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Hi!
On the first video:
>> Discovered it’s easy to run by the tunnel on the inside when you lose connection and forget to say tunnel!
Yes, eye contact at the exit of all things – very important for sure! Baby dogs don’t yet save us the way adult dogs would. LOL! You made the adjustment after that and had really good connection on all the rest, which supported commitment.
In general: your Go verbal can be sooner on all the Go exits for the tunnel. You were switching to Go right as his nose was getting to the tunnel, which is a little late. You can switch from the tunnel verbal to the Go was he is maybe halfway between the wing and the tunnel entry, because Go is part of the commitment cue to the tunnel.
On your left and right verbals – I thought the timing of your verbals for those was great! Consistently on time!! Now why was he a little wide on some of the tunnel exits with such timely verbals? The physical cues didn’t always match. On the left verbals, the verbal was on time but you were accelerating, so the mouth said left but the legs said GO – so you got more go 🙂
Your right verbal timing was also great and I think you were better about moving away on the right verbals – but for both left and right, make a bigger difference in the physical cue: as you start saying left or right, let him see you turn and leave for the wing you will want (with connection of course :)) . This will challenge tunnel commitment a little more but it will help him understand the verbals even better. Right now the verbals do not yet override the physical cues, so for now you can match the physical cues more to the verbal cues and then the verbals will take on bigger meaning.On the 2nd video – you can say the Go sooner here too – I had to lay a leash on the ground 6 feet before the tunnel entry to get myself to say the verbals on time, so you might want to give yourself a visual of some sort on these Go reps. Your left and right verbal timing is pretty perfect here too! On your left cue at :22 (and also at 1:20)- the verbal was really nice but your physical cue was accelerated and straight – so it read as a “go” so he was wide. On the next rep at :29, you had a slight decel/standing up before he entered: that supported the nicely-timed left verbal and he had a MUCH nicer turn there!
His wing wrapping and commitment is looking really strong – he might have been a bit tired or distracted on the last 2 reps, he wasn’t really driving as much but overall he was doing super well! The only tweaks are to say your GO cues sooner and match your physical turn cues to your well-timed left and rights 🙂 Great job!
TracyHi! It was great to see everyone and amazing to see the growth in all the teams! It almost felt normal 🙂 Thanks for hosting!
As for Differ – Well, she is turning out to be quite the speedster!!! And her opinions are fine – the barking did not seem to affect her ability to process information and she only gave a few opinions at a time LOL!
The arm back/eye contact on the line to the tunnels is important to her – at :03 (first rep) you were looking forward a bit so she zig zagged to the tunnel. Compare it to rep 2 at :14 – a lot more connection and no zig zag to the tunnel 🙂 You had a ton of clear connection throughout these reps and that made for lovely lines and commitment!
Good job supporting the line on the race track on rep 3 – you recognized that she needed one more step of support at :19 when she didn’t take the red wing and gave it to her at :24. Yay! And then you matched it at :34 for the left race track so she committed beautifully there. That carried over to the race tracks at :45 and :57 as well – she is getting the idea of *not* wrapping and you were connected and supporting the line.
No worries about the high arm at the end, I think it was just centrifugal force as you sent to the tunnel – center of gravity was changing and you were pushing off the send leg. She was ahead of you and your connection/shoulders/ feet were all good, so it falls into the ‘acceptable use’ of the higher arm LOL!!! You were not flinging the arm to cue the obstacle, your arm was just following through on the send.
One thing I notice here is that as her commitment continues to build AND as she continues to build excitement for the game of agility – she is driving out of the tunnel a bit wide, looking for a line and not as much looking for your position. I think part of this is because we all do a lot of toy throws out of tunnels. And also, with smaller dogs, I think we *do* want to keep them driving out, full steam ahead. But, you can add a name call to help her look towards your line more, which will help you commit her better to the next week. I am seeing it mainly when she exits the end of the tunnel with the red bags, heading to the red wing – she is drifting out wide maybe looking for a line “out there” rather than driving towards your position. A quiet “Differ” before she enters the yellow bag end will give her the heads-up to watch for your line, and also mix in som GO GO GO on the throws as as well as a name call followed by chasing you for the reward. I posted a game on Saturday that had more on the tunnel exits (you were busy that day LOL!!) She had a wide turn on the yellow bag exit at :50, turned the other way… but I think she believed the frisbee was being thrown: she exited, looked at you, then went back out – and there was a flexed position of your wrist with the frisbee which *could* have been the international sign for “I am throwing it” LOL!! Or she was distracted by a barking dog? But I think she was anticipating frisbee throw, so it is a good place for more info before she enters.Good morning!
