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Hi there! Yes, she is reacting and paying a lot of attention to all the cues! Yay!
Yes, I see what you mean about her wanting to come in too tight on the tunnel exit – you can mix in lots of rewards for going straight on this angle. The serp connection looked really good, both in terms of making sure she got to the correct side of the jump AND in the exit line of the serp. On the last one, it looks like you had more of a high arm which broke the connection and turned your shoulders forward – then you went to the exit line arm but she wasn’t committed, so she threadled.Good commitment to the #3 jump but work the exit line more before you say tunnel, she collected but was wide coming back to the tunnel at :15. You were more rotated at :25 but yes, running to the wrong end of the tunnel. On these tight turns, stay as tight ot the lines as possible in and out of the turns – and if it is at a distance, stay parallel or try to converge in towards the line to get to better position.
At :31, when you went to the far end of the tunnel as a threadle, she had big questions – your line was moving away and the connection was not as strong, so she looked up at you a couple of times. A spin would work better there because you could reconnect then drive the line rather than pull her to the line.
On the bigger speed-cirlce sequence, the circle line looked really nice and connectioned! At :42 she was jumping out towards the a-frame because you did not start your turn towards the tunnel until after she was in the air. You were much earlier at :57 and 1:07 on that same jump and the turn was really nice!
Then after the tunnel, at :45, you had a very high arm which blocked connection and turned your shoulders, so she threadled that jump. Remember to keep yoru arm down & back (magnet fingers :)) You had much clearer connection at :59 to get her to the correct side of the jump – it looks like she was starting to come in and take the jump but you were on her line, so she aborted mission (better that hitting you!) So try that from further ahead, so you are off her line when she needs it. At 1:10 you got the commitment (yay!) and she did come in and take the jump (also yay!) I think on that one you got her to come in because you pulled away from the jump a little (as opposed to the previous rep when she didn’t take it, you were moving on a pure serp line) so keep working on those tight serp lines and rewarding her for coming in (I think being ahead of her will really help).Moving to the sequence with crosses: I thought your timing on the FC ar 1:12 was great and exit line connection was also great! She went a little wide, and I think it had to do with your exact position – you got a little bit too deep, near the center of the bar, so she was jumping out to your position. If you stay closer to the entry wing there, it will be perfect. The timing at 1:22 on this cross was actually a little early 🙂 The wideness was about your position begin too deep on the bar, so you can stick closer to the entry wing there too.
Also great timing on the first part of the spin at 1:14 and 1:25 Nice connection too!! Doing it nice and early like that buys you time to make the next connection and she easily committed because your line was so clear. We can get a slightly tighter turn on that: stay tuned for the shifting connection work tomorrow and I think that will make the difference 🙂On the last sequence:
The jump tunnel opening looked great! On the softer turn at 3, you can turn your shoulders sooner, starting when she is maybe on stride out of the tunnel, to get a tighter turn. And that will allow you to start the FC sooner on the #4 jump! The other thing to consider on this sequence is turning her to her right on jump 4: do a FC or BC between 3-4 and then turn her to the right – which sets up a really fast line back to the tunnel.
You did a spin to get the last tunnel entry, that totally works! You can complete the spin to be reconnected with your exit line connection sooner, which will smooth out the line to the tunnel. You can also support the previous line to be able to get a FC or BC into the tunnel entry there: the blind is risky but SO nice when you get it!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This is going really well, you are emphasizing your exit line connection and Mouse is reading it really nicely!! The camera angle is perfect for seeing your connection! I think we can now start to look at the timing to help get the best possible turns: on the first rep, you were a tiny bit too early and he almost didn’t take the jump. The other FC reps were a tiny bit too late (I know, it is like Goldilocks and the 3 bears – too much, too little, etc haha!) If they are a little late, then connection is harder – so you can think of it as a 3 part transition: when he exits the tunnel, you are moving forward but then start decelerating. Before he passes you, start to rotate into the FC then make exit line connection. That should help it be smooth and tight! You can use the same timing for the spins: decelerate then begin your rotation before he passes you – the goal is to be done with the rotations and reconnected with exit line connection just before he takes off. On the spins, you were facing forward until he took off and that delayed the exit line connection. The deceleration is the magic of the commitment cue, so try not to slam on the brakes 🙂 And this is what the next games (posted tomorrow) will look at more: what does he need for connection and commitment, so you can get the great turn AND great commitment? Great job here!
