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Hi there!
Jump grids: some thoughts and ideas for you!
On most of the reps, she is double tapping on front feet on the release, meaning being able to put her front feet down before jump before she takes off. Ideally, we want her close enough to jump 1 so she cannot do that and she has to lift from her rear. It is a plyometric push off to engage the rear immediately. By being just a foot or so too far back, she had room to shift her weight forward. On 3 jumps, it didn’t cause tooo much of a problem but if you watch her hind end on the last interval/last jump, it is higher than her shoulders.
On the 4 jump grid, you can see where she gets off balance – watch the last interval on the 1st 4 jump rep, her butt goes pretty high and she gets off balance there (slow motion makes it easier to see). She was more balanced on the 2nd 4 jump rep but still off balance in the last interval.
That then affected the 5 jump grid – she loses her balance after 3 (you’ll see it on the first interval when she lifts her head, inverts her back, butt is higher than shoulders, kinda bucks like a bronco LOL! and then aborts mission, goes to her front and flings over the last 2 jumps. Pretty normal young dog behavior (Robie in this class did the same thing). She then planned for it and just didn’t shift back on the next reps LOL! Clever!So, let’s get her balance back. Go back to 3 jumps and set her up about 6 inches from the first jump so she has to lift right off from her hind end. See how it goes on 3 jumps, do a full session on 3 – you should see her head down, her topline being smooth, no ass over shoulders LOL!
Then on the next session, a few days later: do a rep of 3 then go to 4. When you go to 4, start by back chaining: she sits very close to jump 4, release, hop over it to reward. Then sit her in front of jmp 3 – if that is peachy keen, start her in front of 2. If she gets off balance or flings, you can move the last jump out to 8 feet then work it back in closer. I prefer back chaining it so she gets balanced at 6 feet.Then after a session or 2 of 4 jumps, start a session on 4 jumps and if that is good, go to 5 with the same back chaining concept. It will likely take about 2 weeks of sessions (because we don’t want to do this every day) to get it perfect- but totally worth getting all the power in the hind end.
On the tunnel sequence:
Yes, you can throw sooner before she looks back on one jump. So as she exits the tunnel when you see her looking at the first jump – throw. You looked pretty connected, yay! You can do 2 things on this one jump set up: keep moving that jump gradually further away. And as it gets further away, you can gradually stay further and further behind (but keep moving) so she drives ahead.On the 2 jumps: I think she needs to learn the concept with you further ahead at first, so send her into the tunnel from further away so you can be further ahead and closer to the wings. That will help her understand how to pick up that line. And throw when she lands from jump 1 and looks at jump 2 🙂
When she is picking up both jumps, you can still be ahead but add lateral distance. And then eventually you can be both lateral and not quite as ahead. She is doing well figuring it out on the single jump, so I am sure she will figure this one out really fast too 🙂Nice work!!!!
TracyYay! Nice job on these! She appears to be exiting the tunnel and driving ahead (not looking for you) and that is what we want on these. Yay! You can connect more to her, meaning look at her more when she exits the tunnel – it won’t really change what is happening here on this video, but it will help support the line as you are more laterally away from the line before she enters the tunnel. That would be the next step – while still running parallel to the line, add challenge by running that line from a more lateral position, so eventually you will be parallel but maybe 15 feet away.
Nice work!!
TracyExcellent question!
2 answers:
For the dog, using just one wing reduces the distraction level while promoting the behavior we want. A bar and 2 wings has a lot of value and we tend to get too much extension or the dogs can’t ignore the bar and 2 wings in favor of doing the threadle .
Also, a single wing has a long history of turn behavior at this stage, and we want turn behavior on these 2 cues – so using a single wing promotes success 🙂 the bar helps as a point of reference, so the dog begins to learn serp = bar and threadle = other side.
So, we are simplifying to increase success which will speed the learning process (because I’m too lazy to do a million reps haha!)For the humans: a single wing prevents the humans from putting a real jump height in or raising the bar too soon. The jumping effort is the last piece that we install – the dogs need to understand the cues before we add jumping to it. Otherwise, they will jump it poorly and are likely to tick or knock the bar, or hit the wing. So, it forces the human self-control because we humans tend to put jump bars at height waaaaay too soon 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense!
