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Hi!
>> But this exercise proved to me I need to still move slowly.Yep, I agree, it was too much challenge all rolled into one session – as soon as you added height, he lost the striding. Height is the very last thing to add – he just turned a year old, so we have plenty of time to add it 🙂 Big male dogs don’t need to see full height until they are closer to 16-18 months – and that is fine because there aren’t any trials coming up soon anyway LOL!
>>My intention was to do no more than 4 reps, but I worked till I got back to one stride.
You can also ust end the session then figure it out for next time 🙂 He might not be able to recover the striding you want, the dogs get fatigued so that makes it harder. One session is not a make or break session, and also we don’t always need to end on a good note 🙂
He is still developing his form – thinking it through with his front end and not really talking to his hind end yet LOL! Start him a tiny bit closer to that very first jump, so he has to lift immediately into the first jump and not put his front feet down again before it – the first hit of the front feet should be on landing of jump 1. He is landing pretty close to the bar on each of the ladder grid jumps, which means he is still sorting it out. Also, when you add challenge on the last jump, it changes his organization on the first jump – you can see it notably at :20 – the last jump was tall and further away, so he splits his front feet over that first jump then shortens up/slows down between jumps 3 and 4.
I think you were trying to help the striding by moving a bit on this – but interestingly, he did not chnge the striding (still 2 strides, shortening up to read it) at :30.
He did get back to the one stride at the very end, but I suggest taking a different approach to this grid to get him to power into it off his rear more (I bet, eventually, he will be able to bounce that 16 foot distance at the very end and you will be able to get an extended one stride up to 21 feet, perhaps!)
So – starting him a little closer to that first jump, move the oxer (jump 4) back to 15 feet and put the bars at 8 and 12 on the oxer. Only change one variable at a time – so don’t worry about height at all, because the higher heights are causing him to shorten up. Instead, worry about gradually extending the distance. Do 15 feet, then 16 then 17. Do just a couple of reps and end while he is still powering and feeling the wind in his hair 🙂 If he adds a stride at 17 (3 hits of the front feet instead of 2) then move the jump back to 16.5 feet.
Over the course of several weeks, you can start to go from 16 to 17 to 18 to 19 feet – but that will take us a while and we have plenty of time. Mixed in, you can do the ladder grids with motion that I posted today.
Height doesn’t need to be added any time soon – he is a big boy so we have a little more time needed to let him develop, like a fine wine or brewing a great cup of coffee 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
On the jump grid:
The 1st 2 looked fine and dandy, no problem, nice balanced one stride. Question – on the 3rd and 4th reps, what was the distance to that last jump? He went to a 2-stride and I want to see if we can convince him to streeeeetch his one- stride 🙂 So – go back to the one stride distance (whatever it was on the 1st two reps) and then stretch by only 1 foot – reward for the one stride a few times. If he is doing the one stride, stretch it out by one more foot and see if he still does the one stride. Reward if he does a 2 stride (3 hits of the front feet) at any point, but then immediately move that last jump back in a foot or 6 inches to get him back into the groove of 1 striding it.Pinwheely fun:
great job with the different verbals that also sound different in tone and pitch!
I think his straight exit (not finding the pinwheel) on the first rep was more about YEEHAW Giddy UP after the tunnel LOL! plus you were late turning. You handled it well by continuing – but rather than throw straight, you can throw on a turn to convince him to collect when you aren’t moving much.2nd rep – you were still a little late turning to the pinwheel (distance is pretty small, so you can do it as he is over the first jump) but he got it, good boy, great job rewarding that moment!
3rd rep – nice! He is getting the idea and committing nicely.
4th rep – he did not take the pinwheel jump at :37. NOt sure if you meant for him to skip it or not, based on your reaction of just keep going (always good to just keep going smoothly!) If you freeze the video as he is over the jump after the tunnel, you gave him his right turn verbal and you turned your back on him – no connection and all of your body was facing the 180 jump and not the pinwheel jump. And then as you continued around, you were much clearer on the connection and send to the pinwheel jump! Nice!
>>When I start working on the send and go, can I still use the tunnel, or take it out?
You can leave the tunnel in, it will be fun! And definitely start the send and go, do a session to make sure he has got it – and then I think you will be all set up for the Week 2 handling games 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi there!
