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Hi!
>>I think Mookie has mastered the zig zag grid.
That is great news! I think that part of the grid is teaching the dogs how to use their bodies on those slices – it is hard but it sounds like he has figured it out!
>>Should I now keep the grid straight and at a lower height for Mookie for Maintenance or should I keep it at 20 inches for him ??>>
Depending on how much you get to practice it – I would start each session of one warm up rep in each directions at a low height and slightly opened. Then one rep in each direction straight at a low height. Then one rep each direction at a higher height – can be full height but doesn’t need to be. And 6 total reps is about all I recommend for one session.
>>And I just want to say thank you again for doing this camp. Even though I could not do the full courses due to lack of space and equipment, I could do the Novice and Masters sequences and sections of the courses. I loved the custom skill sets, your structure and the vidoes which I watched repeatedly. I can now do backside blinds easily with Mookie and Buddy and they both read my “close ” cue well n
Awww, you are more than welcome!! I am so glad you had fun and got good work in for the boys 🙂 It has been a crazy summer for all of us and I am glad you enjoyed the agility! Fingers crossed that we can go back to ‘normal’ trials at some point soon 🙂
TracyHi!
The rear crosses looked great! You had really good timing and that totally helped! He glanced to his left on the first 2 reps and turned to his right without spinning – good boy!! And the turns to his left were perfect.
Rocking horses look really good! My only little tweak is to hold your arm back until he is passed you, I think that will strengthen your connection even more so he drives past you more easily. The spin looked good! I think most of your rewads were from your hand – so you can also shift to tossing them out past the wings (or past you as he drives back) so he keeps looking out ahead and not at you 🙂 He really seemed to like it when you were running a bit!!!
On the ‘away’ cue – I think your arm is fine – he could see your arm and your connection perfectly. Remember that you will be doing this at a run, so whatever is comfy is great as long as he can still see your connection (which he totally could here :)) I love how he was able to easily balance back and forth between moving with you and doing the away!!
Great job on all of these 🙂
Tracy
Awesome update!!! Sounds like you are doing a little bit of ALL the good things and keeping it fun for him. Yay!! Yes, it is hard to not be greedy but so important 🙂 Great job!!!
TracyHi! I guess a little rain is better than the scorching heat, right? She looked like she was having fun here especially on the tunnel-tire-tunnel line: wheeeee!!!!!
The in in sequences on the 2nd rep, last rep, and beginning of 2nd to last rep all looked good – she is still thinking her way through it, but she is turning into the gap then back out with out any big handling help, and that is great! She also is doing well on the serpentines, but she has a little quesiton on the back-out part of it because your shoulder is turning away, cuing her to not go back out (and serps don’t have the same super-specific verbal as a threadle). You can see this at :04 (she didn’t automatically go back out because you were moving away towards the tunnel) as well as a little less so at :29 and :40. The serp does have a physical cue/line of motion attached to it (unlike the threadle which is more of a verbal cue), so 2 things will help smooth that out: staying closer to the serp line of jumps (like you did at :29 and :40) and keeping your chest open to her on the serp jump – center of the chest facing center of the bar, as if your upper body is facing her (dog side arm extended way back) and your feet keep moving forward down the line (like they were). That cues the ‘go out’ element that she was questioning.
Great job with your feet moving forward throughout! Yay! And also great job on all the verbals!!!!Tracy
Interesting about how he got it on the hard angles but not on the easy angles! Maybe do an easy angle warm up then move to hard angles?
About heights – I almost never go to full he9ght on this grid. I *might* with a super angulated dog with a lot of fitness, but I generally don’t because they learn the concepts nicely on a lower height and then it is easier to transfer when they have more room to the full height.
TracyHi! He has a really good backside verbal, so leaving him in the weaves will be a good test to see how well he can commit while you get way up the line.
Interesting about him having trouble with the bar at 12!! Do you have video? He might need an earlier cue, or the zig zag grids. Not sure if you saw those but they really help the backside jumping.T
Puppy brain is the best brain 🙂 yay!
Do you mean jump 7 like at 2:30 on the last video? You can accelerate to it for longer, decelerating later to get commitment. To play with it to build commitment, you can use just a jump wing instead of a full jump – and throw a reward back to her (like her ball) as she commits and you turn and leave for the tunnel. Using the jump wing, you can also move it closer to the tunnel exit so it is easy to commit at first, then gradually move it further back out. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
TracyPerfect! Sounds like a good plan for the trials: and since it is T2B, I think you can run with a toy? That can help get him transitioned into the trial world!
Ah, fabulous!!!! Your “here here” verbal sounds pretty distinct from your tunnel cue, and that is perfect. He did really well sorting out the difference on the double whammy – going into the tunnel was easy, the threadle to go BACK in is harder. You did a great job of being as patient as possible (it is so hard being on Team Chill LOL!!!!) and double gold star for both of you on that last rep at :39 – you were very patient, not helping with motion – and BOOM! Look at him turn his head (another god star moment) and find his way back into the tunnel independently. Yesssssss!!! Very happy with that, it is exactly what we are looking for. Yay! Great job!!! I have a game coming tomorrow to build on all of the tunnel fun, I think he will be ready!!
