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Hi!
It is VERY cool that you are working with Dr. Julia on specific tracking exercises and strengthening!!! It is really interesting to hear that you have been advised to hold off on unstable surfaces until he is balanced the way you want him to be: I think perhaps in previous generations of young dogs we started some of the teeter and unstable surface work too early and the pups compensated with poor form all over the place. Oops! So waiting to do it with Kaladin is going to bring amazing results!!! So cool.The set point looked the best it has been so far! I agree with your assessment that he was sorting out how to use the hind end more efficiently – the position of his back feet was much better here! YAY!!!! Perfect timing for it to come together, because we build on it on Saturday 🙂 So give him a day or two of rest from it and then add the Saturday game to it. And yes, he totally gave you a side eye when you released from next to him LOL!!! But then he sorted it out and the form was maintained. Happy dance!!
Great job! I think the timing of all of these elements are working nicely in his favor as we come up on his birthday next week!!!
T
Good morning! He is doing well and if he is deciding the come in before your arm moved: perfect!!!! The positional cue/line of motion is a big element of the cue, so I am glad he is reading it so nicely 🙂 He is sorting this out really well, so I want to see if we can add 2 things to it: keeping your path closer to the line/jump and also using even less of the arm swing back to help him. For the running path, try to stay less than an arm’s length away as you slide past the serp jump – that adds a bit of challenge because it is harder to jump in towards the pressure and there is less room, but it will help set him up for really nice tight serpy lines 🙂 And leaving your upper body ‘open’ and arm back can start right after the send: for example, send with your right then leave it back as you move through the serp line, elbow locked and shoulders open/not moving. This is to help make it easier for you to run (looking towards the future :)) and also because we will be working on the difference between serps and threadles soon, and the arm movement will play a role. You can move the MM to a more helpy position to get it started – maybe one step past where you ideally want him to land, so it harder to run past the jump (the handling will add the challenge so the MM position can be easier :))
Your wraps looked great! Nice job cuing and maintaining connection, and he had no questions. Yay!T
Good morning!
Nice work on the tunnel-wing sequences! He did really well and you got your timing earlier and earlier. The main thing is getting the connections in place when you are not right next to the wing. That is what all of the pups are demanding from us LOL!! See more below, but in a nutshell: when he is behind you or even parallel to you, keep your arm towards his nose and try not to use it to indicate the obstacle out ahead. That will keep your shoulders pointing to the line you want and you’ll get better commitment.
On the first video:
Good job on the left and the toy throw for the go on the first couple of sequences! I think you can give him the go verbal sooner, he seems to have lovely commitment to the tunnel so you can try it when he is 6 feet away and see if he is fine with that (I bet he will be :))
When you added the wrap on the wing at :36 – he drove out REALLY nicely! That was partially due to priming the pump with the rewards for the go on the tunnel exit in the previous reps and also partially because of the acceleration he saw as he was heading to the tunnel. You can give the go cue sooner here too.
On the wrap exit – nice job with the verbal there! You can make a stronger connection to his eyes on the exit, so he turns tighter (the stronger connection will show him a clearer view of the new side) Also, don’t say tunnel til he is on the line facing it. Tunnel is a very forward cue, and he went a bit wide when you said tunnel when he was not yet facing the correct line.
He was tighter at :47 and :57 because you had both a stronger connection and a later tunnel cue – yay!Moving to the right turn exits on the tunnel at 1:06, you can give him the verbal earlier on that one too – try the 6 foot distance and see if he still commits. You can also show him the handling moving away at that time to help produce the turn.
At 1:08, this is a good camera angle to see how arm position changes connection. You were looking at him and your arm was low…. but it was forward of your body (kinda pointing to the wing ahead of him) and it caused him to not be able to see the connection – so he didn’t go out around either wing. He was turning right but the arm being forward was pulling your shoulders forward off the line you wanted. You got closer to the wings in terms of position right after that and he got it (position always helps!) but you can use the position you were in to commit him with your arm back to him and eyes more on his eyes.
On the next rep at 1:23, your right verbal was great in terms of timing! yay! He exited the tunnel turning right. Double yay! And positionally driving closer to the race track wings really supported the lines.
