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Good morning!
>> It’s so hard to remember it all but you have such an eye for all the ways I can do better for Arty! We will keep working on all the little details.
Agility has soooooo many little details! And getting to watch the video in slow motion makes it easy to see things 🙂 You and Arty are doing a GREAT job!!!
On the video:
These are all looking REALLY good! I just have little suggestions for you:When you were working on just the jumps:
The Go looked really good – keep throwing this in here and there so she maintains the joy of driving ahead like this!!Left wrap looked good – I think you can accelerate for a little longer (run hard til she lands from the first jump) then decelerate and see if you can rotate sooner to be turned before she takes off. She is turning well here but I bet you can turn even sooner (which gets you back up the line faster and gets a tighter turn) when you have a little more acceleration then slip into the decel.
On the right wrap (rear cross) – she is doing really well, so you can start to move up the RC diagonal sooner – as she is landing from the previous jump, you can move to the center of the bar of the next one to set the line for the RC. She was jumping the center of the bar here, which means the info was a little late (earlier info will get her jumping on the right side of the bar because she has turned before takeoff.
She did well on the Push backside! I think with this one, you can converge in sooner as well – no need to take the one step straight past jump 1, you can already be converging in towards the backside wing with a lot of connection. This is more like what you did at 1:01, when she was beginning to see the cue as she was over the previous jump.
On the Right Wrap at 1:12 where she dropped the bar – you can rotate your feet on that one more (before she takes off) and try not to say ‘yes’ over the bar – that distracts the dogs and they do things like dropping bars (I have the same habit that I am trying to break myself from doing LOL! )
From the tunnel:
The Go looked great again, I am excited that she loves to GO GO GO so much because it really is the most important skill!
Left wrap – it was hard to tell exactly, but it looks like she slowed down a little here? I think you might have decelerated too early (figuring out timing with young dogs is not so easy!) So you can accelerate into it more until after she has landed from the previous jump then decel and rotate away as she is passing you.
She read the rear cross nicely here too – try playing with the earlier pressure so she sees you moving to the center of the bar (rather than straight) as she lands from the previous jump. It is tricky because you want to show some pressure but you don’t want to push her off the line to the backside, so your feet will need to face forward tp the jump bar til she is past you.On the last backside, I think this was when you pump decided to get involved and jump the jump LOL! That would explain why you softened the pressure and turned forward LOL! When yo try it again, you can play with the earlier pressure on the push here too – as she is jumping previous jump after the tunnel, you can already be converging in and connected pretty directly to her eyes, then maintain that connection til you know she has changed her line and is going to the backside wing. And as weird as it sounds, keep your dog-side arm (right arm in this case) back and not moving forward, so she can really see the connection and direction that your shoulders are pointing 🙂
Great job on these! Feel free to swap the jumps and do it on the mirror image side as well 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
Glad to hear you are working the hind end awareness 🙂 At her age (9 months-ish, right?) she sounds right on target of only kinda sorta knowing how to use her hind end LOL!! Keep playing with it, she will sort it out as her body matures. When she is more of a teenager (14, 15 months, etc) then you will start to see it all come together. Same with the sits in motion – that is a hind-end based behavior so it takes a little bit of time to let the pups grow into it.
Double crosses are indeed difficult because of how early and quick they need to be. I feel that pain! One thing that really helps me is to keep my arms in really tight – it make that 2nd blind easier if I keep my upper arms (shoulder to elbow) basically touching my rib cage. Having arms extended delays the 2nd blind in terms of how quickly. I can show the dog that my head has turned – and she is fast so you want to be quick 🙂 I think of double crosses as 2 connection changes: first cross then connect, 2nd cross then connect.
>> as long as there was good connection coming around the first wing, good things happened.
Exactly! Good connection is key 🙂 You were really nailing it!
>>It started being very fun.
YAY! They are really fun and also very useful on technical courses. And great for building up connection in general.
