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Hi!
>>So, do the ladder grid and after you are doing that with movement then go on to the wrap to the grid? One follows the completion of the other?>>Yes. The first ladder grid builds in more motion from the handler, so we want to see how the pups do with that. The wing-to-short-ladder has more motion from handler AND dog, so that comes afterwards if the handler motion is going well 🙂
T
Hi! She has just been lulling you into a false sense of quiet (she is still thoughtful here!) And yes, you will need some significant giddy up as you build up her sequence work -she goes FAST FAST FAST lol!!!!!
On this set up with the one jump games: your mechanics of turning and rewarding were good, and your lines were good (that is why you got the show off moment, because your line of motion was presenting the line she took, good girlie!) My only real suggestion is to start her a lot further back, so you can walk into it, release then turn earlier. She was so close to the jump that you were automatically late (that was her verbal feedback too LOL!) So try to start her 10 feet back – start moving, release, and when she starts to move – do the cross. Wheee!
On the oopsies: Look at her line up at :50 – she was facing past the jump so she would have had to lead change away to get the jump… same on the next rep then you fixed it at 1:02 by having her facing the jump. Then she needed a party with the toy LOL! and the rest of the reps were good. So, since she is so young and literal, make sure she is facing the jump and not past it.
Really nice job here! Onwards to the 2 & 3 jumps and the sequences!Tracy
Hi Christine! These are looking really strong! And her stay looks great (nice job with the rewards too). My only tweak is very minor: be less sideways on your release, and a little more forward-facing so she can extend even more.
Since these are both strong AND consistent (she is repeating the strong behavior on each rep, I don’t see her making adjustments) – we now move along 🙂 One rep with the 15 foot distance to the last jump… then move it out! She is pretty small, so move it out a foot to 16 feet. Then if she one strides… move it out to 17 feet. Look for the 2 hits of the front feet. If you see 3 hits of the front feet, move the jump back maybe 6 inches and see if she will one stride – if not, move it back to where she last one-strided then give her a break. You can also work on the ladder/balance grid with motion!
Nice work here!!
THi there! Great to see you here! And yes, a BC is a little different than your littles 🙂 In some ways, harder, but in some ways much easier (easier to see, for starters LOL!)
You had really good rewards spread out in different places on these videos, it really helps to balance the value throughout! He is still learning commitment and some things were easier than others – he did REALLY well finding the middle jump on most of the reps! And he was really starting to get in the groove of understanding the pinwheels as you worked through the sessions. And the hummingbird moment was hilarious LOL!!!
He had some trouble finding the first jump after the tunnel, especially when he was on your left side. So, let’s isolate that skill! If he can find that first jump, the rest will be super easy. On the 2nd video, on the first 2 reps – your connection from the tunnel to the jump was TERRIFIC! So just focusing on the one jump after the tunnel: send him into the tunnel, and start moving forward with that strong connection (not pointing to the jump, jump walking forward past the jump). Throw the reward when he commits to the jump. I think for now those bars should be even lower, so the commitment is so easy and inviting 🙂 When he can those jumps, the rest of the pinwheel will be so easy and you can spread it out more.
The other place to be more connected is from the jump back to the tunnel: when you give your tunnel cue, look right at his eyes, with your dog side arm back (not pointing forward). That will help too!
You can move into the send and go pinwheels too , that can help with convincing him to commit more easily.Great job!
TracyHi!
Super nice sessions here!
You are correct, her eyes almost bugged out of her head when she saw the big jump at the end of the first grid LOL!!!!! Ha! And she made a good decision: I always prefer for dogs to abort mission rather than to risk killing themselves if they aren’t sure. It is ultimately safer and smarter. She figured it out on the 2nd rep and then did fine on the next 2 reps on the next clip (although I think the 2nd clip’s first rep was an artfully broken stay? LOL!) She is still working out the form, and the surface might be part of it – it has been a while since she has been on turf, maybe? So I think she will get it sorted out in terms of keeping her head a little lower to push from the rear more. She might have been lifting her head a tiny bit to read the grid (which is fine, because that is what we wanted her to do :)). Revisit this at some point in the next week or so, and you can also mix in adding motion to the balance ladder grids from the week 2 package. She is doing well in terms of sorting out the puzzle, just needs more experience reading all the distances 🙂The pinwheel is looking good too, she is REALLY excellent with her commitment skills. I think you said Go on one of them, but switched to left later on – I prefer the left because go has more extension (or you can use a generic “jump” cue). The only suggestion is to give her connection on your sends. On the reps where the sends were easy (like the first one) your connection was good! She had a question on the 3rd rep (didn’t send) and that was when you were looking forward/pointing forward (broken connection). So, add in more eye contact to her on the sends and she should be able to nail it. Also balance it with the lazy game so that she will proceed to the jump even in the moments where you connection isn’t perfect – she is so fast already, so we don’t want you to rely on perfect connection 🙂
You can definitely add in the tunnel before this, and move to the crosses games from this week! Great job here!
