[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! It was interesting to see her looking away on this video – there was a noise in the background, an engine or generator? I don’t think it was happening on the other videos so she might have been processing that noise? And the lack of motion in this game made the distraction (whatever it was) more obvious. When you had movement in and out of the tunnel, she seemed to have more focus on the game as less focus on the environment (her porridge was hotter :)) That is good to know – you can use motion to help her overcome any distractions. She did generally well with the game itself. – she had a little trouble at the end without motion to the tunnel, definitely looking towards the sound maybe? So for now, start this game with motion and then we can fade it out so she can do it with you standing still 🙂

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! This game is right up her alley: run fast, turn tight, wheeee! You did a great job with the handling here – very nice connection for the most part, almost perfect. When she exits the tunnel on your left side, you can look at her eyes a little more. You were pretty perfect on your connection when she exited on your right side, so you might be more comfy with her on your right? Excellent job on all the wraps, she committed perfectly AND she was very tight AND she knew where to be. The race track/post turns were harder/weirder for both of you LOL! But those will make more sense with practice and then when we add jumps they will be easy. Nice job spitting out the left and right verbals on those.
At :56 she ended up in the wrong end of the tunnel – note how you were making awesome connection as she was heading to the wing there. Then at :57 as she was exiting the wrap, your right arm pointing out and you didn’t make eye contact, plus your feet were pointing to the other end of the tunnel… so that is where she went. She makes fast, early decisions, good girl!
And, a lesson I have learned from my older dogs – don’t say tunnel til you see which end of the tunnel their heads are turned towards. You said tunnel when she was looking at the end of the tunnel that you didn’t want…. so that affirmed her line, good girl!
You had much better connection when you fixed it as well as better foot position, so she got the correct end of the tunnel.

Great job here!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! She did well here! I think that the trouble she had was when you started getting your verbals really exciting. In the course of the session, you went from a calm ‘check check check’ and diga diga diga to more stimulating versions of them – she started barking! And my 7 year old dog who was sleeping nearby heard your verbals change and got up and started pacing near the computer! Then because she was more stimulated, she started barking – rate of success dropped. Then she got frustrated – so you dialed back the excited (my 7 year went and laid back down) and she ended with success. So I think the main issue was that you were VERY exciting when you got the verbals more stimulating – so for now, just keep the verbals quieter and calmer, whispered almost! It is like you are telling her a secret. She is like a thoroughbred race horse or a Ferrari sports car – when you push the gas, they GO! ha! So keep the wraps more chill for now and she will be perfect. Where you were quieter, she was awesome!

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! I agree that we want the handling to be the same with bigs and littles, otherwise we handlers are more likely to mess up and lose our minds. Speaking from personal experience here LOL!!! It also means that the littles need to have better commitment skills, so we can use the same timing for all of our dogs. But, thankfully, Differ is completely on board with strong commitment 🙂 So fun!

With the littles, I will put a leash on the ground so I have a visual of my path, to prevent me from running in too close and to show me what the littles might need more of, in terms of commitment. Large dog strides fill a gap, but the littles have so many more strides which can make big commitment a little trickier. Differ is very toy driven, and that makes things SO much easier.

I love the header on her videos – so fun!
She did a great job on video 1 where you did the go without a lot of motion from you. No problem, she says! My only suggestion is to throw sooner – when you see her head locked onto the line to the jump – throw. That way she will have the toy visual out ahead as she is jumping. She appears to be locking onto the jump within a stride of rounding the wing, so the throw will be pretty early. And I am 99% sure she will take the jump no matter what at this point. The earlier throw will help her maintain her jumping form – when the toy is in the air while she is jumping (or not yet in the air), she is curling into you a bit and also looking up and that is causing her to invert a little. her head will stay lower if the toy is already out there before she takes off, to help maintain the form over the bar.

On the wrap discrimination game – I admit to cracking up when she went to the tunnel then grabbed her frisbee, all without you. Nailed it! LOL!!
yes, barking, LOL!!! This was stimulating and she might have been annoyed that she had to wait for your permission LOL!!! All good though – I think she really wanted the tunnel in the first several reps – she was wrapping the wing but sending love letters to the tunnel with her eyes 🙂 You can have her tugging next to the wing, and play some tug-release-tug games before adding the wrap verbal. For example, with CB, I have started:
Tugging – out – tugging – out- tugging – wrap cue – tugging, right up next to the wing (and for Differ you can add in the tunnel cue to!) That might make waiting and the transition into the verbal more fun LOL. You can then add in praise: tug – out – praise – tug- out – wrap – etc to get all of the anticipation without the self-starting LOL!!! She is recognizing the set ups pretty quickly which is so fun to see – so smart!! I don’t mind barking in agility – I mean, sometimes I think the dog is vocalizing and doesn’t fully realize it. CB has started shrieking a bit and Voodoo shrieks when things are going well (a shriek of surprise, perhaps?) but when I start to get barking, I change up the rates and and transitions to ask if the chatter is frustration or joyous or…? Differ has breeds in her that are known to be a bit vocal so you might have a dog that likes to sing her way through agility courses 🙂

