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Hi!
>>Regarding not going backwards – apparently that is an issue I really need to work on. It came up in the Zoom and again here. When I look at the video, especially the FC, I want to scream “Stop bending over!”.
LOL! You can place a leash on the floor as a line to mark your running line, to have a visual to stay on. That can help with moving forward.
>>Thanks for the hints about training the lap turn. My Belgians just didn’t have this much trouble with it.>>
I only have trouble with my very herdy BC types – the other breeds are happy to drive in and pummel me 🙂
>>I’m not in full agreement with the wideness of the turns at 1:40 and 1:55. Any tighter and the wing would be down.
looking at 1:40 an 1:55 again, I think it was my explanation – he had a nice collection but did not fully know where the exit line it – he was a little wide on the exit and looked at the off course jump before completing the turn. So while they are technically not wide, I think one more dial up of the connection will tell him before takeoff just how much tighter the turn is than he might be expecting 🙂 Plus, a quicker exit line connection will totally help, it took you a couple of steps to reconnect. Since I am totally obsessing – if you look at his eyes rather than back at the landing spot, you can make the new connection quicker because you have fewer head turns – when you are looking at his eyes, you are already looking forward so all that is needed is one turn to your left, boom, done – connection on the new side. By shifting to your right to look at the landing spot, you need to turn your head forward and then to the next side… which is where the delay is happening. Subtle yes – but he sees everything which makes it really interesting 🙂
>>Any tighter and the wing would be down.>>
I don’t think he will hit the wing, I think he will have a sweeter exit line.
>>Now, a better exit from the tunnel would be very helpful.
Yes, the pre-tunnel cues will help for sure.
>>Thanks! I hope to be able to work on the longer sequences on Thursday. 😊 Maybe you could just put the CRCD code for that in your reply.
>> Here ya go! Two sets of CRCD 🙂
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TracyHa! Yes! One of my current mantras with the young dogs is “Don’t be a helicopter mom!” meaning: don’t look at the dog sooooo much that I end up hovering and not moving. When I am a ‘helicopter mom’, Elektra bites my foot. LOL! So – connect but ruuuuuuuun!
Hi!
Exie says thank you for the birthday wishes, he had a nice roll in the mud and is now asleep in the bathroom LOL!!This was a really nice session on the sends and serps! On the first side (turning to his right) – it looks like on the first rep you thought you had some time and wanted to be calm and help him but not moving too much… but he was all like “I GOT THIS LET’S GO FAST” hahahaha! He powered through it and then you appropriately ran faster on the other reps on that side 🙂 He did really well turning to his right that you can add a little bit of distraction by moving the toy slightly to the other side of the jump, so it is visible as he is deciding to serp (or not serp :)) The verbals (saying right right right) definitely helped him orient to the serp as he exited the wing – when he is looking at the jump, you can switch to left left to support the turn over the bar or switch to his name for general support.
When you switched to the other side so he could turn left, things got interesting in terms of seeing what he needs:
The first rep did not have a strong enough send, as you let go your chest was rotating to the jump (not the wing) so I can see his argument for going to the jump there at 1:01 (you were saying left and he did turn left…)
2nd rep at 1:21 had a good send, you took one more step and connected more – but then he didn’t come on in the serp jump. He did look at you but you were quiet and maybe not as connected so he stayed parallel to your line.
3rd rep – you continued the left verbals AND had a stronger connection – nailed it! The continued verbals really helped and so did the connection. The next reps also had that and he was great,
even when you were way ahead. Yay!It is possible that he is not as good at turning left as he is at turning right (you were quieter on the first right turn rep and he got it right) so definitely keep the verbals and connection going, he seems to really find them helpful!
Great job here!! I love your big parties when he gets it right!!
TracyHi!
The connection is the make or break on these blinds, and when you connected back to her, she totally got it! Yay!
For example, my 2 favorite reps: at :12 and at at :57, you did the blind and imediately looked at her eyes and your dog-side arm was back. Nailed it! She didn’t even have time to bark her opinion there LOL!