TracyHi!
I think I got rid of the Fix and Go listing, let me know 🙂All of the sessions here look terrific! I watched the jump grid in slow motion to see if they was anything he was struggling with… nope! I was dropping the toy on the video when I filmed it (when HS was a lot younger) because her stay with a toy on the ground was crappy LOL! So Benni is really good with his stays – placing the toy in the ground is more ideal. So two ways to move forward on his jump education here: on the 5 jump grid, lead out less and release and move a little faster. Release at jump 5 then job after the release, then jump 4, then jump 3. Over the course of a few sessions, I bet you will be able to run. The goal is that his jumping form is unchanged as you add more motion, so do it very gradually so we can obsess on the video 🙂
Also, add in the wing wrap to ladder grid – that automatically adds more motion with fewer jumps to stay balanced on because there is more speed.The FCs and BCs are looking really terrific. Your timing looked good (and that is hard on one or two jumps) and you running line looked really strong – it presented the next jump perfectly, even when you were trying to reward him LOL! You are really mastered the fine art of the exit line connection/cross body reward! Yay! So two ways to progress:
Go to the 3 jumps and the sequences. Fun!
When you are doing the 3 jumps and sequences, when you are not going to reinforce after a cross but instead you are going to keep going: see if you can start to fade the presentation of the arm across the body on the cross exits while maintaining the excellent dog-side shoulder back and super connection. So basically – the cross arm reward produces great connection and pushes your dog-side shoulder back -see if you can do that with less (or no!) cross arm. But you can still present the toy with the cross arm when you are rewarding him.Great job!!! I am excited by his progress and looking forward to more!
Tracy
Hello! He is doing well here! I agree he was a little hesitant on the pinwheel jump – could have been the looser-than-expected footing and also could have been that you were not moving as much. You can move a little more in that center square 🙂 He did a great job driving out of the tunnel to the jump! Poor little guy, hitting his leg – that STINGS and I am glad he is not hurt (just wary). On your next session, you can move a little more and also mix in the send-and-go pinwheels (you can add the tunnel to those too :)) Nice work!
TracyHi there!
The grids do give the dogs the chance to open up and feel the power of jumping 🙂 The back chaining really helped her! Try not to over-help with motion or leaning or anything – we need to teach her to find that line on a grid without you over-helping. So, on the next session…. stand still 🙂 Standing still is hard, I feel that pain because I am particularly twitchy hahahahaha
2 other things on this striding grid:
Start her a little closer to the first jump, so the fist time she puts her front feet down after the release will be between 1 and 2, not before jump 1. And, move the last jump in closer (15 feet, leaving the bar low) so that she can one stride it. Right now she is 2 striding it, but it is pretty far away. Moving it in closer will give us a chance to open up her one stride by moving the jump out gradually: 15 feet, 16 feet, 17 feet 🙂On the pinwheel: your last rep was exactly what we are looking for, YAY! You were smoothest on your send and then you supported the line to jump 3. Very nice! On the others, you were holding the send a bit too long so that created too much decel – which pulled her into the gap and off of 3. So, send and leave, heading towards 3 a little more like you did here. You can add a tunnel before it, you might have more momentum which can help too. You can move the jumps in a tiny bit closer as you get the smoothness of it to repeat the excellent of that last rep. Well done!
Tracy
Sorry for the lack of clarity!