TracyHi there!
The warm up on 2 wings looked really good as an introduction to the concept! Going to 3 wings was a god move – Her stay is also looking really good, so try to lead all the way out to wing 3 so you can handle it more easily (things happen quickly with her lol!!) I think you were not trusting her stay enough so you were moving into the handling more – which made it harder for her to read the lead changes and the motion. She did not appear to be having a hard time with the stay (but that could also be the magic of movie editing hahaha) so you can go all the way out to wing 3 and throw back tons of rewrds. The last rep was the beginning of what we are going for, she made clear changes from her right to her left! Yay!!! Good girl! You might spend more time on rewarding the stay than on the lead changes in the next couple of sessions, but it is totally worth it! She seems to be developing a really nice understanding of how to use her body when she runs, and that is making this game already look good! We will want to work it up to 5 wings eventually, but the stay will be an important element of that.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This is looking really strong! I am impressed with your toy placement – getting it out ahead of her but still holding onto it for those early reps! Nice! It helped keep her head straight and that is what we want. I think she really liked this game – it is all about go fast 🙂 Her favorite thing! But she was also being thoughtful and finding the line to the jump – without skipping the wing or tunnel (she was tempted to skip the wing at :08 but then caught herself and did the wing – that was a BIG moment!! Good girl!!!)
She seemed to have zero questions when you changed your positions – she was great when you were ahead or behind/sending or parallel. And she also appeared to have no questions when you added distance. Perfect! So add more lateral distance, working up to you being closer to the wing as you move up the line when she exits the tunnel. And, keep moving that jump further out to add more distance. Feel free to throw in a a couple of front crosses right before she goes into the tunnel – so if she enters the tunnel on your left, do a FC so she exits on your right with the goal being that she is still watching the handling. And you can probably replace the wing with a low jump, so you can work the mirror image so she finds the jump on your right as well as she does on your left.Great job!
TracyHi!
Whoa, she is totally nailing that left turn! Very nice! She does better on the transitions into the turn when you hold her for a moment then cue the behavior – when you cued a right at :28 and she went left, there was not a clear transition so she went fast before she processed what you were saying 🙂 All the other reps had the clear transition before the cue and she looked great!!!
She wants to go really fast on these (surprised? haha! Nope!) so you can give her a little more room so she doesn’t tick the bars – start just a little bit further away, 2 or 3 feet from the jump, and see how she does with getting organized. You can also add in more of that neutral position now, but still lining her up facing the correct turn line for now.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
She did really well here on the advanced backside version of the game!! One handling suggestion is to keep moving through with your upper body facing her but not decelerating or rotating your upper body to help her come in. That extra handling will cause her to rely on it, and we want to create the coming in as a default 🙂 You did perfect handling (syaing in motion with upper body open to her) at :30 and :51 and 1:12- and that is where she did NOT come in LOL!! so you can do 2 things to help teach her to come in while you stay in motion (and without using extra upper body cues):
– send to the wing from further away, so you can move through the serp line from ahead but with slower and more steady speed.
– move the reward target closer to the exit wing so it is more visible to her for nowAs the wing got further away, try to move forward to the backside entry wing before sliding away through the serp – you were pulling away a little early on the reps where she did not go to the backside towards the end. O nthe very last rep, you moved forward for a step or two til she committed, and that really helped her 🙂
Great job!!! Let me know if the serp ideas make sense 🙂
TWow, an arrangement of the Eroica for piano quartet? So cool! I love the Eroica!
