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Good morning!
>>I watched some more videos so I will work on threadles and serps this week. Also will add a threadle word for tunnels, right now I don’t have a specific one for tunnels so that is new for me. Do you have a different word for both a tunnel with a threadle slice and a threadle rear cross tunnel? My guess is no, but maybe?>>
At this moment, I only have 1 verbal for tunnel threadles (2 verbals for jump threadles to differentiate threadle slice and threadle wrap/rear). I do not see where the dog would need to hear 2 different verbals for the tunnel, because the tunnel itself manages the turn of the dog, plus I can, if needed, use a directional cue (left, right,wrap, etc) on the tunnel entry to get any additional turning. I reserve the right to change that if the evolution of the sport demands it LOL! It is a current topic of conversation though – I chatted with Justine & Jessica of Shape Up about it (they are truly expert trainers and handlers) and Justine said they are moving to 1 verbal for threadle slice (applies to both tunnel and jump) and 1 verbal for threadle rear/wrap (applies to both tunnel and jump). We all agreed to a less-is-more approach LOL!! That was last October and I haven’t had a chance to ask them recently how it was going. In my less-is-more approach, I have found too many sequences where the dogs needed to know if the threadle verbal applied to the jump or tunnel, so I have 2 different verbals. I have prioritized threadle-slice on the jump and the tunnel threadle as being very important – and the threadle/wrap on the jump being much less important because, honestly, I almost never use it. I don’t want to spend limited training time and energy on something that is fun and fancy… but hard on the dog’s body and almost never used. Just food for thought 🙂
>>The word I am going to use is ‘papa’. It’s a long story, don’t think I am super weird or have a daddy complex or anything like that. LOL.
HA!!! I would love to hear the story someday. And I like the sound of the verbal – the PA sound is not something that the dogs hear a lot in agility, so it will be pretty clear and different-sounding.
>>Here is some more work with the target. I was going to work sideways and backwards sends but I saw I needed to add distance first.
I think he did really well here! Nice value and nice hits, even when you were rewarding back at you. And you did shift some reward back to the target, which was smart to help maintain value. And you had some sideways going and that really looked good!!! Yes, keep adding a bit of distance but you can also send sideways/backwards and begin moving away sooner (slowly :)) to start showing countermotion.
>>I noticed that when I did the ‘ready ready’ to get him excited he barked, nipped at my hand, etc, so I stopped doing that. Can you give me some suggestions for when he doesn’t go to the target? I’m trying to build distance slowly and maybe he is confused? I will try to do some sideways and backwards sends today.>>
Yes, I could see his arousal coming up – like at :27, it was bubbling up and it was the next rep where you had a little chomp chomp on your hand. You dialed it back, smartly – still had a high energy body position and hand on his chest but no verbal. He seemed successful in the ‘don’t bite’ after that 🙂 I love to help the dogs manage their arousal at this age and I think playing ready ready games are a good tool for that. 2 ideas: in the target work here, you can add a very soft reeeeady then send to target when he looks at it – that layers in the arousal more slowly. And, separately from the target – you can do a bit of a ready game to a toy on the ground: a stimulating “ready” and then if he looks at the toy on the ground, cue him to get it.