On the reps where she didn’t make the side change (at :07 and :41 for example) you looked down more than at her, so she didn’t see the connection (your dog-side arm was blocking it a bit).
So the key is the eye contact and the dog-side arm being back: but if you think too much about the arm being back, you will end up over-rotating and turning your feet like on the first rep, which makes it hard to keep running forward. The easiest way to get it is to put a cookie in the arm next to her – then as you do the blind, show her that cookie using the arm by putting it across your belly and looking at her eyes. That will get the great connection while also allowing you to keep running forward. You were basically doing this on the reps that went really well, and having a cookie (or toy) in the hand will make it easier to remember.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
We will just ignore the first rep, it was just a warm up haha 🙂
Yay, the rear cross line was much stronger here and he easily picked up the rears! On the first RC to the right turn and first RC to the left, you were a little gentle about getting right behind his floof but then on all the others, you got right on the floof and he had really nice turns! Yay! So, remember to get right on the floof LOL! And you can then add more acceleration too.>> I am seeing him lead with his head going in to the turn on the barrel but is he swinging a bit wide coming out of the turn?>>
Yes – you were hanging laterally away from the barrel, so he was moving to your position. I think it was mainly because you didn’t want to run into the wing of the jump on the go lines (totally understandable :)). You can move the barrel so it is not centered – move it so it lines up with one of the wings, which should make it easier for you to stick close to it but still set the Go line and the RC line.
Great job! Let me know what you think,
TracyHi! I think it is perfectly fine for us to do a happy danc ewhen a sheltie chooses a toy over high value food 🙂 I was going to say that I was really glad he likes his balls, but somehow it sounded wrong LOL!! Interesting, though, that he has switched from Nemo to Mickey? LOL!
He did well on the serping with motion – he did indeed have to take a closer look at it on the first rep LOL!! Very nice clear difference in your handling cue for the serp versus the tunnel in terms of where your upper body was. He definitely does better when you have a movement of your upper body on the serp to swing back a tiny bit. On the rep where he took the tunnel on the serp cue, there movement was there but it was super subtle. The others were clearer (and he serped). I personally liked the super subtle movement 🙂 Thinking ahead to when you will be running full out, I think your serp will be subtle in movement – so rather than add more movement, maybe add more words (yay! More words! haha!) – it can be something as simple as “Kal” right after the release or a left/right cue. That way you can keep the subtle upper body as you add more motion – it is pretty easy for us to yell things and I bet you would likely be saying something there anyway (I sure would be talking on a big course during serps, even if it was just the dog’s name).
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! She is such a smartie!!!!
Very nice patience on your part to walk past and let her offer! Nice job marking the moment she chose the jump and tossing the reward. Yay!! She got the idea very quickly 🙂 It is hard to be calm about it and not help the pups, but you were awesome and allowed her to make decisions. Then she figured it out and you easily added speed. Yay!
As you add speed and distance, you can shift the moment when you toss the treat: when she comes around the wing and looks a the jump and is heading towards it, throw the reward. That will keep her from looking back! You don’t have to wait til she is through the uprights, you can toss it as soon as you think she is heading for the jump.
You can easily add more distance here and more speed too – she is soaking it up like a little sponge! And yes, add the FC on the wing. It was fine to do it with just a post turn, but the FC will add challenge to go from handler focus to line focus, plus it will set you up nicely for the RC games 🙂Yay for adding the tunnel! I think she will love the smiley face games!
Great job!
Tracy>>Hmmm, it seems like we could really benefit from better tunnel exit connection.
Ha! Yes, indeed 🙂 She likes to look for you when she exits the tunnel, so it is important to connect to set the line 🙂
>>I have a nagging tendency to want to see where I’m going, but hopefully we can nip that in the bud, lol.
I find that I have better peripheral vision when I look down to the dog (rather than up), for some reason it expands my field of vision so I can see the next obstacle better. We can also work on finding lines ahead of you in terms of knowing where the next obstacle is without having to see it and without having to disconnect.
