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Awesome! Also, I have new sequences tomorrow and Sunday (we have the next live online seminar on Sunday) for you to play with 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
Good job adding the out cue! Keep moving forward on the out, and if you use the dog-side arm – don’t let it get overhead as that will cloud the info and cause you to decelerate. Stopping the motion and high arm will look like a RC cue (like a :11) plus it slows down your running.
Also, use more a little connection on this – when you are looking forward, she tends to look at you so is not reading the didi cue as well. More connection will also help with the lower arm.
On the next sequence:
The turn on 4 is looking a lot better! Sure, she is still pissed off but she is putting in turn strides before the jump and turning MUCH tighter 🙂 You got there, cued it, and left bye-bye. I heard some angry feedback from her but I think she voices her opinion no matter what we do, on some of the harder turns LOL!!!Go lines: hard to disconnect, right? You were trying to disconnect but kept connecting LOL!!! At 1:19 and 1:28 when you wanted the turn on 4 – as soon as you cue it, leave for the next line. She collected but you were standing still so she went wide.
At 1:36 you moved out of it, only a step, but moved – she was already tighter. At 1:42 and 1:47 you were moving away with good exit line connection: even tighter!
What I am coming to believe about Tokaji is that the cue-and-leave is the strongest way to get her to turn. If you cue and wait… she goes wide. If you cue then leave, she makes a big effort to chase you up the next line. So – get up to the cue, show it nice and early like you did (you had it going while she was still over 3) and then as she is passing you… you are already leaving (with the good exit line connection :))Last sequence:
great push to 3 and great use of disconnection to get up the line and trusting her to take the jump at :55 and 2:05! Nice!!
And the ending line looked good (you kinda disconnected for the go on the 2nd run :)) A spin on 4 might tighten it up a little, you did a post turn so she was a little wide. I think your feet wanted to do the spin there so you can go with that and it will probably set her on the straight line back to 4 even sooner.Great job! The last day to post is Nov 22ish, maybe later if the weather goes to poo for people. We have one more set of sequences to mess around with coming this weekend (ok, 2 more sets, we have a live seminar on Sunday :))
Tracy
Good morning!
First up – the MFing lap turn hahaha! I train these types of moves then spend my entire agility career trying to avoid ever having to do them in a trial. But they can save a run when there is no other option! (Cynosport team jumpers 2017, I am looking at YOU! LOL!)
I think I might have miscommunicated about the leg: don’t move it til she gets to the 2″ line near your hand… then you can totally move it back with your arm to set the turn. Sorry if it sounded like I meant for you to not move it at all! You did have some good patience happening here:
Rep 1 – You were a little too early, she was outside the 2 inch line so you got a throwback:)
Rep 2 – You were patience and let her get to the 2 inch line but no leg to motion so she didn’t read the hand (hand was a little fast-moving there)
Reps 3, 4, 6: NICE patience here and she got close to the hand then the hand helped with the turn. She was a little wide, partially because leg movement will help set it (your feet were together) and partially because your hand motion was really fast. So slow down the hand motion, like you are holding a beverage that you do not want to spill 🙂
Rep 5 had good patience, but the hand motion was a little too quick and small, you would have totally spilled your drink 🙂 so she didn’t read it.I completely relate to struggling with the patience of having to wait for the dog to arrive at the hand and then having to deliver a cue slowly. It is not in my nature, but I have forced myself to be slow there and it helps 🙂
On the sequence – this is the hardest sequence, I think – soooo much technical stuff! Some of the oopsies were jumping questions: the lead changes on the 1-2 line were hard at 20″ (hard at 8″ for my 20 inch tall Voodoo hahaha!) so she was having trouble on the opening with the bars. It was not handling-induced as far as I could see, meaning you were not doing anything nutty that would cause her to say WTF and pull a bar LOL! Question: have you ever done zig zag grids with her? That is how I teach the dogs to dog these serpy lead changes. If yes – pull them out and revisit at higher heights. If no – let me know and I will send them to you!
