[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
The stays looked really good here so well doe to you with all of the reward to convince him to hold the stays! He looked keen to release but strong in holding it on these reps. It was hard to tell on my screen – where his back feet very tight under his body and his toes pointing forward? Or a little out to the side? I couldn’t tell is that was his coat or he was looser in the sit. If he was tight in the sit – perfect! If not – try to get him to sit nice and tight 🙂 so he can push off as we add more challenge.
The jumping itself is looking good! The 4’6” distance was easy for him, he was organized… it might even be a tiny bit too compressed but we will figure that out on a bit as we go to the bigger challenges. For now, 2 ideas for the next session: an 8” bar and, along with that, moving the cookie bowl further away. The taller the bar, the further away he will land so the more room he will need to drive to the bowl – my guess is the bowl will end up being 12 feet away. His form is looking good so we can add challenge 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
It is possible that the wing has sooooo much value right now that he doesn’t even ‘see’ the tunnel in the proofing game when there is not a lot of motion into it. Smart training move to have the upright in the vicinity but just keep working the tunnel. He had a little trouble with ‘seeing’ a toy when food was around for a little while, so I am confident the value will balance out and he will be fine with both 🙂

The Smiley Face is looking great! I could see him looking off to where the geese must have been (that is a big distraction!) but he was really terrific about staying with you and running hard! His commitment to the tunnel and the wing wraps are looking strong and also balanced. Yay! You can start to decelerate and turn earlier, to get a little more challenge on the wing commitment as you leave sooner and sooner. Great job on your connection!

The wind in your hair game is also looking good! He is getting the idea of driving ahead – the reward target out ahead is helpful because he stopped looking at you… but also challenging because he had a couple of questions about finishing the wrap and getting the jump, rather than driving directly to the reward LOL! But that is part of the challenge of this game and he had a ton of really lovely reps here. Getting him looking ahead was the goal and the ready treat really helped. The next step is to start yourself closer to the wing, so he starts to drive further and further ahead of you to the jump.

Great job on these!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Wow, he was Mr. Perfect on this! Great job!!! He seemed to understand the difference between your tunnel cue and your wrap cue (they are very distinct) and nailed it, even in those mini sequences. I have 2 little training suggestions for you then you can move that wing a little closer to add challenge:
– on the wraps, you can rotate your feet into the front cross sooner, so he can wrap even tighter. He is very literal: when you are facing forward, he goes forward. So, if he sees you rotate, he will set himself up to wrap tighter. Try to start the rotation just before he passes you for the wrap and just before he gets to the wing.
– he seemed to be not that interested in the toy while there was still “work” to be done – and when he was ‘done’ he totally got on the toy 🙂 So, to keep the toy an important part of the game, you can run a bit and get him to chase it a bit after each little sequence. He wants to lock onto the obstacles which is great because it means he is enjoying them and enjoying the game – but keeping the toy value high during the game will help you be able to help him maintain value for your handling and not just the obstacles 🙂

Let me know if that makes sense! Moving the wing a little closer to the tunnel entry will add good challenge here, I think he is ready!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
The wing to jump looks great! The training you’ve already done with him understanding how to get the toy is shining through here, it appeared that he had zero questions about doing the wrap with the toy out ahead past the jump. The wrap looked terrific and his drive to the jump also looked lovely. You can challenge the wing wrap by leaving sooner: on the last couple of reps you were rotating sooner, so keep doing that and then add in running away sooner 🙂

Good job on the set point. He is using his body really well and he is looking at line/toy rather than at you – perfect! He is holding the stay – but he is so keen that he is leaning forward a bit (his head is between the uprights of the jump LOL!!) so two things to consider: moving his start position back about 6 inches or using a stand stay rather than a sit. Moving him back for the sit can work as long as he can still get organized for the first jump (I think he will be able to do that) but you might find the stand stay is really balanced for him and you might end up preferring it!
When that is sorted – you can add a little height to jump 2. He is old enough to see a bit more – 10 inches perhaps? What height was this jump on? And, have you shown him height on other jumps in other games? Let me know and we can play around with it.

Smiley faces are also looking good! He was shooting out long on the tunnel to the far wing, not quite seeing the wing out there – I wonder if he was eyeballing the a-frame? The tunnel exit was pointing there, and if you have done any a-frame work he might have been heading that way? If not and he is just wider that direction, you can add a little name call before the tunnel entry going that direction and that can help. On the far wing when you turned him right to start a rep, he was nice and tight so he was not looking at the a-frame on that line up!
On the wing closer to the tunnel… nice! Perfect commitment and he is turning really nicely! So now you can add in more challenge by rotating sooner and leaving (back to the tunnel) sooner. As he exits the tunnel, connect like you did and use your verbal like you did. Add in a deceleration and then as he is passing you, start to rotate into the FC so he can see your rotation before he reaches the wing. Keep your strong connection throughout and I think it will be fine, but let me know – if he doesn’t commit, you can slow down the motion so he can process it to get it started.
Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

hi! These are also looking great! Yes, these games are designed to get everyone thinking about which verbals and when – the sport is evolving so fast that one of the ways I am trying to keep pace is with more verbals 🙂