>>Seriously though, I think this crazy connection stuff is going to be HUGE for us.
Yay! I think some of the things you describe as struggles are connection-based so you will likely see an immediate change!
T
Hi!
>>With the jump coming down, The last rep when he cleared it, I had moved him closer and I thought the issue was I was setting him too far back for where he likes to leave from.
I was thinking that was a possibility! It was more the jump at :55 that made me think he might be sore and maybe that is why the first jump was hard for him.
>>However, I will get him with my Chiro. I struggle with him telling me if he is sore. He is so tough compared to a Schnauzer…the Schnauzer would be limping and crying at the smallest pain and Desmo is the complete opposite. He doesn’t like to tell me if he is sore.>>
Yes, so true!!! My Voodoo will run til he rips his feet off then insist he is fine. My BorderWhippet youngster hit an 8″ bar with his toe and there was MUCH DRAMA with screaming and limping and requests for amputation and SO MUCH DRAMA for about 30 seconds (he is perfectly fine LOL!)
>>Knowing where to be is something I am still getting a feel for so that I can give him good information.
I have 2 rules of thumb for that:
1 – the tighter the turn you want, the closer to the jump you want to be (lateral distance produces wider turns)
2 – we generally want to put ourselves right on the line we want the dog to run on crosses (then get the heck off of it before the dog gets there LOL!!)>>He did herding yesterday so he is on a off day today, I will get some good stretching in Tuesday might rain so I probably will not post until Wednesday but that will give him some time and I will try to get in ASAP with Chiro.
That makes sense, we have plenty of time here and next week is the ‘off’ week.
>>When we are back out, I was thinking I would work the line where I wasn’t keeping my hand back and the drive ahead portion again…. any other ones I should try again before I start week 2?>
That is a good plan! You can move the #1 jump further from the tunnel on the drive ahead reps so it is easier to NOT be ahead LOL! Then onwards to week 2 🙂
T
Hi there! Welcome back! Baby girl is growing up 🙂 TONS of nice work here – you are going to laugh, though, there are places where I think you were connecting too much LOL!
Going through the video:
On the first regular connection sequences:
seq 1 was really nice – you can move faster through the line here while maintaining the connection. – n
seq 2 – this is the beginning of where I think you can watch her a tiny bit less, and turn and go on the pinwheel more. By turn and go, it is more about staying in fast motion while still keeping your arms low and good connection. You were watching a lot, so you were not really moving, so she was heading checking a bit.
seq 3 – same thought here as on sequence 2 – she is head checking at :32 because you were ultra connected but not really moving, so she was looking up at you 🙂 Move faster 🙂 but keep the clear connection.On the next sequence, at :48, you can give her a GO on landing of 1 then start the tunnel verbal even sooner so she doesn’t look at you there too (and run more LOL!!!) your connection is really strong but if there is not enough acceleration, you will find her looking at you (especially because she is young).
On your wraps – the connection in and out is looking good! And the week 2 games of shifting connection will help figure out if she needs a slightly different style of cue. On these reps, you can be earlier on the FCs and spins. As she exits the tunnel, try to decelerating then sliding into the rotation so she collects sooner and you and can leave sooner too. That will help tighten up the FCs and will also give her a clearer line to the tunnel on the spins. Ideally, you are rotating before she passes you and before she takes off. At 1:39, for example, you are just beginning to turn and she is already in the air so she has to wait after she lands. We can challenge her commitment by starting it all sooner – the deceleration part of the transition is the magic there, so be sure to add that element in.
Serpentines:
serp one jump at 1:49 – nice!! Lovely connection and line!
The reps with more speed at 2:36 and 2:42 were also super nice. At this point, you can soften the exit line connection on the serp and lower the hand to be on your belly. You had it high and shaking a bit, and it will look a bit like a threadle arm like that 🙂 Plus, we can fade that exit line connection down to just eye contact as she is landing and it will work nicely 🙂On the FC at 2:50 – these can also come sooner 🙂 She has a ton of forward drive to lines, which is great! So it will be fun to play with how early you can cue and leave on these crosses. As long as you maintain this nice connection, I bet she will let you leave pretty early! So as she exits the tunnel on the FC and on the spin too, you should be decelerating and getting ready to rotate into the turn so she is seeing it before she passes you. AS long as you are connected and not abrupt (no slamming on the brakes!), I think she can do it. On the FC, as you exit, try not to step back – step directly forward to the tunnel with that clear exit line connection and you will get a really sweet line to the tunnel too.
