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Hi!
The jump grid is looking good- he got better and better on each rep – he took a moment to get organized on the very first rep but then did well on the next ones! He looks ready for jump 4 – he seems much happier doing them!
On the serps: He also read these really well! Be sure you are further across the serp jump before you release – like at :06 and :12. One the rep at :04 you released him a bit too early, so he jumped straight (the serp cue wasn’t clear yet). As you build it up into the 3 jump serps – stay in motion the whole time. If you stand still then explode forward, you will end up pushing him to the backside like at :18 – standing still cues collection then the sudden acceleration pushed him away. And, when you are moving, keep moving through the reward (you throw it but then keep moving). You were tending to throw it and stop, so it made him question his jumping on the last jump. The throw can be later to make it easier to keep moving. He looks ready for the 3 jump serps here!
Great job!
TracyHi! He worked really hard on this! It is one of the hardest grids. I have 2 suggestions:
using just the 3 jump grid, tighten it up on just 3 jumps until it will be straight. He had a little trouble holding onto his balance on all 5. And then when it was really hard on all 5 jumps, he just gave up and ran straight LOL!
And, on 5 jumps, keep it wider for a bit so he can work the balance. Take a look at what he did on the rep that started at :12 (:12-:14): that was REALLY strong! We basically want him to do all of them just like that, no matter how tight the grid is. So Start at that angle of jumps and only very gradually tighten them. If he starts to ‘double tap’ his front feet rather than bounce back and forth, or if he starts to bounce high – it is too hard, open it up a little. It will probably take a couple of session (or more) for you to be able to get it tighter or straight, but that is fine because form is the most important part. He will see it straight first on 3 jumps, then eventually on 5.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I agree, I think he did really well here! Nice playing and nice job incorporating the treats for some calmer moments too 🙂
He also did really well on the grid – this is NOT and easy grid, but he made it look pretty easy 🙂 I didn’t see him bat an eyelash when you made it tighter, either. Nice!!! He seemed super keen to do them too – very “ON” but not overly aroused.
2 little tweaks as you keep playing with it:
I think on the first couple of reps, he was actually a tiny bit too close to jump 1, making it harder to take off without touching the first bar. I think your set up spot on the last rep was perfect!And drop the toy in sooner. When you had it up high on the last 2 reps, he had a harder time keeping his head down. So you can release and drop it with the release, so it is down as he is moving into the grid.
>>I tried doing some serpentines from week four on my jumps near the house. I didn’t have any wings available. He does not like to do them without wings.
That is interesting! Was he going around them, just not ‘seeing’ them? You can do the one jump serp games on a wingless jump to get him rolling on it, then add in the other jumps. I believe that ASCA only has wingless, right? So he needs to learn more about wingless jumps. What about CPE – also plenty of wingless? We can randomly throw more of them into his sequences too, to help him get comfortable.
Nice job here!!
TracyHi! You have been busy indeed!! The videos are looking really good here 🙂
Serps:
1st rep, your cue looks good! She is still processing all the things that have to happen so she was a little ‘head up’ in her form over 2 but that will smooth out with more experience.
2nd rep – It was hard to tell from this angle why she pushed to the backside of 2 but my guess is that you with the release and the motion happening at the same time, you pressed in as you started to move and were too close to the jump, so she pinged away to the backside. Moving then releasing (like you did in reps 3 and 4) will smooth that out.
3rd rep – she smoked you on this one 🙂 You released then moved and she got ahead – then you looked straight, which caused your shoulders to turn forward so she went past 2. Ideally you are always ahead on serps but reality says you might get smoked: so if she gets ahead, keep looking at her eyes and that should turn your chest to the next jump.
4th rep – perfection! At 1:10: you moved then released then stay connected. Lovely serp!!!
5th rep – just about perfect too! You can keep moving through that release, no need to stop. The physical cue looked great and she read it realyl well!5 jump grid back chaining:
the 2nd rep looked great but not sure if she was released LOL The best jumping efforts always come after broken stays 🙂
3rd rep – nice! Form and head position are spot on!
