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Hi!
This is a good foundation skill to revisit! On Wilson’s video – he had some questions 🙂 I think it was mainly that the angle you started him on was a bit too difficult for now. The angle he was on was very much to the front side of the bar, which is where most of his value is – so you can have him more at a perpendicular angle to the edge of the wing: the front side of the bar is still in play but not as much, and it is easier to get to the threadle side. And then also for him have the reward out on the line past the jump bar (where you had the MM for Demi) so he develops the default to take the jump after the threadle cue without you having to cue it. If he likes the MM, you can totally use it for him too 🙂Demi did really well on the first couple of reps – I believe she saw this in MaxPup so she remembers it! Yay!! Your rep at :42 was GREAT, nice cue and nice timing of the click of the MM. Very nice! Having the MM out there is both a big help (threadles) and a hindrance (the break reps).
She had trouble with the break because at first your position was the same as the threadle (she is still learning to discriminate between the verbals) and also, even as you adjusted, because the MM was there. The MM *must* mean it is a threadle, right? LOL!!! You did a great job changing her position and showing the reward nice and early for the straight line – that will help her understand the difference and learn to ignore the beloved MM. You can use your motion and position to help on the ‘break’ moments by moving past the jump ,facing it, etc., to make it look totally different than the threadle reps.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Part of the timing issue is I am just not running like normal.
That makes sense! You can slow down sooner to be able to leave sooner, if that makes it easier on your knee?
>>I think I do more wraps than germans because he can knock those. We have worked at getting him to set himself up well for those – not taking it on a slice where he seems to knock. Next course I will put some of those in for you!!>>
Yay! Let’s work on those! Bar dropping on those is a common thing… check out the skills sets I posted yesterday that involve teaching the jump as a default behavior on those backside slicey turns. I have found that teaching the dog to default to jumping in those moments on a german has improved the jump a whole lot 🙂
THi there! The a/c must have been glorious!!!!!
First rep – when you freeze the video at :05 as he made the turn back towards you, it did indeed look like a cue to go back into the tunnel. At :12 (2nd rep) and :20 (3rd rep) you turned sooner and also moved away – so he turned tighter on the exit of the tunnel and picked up on your motion. The tighter turn/more motion combo helped get the turn without any bonus tunnels 🙂 I do think the digdigdig verbal helps too, as it has such a specific meaning.
On the 4th rep where you had the tunnel exit in more of a sequence – you can start your rotation and verbal sooner. On matting, you probably don’t need to be as easy as you would be on grass but he will need to see it before he enters the tunnel – so, since the footing has those squares, we can use them for planning 🙂 I would say you can start the rotation & verbal while his nose is still 3 or 4 squares away from the entry. That way he can see and hear it all before he gets into the tunnel.Threadles – the proximity does make it a little more challenging, but the bars were low and that helps!
He responded really well to the cues, but we can tell him sooner how tight the turn is on the jump after the tunnel: you can use a wrap cue on the jump as he is approaching it to get collection and then switch to your threadle cue when he is just about at the jump after the tunnel, to tell him to go back out to the other jump. Because there was no directional here on the jump after the tunnel, he took off a bit long – the directional can tighten that, which makes the threadle even easier to execute 🙂On the sequence at the end – because of his length of stride, you can plan the timing differently when the distances are tight: you can start your deceleration into tight turn cues when he is taking off for the previous jump, so you are rotating into the tight turn cue as he lands. At 1:10 here, as he is jumping the green wing jump, the distance to the tight turn to the wingless jump is very short – so you can be decelerating as he is jump so when he lands, you are already rotating. You had big-distance-timing going here, where you stepped forward when he landed then rotated… which sent him wide. So the smaller distances to look for here are 18 feet and under, approximately (this looked like 15 feet maybe?) Because that is tight for a big dog – he is making his takeoff decision for the next jump as he lands from the previous jump, and a deceleration before landing will help get the tight turn. On distances that are over 18 feet, I don’t think you need to be that early, the extra yardage will give you extra time 🙂
At the very end (1:19), I think you wanted him to come take the green wing jump? If so, remember to open up your left shoulder so he sees your upper body facing the bar. You had it closed forward, which said “don’t take the jump” – and if you didn’t want him to take that jump there, then you were perfect 🙂Nice job! Let me know what you think and stay cool!
TracyHi! This looked great! She has made a lot of progress in coming in tight to you, even with the open hand at the end!