And separately from the target and toy: I teach the pups that ready is actually more of a self-chill game, a ‘gather yourself’ game: I will gradually layer in more and more of my insanity by getting louder and more crouched… and reward the pups for looking at me, or standing still, or offering to look at ‘work’ – rather than jumping up or delivering tooth hugs 🙂 For some dogs, I reward barking as a replacement behavior for biting me (depends on the dog and the situation – definitely for dogs that I want “more” from, and sometimes for dogs that need to ‘release’ some of the arousal that is bubbling up, like my Crollie who will howl or clack when I ask if he is ready :))>Also you mentioned that you were going to discuss the handling differences with the serp arm for threadles vs the off arm for threadles. Did I miss that in the videos or is that still coming? I use a verbal for serps and I use a verbal and an off arm for threadles (different word for threadle slice and threadle rear cross). Thoughts?>>
You didn’t miss it – no one asked about it LOL!!! I was waiting to see if anyone wanted to know more 🙂
I train threadles to both the dog-side arm and the opposite arm. Which one you use, and when, is personal preference depending on the handler and dog. For serpentines – I generally don’t use the cross arm/off arm at all, ever, anymore. I just run and rely on trained behaviors, connection, verbals. If things are about to go wrong, like maybe I screwed something up and am late or too far ahead – I might help the dog with an off arm but that is only in emergency situations 🙂
For threadles:
on ‘easy’ threadle slice lines AND when I am ahead, I just use the dog side arm and verbal. For really hard threadle slices or when I am behind/out of position (even on easy ones) – I use a high arm across my body. For threadle wrap/rears – I use a low arm across my body (both arms sometimes!) and a different verbal. Hope that makes sense!!T
Hi! I have de-rogued Course 3 and put #11 where it belongs. Sorry! It is being loaded up right now 🙂
Hi! Depending on how many other jumping things you do each week, I would say just do them once a week. And count the number of jumps you ask him to do – we tend to jump the dogs tooooooo much, so just 3 or 4 reps, once a week, is fine 🙂
T
Good morning!
All 3 courses went really nicely here 🙂 Your line decisions were strong (including where you didn’t want her to crash into the DW :)) so my ideas here are mainly about tightening things up – the small details 🙂Course 1 – Little details for you to consider:
Run 1 – Can you leave 3 sooner on the threadle cue, so it feels smoother? Ideally, you don’t need to step to 3 as much and you can move forward to 4 as soon as she turns her head back 3 after coming to the backside. – On the 2nd rep – handling from the landing side of 3 worked nicely! You can play with sending from the exit wing so all you need to do is run directly forward.Another small detail that can help get you further ahead: On the exit of 8, heading to 9: stay closer to 8 with your shoulders open to it, handling more as a serpentine – don’t pull away fromm it then push back – that delays you from leaving. Staying close and handling it like a serp will help automatically turn her to 9 (plus it helps with convergence) so you will be able to leave as soon as she turns her head to 9 🙂
15 should be on the other side of the jump after the weaves 🙂 From the front side of it – the FC at :23 was a little late getting started and you were moving backwards so she was wide on the line there. You can probably trust her weaves and head directly to it.
Course 2: I think you might have made the opening more complicated than it needed to be 🙂 You can handle it all dog-on-left: send to 2 (or spin to tighten it) then serp 3 on the landing side. The FC on 2 then the BC 3-4 was hard to time so the turn on 2 was wide and you ended up breaking connection/being a little late on the BC so the bar at 3 came down on the first run.
Converge sooner 11-12 and start the blind as soon as he hear turns into the gap (or threadle to 13). The FC there at :35 workbed better because she can see the foot rotation sooner, but the convergence will help make both choices easier: as she is heading around 11, you feet can already be facing into the gap and motion moving into the gap to 12, before she takes off for 11.
On the ending line: You might be able to get a BC between 16-17 there, but that is where I would put the RC (rather than on landing of 18 to push to 19) – the RC in there will tighten the line 18-19 and you can get it by sticking closer to the 14 tunnel and the 15-16 jumps. Also, be careful of using go for all of it – I think go for her is a straight line cue and there were a lot of turns here – for example, 18-19 is a right turn so you can use a right cue or a get out to move her away from you.
Course 3:
Ah I see what you mean about the DW being right there – the wrap was definitely slower on 4 but still better than running into the DW plank 🙂
You can see if she will take the 7 jump after the weaves on a verbal (and connection) only, so you can get further up past 9 to cue the 10 wrap (which is slower but still better than a faceplant on the DW :)) You took a bit step towards 7 and that put you a tiny bit behind on that line, making the wrap info on 10 a bit late.
You can handle the entry of 12 (2nd tunnel) from further away, so you are at the exit when she enters… which puts you right in position for the wrap on 13 to get it even tighter.