4th rep – also very nice. Did you make it back to jump 1 on this session? I think she was staying balanced and looked good – your motion didn’t seem to be distracting her. Nice!Sequences:
1st rep – start the BC as soon as she is out of the tunnel, even if you aren’t in a great spot yet – that will allow you to get connection back to her before she takes off for the 3 jump and that gives her a sweeter line to the 4 jump. You were a little late there which threw off the rhythm of the rest of it and you ended up late for the next blind.2nd rep: you were a little earlier on the first blind and that made for a better line 1-2-3-4! When she lands from 4 at :45, you indicated ahead by looking & pointing ahead and then peeled away, so she didn’t see the commitment as well as came off the line, turning with you.
When you repeated it at :55, I think your upper body was clearer but your feet turned off the line too soon3rd rep – LOVED your timing on the first blind at 1:22 Perfect!
I *thought* your commitment cue to the 5 jump at 1:26 was better but Lanna disagreed.4th rep – you had good timing on that first blind at 1:57 but not as good as the previous rep 🙂 She had a little zig zag on landing because the reconnection was a little later than the previous rep.
Great job at 2:00 of convincing her to take the 5 jump. You were a little late on the blind because you were making sure she took the jump, totally understandable! I think the commitment struggle she was having on that jump was that you were trying to turn your feet away on the new line earlier that she was comfortable with. So 2 ideas to work the progression to get more commitment there:
Run closer to the line like you did on the last rep, but turn your head for the blind earlier. Your motion will be supporting the line but you can still get the blind in.You can also make a bigger connection on the landing of the 4 jump and your upper body can be more directly connected back to her as you deliver your verbals (good verbals, by the way :)) and then keep that connection and keep the verbals going as you peel away like you wanted to. You can start that with just a jump wing (easier to commit to) then throw the reward to her when she commits.
I don’t think the handling was wrong, I just think it was stretching the boundaries of her commitment comfort zone! But that is fine because it allows us to play with different ways of expanding her commitment comfort zone 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyWheee this was a hard one for her! OK, this is a hard one for ALL of them, you were just the first one who posted it LOL!!!! Most of her reps were really strong: first rep, :06, :11 looked especially good. On a few, I think she got a bit ahead of herself – 2nd rep, :08, and the last rep in particular where she had trouble getting organized. It is a weird visual for the dogs, so the fact that she had a LOT of good reps is pretty impressive. Adding the tunnel as the visual was a good idea, to help keep her head down. I think she will need to see this again in a day or two – and I bet she is fine (latent learning!). Then before you tighten it up – give her a bar to jump. These bars looked to be on the ground, so you can go to 2 or 4″, whatever the lowest setting it, so she can work the jumping skill before you tighten the line.
Great job!
TracyHi there!
>>So for chapter’s Left turns being wide I did notice last night when we were trying the cue combos he runs in circles around the yard but only to the left. He also runs around the pool mostly to the left but not exclusively like the yard. He does tend to run out left for the frisbee as well. When we tried herding he was very strongly herding left and almost refused to go right. Any thoughts on how to encourage tighter wraps on the left? When we were working foundations with single wing wraps I didn’t see this difference and when we do spins Left and right I don’t see a difference with the left being wide either.>>Interesting! When aroused, he goes out to the left. The arousal is what stimulates it which is why you didn’t see it in the calmer flatwork. To even it out, you can do the more stimulating work to the right to teach the concepts – but let the left turn work lag behind that in terms of stimulation. For example: do the wraps from the tunnel (tunnel-jump-jump) on the right! Then do it on one jump on the left. Then back to all the obstacles on the right – then one jump on the left. Then maybe 2 jumps on the left. You can gradually build in the arousal while maintaining the nice turns.
On the wrap sequences:
first up, looking at your timing: first rep timing looked good! 2nd rep was a little late (he was in the air when you were starting to rotate).
3rd rep – good decel! You can turn more fully abd be less sideways more like you were on the 4th rep.
last rep – my favorite timig on this video! Nice!!!Now about the responses: Even when you had great timing, he was not necessarily turning tightly or driving right back to you. I think he is scoping for obstacles more than driving back to you, which is a normal part of the progression – the value is shifting to the obstacles so he is all like WHICH OBSTACLE lol!! So on all of the wrap exits, take off and run away (rather than wait for him to make the turn). Do a “running reward” after each wrap: cue it then run away (with connection) so he can chase you and get the toy from you. That will tighten it all right up by making it all about where da momma is going, and not about the next obstacle.