THi there!
On the ladder grid – overall he is doing well, balancing and finding the form! On parts, he is still sorting himself out 🙂 If you watch it in slow motion, right after the release, he kind of double taps his front feet before the first jump on some of the reps – as if saying “oh lordy this is gonna happen fast but I don’t really know HOW it is gonna happen” LOL!!! I think his efforts on the 3 and 4 jumps were strong!!! And when you added jump 5, he got off balance (note the double tap before jump 1) then bailed by flinging LOL! It wasn’t ugly, it was just creative 🙂 I also think he might have been a bit fatigued if this was all in one session – these grids are tiring! And also the toy was obviously well-loved, so I think he was rushing. So, some ideas:
keep working on the 3 and 4 jumps grids, he is sorting it out there nicely.
On 5 jumps, different session so he is fresh. Use a less interesting toy or the Pet Tutor. And, you can do 2 things to help him understand the joys of using his hind end between 4 and 5:
you can back chain at the distance you had here, starting him in a stay between 3 and 4. If that goes well, start between 2 and 3, then between 1 and 2, then in front of 1. His success will let you know how quickly to proceed.
The other option is to expand the distance between 4 and 5 to 7 or 8 feet, so it is more comfy to bounce – then gradually and bit by bit, work the distance back so it is back to 6 feet and he still bounces.
He is doing really well and just needs more experience 🙂On the tunnel-jump games – yeehaawwww! Fun!
>>On the tunnel drill, I think I was late quite a bit in the verbal “go”Nah, you were fine – you used the “butter” approach of slathering the verbal everywhere. You said it before he went in the tunnel, while he was in the tunnel and when he exited the tunnel. He did a great job finding the lines (we forget how young he is!!)
>>and I don’t think I did a very good job of increasing lateral distance until the end. I need to put some kind of marker out there to run towards, lol.
Yes, you can add more challenge – but it doesn’t have to be done in one session. This session was great in that he found the line and you almost always got the reward in before he looked back. You can be more connected as he exits the tunnel, look at him more as you run up the line. That will help support it as you add more lateral distance and also it will keep you from throwing the toy is he goes around a jump LOL! Overall, I think this went super well! Yay baby dog! Tons of speed and drive forward on the line.
Nice work!
TracyHi! I can imagine work is crazy! Glad to see you got some time to train!
Breaking it down worked nicely for him, it really build value for coming in on the serp before adding the distraction on the ground. He didn’t seem to have any trouble with choosing to come in for the serp versus going to the toy, even on the harder angles. Good boy! He did a nice job bending on this too, it is a difficult turn and he was effortless. Yay! And I was very happy to see him offering the wing before you were ready LOL! He is having a good time!
As you work this skill more, keep your upper body frozen: assume the serp position before the release, then release and don’t move it until he reaches the reward. Yes, it will feel super weird LOL! but it will simulate the picture he will see when you are running – that way he won’t rely on your moving your shoulders. We are building on this skill today! Nice work here!!Tracy
Hi there! He had 2 reps where he had to read the grid before he could try jumping mechanics (1st rep, and 1st rep with 5 jumps). He is thinking about it, and that is good! What was the distance here? It is hard to tell on video – he should be at about 6 feet. Set him up a little closer to the 1st jump, a foot or less from it – so he has to push off his hind end to get in. And don’t add movement yet – when you were moving, he was ticking bars, so he isn’t ready for movement quite yet. Give it another session or two – when he can power off his rear with no ticks reliably, add a bit of movement – still lead out past the last jump, but release and walk forward. We don’t want to add running yet 🙂
Nice job!
TracyHi there!
