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Hi! You and Cody looked great here!! I watched it a few times and it looks like your connection was rock solid. You even saw the moment on the lead out when he was looking away then looked back at you, then you released. Yay! He was looking out to the side for some reason but you were really connected so it was not a disconnection or handling error. You can turn sooner to get a tighter turn on the middle pinwheel jump: because he is big with a long stride, you can start turning as he is jumping the jump after the tunnel.
2 additional challenges to add now 🙂 More speed! On a full sized course, you would be hustling more: so in the smaller space, put the bars way down and run as close as possible to each jump and the tunnel. That can simulate the feel of a real course and might add challenge to the connection.
The other thing you can add is the verbal cue element – timing it properly. Knowing Cody’s stride length, I think you should try to start saying the verbal as he is taking off for the previous jump, rather than waiting for landing. You can start it and then repeat it when he lands, but starting it as he is lifting off will make it early & timely 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyYes! I will post it this afternoon (currently sitting in the parking lot of the emergency vet – all will turn out OK but hopefully we can get the dog fixed up ASAP!!) basically it is a proofing game that we have been teaching the pups, so I will post it up for you all! Thanks for the reminder, you knew I would forget LOL!!!
T
Howdy!
>>So Kindle is a Blue Cedar dog out of Ginger/Tac. She is essentially/mostly BC/Border Terrier/Whippet/JRT in that order. Everyone thinks she is a JRT because of her color…although you must’ve noticed her whippet body! She is scruffy perfection as far as I’m concerned! >>
I was guessing she was a Blue Cedar! My mixy mix, Hot Sauce, is half Blue Cedar. And my guess Kindle’s whippet line goes to Poeta? If so, they are totally also related to my two puppies. Fun!
>>As for reinforcement hierarchy, that is tough! Kindle loves all things lol.
This is a high quality problem. You can go from super excited voice/body/toy play as the highest value, all the way down to a cheerio and a quiet ‘good girl’ for the not-as-delightful reps.
>>Kindle does care about being right, very much actually
I got the impression that she over-cares, meaning she cares so much she tried soooo hard on the next rep which sometimes results in jumping higher! My Blue Cedar girl is the same way on certain things: “That wasn’t perfect? I will try HARDER”. LOL!
>>sometimes I get so frustrated with her jumping the ‘no’ comes out as a reaction, sometimes she scares me! I will definitely be better about that, because deep down under the crazy, she is a sensitive soul!>>I feel that! Half the time we are just trying to prevent them from breaking themselves in half LOL!
>>Ok…Team Chill…that I’m struggling with! So…my human life…I’m boring as…I am not the life of the party, I’m introverted. BUT, when it’s me and my dogs…especially when we play…I get…excited! LOL
Same here – I am most definitely not chill AT ALL in fact I am rather twitchy… so my mantra is “Fake your chill” with the young dogs. Totally faking it, but the dogs think I am chill so it works nicely.
>> I have found with Kindle I need to handle aggressively, but not be wild myself. THIS I am struggling to figure out!
It is a normal struggle with a fast, young dog: you need to move fast but be smooth. We will get it sorted out!
>>Did I mention how much I hate lead outs? If I were a dog…I would probably be Kindle…we are a good match! lol I have been telling myself I need to LO more…I just have a hard time making myself. Do you teach impulse control for humans?>>
This is where you will totally need to fake your chill 🙂 Fake it til ya make it LOL!!! I carry something to keep myself calm in practice – check out the running with drinks game from the live class 🙂
>> While I think I generally do have good connection (thanks to Kindle teaching me it is a must!) I think I struggle with keeping connection and still handling. That and the whole picture of not running wild, but delivering her the information timely and handling aggressively.>>
I agree that your connection is generally strong! She is only 2, which means she is still learning sooooo many things and you are learning how to handle her – it takes a couple of years to get it smooth and into a good groove.
>>Obviously the spin completely turns your shoulders and gives a more clear cue of the turn than the wrap…do I just need to move sooner with the wrap to get a better turn? Work her head turning on that type of jump? She also had the worst jump form over that one. I felt like she needed to see a rhythm change more as she approached the jump?>>
Yes yes and yes 🙂 I think of it as a transition: as she is exited the previous obstacle before a wrap, you start to decelerate. Then as she is passing you and beginning to commit, you are rotating. That decel is the key!
>>I hope you don’t grow tired of me too quick! Luckily my dog is super cool! LOL
Ha!!! I think we will have fun!
