Then you had better position and timing and it went much better (yes, she needs to stay there til released 🙂 )
The FC went well too – the main thing now with both the FCs and the BCs is that you start them sooner: you can start them after she lands from 1 so they are both finished before she takes off for 2. That takes a lot of trust that she will commit to 2, but I think she will be fine with that 🙂 If not, we will train it 🙂
One of the reasons that I think she will be fine with 2 when you are moving into the FC or BC is that she was perfect when you did that giant lead out to 3, to set up the throwback move for the tight turn – she held her stay, found the line perfectly, and turned really well. YAY!!! So, that gives me confidence that she will have no trouble letting you do the FCs and BCs sooner too.>>hrow back, I did help her out a little and made sure she was getting that jump. Earlier when we did this I left too soon and she missed the second jump. >>
With the little bit of help, she seemed to have no questions at all. If you were moving too soon on previous sessions, she was probably correct to not take 2 if you had already moved – that is good to know for when you do fancy courses and also for Snooker 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>The weather and late nights at work are not helping my training!!>>
I think your job needs to give you some time off to play with your dogs LOL!!!!
>>This is a really cool exercise and is helping me understand what options to choose. >>
I really love this exercise because it is a game changer for most of us (being able to do this has gotten me to national and international podiums on more than one occasion, so I am sold on it!). We can use this exercise to find the root of errors on course. You mentioned feeling like you were rushing (on the Hero video) – and I think I can see why! Your planning was good, you had your verbals going and you were running in the walkthrough to make sure you prepared for the pace of the dogs. The one thing to improve (and this is a big one that can be super helpful): your connection was too far forward of where the dogs would actually be. What I mean by that is that you were looking ahead in spots where the dogs would still be behind you (like exits of crosses, exits of tunnels, and on the bigger lines). On the walk throughs especially a you got faster and faster, you were looking ahead too soon from 2-3, after the FC 7-8, after the tunnel exits of 8-9, and on the big line across the back of the course. You are really good with connection on the BC 12-13 and 13 backside but then start looking forward too soon again: both of your dogs would still be behind you at this point, based on your handling choices.
So the connection and seeing the dog was not really rehearsed – then when you were trying to run Hero, it felt rushed and there were little moments of wideness and then errors because of you looking too far ahead of where he was on the first run or two – at 6:42, looking too far ahead of him as he exited 8, then on the 2nd run, looking too far ahead after the send to the backside.
By the 3rd run, you had gotten settled in with the connection, and it went really well – then it went really well for Ruse too 🙂
So the trick is now to get your very first run to go as well as the 3rd run did, and it is a simple adjustment: walk the course looking behind you for the dog unless you are absolutely sure the dog will be ahead of you in that moment. Look behind you after crosses, look at tunnel exits, etc – and keep looking behind you, delivering the verbal cues to the invisible dog. It will feel weird at first but it will be a great rehearsal – then when you run the real speedsters, you will find that you won’t rush – you will be prepared for exactly where the dogs are and you will feel like you have plenty of time 🙂
Everything else looks really good, so I think it is just that one adjustment of looking back to the dog rather than looking ahead.
>>Here is Ruse’s run. I didn’t e-walk the course because I pretty much run them the same way. Ruse is more experienced but Hero is faster I think>>
He might be a bit faster indeed! he also needs a bit more turn info, like 3-4 and 6-7 so you can give him more decel into those. With Ruse, you power into those spots and she turns really nicely. With Hero, you powered into those spots and he jump longer, because of the acceleration.
>I did a bit of a trial at the end of Ruse’s run to see if she could do the threadle wrap instead of the blind to backside on 13. She did it no problem. I know that would usually put you behind, but it didn’t matter because I wanted her to turn tight out of the tunnel to get 18 anyway. Also going into 17 I made sure when I walked that I measured 2m from the tunnel entrance so I knew when to give her the right turn out of the tunnel command. I was pretty pleased with her turn!>>
The threadle rear seemed a lot faster than the BC for her! I need to time it again on a bigger screen but it seemed significantly faster. It might be that she could drive to it because there was no blind before it (you were a little late on the blind) and also the collection cues cut out a lot of yardage: if you re-work the blind to the backside push, I think a spin there would get you out of the spot sooner and tighten that line as well. But it was really cool to see the threadle wrap being used in a perfect spot for it – I agree that there was no negative to getting a little behind there, on purpose. She looked great!
>>Here is Ruse’s overlay with my original course walk. I am a bit speedy on the course walk:
>>I think if the handler has to be faster or slower on the walk than on the actual run – faster is better 🙂 But the main thing is the connection. So when you move to the next course, walk the whole thing looking back behind you for the invisible dog, talking to the invisible dog, etc and see if it feels smoother!
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Don’t be embarrassed about the walk through! You worked your plan then nailed the run. Part of what we are doing with these walk throughs is looking at time management and also looking at decisions.