On the 4-5 line, I think your goal was a FC-throwback combo – that can totally work! She will read the cues better if you are already near 5 as she is exiting the tunnel, so you don’t have to move into it: you experimented with moving backwards into it and also turning your shoulder – but that caused her to go wide towards 8 or take 8 on the 5th rep. Backwards motion is read as forward motion for most dogs, which I think is what was happening here.
If you are settled in near 5 and not moving, she should drive directly to you. The other option is do a full cross (FC or BC fully) near 4 then decel into a spin or soft brake at 5 – that can effectively change the line really well at 4! The last rep had more of that – you were a little late starting so the bar of 4 came down, no worries, but the turn was better!The turns on 5 and 6 were good as you worked the transitions! The turn on 7 needed less “swoosh” – that is the scientific term for when you use the arm across your body to indicate the landing spot of the jump. That was a little extra motion so she was going a little wide, and when you were very swooshy at :58, she read it as go to the tunnel. For that tight turn, as you rotate into it – use the left hand (nearer to the jump, not across your body) to shift connection more to her eyes ad eliminate any swoosh to landing spot to get a nice turn there.
The other question that Mochi had is a common young dog question: rushing the bar before the tunnel on the ending line (#9). You were not doing anything crazy other than running fast, so it is a training thing to play with. You can put a ladder grid (3 jumps, 6 feet apart, 8″ bars) out (she has probably seen this). And if she is balanced on the ladder, do it with you moving. Still balanced? Do it with you moving and with a tunnel 15 feet out ahead 🙂 It helps her stay balanced and not rush. I don’t think I have video of this but I need to do it with Contraband so I might be able to grab some video!
I am glad that the weather is so lovely!!! Nice work on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I think this was an insightful session! First off – she has very little patience hahahaha but we already knew that 🙂 Second – I am glad we are revisiting this because she has questions here at home on the flat, which will lead to the big questions you see at trials when she is running and a little more stimulated 🙂
It took a few reps to sort out the best mechanics for the lure – when you used two hands and when you were moving them slowly: that produced the best results. You can see her not wanting to come in, so it looks like you really emphasized that after 1:37 and then at about 2:07 we are starting to see much goodness! Because she only wants to go out and we need her to *patiently* come towards you so you can turn her away… we can add another lure layer: using the two hands, have her follow your magic cookie hand for a few steps, coming in close to you – and then throw a cookie forward (don’t turn her away, but she must be with you for several steps to get released to the cookie ahead). That will build the love for coming right to you so you can set up the turn away. Then when she will come right to you, add in the slow 2-handed turn away. This will allow you to “hold” her attention on those tunnel discrims as long as needed to get past the end you *don’t* want then turn her away to the end you do want.Then after the turn away, in a couple of sessions, we add something for her to turn away towards 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Am I right that our physical cues are similar for out and backside so our verbals are what is helping them differentiate? I feel like she did the one I needed her to do and was it also where I was giving those cues?>>Yes, the upper body is similar. The dog reads the difference from the context: the cue to get out or push to a backside involves a lead change away – and the front side of a jump does NOT have this. So position relative to a jump, context, timing and of course – verbal 🙂
Lots of good stuff on the video!!! My ideas/feedback are really about the smaller details:
Seq 1:
Good opening – on your transition, keep moving through it – decel then turn rather than standing still. She read the decel at :12 but then had a little bit of a bronco jump over 4 because you were still facing forward as she was jumping.Seq 2:
On this opening (and on the opening of the next sequences too) Line her up on a slice at 1 so she is facing 2 – that makes for a better line without having to turn on landing. At :24 and :48 and :59 and 1:20, she is lined up at 1 facing the wrong end of the tunnel – that opens up a possibility you don’t want her to know about LOL! Plus it adds an extra turn there.She is still learning the out (doing really well with it!!), so on the first rep and at :53 you did have to go in a little closer to help her (and that is fine :)) so try to keep your feet moving forward and not towards the jump to help her see that you will not be stepping towards it. When you stepped in at :53, it looked like a rear cross on the flat so she turned to her right. It was better at 1:26 when you had a lower arm and stepped towards it.