T
Hi! It was great to see you at the seminar – it is crazy how well Zoom connects us all! I am glad to hear that the boys did well with the games 🙂 I am not surprised that your youngster, Buddy, needed more support – that is totally normal. Keep up the great job with the magnet fingers and keep me posted 🙂
Tracy
Yay! Yes – the fingers move with the dog. Not ahead of the dog, and they don’t stay behind the dog when you are using distance. Have fun!
Hi Wanda! It is great to see you back here and in the live seminars too!!!!! Always fun to have you in class 🙂 I am glad your pups are doing so well – keep me posted on how they do with these games!!
TracyHello! Yay, fun times with the mixy mix dogs! Give me the details – what is she a mix of, and where is she from? Looks like JRT and Staffy in there? And some whippet? She is adorable and FUN FUN FUN FUN!!!! Can’t wait to learn more about her (I might be a bit biased because I have a house full of mixy mix/BorderJack/BorderWhippet/etc dogs 🙂 )
Apologies in advance for the long reply, I get excited by developing training plans for cool dogs like her!
Thank you for telling me a bit about the jumping stuff that is a high priority: I have found that better commitment and better connection can work to improve jumping! And, you won’t have to run as fast… which also improves jumping because our sport mix dogs then don’t try to chase us as much 🙂 Motion is indeed distracting!!! And since she is just 2, she is sorting out about a million things and trying to do it all while going super fast. Fun!!!
On the first video – this was perfect for us to begin to sort out how to help get a better jumping style! I have a bunch of ideas for ya to get us started – she reminds me of a couple of my dogs, so I think these will help!!
First – because she is so drivey and clearly loves that disc, we can develop a reinforcement hierarchy for great effort, good effort, and ‘we didn’t really love that one’ effort 🙂 A lot of her jumping choices are directly influenced by the handling, so the rewards will help her stay settled in her jumping form while you can play with different handling. The disc gets used for the great effort. A tuggie or great cookies (if she likes those) can be for the good efforts – and a boring cookie can be for the ‘we didn’t love that one’ effort. At this early stage, I want to reward a LOT (but not all with the high value disc) because on the video, when you didn’t reward she would get try harder on the next rep, but that turned into over jumping more rather than settling more. And I think we can take out telling her any “no” type of things right now – the reinforcement hierarchy will do that for us and will also keep her in a more settled form, if that makes sense. Plus, some of the errors where she was told she was wrong were actually handling errors, so that is more reason to give her a lower value reward rather than no reward or a no marker.
so if you see a gorgeous jumping form and/or great response to a cue – go wild with a disc. Wheeee! If you see a really nice form/response: praise, tuggie, yummy cookies. If it was not great, either keep going to reward a great one or if you stop, tell her it was nice and give her a lower value cookie. If she splats a bar – you can stop if you want, but be quiet/boring about it, reset it, try again – then reward instantly if she gets it.Tell me more about her likes & dislikes in terms of rewards and we can plan 🙂
And, about the rewards – on the regular connection lines, we want her to look at her jump lines, so you can toss your rewards out on the line rather than from your hands – that will help her think more about her lines and less about driving to you or to the high value reward. So for example – if she is exiting the tunnel, looking at the jump, makes a nice jumping form: toss the disc out on the line. That will encourage her to look forward and choose better takeoff spots on the lines.
The other thing I think will help is if you join what I affectionately call “Team Chill” – I am a founding member of Team Chill LOL!!! This is when we handlers are very calm, very boring, very smooth, super connected – to allow our very drivey young dogs to sort out how to use their bodies on course. You will see on the live videos (I will be posting them soon) that we did a game where the handlers ran with an open bottle of water in their hands… that was to get them to be on Team Chill and be smoooooth and connected. What that will get Kindle to do is be able to look at her lines and not be quite as excited about going fast and chasing your lines. That would include the start – if she has a stay, I recommend having her in a stay, lead out, make a connection, release quietly 🙂 When you send her behind your back to start, it is hard to get connection and both of you are going full steam ahead – which was leading her to not choose the best takeoff spots.