Your next rep was really nice in terms of ALL the words (there are a lot of words, right? LOL!) and the timing and also, the connections looked really nice especially on the exits of the wraps – very clear eye contact.
At 1:47 and 2:00, your left verbal before the tunnel was on time – he was a little wide on the exit, probably because he had gotten a lot of reward for going straight on that exit already so he was defaulting back to where the rewards were placed.
1:51 and 2:04 were similar moments to above, with your arm being too far forward so he didn’t read the line you wanted. You were clearer at 2:19 and he committed to the wing! yay!Now that the right turn on the tunnel exit is getting better (that last one had a much better turn), the GO is getting harder (which you saw in the 2nd video, see below), so connection becomes even more important.
2nd video:
On the first rep, he turned left on the tunnel exit but not that tight, so I think it is a matter of experience and maybe an earlier cue. On the race track – you had your verbal in place at :13 but then pointed forward, which turned your shoulders to the line he took (which took him to the inside of the wing).
On the 2nd run – nice left turn on the tunnel exit!!! Your verbal was earlier which helped and he is also getting the hang of it. Yay!! You used better position on the wing and a later shoulder turn to support the race track wing at :21 (yay!) Keep working to have the arm back there and it will be even easier – because the more you can support it from a distance, the easier it will be to get the go after the tunnel (you had to hustle, which you did very nicely :)) And great job getting ALL the words going!!!! yeah!!! A little more connection on the tunnel exit will help him not look up at you on the way to the wing wrap – you were sprinting to get there so it is harder to get the connection.
At :25 your ‘right’ verbal on the tunnel entry was very on time! But you were accelerating into it, so the physical cue overrode the verbal (that will change eventually) and he was a little wide. For now, add a bit of deceleration and let him see you stepping away to the right to help support the verbal.On the next rep, you were using the left verbal and physical cues very effectively and he was beautiful in his turns and commitments! yeah!!! On the exit of the straight tunnel to the wrap, he wasn’t sure about driving ahead into the wing – so came into you at :40. It might have looked like he was grabbing for the toy, but it was actually a ‘needs more connection’ moment. His ‘tell’ when he needs more connection is turning into you and towards the toy. Every pup does *something* when connection isn’t strong enough or they don’t understand – Pirate grabs for the toy (as does his blue brother, Contraband. My little one, Elektra, bites my feet. LOL! And the behavior disappears when we ramp up the level of connection with more eye contact.
For example, note how strong your connection was at :49 going back to the tunnel – he got right in it, no toy grabbing 🙂
You got him to the wing nicely at 1:03 by being a bit further ahead, so he could read the line with better. And at 1:23 he is beginning to figure out how to stay on his line there even when you were not ass far ahead (his right turns looked really good on that rep too!)
And the last rep with the FCs on the wings – VERY nice! Nice verbals and connection and clear handling, so he read them really well!So going back to the tunnel exit to the straight-ahead jump: he is getting really strong with independent tunnel commitment – so you can send him away to the tunnel entry more (with verbal and connection so you don’t have to run to it as much) and then you will be ahead on the tunnel exit. Then, keep your dog-side arm back, pointing to his nose, and make eye contact (as you continue to run, yes I know that I am a pain in the butt hahahaha). Keep that connection and arm back until he is passing you and looking ahead to. the wing. When we try to point forward or connect peripherally with the pups, the connection is too soft so they aren’t as sure as when we give them very very clear connection.
Great job! Let me know if the connection ideas make sense 🙂
TracyGood morning! It was great seeing you and Fizz in the live class, he is so fun and did so well!
He also did well on the wing wrapping here, bending and being confident and having fun! Mission accomplished for your “fun near wings” plan – even when he didn’t get to the side you wanted on the wing after the go. And not how nicely he is using his body to get into the tunnel, and how independently he is doing it: baby dog is growing up! Fun!!