You can also move the jump in closer during the training stages so it is easier for you to cue the out without stepping to it. That will help answer her question at 1:06 – you had great connection but your arm was a little high and you didn’t step to the jump as much, so she didn’t go to it, When you stepped to it, she went, but going without the step is the end goal.
Your transition and rotation on 5 were nice and early here at :34, yay! On your exit line connection, you are trying to get her to the new side by holding still and pumping your dog-side arm (:34) – that is harder for her to see (the lack of motion is what brings her in) and it makes it harder for you to get up the next line. So, point the dog-side arm (left arm here) back to her collar (magnet fingers!) and lock your elbow 🙂 It is designed to keep your dog-side shoulder a little more open to her, like it was at :12. When you pump your arm, you are actually closing the shoulder forward which makes it harder for her to see the new side.FABULOUS connection to her on the backside cue at 1:11 and 1:26! Feet forward, extreme connection! If you watch it in slow motion, you can see how your left shoulder comes forward of your body and your left arm swings out a bit there so she had no questions. You can she the left arm more deliberately if you think she needs it, or you can use use the shoulders like here.
That strong connection to the backside send at 1:36 made your FC there really nice! On time, connected, easy! I will keep bugging you not to pump your dog-side arm to get exit line connection, but rather lock it back to her eyes so you can keep hustling up the line. The arm pumping slows you down, and Miss J is not going sit back and wait for you LOL!!
At the very end, she had a little trouble taking the jump after the backside push at 6 – Head over to week 4 for the answer to that LOL!! That was a training moment, where she needs more value for taking the jump there while you run run run past it.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>worked this over a couple days really concentrating on the inside shoulder thing! It’s amazing to me how much the video reveals vs what you think you’re doing! Anyway, I think I’m seeing some improvement with my body language?>>
Yes! Definitely seeing the difference 🙂 It is a good camera angle for seeing the connections that he would see.
Seq 1: MUCH better connection on the exit line of the wrap at 4! It was really clear to see your face as he was landing from the wrap. He had a nice tight line on both sides, both days! If he wasn’t seeing connection, I bet we would be seeing him drift out to the off course jump when you were turning him to the inside (to his right) but nope: He never even looked at it. Yay!
One thing you can focus on to make it even easier it to point back to his collar with your dog-side arm and lock your elbow back to him. That will allow to run forward and fade out the arm across the body 🙂
For example at 1:09, you had your left arm (dog-side arm) the most back to him as you ran forward – that was the best view of the connection to give him, perfect! If you can lock that elbow back, you won’t need the other arm because the dog-side arm back plus your eyes towards his eyes (even if you can’t fully see him, he can see you)make for the perfect picture.Seq 2:
Nice out on 4 at 1:19, 1:34 which led to a nice early rotation and super tight turn!
And effective use of countermotion on 5 for the wrap, where you connected to cue the collection while also leaving, check out how far ahead you got at 1:23 and 1:39! That position made the exit line really easy at 1:24 and 1:40. My only suggestion for this sequence when you are turning him to his right on 5 is to do the full FC then decel into the rotation on 4 rather than face him and back up. When you were facing him/backing up, he read it as a lot of decel/collection so slowed down a bit more than I think he will if you do a FC then power away to 5 then do a transition. You had great distance there so you should have plenty of time to do it 🙂On the other option: turning to his left on 5: all reps looked good here. One small detail: reverse the motion on your 4-5 threadle so you can turn and get up the line to 6 more easily. You were standing still on the threadle then as he came in, accelerated into the turn. If you can stay in motion through the threadle then decel into the turn on 5, you will be able to rotate sooner and be further up the line and his collection can be even tighter. It doesn’t make a big difference on this sequence because there is no place to get to LOL!! But it can get you further ahead on bigger courses. On the first 2 reps, you were still rotating as he was jumping 5 but on the last rep you were done rotating and he had a great turn AND found a new gear of speed 🙂 Yay!