Question: what is just outside the video, past your shed? At :11 and :44 he was turning right and totally looking at *something* out there (your timing was really good on that last rep especially, so it was not a timing issue). I think there is a visual distraction out there – so it is a bit of proofing to get him to chase you around the jump and not look at what is out there.
Nice work here! Let me know if this makes sense!
TracyWhat a mess with the injury!!!!! I am glad they finally found it and thankful that you re on the correct road to recovery.
>>Do you have a different angle video of you and your dogs doing sequence 4 on the serpentines? I can’t picture how I would stay close to the tunnel exit to send him to the jump and get far enough ahead for the serp.
I will set it up and run it is if ever stops raining!
>>As I plan out the next 2 weeks of training, did you want me to work anymore on the set point (last one we did was 10″), ladder grid with handler motion or the progressive distance grid (also last done at 10″)?
You can work in one session of set point on a 12″ bar and the progressive to a 12″ bar. And the zig zag grid 🙂 That can end up being 3 or 4 sessions of grids in 2 weeks – that is plenty!
>>And also, where do we go with our young dogs next? Will you be offering something appropriate for this group of dogs?
Yes, I am currently making plans – not sure exactly what yet! I should have it sorted out in the next week or so. The youngsters can also do CAMP because there will be PLENTY that is great for young dogs!
Tracy
Dang Jill, these are looking really strong!!! He looked a bit hot but I could still see how fast he is AND how well he can turn. WOW! I think you did a good job cuing the sends and the serp jump – he read the sends nicely (you left early on one but the rest were great) and the your connection on the serps was great! On the rep with the ‘wrong’ hand: no big deal, because it still rotated your chest into the serp line and he read it fine 🙂 There were a couple of oopsies on the last jump – it might have been that you were surprised at how well he read the middle serp jump and then you rushed a bit LOL!! Plus, he is like a tiny freight train coming at you very fast 🙂 On the reps where you maintained connection and kept moving relatively close to the jumps – he was perfect like at :19. On a couple you moved a bit too far away (:16) and on a couple you tried to throw too early – so focus on that rep at :18-:19, that was my favorite. You can throw later, after he takes the last jump.
>> I think I am ready to start intro the threadles even though I need to keep reinforcing go back out and take the 3rd jump.
Yes – you are totally ready for some threadles! That last jump on the serps was more of a keep-moving-and-don’t-get-distracted-by-his-brilliance moment 🙂
>>I honestly think if I rewarded better and cued the second turn he would have gotten the last jump. Your thoughts?
Your rewarding was just a little too early for the last jump. You rewarded the serp jump nicely on the 1st rep. but then you were disconnecting a bit too get the reward for the last jump on the other reps. So, stay super connected and moving along the line and you can delay the reward until after he turns away and takes the last jump.
Great job!!
TracyHi! Threadles are going well!!! The only oopsie was when you were far enough ahead and blocking the line a bit. Connection looks good and your threadle arm is clear! One tweak though:try not to turn your feet. You were rotating and that was helping her come in the gap – but that will cause you to get behind on the next line when she smokes you (she seems like she is NOT going to slow down and wait LOL!!!) So, have your feet going forward the whole time, not turning – let your upper body and verbal do all the work 🙂 You might have to start by walking because it is kind of difficult for the smalls to see the hand and ignore the feet, but it is totally worth it 🙂
About the verbal – I do recommend a separate verbal for this. When you are ahead and in a great position, the verbal matters less and you might even be able to just say her name. But… when you are behind or out of position, the verbal is super specific and can save you 🙂 Because she drives her lines SO hard, I expect that you will possibly find yourself behind and/or out of position 🙂 so the different verbal will be really helpful 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! These are progressing nicely – she has a couple of questions but I think all she needs are little tweaks.
