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Hi!
It makes me happy that you had a lot of happiness here 🙂 And BIG happy dance on him understanding the difference between check and left. SO useful!!!
On the video – the first spin looked good but he slipped a bit.. the second spin at :20 looked GREAT! You decelerated sooner and turned sooner so you were already rotated and gone before he took off and reconnected with enough time for a phone call before he landed 🙂 Great turn, no slipping!
The FC on that sequence was good, but it causes a slightly wider line so he had a harder time picking up the collection before takeoff. That does put you in a good position to get the turn back out of the tunnel to the weaves, though!On the FC at :44 and :52 – these were good and you were not backing up on the 2nd one 🙂 The first one had one step of backing up 🙂 The 2nd was REALLY good at :52 but I am stuck on the turn you got at :20 so I think you can get the same collection here by driving right into the wing and decelerating to rotate nice and early (like at :20) – the difference being you shift more strongly connection to his eyeballs before takeoff and maintain it on the exit back to the tunnel for the FC.
The switch reps when nicely! The second one was better – you put the RC pressure onto the line earlier at 1:15 so he was on the far side of the wing for the RC. At 1:02 on the previous rep, you stayed on the inside wing for too long so he read the RC but was on the center of the bar.
The FC on the ‘switch’ side of the wing looks really good! Nice shifted connection and you stepped directly forward out of it for a lovely exit line. The FC to get there after the tunnel was a little late, so he was a little wide then ended up shaping around you for the turn. For the cross to get to the other side of the tunnel, lead out more so you start that FC (or a BC) when he is still 3 or 4 feet before the tunnel entry so he knows it is coming, then you will easily be done with it before he exits.
On the FC sequence:
Lots of good things to see here in terms of how he responded to the cues! At 1:36, you sent forward on the FC with your left arm, so he was slicey and a little wide. 1:41 (the 2nd wrap on the sequence) was good but I think an earlier decel will make it gooder LOL! Nice stepping out of the FC forward to the tunnel there!
1:51 had slightly less swoosh with your left arm and that helped, and less swoosh on the send also set up an earlier rotation so it was tighter… but can still be tighter. I think if you stay closer to the exit wing of the FC jump, you can set the line back to the jump and tunnel and then leave for the next wrap. That next wrap at 1:55 had a nice transition and rotation so a nicer turn for sure! Yay!
At 2:07 you stayed longer to set the line back to the tunnel – very nice! And at 2:12 you really emphasized the exit line on the FC back to the tunnel – super!!!
On the first FC there (it is an especially hard one because it looks so much like a slice) – I think you can get it even better by keeping your send arms lower/quieter like you were doing at 1:51 and 2:07 but also shift your connection to his eyes on the send, rather than forward. That can add one more touch of collection and get it perfect. 🙂The In-then-switch looked good!!! And yay for the left verbals! I liked the 2nd rep even better at 2:44 where you had a small attention cue (“Enz!”) right before the directionals – he set up a nice turn! And the lefts looked really good! So fun!!!
Great job on all of these – it is so nice to see him really responding to all the cues, so we can look at the tiny details 🙂
TracyHi! I am glad that the spins/wraps/etc feel natural with him – Flurry’s generation has helped us all improve our foundation skills, so I think the Skye/Hot Sauce generation have MUCH better skills! And Skye and his cohorts have taught us TONS too, so the younger generation is getting an even different approach. I think that is the most fun part. And it has been SO nice watching Skye put it all together! He is a talented dude 🙂
On the timing runs – yes, raise the bars, the timing will be a little different. I like to practice this stuff on all sorts of different heights to make sure that I am watching and not trying to go on a rhythm. And yes to gradually raising the bars on the wraps too – it is different jumping mechanics for him. And leaving the bars low at the class is perfect because he is working on different things there (distractions, distractions and also… distractions :))
Serpentines: I like the idea of using the dropping-the-shoulder back as you described. The exit line arm on the serp is not to indicate the coming in, but rather it is to help make the eye contact on the exit line. So handle the “come in” part of the serp as you normally would, then very subtly put the other arm across your belly to help emphasize the eye contact on the exit line. Then we will fade it out and won’t need it at all, we will just use the eye contact 🙂 Let me know if that makes sense!