The turns on the tunnel exit and the wraps on the side wings all look really good – one thing I notice is that when you leave the wrap wing as he is just arriving to it, he doesn’t touch it and still commits really independently – yay! We will keep building that skill in coming weeks.Yes, this game was designed to challenge us handlers with being able to get to the correct side of the wing after the tunnel GO moment. It is not easy because now the pups are bigger and FASTER LOL!! Eventually the verbal cues will get it done and he will understand how to stay on the line but for now, an increased connection will get it done (which is also what I had planned for the game 🙂 )
On the video, the camera angle is perfect for us to be able to see what he sees as he exited the tunnel to the go wing: you were indicating the wing line with your dog-side arm forward, so note how we really see a lot of your back and not a lot of your eyes. That will turn your shoulders/chest to the inside line of the wing (rather than supporting the outside line), which causes the pups to come to the inside (between you and the wing). I firmly believe the read where our shoulders are pointing, so you can change the line of your shoulders by keeping your arm back to his nose the whole time (rather than using it to indicate forward) and make a direct eye contact with him as you move forward to the wing. He won’t really be reading the eye contact – we are just using a relatively easy human behavior to get our shoulders turned to where we want him to go 🙂 And, even with direct eye contact, he will keep driving forward as long as you keep moving up the line like you did here. On the reps where I got it right in the demo video, I am making a huge effort to keep my arm back and eyes on the pup because when I indicated ahead (when the pups were behind or beside me), I got the same response from my pups as you did with Fizz.
This direct eye contact is hard at first (for us humans) and ideally you have it in place before he even exits the tunnel – so feel free to cheat to get ahead of him LOL!! You can try sending to the tunnel from further away so you are a couple of steps ahead to get the connection going.
Let me know if if that makes sense, and how it goes 🙂
TracyHoly cow, he was really feeling the wind in his hair!!!! We are beginning to see his real whippet speed and he was leaving you in the dust (and you are a fast runner, which means he was hustling! YEAH!! I couldn’t quite hear if you were using the wrap verbals on the wing, so remember to use those if you were not using them. The GO sounded great and your reward placement was solid, the RT was in a perfect spot. Have you tried this carrying a toy? You can warm him up with a toy in your hand, then do the game running to the RT. I suggest it because the presence of the toy is stimulating, which adds challenge for him to look away from you and not try to grab for the toy. You can start with the toy in a pocket (he will know it is there LOL!) then in your hand but not being used to play… then incorporate it into. the game! I think he is doing so well with t his game that we can start to add the arousal that a toy will bring, partially because eventually it would be nice to run courses with a toy in your hand (for ease of reinforcement) and partially because we can teach him to modulate his internal arousal in these fast moving games (which will be helpful for trialing eventually).
Great job! We build on this game on Saturday, he is totally ready for the next steps that are coming 🙂
TracyHi! I like how different your left and right verbals sound! She did well on the turns from the outside of you here – it was certainly challenging both because of lack of motion but also because on some of them your feet were facing the other way, so it was a bit of a counter motion challenge too! She did really well!
Her progress with turning away appears to be normal for this game – all of the pups are showing us good progress on their easy side and a much more difficult time on their ‘other’ side 🙂 2 ideas to help:
– feel free to use physical cues to get the turns started when she is on the inside, especially on the harder side. Some pups need a hand cue, some a foot cue, some need both (mine needed both LOL!). And you can reward that initial head turn away. With the physical help to get started, we are basically saying to the pup, “yes, it is perfectly OK to turn away from the momma!!”. Turning away is not a comfy skill for many of them. And once they realize they can do it, they get much better at it and then we fade out the help of the physical cue
– you can also do it on just one wing/bar, to so it is the only thing there and kind of obvious. You were starting her on a good angle so start her on that angle there as well.I think at this point we should all pull out the head turn game we did over the summer and refresh the head turns to the weaker side! I will repost it here in the Form later today – I certainly need to do it to the right with my bigger pup and soooo many pups are showing us the same thing with this minny pinny game 🙂
Great job here! It is really fun that we can get into the small details of getting perfect balance on such difficult challenges 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! She definitely has the framework of the zig zag game here, so we can totally now focus in on getting her turning right as happily as she is turning left 🙂 My bigger pup is exactly the same (MUCH prefers left turning over right turning, and when in doubt he will offer a left turn even if it means going behind me). I think that Keiko is not as dramatically left-handed as my pup, but we can definitely focus on evening her out 🙂 I like your idea of backing up – since she can do this on 5 wings, I know that the eventual grid work will be no problem. So, go back to 3 wings for now… but we will play with the distances to see which ones gets the quick lead change. First spread them out to 10 feet between each (approximately). Do the first rep with the wing on her left side (the strong side) as a warm up. Then (unless that one goes wrong), start her with the wing on her right – and toss a reward to the other side of the middle wing when she goes to it (or you can have a reward hidden on the other side of the wing :)) We are looking for her to bounce/hop to the right to get to the other side of the 2nd wing (she can trot the first couple of feet and then hop to the side). Now, for some dogs, the 10 foot and bigger distances are perfect but for others, we can get this with the shorter distances like 5 feet. I *think* for her the bigger distances will give her more time to organize the leads, but she gets the final say LOL!!