He definitely caught on fast to the concept! And I think the jumping over 8″ is no problem, either for his age or in general terms for him, as long as you don’t do a zillion reps 🙂 One thing I would like him to do it look up at you less and down at the MM more – he is looking up, which inverts the jump style. So, 2 ideas – when you release him, be facing the direction of travel (not facing him) and maybe even kneeling by the MM or trigger the MM just after you release him so he takes the line with his head really looking down to it. We can start with the early trigger then fade it out eventually. Second idea – be stationary for now – you were moving and you were interesting to watch, we need you to be quite a bit more boring for now hahaha!!! We will be able to add your motion back pretty quickly, but stand still for longer before the release and I think the early trigger/not-facing-him will work to get his head down.For the stays – with the youngsters, as soon as I see value for jumps and tunnels starting to come up, I assume that stays will deteriorate 🙂 so in any training where the pup has to stay in front of a jump or tunnel – I add in rewards for stays on a 2-1 ratio. I throw back a reward on 2 reps, for every 1 rep of the release to the jump that the dog gets. So if I do 5 reps of the grid, I throw back 10 rewards spread out during the session. I tend to edit these out but I can leave them in if you want! So, more throw back rewards will help him or leaving a reward behind him and cuing him to get it.
If he does break, the game stops like you were doing – then I like to reset the whole thing from the beginning – line up at my side, etc. On the 2nd break, you helped him into the sit by facing him over the jump and using his collar, which si not as preferred as working through the whole line up process again. For me, the stay begins with the process and not just the actual sit. I also will give away a cookie to one of the other dogs if the working dog breaks the stay 🙂 As long as the dogs don’t fight or squabble, a bit of jealousy is a helpful thing LOL!
Nice work!
TracyAh! Got it. That would make sense, that she wouldn’t be focusing on the toy in order to help herself stay in the stay 🙂
OK, I think it is GENIUS to use your kitchen to help build the turns on a serpentine. GENIUS!! Plus it is funny 🙂 LOL!!!!! I wonder if on the field you should hold the toy in the non-serp hand then drop it when he arrives? Or throw it? He likes motion when it involves jumps so driving into you when you are stationary is not that stimulating.
And yes, Voodoo was pokey as a youngster. I remember at his first trials, folks would say he was so beautiful… which was another way of saying “not fast” hahaha! I used to think he would be a medium-speed dog and I would be able to Q a lot and be great for DAM teams. Yeah, well, he matured, the switch flipped, and now he wins his classes by an average of 2 seconds. Well, at least he does when I can run him clean – not so easy when he goes that fast! I think Spot reminds me a LOT of Voodoo as a youngster. The big difference is that we have a MUCH better understanding of how to build the foundation now than we did 6 years ago. Spot will know a heckuva lot more than Voodoo did, so you will have fast AND accurate! Wheeeee!
Hi!
These are going really nicely!!!! One tweak for you that I think will answer a question she is asking:
did you notice that when you sent to the wing, she would hesitate/bounce up for a heartbeat? I think your send arm was blocking connection, so she wasn’t entirely sure of what to do. So, as you play with these, try making more eye contact with her as you send, and keep your send arm really low and very small in motion. What I mean by that is don’t really let your hand move past your knee, nice and low, so she can see your eyes more. The eyes control where your chest is pointing, which is what she is reading. The bigger send arm blocks all that (especially with the smaller dogs) so it might be why she was not 100% in those moments. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
Nice work!
THi! She is finding it easier to pull from the front than to rock into her rear, thus the extra big jumping LOL!!! Using the 4 foot grid at the 4 foot spacing, try back chaining it:
Place her in the last gap before the reward, then release so she jumps the last jump.
Then place her in the 2nd to last gap, release so she jumps the last 2 jumps.
Then place her in the 1st gap, then release so she jumps the last 3 jumps.
Then try all 4.
If at any point she tries to skip a gap, start in that gap to show her the mechanics.
If she is still asking the question, we can spread her out to 6 or 7 foot spacing, to tell her that striding in the gaps is what we want (even if it is an extra stride, no worries) then we can gradually tighten the spacing 🙂
Let me know how it goes!Hi again!
I really like how he is bending/driving around the wings, very slithery! Nice! Commitment is going well and great job with your verbals. He seems to be better on the right turn wrap commitment than t he let turn commitments, so hold your ground a little longer on the step backs to the left wrap. I think by 1:35 he was tired out – it is a lot of running for them and not for us LOL!