15 should be a backside here 🙂 You handled it as a RC (which is what I think will work really nicely on course 2) – doing it as a RC on the front side, try not to pull away from the wing of 15 – that made her jump a bit wide on 16 because the RC diagonal was late. Stay near the wing of 15 so you can get on the diagonal to 16 sooner, which should cause her to jump the inside wing of 16 to 17, rather than center of the bar (and resist temptation to use a GO verbal on the 16 jump here, it is a right or a turn away cue – she heard go and went straight (correctly) so had to turn to 17 after she landed).Great job! Let me know what you think of all these little details!
TracyGood morning!
Whoa this was harder at 16″ on that first rep, he totally was surprised 🙂 He sorted it out nicely after the first rep and got his good form back – and the next reps were great! Good job Cody, this is a challenging grid!! You can now move to the next step – instead of having him facing the first jump and taking it from the front side, you can start with him and push him around the backside of that first jump so he does the grid jumping in from the backside. It takes the grid from the ‘difficult’ category into the “holy cow wicked hard’ category 🙂 Start it on 8” jumps so he can sort it out and then you can work back up to 16 – might take one session of a couple of reps – or several weeks 🙂 He is really great with this grid and that is unusual for such a big dog!!!
>>Weather is finally turning for the better, 80 and low humidity, so hopefully I’m not out of time.
We still have time! I figure we will look at videos into September so we can all make it through the bad weather and crazy schedules 🙂
T
Hi! Yes, a bit of jump proofing is always good (I have some stuff coming on that today) but no rush – after seeing his course video, I would let him rest and see if he was sore. I didn’t see any soreness or compensation in the zig zag video, but he was jumping very differently in the course video.
T
Good morning! I thought you were using the italics because it was an important moment LOL!!
>>I set up the Masters Course and I think he was over faced. At any rate, it was a serious goat rodeo. I’m putting up a video showing what happened and I mostly want a quick piece of advice:>>
Looking at it by watching it straight through in real time…. I don’t think he was over-faced in terms of skills, I think he is sore. He was not moving the way he normally does – it looks like he was trying to use his front more than his rear, and in places that had nothing to do with handling (like the jump before the curved tunnel on the first run, for example). Handling-wise, there was nothing he could not do on this and some definite challenges for you (like handling the jump before the poles) but he just wasn’t moving as well as normal – not only on the backsides but also on some of the simpler front sides of jumps.
>>Should I just renumber for course #2 or should I build and work on the Novice courses?
You are, of course, welcome to do the Novice courses but I don’t think this one was technically too difficult – instead, I would suggest giving him a couple of rest days and maybe getting him into see a massage person is possible? And then revisiting this to see how he is moving.
>>PLEASE keep in mind that the contacts are still a work in progress. I’m not really worried about them (yet). Although, because I was watching the running A-frame I was late on the next line. And all of his A-frames were awful.>>
I haven’t watched it closely enough yet for the a-frames LOL!! I found that a beeper mat sealed the deal in terms of a-frame understanding because my dogs were not understanding it on striding alone – they needed a clear in-the-moment bit of feedback on if it was correct (beep!) or not (no beep).
>>I have no idea why so many bars went down.
That is where I think he was not moving right – not necessarily handler induced, he was just having trouble organizing himself – possibly trying to compensate for a bit of soreness. I didn’t see anything weird in terms of handling that would account for all of it.
>> I wasn’t able to get far enough ahead on 10 to 14 because I was watching the truly awful A-frame performances.
For handling, you can send him into the tunnel and try to get ahead (rather than the frame) The other thing you can do it work it as a get out from further back. You said Go the first time, which is more of a straight line indication and it is a definite turn away, so the get out later on really helped.
>>So maybe the best thing to do is to glance at this and suggest I go do the novice work. Which would be fine.