Part of making decisions is being able to do them quickly and confidently – the changing them if needed (also quickly and confidently LOL!) So if the big takeaway is to come into the walk through with most your plan in place, then hash out the rest quickly – that is good to know!
From what I could see on this walk through, part of the trouble might have been adding complexity to 6-7 and 11-12 when you didn’t need to, in the form of extra blinds. You did a blind at 6 then a blind on the flat to 7. And you added a blind on the very last jump too. Both of these blinds worked… but I don’t think you needed either of them. You could ‘serp’ 6-7 all dog on left, and run to 12 with him on your right (no additional blind needed). It was those 2 spots that took up most of your time in the walk through – so one thing to add to your walk through list: when you are working really hard on one spot, ask yourself if you are over-complicating things and if there is a simpler way? Often, there is a simpler way. If not? Carry on with the obsessing in that one spot 🙂
Overall, your had great connection, verbals were in place, and you did a great job on the run! Yay!!!
TracyHi!
Yikes, I am ready for lovely weather with a whole lot less humidity. Sounds like your area got some big storms last night!His opening looked really great on the first run! 2-3 looked great! You might have been calling him too much, one extra “come” at :12 so you can try these with a ‘come weave’ and see what he does in terms of finding the weaves without more help 🙂
Slice versus wrap:
3 steps is significant! 3 steps difference in distance on a wrap, versus a slice – that slice is likely to end up being faster. I timed it from landing of the previous jump to nose-passes-wing of the decision jump – to that point, the slice is faster (the in in was slower but that was just because it is a harder skill). So then if the weather ever gets nice, you can try it through the tunnel – he *might* be able to explode out of the wrap and have a faster line to the tunnel, but a lot fo BCs are still finding the slice to be the fastest line even with the extra turns to and through the tunnel. But most importantly, you have all the options in the toolbox and that will be super useful.Great job here! Stay cool 🙂
TracyHI! Welcome back from the beach, I hope you had a great vacation and fun at the seminar too!
About the lead outs – throwing back the rewards definitely feels weird but the dogs find it helpful – “we get paid here when the momma is THERE? Cool!” You don’t need to say yes before you throw, you can just say catch and toss the reward. The ‘catch’ is a marker equivalent to the ‘yes’ and it also tells her exactly where/when the reward is coming.
The handling looked really strong! He commitment looked great on the 2nd jump in the middle of the setup which means you can be earlier on moving through the cues:
for the blinds, you can start them as soon as you see she has landed from jump 1.
For the lead out push, you can start moving more towards 3 (and wherever 4 would be in this situation) as soon as she has landed from 2 🙂
Your connection and positions are looking good, so now you can totally challenge her commitment with the earlier timing (I think she will be fine 🙂 )>>We’ve been doing most of our mat work with toys. This morning I did a session with the treat trainer and she was definitely less drivey but she hit it every time. Also was able to be more precise working through different approaches since her brain was on instead of being 90% on the toy and 10% on task.
When you do the training with a toy, how successful is she in terms of hitting the mat?
>>Just now we picked a shady spot and did some more with me staying stationary with a high value toy in hand. She got 80% of the hits and the other 20 I spun her back around and she thoughtfully hit the mat before flying off for ball.
80% is good for a starting point – I suggest repeating the session twice more – if the rate of success remains the same or drops, then the food is a better choice. If it rises – keep using the toy 🙂
>>I’ll try to get some new remote batteries so I can share footage with you but I’m thinking though the drive wasn’t there with the remote trainer, the accuracy was, so maybe I should continue to train this both with toy and with remote trainer?>>
Accuracy is more important than speed for now – and also, where is she looking when the toy is in play versus the treats? If she is accurate for the food and looking ahead – bingo! It is easy enough to get more and more speed. If she is not accurate and/or looking back at you for the toy… stick to food for now (it is easy to get speed but harder to convince the dogs to NOT look at us). If she is pretty accurate and looking ahead (not at you) with the toy? Then train the ‘newer’ concepts with food (like different angles, more motion, etc) and then when she is successful, work them for toy rewards. Let me know if that makes sense! Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>but in this last class, she decided perhaps she could run with someone else, and had a great time.
This is great! The most important thing is that she has a great time in that environment – everything else is icing on the cake.
>>There is no way of knowing how long I’ll be unable to run the girls in class. I’m currently in PT for something else, and now the therapist is working on the this injury with me. A total rupture can take a year to heal, so I’m trying to be careful and not turn this into something bigger. >>
Yes, avoiding the rupture seems smart! In the meantime, we keep working on the verbals and independence and confidence in new environments 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
He did well here as you added speed and the tunnel!! The me me cue itself is going really well – make sure that when you are adding speed and the tunnel, that he doesn’t see you converging in towards the jump – that causes the line of motion ti indicate the front which conflicts with the threadle wrap verbal/arm. So, no need to be near the wing, just keep running your line. That will turn out to be pretty helpful because these threadle wrap things are often found when we are nowhere near the wing.