And since we are really looking at the exit line connection: at 1:56, 2:08 and 2:24, you had a clear eye contact moment with him and his lines were really nice! Keep locking that dog-side arm back, pointing to his collar, to keep rehearsing it so you don’t even have to think about it 🙂Seq 3: Very nice opening! Lovely timing and line on the FC, and connection going into it!
The exit line connection at 2:42 was not as clear but WOW it was lovely at 2:57! Keep playing with that so you can keep moving away as you do it – you were emphasizing it here beautifully but you slowed down a little more than needed.I don’t think I have mentioned a lot about his ‘get out’ at 4 on these – very nice clear connection and he is doing so well committing!
Seq 4: Good job here too!
All the connections looked good and his commitment was lovely on the 4-5 line! You probably did not need the spin on the 5 jump, he had a question about how tight to take it since the spin asks for collection.
On the first rep, you wrapped to his left on 6, which looked really tight and he could see the exit line connection so had a nice line to the tunnel. On the 2nd rep, you did the slice to his left on 6 which is a little harder to handle but definitely the faster line: nice connection on the push to the backside and he really understands his job to take the jump! That allowed you to drive past the wing to do the BC exit and show connection: this is the same type of turn where he was going wide previously. You kept your shoulder more open to him and he could see your eyes better: super tight line to the tunnel, no drifting. YAY!!The distance on the get out on 4 makes it so there is almost no place to go LOL! You can use the big get out on 4 then send to 5 and see if you can get up the line to the do a forced front or forced blind on the takeoff side of 6 🙂 A different option is to go closer to 4 (not really a get out) and use the send skills to 5 with a get out-style backside push at 6, so you are all the way across the bar when he approaches the backside wing.
And since the BC exit to the far nd of the tunnel was hard to get him to not drift on earlier sessions, you can also try the wrap on 6 with a BC exit so he is on your right to the other end of the tunnel – exaggerate the exit line connection there and see how he does in terms of drifting.
>>Ready to move on to week 4…when is the last day to submit videos for this class? >>
Have fun with them 🙂 The last day for videos is the 22nd of November, approximately, provided Mother Nature cooperates and the weather stays decent for everyone 🙂
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>I had a tough time disconnecting. I kept catching myself staying connected.
After all this time getting connected: it feels weird, right? LOL!!!
These are going really well! A few details for you to consider and play with:
Bear in mind that the disconnection on backsides doesn’t need to start til she is acknowledging the cue and heading to the backside wing – so start all of these with connection, then disconnect and run.
On your left, she thought she was heeling which means you were on her line and not connected to start the cue 🙂 So, connect as you start it, get her moving to the wing – then disconnect and run.
On your right (the beginning of the video), no problems here, I think the right side doesn’t have heeling value 🙂2 jump slices – first rep had too much motion so she came to you because you were pretty far past the jump, but then you slowed it down and she was VERY successful! Nice! Now you can lead out more to get past the backside jump even more – but still not too fast yet, because it is some serious countermotion there and motion makes it harder.
On the next skill set starting at 1:48: you were using your lalala but I think the verbal should be a zip because it is a wrap? Let me know if I am remembering your verbals correctly.
This is a good example of the connect-then-disconnect! At 1:48 you connected on the backside push as she landed from 1, no problem, then disconnected as she passed yo uto keep running forward. NICE!At 1:52, you started more parallel to her so you were using regular connection – she landed from 1 already looking at the front of 2. On the next rep, you were ahead of her so regular connection got the job done nicely 🙂 So I think when you are parallel or behind her, an extreme connection will be needed here to push her away from you and up the line to the backside because motion is not as helpful in those situations.
On the wraps: Moving into it was causing a bit of struggle on the timing and transitions to get the turn. Disconnection was good at 2:02!! An earlier decel so you can be planted and rotated and connectd to her eyes before she passes you will help set up a better collection.