Starting with the drive to handler was smart to get the game rolling, and she then did beautifully when you added in the acceleration after the turn. Great job with your low arms and connection before/after the blind, which made it really clear to her both where to be AND to focus in on the collection hand. Nice job with your transitions: for example, on the 2nd to last rep, you were fast as she was driving to you and through the blind, then you did a very clear deceleration before the turn, so she was able to whip around through it. Perfect! So much good stuff!! No worries about the lines not being perfectly straight, they were great for what we needed. You can add a bit more challenge here now by moving away from her before she even gets to the cookie (rather than waiting for her to get it) – that adds more distance which will also add speed. And when she gets to you, you can add in doing a little front cross (like the ‘double’ part of the drive to handler game) or doing 2 shoulder turns in a row (don’t get dizzy :)) so she doesn’t anticipate driving ahead but is reading the cues instead.Great job here! Looking fabulous! And hopefully it isn’t too hot outside!
Tracy
Hi!
OMG she is so funny, she loves that prop!! And it is helpful on the parallel path game that she makes her foot smacks SO obvious. Good girlie! She was cracking me up – you would say ‘ready’ and she would run to smack the prop LOL! As you play this, to be able to get more and more distance laterally and ahead, you can toss the treat a little further away on her line and begin moving before she finishes eating it – then when she turns, you will be lateral and ahead on that parallel line, so she can turn and drive to the prop (then you toss the reward out ahead on the line so you cn turn and go the other way). You were waiting longer than you needed to, which meant you had to run 🙂 She did brilliantly here so you can add more distance for sure!! If she will hold a stay, you can also start like that but if she will not reliably hold a stay don’t use it (we don’t want to set her up for failure by breaking a stay with the prop out there, we will add more stay stuff later on :))The countermotion is going really well too!! Good job really watching the prop to make sure she hit it. You can add it a moment when she resets in front of you after getting the treat – that will allow you to get to where you want to send from and give one step on the send then move away. When you didn’t reset (and sent right after she got the previous cookie) you were moving backwards for a few steps which made it harder to then move forward for the countermotion. So – after she hits the prop, throw the cookie, move to your start spot, call her back to you, make eye contact with her… and then send. If she tries to skip the reset in front of you and instead goes directly to the prop, you can reward her for coming to you – lots of rewards being given out on this game 🙂 I think she is doing a fabulous job and so that moment of reset will allow you to add challenge by starting in different positions and leaving sooner.
Great job on all of these! She is such a fun puppy 🙂 Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I am impressed, she was an expert catcher here!! You can play with throwing the treat behind her a bit so she has to move back to get it: that way you can have clearer reset into the sit cue. I think you were cuing the next sit too quickly on the reps where she had to take a moment to respond: for example, at 1:50 she sat, you rewarded, she got the treat and then was still processing/eating it when the next sit cue came. She had a total, “wait, what?” moment and took a few seconds to process the cue. Something similar happened at about :38 when she was still chewing and you gave the sit cue – she is like me, I cannot chew and process at the same time LOL! and at :55 when the she couldn’t find the treat. The snappiest reponses came in moments like 1:10, when she looked at you after eating the treat, you had her full attention, then you said the sit cue: bam, nice fast sit. So give her that extra moment to eat or find the treat, look at you, take a breath – then she is ready to hear the sit cue. And if she does need a moment to process it – waiting like you did was perfect.
I think she is ready for you to add a little more duration and then moving away in her sits! She is doing well!
THi!
Super nice job on the blind crosses!! It took her a moment to find the treat on the first one but then she was onto you and was very quick to grab it and drive to you on the other reps. Great job with your connections and toy placements! There was one rep where you had the toy in the dog-side arm but then you had it across your body on all the others. I think your timing was fine – you can play with starting them even earlier, as soon as she turns and begins moving towards you. She read the blinds perfectly here, which means you timing was strong. Yay! If you have someone who can hold her, you can add distance to these by running further away before you call her. I think she will love chasing you with even more speed 🙂The 2nd video is still marked private – youtube does indeed make it a pain to change settings! If she is doing well on the bowls game, you can totally add in the upright to go around, if you haven’t done so already.
T
Hi! I have personally not ever competed in obedience (gives me anxiety too LOL!) but I love to train some of the exercises!
I hope she feels better ASAP!!! Poor girl! Keep me posted!
TracyHi!
>She is VERY serious. You are the first person to recognize that. She’s a HOOT because she takes things so seriously. That is during work. When she is “off-duty”, she is the happiest dog I know and so sweet!!
I love that! I call her type of dog a Peek Frean (a very serious cookie). Remember this jingle?
>>That’s what I HATE about videotaping little dogs. It’s so hard to get my head in and still get her in. If I turn the phone vertical, I can get everything – but then I’m more restricted on the sides. If I pull away more to get my head in, you can’t see her because she’s so small. I’ll make sure I’m totally in view next time.>>
The joys of small dog videotaping LOL!! I get creative by putting the camera up high on a shelf and then zooming in.