>>Sorry to be the thick one here, but when you say start the jump grids at any point does that mean you can do the one with the wrap before you finish getting them to the moving from the 3rd jump progression in the ladder grid or should we wait till they are used to that much movement before starting the jump wrap to the grid?>>
Nope, I mean that you should do the FC/BC stuff in order – but you can concurrently begin the grids. So you don’t have to wait til you have finished the FC/BC sequences to start the grids, you can begin the first step of the grids (adding motion to the 5 jump grid) while you are also starting the FC/BC 1/2/3 jump games 🙂 Let me know if that makes better sense or if I need more coffee : )
Hi! Do you have video of what you mean and which context? We might be saying the same things in terms of timing – the dog should be seeing the “new” arm (opposite) long before takeoff and you are probably using good timing and transition to get it done – so it is probably semantics but video will tell us 🙂 Post a video of what you mean with G! Generally, if they pull off jumps, something is wrong either with the connection or the transition. Send me a visual 🙂
T
Good morning!
>> This is part of a UKI course I have set up talk about lazy I just didn’t want to set it up again.
HAHA! I admire and approve of your laziness LOL!!!
DANG he is a speedy little thing!! It is really cool to see his speed now that his understanding of commitment is coming along so nicely!
On the first rep, I think he was just having a GIDDY UP PARTY ON moment out of the tunnel and missed the first jump, you can help by calling him a little sooner. You were very quiet so he was going straight. It was correct to keep moving and then I suggest rewarding him when he did find the jump after the tunnel thee 2nd time (rather than when he missed the next jump because you were a little disconnected). You supported the tunnel nicely on this rep!!! And good job remembering to spit out the verbals, so many words, right? LOL!2nd rep – the pinwheel looked really strong!! Good boy!!! On the tunnel send – you were saying tunnel but looking ahead (probably at the tunnel) so the connection broke. Try to look back at him and say tunnel a few times, intensifying the connection – I bet that will help get the tunnel sends!
You did exactly the right connection into the tunnel at :27 on rep 3 and he was fabulous, driving right in without you need to give him a full escort to it LOL! You were also much more connected on the tunnel send at :34 AND you supported with body language – nice! The pinwheel looked really good here too!
Baby dog is growing up!!! I am super happy with what he did here, all you need to remember is to call him sooner after a tunnel and look at him more on the tunnel sends. Move on to the week 2 games so we can add the crosses. Nice job here!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>> But this exercise proved to me I need to still move slowly.Yep, I agree, it was too much challenge all rolled into one session – as soon as you added height, he lost the striding. Height is the very last thing to add – he just turned a year old, so we have plenty of time to add it 🙂 Big male dogs don’t need to see full height until they are closer to 16-18 months – and that is fine because there aren’t any trials coming up soon anyway LOL!
>>My intention was to do no more than 4 reps, but I worked till I got back to one stride.
You can also ust end the session then figure it out for next time 🙂 He might not be able to recover the striding you want, the dogs get fatigued so that makes it harder. One session is not a make or break session, and also we don’t always need to end on a good note 🙂
He is still developing his form – thinking it through with his front end and not really talking to his hind end yet LOL! Start him a tiny bit closer to that very first jump, so he has to lift immediately into the first jump and not put his front feet down again before it – the first hit of the front feet should be on landing of jump 1. He is landing pretty close to the bar on each of the ladder grid jumps, which means he is still sorting it out. Also, when you add challenge on the last jump, it changes his organization on the first jump – you can see it notably at :20 – the last jump was tall and further away, so he splits his front feet over that first jump then shortens up/slows down between jumps 3 and 4.
I think you were trying to help the striding by moving a bit on this – but interestingly, he did not chnge the striding (still 2 strides, shortening up to read it) at :30.
He did get back to the one stride at the very end, but I suggest taking a different approach to this grid to get him to power into it off his rear more (I bet, eventually, he will be able to bounce that 16 foot distance at the very end and you will be able to get an extended one stride up to 21 feet, perhaps!)
So – starting him a little closer to that first jump, move the oxer (jump 4) back to 15 feet and put the bars at 8 and 12 on the oxer. Only change one variable at a time – so don’t worry about height at all, because the higher heights are causing him to shorten up. Instead, worry about gradually extending the distance. Do 15 feet, then 16 then 17. Do just a couple of reps and end while he is still powering and feeling the wind in his hair 🙂 If he adds a stride at 17 (3 hits of the front feet instead of 2) then move the jump back to 16.5 feet.
Over the course of several weeks, you can start to go from 16 to 17 to 18 to 19 feet – but that will take us a while and we have plenty of time. Mixed in, you can do the ladder grids with motion that I posted today.