At 2:05, you stayed in motion with your outside arm up: totally looked like an exteme connection backside send 🙂2:11 had a better transition! and a better turn 🙂 So did 2:13! You can disconnect and move away sooner: you were decelerated at the wing so she thought she needed to turn into the gap: your motion and backside verbal can be going before she even lands from 2.
On the slice backsides at the end: you did a great job cuing and leaving (semi-connected LOL!) – she found this *difficult*, note the heroic rotated jumping effort over the bar at 2:19! And at 2:24, she had to take a moment and set her line because you were gone gone gone up the next line. Cool camera angle to see how she had to work so hard! Definitely keep working that skill so she can sort out her jumping there.
Nice job on these!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Naps are GOLD!!! Glad you got a power nap in 🙂
So if this is basically the same as it went when the camera was not cooperating… nice!! Overall really nice! I have a couple of tiny details to bug you about but nothing huge.
About the bounce jumping: I think of it as flyball jumping where the dog lands and takes off with no other stride – only one hit of the front feet. It was hard to see from the camera angle, but it looks like she was doing 2 hits of the front feet 5-6, it was just a matter of HOW she was adding that one stride. On the 2 reps where I think her striding was not great – it was a very short quick one stride. I couldn’t see a lot of difference in handling other than you were parallel to her on those 2 reps and slightly ahead on the others. So it could have been position in the bubble, or fatigue (it was later in the video) or both. My rehab vet assures me that fatigue on stuff like this can happen even with super fit dogs – she has me working more plyometric and quad strengthening stuff for the dogs because of this.
Onwards to the video:
Go lines coming towards the camera on sequence 1:
I think these went well, her bubble is definitely expanding! Her striding was appropriate and you were appropriately calm 🙂 and icely connected! I think her bubble is probably not yet this big at trials because there are sooooo many environmental things to process at trials – but I am liking the progress at home and I know it will transfer to the straight effing lines at trials 🙂Sequence 2:
Good smooth connection up the line – at :34 on the RC, I was not totally sure if you wanted her to wrap towards or away from you there – it looked like a RC but it might have also been a wrap towards you cue because you didn’t move along the RC line at all. You were a little hesitant so she hesitated going back down the line. The RC at :48 was clearer because you had more transition and the verbal was there, nice!! You looked ahead at :49 so she almost did not take the red jump – note how she has a zig zag line there for a moment. Now you can indeed disconnect there – but only when you see her coming around the wing and looking at the jump AND only if you have a verbal going too – I think your motion and timing was fine but there was no verbal directional so she had a question. The RC at 1:05 was good and connection was better for sure! But keep moving to get rid of that tiny zig zag 🙂
On the FC version of it – you can call her a little earlier over 3 maybe so she lands facing 4 more squarely? But otherwise fabulous! You had more deceleration going into the wrap a 4 on the first rep of this than on the 2nd rep, so she was a little tighter on the first rep.
Jumping on the straight lines up and back looked good – no bouncing!Sequence 3: Very nice opening! I think you can disconnect sooner on the backside3 at 1:45 and 2:00 🙂 You definitely disconnected sooner at 2:30, yay!!! You can keep moving to 4 as you do that – disconnection is really uncomfortable at first, so I think that is why you stayed near the wing of 3 for longer that time? On the other reps you moved very directly to 4. So for perfection: disconnect like you did on this rep, but keep moving up the line to 4 like on the other reps 🙂
The backside cues and commitments looked good, the turn at 4 looked good – it looks like she changed her striding between 5 and 6 and did a small one-stride, so she took off sooner. And did it again a 2:06, with a bit of rotation of her pelvis over the bar. Jumping on the last rep looked fine again.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there!
>>On the second set, yes, the threadle/Japanese might potentially be faster, but it is too much twirling for me.