On the first video:
I liked that you redefined early LOL!!! Your first blind was pretty solid on all of them. On the first couple, your 2nd blind was a little late (she was almost all the way to you when you did it, so it was much harder for her to read before getting past you. But then you started doing the 2nd blind basically as soon as you saw her change sides for the first one: YES! That means that you were connected (yay!) and also on time (double yay!)A good example of that nice early timing is at :35. You were also trying to be quick and early on the rep after that at :42, but you didn’t get the eye contact after the first cross so she never changed sides – and ended up reading it like a spin. She was correct, that is rewardable. Compare it to the eye contact at :48 and :58 and she immediately changed sides on both of those reps. Nice!
Adding in the tunnel on the 2nd video went well and she was reading them really well! These were all FC to BC combos and you REALLY made it obvious that they were NOT spins by using your great connection. Super!!! The only suggestion now is to move more through them – the challenge becomes, can you still have that great timing and great connection while running towards the next wing to stay ahead of her? The answer is: YES! Because you were already starting that on the last rep at :37- note how you got it all done really well AND you were running more to the next wing. On the previous reps, you were working the timing and connection more so you were more stationary – add in more of the running that you did here on the last rep.
Great job!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, it looked like you were not moving comfortably to the left, I hope you are less ouchy today!
The neighbor banging something would explain why he got distracted so much – I didn’t see anything in the handling that you did that turned him off, necessarily, so I figured it was heat plus cookies losing value. But loud noises would certainly be the reason too!
Looking ahead at the week’s games:
We have a game from last week which is a fun game for getting more independence and confidence on planks (Lazy Game, contacts edition) and if you have a small plank, you can totally do it indoors if the weather is bad.I will be posted more games later this morning: there is a serpentine game that I think he needs to see (you’ll want to be in the bigger ring for that) and also the tunnel exits game (so you can send and leave on the tunnels and he will turn the way you want, no matter where you are) – a full sized tunnel is great for that of course, but you can also tweak it for a little tunnel at home 🙂
Keep me posted!
TracyGood morning!
Since you already have this skill on board, you can start to fade out the swirl of the hand cue – he seems to be turning himself back around, so I think you can fade the hand cue down to showing it as part of the cue, then maybe a tiny flick of the hand to help him turn back around the wing (not sure he needs that, we might be able to fade that too!)
When you got moving, your footwork was perfect. You were turning your feet too much to the wing when you were standing still, but my guess is that it just felt weird to be standing still LOL! So, keep moving – we will only see this in motion anyway.
You can definitely work on adding more motion to this skill: Nuptse can be in a stay and you can be jogging then running. Then you can add more of his motion by tossing a cookie for him to get (rather than asking him to stay) so that after he grabs the cookie, you are both moving into it :))
And the other thing to add now, since he is doing so well – the game at the end of the demo where you alternate between showing him the threadle/wrap, and sending him to the other side (normal size :)) of the wing – and then sometimes just moving past the wing without him taking it. All of these are from the same side of you, so we are showing him 3 of the main cues he would see in this scenario.
>> Lst Friday, during our UKI Trial, Mary Ellen Beerry had designed the SEnior/champ agility course such that I was going to use Back-Back in about 3 different places, but I think that they were all just u-turns. Do you distinguish verbally between the u-turn and the full circle?>>
Ah, that is why we are waking up this skill – it is so fashionable right now! Do you have a course map? I would love to see it – I am compiling a bunch of courses to post in the classroom so folks can see places to use this skill.
I think there is going to be a bit of grey area on exactly how much circle we want versus how much slice (either slight grey area or we have to add more verbals which I do NOT want to do!). Basically, I use my regular threadle slice for anything that is “S-shaped” on the dog’s line, where he is going to exit the jump on the wing opposite of where he entered (and opposite of where I am). And in these newer threadle-wrap scenarios, I will use the threadle-wrap cue when he is going to have more turn and exit on the wing I am near and the one he entered the backside jump on – so the full circles, generally, replacing the ‘reverse wraps’ when we are on the other side – or the almost full circles, some of which might be the U-turns you describe. Let me know if that makes sense, I only have one cup of coffee on board so far hahaha!