Most of our mixy mix dogs need us to be on Team Chill when they are young 🙂 Then when they figure out how to sort out their bodies, we can be on Team No Chill and run fast and yell loud and all the things 🙂 Let me know if that makes sense – speaking for myself, it is HARD to be calm and chill but totally helpful for the dog 🙂
You had a really lovely moment of Team Chill on the first video – at 2:24 when you were adding the verbals…. SO NICE! More of that will get us even smoother jumping because you will be able to show her more connection and also earlier timing. She tended to jump too high when the timing was late, we will keep playing with the timing she needs. For timing, try to keep that good connection and a nice low arm, but turn your shoulder sooner. She exits the tunnel, and you are smoothly turning as soon as she is out. And when she lands from a jump, you are smoothly turning to the middle jump or moving forward to the tunnel. We will see how early you can turn and build up the commitment, which will give her more time to choose takeoff points.Two things that seemed to be consistently hard for her in the regular connection video was good form on the jump after the tunnel when she was on your right side, and good form on the pinwheel jump in the middle. For the jump after the tunnel, I think having a Team Chill style of connection really helped her! When you had your arm low and back and you were super connected and not moving that fast… she did really well!! If the arm was higher and you were moving faster, she had trouble. And on the middle jump, I think it was a combination of you can turn sooner (connection was really good, but if you turn your shoulders when she lands from the previous jump then she can make an earlier adjustment) and also that she does not turn her head when she is turning – the front part of her body is looking straight, so she jumps longer. If we can get her to turn her head as she approaches the jump: boom! You will have great turns. We have started teaching this in the puppy program, here is how to start it. It is in the context of tight turns but it works great for these pinwheely turns too!
Your exit line connection is looking really good, great job using the arm across the body!!! Working backwards from the end of your video: I think your timing on the reps at 1:18 and :57 was awesome, look at how well she turned, YEAH! And great exit line connection. My only suggestion is to keep moving as you exit the turn so she can drive out for the reward. Now, looking back at the beginning of the video – you were a bit later in your timing there, so she didn’t quite know how to jump the bar. If she has a splat moment on the bar, no need to tell her no, because she didn’t have the info in time from you to make the adjustment – try to do the next rep with earlier timing then have a big disc party when the jumping is good. You can decelerate into the turn too – as she is exiting the tunnel, slow down before you rotate because she can process the slowing down and start to shift herself into the turn before the jump.
Nice work here!! Let me know what you think!
TracyOh lordy, DEMI!!!!! Did she just want an expensive spa treatment? I am very glad to hear she is doing well and will be back in action soon 🙂
Tracy
Hello! I was great seeing you at the seminar!!!!! Thanks for coming 🙂
>>I am confused about how long to keep the arm across the body. i set the exercise up with jumps 18 feet apart. Kasoom my 2 yr old is 21 ” and very long strides dog. i found that once I made the connection with him with my arm across my body as he was finishing the turns, I could just move forward and continue supporting him with my inside arm. >>
Correct! If I am understanding you correctly, you made connection then relaxed your ‘outside’ arm and went back to regular connection on the dog-side arm. That sounds perfect.
>>But then I rewatched the tapes (5th time) and saw you kept your arm across your body all the way to the tunnel. i realize we are training new skills for humans as well as dogs, and we are emphasizing things. But it is much easier to run forward, than on the side, once the dog understands the line.>>
Part of that was me exaggerating for the video 🙂 And part of that was probably because some of the demos were with my young dog (the blue merle whippety dog, who just turned a year old) – I was holding the exit line connection until he turned his head the new direction.
So with Kasoom, you might find he changes lines really fast so you don’t need to hold it long at all. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
Tracy
Hi! Glad to see you here!
Trying to be sure I understand the question: if you are in the middle of the pinwheel and she is exiting the tunnel, your arm should be down and back, towards her collar (magnet fingers :)) and then your arm keeps moving with her as she moves through the pinwheel. Staying in motion a bit and using verbals should get it done nicely without having to run.>>When I don’t move a lot she shifts from ahead of me to behind me. >>
Do you mean she will cut in behind you, like she is blind crossing you? Let me know and I will give yo ua better answer 🙂
Tracy
Welcome back!! You two are looking great!
The regular connection is looking really good. So good, in fact, that you might have been TOO good and watching too much… and not turning soon enough 🙂 So yes, watch her eyes, but keep your shoulders turning so when she lands from a jump or exits the tunnel, she gets the physical cue to turn. It is a gentle turn on these pinwheels but you were facing straight for too long (which is why she went wide at :19).
The timing reps help you turn sooner – the first rep was a little late but the 2nd rep starting at :34 was really nice – and she turned perfectly!
At :43, I think the verbal was one stride late and the body turn was 2 strides late (she was gathering for liftoff when you turned) so note how she grunted when she landed there and was a little wide. The last rep looked good! So keep working to be early on the verbals (starting early is fine because we can repeat them) and match the timing of your shoulder turns/physical cues to the same timing as the verbals. Connection looked terrific!!Sequence 1: connection to her on the tunnel exit at 1:02 looked great! At 1:03 she had a little question (looked at you when she landed from 3): you had your eyes back to her after the FC, but note how your right arm (dog side arm) was trying to create exit line connection – try to get that right arm back behind you (using your left arm across your body) and then she will not look up at you.