>>What I don’t like about this target is that she pushes off of it and it slides on the carpet. It doesn’t do that outside or on the mats at OTR.
I noticed it was sliding a little! You can put a grippy rubber backing on it, like a bathmat or something.
>>When I first got her, she would walk in front of me backwards flipping her front feet at me in the air as she bounced backwards. I’m sure it was cute to someone previous to me…okay it’s cute. But I know it’s not sustainable for anything productive in agility.>>
So, like a backwards kangaroo waving both front feet? Yeah, not productive -I have seen dogs walk backwards into things as you mention – it is kind of like a BC running into a tree because he was running backwards with his head turned and not looking at where he was going.
>>I bet it’s adorable!! I had to tone her feet flapping and backwards walking somehow because it’s dangerous how and when she does it.
It is cute because it is stationary – no flapping or walking. I can see how the flapping/walking would be icky!!
>> And she likes to put her front feet on everything, including other dogs. Bad habit!!!
Those small dog front feet!!! The first thing I had to learn when I got my first small dog (Rebound the Rat Terrier) was how to NOT accidentally build front foot movement into every single behavior LOL! The small dog front feet move so fast, it was a brain-melter for me for a while. It is so much easier with larger dogs LOL!
>>Or maybe I’m just a curmudgeon.
Ha! Never!!
> She’s not used to a moving release. I am stationary when I release her with strong eye contact. This is the first time she’s seen me moving. I assume she was hesitant because of that.
That makes total sense! And she did pick up a lot of speed after a few reps.
T
Hi!
>>I used to think that I knew so much, and now I’m pretty sure I know just a little, lol.
Yes, so true, but also a fun place to be – so much we can learn from the dogs 🙂
On the video – the warm up looked good, it is fun to change up the prop a little because it can help with generalizing concepts.
He did well on your parallel path reps! It was hard to tell on the camera angle where he was touching it – not sure if he was hitting it or striding over it. If you find that it is hard to see, you can tweak it a little by changing where you look: you can stare at the prop as you go back and forth. When I can’t see the feets that well, I try this with more of a running contact approach – I stare at the prop which makes it easier to see the feet. True, there is not a lot of connection to the dog’s eyes when I do that, but that can also serve the purpose of helping the pups understand to stay on a line even when there is imperfect connection (because, well, we are all imperfect or looking ahead sometimes :))He also did really well on the sending! The foot step looked really good, good job remembering to look at him – it was enough connection to support him without being so much that it stopped him. You can let go of the collar sooner – you can use a collar hold to engage a little bit of opposition reflex if you like, but then let go right before the send – it looks like your hand might have moved with the collar which made letting go a little later? You can also play with it with out touching the collar at all 🙂
The backwards steps were a little too far away at first, they were definitely better when you were a little closer – that might be the different prop or different location coming into play as well: the backwards sending is definitely much harder! You can also toss the reward to him, out on the prop, on those as you build more distance, to help keep the value high as you add difficulty.
When you went back to the sending forward – he had a little trouble and I wasn’t sure if it was because you were a little too far away at first or if he had trouble because it involved leaving the treats? The foot steps was really good here too! And the toy totally brought things to a different level: he was more explosive on the leaving to hit the prop for sure! I think you still had treats in the picture too when the toy was involved but the excitement of the toy helped him drive to the prop really nicely! You can totally incorporate the toy more at this stage, then, as we add the difficulty of distance and countermotion (and the rear crosses :))
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This is also looking terrific! The flat barrier seemed to be a really good next step – a bit more challenging but not mind-blowing. The barking didn’t appear to distract her at all. I laughed out loud with the garbage pail, it was such a funny visual and you were hidden behind it LOL! She was perfectly happy to wrap it, no trouble at all. Yay! And also no problems when you stood up. Because she is able to let you do that, you can move this forward two ways:
moving the big pail a little further away, so she could potentially fit between you and the pail
beginning to reward from your hands rather than with the cookie bowls. You can leave the bowls there when you do this the first time and just deliver the cookie from your hands. Then you should be easily able to fade the bowls out of the picture entirely.Great job on all of these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! She does indeed have a nice stay already 🙂 and it is fun game indoors for sure.
Interesting that she had the big yawn at the beginning – these are hard! You did a lot of challenging reps with distractions, so be sure to ping pong those with lots and lots of easy reps where she can be correct without any proofing needed. You can also add in the Advanced level (it is on the video, we didn’t do it in the live class :)) to get her even more excited and add the challenge of seeing if she can stay while she is more ramped up. Great job with the different verbals here, it was very clear! And she also was a good girl on the drive to handler – it provided some fun ‘action’ mixed in with the stays 🙂
Tracy