He did well with the Go on the tunnel exits here – and on the nice long lead outs to get you up there!!! The wrap at the last rep looked really good – nice connection back to him and he was able to decelerate into the turn nicely! I think Sizzle will need to be voted off the island, though, she was getting in the way and I worry about collisions especially when tunnels are involved. As you keep playing with this, 2 ways to add challenge: leading out gradually less and less and showing him the GO so he drives ahead, and also leading out laterally so he can find that line with you gradually further and further away! The straight tunnel is a great way to start it getting the commitment stronger and then we can add in more curves. Great job!
TracyGood morning! I am glad she liked this game, it is intended to let the pups have a lot of fun while we stealthily train them to listen to us LOL!
The baby level game is looking great! She is turning really nicely on the left turns here – my only suggestion would be to turn your shoulders to the left turn sooner, at the same time you were giving the verbals (those were beautifully timed!) Same thing with the GO verbal – let her see you accelerating forward to support the go. When you were heading to the wing on the go (:26 & :38) reps, your verbal was right on time but you didn’t start running til after she was in, so she exited looking at you (decel is a strong cue!) Compare that to :40 (after the wrap) where you accelerated and she drove straight out of the tunnel at :41 🙂 And, compare it to :54 where your ‘right’ verbal timing was perfection but you were running forward – so she exited straight. But at 1:10 your right verbal was again on time AND you were not accelerating as much… so she had a really nicely turn out of the tunnel! (The previous rep had the wrong verbal so you were right to just reward and start over 🙂 ) On the last 2 reps, we can really see how the decel supports the right cue, the 2nd to last rep had a little more of it than the last rep, so she was tighter on the 2nd to last rep. So – match your physical cue to the verbal cue and it will be perfect (and keep the great timing of the verbals, you nailed it with those!)
You are also starting to rotate and leave sooner on the wraps – the one straight past the tunnel was nice and early and so were the tighter wraps back to the tunnel – her commitment looks great on those and she is setting up really lovely turns! And great job on the verbals!The advanced level is also looking good! The first several reps with the left turn on the tunnel exit looked really good – nice timing of the verbal and the body cues matched it. The race track looked good too! She was having a tiny bit of a zig zag line on the exit of the tunnel to the wing on the Go line – I had to watch it a few times to figure out why she was questioning it. Your verbal timing? Strong! Your acceleration? Also strong! She wasn’t really trying to turn left, it looked like she was not sure where to be relative to your line – which makes me think she needed to see more connection while she was in the tunnel and as she exited. :28 an :45 are good examples of what mean – all the cues going into the tunnel were good and your were ahead of her so she exited straight – but then looked up at you as you pointed forward. In that moment, keep your hand back and cue the wing with a lot of eye contact (but keep moving of course :))
At :31 and :47, she was wide on the right exit of the tunnel because you were a little late – her head was entering the tunnel as you began the cue, and the body motion was forward. So as you exit the wrap and head back to the tunnel, remember to cue the right verbal early and turn to the next line, all while she is still a solid 6 feet from the tunnel or more.
Overall – great job! Her commitment is looking great and the teamwork is looking great, which is why we can get into the tiny details of timing and that one moment of connection (all the other connection looks lovely)!
TracyHi! It is working, yay! It is sideways though, not sure how YouTube did that LOL!
She is doing well on the set point: the stay is definitely improving and that helps for sure! I do like how she sasses you with a little bark as you lead out though haha!!!
Her form is looking really good!!! I can’t see your position on the video here, but based on what she is doing, you are in the right spot – as we add challenge, we might need to move you even further away but I think this is perfect for now! She is showing nice rounded form with her head down to the target (and I can hear the cookie landing in the bowl LOL!!!) If you still have good weather, try this outside so she experiences the feel of gripping the grass. We have plenty of time before we start showing her height on a bar but her form so far looks terrific!!!
TracyHi! Yes, this is looking good! You can add more space with the wings and tunnel, so both of you are moving more – at this stage, especially with all the verbals being added in, we can start to get her running more which involves you running more right now too 🙂 And, with more space and motion – you can start to increase and challenge commitment, by turning and exiting sooner on both the wraps and the race track lines. For example, on the wraps – as she is passing you, you can already be turning and rotating to the next direction on the front cross. That way she will see the turn cue sooner and come around the wing even faster & tighter.