The other thing to play with is placing the wings in an offset line rather than a totally straight line. So with the wing on her right to start, the second wing can move a foot or so over to the left – so it is easier for her to zag to it on the release. It will still be a lead change but an easier one for now, to help bring awareness to her right leads. Let me know if that makes sense, I might need more coffee 🙂Because we are training these youngsters differently, we are seeing these side preferences earlier – so we can brainstorm ways to balance them out earlier, which will be great for when they are 18 months or 2 years old and ready to start trialing: they will already be balanced! yay!
Tracy
God morning! This is exactly the right set up! He did a great job! Having the stay totally helps so you can lead out. I did chuckle at how he looked at you like you were crazy on that first rep LOL!!!! This first session or two is designed to teach the pup the framework of the game by getting the in-then-out between the wings. I think he was totally getting the idea here, so now we can tweak it to get him to bounce it more (bounce back and forth). He might just start doing it because he recognizes the set up now. Or, you can spread it out to get the bounce: try for 4 feet between the wings if you have room (will probably be outside if the weather is decent or if you have a long hollway with carpet? If you don’t have easy access to more room – 2 wings will still work perfectly to create the skill (after all, a serp jump only has 2 wings haha!!) You can spread the 2 wings out in the space you used here to be 4 or 5 feet – lead out a little past wing 2 and then play 🙂
Great job! He is doing so many wonderful things!
Tracy
Good morning! Sends’n’serps looked fabulous!! His commitment was super lovely, even outdoors and even in the wind 🙂 Yay! So exciting! 2 tiny details: when he was on your left side on the first part of the video, you were closing your shoulder forward more like a post turn and not as much like a serp. It is a good camera angle to see it – your arm was out ahead and not pointed back to him. Compared that to when you switched sides and he was on your right: that was much server, with your right arm back towards him more (like when he was coming in to touch the target over the summer). That produced an even better slicing serp line! So on the left, try to have your arm locked back towards him like you did on the right.
The only other thing is that he didn’t commit to one wing send towards the end – a little more connection will help – it was just a little blooper 🙂
You can add more speed now (running through the serp) and also try the advanced game where you move the wing so the serp jump turns into a backside serp jump 🙂
You were using your verbals – it was hard to hear if they were wrap or left/right verbals, but for the serps the left/right is better suited because he isn’t fully wrapping the wing.Finding the jump also looked terrific!! He was just about perfect on finding it – he had one blooper where you were trying to throw early at :31 to reward him locking on the line… and he skipped the jump at the very last moment LOL! He is very nimble haha! You tossed it a little later on the next reps and he was back to being perfect.
He was solid on his commitment when you were parallel (position 1) and when you were way ahead (position 2, his favorite so far :)) So now you can be parallel but not as close to the jump – start moving up the line increasingly further and further away from the jump.
You can also start moving the jump further away from the tunnel. I don’t think he will have any trouble with those 2 challenges, so you can add one more 🙂 After the wing wrap, run all the way to the tunnel with him and touch the tunnel so you can’t get too far ahead – then run forward and see if he an find the jump by driving ahead of you (always a useful skill with a whippet!!!)Great job on both of these, I think he is doing really well!
TracyHi! I am excited for your new contact equipment – perfect timing!!!!!
Your videos are marked private, can you reset to unlisted?
I am looking forward to seeing you LIVE in a few minutes 🙂Tracy
Good morning!!