Nice work here – and have fun at the Canadian Open LOL!! I am almost ready to go measure Speedstakes LOL!!!
Tracy
Thanks for the repost of the video, it was a great session!!! I think the main thing on this session was figuring out the timing of the transitions, and you were really getting beautiful sequences. Connection looked REALLY great – I don’t think he jumped up at your hand at all? About the transition: at this distance, the transition was critical in getting him to commit. When you maintained your driving forward til he arrived at your leg then decelerated then turned – perfection! Really great! That was when he would commit easily and you could then do the spin or the FC or the turn and burn (all of these looked great – he is sorting out how to use his body to wrap into a tight turn, which is really nice to see with a boy pup that isn’t even 6 months old (my 10 month old boy pup says “go fast first, sort out body after falling on head”.
On the reps where he did *not* commit – I think there were only 4 – you decelerated before he arrived at your leg and either tried to send or, because of the fast decel, ended up sending with the other leg (dog side leg didn’t step forward). He will be able to commit eventually on that cue, but at this age – not quite ready for that (we will do that in the proofing stages later on, where we basically show the puppy all the ways we screw up and pay them for saving us LOL!!!).
So, keep your acceleration going until he has arrived at your leg, then slow down, then rotate – that really supported the commitment and it also looked like you had no trouble rotating and running to the next one. The distance between the barrels is impressive! And great job keeping the super high rate of reinforcement – it must have been hot out and he looked happy to keep run run running 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! Good question 🙂 Using the different hands in the early stages has 2 purposes –
First, to help the pups ‘see’ any of the hand cue possibilities they might encounter on course. Different moves plus us handlers being late or early 🙂
Second – the hand use will get built into the transitions when we are moving, so you will generally find that you will send (or cue the wing/barrel) with the dog side hand and rotate away for a front cross (for example) – and so the last picture the pup sees before he reaches the wing or barrel is the sideways or backwards look we are working on here. The pup will be happy to commit anyway, even though we are already turned away. In past generations, pups would ask questions and *not* commit when we worked to be very timely with our cues, so this has helped lay a better foundation.You can see the transitions in the rocking horse games, along with some ‘freeze frames’ with what I mean about the pup seeing us sideways or backwards as they move to the barrel.
Ultimately, regarding which arm and when: that is part of the handling language we develop with each dog. Early on with the pups, we show them everything 🙂 Then you can choose which hand based on your preference for whatever is easiest – and since the pups will be happy to commit, your choice of which hand will be pretty easy, kind of a win-win situation 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense (or if I need more coffee LOL!!)
Thanks,
TracyTaking it easy is always good 🙂
Yes, these were hard for him! When you spread them out, did you mean adding space between the wings? I think if you put the wings end-to-end rather than overlapping, I think he should be ok with it at that angle. You can also try them bar a lower height so he can find his rhythm, and then add back the height. Let me know if that makes sense, and keep me posted on how he does!
TracyGood morning!
Wow, great job on this first run!!!! He was really driving his lines and executing the skills!
Great job on the opening line – it is complex for a baby dog and he nailed it. You can play with being a little further across 2 to be closer to his line to push to 3.
I was SUPER happy with his collection on the wrap jump at :08 and :32 and :42 – WOW! You did a great job with the transition there and he responded with true collection. Yay! I know you’ve been working on that, and it is showing! You had a little more connection on the exit at :09 and :43 so the turn stayed tight – at :33 you left without as much connection so he widened the turn, not sure if he shoudl chase you or go to the tunnel – so be sure to maintain the strong exit line connection before sending to the tunnel there to keep the turn tight.Nice connection from the tunnel to the jump at :13! At :35, you didn’t have the same connection (you were further ahead and turned more forward) so he didn’t commit and came to you. At :45, you had the connection and a little outside arm help so he had no questions there.
And you got the rear cross on the ending line on both runs – that is a hard skill for a youngster and he got it! Yay! You can then re-establish connection more strongly to his eyes when he lands from the RC and you are giving the go cue, that will help smooth out that line when he is ahead. (When he is ahead, connecting to his eyes is more like connecting to the back of his head LOL but he can see it :))
Course 2:
He was moving beautifully on the opening here – you gave him a go cue at :57, which is why he didn’t read the RC – the motion and verbal right cue were too late for him to pick up the line. You can just use the right verbal and RC motion there.
On the 2nd rep, you totally gave that go cue you mentioned while he was looking at the weaves – that falls into the category of “only say go when your dog is looking the direction you want him to go in” hahaha!! I learned that the hard way 🙂 Plus, you had just rewarded weaves so he was feeling very weavey 🙂
So, try not to use go in the opening – when you repeated it with directionals, it was BEAUTIFUL! You can also lead out more and try a blind cross in the opening, between 2 and 3!