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

He did a great job on the Wind game – holy cow, he is gonna be FAST! I think that we don’t really know that they wil be fast… til they get to this game. Wheeeee! He commitment looked *lovely*! Good boy!! Nice tight wraps and excellent driving ahead. Great job on the verbals. You can add a bump or locked in low bar to the jump, so the bar becomes the focal point. I think he did a great job with looking ahead when you were connected and when the distance was short when you were not fully connected. When the distance was getting bigger and you were looking ahead a little (like at :42) he was looking up at you a bit more. Looking at the last 3 reps – the 3rd and 2nd from the last has pretty strong connection all the way through so he didn’t look at you. On the last rep, you connected around the wing so he looked ahead and then at the last moment you looked ahead, so he looked up at you.
Theoretically, we should always be fully connected 🙂 Since that is impossible, you can throw the toy sooner – throw while he is looking ahead, which might be halfway between the wing and jump (you were throwing when he reached the jump). And also I think he is ready for the Advanced level, which has the toy on the ground past the jump. That will reduce the need for connection perfection… but for some dogs, it makes the wrap harder because they want to go to the toy (at least that was the case with my Contraband LOL!!!)

On the set point – the sloppy sit is generally just puppy stuff, showing you where he is stronger. So for the purposes of you set point, feel free to set him up on the non-sloppy side to get the tight sit, then lead out then switch sides. Separately, you can work a tight sit on your right – I am going this with one of my dogs (to strengthen her quads) by having her get on my travel plank (the contact training plank that is about a foot wide) and then doing sits on both sides of me. The sits being stronger on one side than the other is totally normal 🙂 Based on when it was happening in the video, it was probably fatigue. That seems odd, I know, but my rehab vet friends tell me the dogs can get fatigued after a couple of reps as they are learning how to use their bodies.

Great job with the rewards, he wears keen to go but also did a lovely job on his stays! His form is looking really strong! He is having a tiny bit of trouble getting organized when you release him into the set point – watch his little front feet before the first jump. He was doing quick little adjustments or taking a moment on the release on the first several reps but was also sorting out some nice form (like at :28). You can play with the exact set up spot (a game of inches) to see if he is more organized another inch or two back. Also, when he was showing good organization with the front feet, I think he was ticking bump 1 with back feet. – so let’s try the set point at 5 feet in a few days (this is ash 4 feet, yes?). He is really young so we are in the ‘percolating form’ stage – and what he is showing is looking great so far!!!

And yes, neighbors…. LOL!!! My neighbors sometimes drive over on their tractor to watch because they think my dogs are on TV. Ha! They did see Export on the Incredible Dog Challenge on TV once, so they were mind-blown and now don’t seem to mind me yelling TUNNEL at the top of my lungs over and over LOL!!!!

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning and welcome back! I am so excited to see you and Sly play thse crazy games 🙂

Yes, I love it when I see the pups preparing for the ‘catch’ – so cool to see the word have meaning relative to the placement of the reward (and also yes, they are probably worried about losing an eyeball with the cookie landing on their head haha)

On the video – He was SO keen on this! Loved it! And he is showing that he is going to be a really nice jumper too, his form in the gap between jumps looked great. Nice job adding in all the rewards for the stay… he was definitely wanted to do the set point so the rewards for the stay kept him solidly in place.
My only suggestion is to make sure he starts closer to that first bar, so he has to plyometrically (is that a word?) organize himself rather than step in. If he is too far back, he has to tap his front feet down before jump 1, rather than push from the rear. The last rep on this clip was perfect – his front feet looked to be about 6 inches or less from jump 1, so he pushed in off his rear and had beautiful organization on the front and rear. Lovely!
Ok, turns out Hi have 2 suggestions – the 2nd one is to move the reward target another 6 feet away so he can extend out of the grid and not think about stopping/slowing until he has fully landed. – that will help as he starts to see more height.