Now that you are adding it to the full jump – when you want him to run by it, call him before the tunnel and turn a bit – we don’t want the name call alone to mean ignore the bar – we often call the dogs on course as part of the cue to take the front side of the jump. So, a bit more turn-of-shoulders will make it clear (if we ever needed to run past a wing and ask him to take nothing, a more formal bypass verbal would work but that is sooooo low on the priority list at the moment that you don’t need to worry about it for now.
One more thing to add: a cue to take the front side of the jump after the tunnel (go or jump) as that’ll make for a great balance to the backside threadle wrap.Great job!!! We add more to this on Monday 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>>I did do that one on purpose and forgot to tell you I modified.
Perfect! Makes sense!
>>It’s Ben Franklin with the key and the kite 🙂
You see it, right?
>>ahhhhh yes! this is what was particularly challenging about what I was trying to do. I told Carrie that I couldn’t use an out to help him distinguish because both sides required a lead change. It wasn’t an in-in and it wasn’t a go….. which probably should have told me that if I didn’t have any of the tools in my toolbox to handle it, the course was wrong. FACEPALM!!!
It was indeed an ‘out’ from 3-4, and your position/connection would make it clear (plus timing of the verbal, which can start before he enters tunnel #3.
Hi!
>>I love his speed, and I don’t even think we’ve reached full gas but I feel so behind always. Even when I’m ahead. I need to keep working this. But you are correct, I usually do a good job of staying ahead.>>
The rehearsals help all of that, which is why we do them over and over 🙂
>>Between the last 2 tunnels, this is another connect to the dog behind you moment – at 1:56 you were looking ahead and also quiet (he was not naughty, he was correct). Compare it to 2:08 and 2:57 where you were looking at the dog behind you and talking to him – nailed it! Yay!
I did both a front or a blind here. Did you have a preference of which one seemed to work better?>>
A blind will be quicker for you to be able to reconnect, but either works well as long as it starts early so you are reconnected before he exits the first tunnel.
T
Hi!
This is one of my favorite exercises 🙂 It went well for you and Sly!!!I think you might have been narrating the walk through like an instructor LOL! That makes it less efficient and effective, which might have contributed to running out of time. A 5 minute walk through goes by so quickly – you had really good sense of plan and natural connection, so next time add in more emphasis on rehearsing verbals and the speed of handling.
The run was really good – very connected, plan was in place, he seemed to know where to go at all times and he was able to run the sequence accurately and FAST 🙂 YAY! One thing to consider – you went silent til you said tunnel for the last jump LOL! That is probably a product of not being able to ‘rehearse’ the verbals at speed in the walk through, so your brain was super focused on the other elements. That wasn’t a big deal here on this one, but it might be on a bigger course, so definitely add emphasis to the verbals and handling speed.
Great job here! Onwards to the next one!
TracyHi!
I used to dread training stays, but I love *having* stays – so making it fun was important for humans and dogs LOL!
>>Yes! I do need to trust Cowboy. Once I removed the Manners Minder (he is obsessed with the thing) there were zero errors. I will continue to keep at it!>>
Good boy!!! And yes, keep trusting – you will either be super happy with what he can do, or he will tell you where he needs more training, or he will let you know if you disconnected. It is all good!
TracyHi!
>>I need to work serps with a landing side blind. Well I think I need to do more landing side blinds in general with him.>>
Yes, the backside serp and regular serp jump commitment training will really help – right now he is relying on handling cues, which makes it harder to handle these on full courses.
On the walk through video:
A-ha! I think we are on to something! The bulk of the rehearsal/walk through has the invisible dog ahead of you which is not realistic to what would happen when running him. If we can change that rehearsal, we can change the runs!>>I wouldn’t have done this one with both our energy levels but the lawn person comes tomorrow and tears the course down.
I understand having to get things done between the weather and lawn care 🙂 But, for the youngsters – crank up the energy (cold brew coffee does it for me haha!). You didn’t have a ‘dress rehearsal’ walk through on this, so the run was when you were doing the verbals/connections/speed for the first time. You can eliminate errors with that dress rehearsal – and plus it eliminates errors for him too! An example would be the last two obstacles, 16-17. You handled it in your mind, looking ahead, but never really walked that line: so he was not able to read it. I think you also left out the #6 tunnel in the run? I think you walked it with the tunnel there but didn’t do it in the run (also 8 is a backside, it looks like he did is as a front) which is one of the reasons to add the section of the walk through where you look at the map. The parts where you connected looked really good, like the opening 1-5 and 9-10-11 and 14-15-16! So now we can push to the next level to get the whole run looking like that, the first time, consistently 🙂
You can do the next runs on the smaller sequences if you don’t have the whole course built anymore:
walk with the connection to the dog behind you (adding verbals and speed too of course :)) and then just run him once – if anything needs fixing, re-walk it! And if you are not sure what needs fixing, watch the video.I think we are on the verge of a breakthrough, so be strict with walking it this way and let me know how it goes!!!
Tracy