I think the verbals on the tunnels were coming earlier and that was great! It was hard to see this when she was coming towards the camera on the tunnel, but very clear to see when she was tunneling away from the camera. For example, the GO cue at :32 was timely (she saw & heard it long before she was in the tunnel) and the left cues at :59 and 1:20 were timely as well. She had no trouble with commitment to the tunnel with these earlier cues and that is great!One other detail worth noting is that because of your emphasis on the left verbals, she was sometimes defaulting to turning left when the line & handling were cuing more of a right turn. This happened on the wing that was all the way out past the tunnel, straight ahead, at :13, :44 and 1:39. The handling/verbal seemed to indicate that she should stay on the line and turn right around the wing, but because you were not ahead she chose to come in to closer side and turn left. When you were ahead of her and pushed the line more, it didn’t happen. So, if there is a chance she might default to a left when the line you want is a right, be sure to help her out with handling. And, since she is showing a left preference, add in more balance on the right turns – you don’t have to add the verbal in yet, but she should be turning to the right as often as she is turning to the left to keep her balanced (both in terms of understanding and physical strength) and not guessing that life is all to the left LOL! Let me know if that makes sense. Nice work here!
TracyHi!
He is organizing really well going into first jump on both set ups here, the motion or Oxer don’t seem to make a difference (yay!). I see what you mean about his hind end coming up a little higher than his front. Part of it might be Sheltie coat getting floofy, meaning the movement of his coat (of which he appears to have plenty) on his rump as he jumps. So I tried to NOT watch his top line, but instead watch his back feet – and yes, those back feet are coming a little higher than ribs so that does affirm that his hind end is coming up a bit high. I think he will set himself differently when there is height involved – instead of jumping forward on this easy jumping effort, he will have to set his rear and jump upwards – and that will likely keep the hind end more rounded and not coming up. So… let’s try 8” on that 2nd jump of the Oxer (and on the single) – first Oxer jump can be 6”. he is old enough that I am pretty sure we can work up to elbow height on these pretty quickly to see how he uses his rear. It is going well so we can add a but more power. Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! It looks like I never saw this video, sorry!!!! Not sure how I missed it. He did a great job here though – totally locking on to the jump and add more and more speeeeed on each rep. Nice!!! Tossing the toy and letting him watch it land helps in that is it stimulating but also adds challenge because the pups sometimes try to skip directly to the toy 🙂 He wears a perfect dude, though – excellent wrap commitment and then immediately finding the line to the jump on cue. Yay!!! So the next steps would be to have you start next to to the wing and stay next to it til he is all the way back around (rather than send and leave) so he can learn the joys of leaving you in the dust from even further back 🙂 You started that on the last 2 reps, so now you can ramp it up – be so close to the wing that you can touch it, so he is past you already as he exits the wing 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning! This is going really well, she is starting to put the bigger pieces together! Fun!!!! Her commitment on the wing wraps looks really strong 🙂 It looks strong enough that you can trust her more and start your tunnel cue sooner – as she came around the wing, she was looking up at you as if saying “what’s next?” So as you are seeing her approach the wing and turn her head – trust her commitment and start your tunnel verbal, so it is going as she exits the wing and she won’t need to look at you.
Maintain your connection like you had it here – it was great! That really helped support her lines. You had nice low hands and great connection, and that was especially useful for her on the exit of the tunnel straight to the wing.
You mentioned sometimes she stops or is not sure – it might be a connection thing? On one of the reps here, she didn’t take the tunnel – it looks like she was not quite fully committed and you took off (looking forward) so she decided to follow you. She is tall enough that she has to scrunch down for the tunnel, so you can wait to see her get low and put her nose in it before heading for the next line. I think a curved tunnel is easier but the straight tunnel here is helpful for her commitment – you can split the difference and curve it a tiny bit for a session and then straighten it back out 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi! yes, she is doing well sorting out the verbals and the wheels were definitely turning 🙂 On the tunnel-wing set up, she is going on the verbals but she is being careful. Because she is accurate, we can get a little more speed – I think you can get that by starting with a gentle restraint with your hand on her collar or chest to get her leaning in, then start the verbal – then let go. That will get her to hustle a bit and also challenge her to process the verbal with more excitement (that is the hardest part – “hearing” the verbals when things get exciting :))
And yes, the left cue overriding handler position is important – turn left on the verbal and not just because it is the natural line based on handling. She did really well on the jump at the end – you can a tiny bit of help (a little hand flick) to get it started then it looked like she was able to sort it out on her her own. Nice!!!!