>>Pinwheel sends … my first question was where to start. I got there and didn’t know if I should line up with the jump, or run into it. After that I realized I was looking at the obstacle, not Demi. A horrible habit of mine!! I also noticeD when I reviewed, that my reward was being offered way too late.
You can line her up facing the first jump, lead out a little then release and move – you did that on the first rep and it went nicely! And yes, try to look at her a little more and at the pinwheel jump a little less. You can try to throw earlier but more importantly – send her like you did and then keep moving. You were standing still and that is OK to get this started, but now keep moving: that will challenge her to maintain her commitment and allow you to get away up the line. You can still throw the reward for various places around the pinwheel and great job on your verbals! I think she did just fine here which is why we can add more of your motion. If she struggles 0 you can move more slowly and also you can decrease the distance between the jumps here.
>>Jump grid … this turned out to be more of a learning experience than an stride evaluation. It took me a while to convince her to drive the line.
Yes it is a really massive distance! For the jump grids, we don’t want to use lazy games because we don’t want her commitment understanding to be relative to your motion at all. So, a different approach: back chain it. Set her up on the landing of the 3rd jump, so she is facing the last jump. Lead out, put the reward down, face away from her (don’t face her) then release. If she can find that last jump twice in a row, change her start position to be between jumps 2 and 3 – and repeat the process. If she can find jump 3 and 4 twice in a row, change her start position to between jumps 1 and 2, then repeat the process. If she can find jumps 2,3,4 twice in a row – set her up in front of jump 1 (nice and close, like you mentioned). If she struggles at any point, do a few reps where you started her without adding challenge.
When she understands the concept of this type of line, it will be much easier – her striding on the ladder element looked terrific (fast, powerful – but also balanced!) and her stay is looking GREAT so I think she will figure it out quickly! And that will set you up nicely to go into the week 2 games (but don’t go to those until we have this grid in a place where she can read it with you all the way out at the end.Nice work here! Let me know if this makes sense!
TracyHi! Nice job starting on the left here LOL!! She is still doing super well on the left and doing a lot better on the right by turning earlier rather than slicing than turning. You can start a little further back when you start on the jump – that will add a bit more momentum into it, which will make the sends easier (you were still sorting out which leg to send on when you started up close on your left side towards the end there). These are looking really good so far, so add in a bit more running and the tunnel before and after it – you might already be doing this, based on the tunnel location here! That will add more speed, which can also allow you to move the middle pinwheel jump further away for more distance too! We build on it starting tomorrow 🙂 Great job!
Tracy
Hi! Yes, the waving elephant definitely helped make it more stimulating so we got a better look at his striding because he was happier to play our crazy game LOL!! Good boy! I think the value of the jumps will increase in coming months so you won’t always need a moving toy out there, but the exciting toy certainly helps for now!! I am happy with his striding – even being more stimulated, he didn’t lose his form and his form was nice when he went faster (that is rare but definitely happy-making!). Are the bars on the first 3 jumps fixed in position? I think he can push from his rear a bit better on those is they were a tiny bit lower. Revisit these grids here and there, maybe once a week, to keep the form developing.
Yes, I am a big fan of alternate behaviors to work through unwanted behaviors: going to a bed or cot (stationing, as some folks call it) really helps in my crazy, oops I mean ACTIVE house with 9 dogs and many terriers haha! And it helps give the dogs something reinforcing to do in those self-control moments – it is easier to choose self-control when there is something else that is incredibly reinforcing to choose! Here is a bit of Getting It Right The First Time (turn up the volume for explanation):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtA3UvBsNsshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GebavUK8eY
Have fun!
TracyHi! Great session here – short, sweet, effective! Yes by starting at 18 feet you were working on 2 strides not 1 stride but you still got good training done – the challenge was to see if he could read the grid and extend the stride without adding a stride that isn’t needed… his answer is HECK YEAH! He was consistent and smooth in his striding in the balance element then did a 2 stride on every rep here (18 or 19 feet) that looked balanced – he never lost his balance, he just read the grid and adjusted. Very cool to see it happening! Next session on 2 stride, you can do on rep at 18, one rep at 19, one rep at 20 – see if he adds a stride at 20 which would be fine). And yes, revisit the 1 stride at 15 at some point to work on that too. Nice job here!!