How old is he now and how tall? I am thinking he is old enough and tall enough to see this at a 4 foot distance, maybe more eventually! He appears to have the strength, power and coordination to try it at 4 feet. And at some point soon. I bet we can raise the bars, I think he is old enough but I need to go back to the other class and check 🙂

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Thanks, I will for sure check it out! We have used other programs like this before but they have been glitchy so we stopped. I am glad you like it – a combination of ‘over your shoulder’ instruction and written stuff would be really nice to have!!! Glad you are enjoying your class with Amanda, she is a gifted instructor/handler/trainer AND a super nice person too!

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
I think the very fisrt rep at 5 feet was the sweet spot – the other distances were a little too compressed so she was having to modify her behavior. But the main thing is a simple detail – the toy was to close, so she was collecting a bit over jump 2 in order to stop to get it. Looking at the very first rep – form was correct (she was bouncing it) and on that rep, the toy looked to be the furthest away from jump 2.
So, keep the 5 foot distance (she did well at 4.5 feet when the toy was a little further) but move the position of the reward. My generally rule of thumb is to have the reward one big extension stride past back feet landing spot – so is she lands 3 feet past the jump, the is going to need another 6 to 8 feet before the toy (for now, that will expand as her stride length gets longer). So try the 5 foot distance with the toy placed 10 or 12 feet past jump 2 and see what she does (you will be standing out there parallel to the toy – a long lead out but she has that skill).
You are on the right track with this! Part of it is that she is just a baby dog – on that first rep where she did have the correct striding, her legs were a little bit disorganized LOL!!! So she needs more experience and then it will be there automatically. And yes, a taller bar will help but then the toy will need to be even further from the 2nd jump. This set point is the first place I like to introduce height, so I bet she will have an easy time with it.
let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Whoa, 35 feet, that will have you ready for gambles and ASCA and the other spots where you will find the big distances between obstacles or the big gambles.

She did awesome (I am not surprised haha). She is happy to drive ahead and she really likes the speeeeeeeed! Wheeeee!

The distance was *impressive* – I love it! She is a little too young for us to do anything with the jump height, but you can also play this game with a tunnel replacing the jump: wing to tunnel, with the distance increasing (and also just rewarding some wing wraps so she doesn’t always just lock onto tunnels LOL!) Eventually the height of the jump willl go up, but we have some time and also some more jumping foundation before then.

She appeared to also have no trouble doing the wrap when the toy is on the ground past the jump – I am very happy that the pups so far are all finding that to be NO problem, my guess is that you already taught her the foundation for it in various other games, so it was a no-brained for her 🙂

I see what you were saying about her looking at you a little bit when you were throwing the toy, like at :33 – she was also drifting out a little bit on the wing. The looking up was happening when you were looking ahead rather than making a clear connection as she exited the wrap, and you were also getting the toy ready to throw – so she was looking up to find then connection, then watching the toy throw. 2 ideas for you:
Make a clear connection as she exits the wing and deliver the GO cue to her eyes – you did this at :41 and she looked at you less. And don’t throw the toy til she is past you and really locking onto the jump, so she will look back less.
And… mix in reps where the toy is pre-placed and you do NOT connect – just give enough info so she knows which side to be on and give your nice clear Go verbal. I suggest this because while yes, we handlers want to be totally connected at all times, the reality is that we handlers are not capable of that level of perfection while also running full throttle up a line 🙂 I, for one, am really good at NOT being perfect haha. Because of that, we incorporate teaching the pups to commit and respond to verbals when we are NOT connected.
When you do reps that are deliberately disconnected, start with maybe a 15 foot distance so it is easy, then work back up to big distances.

The other thing to add is a front cross on the wing, so she has to transition from handler focus (following the cross) into the go go go line focus. That will add a bit of challenge and also reduce some of the drifting around the wing. You had mostly sends/post turns going, so the FC will look different but have the same verbals because it is the same behavior.

Nice work here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
There is a double goal on this proofing game, from the handling side – that eventually you can just basically stand in the middle and do it all on verbals, and also that eventually you can run hard into the wrap and still get a beautiful turn (with the tunnel distraction out ahead) because of the verbal. So yes, it is both a verbal exercise and a motion exercise, you should do a bit of both. Generally motion helps the pups to get it started.

