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Awww crud! The #11 has gone rogue!!! The sequence should be 8-9-10-12 (leave out 11) and I will fix it when I get home. Sorry!
Good morning!
> did the Masters Sequence #3 and Mookie wanted to do all backsides. I really had to cue him as to what I wanted and did succeed. This was a handler issue which I resolved.
I have seen that happen a lot with plenty of dogs, especially BCs – they get into the backside zone and then it is hard to convince them to do it the other way. -so balance the reps a lot: one backside rep, one front side rep, one backside rep, one front side rep, etc. That can help prevent the dogs from getting themselves into a loop of only backsides.
>> However, he tended to knock the bars doing his backsides slicing them too closely.
A local instructor had told me to place a pole or a stool on the backside of the jump to teach Mookie to round his approach. The bars most often knoked on the Masters Sequence 3 were jump # 2, 5, 11 and 14. Once the poles on the backsides were in place he kept the bars up better at his height of 24 inches but kept all the bars up at a 20 inch height for which I also left the poles up.>>While the pole or stool won’t hurt with the jumping on the backside, it won’t necessarily help in the long term when. the pole or stool is not there (we have tried all sorts of different things and then when the thing is gone, the dog reverts to knowing the bar or hitting the wing. What really helps are the zig zag jump grids – you can see them in the zigzag thread. Those grids help the dog figure out how to organize the jumping on those slices and not touch the wing or bar on serps or backside slices.
>>Do you think I should use the poles regularly to give him the motor memory of how to round himself more for a backside approach??>>
I have not seen this produce motor memory in this dogs. They mark their jumping off the pole being there, but it doesn’t necessarily educate them about how to approach the jump when it is not there! You can always try starting with a big pole then gradually fade it out so they jump properly without it – it would be a progressive fading process that makes the pole smaller and smaller. But I much prefer the zig zag grid 🙂
>>I know this is a work in progress and we or I should say, I feel I have progressed. I will be working on all this well into the Fall when the weather is cooler.
Awesome!!! Yes, you can totally use them set ups so work the skills or even number your own courses on them!
Tracy
Hi! The ‘eat it’ cue is SO funny!! It just makes me chuckle.
On the threads – as he is approaching your hand on the ‘come’ cue, try to say eat it just before he touches the hand and without moving at all (leaving your threadle arm back behind you where it was when he was coming in). You were almost perfect about being stationary but you wanted to close your shoulder a little bit as you sent to the food. I am bugging everyone to keep their shoulders open so we can add motion – and he appears ready for you to add motion now (very slowly :)) I posted the motion stuff on Saturday in the course syllabus.
On the serp – yes, a quick detour to the food bowl on the first rep but the rest were great 🙂 He is doing a great job of finding the bar AND turning back out. And he is really responding to the eat it cue nicely without you needing to help out much at all! As with the threadles – keep your shoulders open on your eat it cue until he arrives at the bowl. The shoulders cue the 2md part of the behavior on serps and threads (the next jump of the serp and taking the jump o the threadle) so the shoulders being frozen open are very helpful for the pup 🙂 As with the threadle, I think he is ready for motion to start here! Start on easy angles (position 1) and add very slow walking (your upper body showing position as you stat moving to the jump) and I bet he will do a great job!
Nice work here! Let me know how it goes with motion 🙂
TracyHi!
That prop has so many cookies invested in it that I can see why he didn’t want to go past it LOL! You can show him the difference without motion at first: placing him on a direct line to you with the prop out laterally, and you will lead to past it – your break release means “come to da momma” and the get out cue (without the break) means go to prop. I think he was anticipating a bit when you were moving so when you got way ahead (like on the last one) he was pretty sure it was all about the prop 🙂 The lead out will add challenge and also give you a chance to connect strongly before the release to help him not anticipate.
About the reward – yes, it was smart to put lots of reward on you for Not going to the prop 🙂 You can also have him come back to you after the prop hit – I think it is better to have him hit then come back to you line (rather than you go out to his line) because that will simulate what will happen on course (he goes out to a jump then returns back to your line). Let me know if that makes sense! Nice work!
TracyHi! This looked like it felt much smoother with the extra room outside. He was a little more distracted by the environment for some reason, I wonder if the food was too ‘calming’ 🙂 so you can get him really wild with toys and or dancing cookies before asking for the sit stay. I think the driving to your hand and turning away then finding the prop on both the lap and tandem turns looked terrific! You were very clear when you wanted him to come into hand. If he was having trouble when you were closer to the prop (as you described above) you can reward right from your hand for passing the prop (balanced with the ‘normal’ parallel path going to the prop). This is also a great warm up for future contact/tunnel discriminations too 🙂
nice job here!