First serp:
She is so funny – she was jumping *next to* the last jump on a couple of the serp reps but not actually through the uprights LOL!!! I think a couple of things are happening – one is that she is still learning what a serp line is. And the other is that she is watching you and the toy, so coming in on the serp jump is going well but going back out is much harder! So, taking this 4 jump set up: leave jumps 1-2-3 the same in terms of angles. And take the last jump and angle it sightly towards her, so that when she lands from the middle serp jump, she will see the bar of the last jump right in front of her. That way she will commit to it with you having to help quite as much.
After a couple of rewards, you can start to gradually angle it back out, so it eventually returns to the ‘flat’ position here.2nd sequence – this looks great, she is a blur on the way to the tunnel!! At :48 and :57 she smoked you so you didn’t quite tell her about the last jump. As she is taking the middle serp jump, be sure to maintain connection very strongly to her eyes as you run forward- that will help face your chest/shoulders into the gap so she will turn back out.
At :51 and on the last rep you were hustling more so dropped connection and your arm dropped back so she read it like a threadle. I had to watch in slow motion to see it, she is moving so fast! One of the reasons this was happening was also probably because you were moving in a little too close to the jump after the tunnel then pulling away – so let her find it laterally while you stay connected and on the landing side of the serp so there is no in and out, just a parallel line. She did a great job finding the jump after the tunnel so it should help!I think should also add bars on these – low 4″ bars or 6″, just so you have an extra heartbeat to handle – she is running full out right now and that is making it harder for you to get up the lines (good news, bad news, right? LOL!!!)
Nice work! Let me know if this makes sense!
Hi! Poor Mad Dog, it is hard to get old! My Export is the same way – I think he has gone feral now at 14.5 years old, because is insists on being outside in all weather, under a bush. Gotta love the oldsters!!!
>>Last night I tried FC wraps. The right wrap went much better than the left. Then i switch to rewarding wraps on one jump and then went back to the two jumps and that stemmed to help. He is very one sided so I’ve noticed left turns are harder for him to take tight.
This was an interesting video! I agree, the right wrap went nicely! The left wrap – I thought perhaps on the 2 jump rep you were a tiny bit later in decelerating and turning… but then he went shooting off somewhere and it had nothing to do with handling LOL!!! It was almost like he saw something or he expected you to throw the ball? It is possible that there is something about turning left that causes him to predict a big run out: when you play ball or frisbee, see if you notice if you throw to the left all the time? Or anything where he might get lots of rewards for big runs to his left? We humans all have habits so it might be something in his life where big runs to the left are super fun 🙂
Wrapping on 1 jump to the left definitely helped! You can warm up his left wraps on 1 jump before putting them into sequences, then go to 2 jumps. That can help transfer the good wraps he did on one jump into the sequences.
Nice work here! Let me know if you think of anything that involves big parties to the left LOL!Tracy
Hi!
>>after 2 weeks and still so much pain, went to an orthopedist…radial fracture…
Wait, what? Didn’t they say there was no fracture??? Ugh!!!! I hope they get you on the path to healing ASAP!!!!!
Serp sequence 1 – dog on left was absolutely gorgeous! Nice job on the send and leave and connection. Perfect!
Yes, for some reason, he was wider dog on right. I don’t really know why – you had a good send, he collected just fine over the jump, he just didn’t come in as fast for the middle jump. It might have been something visal out there that caught his eye, or he is stronger turning to his right, the video doesn’t tell us 🙂 But you can call him more BEN BEN BEN!!! on that side, and the reward him for coming in. That can help him drive back harder!Serp 2 is a much harder sequence indeed! Your first rep going towards the tunnel looked really good! You ran a clear, strong line and he picked it all up nicely.
Coming back from the tunnel – it looks like you stepped in too much to help him get the jump after the tunnel, then that changed your line of motion because you had to move laterally to get past the serp jump – so he did come in and take it but he was surprised by the push back to the last jump. 2 things to help:
support the jump after the tunnel with connection and verbal (GO!) but don’t go anywhere near it 🙂 Stay on the running line that takes you parallel to the serp jump so you can run straight.