I think she did really well on these! She definitely found the body cues helpful – they were small cues but when they were not as visible like ate :42, she had to think harder (which is fine, of course :)) Right now the around with your motion seems stronger than the tunnel cue when there was less motion to the tunnel, so you can shift the reinforcement to the tunnel more often and also, you can fade the motion out of the wrap cues. You can also change your position up a bit, moving yourself maybe halfway between the tunnel exit and the wing to send to the wrap (or run into it). Eventually you can work your way back to the tunnel exit and try it. The goal of moving away is twofold: to teach her to send independently to the wing, and also (when you are running forward) to teach her that the wrap verbal overrides your acceleration (this is sooooo useful :))

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! yes, that FC/BC combo is a spin (or Jaakko turn or ketschker :)) I also call it the toilet turn. And also yes, you can use a verbal – the wrap verbal is appropriate there because it cues the pup’s behavior to wrap regardless of which handling I choose, I was quiet there because I was fully in puppy panic mode and don’t always manage to get the verbals out while remaining upright 🙂

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Ah, you are so kind!!!! The tech issues drive us all nuts LOL!!! But I find that the tech gremlins are more cooperative when we are patient (even when we are not hahaha!!)
you did a really fabulous job in class and Kai is one amazing pup!!!! I am excited to see more!!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! I am so glad to see you and Pirate here 🙂 I feel like I have had a front row seat to him growing up!!!!! And he is one gorgeous, brilliant little dude – so fun!!!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
Lennan was a rock star here! Good boy! He did well on the wrap and the tunnel send (and yes, that was perfectly fine to send him to the tunnel like that, or from past the wing, either is fine). He turned really nicely around that wing every single time and it appears that he was not looking at the tunnel when he was wrapping. Yes!! Both sides looked strong. And he was also rock solid when you did the advanced version – the tunnel is stimulating but he was still perfect on processing the wrap cue. Happy dance! So you can now make it a little harder in two ways:
Move the wing closer to the tunnel so it is an arm’s length or less away from it. Eek!

Also, on the advanced level with the short sequence, you can add motion – as he exits the tunnel, let him see you moving towards the wing and into the wrap handling (giving the verbal) – that motion actually will make it harder (in theory LOL).

The only thing I think we can tweak a little was unrelated to the wrap or verbals: he was drifting a little wide coming out of the tunnel. No worries, we can work that! You can cue a couple of tight turns and then run away so he chases you for the toy, kind of like the turn and burn on a wing but you will be doing it on a tunnel. And, we have a game coming this week that works on some more tunnel turns – I think he was drifting to get more info without having to slow down, so we will reward him for driving right to you.

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
Questions are good, keep ‘em coming!

he did a great job on the smiley face game (you both did!) The cookie session looked good – I think you should try this without using your arm to support the lines. You are tending to keep your arm parallel to your body and I think that blocks connection a little so he slows himself down (now, I think it is perfectly fine for a whippet to go slowly at first and think hard 🙂 The speed will be there when we need it :)) But practicing without arms will help establish connection for the future courses you run – try running with your hands in your back pockets (not at your sides) and see how it goes (it will feel weird LOL!). His commitment looked great on this first session and you did a lovely job spreading out the reinforcement and remembering all of the dang verbals LOL! And his focus is awesome in that environment!
The toy sure does add an element of speed and excitement. We don’t need a ton of speed from him right now (we want understanding and we want body awareness) but I think using it on this game after the food session was great – it basically just ramped it up a notch and he was ready for that. You can give him feedback about the accidental chomps – if one of my dogs bites my flesh while going for the toy, I just yelp and stop the game for a second or two, then go back to it 🙂 It sounds like it was not a frustration chomp but more of him not paying attention to where his teeth were relative to your flesh 🙂

Wind In Your Hair – when he was on your right after the wrap, you were less “helpy” for finding the jump than when he was on your left after the wrap – on your right, you just kinda walked past it and on your left your were pointing it out more. This is a good game to be less helpy with – when you added speed, you were just jogging by the jump with connection and that is ideal 🙂 No need to point to it and show the line – as long as you are connected and moving past it, he will find it. He did REALLY well!! I think he had one little error (towards the end, when he was on your left) but then he fixed it immediately. So you can keep working that moving past the jump and letting him find it like that.
The other thing he is ready for now is more driving ahead: start super close to the wing, almost touching it, and don’t move towards the jump until he is just about finished with the wrap – then move up the line 🙂 That will help him begin to drive ahead of you (rather than finding the jump on a parallel line or slightly behind you). It will be a useful skill! When you added some speed, we could already see how much speed he has (FUN!) so now we will teach him to leave you in the dust. That also bridges nicely into the advanced game. Using the ready treat worked well and I think your timing of tossing is great too!
Great job here!!!
Tracy

• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by Tracy Sklenar.

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