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think, it is great that he already has a lovely foundation on this skill!
Tracy
Good morning!
Yes, I am glad you switched to the sandwich approach because the between the feet approach made it a little unclear as to whether it was a threadle wrap or a backside send.
For the most part, you did a great job moving forward, especially hen he was starting on your right side. You mostly moved forward on the other side, some little bit of stopping maybe to help tighten the turn? But I will keep bugging you to keep moving – a lot of folks originally worked this skill with a decel or leaning back as part of the cue, but judges are now requiring the skill when we cannot add that decel or lean. Darn it!! LOL!!
I agree that he was a little wider turning to his left than to his right, so you can use your frisbee to help tighten it: rather than reward him for completing the circle, you can toss it behind you to the ‘landing spot’ of the wing so he is more urgently wanting to turn and go there (because, friz :)) And the 2 sides can progress at different rates: on the first side (when he is on your right, turning to his right) – you can add more motion. And you can keep things chill on the other side for a bit longer.One thing to be careful of: when he is in a stay, release with the threadle/wrap cue and not the normal release cue – the normal cue will me to take the ‘front’ side of things, so the releasing with the threadle/wrap cue will tell him more immediately what you would like him to do. I think you mixed in both.
He seems pretty ready for you to also show him the other options: sending to the ‘normal’ side of the wing and the bypass/take nothing line too! Those demos are at the end of the video.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi again!
Little dude was great here!
He did well on the opening line before his visit! He pulled off a TON of high level skills – I could see him thinking hard with steam coming out of his ears but he did it! Understanding of all the skills is pretty much in place – he read the blind on the opening really well, he got his weaves in a new place. He found his lines really well – especially tunnel-backside-teeter. YAY! He read the double blind right before the ‘thanks for ignoring Chaia’ reward and he was super speed in the last line – moving away from the distractions 🙂 You did need more motion support to the last straight orange tunnel – you said left left and he turned left correctly (almost 90 degrees) so I think for him, you don’t need left there: just a small name call or just start saying the tunnel cue.Good rewarding for going past Chaia! I really do think that at this point, it is all going to be about exposing him to high success sessions in as many environments as possible, with big speed lines. That way he gets used to working around distractions (darned pandemic) and then he can turn on the speed that we saw flashes of here. I don’t mind that he is not blasting yet on all parts of the course – he is thinking about what he needs to do, and multi-tasking is hard! But it is really great to see the moments where he says “I GOT THIS” and starts to show us his full speed. FUN!!
Great job here – keep breaking it down, rewarding lots, and getting him to new places. There is no need to work all the handling options with him yet, especially in the heat – let him hit the home run with the first choice of handling and get lots of rewards for being on the big course (which is a new skill as well). His skills look strong so it is a ‘new places’ thing now 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! Hope your air travel went well!
He did really well with his ball cap, of course 🙂And good for him for going right to it in the other room!! Yay! When you take it on the road to new places, the hat might be more salient if you let him see you put it down in the new place – it popped right out to him here, but the distractions of new environments might ‘hide’ it. Bringing him in and then putting it down can get him ‘seeing’ it.
After his vacation 🙂 we can make a plan for going to new places!
Tracy
Good morning!
She did really well on the plank, she seems really confident on it. Can you elevate it now, on cinderblocks or low tables or something? That is a good next step for her.
>>I also worked the teeter game where they get on the end and let it hit, I don’t have video it didn’t work but I am struggling!! She doesn’t want to back on to it she runs up it and turns around and runs down.