TracyGood morning! This was a really nice high value set of sessions!
He did really nicely with the double cone set up!!! And his work on. the squished tunnel looks good. And great job building value for the big barrel – he looked MUCH more comfy wrapping it here! And great job with the turn and burn on the laundry basket LOL! He is learning to wrap ALL the things 🙂 And he did a great job with the rotated sends as well. The value of he ball makes it easier because he really loves it. You can mix in throwing the reward back past the object as you run away to keep the value evenly balanced. You can start the rocking horses with more running on the tunnel/cone set up, I think he will do really well on that!Tracy
Hi!! These are looking terrific! she is finding her serpentine from all sorts of different angles. She is taking the jump really well, but more importantly she is making the 2nd turn back out on the serp as you move through. That is great! The motion does not appear to be a problem for her at all – excellent!!!!! Since we were talking about releases – you were using ‘here’ on this session. If ‘here’ is an attention cue or directional you would use for serps on course, then that is perfect! She was staring to anticipate, though – it looks like she was starting to inch out of her stay later in the video when you started moving rather than waiting for the hear (I don’t think you were saying ok but maybe I didn’t hear it?). So, to help remind her to wait until she hears the cue: you can throw in reps where you physically move all the way around the jump, make connection, etc… but do not say the cue to release. Then either throw a reward back to her or go back and deliver the reward. That way she will get some value going for *not* moving just because you are moving 🙂 Moving lead outs are super helpful on course, and this is a good game to help her out to remember that.
Yes, eventually you will want to add motion to verbal only reps of this, no arms – but that is after she can let you run through showing the motion and arms along with the verbals. It is hard but she is doing a great job!!!
TracyHi! We’ve been testing the dogs for a while about whether they will get confused about the different releases – and as long as we are consistent, they are fine and hold the stays beautifully. For example, I use 4 releases on the starts line (especially in training): “break” (which, like your “OK” means to leave the stay and start working). “Close” is lie your in in which means take the other side of the jump in front of you. “Catch” means you can get up and get the reward I am throwing. “Get it” means to leave the stay and get the toy on the ground. So 4 different behaviors are cued and the dogs learn them really nicely 🙂 and they don’t break the stays on stuff like praise or motion. Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyGood morning!
Sequence 1 is looking good! The turn on 3 looked good at :07, :24, Nietzsches timing and connection on the cues!
Cuing 6 with the outside arm at :13 and :27 worked really well! And when she lands, you can cue 7 the same way (early rotation) rather than stepping forward then rotating (:14 at :31) – I bet she can take it as more of a throwback and that will tight then turn and get you out of there even sooner.
On the 3rd rep, you turned her left on 3 which is a god one to try – you had a really nice collection before the jump but then she went wide on landing – as you move away, you can all her name a few times to see if that helps her drive back immediately – she might have been looking for a line and the name call can help bring her back.
On the very ending line, I liked the early rotation on 6 as you moved away – definitely earlier than the previous reps and she had a question on the bar, but worthwhile to show her as it helped you get to the rotation on 7 even sooner – which set up a better collect there at :45 Like on jump 3, she didn’t back immediately so you can try calling her name after the turn cue to see if that helps st the next line.Seq 2: watching it from a jumping perspective, I am happy with how she was organizing herself on the hard slices, like at 5-6!!! The modifications are good, and yes, she doesn’t need to see very many automatic backsides 🙂 The opening line and push to 5 was strong 💪, one detail to try:
between 3 and 4, I think a stronger collection cue, more shifted back to her eyes and the landing spot of 3, will get her to add a turn stride before take off for 4. And doing that a little closer to 4 (rather than landing of 3 and help it even more (which means handling 1-2-3 more laterally away from the line).
On the convergence line to 7 – your running line at :29 was good! She needed a bit more upper body turned towards her, so that the outside shoulder help to ping her away to the backside (you were looking forward a bit there so it opened up the front side more). You were definitely stronger with the upper body at :57 and it really helped – be sure to maintain the running speed there too that you had at :30 so you can support with running line and connection.
Yes, the go go was a little late on the tunnel towards the end – in those moments you can exaggerate your upper body turning towards her so she can push back to the line – you turned forward so she followed that line.Seq 3: very nice!!!! 1-2-3-4 looked really smooth and fast, especially the nice right turn over 3 to find 4. The timing on your turn at 4-5 was a tiny bit late on the first rep but really nice on the 2nd rep at :25! As you begin that rotation, you can try dropping the ‘new’ arm (right arm in this case) down low and towards the takeoff spot, rather than higher and out. Now, that is easier said than done when running LOL!! So, you can decelerate sooner into order to rotate and get the arm in, which will lead to an even strong turn cue.