>> In real time it felt like he took a long time to decide to leave and turn around the pinwheel, so I was surprised that it wasn’t that long on video>>
It always feels like *hours* in the moment, right? LOL!! He did a great job here!! Lots to think about for the pups: direction AND body bending. He was finding the left and right turns both on the turning away challenges and also in the more neutral positions with no handling help. Give it a day or two to percolate and let latent learning help… then go back to the neutral positions. Start where you had him here and gradually, very gradually, work him over to where he is facing the edge of the center wing and doing the left/right from the neutral position. It might happen in one session (or not haha – it generally takes several short sessions :)) You did a really good job being patient and letting him decide, which also kept the rate of success high. Nice work moving him forward on this!!!!
TracyGood morning!
He is doing really nicely on the Find The Jump game! He is also reading your connection so I will keep bugging you about keeping your connection open to him and arm back to his nose 🙂 For example, on the exits of the wing wraps, you were keeping your dog-side arm back to him and making a clear connection to his eyes. Look at how he whipped around the wings! Nice!!!
On the tunnel exit to the jump, he had a harder time seeing your connection because you were tending to close your dog-side shoulder forward. When it was more open, like at :18, he was fast and perfect! When you rolled your shoulder forward/away from him, it changed the direction your shoulders were pointing so it changed his line: :25 is a great example of that where you were looking at him but you rolled your left shoulder forward, so he did not take the jump. You had it further back on the next reps and he was perfect! I also was really happy with how he drove ahead of you (feels weird to wait at the tunnel LOL!!)
If you get a chance to play with this again, feel free to add more distance between the jump and tunnel and also do the mirror image so he finds the jump on your right side. And on whichever side you are working, keep your dog-side arm back when you are ahead of him (magnets on your fingers being drawn to his collar) to keep the connection clear.Smiley face with a toy is looking really good!!! It challenges you to move faster and be super connected, because he is also moving faster and he is more excited – and you nailed it! Note how your dog-side arm at :18-:19-:20, for example, even with him moving really fast. Perfect! And I am super glad that his response to the toy being in the picture was more speed without losing his thoughtfulness. Yay!
Set point – wow, I think he had some sort of personal epiphany this week about jumping, the set point looks totally different and GREAT! Fast and organized and powerful! I had to watch it in slow motion LOL! The last rep was perfect in terms of his starting position, looks like maybe 6-8″ away from the first jump. The others were a tiny bit too close and he was splitting his front feet (first rep) or touching the bar (2nd rep). Everything else was great. And the reward target spot was perfect – he was able to stride beautifully and then pounce on it later LOL!
You will be getting the next steps on this tomorrow – perfect timing for him to have sorted it all out!Great job on these!
TracyHi!
The sends are all looking really good, even as the wing got further and further away. No problem! She did really well fingding the serp jump each time. On the first part, when she was on your left for the serp, the reward placement created more of a post turn line where she continued her right turn, rather than a serp line where she would turn right to come towards the jump then turn left as she approached the jump. On the next session, move the reward target so it is closer to the exit wing, almost in line with it (where the next jump on a serpentine would be) and a couple of feet away to help create the left turn there.
On the other side, when she was on your right, the reward was on more of a serp line so we were seeing the left turn towards the jump as well as the right turn for the serp line. You can leave the reward on that line for that side, but move it a little further away so she drives to it more. Which brings us to:>> What should our next focus be on this exercise? >>
Speed! When she is committing to sending to the wing, add more of your motion. Jogging at first – and if she is consistently finding the serp jump, build up to running! Be sure to maintain the excellent connection you had here and you can call her name if you feel she needs a bit more help as the speed builds up.
You can add more speed to the front crosses as welll – she was terrific with those here, so you can send to the wng, run and front cross – it challenges her more to pay attention to the different verbals and rotation.And after a couple of sessions, when that becomes easy… move to the advanced level where we move the wing back so the serp jump is actually a backside – so she has to be pushed to the backside before the serp cue.
Nice job here!!!