She is especially good at her left exits on the tunnel – that is hard for bigger dogs in particular and she had it mastered very quickly. On these left turn exits, your timing of delivering the verbal was really good! You can also show her the handling before she enters, meaning to let her see you turning your shoulders and/or stepping away to the new line. You were moving forward, so she was turning left but then looking at you for more info on the exit. If you also show her the physical cue, she will begin to look forward to the next line (the wing, in this case).
The wraps on the wings looked good, and she is paying attention beautifully to when you want wrap front crosses versus the race track versus that figure 8 you did. The around cue for the wraps is also working well (and then you can add in a left or right cue for the race track/non-wrap moments).
On the Go on the tunnel exits – you can give that cue sooner. As she is looking at the tunnel and definitely heading toward it (her commitment looked good!) you can switch to go go go so she exits straighter: that will make it easier to get that wrap wing after it. When you were ahead of the tunnel exit, your motion totally helped suppler the line to the wing. When you are not as far ahead, you can ramp up the connection and that will help: look at her when she exits, rather than point forward. You will find that going that will point your shoulders to the line you want, which will propel her to it. The other thing you can do to build more independence on the Go line is to bring the wing in closer to the tunnel exit, so when she exits it is basically right there – making it easy to commit to 🙂 So on the GO verbals, she can drive right to it… then you can gradually increase the distance to it.
Great job!!! Let me know if the suggestions make sense 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! I think this whole set up looks good!! She is bouncing it properly – the toy is making a difference 🙂 You can start to get the toy to the ground, maybe 3 feet past where you were on this set up. We will stick with this for a couple of sessions and then we will be building on it 🙂 No rush to do a lot because she is so young, now that you have the form 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! The 2nd rep is what we want 🙂 She will ‘grow’ into the skill, but we can also add 2 things for impulsion:
– what is her favorite toy right now? Flirt pole? She has a great stay, so we can to a more exciting reward target: lead out, let her see you plop the toy down, then release. I have found that food-based reward targets get a more ‘relaxed’ approach from the pups, so we don’t get the bouncing as much, but a toy is stimulating enough that they will bounce 🙂
– and in conjunction with the different reward target, you can try back to 5 feet to see if that is the sweet spot 🙂 It will be clear sailing as soon as we find the sweet spot for distance and reward!
Let me know how it goes 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! She did super well here! She didn’t look tired at all from her train and ferry adventures 🙂 On this set up, I like to mix things up a lot so the pups don’t get bored. So, on your next visit to this, you can add in two different-looking challenges:
– the clear verbal like you did here but the motion might look like the other thing 🙂 What I mean is that on a normal tunnel cue, you turn towards the tunnel. And so yes, do one of those – then on the next rep, do the same physical cue but use the wrap verbal instead. It helps for those moments when we are behind on course and moving fast, or when we are late with out cues 🙂 Of course the goal is to never be behind and never be late, but…… LOL!!! And the opposite holds true: the physical cue for a wrap is that rotation: you can see if she will be able to go to the tunnel on the verbal even if you rotate.
As always, keep her success rate high and dial back the difficulty if this proves to be too hard with a lot of motion.
You can also do a 360 wrap/backside circle on the wing: after she exits the tunnel, cue the wing but then instead of a ‘normal’ FC wrap, you continue moving forward into a 360 like were doing at the end of the last puppy class 🙂

Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! Both sessions look really good!
On the wing-tunnel game: he was a rock star! He looked to have a solid grasp of the different verbals and motion being added was no problem. So, two ways to add on it:
No motion, pure verbal! You can be relatively stationary, basically facing the wing the whole time and using verbals only. You can then try it in sequence of tunnel-wing wrap on just verbals, with the only motion being when you look back to connect with him on the tunnel exit 🙂
Or
Tooooo much motion LOL! Send him into the tunnel and then run to the end to meet him then run forward into the wrap (using the verbal cue) – and be late on the physical cue, overrun it a bit, so it *almost* looks like the tunnel physical cue (but you are saying the wrap verbal) that will definitely add challenge!
As always, work it just hard enough that it is challenging but there is a high rate of success, dial it back if it makes his head explode 🙂

Then tunnel exits look good! When he was turning right on the first part, you were a little earlier on the cues so he was turning really nicely on the exit. When you switch to the other side with him turning left, the cues were a little later so he was not quite as tight on the turns. he has strong tunnel commitment so you can start the turn cues (physical and verbal) while he is still 2 meters away from the entry and see how he does.