Also – make a bigger connection on the landing of the serp jump – you were looking forward a bit too much, so he missed the turn the first time and dgot it (but was wide) the 2nd time. That is a spot for exit line connection.Seq 4 serp: this is a pretty wicked sequence 🙂
The line towards the tunnel looks really strong!!!One of the keys is to show a turn cue before he enters the tunnel – not just the verbal, but the rotation. On the first rep at :04, you were straight and didn’t ask for a turn, so he exited straight and didn’t see the next jump.
2nd rep at :15 you had a good rotation but no verbal.At :39, you had rotation and right verbal (yay!) and he turned (also yay!) but you are too far ahead and hand way up high so he is just trying to follow your line.
The other key is that in order to be able to get the serp, you need to hang back near the tunnel, set the line to the next jump, then run on the mirror image path that you ran going towards the tunnel. Rushing and getting too far ahead is detrimental.
On the 1st and 2nd reps, you were rushing a bit and said jump with a high arm – he tried to figure it out but couldn’t find the jump. You gave a HEY or something at :18 – that is deflating to him (and the cue was not clear, so not his fault at all) so resist the temptation to do any negative marking during sequences.
He got it at about 1:00 and at the end, but it was a bit zig zaggy on the line back from the tunnel (the line towards the tunnel looked great each time)
So try to show the turn cues before the tunnel exit, and don’t rush away: hang back a bit near the tunnel exit, set the line by sending him away to the next jump and then run straight – that should make it smoother!
The bending grid looks really good! The 8 inch bar added challenge but he adjusted accordingly and I think it went really nicely! When he was going through the grid on your left, you did a good job of continuing the turn through the 3rd jump. On your left towards the end, you were finished a bit straight, so remember to keep turning on that side too. Overall – this can also go into maintenance mode and you can try out the zig zag grid that I posted yesterday!!
Nice job!!!
TracyHi!
I think this went really well, and I agree – terrific attitude and confidence!!!!! And some beautiful turns in there!!!
2 general notes about things I noticed here:
– You were working the connection so hard that you ended up running with your opposite arm up the whole time on a lot of these LOL!! You only need that opposite arm on the exits of crosses (to get connection) so try to just have the dog-side arm back and look at her eyes during ‘normal’ lines 🙂– When you were rewarding. you were tending to stop short and throw, which caused her to pull the last bar several times. Keep running! We want her to keep that bar up, so stay in motion.
Specifics:
Dog on left:
rep 1: the cues were just a little late so she was a little wide by a step, but more importantly, keep moving on the reward to avoid the dropped bar.rep 2: feisty at the start!!! Love it! I liked the timing and turn here. She is too big to ‘save’ you by turning tight if your info is poopy – this was a tight turn which means your handling was good! Same on rep 3 – nice!!!
Dog on right:
4th rep – you did a funky arm movement on the release at jump 1 (so she dropped the bar) then you converged in towards jump 2 as she was moving up the line at :54…she totally read it as rear cross which is what she did. Good girl! Remember to run forward to the wing that you want her wrapping, even if you are lateral. You don’t need to push in. You converged a bit on the 5th rep at 1:02, but not quite as much so while she jumped the center of the bar, she did not rear cross (keep moving here on the reward so the last bar stays up too)After that rep, she was so cute strutting with the ball lol 🙂
next rep (1:13) – You ran much better line, facing straighter to the wrap wing. Lovely transitions for the turn and you kept moving all the way through the end – which helped her nail it. Great lines, great turn!!
Adding in the Tunnel – not enough decel on that first rep so she was a little wide? You were probably sorting out the timing with the added speed from the tunnel. She was smokin’!
2nd rep – better timing, a little earlier – and she nailed the turn. Nice!
3rd rep and last rep – yes, having to do the blind then the go and the digdig – it all happens really quickly but she is getting it!! For the GO – you don’t need it as much. On the last rep especially, you were continuing the GO cue for too long – she really only needs it for the tunnel exit, so say it once before she goes into the tunnel then once as she is exiting.
She was able to process it all, though – her lines and turns look good!About the verbals. Yes, we will want lots of verbals… but you can emphasize the important ones of each sequence (like the digdigdig here) and you don’t have to work as hard with the ‘obvious’ ones, where your physical cue makes it really easy to see (like the go on this one).
Great job!
TracyHi there!