On the video: You were a tiny bit late on the first 2 jumps of the first rep then you got locked on and nailed it 🙂 Perfect!
The wraps are looking good in terms of commitment and SUPER in terms of exit line connection! When you raise the bars a bit (maybe just to 12” for now to try this): let’s play with the transitions. I think you can start your decel sooner to be able to turn sooner to tight up his collection before the bar (it will be more obvious when the bar is a little higher). So he exits the tunnel and has to take a moment to accelerate because he is tall – that is when you are in the ‘fast forward’ mode. But then when he is maybe one stride out of the tunnel, start to decelerate as you move forward. Then when he is about 4 or 5 feet from the jump, start the cross – he might not be past you yet but if the transition was clear, he will be happy to commit. The higher bar will give you a better idea of the timing there.Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
She did really well transferring her rear cross learning to the jump here!! Yes, get the turn cue out sooner. – she was already turning based on the body language so I bet you can say your turn cue almost immediately after the release. One thing tp add on this game if you aren’t already doing this: mix in a bunch of reps where you *don’t* cut in behind her – you just run up close and keep going straight so she goes straight when you release 🙂 We want to be sure she is not anticipating but rather watching the cues 🙂
Based on the success here, I think she is ready for you to add a wing and more motion. You can warm her up with a couple of RCs like you did here, then add in sending around the wing and moving through it. Let me know how she does, I am sure she will be great 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi!
She did really well on the blinds here! She got faster and faster 🙂 She also did really well ignoring the toy in your hand – yo can totally use a treat in the hand too, it might be easier to hold and easier for her to ignore. The thing in the hand is more of a reminder for us how to connect after the blind, so it does not have to be a toy 🙂 She did seem to enjoy changing you for the toy though LOL!
On the wideness – it is just a matter of timing to get them tight. At this point, it is going well, so you can start her in the tunnel. Send to the tunnel then cue the wing – when you see her heading to the wing but she is still 5 or 6 feet from it…start the blind 🙂 Your motion and verbal will support the wing, and then you will be able to be finished with it before she finishing coming around the wing, which will result in a tight turn 🙂 Drawing your arms in tight to your body will also help make the blind happen quickly – she keeps picking up new gears of speed so bring in your arms tight to your ribs will help you turn you head really quickly to finish the blind.
Speaking of new gears of speed…. I think she really liked the pump-and-run race tracks!!! Your connection and verbals were spot on. As soon as you shifting in pump-and-run mode at :29 WOWZA she got on the line super fast, stayed on it, and ran in big extension. So fun!! That will be a useful skill because she is committing so well and you were flying up the lines. Great job!!!Tracy
Hi!