If it is just the backing up game that is giving her struggles, a couple of ideas for you:
– make sure she can back up onto a dog bed or a plank or wobble board. Start with her with all 4 feet on it, then lure her front feet off, then let her offer stepping back onto it. That c an get the behavior started, then you can gradually ask her to come off with all 4 feet and step back onto it. (Also be sure she can back up on the flat without anything there, so she understands how to offer backing up)
Then when you put it back on the teeter, have her get all 4 feet on the board, facing down to the exit (lots of cookie lures will help this :)) Then like with the bed or mat or wobble board: lure her front feet off the board then let her step back on – I like to sit or stand right in front to help this. Let me know if that makes sense!On the wing wraps and tunnels:
Her wing wraps look good especially when you are really connected! You had one little disconnection moment at 1:20 on the wing after the tunnel, so she didn’t take it as easily.
About the tunnel commitment, 3 ideas for you:
– Her tunnel value is not super high yet, compared to the toy – so you can shorten up and straighten out the tunnel so it is easier for her to get in and go through, and throw the toy after it (so it diesn’t come from you hands – she locks onto the toy in your hands, so getting it out past the tunnel exit will help.
– tunnel value when she is turning right (on your left) seems really hard for her, right turns in general are harder, so help her out more with very clear, connected indications that you hold until you are sure she is in the tunnel when she has to turn right. She is stronger turning to her left (on your right) as you can see at the end of the video, that was perfect and really easy for her! So emphasizing connection and rewarding lots for the right turns will be useful to balance her out. The only time she had trouble with a left turn into the tunnel was at 1:50, where you had her on your left and kind of ran her past the tunnel, so I think she didn’t understand the cue because of where you were relative to the tunnel entry.
– she doesn’t always know when the toy is available for grabbing so you can play the game where she learns when to grab it and when to ignore it:
https://agility-u.com/lesson/clean-mechanics-and-markers/
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Backside wraps – heck yeah! This was exactly it. You were clear with your cues and then you left – note how lovely her commitment was AND how tight her turns were… and also how far ahead you got 🙂 Yay! Great connection. Love it! Click/treat for you for being able to make the adjustment so well!
And great placement of reward: if it becomes inefficient to drop the reward because she runs off with it, you can tie it to a leash so you can drop it correctly but then you still have the other end of the leash, and you can engage her without her running off.The tight blinds are going well, they take some getting used to. I didn’t think you were sluggish at all, I think think it takes a while to get comfy with them. Keep reminding yourself to stay in motion and do the BC before she arrives at the BC wing, so you can see her at the wing on your new side. On the first video, on the first couple of reps, you were a little late but that is a matter of getting comfortable. And remember to send and go on the wraps of that middle wing, you don’t need to turn your shoulders to support commitment – that will also give you more time to reconnect, like at :30 when she didn’t know which side to be on.
By the end of this video, you were starting to look a lot more comfortable with the timing of the BCs – at :39 you were starting it more before she got to the wing – best one of the video! Nice!!!When you switch to the other side:
1st & 2nd reps were FCs 🙂 Muscle memory 🙂 You can turn sooner on those too, before she arrives at the wing. Your 3rd rep at :26 was a really nice BC – you are getting them started before she gets to the wing, and you are giving her really good exit connection so the turns look good!
The last one on this video (:36) was great – you started well before she arrived at the wing and that was lovely! I don’t think you fully trust yourself because you stopped moving a bit after it – keep moving 🙂 If you feel like you end up too far ahead, you can do the BC closer to the wing after the tunnel so you have more space to keep moving.Great job on these too, I think they are coming along very nicely!!
Tracy
Hi!
Hope you are feeling better soon!!! This was good practice for him to get on his lines without needing you to be right there and running – I think he did really well!!>> I’ve never been very good at doing fronts or blinds with any kind of planning.
I think you did well with the FCs here!
A little error on the first rep – you did a spin on the tunnel and didn’t reconnect in time. On the 2nd rep – you reconnected fast and got him on the pinwheel line – nice! Well done getting in and out of the wrap there – tight turn and he go back on the line really well too.