Because understanding is looking good, 2 things to add:
spread the wings out more so there is more running
incorporate more running rewards – so after a wrap, you take off and sprint out for the reward.
This will help him drive harder because it pairs running with it all – and he does love the chase element of agility!
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
OMG he reminds me of baby Voodoo on these serps… so much drama about driving into you from a stand still LOL!!!! Having him come in from the tunnel definitely added excitement and you were quick to get into position, Yes, add in the hand touch, I think that will help too! (For the record, I worked through the drama with Voo and he is fine, and I know Spot will be fine and we will chuckle about how he was so unimpressed with serpentines at first LOL!!!)
The rocking horse rep looked good! He just seems to think that it should be all chase, all the time – so when you are mot moving much (like here on the step backs or on the serp) that it is boring LOL! But on this one you rewarded by running and rewarding, so he totally perked up! So keep adding motion into the reward and I think he will get happier to drive through things when you are not moving as much. Yay!
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
>>Are you crossed eyed from all the computer stuff with the online seminar?!
Ha! Not crossed eyed, actually pretty excited that we can get the tech to work even more smoothly for future training! It adds a whole new dimension to what we can do in coming months (because everything will be cancelled) as well as after that when things return to normal (I hope…)
>>I didn’t realize you had responded on the height so I used the jumps I made which are 6″ I believe.
No problem! It worked fine. 3 and 4 jumps looked good. He did get a little ahead of himself on the 2nd rep of 5 as you noted – I like to ask for the same thing again, no changes, to see if the dog adjusts. My goal in that is to basically say “how did that feel?” and if the dogs says “it felt weird, let me try this instead” – that is a good thing 🙂 And if they try something else that is good, I will jackpot. If they try something worse/crazier or they don’t make an adjustment… then I will step in and help LOL! The idea is to help the dog be responsible, where possible, for making his own adjustments with minimal help from me. He did better after the rep with the toy help, but if he gets ahead of himself again, just repeat the rep and help less. From what I can see, he is a talented little athlete and also, he isn’t isane – so I think he can sort himself out really nicely! I think he did well on these reps. What were the distances here? If he can do the 5 jump grid with balance at this height and distance for another session (maybe Tuesday or Wednesday, give him the day off from jumping today) then I would like to give him more room on these for some true power striding. I believe he can do these on medium-dog distances. Yay!!
Nice job, let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Mini pinny – I just love how she is getting so good at offering the stuff with jumps and wings! Good girlie! Then she had to say to the daddy lol!
She was pretty perfect except for when you backed up rather than just turned.
And also it was hard when you said RIGHT oh wait LEFT! She actually went and turned right after the first cue, GOOD GIRL! Love her!So on these loose turns, keep your handling quieter so she isn’t trying to chase you, and also the verbals can be longer and softer : riiight, riiiight rathr than rightrighright – she does MUCH better that way!
For the next session – I want to see if we can convince her to bounce now that she is familiar with the set up. You can try moving the 2 outer jumps in closer to the middle jump (so the center of each jump bar will be approx 5 feet apart) and put the bars in the 4 or 6 inch cup, and see how it goes! That will help her bend her body, which is good for when she gets up to the big courses 🙂
On the targeting – good job with the plank outside! Remember to release her and play after every couple of treats. Also, keep placing treats right down on the target and not into her mouth (so we can begin to move you away from the target, more below)
Why was she in a down? Could be she was trying to REALLY weight shift, paired with you really leaning over her (dogs tend to down when we lean over like that, there is a lot of pressure – you were leaning before the target cue).
So, let’s move to the next step – she is on the plank, you are now on the side, target is on the ground (you can hold her collar so she doesn’t move to the target til you are ready). Have your treat ready, be standing up (no leaning), give her a ready-set- TARGET! then let go. Reward when she steps into target position by plopping the treat on the target, then release, and play. Let’s do a couple of those and see what she thinks 🙂
Nice work!!!
Tracy