I will go take a longer look at it, but if he is a little sore then the novice won’t go well either. We have time on our side – if you give him a rest break for a few days, you will still have plenty of time to get everything posted – there is no definite ending date for posting here 🙂 Package 5 is the last big training package but we have skills sets coming. I figure we can be playing around until mid-September 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
She also did a great job here! I agree – she didn’t seem to have any confusion on the release – you used ‘over’ as the release to the first jump and she was just fine with it 🙂
On your in in, try to keep your motion moving forward and not turned into her. She was seeing your feet turned towards her here – that totally works, but I have found that the dogs tend to start to wait for the rotation (rather than responding to the verbal) – and the rotation causes us humans to slow down a lot, so we get behind on course. So as you say your in in cue, keep your feet facing to where the next line would be (or where the reward would be) and move slowly so she can process the cue. You did the least amount of rotation on your last rep at :39, so that is the starting point for the next session – and then reduce the foot rotation even more. Your upper body can & should still rotate towards her a bit, but the lower body moves forward exactly the same way it would as on a serpentine.Great job!
TracyGood morning! She has terrific commitment here – totally allowing you to send and leave super early. It didn’t matter if she saw you or not – she understood to finish her job, which is *exactly* what we want. NICE! She is still enjoying chasing you more than she is enjoying heading to the wing (she is faster coming back than leaving you) so you can mix in thrown rewards to the wing (or barrel) for as she is heading there: sometimes have her chase you like you did here, and sometimes throw a ball or anything she loves out to the wing/barrel as she is on the way there. This will help to get her running to the wing as much as she is running back to you 🙂
Great job!!!!
TracyGood morning!
The rocking horses are looking really good – you are leaving nice and early and he has really strong commitment, so we can really see where it ends up looking like a ‘backwards’ send (because you are turned and running the new direction as he is passing you :)) Your connection also looked lovely.
A couple of ideas for you: you can add more distance between the 2 barrels – his commitment is strong so I think we can ramp it up. Adding distance will allow for 2 things: more speed from him (wheeeee!) because you will have to run more. When the barrels are close, you slow down sooner so he slows down to read your decel. More distance will mean more running which means less deceleration 🙂
And, since more distance means more running – you will ‘feel’ it more (by getting out of breath) so you are less likely to get into a vortex LOL!!! When I am *not* running, I often don’t feel how many reps I am doing. But when I am running – I get tired and realize that it is time to reward 🙂The other suggestion is, especially as you add more distance: run forward more and decel/turn a little later. You were a bit sideways as you moved between the barrels here – he committed nicely but was trying to figure out the decel 🙂 So use the transition of running forward fast, then running forward deceling, then rotation.
On the serp video: your hand is fine, not too high 🙂 We are going to fade the actual touch and add motion, and if it is lower it will be hard to move. Speaking of moving – yes, you were turning to cue the reward and ideally you keep your upper body frozen in position until he picks up the reward. It looks like he will go to the toy on a verbal get it cue, so you can use that! Or a Manners Minder – I am pretty sure he will go to that 🙂 The frozen upper body is for human training purposes 🙂 to maintain the position as we add motion.
I loved his expression on the catch moment – he was surprised LOL!! Too cute!
He looked good on the various angles – yes, the harder angles were a bit of a challenge (as intended :)) but he sorted them out just fine. I think the first slice on each side was the hardest, because it is so tempting to run parallel to the bar and directly to the toy (and that is exactly why we set this training game up so the bar commitment is the gateway to getting the toy 🙂 One thing you can do to help solidify the slice on that first rep is to reward him at the hand touch with a cookie then send him to the toy on the ground.These are looking good! I think you can start adding a little bit of motion into the serps – I posted a video about it on the Course Syllabus page.
Have fun!
TracyHi!
Thanks for the video!
She did well on the opening run on that first line. Yes, she read the cues perfectly! One thing that can make it easier is to put wings on the backside jumps such as 4 and 5.
You can set up a shorter line for her if you turn her to her right on 4 other than slice to the left. You can blind cross landing of 3 to get her on your left to make it easier.