And the rest looked fabulous – nice 180 to the weaves, and look at the little guy do his weaves! Then he got right back in the line to the ending.I am really impressed with how far he has come this summer – he is doing REAL AGILITY now!! So fun to see! You’ve done a great job with his homework and now we can really see all of the elements coming together. So exciting!!!!! Well done 🙂
TracyGood morning! I think YouTube likes to mess with you: this video was frozen until the very end where you were partying with him LOL!! Can you repost it so I can see what caused the party 🙂
T
Good morning!
>>Yikes – there are so many skills I’m feeling like some are being neglected…I haven’t done turn-aways or get outs for awhile so I may try that tomorrow along with tunnel. It’s just so darn miserable outside these days.>>
I feel that! The dog days of summer 🙂 You can prioritize skills and also schedule them like appointments 🙂 For the handling skills, I prioritize: my pups don’t really need to know much about backsides, so I taught the 360 for commitment and did a bit of the backside slice, but the training is mainly all about the front side stuff. Same with threadles – I figure I won’t need those any time soon, so I did a bit then put them on the back burner in favor of serps and the ‘front side’ stuff for now. I also have a rolling calendar on a white board here at home – when I decided it was a good idea to have 3 dogs under the age of 2 years old, I figured I would need to get organized 🙂 Now, the calendar is for the fitness stuff for the older dogs – I have what needs to be done each day, so I can mindlessly look at it and get it done. And the same can be applied to the handling and puppy training: make a calendar! You can plug in your classes and other commitments, then on the days that are free you can choose a game or two, put it on the calendar. And if you get it done – YAY! And if not – no worries, there is always the next day 🙂 There is so much to do with puppies that it can be overwhelming, so my mantra is that it all gets done, eventually 🙂
Serps with motion – I don’t think moving the hand was a problem, motion catches the eye nicely, like a squirrel 🙂 It helps him AND it can be part of the cue forever, so it is fine to be doing 🙂
He did really well with the motion except for the first rep on each side. You were not moving fast, but he still thought it was too fast LOL! So you can use the first rep with motion to be soooooooo very slow (like you were on the 2nd rep on each side) and then add speed once you have re-established the success. I thought he did really well with the in-then-out pattern here!
Threadles looked really strong, also really great with the in-then-out. For whatever reason, he didn’t appear to have trouble with the motion as much? Either way, he was really good at these! And your mechanics helped – spot on! Very nice job on these – no worries about the extra MM clicks, I do that all the time too and my dogs love it LOL!!360s – very nice when he was on your left! My only suggestion is that you send less (by pointing and waiting for him to move) and you cue him as more of a release so you can start moving forward on the line sooner. That will add challenge because you willl be right on his tail 🙂
When he was on your right (turning to his left) – I don’t think he was weaker on his left turn or that he was hot – I think it was the angle you were starting on – it was a much harder angle when compared to the more straight line approach you had on the other side. So, it challenged him because there was even more pressure on the line and countermotion, which si why he had to think about it a little more 🙂 But it was a good challenge and he rose to the occasion and did great!Backside slices are going nicely. He does better with you moving to where the barrel meets the bump, which is normal and fine. He was starting to get the idea of being more independent on the last 2 reps and you were further over – NICE! As you add more lateral distance, a suggestion for a suble change in the cue to help him. As we move the handler away, the backside cue looks a little like the get out cue, with the opposite hsoulder coming forward of the body as you make connection, which rotates the upper body to the line (your feet were good, don’t change a thing there :)) So it might feel a tiny bit like you are using the opposite arm to help him push away to the backside. You were connecting but leaning forward a bit, so he was reading it as a front side cue because it didn’t really turn your chest ot the backside. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
Wrap blind spins look really good, he has great commitment so it makes it easier! And 5 bonus points for knocking over the camera hahahaha So on the next session of these, start further back so you can do the FC part of the spin as he is arriving at the barrel then move awya then do the BC – the goal is that you feel like you have more time and odn’t have to spin as fast LOL!! I think he is ready to see these in the rocking horses because his commitment looks so good 🙂
>>, I was trying to figure out what I was doing wrong in the wrap video from yesterday and I’ll say my brain is still confused.
On the spins, we need to turn towards the dog for the first part (FC element) then we look to our other side (BC element). On the ‘regular’ blinds, we turn away from the dog while looking to the other side. The regular blinds have motion that is more like the post turn/race track with our bodies turning away from the dog. The spins are more like FCs, except we throw in a BC after the FC 🙂 Let me know if that makes sense, I might need more coffee 🙂
>>I watched my videos from there again and I think he is mostly just slower and more deliberate, asking more questions about what he’s supposed to do
The TCOTC building is certainly distracting – so many smells and a smaller enclosed space. He might need to work in higher arousal there (being home doesn’t require that fro what I can see). I have stuff coming about how to do that on Saturday, I figure it is important for all of our dogs now 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