She was collecting nicely on 7 here too! This is a spot where you can add in her name to help her drive back around the jump – she was landing and looking for you, waiting for the next cue – so it can be her name to finish the turn and then the go tunnel cue.
Good job on the get out on the exit of the tunnel, that is difficult! She was exiting turning left, so you can play with giving her the get out cue just before she enters – so she is prepared for it on the exit (I start it when the dog is 3 to 6 feet before the tunnel entry, then give it again when they are exiting. The other option there is to give her the right cue and then the get out (right happens before try and get out happens as she is exiting).Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Seq 1 – the opening section went really nicely with the wraps on 2 and 4 on both runs, especially the 2nd run!! On the 6-7-8 section, your connection got a little soft, meaning after you got her to the backside of 6, you turned forward at :15 sp she didn’t read the serp at 7 as well (your shoulders should e ‘open’ to her, facing the jump bar, on the serp there rather than facing forward. Then ar :18 you were facing forward on the convergence at 8, so she read it as front side. On those seraph convergence lines, remember that your shoulders will face her and your eyes will be on her eyes – resist temptation to look at the jump. On the 2nd rep ar :41, you used more motion to converge into the gap and it really helped! Keep adding in the connection, looking at her eyes, an that will make it even easier for when you can’t get as far ahead.
Seq 2 – on the opening, you don’t need to call her as much while she is in the tunnel because that turns her towards you when we want her to turn away to get 3: so you can make a strong connection ke you did, but use a ‘get out or backside verbal to push her away sooner.
Really good running line 3-4-5!!!! Your path set up a really nice path for her. The only thing I would add there is opening up your shoulders to face her on the serp jumps (3 and 4) rather than facing forward.
I think on 5 you forgot for a moment on the first run that it was a tight turn back and you accelerated down the line rather than turned her – nice save to get her back to the tunnel! Good connection throughout, too!
On the re-do: remember that 4-5 is a convergence line, so you need to turn your upper body very directly towards her nd one your feet into the gap. That upper body connection is really helpful! At 1:21, you were running on the ‘normal’ serp line, looking ahead – your arm pointed out and you did say your backside cue, but the physical cue said front side so that is what she took. At 1:49, you had a stronger upper body turn (you even use a bit of outside arm) and she got it! You can support it even more with your feet turning towards the gap there, which is more of what you did at 2:19 and it worked really nicely!On the wrap at 9 at 1:58, you showed the cue as she was lifting off, so remember to lock eyes with her as she exits the tunnel, so you can decelerations and show the cue early enough to help her set up a tight turn. At 2:31 you turned without decelerations or connection, so she didn’t end up taking the jump. Remember to work the transitions of fast-slow-turn to get commitment and the nice turn (you did a great job on that in the opening of sequence 1). So you might have been thinking decelerations, but you were already turning a bit sideways and not connected so she turned on the flat.
At 2:07, she ended up in the purple tunnel! I think it was mainly because you were running really close to the pink jump and then disconnected a bit, which probably made her think you were pulling then sending her back out. She seemed pretty sure of the choice!Nice ending on the last rep!! Especially that last backside – you had a really nice convergence line (note your feet pointing into the gap) and she was able to read it really well! You were getting your feet going really nicely on the convergences, so the only thing to add is your upper body facing her more (more direct eye contact, shoulders parallel to the br rather than looking forward.)
Nice job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Nice run here!
The opening looked really good you can be earlier on the blind at 3-4 but all the way to 10 looked connected and fast!
The threadle handling at 10 worked to get 10, but it made it harder to get 11 – you really had tp push her away and she had a question there at :14. You were backing away from 10 to get the threadle and that is why you ended up behind for the push to 11. You can try to stay close to the entry wing of 10 or do double blinds 🙂 or push to the backside. Good job getting back ahead on the threadle 11-12 though! And the blind crosses 14-15 looked good – that is an appropriate place to be able to disconnect and run, because motion and verbal support the line so nicely. I think part of the reason she went and grabbed the ball was when you got 16, you were not connected and instead you pointed with your arm and pushed in – so it showed motion towards 17 turning left… and there was the ball LOL! Connection rather than arm pointing will help you get her turned right and then she is less likely to grab the ball.
Nice work!!
TracyGood morning! Double gold star for him for ignoring the squirrel in the audience!! Impressive – I am sure he could at least smell it but the game was really engaging so he never considered leaving for it. Nice!!