TracyShe is getting the idea of turning away on the left/right verbals, not just turning towards you – the very subtle hand cue is really helping her – and then the lightbulb went on and she was getting it really nicely! She was so funny, being so careful on the right turns – your excited responses were awesom, she really likes it when you get excited during rewarding! On the next couple of sessions, try to oh-so-gradually move your position back towards the middle wing for both the turning towards you (when she is on your outside) and turning away (when she is on the inside) – for now, keep the very subtle hand motion each time you change positions, to help her out. Then fade it out to just the verbal. This will likely take multiple sessions, because it will be a game of inches as you change positions (very gradually moving over) and also fading the hand cue shuld be very gradual, all to keep the rate of success very high 🙂 And of course, throw in lots of ‘easy’ reps where she is on the outside and turning towards you. Easy = fun and we want to keep it fun 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! This session went very nicely! She is getting the concept now, so we are beginning to see the lead changes more. When she isn’t sure, she trots – so I think the next couple of sessions should have the wings slightly offset so she can run more – that is where we will see her thinking about how to use her lead legs in a way that will help the future jumping more. Basically, we are trying to convince her to run forward, do a quick shift to the side, run, shift to the other side, and so on. She was getting it on the very last rep (yay!) especially on the more difficult side. The offset wings can be just a foot offset and I think that will encourage her to consistently bounce/run through it, which will set us up nicely for eventually adding bars. A good warm up would be starting on 3 wings t the beginning of each session, then doing a couple at 4 wings. After that, when she is no longer asking questions (by trotting :)) then we can start moving the wings in closer 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi there! It was so nice seeing you and Tilly last Sunday – I could see tremendous improvement in her commitment already, and the connection stuff will help seal the deal. Yay!!
I am happy with the session on the video – you were using connection to convince her to drive ahead of you even when you were NOT accelerating. That is hard! She had a question on the exit of the tunnel and looked at you on these, but then she DID drive ahead each time. There was one cheaty moment towards the end where she looked back at you (you dropped the connection as you started throwing the toy), but overall she was making solid commitment decisions. Your connection was looking really strong – very direct to her eyes but you were also staying nicely in motion, and she got on her line and was not sticky. You can use this game to get her more crazy and aroused – tug tug tug, have her do the tunnel a few times back to back… then send her over the first jump to the tunnel to the go line. She did well here in a relatively “chill” state so now we can make her nutty to get her into the trial-state where she might be stickier.
The length of the tunnel and your foot speed got her only a little bit of driving ahead – and that is a good start for what we will build it into! However, I do want her to get the feeling of driving ahead while you are accelerating, so that you can work up to adding rear crosses. To do that, I think you can replace the tunnel with a jump or even just a wing – it gives you something to commit her too but then you will have to accelerate because she won’t be spending time in the tunnel LOL! That can add a bit more speed and confidence to her driving ahead, that we will quickly morph into rear crosses without her being sticky.Let me know if that makes sense! Great job!
TracyHi Anne!! It was great seeing you in the live seminar, I am so impressed with how well you and Mochi are working as a team!!!! It feels like just yesterday that she was a baby puppy 🙂 And I am glad it is helping in your in-person classes too – I totally relate about the exit line connection becoming more second nature! You are definitely coordinated, but we are changing years of muscle memory so it might feel awkward for now 🙂
Your timing videos looks (and sounds :)) great! You were cuing the obstacles with the verbal at the right time, which means you were connected 🙂 She seemed to have zero questions there – she was fast, tight on the turns and looked at her lines the whole time. Perfect! Yay! You can also repeat your verbals (tunnel tunnel tunnel, for example) which helps to guarantee the timing will be right 🙂
On the exit line connection video: it took an extra heartbeat to get the exit line connection on the first rep (so it was a slightly wide turn), but then the rest of the FCs were perfect! And her turns got tighter and tighter, they looked really great!
On the spin reps, you can start the spin sooner so the connection is there sooner when she lands – I liked the rep at 1:00 (last spin rep) the best because it started a little earlier than the others so she was able to drive out of it better. You can probably start it even earlier, rotating as she is passing you so then you are finished in time to see her jumping. 🙂
The serp reps looked really great! Look at how tight she was to the jump as she was serping – VERY nice!!!! Your dog-side arm was a little high when she was on your left for the first couple of reps, but the exit line connection was clear and then the dog-side arm was lower when she was on your right (exit line connection was also very clear).