Pinwheels looked good! You can go deeper into the tunnel so you can keep moving – no place to go on the pinwheel if you get too far ahead. And if you go in deep to the pinwheel jump like you did at :43 (which is fine :)) be sure to accelerate and give early verbals. You got into the pinwheel then decelerated, so she looked at you.
FCs – you actually have more time here than you think you do 🙂 You have time to send, then turn towards the tunnel and move away, and then start the FC – it doesn’t need to start until she has landed from the pinwheel jump. Your first rep was the best one:
first rep – really nice! Yes, you can do a bit more arm-across-the-body to connect but you were really working the connection. Timing was good! You can play with being more lateral, towards the tunnel entry, and see if she can stay on her line.
2nd rep – too early 🙂 At 1:14, you did the FC just as she took off for the pinwheel jump, so she was 100% correct to come into the gap.
3rd rep – you started to over-help here, I think 🙂 At 1:25, you left too early for the FC and didn’t actually send into the pinwheel – I think this might be the first time that she saved yer butt based on a verbal! Woot!!! Note how she almost did go then sent herself back out. Then you were too soon on the FC and moved backwards a bit – she picked up the 3rd jump but was barking/squeaking at you.BC – good job sending her into the pinwheel! As you connected and moved away at 1:40, your motion took you directly to the off course tunnel. As you did the blind, you were still moving to the off course tunnel – she looked at you – barked – and went with the line of motion.
At 1:52 and 2:06 on the blinds, you were really working more of the connection (yay!) and so 2 things happened: you got her to the correct side of you AND the added connection caused your running path to be more directly to the tunnel entry you wanted. Yes!!!
So keep working the running line towards the correct end of the tunnel, with the super connection you had here.Very nice work! Let me know what you think.
TracyGood morning!
Holy cow, 4″ of rain!!! Eek!!The slow motion videos looked good all sped up here LOL!!!
One overall suggestion is that, as you sort out the timing and transitions and he learns to read them – don’t use a displaceable bar. Either use a jump bump or “lock” the bar into place by sticking the edge of the jump cups into the open ends, if your jump cups allow for that. The reason I suggest this is that he was dropping a lot of bars here, and we don’t want the rehearsal of dropping bars. Now, he was dropping the bars because of your timing, he was trying to adjust! So we don’t want to get mad or withhold reward… so the best course of action for now is to make it impossible to drop a bar 🙂 That is something that I do all the time with my young dogs! You’ll still know based on his turn or if he ticks the bar/bump if you were on time or not – but he won’t get used to dropping bars. As he learns more, he will begin to predict the turn based on the deceleration and verbal, so you won’t have to be quite as perfect with the timing (thankfully, because perfect is so hard!) and then the displaceable bars can come back.
On the videos:
Your decelerations were clear and generally on time, but you can shift into the rotations sooner to help give him in the info:1st video:
1st rep – the deceleration was late so the rotation was late and he was wide.
2nd rep and 3rd rep – timing was definitely better and earlier! Here is a spot where the rotation was a little late and he pulled the bars. So you can try to decelerate one stride sooner so as he is getting into that last section before the jump, you are already turning.2nd video, from the tunnel:
first rep – timing definitely better here! The deceleration then rotate were distinct and he did a nice job on the turn.
2nd rep – you decelerated early but the rotation was late (after he was lifting off) so he was wide. He is a baby dog so he isn’t predicting yet based on deceleration. That will come, I promise!Last rep – best timing so far – you slowed down earlier and then your rotation was earlier at :18, he was still far enough from the jump (in that last section) and he looked great over the bar.
FC BC video –
1st rep – the decel then rotation were a bit too late, so he pulled the bar. The other 2 reps were a bit late as well – partially because you were actually a bit too far ahead, so you slowed down really early… so the deceleration got lost as you kept moving forward, if that makes sense. You can drive in closer to the previous line/tunnel so he sees you shift from fast to slow, which will help prepare him for the rotation that will follow. \I think if you emphasize that ‘fast then slow’ transition, he will be better prepared for the actual rotation – which will allow him to set up the turns. He is still learning that decel means a turn will follow, so he just needs more experience 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