3rd rep – fabulous pinwheel!! You were connected and getting the verbals out, staying in motion to support the line a bit: so he was great getting on that line. Good boy!!! One thing I thought of here: you give each verbal once: “jump – tunnel-jump” for example. When you get quiet, he looks at you when he lands from the jump or exits the tunnel. So one way to keep him on the line is to give him the verbal several times: tunnel tunnel tunnel tunnellllllll! And jump jump jump. Plus, it is easier to be on time when you say the cue several times rather than just once 🙂
On the wrap at :41, just turn a little sooner and then step away from his line – you faced forward til he landed and then turned so he thought the cue was to jump it again. Compare it to when you sent him back over the front side: you stepped out of it at :48 and off his line, and it looked great, he had no questions.Next rep – another fast an smooth opening line! I think you were trying for a backside by accident so he got confused – reward him in those moments as if it was exactly what you wanted, so he doesn’t check out like he did there. And I think that checking out moment led to him being more distracted on the last rep – you can reward more frequently out on the line, and as you do more reps, go to higher value rewards for the last rep to keep him interested. This is especially important when we are doing a lot of reps of the same thing – going from a dog cookie to meatballs or something will help him be happy to let us do the same thing again 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>So I am really struggling with the verbals right now – I had taught her right and left wrap (check and digga), right and left soft turn (right and left), but I had recently changed my mind and decided not to discriminate L and R, and just have a verbal for a wrap (check) and a soft turn (ch, ch,) b/c I’m not trusting myself to say the correct cues during a trial.
Trust yourself! You’re a great handler AND you are experienced with other fast dogs AND you’ve put a great foundaiton on Yowza! You will be able to plan the correct cues and they will get into your muscle memory, so it will feel much easier and less daunting. More on that coming in Games Package 4. But for now – I think that checkcheckcheck and the ch ch ch sound basically identical, which makes it harder for both of you to differentiate.
>>However – you will see in the second video here (Sequence 2) that Yowza seems to be confused by my cues for a wrap to the L, but when I said “digga, digga” she got it right away – so now I’m thinking may be better if I stick to Plan A, and go back to using the L&R verbals.
I agree with Yowza: plan A all the way!
>>And, by the way, “jump” is my generic cue for take the jump ahead of you as fast as you can (i.e. no collection), and “go” means take the jump/s straight ahead of you, even though I’m falling behind.
So… do “jump” and ‘Go” mean basically the same thing? If so, 2 thoughts:
if they mean the same thing, you only need one of them not both.
if ‘jump’ means go straight/no collection, then you won’t want to use it on the pinwheel because there is a moderate collection there.I use GO the same way you do: go straight, no collection. I use ‘jump’ to mean “take the jump in moderate extension/slight turn” for situations where a GO, left/right or wrap don’t fit.
>>I repeated the first sequence, this time trying to use less turning cues, and using L and R collection verbals. You’ll see in both videos that she shot out of the tunnel and went straight to the adjacent jump 10, even when I was trying to cue jumps 13 to 14.
This link looks to be the same as the one from yesterday? Let me know if I loaded the wrong one.
Sequence 2 video:
Continuing the discussion about jump versus Go:
at :02 you said jump for #2 so she jumped really long, out towards the teeter, then turned on landing. I think jump is a good verbal for this and having it indicate a slight turn will make things perfect 🙂Getting the turn on jump 4:
Her commitment skills and turning skills are really strong, which means you don’t need to handle that much to get commitment and a turn here. The errors were caused by being too helpful LOL!!!
She rear crossed 4 at :05 and :17: that was because you had too much converging pressure out of the tunnel (which sets the RC line) and the turn cue was pressuring into the takeoff spot. The pressure pings her away and your feet were facing the rear cross line on those.To get the wrap to the left, she needs more of a transition and less pressure on the line (I don’t think she will ever really need us to pressure into the takeoff spot with her) – as she exits the tunnel, be connected and moving towards the wrap wing – let her see you go from acceleration to deceleration and then either rotate or send and leave.