Rocking horses is looking really good! The first couple of reps where nice and calm, and then when the toy got added in he added speed but didn’t lose being thoughtful. Great job on your connection and nice low arms! You can make it easier by trying to not switch the toy in your hands but he didn’t seem distracted by the toy moving. You can now move the barrels even further apart – this will allow you to move more, which will make the sideways sends even easier. He was really good about committing while you were sideways, which means he is ready for you to add more speed and transitions – fast forward, then decelerations while going forward, then rotate (all before he passes you) to commit. You were doing this on the last couple of reps and he was getting it, so more distance between the barrels will add speed for him (and it is easier for you because you have more time to make the transition into the deceleration).Wow, the serp versus threadle is looking great – not only is he nicely able to read the difference, but he had great self-control on the toy on the ground!!! Impressive, and it was a well-earned victory lap LOL!!!! He is really getting the idea of in-then-out, and less teeth on flesh usually means that the pup is stimulated but relaxed about the behavior 🙂 Alrighty then, since this looks so good – add motion! Very slowly of course – starting him back on the easier slice, position 1. You will have your arm in the correct position, move through the line (slowly :)) and either give the threadle cue when you get to the entry wing or the serp cue (release) when you get to the exit wing. I posted the video yesterday (on th Course Syllabus page) so you can get an idea of how to move into the position and when/where to cue the cue. It feels a little awkward for us humans at first to walk into it like that (arm back and moving slowly) but we don’t want to add more speed until they can do it with us moving only a tiny bit 🙂
Great job on these!! Enjoy your Sunday!
TracyGood morning! His wing wrapping looks GREAT!! I think you can leave nice and early… but sudden transitions into acceleration were making it harder when you tried to leave early on the first part – you were smooth and chill then exploded away and he chased you a couple of times at around :35. But then you smoothed it out a little and he worked through it generally and only had one more chase error (1:57). So we can work on teaching him to allow you to explode away and still stay committed (because it is something that he will see; we aren’t always smooth LOL!). Starting on just one wing, nice and close, where you are pretty sure he is going to commit… cue the wrap and then explode away, throwing the toy back to the exit spot as he is entering the wing. Fee free to be pretty exciting as you leave LOL!!! If he will let you explode away like that, you can add moe and more distance. When you do the rocking horses, you can try to be smooth but leave earlier and earlier (like you were doing) which will also end up looking pretty explosive. When you leave fast, you can mix in throwing the toy back to him so he is less tempted to chase the exciting motion (the timing of the throw is basically as soon as he arrives at the wing, throw to just about where he exits it).
Your connection and arms and verbals on this were all spot on!!! Well done!!!! I think you can also add a little more distance between the wings too, especially as he gets more comfortable letting you explode away.
Great job!
TracyHi! This is totally common 🙂 You were smart to stick with first position. You can make the first position even easier to get the ball rolling. The other thing to do is to put yourself slightly more on the outside of the wing, so more of your body is visible outside of the wing, and less of your body is visible between the uprights. And if that doesn’t help, making the hand target more obvious will help – you can sightly dip your shoulder, lok at your target hand and shake your hand up and down a few times.
And if he still says that he needs to take the jump first, then you can put a cookie in the target it hand and show him the value of going there LOL!!! He has a lot of value on the jump now, so we will add more value to the target hand before the jump and then I am sure he will be brilliant with it.
Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyHi! Yay, this is going well! She is starting to really ‘read’ the verbal! One note on the verbal – when you are working it from a stay, don’t say the ‘ok’ release word. That generally means “start heading towards me” which implies front side of the bar (like the start line) and we want a very fast response to that. if you say “ok in in” she is going to have a wait to see if there is anything after OK, which slows her down a bit (like you saw towards the end of the video – the last reps had that moment where you said ok, she started to come to the front of the jump, then you said in in and she switched to the threadle side. Good girl! But was don’t want her to slow down to wait to hear if there is more after the first verbal, so it is easiest to just say “in in” who she is that close to the jump.
What I suggest now is to start her back on a slice angle (position 1) and show her the various things she would see on that angle: Go, in in, serpentine, maybe even a FC or BC 🙂 Harder angles are not as important when you add the different possibilities, so you can focus on the speedier slice angles. And, while you are doing the threadle and serpentine, you should be slowly moving the whole time – as you walk to position on the landing side of the jump, you should be moving while you then give the serp or threadle cue – so she gets used to motion the entire time. Motion the entire time will make it significantly harder, so remember to move very slowly at first 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know if the next steps make sense 🙂
Tracy