Really nice work! These are all smaller details to fine tune things. Let me know what you think!
TracyOMG the video is hysterical LOL!! He is an excellent student lol
>>but for some reason that upper body rotation was difficult…maybe I drove in too close to that wing?
Yes, you can probably head directly to the blind and start it sooner.
>>His JWW time was 17.43.
Wowza!!!!
>>He actually weaves faster at trials! He did another “I don’t like weaving in dirt” in class last week…skipping poles due to divots in the dirt. Sigh.
Do you have any dirt trials coming up? If not, no worries about him not liking dirt divots for now.
>> So I hope we have some time to catch up along the way. I’m trying hard to be good and not over work him so we do not jump 2 days in a row.
yes – there is a ‘break’ week next week and then time after the last games are posted on Nov 7.
>>A sheltie “person” gave Benni high compliments after his T2B run. Proud mom here!
That’s awesome!!!! I hope they still like him when he starts beating them LOL!!!!
T
Hi! Yes, things are for sure harder!!
You might be seeing a preference coming out on the zig zag, but also this is a new location AND it looks like he has decided it should all be done FASTER. So, you can give a stronger cue on that release to get him to hop to his right. You can also ever-so-slightly offset the wings (more on that coming soon) so the zigzags are less reliant on handling. Watching this session, I think it was more of a GO FASTER thing and not necessarily a side preference, He was releasing with tons of drive towards you, so you can already be turned and cuing the first gap before the release to see if you can get him to do it. If not, stay on 3 wings for now to get the behavior – the next steps of the game are done on 3 wings so it is fine to work the skills on those.On your RC video:
>>t I wonder if I need to move the first wing back further and wait a bit more at the wing because maybe I’m too “on top” of him and not letting him get ahead enough?>>
Yes to both! On the go reps, stay really close to the wing til he has just about finished the wrap (even though you don’t need to) because staying close will accomplish 2 things – get even more driving ahead, and get the driving ahead from the instant you accelerate… which will set up the RCs very nicely 🙂
You were setting the lines on the RCs nicely om a lot of the reps, but you were a bit decelerated from leaving too early so he was not as accelerated. The other thing to think about is to turn your feet forward to the jump on both the go and the RCs – on a couple of the RCs you were a bit sideways so he was not sure if he should go forward or not (like at 1:07 when he pushed off the jump and 1:45 when he didn’t read the turn). Turning your feet to the jump will get that acceleration forward, and the line you run will tell him if it is straight or now. When you did that, he was really getting the idea of the rear crosses, especially on the 3rd part of the video! Yay!
The proofing actually went pretty well! It is a hard game! 2 ideas for you:
he generally made a mistake when he was not ready for the release. You were thinking about what you wanted to do, he was checking Facebook – the BAM connect/release/motion so he was kinda guessing LOL!! When you connected, let him process it for a heartbeat, then release: he was pretty awesome. So take a moment to look at him and tell him to get off facebook (teenagers! LOL!) then release. The other thing that was hard was when you *were* connected but released AND moved fast at the same time – he generally went fast but didn’t process the cue correctly. So when using motion, start moving before the release and then release while maintaining the motion (no sudden bursts of speed yet LOL!)Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
All the Go reps looked really good! Currently his favorite thing, I think 🙂
I thought right was on time, he might have been thinking of the last place he saw reinforcement?
the next 2 RC reps to the right looked good!