At 1:08 she had a little question – not connection based but more that you went to your right arm too soon (she saw it as she was exiting the tunnel) so for a moment she was not sure if she should take the jump or come in to your rotation. That delayed the timing of the spin a little because you had to wait for her to commit – so you can wait longer to start that rotation (keep moving forward, decel, then rotate). And remember to get your dog-side arm back behind you (left arm on the spin at 1:10) so she can see the clear connection on the exit line.
Better timing on the FC on the last rep! It was slightly later, which smoothed it all out. Note how at 1:18 she looks up at you as she is moving up the line – that is because you were using the dog-side arm for exit line connection… and that actually blocks connection. So with all of the exits of these crosses, move your dog-side arm back behind you (using the arm across the body really helps that) so she can see the clear connection to commit to the next line.Great start here! I am excited to see more!!
TracyI am sooooo glad you enjoyed it!!! You and Enzo looked fabulous 🙂 I am ever grateful for great internet connections because we can actually get some good training done live on Zoom!!!! Great job 🙂
Hi! Thanks for the videos!
JWW is looking good! A nice glimpse into the future, he is SO FUN!!! The barking at the judge/crew will go away, that is simply lack of experience in that environment. Same with popping out of the tunnel – baby dog moment 🙂 I like that you chose the blind! It was a little late but he responded to the right verbal! And we will be working on the exit line connection to get the side change even if you are late 🙂T2B
It was hard to see the aframe performance but blind looked great!
Yeah, he totally didn’t know how to get on the teeter at the speed LOL!!! Because he is so young, you can hang back at the weaves and help him get on.
And WOWZA to the ending line!!! That is why we trained the go go go!!!!>> I like where this is going and how he is handling his start line and doing fairly well with focus and drive. Young dog stuff noticing the extra people in the ring should diminish over time and he does get a bit excited and barky and loses his focus for a second or two every now and then but he is SO much easier than CAVU which just makes it more fun and relaxed for me.>>
totally agree – everything about this is going the right direction and fun times are ahead!! And double hooray for the 14″ measurement 🙂
On the connection games: the regular connection looks great! You can add distance to this, or run deeper in towards the tunnel to practice connecting with him driving ahead!
Exit line connection: the FC wraps are looking really good – try to see if you can add in standing up more as you do them – standing up more will make it easier to transfer to the bigger courses lie your BC in T2B – you were hustling and didn’t have time to bend over. You were standing up more on your spins and that looked great! He turned tight, no questions about where to be, and then accelerated out of the turns. Perfect!
Serp – one jump reps were great on both sides! When you add in the tunnel, one subtle tweak: you can open up your upper body sooner to him so he sees the serp cue sooner. You were closing your shoulder then opening it back up, which might delay the cue timing. As soon as you are between the uprights, your shoulders can be facing the jump even if he is still back by the tunnel (but keep your feet facing forward on the line, that looked great!)
You were making a big obvious exit line connection with the toy, he read it perfectly. Since he did so well, you can soften the toy presentation and try to make exit line connection with a tiny hand cue and eye contact when he lands, and see how it goes! Great job!
TracyHi there!
Adding motion to serps is hard! My new mantra is:
Motion is the graveyard of behavior 🙂
Agility is a motion-based game (in other words, we have to run run run) so good job breaking it down to get him to see this while you were moving!
Try to stay parallel to the serp jump line as you are moving, that is where he was having the most trouble – if you were pulling away (towards the tunnel) he would get it but it was not really as much of a serp.
A couple of things to try to be able to add more motion
– he seemed to do best on the serps when you were closer to the exit wing as he finished coming around the wing, so you can send ot the wing from further away so you are further ahead (you were also not moving as fast when you were ahead like that, which really helped!)
– to be able to get more motion involved and also get the behavior when you are not as far ahead, try angling the serp jump. The wing closer to the MM can be moved out closer to his line, so he can see the bump/bar pretty directly as he comes around the wing and you are moving up the line. You can make it really easy at first to be able to add running! Then gradually shift the angle of the jump back to that flat line serp angle – it might take a couple of sessions to be able to get that flat again with you also running, but I think it will help solidify the motion element.All of the balance reps looked really good, except for the one where he went behind you to the tunnel – he hadn’t quite gotten to the new side yet when you said tunnel… so he just went to the tunnel when he heard it LOL! Good boy 🙂
>> He also wanted to know why we weren’t doing tunnels so he got rewarded by being sent to the tunnel a few times. He was becoming less excited about the Treat N Train as we went along so started sometimes rewarding cookie eating with a toy.>>
Tunnels as rewards can be fun! And he might have started to think the TnT was stoooooopid because he kept going to it and getting nothing (because he didn’t take the jump on those reps :))
Nice work here! Let me know if the serp ideas make sense!
Tracy