You were working on that, I think, on the post turns – but the connection and transition were not as clear – you were looking forward and pulling away/stopping short (slamming on the brakes of sudden decel and moving away at the same time) so she was guessing a bit of what you wanted (she had some creative guesses LOL!!)
Your rep at :54 had a transition more than the other reps and she got it!!
1:11 had a bit of the slamming on the brakes, so she didn’t commit but then you got it really well at 1:19 and the reps after that 🙂 Yay! Much better transitions into deceleration and less slamming on the brakes/rotating.I think you were saying left at 1:52 and got a soft turn not a wrap (motion presented that too), she was good there!
The jump cues on the pinwheel were strong when you moved to that section – she had a little jumping error (needed one more stride at 2:03) when the bar went down, I didn’t see any handling that caused it – it is unusual for her and she fixed it really nicely after that.The FC to the tunnel looked great!!! Loved it! You can try a blind cross there but your FC was really fabulous.
About the last turn out of the tunnel:
On the very first rep, you can call her before she goes into the tunnel – a 2:14 you were facing that way and accelerating (towards the off course) before she entered so maybe she was very literal even though the tunnel exit appeared to be turned towards the jump you wanted. You can call her more and maybe even do a spin. That was a rewardable off course because there was enough info for her to take it, and you did say jump…. On the 2nd time, though, you did call and had MUCH better motion away up the line – was there something out there she was looking at? Toy on the ground? Favorite obstacle? She was *convinced* that was the line LOL!!! Calling her hard on the last rep helped but I thought the 2nd to last rep should have worked too. If there was nothing out there and she was just convinced, try adding the spin before she goes in to help her pay more attention to the turn cues on a tunnel (and we can fade it out later on).Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I timed it a little differently to isolate the turns – from landing of 3 (jump after tunnel) to landing of last jump. Right now, the times are very close so it becomes a matter of tightening the turns a bit:
On the wrap to the inside (his left), that sets up a great exit line so it is possible that the wrap will end up being faster (depending on what is next on the line on a course). If you can cue a tighter turn over the jump before the wrap, it would be faster in this situation: when he lands from the jump after the tunnel, use your left soft turn verbal and decel to cue a mild collection there. You were driving forward til he took off, so he was wide on those turns.
The wrap itself is going well – move forward to the next line sooner to give clear info and be out of his way. Try to cue it and then when he is looking at it, start moving forward even if he is not jumping yet (stay connected back behind you as you leave). At :22, the bar dropped because you stayed there, halfway rotated, til he took off then you exploded forward – it is the same thing that happened on the previous run with the wrap to the right. So even on tight turns: cue and go! If he has commitment questions, we can adjust timing or do a little training to help out.The slices to the outside went well, he was tighter on the jump before the slice because he was chasing your motion. You can use lateral distance there, being more lateral from the 2 jumps after the tunnel so that you are more out of the way of the serp jump and moving forward – that will get those lines even tighter and keep you ahead. He did a great job setting up his own collections and turns here!
>>I also filmed the third sequence and he did the most beautiful threadle slice and backside wrap but unfortunately the second video to compare to the first is way to dark from the lack of sun so you’ll just have to take my word for how amazing he was.
I’m a believer! I am often out at sunrise doing videos, so I understand how hard the lighting is (the midday demo videos in 90 degree heat and high humidity are brutal!)
>>I also tried to do the blind out of the tunnel to the threadle- a skill I’ve not done with him and it was fairly comical.
It is a great skill to work! Break it down – he will need it in the future. It is hard because the dog needs to know before he enters the tunnel that there will be a threadle after it 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>> I think I have to turn in my Millennial card because I could not figure out how to do superimposed videos.