Hi again! That little tunnel might be the cutest thing on this planet! She did beautifully on these – little tiny girl doing better than most adult big dogs! I LOVE how she drove out to the pinwheel jump, especially on that last rep. You didn’t have to do much to get her to do it and that allowed you to move away down the line on the 2nd rep & 3rd rep – she definitely seemed to love the chase element of that, but she didn’t lose her mind – she found the jump correctly too! Nice work throwing the reward to the middle jump on some reps, keeping the value high. We build on this tomorrow, she is most definitely ready. Well done!
Tracy
Hi Anne! This was really interesting to watch (I watch all the grids in slow motion because the dogs move so fast LOL!)
On the 1st rep, she took off early. 2nd rep – NICE striding. 3rd rep – she split the difference between reps 1 and 3 – not quite leaping but maybe not as balanced as rep 2? And the last rep, where the jump was further away, she was nice and balanced again. What does it mean?I think she is still sorting it out and just needs more experience, reading the grid plus the reward plus the leaves LOL! But she is always adjusting for the better so she is figuring it out in a really good way. The balance grid looks really great on each rep. So re-visit this striding grid here and there in the next couple of weeks, especially as we add more challenge, and see how she does as she gains more experience 🙂
Nice job!
TracyHi!
>>If you only knew how many times I told myself to stay in place, it’s hard. Needed bars like you had.>>
Yes, I feel that pain, that is why I put the box down haha!And yes, she was a lovely combo of thoughtful but also fast – perfect!! She did a really nice job finding the lines and also setting up the turn (the type of turn on the pinwheel jump is actually pretty hard! She set up the pinwheel turn to the left better than to the right, but I think that got better with experience – the right turns were as she was figuring out the game and then left turns were after she figured it out 🙂 You had a right turn at 1:32 that was better than the rights at the beginning of the session, so I think on the next session – start her turning left on the pinwheel jump, get her in the groove, then go to the right turns.
She didn’t appear to have any questions when you added distance – yay! So you can definitely re-visit this with gradually increasing distance, I think she will be fine with that.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
>> (it’s just because you commented on her solid start line)
Haha sorry, my bad 🙂
The grid is looking really good! Glad the growth plates are closed and the chiro vet says we can proceed with more in terms of jumping! She had her head a little up on the early reps but the last couple were solid in form. There are two ways to proceed here, separate them out into different sessions:
in one session, move the last jump out progressively by a foot each time: 15, 16, 17, 18 feet and see if she can extend her one stride.
in a different session, raise the height of the last jump – 10″ for a rep or two, then 12″ for a rep or two, and see how it goes!
At some point, we will add height and different distances, but not until we see what she thinks of the different variables.It took her a moment to get the hang of the lazy pinwheel, but by the last rep she had it on the first video! Nice! Then she was great on the next video. Yay! You can start the next session with a reminder of this same distance then see if you can pull the middle jump out a foot or two to add some distance.
Nice work here!!!
Tracy
Wheeee! This was fun. As 2 of my dogs would says, “Balls are LIFE.” Glad Enzo agrees!!
I am also glad that he does NOT lose his head when he is more stimulated… I cannot even begin to tell you how lovely that it is!!
On the jump grids – I am going to assume he is balanced in the ladder element of them, I can’t see them but he is balanced on the jumps that I can see! Most of the reps were really lovely! OK, they were all lovely but he had some questions (subtle ones): what was the distance between the last 2 jumps at :13, :15, :17? He tried to take a big extended one stride at :13 – not the prettiest one stride ever, but I appreciated his effort. He appears to have not enjoyed how it felt in the moment, because on the next rep (same distance I think) at :15, he added a stride (2 stride distance). But then that wasn’t comfy, so he tried a nicer looking one stride at :17. Yay! Depending on the distance, you can make it one or two feet shorter, so he gets really happy with the feeling of the extended one stride, then we move it back out.