The driving ahead looks great! He is looking ahead until *after* he lands even when the toy is not out ahead yet, which is rare in the best possible way. Most pups look back if the toy throw is not super early. So keep mixing in early toy throws to maintain that awesome skill. And, we can advance it! It looks like you were able to add distance and motion on this already so now we can add more challenge to driving ahead with motion and distance. Start so close to the wing you can touch it (rather than send to it). Stay at the wing til he is just about finished with the wrap… then start driving to the wing. He should then have the chance to really drive ahead (rather than be a little ahead or parallel to you) and continue with your good toy throws 🙂

For more tunnel turning games, I posted a set up yesterday that builds in wings and tunnels and go and all that jazz 🙂

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! This is looking really good! At the end of your first rep on the last wrap – pretty darned perfect transition in the decel and wrap turn! He committed and you were able to leave early, getting a really nice turn too.
The race track lines also looked good – these don’t need decel, you can send and run into them.
Adding in the left and right on the tunnel is perfect! Yes, say it sooner. The pups should be able to hear and fully see the cue before they enter, which means we give it while they are still 5 feet or so from the tunnel entry. That of course challenges commitment – which is a perfect next step. And, in the ‘great minds think alike’ category: a new game posted today (should be visible now, I will go double check it) is about adding the left/right turns on the tunnel exit 🙂 You’ll find little sequences for that to play with – he is totally ready for it.
Super nice job on all of these!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

He is doing well on the discrimination set up! A couple of little details to keep moving it forward –
On the tunnel-wing mini sequences, call his name a tiny bit just before he goes into the tunnel so he turns looking for you at the exit (you can even keep your feet rotated) – that will tighten the turn on the exit and drive him right back to the line for the wrap. When you were moving fast and giving him more excitement in the verbals, he was (correctly) shooting out wide… which put the little jump bump cavaletti line in his path as the next obstacle 🙂 That is why he was looking over there on some of the reps 🙂
The left turns on the wing seemed easier for him on this session? Both went pretty well – it might have been that you were turning your feet a little earlier on the left wraps. When you let go and he starts to head to the wrong thing, try not to reach for him – let him make the choose then give feedback (like an oopsie and a chuckle, like at 1:06 :)) That led to a better choice right after it and great choices after that 🙂
The distance between the wing and the tunnel was perfect here! Nice and challenging but not head-explodingly hard 🙂 Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
That wing is nice and close, but it didn’t seem to be hard for him in terms of proximity. Yay! The tunnel cue does need that one step for now once you introduce the wrap. On the first tunnel rep, he doesn’t need much step but then where there a value refresher on the wrap he wasn’t as quick to the tunnel – but he is improving with that every session! The outdoor session needed a lot more tunnel support than the TCOTC session did! You can see in the TCOTC session that he was finding the tunnel with MUCH less help – not quite as much as speed as when there was physical help, but still able to find it without look up at you for the most part. SUPER! And I love that you tossed in a threadle at the end and he was great. This is progressing really nicely!!!!!

He also did rally well on the wind in your hair game! The toy out ahead really helped him look forward and drive ahead (you were even adding lateral distance to avoid running into the pole LOL!) On the reps where you were throwing the toy, throw a little sooner to help promote the looking ahead more. You were throwing it to mark him getting close to the jump, but you can throw it as early as him looking to the jump after exiting the wrap. That will help him look ahead without it being out there as well as he does when the toy is out there. Great job on your verbals too, all the words were there 🙂
And yes, add ins front crosses next time 🙂 The post turns work just fine so the FCs are mainly to add a different challenge for handler focus to line focus after the wing 🙂
Great job!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

I think Yowza believes she was born to play this game LOL! No worries about the short cut – that was her learning the self-control element of the game. I like the adjustment you made of the toy back in your hand for the next rep, then the MASSIVE emphasis on connection for the last rep (she was perfect there). You can also play with 2 toys: one out ahead past the Go jump and one in your hand to reward her driving to you on the wrap when you do the FC (rather than seek out short cuts haha). Her stay as you placed the toy looked great and her wrapping also looked terrific! Great job on all of these 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Her discrimination of the different cues looked great even with all the motion. Yay! I see what you mean with the wing hitting – I think it was more of a motion/toy moving distraction than anything else, so a couple of ideas for you: on this set up, you can hold the toy still (don’t present it) until she is all the way around the wing – on the very first rep, you presented it and said yes yes yes as she entered the wrap so she started thinking about the toy and pushed the wing away. And, on the front cross elements of the wrap, execute the turns a little more slowly with a ton of connection – when you were tooooo fast and looked forward, she looked up at you and pushed the wing.

Separately – take a wing and do some wraps and waved the toy around (or turn really fast) – and reward the ones where she does NOT touch the wing 🙂 (or barrel, you can totally do these on a barrel). Start off easy so she is super successful then gradually make it harder and harder 🙂

Nice work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Very nice session here with the quiet wrap verbals – look at how nicely she is leading with her head! She is stronger right now turning to her left, just about perfect on the digadigadigas. She is not as strong turning to her right yet (checkcheckcheck) – you were getting a little more barking and a bit more looking at you on those. I think that was simply just her being more of a righty than a lefty at the moment, and it will all balance out. Keep the wing in nice and close to you for the check check reps so she can keep building up the skills (you can move it a bit away for the digadiga reps). The challenges can progress at different rates for each side, then when she is grown up, the sides will be balanced out 🙂
Great job with the lower energy verbals too!
T

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