Great job on these!!!
TracyHi!
Wow, that is a heavy topic in grad school! Is it vet school? As the owner of a couple of sport mixes (and some purebred dogs too) it is always interesting to hear how people think about the ethics of breeding. Massive topic for sure!
Also, procrastinating is fun 🙂
The connection – yes I agree that she is thriving on the VERY direct eye contact as you move up the line. That is normal with less experienced/younger dogs, and most dogs allow us to fade that into needing the eye contact only in certain specific situations. Some dogs thrive on it and we can never really fade it (my big black dog is one of those) but it becomes second nature for us humans, so either way it is all good.
On your first video here: first run was AWESOME! You were REALLY working the connection so she committed (not a problem) but also jumped it really nicely AND was turning. YES! You were very helpful on that last jump so we will play with what she needs, exactly, so you can fly up a line as needed. Nice job on the turns here!
I admit to chuckling at the look on your face when you saw her butt was up on the lead out for run 2 LOL!!
The first part looked great again, very happy with that! This is the rep where you were running more – connected, I thought, but running harder – and she couldn’t process HOW to commit and smacked the bar. You fixed it really nicely on the next short rep.
Last run – I loved your spin at 1:12. The other reps were really good but this one was FABULOUS because you were connected long enough to commit her but then you rotated earlier and she saw the new connection before she landed. Such nice timing and a fabulous turn!
Lovely connection on the last jump – you were ahead but not but that much, connected nicely and not helping toooooooo much. She might have a “bubble” on these lines for now, meaning that you need to be within a certain distance so she can multi-task process the handling cue (watching you) and the jumping effort (watching the jump). Right now the bubble might be 4-5 feet of you being ahead of her (or lateral, we can play around and see). When you get past 6 or 7 feet ahead, she can’t figure out how to use the jumping skills appropriately. We will be able to figure it out and expand her bubble so you can get ahead more. For now, let’s set her up for success by having you be connected like you were on this last rep, and staying within the 5 foot bubble (you can go deeper into lines so you don’t end up too far ahead).2nd video – this is looking really good! On your front crosses, you can slow down and turn sooner – mainly so you can get that exit line connection into place before she takes off. The FCs (jumps 3-4 then 8-9 at the end of the sequence) have a great camera angle, so you can see what she is seeing and why she goes wide (or turns tight):
On the first FC at 3-4, when she lands at :09, :32, :53 she was a little wide, partially because you were a little late starting the turn (you can probably start it when she is halfway between the tunnel exit and the 3 jump), but also because you were looking at her but your dog-side arm blocked her view of the connection a little so she drifted out a bit. Try to exaggerate showing her the opposite arm across the body, which will push your dog-side arm out of the way and help her see it. And, by connecting across your body rather than with the dog-side arm, you will find that you can run forward to 4 better, which will also set a better line to 4. Connecting with the dog-side arm was causing your to try to find her which was pulling your line backwards a bit, so she was reading the motion and that sent her a little wider.
At 1:15, the last FC there – you were earlier AND more connected, and it was already so much tighter. YAY!! Nice!On the FC to the tunnel 8-9 at :17, :41, 1:01, you can also exaggerate the exit line connection with the arm across the body for now. Your rep at 1:23 had more of your dog-side arm back and a very clear view of your connection and that was a really nice turn!
And now you are going to laugh…. it is entirely possible that her turns will be better if you use blind crosses here instead of fronts. Blinds are easier to get the new connection finished and you can run up the next line faster – fronts have so much rotation that it is much harder to get ourselves turned quickly. You might have heard that blinds are for extension lines only, but actually they are VERY effective on tight turns if we use proper connection. So on your next break from schoolwork 🙂 try this with blinds and exaggerating your exit line connection and we can see how she does!
Great job 🙂 Let me know what you think!
Tracy