Do you mean the japanese by itself, or the japanese plus the spin after it? I give a thumbs up for the japanese alone and a thumbs down for japanese plus spin (definitely too much whirling around to do a the blind cross then the spin – eek!). If the japanese is making you feel out of position in terms of spatial relations – that is a good thing to work on even if you never choose the japanese! It will improve your spatial relations skills for other moves 🙂
>> I’m assuming you used a wrap at 4:17 for pedagogical reasons; seems like a slice line would be better…
Yes – I felt it might have showed more of the “I am disconnected! I run fast!” for the camera LOL!
On the first couple of wraps, his facial expression was PRICELESS! He is well-trained to NOT just grab toys, so when you plopped it down and kept moving forward, he was all like “what the WHAT?!?!” Too funny! He needs a ‘get it’ cue of some sort to fully know he can grab the toy (my dogs are not as well trained so they grab toys on their lines LOL!)
On the push wraps – the disconnection doesn’t need to happen til after he has passed you – so you can set up the turn cues and then when he passes you… disconnect and go. I think that extra moment will help set up the wrap to get rid of the slices. He did have good turns to his rght (better than to his left) but getting into it with more motion/connection will help. Fast forward to 1:25 when you came into the push with motion – that is exactly the use of disconnection! Stay connected, see him acknowldge – then turn and go. And…. yes that is probably why he dropped the rail (looks like a 16″ bar, too!) Disconnection over the bar is a BIG proofing thing because it can be so distracting! But you showed it to him on the next rep and then he nailed it every time after that, even on full height. That is a HARD angle for the backside wraps and I think he is doing really well setting himself up – bending/turning his head better and better! Look at 1:49 as he is over the bar and you are gone up the line: that is really good form and bend!!!! He lands tight and then look at 1:50 – about as tight on the wing as he can be, with you up the line and re-connected. Click/treat for you both!
I will send you a screenshot, I haven’t figured out this software to post it here 🙂Looking at the slices: these are an easier jumping skill and he is doing well committing as you leave. When you put it on 2 jumps, , he did so well!!! Your connection was spot on for each backside around – it was starting as he was over the first jump so when he landed, he was already getting the around info. To add challenge: the jumps were close enough that he was landing enough near the backside commitment line which didn’t leave you much time to disconnect 🙂 You did disconnect and go well ahead! You can add more distance so you can trust his send to the slice more and see what he does in terms of commitment when you disconnect and leave 🙂
Great job balancing with the threadles – many BC-types tend to go into a vortex, where either they can only do the backside or only do the threadles… and he was happy to read the cues each time. Happy dance!! Cues looked clear too 🙂At 1:59 –
If push is the backside wrap verbal and around is the backside slice, I think I would use the around slice verbal on these reps because his exit is a slice.
He made a good decision on that rep – you disconnected and left (correctly) and he had a long, loving look at the tunnel entry before saying “oh that’s right, I need to jump the backside” Good boy!
At 2:00 I think the BC put him right on the line to the off course. At 2:07, you held the connection on your left for an extra heartbat before going to your right – lovely! And the last rep looked great too – the off course jump would have required a lead change away so he was a good boy to NOT take it.Great job!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I feel the pain of video editing, I will be spending most of my day doing that today 🙂
Zig zags – definitely offset the bars and break it down. Offset the bars enough so that he can basically see through them, and break it down by either working just the first bar then build up, or back chaining by starting with the last bar then working backwards. It might take several sessions, even on offset bars, to get the behavior – there is both a lead change effort that has to happen, and the handling that is supporting it. Bearing in mind that it is challenging, obsessively watch for the 2-failure rule: If he fails twice, either in a row or in a short time frame (like one session) then immediately make it easier for a bunch of reps to get success. And end there – then start the next session there, and if he is still successful, add challenge gradually. Guard that high rate of success like it is gold 🙂
And if he is wrong, you don’t need to mark it – you know, he knows, so no markers need to happen LOL! You can do happy tricks for treats on the way back to try again – that helps keep the success rate high too!The ladder grid is looking good! No problems with the bars instead of bumps! He was centered on the bar, including the angles. He was also balanced, landing in the same spots every time pretty much. He had the tick at :43 and then if you look closely, he had an extra moment of getting organized on the release on the last rep – I didn’t see anything different about where you set him up or released him, so my best guess is fatigue. I asked a rehab vet friend if they can really get fatigued after 3 or 4 reps and she said they absolutely can and suggested doing fewer reps as they build up muscle. I think he had 8 reps here, so try 4 or 5 passes through and see if that helps.