I am liking the ladder grid in the first video! I think the angled jumps are more of a distraction than it looks like in person. In slow motion, he has a little “moment” on the release, just a tiny hiccup before driving in especially on rep 3. It is almost like he needs a heartbeat to organize himself. It is not as immediately fluid as the release on the non-angled bars. It is not a worry, but it is interesting to see him say “whoa! This is different! I am sure it will be gone in the next session 🙂
On the non-angled grid what was the height of bars 1 and 3? I think they are too easy now 🙂 Raise them 2 inches so he is jumping not running LOL!! He looked balanced overall so we can ramp up the challenge a tiny bit.The set point is showing really good organization as he is entering over the first jump and his form is good! He is still bringing his hind end up higher – I think it might just be that there is no place else to go, so there is no reason for him to drive through it with the rear. Comparing it to the middle jump of the ladder grid, even with the bars lower, there is some place to go on jump 2 so he is shifting into the rear better. He was a little forward on the last rep of the ladder grid but the others were more balanced. So on the set point, try adding more motion and as you release – throw the ball while you move up the line 🙂 It will give him the option to add more impulsiveness which might help keep him wanting to sit into his rear rather than have it come up. Let me know if that makes sense! He is doing really well so it will be fun to see if we can sort out the magic formula 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
So is the RC foundation on the cone more of a tandem turn/RC on the flat? Are they having you turn away then flick him back? You can do that but I personally like to use 2 hands or at least my outside hand to make the tandem turn look different. I think another reason to show the RC diagonal line is that accelerating through the RC diagonal puts you in the picture and not nearly as far behind *after* the RC 🙂 Is the cone exercise similar to the game with the prop? Either way, he is doing really nicely with your RCs here!!! He is reading the RCs nicely and you are getting up close to his fluffy butt 🙂 He is not seeming to worry about the pressure of it which is great – agility dogs need to allow handler pressure on the line in so many different situations. His first RC at :11 was good! His next one at 1:31 was not as good because you didn’t get on the fluff as early – he read it but he was more center of the bar and turning late. But the next one at 1:44 was very clear – you got right on his fluff – and he turned beautifully!
The backside circle wraps were fabulous! All that value for the front of the bar and he immediately read the new info to go the backside AND he maintained his commitment as you continued driving through. YESSSS! Lovely turn on the backside wrap too! Very cool to see him make it look so easy 🙂
And the mixed in driving ahead on the go lines were a great balance, that looked lovely too.
Great job!!!
TracyHi!
She is reading the blinds perfectly! Great commitment and you were making very clear connection on the exits. The questions she had on the commitment to the other wings looked like connection questions – you were looking forward on the sends then rocking back, so she was not commitment. Look at the rep that started at :57 – you were basically just using your connection and motion to get the commitment, and your arms didn’t really move forward til she was part you and committing. Perfect! And you did it again on the last rep – so lovely! On the reps closer to the beginning where she didn’t commit, she was reading your motion towards the line but wasn’t sure which side to be on because you were looking a bit forward (which turns your chest to the other line). So – try this set up with your arms at all. – just use eyes and motion and verbals. Your arms can kind of hang out low and back, but convince then to not point forward 🙂 that will get all the lines as smooth as the reps on the 2nd half of the video (like at :57 and the last rep, those were my favorites).
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This video is marked private, can you reset to unlisted? And it is totally fine to make up your own sequences on these 😍
Hi!
This is going really well! The first 2 reps on the left RCs had a tiny bit of shoulder ‘pull’ but not a lot and you got on the RC line quickly. On rep 3, you locked in to the RC line and nailed it! Yay! Same with the next rep. When you switched sides at :40, there were a couple too many steps of the ‘go’ line at :41 so when you started the pressure at :42, it was too late and she was already committing to turning left. Compare that to 1:01 when you got onto theRC line sooner and she got the turn nicely. The next rep was good too! When you went back to the other side – at 1:17, for example, you were getting on the RC diagonal VERY early and it was a thing of beauty 🙂 She was committed AND turning tight in the new direction. Yay! Same at 1:22 – super nice! The last rep to the right was good – but I think you are not as comfy getting right up on her tail when she is on your right arm as you are when she is on your left arm. So, keep reminding yourself to stay close to the wing when you are exiting on your right, so you can step out of the wing directly onto the RC pressure line like you did at 1:17 and the other similar reps. Also, don’t forget to balance in lots of ‘go straight’ moments so she doesn’t figure out the game and do RCs only because she is smart enough to have figured out the pattern 🙂 Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Whoa, the tunnel-wrap game looks awesome! He is able to find both with barely any motion! So fun! He still prefers the wing wraps a tiny bit but the value is looking a lot more equal now. You can add in more motion to keep it exciting – cue the tunnel then when he exits, connect and cue the wrap by moving in towards it. The extra excitement of the motion will add challenge in that moment – and definitely keep using your verbals. He is ready for more challenge, this is looking so strong!