>>I tried to stay connected and let her commit to the wrap before moving. She had an amazing session and I didn’t hit record! >>
Ah! The best sessions are the ones where the camera doesn’t record!! But I am glad it went well 🙂
On the video: she was so awesome about engaging with the wings immediately! On the one-jump segment of the session for the slice jumps – this is going well! The handling and which-hand-goes-where is hard on this, because we are basically doing whatever it takes to get her to slice around the wings LOL!! I though you did fine and she was bouncing back and forth really nicely, a great start! You can go up to the 3 wings for this now, she is ready. For the cookie toss to start, toss it closer to the first wing and I think you will find it easier to show her the lines.
On the wing-to-serp: NICE! Good question you asked yourself about being too far away on the first rep 🙂 You fixed the position on the next reps and it looked great on that side – she passed the serp jump but then you quietly called her name on the next rep and she came right in. The treat dispenser was in the perfect spot on that side. When you switched sides, the treat dispenser was a little off the line, which caused you to move away from the serp jump more than needed – so you can add challenge by moving the treat dispenser closer to the exit wing and then your line will move towards it as well. Now, she is going to want to go fast (yay!) which is going to make you want to go fast – but if you go fast and she runs past the jump, it is because there is too much motion. So, even if she wants to go fast, resist the temptation to for you to also go fast. Move slowly through the serp and she will be able to ‘see’ the line better and come in. We can add your running later on. It is hard to be on Team Chill when the pups start going really fast LOL!!! I feel that pain 🙂
>>I would like to start focus on my chatter though
Do you mean when you are talking to her between reps? I think you are fine, you aren’t over-chattering. You are talking to her while rewarding and setting up – and that will actually help make an easier transition to the ring when you won’t have cookies or toys, all you will have is your conversation. In your chatter, you will find yourself using some words regularly. I say “ready ready” a lot to my dogs in between reps or as I set up. And then the ready ready becomes exciting so when we are going into the ring, I chat with them and they get focused and excited. So keep on chatting her up! And then you will end up with ‘trigger words’ that will help get her focused and happy and pumped up without treats or toys, if that makes sense.
Separately from the chatter – on the wing to serp, you can add in your left/right directionals on the wing. And you can also call her name to help her come in on the serp if you think she is heading directly to the treats 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHello and welcome!!! It has been a blast watching you and Skippy Sue develop as a team – you are putting in the work and we are seeing the results. SO FUN!!!! And great job on the Sunday in the live seminar. I am looking forward to more (and I will be sending your jacket back asap, it has been an insane week of sitting in vet hospital parking lots!!)
T
Hi! Yes, totally great to revisit the games! I am sure Kindle was happy to play. 🙂
>> Can you believe I got the best turn when I used our verbal for a tight turn??? Imagine! Not that verbals override body, but she is a very verbal dog, and I’ve worked hard on them too.>>
Ha! I love it! And when she is more experienced, verbals can and will override body language, thankfully 🙂 It is worth it to work hard on them because you will enjoy the benefits in the future 🙂
On the videos – I had to watch the beginning of the first one a few times because I thought you said you needed alcohol LOL!!!!! Cracked me up!
This is going well – you were basically hashing out the transition and timing and I am really liking the results so far! The first rep was late, she jumped big. But then all of the rest were spot on: you decelerated nice and early and rotated before she passed you: so she was able to process how to approach the jump AND turn tight – a much prettier jumping effort and she was also tight. Plus the verbal. All good! And the exit line connection looked great too. And your high energy verbal party along with the reward seemed to really have impact. Happy dance!!!!
Serp exit line:
You asked a great question about the difference between the threadle cue and the serp exit line. There are 3 major differences:
First, the verbal 🙂 The threadle IN IN verbal is a trained cue that we support with the arm cue (inside arm or outside arm, I use both depending on the situation. So the serp verbal will be different.
Second – position – on the threadles we are positioned more in the threadle gap and on the serp were are positioned sliding across the landing side of the bar. (Position isn’t always perfect, though :))
Third – arm and connection – on the serp exit line, in this training process, we are using the opposite arm low and across our hip, very subtle. Then, we fade it down to just the connection and eye contact it produces so pretty soon you won’t need that cross arm at all 🙂 The threadle arms looked different: If I am using a cross arm on a threadle, it is much higher, across my body (above my boobs, at my opposite shoulder). And if I am using the dog-side arm (not the cross arm), I swing it back a bit like I am opening a door (I don’t swing my arm back on serps, I just hold it there and run :). Let me know if that makes sense – I am pretty sure I have a video of the differences somewhere!On the video: what did she do at the beginning? It was hard to see what happened but you ended up on the ground LOL!