Great job!
TracyHi! The wing a little closer on the go line definitely helped, that line looked really good! The proximity plus the earlier motion/verbal with you in position smoothed it all out. She is committing nicely on all of the wing wraps and also the turns on the tunnel exits are hoping well. Try to get the tunnel verbals out sooner so you are naming the exit line as part of the commitment cue – she was generally getting the exit just after she was in the tunnel (or closer to the exit) so now the challenge becomes telling her when she is about 5 feet from the exit (I often lay a leash on the ground 5 feet from the tunnel entry as a visual for myself to be sure the cue is on time). The verbal plus physical cue that early will help the exit but also allow you to get up the next line sooner on a bigger course, because you are cuing and leaving sooner 🙂 I think she is ready for it!
TGood morning! I think she is really understanding the form now! This is looking good – nice organization coming into the first jump, a good bounce, and nice head-down rounded form over jump 2. Wiggling the toy on the ground as part of the reward works really well – she kept her form and her focus but the toy was a more interesting reward. Perfect! This can go into ‘maintenance mode’ for now, where you revisit it once a week or so – the form is in place and she is too young for more height. Later in the class, we will will build it into another jumping game.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
The backside session is looking good! You gave him a little more challenge on the first part (where he wa on your right side) by being a little further away – you were a little closer to the line and wing when he was on your left, but I think that side is harder for him so a little extra help is good 🙂 You can start working a bit further away (laterally away and moving parallel to him). – as you add that, it does show the front of the bar more so be sure to start moving forward on the parallel line for 3 or 4 steps while he is staying – then say the backside word as release. That Will show the motion to help support the line – if you release and move at the same time, it makes the front side a little more tempting. And, mix in a couple of front sides (on cue, on purpose LOL!) just for balance.Jumping foundations – he is having an easy time with these! Yay! What distance were you using? It looked good here – he is too young for us to add height but I have other games coming. The only suggestion I have for you on this one is to make sure the toy is on a straight line – as he was coming towards the camera, the toy was a little off to the side so he was zig zagging rather than going straight 🙂 You can also do this with a MM, not because the jumping needs it but because it will be useful for future running dog walk work 🙂
On the wrap proofing – I thought the first half went really well, where he was turning to his left. On those left turns, you can add a little more motion on the tunnel exit back to the wrap to sequence it all together. Now, for whatever reason, he is not as strong on his right side (this is also the case on the backside pushes). So – plan to help more right off the bat when he is on your right (turning to his left). What he seems to find most helpful is motion (a little FC on the wrap and a step to the tunnel). So while you can make the dog-on-right challenges a little harder, start the dog-on-left challenges with handling: do the full FC on the wrap and give him a big step to the tunnel on the tunnel cues (he does best with your dog-side leg stepping, gets it right every time). Then, as the session progresses, you can fade out the motion (rather than add it back in when he questions).
His smiley face games are looking good! Nice job with all the verbals 🙂 Yes, he is still building value for the tunnel but it is better than it was the last time I saw him on this style of set up!!! It looks like he is committing to the tunnel when he is in that last 3rd of the distance in front of it – on the reps where you pushed him that extra step, he got it right. When you turned to leave and he was not really looking at the tunnel yet, he came off (just a few times). So – as you drive to the tunnel, watch his head – don’t leave until he turns his head fully (not just one eyeball :)) to the tunnel then you can go. That is especially important when he in on your left, where he is a little stickier (as we see on other games to). That will balance out but for now the extra step(s) will help.
On the flip side of driving more – you can move the wings in close to the tunnel so the tunnel is right there and then you can drive less – one or two steps to build more independence. Then add distance gradually, with less driving from you. I suggest a little bit of both approaches 🙂
My only other suggestion is to make a stronger eye contact with him as he exits the tunnel and before you cue the wrap – when you go directly to cuing the wrap, the eye contact is not as clear so he is not as sure of which side to be on: so he zigzags behind you for a moment. So to smooth it out, make eye contact and get him on the correct side – then cue the wrap. You can also run in deeper to the tunnel so he gets the clear connection and then gets the chance to drive ahead of you to the wing 🙂Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Keep me posted on the position on the set point and how he does with the added height – I am sure he will be fine. And if he doesn’t know what the frame is then he was probably not locked onto it, maybe he was just seeing that line from the tunnel exit and going fast 🙂 Moving the wing over to a more direct line can help, or calling him – it will be interesting to see what helps tighten up that line 🙂
Tracy