On 5, stay super close to the jumping so you can set up the next line very smoothly without being too far away. You walked it well at :31 in terms of being close and pushing your feet into the gap!2nd run – she read the Rc on 4 correctly 🙂 Watch your feet at :41 – you were decelerating and turning your feet towards the RC wing rather than the slice wing, so she thought it was a RC. Good girl! I think that threw you off a little and you got the push but then she didn’t take the jump. That is a good default behavior to work on with her: take the jump when you get to the backside no matter what da momma is doing 🙂 (The Custom Skills Sets have this from the previous package). At 1:31 you got her to the backside again but had to move backwards a bit to get her to take it, so we can work the default behavior so you can just run through there to get the next line.
Nice slice at 1:02! You had her do front sides on that rep and at 1:08 she dropped the bar before the tunnel when you said good girl – that is another thing we will be working on with all of the dogs: keeping the bar up before the tunnel when the momma talks (so many dogs drop that bar!) – stay tuned for that skill set coming tomorrow!
So overall – I think she did well getting to the backside when yo cued it, but when she gets there she needs more understanding on coming in to take the jump so you can just move through to the next thing (the convergence). You can play with the default games there and then do them as a warm up before running the sequence.
Nice job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Wow, he looks really strong on these. He is organizing really nicely on both angles (entering from the front or the back) and he had no trouble reading different heights – he was balanced throughout and rhythmic. He is able to step right into the grid on that first jump on the front sides, which also shows some real plyometric strength too. He is NOT pattering his feet on the backside approaches and that shows good organization too! He had one question in this session: on rep 2, as you released, you also did a big arm motion: bam! bar down. Arm distraction! In a perfect world, we would all be perfect about not doing a big arm motion like that but in reality, sometimes we fling our arm 🙂 So, let’s show him that distraction and pay him for keeping the bar up: release and fling your arm! If he drops the bar, tell him he is cute and start over, no reward. If he keeps the bar up – BIG party! I would do it on 3 jumps so you can reward quickly. If the first jump no longer becomes an issue with the distraction, you can go to 5 jumps and add in an arm distraction on jump 3.
If he has trouble, it can be a more subtle distraction. You can also add in verbal-over-the-bar distractions because, well, we all yell things over the bar when we really shouldn’t LOL!!!Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Novice courses can be so much more wicked than Masters courses because there is so much more speed 🙂
Course 1 – I am sorting out the skills sets to add for this week and I think that the drive-to-handler after a turn and come off a line is a biggie for several of the dogs! At :08, you gave a good “cap cap” (I think that is what you were saying) and she collected really nicely1 So a default behavior we want to add is driving back around the wing and NOT looking for the next obstacle (looking for you instead :)) You added her name on the exit there on the next rep and that really helped (and a tunnel cue after that is a nice built in reward).
Good job stopping for the go tunnel bar – such a hard bar for young dogs!!! She did a nice job on the 2nd rep there.
The RC 8-9 was a great option – the BC there is nice but so hard to get to with her speed, as you found out 🙂 She did a great job on that line, both responding to the verbal AND the physical cue. Yay!
It was hard to see what was happening on the very end – I think that is the spot where you were saying she and Lever both had trouble seeing the last jump. From the camera angle, it looks like she was on a right lead and needed a gentle push back out to the left lead to help pick it up – so a bit of added connection there will help as she drives ahead. For example, at 1:00, you can intensify the connection by looking strongly at the back of her head (it looks like she was past your there) and that can guide her back out to the last jump (particularly if she is not used to seeing a jump there!). It looks like you did that at 1:26 along with a bit of convergence, totally helped! Looked great there!Course 2: yes, the push at 7 is hard – the tunnel turns her right and the push requires a left turn on the tunnel exit. You can try adding your verbals before she enters the tunnel (the backside verbal or a ‘get out’ so she turns left on the exit). And convergence in towards her as she is approaching the tunnel will help too, rather than rounding the line.