On the serp jump: first rep was perfect! Second rep you were asking for an in in, I think, but you had serp position and motion (and it appears like she also likes it when you turn your feet a little on the threadles). On the serp – stay nice and close like you did and now you can start to soften the obviousness of the toy across the body – make the arm smaller but maintain the eye contact, it was fabulous!Sequence 1: this is going well!! It is hard to find the perfect line up spot for that first jump. She didn’t seem to struggle with the jumping effort when she was close here (she was a little pushy on the way :)) so maybe experiment with having her a few feet further back and see if connection helps the jumping effort on jump 1?
Your FC on jump 3 looked really good in terms of timing, rotation, commitment, connection. Nice! She did really well. My only suggestion on the FC (and on the spin) is that you can move your position more to the takeoff side of the jump and less on the landing side. It is a tiny detail but the dogs will jump out towards our position – so being on the landing side was creating a tiny bit more of a slice than needed. More coming on exactly where to be to create the best possible turn. I really liked the spin, it looked well-timed and well-connected, so she was able to bend her body nicely. YES!!! And great exit line connection on that one too.Seq 3 video: the speed circle connection is looking good on the first rep and also on the 2nd rep when you took her to the serp.
The connection in and out of the crosses is looking really good too on the 3rd rep! With this, same as the wraps – you can be earlier. Decel a little (not much decel needed on these, they are not as tight) but definitely start to do the rotation as she is passing you and long before she gets to the takeoff. That will help you get a tighter turn (she was a tiny bit wide on them, because the info was a little late) but also on the spins, it will get the reconnection to her sooner. At :47 and 1:17she had landed and you were still executing the spin, so she looked up at you for a moment – reconnection after a blind takes a while (in dog years haha) so getting it all done before she takes off is ideal. And, if it unveils a question from her about commitment: perfect! That is what we are here to sort out. I like to push the boundaries of commitment to see how early we can be and the dogs still commit 🙂 You were earlier with the rotations on the last rep and she was very happy to commit and turn – so I bet she will let you turn wicked early! The goal is that your rotation is completed in time to see her taking off for the turn jump. More coming on that this weekend 🙂At the end of that sequence, out of the tunnel – we had our first big takeoff of these drills (:51). In terms of commitment: She doesn’t question whether or not to take the jump, it is more like she is asking *how* to take the jump. I think we can tweak the connection more to help her and see what happens. On this rep, you were softer in the connection, with your arm low but a little forward/parallel to your body. That means you could see her pretty well, peripherally, but she can’t see you all that well (so she launches). Try those tunnel exits with your arm waaaaay back to her collar (still low like you had it) and a more direct eye contact… as you keep running like you did (I know, I am a pain in the ass LOL!) and let’s see if that helps the commitment we want. On the next rep, you were more connected as I described and she had a much prettier jumping style! At 1:20 and 1:40, you were softer in connection but not as far ahead – so she had a jumping choice somewhere between the 1st rep and the 2nd rep. In places where you don’t need to be as far ahead, you can use this – but I also want you to be able to get waaaaay ahead at times because she is so fast 🙂
One other overall suggestion for this sequence: you were nailing the connection (woot!) so on your next training session (on these or any of the others, whichever you like) – try to see if you can still nail it and stand up a little more on the bigger lines. You were bending a little, and that might slow down your running (again, she is fast, we don’t want to slow you down at all :)) Now, the bending over with a smaller dog is a definite European style of handling the smaller dogs, so if you can bend a bit to get the great connection AND get where you need to be on course…. YAY!! I will be jealous LOL!! But if it inhibits your footspeed, then we will play around with just running in a more upright position (whatever is natural and comfy) and maintain the connection and commitment.
Overall, these were really lovely training sessions – really only one jumping decision that was not desirable, bars looking good and TONS of commitment and connection!! Great!!!!!
Tracy
Thanks! Keep more posted on how they do, feel free to put up a video if you need help or if you want to brag a bit 🙂
The emergency vet visit went well… my tiny papillon made a poor life decision and had to get some teeth pulled. Ouch! But she will be back to 100% and making other poor decisions soon 🙂
Tracy