Tunnel threadles – wow! He is doing a great job! I think all of the reps to the purple end of the tunnel were really spot on: he drove with a lot of confidence!!!! He also did well on the yellow end: Remember to keep moving when he is heading to the yellow end, on a few of the reps you decelerated so he had a question. When you kept moving at 1:00, he found it really nicely without needing any help to turn away! He did have the one litle mistake but I don’t think it was a big deal, it looks like you hand;t moved away from the wing as well there as you did on the others, and the physical cue is helping him. Onwards to the tunnel versus kiss stage!!
Get out versus straight looks good too! He is almost perfect – I think the errors were just with you being a little too close to the jump so if the handling wasn’t perfectly clear, he took the jump (which is a good response!) You can move the wing further away. The crosses will get tighter, for two reasons:
first, he will realize that you might do a cross and not reward straight on all of them 🙂
second, you can start them sooner so they are done (and the blinds reconnected) before he takes off. The reconnection of the blind is what turns him, so getting it sooner will help!
At 1:21 you started the FC earlier and the turn was already tighter.
To get the BCs sooner, you will need to spread out the set up – he is too quick to be able to do a timely BC when you only have a tiny fraction of a heartbeat after seeing his head turn! So… move that wing 4 or 5 feet away from the jump (laterally) so that you can work the get out with more distance – and then when he goes to it with more distance, you will have tons more time to start & finish the crosses. Then the turns will automatically tighten right up.>>We are going to try to enjoy four more days of “summer” before winter is probably back for good. I was wondering – are you planning another round of classes since this one is nearing the end?>>
Darned winter!!!!
Yes, I am planning a MaxPup “putting it together” class for this group of teenagers 🙂 The outdoor part is easy, but I am trying to figure out plans for folks who have a real winter (and not the fake wimpy winter that I have down here LOL!) So far my ideas are to include a “living room” version of all the concepts, plus extra time so the winter folks can do ring rentals to train (less time pressure), plus instead of weekly classes, do the lives as seminar-style things so folks can choose which ones without committing to them all, if that makes sense – it might help the winter folks plan to maybe rent a ring or something. I am open to any and all suggestions that you might have to keep moving forward this winter!I am also thinking of a contact training accountability group – not necessarily for training advice, but to give us a place to help each other move foward in our contact training 🙂 I gotta get my butt in gear on that, I have done almost nothing 🙂
Great job on th training videos! Let me know what you think!
TracyHowdy!
>>A LOT, yes…she is extra! I still worry that she has an eyesight issue…but my heart says she doesn’t, it’s just behavioral.
Anyway…yes, she jumps into the tunnel…actually jumps in and on the side to bank them. She moves tunnels and tunnel bags like no other 12 lb dog I know!>>I think the tunnel jumping is not a sight thing, I think it is what you describe: she is trampolining into it be able to bank the side LOL!
>>First, there is no video because my phone has been acting weird and it decided not to save the video…I have no idea and was mad. I will try to repeat it later…but probably won’t get to it until Friday now.
Bummer! Dang phone!
>>Sequence 1.
>>I was actually fairly surprised how this went overall and felt her bubble has grown!YAY!!!
>>>Sequence 2.
***WARNING*** ADULT LANGUAGE.
%$#&ing straight lines. Seriously…this is why we can’t trial. There are no crazy threadles, backsides, slices in AKC Open JWW. There are straight lines, and THIS WAS A STRUGGLE>>>Straight lines are no joke!!! They require flat our extension and the other moves are all done in relative collection. Straight lines are pretty hard, actually!