He did really well on the circle wrap at :43! You were blocking the wing a little so he was wide – try to move to where the wing meets the bar so he can see it. You might end up waiting there for a heartbeat so he can get past you, but that is fine 🙂
On your other backside circle wrap at 1:15 – It looks like you had better position so he did not go wide on the approach. Yay! You don’t need to swing our dog side arm forward on this to help commit him as that might accidentally look like a backside serp or backside RC cue. Your arm can stay back or moving with your leg as you move forward to pass him. He was nicely committed and is using his body on those circles really well! It is hard turn and he is using his head to find the line (literally, looking at the line and turning his head 🙂He did well on the left turn RCs after all the go reps and the tunnel was a lovely part of the reward!!!
Zig zags – the warm up on 2 jumps looks good, he was already offering quick shifting changes so it was correct to move out to 3 wings. He was totally wanting to watch you, so you can toss the toy after the last wing to keep his head straight on the line (and not watching the momma 🙂
The proofing games always crack me up, because the dogs are always convinced they are correct even when they are not LOL! The visual of the tunnel here was stimulating but he sorted it out after the first couple of reps then he did really well! Adding motion is hard, so be sure to move slowly for now as you add it. At 1:03 he took the tunnel instead of the jump then it looks like he rewarded himself with a coughed up cookie LOL!! I think on that rep – he looked at the serp then changed his mind, so I wonder if he was not comfortable jumping in with you right there? So, on the next session, put yourself a bit in the way (standing still with a low bar) and get lots of reward in for him jumping the bar even if you are still a little bit in the way. He is fast, so we might sometimes get in the way 🙂
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! She did a great job here!!! The serp versus tunnel looked perfect – her facial expression was so funny: “no big deal, mom, I got this” HAHA!
The threadle was a little harder, which is pretty normal. Question: what is your threadle verbal (for jumps)? Her name for the serp is perfect, but a different word for the threadle will be helpful. That way you can stand there and cue it, and she will do the in-and-out by herself. You were helping with body motion, but that will require you to be almost perfect in timing. She is super fast, so being perfect is harder than using the threadle verbal LOL!!! I think you will easily be able to stand in the threadle position, use the verbal, and then let her send herself back out to the jump (and the tunnel here :)) Try it standing still and then we will add the motion back.
Nice work on all of these sessions!
TracyHi!
She likes all the games so far, I think, she is just a lot of fun in general 🙂
On the rear crosses: You were generally a little late on the RC cues. She is a righty on this game, so she was able to read the RCs to the right even if they were a little late but not the RCs to the left. Also, the RCs to the left were after the right turns, and all the rewards for the right turns, so she might have been stuck in right turn mode. It is interesting to see, because I believe she was a lefty on some of the other games? She likes to keep us on our toes LOL!!
So to get the RC cues in sooner: stay at the wing wrap for longer. Stay super close to it so that you can touch it, and don’t leave til she is just about exiting. Then move forward, but move forward with your feet facing the middle of the bar – and when she drives past you, keep moving up that line and cut in behind her. You were tending to leave the wing too soon, which caused you to run up the go line for a bunch of steps before showing the RC pressure. So she was not always able to make the adjustment for the turn before she took off for the jump.
When you look at the rep at 1:15, you can see you were closer to her at the wing and showed the RC diagonal sooner, so that was her best RC! Yay!
Also, start with the left turn next time and see how she does with that before trying the right. But I think the earlier cue will be the key.The Go reps in the middle looked good!
Great job getting her to the backside!! Excellent connection so she appeared to have no questions about which side to be on.
About the verbals – on the first couple of reps, you were staying on the landing side so I think push is the better verbal as it is more of a slice than a 360. At 1:45, 1:50 and 1:56, you did the real circle 360 wrap by moving forward- that is where the circle verbal is perfect.She had trouble turning left to come in and take the bar on the backsides! She was just not a lefty that day LOL! So you can help her out by dropping the toy to the landing side as soon as she heads to the backside wing to help create the default choice to take the jump as you move away. You don’t need to wait for a jumping decision, you can reward the decision to go the backside by dropping the toy on the landing side as you keep moving. You helped her out by showing the toy at 1:56 (last rep) but you can also toss it back there so it is even more independent.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