Height doesn’t need to be added any time soon – he is a big boy so we have a little more time needed to let him develop, like a fine wine or brewing a great cup of coffee 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
On the jump grid:
The 1st 2 looked fine and dandy, no problem, nice balanced one stride. Question – on the 3rd and 4th reps, what was the distance to that last jump? He went to a 2-stride and I want to see if we can convince him to streeeeetch his one- stride 🙂 So – go back to the one stride distance (whatever it was on the 1st two reps) and then stretch by only 1 foot – reward for the one stride a few times. If he is doing the one stride, stretch it out by one more foot and see if he still does the one stride. Reward if he does a 2 stride (3 hits of the front feet) at any point, but then immediately move that last jump back in a foot or 6 inches to get him back into the groove of 1 striding it.Pinwheely fun:
great job with the different verbals that also sound different in tone and pitch!
I think his straight exit (not finding the pinwheel) on the first rep was more about YEEHAW Giddy UP after the tunnel LOL! plus you were late turning. You handled it well by continuing – but rather than throw straight, you can throw on a turn to convince him to collect when you aren’t moving much.2nd rep – you were still a little late turning to the pinwheel (distance is pretty small, so you can do it as he is over the first jump) but he got it, good boy, great job rewarding that moment!
3rd rep – nice! He is getting the idea and committing nicely.
4th rep – he did not take the pinwheel jump at :37. NOt sure if you meant for him to skip it or not, based on your reaction of just keep going (always good to just keep going smoothly!) If you freeze the video as he is over the jump after the tunnel, you gave him his right turn verbal and you turned your back on him – no connection and all of your body was facing the 180 jump and not the pinwheel jump. And then as you continued around, you were much clearer on the connection and send to the pinwheel jump! Nice!
>>When I start working on the send and go, can I still use the tunnel, or take it out?
You can leave the tunnel in, it will be fun! And definitely start the send and go, do a session to make sure he has got it – and then I think you will be all set up for the Week 2 handling games 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi there!
>>Pinwheel sends … my first question was where to start. I got there and didn’t know if I should line up with the jump, or run into it. After that I realized I was looking at the obstacle, not Demi. A horrible habit of mine!! I also noticeD when I reviewed, that my reward was being offered way too late.
You can line her up facing the first jump, lead out a little then release and move – you did that on the first rep and it went nicely! And yes, try to look at her a little more and at the pinwheel jump a little less. You can try to throw earlier but more importantly – send her like you did and then keep moving. You were standing still and that is OK to get this started, but now keep moving: that will challenge her to maintain her commitment and allow you to get away up the line. You can still throw the reward for various places around the pinwheel and great job on your verbals! I think she did just fine here which is why we can add more of your motion. If she struggles 0 you can move more slowly and also you can decrease the distance between the jumps here.
>>Jump grid … this turned out to be more of a learning experience than an stride evaluation. It took me a while to convince her to drive the line.
Yes it is a really massive distance! For the jump grids, we don’t want to use lazy games because we don’t want her commitment understanding to be relative to your motion at all. So, a different approach: back chain it. Set her up on the landing of the 3rd jump, so she is facing the last jump. Lead out, put the reward down, face away from her (don’t face her) then release. If she can find that last jump twice in a row, change her start position to be between jumps 2 and 3 – and repeat the process. If she can find jump 3 and 4 twice in a row, change her start position to between jumps 1 and 2, then repeat the process. If she can find jumps 2,3,4 twice in a row – set her up in front of jump 1 (nice and close, like you mentioned). If she struggles at any point, do a few reps where you started her without adding challenge.
When she understands the concept of this type of line, it will be much easier – her striding on the ladder element looked terrific (fast, powerful – but also balanced!) and her stay is looking GREAT so I think she will figure it out quickly! And that will set you up nicely to go into the week 2 games (but don’t go to those until we have this grid in a place where she can read it with you all the way out at the end.Nice work here! Let me know if this makes sense!
TracyHi! Nice job starting on the left here LOL!! She is still doing super well on the left and doing a lot better on the right by turning earlier rather than slicing than turning. You can start a little further back when you start on the jump – that will add a bit more momentum into it, which will make the sends easier (you were still sorting out which leg to send on when you started up close on your left side towards the end there). These are looking really good so far, so add in a bit more running and the tunnel before and after it – you might already be doing this, based on the tunnel location here! That will add more speed, which can also allow you to move the middle pinwheel jump further away for more distance too! We build on it starting tomorrow 🙂 Great job!
Tracy