>>the bar wasn’t coming down, but she was bouncing between 5 & 6. Does she not realize she is a 12 inch dog??? So saying her name between the two jumps got her to put a stride in. Next I tried the FC wrap. I struggled a bit finding the magic bubble size that allowed me to get the tightest turn at the wrap…but in the end I did have a couple acceptable rounds. She struggled less with jump 6 than with the rear cross, but overall found that if she got ahead on the end line and felt me race up behind her…brain exploded. Apparently we do not like to lose a foot race!>>
What was the distance she bounced? I am a no-bouncing kind of girl LOL!!!! And yes, I could see how a foot race would cause her to stop processing jumping info.
>>Sequence 3
Included a backside so we were both happy happy! I know the courses are likely supposed to go from simple to more complex, but this certainly was not the case for us! I did find that she is cueing to take the backside slice jump on my head turn…which is interesting because I thought it was soooo independent! I always say our dogs know what our bodies are doing better than we do! Jump 6 was still the biggest struggle here as well…but the “hard stuff” was easy peasy.>>The dogs see *everything* so it makes sense she is seeing the head turn as the cue. It is easy to work on!
>>but I guess my main question is: Is it acceptable for a dog her size to be bounce jumping the distance between 5 & 6?
Imma gonna give it a preliminary, no, not acceptable – unless it was set at 12 or 14 feet, then yeah, ok 🙂
>>Am I wrong to think she needs to put strides in? I know this is probably hard to say without video. :-(. I need a new phone…
Yes, she should be at least doing a one-stride. But if the distance is short, she might bounce. On a 12 foot distance, a bounce is acceptable. But not on 15 or higher.
T
Hi!
>>I feel like we have done many similar things over the years, and we just can’t seem to get past this. But we will try all your suggestions and maybe we will have a breakthrough!>>
Have you tried the lures? We need to get the behavior going so she can have her lightbulb moment 🙂 As soon as she has that, we are golden!!!
And jammed FC is a bandaid for now, I want to see if we can fix this!!
T
Hi! Glad to see you back home! And super glad to see Haydn too, I never realized that he was so little! And cute!!!
On the lap turns:
One thing we learned recently in the puppy class is that lap turns work best when using the 2 Inch Rule – don’t start the hand cue or the leg step until the dog is about 2 inches form your hand. That will set up the lap turn perfectly. If you start too soon, when the dog is a foot awya for example… you will get a toss back. It is fascinating and appears to hold true for your dogs too!With Lanna – at :07 – she had not yet reached the 2″ marker and you did the cue, so got a toss back. At :28, you better position (nearer the wing she was turning on) and didn’t start the cue til she was about 2-3 inches form your hand: boom, lap turn! Same for her 3rd rep at :49. She is turning really nicely over the bar for the lap turn too!
The 2 inch rule appears to be true for Haydn too: Your first rep – you started the hand cue when he was not at 2″ from your hand yet, so he had a question. On the 2nd rep: perfect! The 3rd rep was almost perfect: hand was perfect with the 2″ rule, but your leg started moving a little early 🙂So be suuuuper patient and let them get to 2″ from your hand, then do the lap turn cue 🙂
The toss backs look good with Lanna! A couple of ideas – you don’t have to back up as much on these, because you can toss her back from from anywhere plus we don’t want it to look like a lap turn as much.
You started the cue for these while she was still more that 2″ from your hand: perfect for toss backs! You can also make them look different than the lap turns by rotating later – do a fuller FC so she exits the tunnel on your right then decel, rotate and toss!
Haydn was a good boy! The back jump is a common issue with littles in this situation – he would probably do just fine with a full FC there. Shifting connection to the landing spot really helped him!
On the last rep, you ran into it more with him on your right before turning to toss back, similar to what I describe above, and it was smoother! He had more momentum. With you facing him for longer, it is too strong of a collection cue for him (it is perfect for his bigger sister :)) When you rotated too soon, he had some questions 🙂 so moving into it more really helped.Great job with both dogs!!
Tracy