Ha! I use the blue-green screen option and that creates the overlays. I have also gone to wearing different colors so it is easier to see which handler is doing which run – it blurs together a lot without the different colors (hopefully my neighbors had some nice entertainment of me changing shirts between runs LOL!)
On this sequence:
One thing I noticed on the left wraps is that you stayed in a steady motion, somewhat decelerated all the way through – the first rep had a later rotation, and the 2nd rep had an earlier rotation. But neither had you really driving then decelerating into it, which will explain why he was not driving hard either because the motion was not really cuing extension. So to help overall speed: start closer to the wing and run harder into the line.
When you had a blind to get to the other side of the tunnel, you had to hustle more to get there – that acceleration from you produced acceleration from him 🙂 On the 1st rep, the blind was really good, you can add a little more deceleration before going into the rotation. You did that really well on that last reps (where he was dropping the bar) – good acceleration, then decel, then you started the rotation, all on time. So why did he drop the bar? Part of it is that you said YES over the bar the first time, indeed LOL! But mainly: when you started the rotation, you stayed there, halfway rotated – then exploded away as he was in the air. That changes his trajectory because your position didn’t ‘seal the deal’ of the tight turn, so he was having to wait for the rest of the info. So as soon as you start the rotation: get outta there! Finish it and get gone up the next line, so he can adjust accordingly. That should help the bar! And if he has any commitment questions, we can train that pretty easily because of his strong foundation skills on wings 🙂I am not surprised the right wrap was faster here, it is a better line back to the tunnel and easier to get the tighter turn 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>>>As soon as I said “sit” she went from a stand to a down with no intermediate sit and before I could get a hand signal in there. This response time is pretty typical when she’s not distracted. Provided that she responds, if I say “down” she goes into a down 98% of the time. If I say “sit” she goes into a down maybe 65% of the time and a sit 35% of the time. I guess maybe just try some big parties when she actually sits?>>>
Yes, definitely have big parties. Also, we can try a different approach to be able to get the behavior without the down:
Using a small platform, only big enough to fit her in a sit not a comfy down (or a chair) – shape her to first stand on it, then sit on it. Try to be super quick so she doesn’t try to offer a down, and use something small enough that the down doesn’t really fit . That can allow you to get the behavior and reward it a lot without getting the down.>> I don’t know if I’ve tried just her backing up not onto a target, but just backwards.
That’s a good place to revisit. We did it in puppy class a while back but definitely a good place to go back to. And you can also shape it differently by starting her with all 4 feet on the mat and then having her front feet come off, then back on. That will get the behavior rolling with just front feet, then you can build it to back feet too 🙂
Keep me posted!
TracyGood morning!
>>>When I learned the flick, the handler did a little rock back with their feet while circling the hand to indicate the dog’s motion. From what you’re saying, it seems I should try to minimize (and maybe get rid of) that little rocking motion and just try to keep moving forward while flicking the dog over the back side of the jump, and then moving forward toward the handler. Am I understanding that correctly?
Yes, that’s correct. 🙂 one of the evolutionary advancements in agility is that we are relying more on the trained skills and less on the physical cues because the dogs are faster and courses are harder 🙂
>> I found myself doing a little of the rocking automatically when Yuki and I gave it a go today, so I want to be sure I don’t introduce something extraneous to Keiko. I’m pretty sure I can fade the rocking with Yuki, it’s me I’m going to have to work on. ;).>>
Ha! Truth! It is easier to train the dogs than to take out our muscle memory. Starting from the wing wraps where the dogs get happy turning away will make the difference. And I have had to put a leash on the ground so I remembered to keep moving in a straight line. Handler speed doesn’t matter yet, as long as you keep moving forward.
We are starting to see this handling move a lot more in places where we humans are not close to the dog, so they need to do it more on a verbal and less on a physical cue.
Let me know how it goes.
Tracy