Same thing happened at :21 – he tried a big one stride, didn’t like it, added back a stride at :23. So you can tweak the distances more gradually – let me know and we can game plan.The pinwheels are all looking good, great job driving in then driving out, he could chase you and the drive ahead, a nice balance! He liked chasing you to the backsides too! Really nice at 20″ – speed and drive without sacrificing the turns and jumping style. Nice! Only 2 bloopers, but both handler-induced: the bar down at :48 was just a dramatic stop and toy throw as he was taking off. And at :58 he bypassed the jump – but the handling did look like a backside push and you were saying go tunnel, so he just scooted past the jump. No worries! A ‘do no wrong’ approach and reward all the things like you did will help him really open up.
Well done here! Let me know what you think!!
TracyHi!
Yes, the stay is the hardest part of this! It end up being over 30 feet, not so easy! So you can back chain it for the stay – start in front of the last jump of the balance grid, then the 2nd to last jump and then back at the first jump. You had 4 jumps in the ladder, you can also pair that down to 3 jumps to make the entire grid a little shorter for the stay element.
He did not seem to have any trouble with the striding and got better and better as he saw it! He is doing 1 stride on the 15 feet then 2 strides on 18 feet, but it was well-done. He might go to a 1 stride when he is older and the last bar is higher, but I think he is doing well on this right now – the jumping is easy, the stay is hard 🙂On the lazy pinwheel, I think you should pull it in closer so he finds it easier and gallops more. If he appears a bit not-into-it, you can pull it in closer mid-session and also add more motion – the goal is that he gets zippy through these, so if you see it is hard on any given day for whatever reason, you can make it easier 🙂 Plus, since this doesn’t have a lot of motion and we know he really loves to chase you, you can mix in a few reps where you run if he lets you be lazy on the first jump or 2 – I think running to chase you is a big reward for him 🙂
About the # of reps – I generally count the # of jumps a dog does in a session (especially a young dog) so if the reps are broken into little bits like here, you can try to limit the session to 20 jumps. We just don’t want to overwork their bodies 🙂Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
I feel that! The MM is LIFE for so many dogs… except when it is in a jump grid. LOL! So strange but I have seen it before.
Hi Nelci! He is looked good, his jumping style is starting to mature really nicely and he is growing into his body. Nice!!! One specific detail about the send step – try not to step towards the middle of the pinwheel jump, think of stepping more towards the takeoff spot. That will keep your shoulders more open to him and therefore your connection will be more open to him. When you step more to the wing of the middle jump, it risks turning your shoulders away/breaking connection and that can cause him to pull off a line. It didn’t happen here but it might happen on a bigger course when there are more obstacles to choose from.
He dropped a bar on one rep, i think it was a combo of the step to the wing of 2 and then you were praising over the bar – so you can add in some verbals over the bar to proof it, then reward for keeping the bar up.
Everything else is looking really good! You can add in a tunnel before this to add speed for him and challenge for you to get your timing and cues and connection at a higher speed 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! I think overall, if we make the training less about thinking and more about silly fun, I bet he will be less likely to eat stuff. Even in high rate of success sessions, he will sometimes eat stuff during resets or if the challenge is difficult. So let’s take a double approach – lots of toys instead of food (they tend to keep him happier in training) and lots of engagement during resets. So feel free to use a toy during the jump grids – he is NOT a lunatic so I am confident that he will be fine if you make the grids more exciting with dropping a ball after you release him or dropping a tug toy 🙂
On the resets – you can keep him tugging or throw balls around, and also mix in bringing him back by the collar with the chatter you did in the class today – I call it talking dirty hahahaha – he seemed to like that! And very short fun sessions then quit.
I think that approach can help with the commitment stuff too: fast, fun transitions with lots of engagements during resets.The paper challenge is an interesting puzzle. Yes, do the its yer choice games but you can also do it in the form of the ‘getting it right the first time’ variation (have you seen those? If not, I will get them for ya!) and then transfer it to real life house situations like with paper in your kitchen or something. Also, have you taught him an alternate behavior, such as sitting on a bed? You can teach him that, in the presence of paper, to go offer sitting on the bed and he will get jackpotted. And have a bed or cot or something in each room where he might grab paper 🙂 What does he do with the paper when he gets it? I wonder if he can be rewarded with the paper? Let me know what you think and we will keep planning!
Tracy