Strike A Pose also looks awesome! Your physical cue is so clear and the serp is so different looking from the tunnel cue. The one time he went to the tunnel instead of the serp was just him asking a question: “Are you SURE it is not the tunnel? I really like this tunnel thing now” LOL!!!! With this one too… add more motion – start to walk into position and release when you are maybe halfway across the bar but still moving. When you have more room, you can work it up to running.
Wing racer track also looked good! Try to just run with connection, rather than using a step to send to the wing. I think he was committing really nicely so that send step was more than he needed. On the very last rep, you were not really doing the step/send and he was great! I suggest moving more (as long as you keep connected) for two reasons: he is going to go even faster when you are driving harder, and he is going to go even faster – which means you have to drive harder haha!!! The wrap cues are also looking super, and the turn and burn right at the end was great – lovely commitment and turn!
One thing I notice with his turns here and in the tunnel-wrap proofing game is that he is leading with his head through the turns. That is super exciting to see that element being generalized to all the turns. Yay!
He is definitely ready for the full diamond 🙂Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! The ladder grid looked really nice! He had no trouble with the center bar at 8”, and only one broken stay moment LOL! It is possible that now that the center bar is higher and the trajectory is slightly different, that the reward target needs to move further out – it looks like he was having to shorten up on the last bar to get it it (because treats are a priority, of course :)) So on the next go round, you can move the reward target out another 4 or 5 feet from jump 3. We will be building on this in a couple of weeks, so the only challenge for now is to angle the jumps so he reads the grid with a more difficult visual of angled jump bars.
Doing the find the jump with the tire is actually very clever, it works the independent jumping skill of finding the the tire – I have seen so many ugly tire crashes that it was great to see him finding the tire so nicely! You were lateral and you were ahead: in problem! So now you can drive in close to the tunnel so that he can drive ahead of you to the tire after the tunnel exit. Your connection looked really good here, I don’t think he was considering a threadle on any of your reps here. You can also experiment with keeping the eye contact like you had, but using your arms to pump & run and see if he can still find the line (I am quite sure he will be fine with finding it 🙂 )
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I blame Elektra’s keyboard walking on her Papillon half – all of my Paps seem to feel that walking on tables and keyboards is totally acceptable LOL!
And great news about the zig zag working nicely, and in a new location! Double win!!!!On the Diamond video – yes, he was right up on your tail! Nice!
On the blind reps, a couple of ideas: leave the toy in one hand rather than switch – when you were switching, it was making the blind late 🙂
At :20, when he didn’t go to the wing – it wasn’t so much that you were early starting the blind, it was that he needed a little more connection on the tunnel exit to help commit him – he ws already looking at you and not committing which is why he turned into you so quickly. Compare that to :26 when you had great connection on the tunnel exit and he committed so nicely! Then when you switched sides, you had lovely connection too like at :56, so you were able to commit AND turn early – look how tight he can turn on the blinds!
He had a little oopsie on commitment at 1:14, you were connected but tried to leave as soon as he crossed your feet and he said it was a little too early for now 🙂 You can work that early timing (I think it is good!) but start it with less speed for now 🙂 You delayed the exit by one step at 1:26 and he was successful, so now you can make it harder by leaving earlier 🙂
On your right and left verbals – the verbal is for the wing, so you were actually a little too early 🙂 He was hearing the right/left before and during the tunnel, which is the timing to turn right on the tunnel exit. So, you can hold the verbal til he exits the tunnel then start telling him about the right.You are doing a great job with your exit line connections, he is turning so nicely especially on the wrap wing back to the tunnel on the blind sequences!!
On the race track – I think on the last rep you figured out the magic, which was to ramp up the connection on the middle wing and on the tunnel entry. Because there is a lot of yardage on this set up and because he is so young – commitment is hard unless we humans are soooooo connected and running great lines (that is why I kept whining about it being hard in the demo video LOL!!) With our older dogs, it is very easy because they don’t need us to be so literal 🙂 With the youngsters, it is much harder because if we disconnect a tiny bit or if we take a step or two off the line, they ask questions. That is what happened on his questions on the 1st 2 go-rounds. But then on the last one, you emphasized the connection and line to the middle wing and to the tunnel – nailed it! You can break the set up in half – start at the middle wing and then use work the drive down to the tunnel. Then start at the tunnel and work the drive up to the middle wing. He will figure it out really quickly then you can put it all back together.
Nice work here!!! He is looked great! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
She is doing really well here!! I think she likes this 🙂 Her commitment is much better wen you make a lot of connection and you don’t point your arms to the obstacles 🙂 On the first reps, you had quiet arms and tons of connection and she was great!!! At :17, you pointed to the tunnel and didn’t connect as much, so she zig zagged before finding the tunnel. On your big race track line after that, you had great connection and she was perfect!
At :30 – :45, she gave you good feedback: you were pointing your arm and your dog-side leg was not moving, so she didn’t understand the commitment cue and went off to sniff. At :46 when you moved into it with connection, she was happy to commit. But then you disconnected and she didn’t know which end of the tunnel at :50. At. this stage, you should reward her anyway otherwise the rate of success drops too low. It took a while to get a reward into her there and she was losing steam. You had good connection on the last rep and it helped!
She might be stronger turning to her left than to her right, but you can also show more connection and motion – it looked pretty equal when you did that.Also note that after about 30 seconds of the session, she was panting – so try to limit your sessions to 30 seconds. She is so young that she doesn’t have the physical or mental stamina to do much more and we don’t want her to lose steam 🙂 And, short sessions will give you a chance to practice your connection in between reps! a 90 second session might not feel like a long one but she is doing a lot of running in that time so it is a lot for a baby 🙂
>>Also wondered if I should stick with these games or move onto another one?
You can have a rotation of some of the games – this one, and a coupe of the others, all mixed in. The zigzag game on the wings is a good one for her to balance this one too! And the Diamond game too!
Nice work here 🙂
TracyGood morning!
The blinds are going well! These tight blinds do feel weird at first 🙂 and muscle memory is going to want to do a spin. You were doing a great job on these, turning the correct direction and she was reading them really nicely! The main suggestion on these is how to connect on the exit: try not to catch her with connection on the dog-side arm. Instead, have the dog-side arm back so she can see your face. I accomplish that by having the reward across the body. The toy is in the hand next to her before the blind, so it is then shown across your stomach as you finish the turn. that drops the dog side arm back and opens the connection which makes the blind very clear. You had the reward in the dog side arm after the blind, so she was exiting wide. You can see it at :10 and :26 when your back was to the camera – she is not sure of where the connection is as she exits the wing, so she drifts a little wide until she sees the line and toy. You can get it tighter, sooner, with the dog-side arm back (not being used as part of the reconnection) and more eye contact. When you put a tight blind in the bigger circle at :57, you had more eye contact and she immediately turned tighter 🙂 And later in the big runs, compare it to 1:39 where you were looking back but your dog-side arm was high and out to the side, so she couldn’t see the connection as well and ended up drifting wide.
I think she did like the race tracks!!! She is giving good feedback on the cues – when she could see motion and connection, she was super fast! When she couldn’t see enough connection, she would look up and slow down. an example is when she was on your left exiting the tunnel at :42, your arm was low so she could see connection and there was a lot of motion, she drove with a lot of confidence! At :46, you turned forward with a higher arm, so connection was not as clear, so she looked up and slowed down. On the last big race track, she was really good about responding to the turns versus the big race tracks! One thing to try on these is to not use your arms on the are tracks when you are moving along the line – you can shift to pumping your arms and just running with connection. Then you can incorporate a send to the middle wing, then pump arms and run back down to the tunnel. That can help her read the lines with more speed and also get you even further ahead while still showing motion, while also adding in big sends!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