We can also look at creative lead outs to get you up there so you are ahead of her at the end of the tunnel – you can try leading out further up the line and pushing back into 4-5 rather than running into it? You can try handling the lead out from as far up the line as the jump before the tunnel, so then you can out run her to the tunnel exit 🙂
On the push cue – motion in towards it (feet converging into the backside line like at 1:00) totally helps so that is something to play with (converging in and showing pressure from further and further away). I think we can also make a slight change in the upper body cue – you were leaning in towards her with a lot of connection and both arms back, which was not pushing her away as much as we wanted – I think a stronger cue would be to get your opposite shoulder ahead of your body rather than back, she can push away more. So it would still be an intense connection like you had, but less leaned-in and a little more upright so your opposite shoulder can come forward. Being a little more upright will actually help you keep moving in on the convergence too. so you can see your feet more on a parallel line and not needing to turn your feet as much.
She turned left nicely out of the tunnel at 1;14!! You can call her name or give your left cue there to help her find the next line too.Course 3 – yes, sorry about the rogue 11!!!!
Yay she totally looked confident on the FFC at 2!!! And it sets up a nice line 3-4-5. On the right cue 4-5, you were a little late at :30 so she went a bit wide. As she lands after 4, you can start the verbal and this is also a good place to use a ‘no cross’ arm (soft outside arm) to help set the collection.
As you keep building the FFC at 2, you can begin to move it away from the 2 jump so you can actually be closer to 3 as you cue it! Using the verbal and FC she will be able to read it really well and you will be miles ahead to get the cue at 5. That can get you up to the BC 5-6 very easily like you did at :38, which will allow you to set up the left cue verbal & rotation before she enters the tunnel.
The BC at :47 was really nice! But yes, not needed there LOL!!
On the restart at :50 – the verbal left started right before she went into the tunnel but the rotation didn’t start until after she was in, so she had a little too much forward motion and went a bit wide on the tunnel exit. You were already showing rotation at 1:03 and 1:40 and she turned a lot better on the tunnel exit!
On your first rep through the 7-8-9 section, you went in a little deep to 7-8 so she read it well but it made it harder to get the turn away after the tunnel at :58. At 1:09 you were moving away beautifully (I bet you can get get a BC on the tunnel exit!) and that presented a ‘go tunnel’ bar there. You showed her the ‘way ahead’ challenge on the go tunnel bar at 1:45 and she did great with it – which allowed you to set up the turn away on the flat really nicely at 1:46 🙂 Yay! That skill looks terrific!
The next step would be to add motion on that go tunnel bar to go with. the ‘way ahead’ element. It is on my list of skills sets for this week because soooooo many dogs have the same question! And then the next step after that would be…. getting the blind cross on the exit of that last tunnel. Wheeee! That would allow you to set up a nicer rear cross on the last 3 jumps – or another blind on that ending line. The main thing would be convincing her to allow you send to the 2 jumps between the tunnel and sprint away, without changing her jumping form.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The first video is the skills sets from August 13, I think the link is not the one you wanted to post?On the 2nd video –
On the first rep, were she backjumped 3: you drove forward a tad too long, so she jumped long – that presented the jump on the way back to you. Add a little transition there (slowing down while still facing forward) and then turning – that will help her collect and drive around the wing.
It was much nicer on on that 2nd rep – nice transition and rotation on 3, so she set up a nice turn! yay! I think she read the 5-6-7 line really nicely – you were super connected and and she followed your lines perfectly. Nice decel into the turn at 7!!
3rd rep – another nice opening here 1-2-3-4!!!
The middle section looked good too – at :59 she pushed into the backside at 7 because you got a little far off the line for the FC at 6 then pushed her back too much to show 7. At 1:16 you made a very clear line to 7 and she read it nicely! So on those parts of courses, you can find your line and be careful about not pushing back too much – keep your connection and shoulders one like you did here 🙂
Your connection and lines looked really good on this video! And great job keeping it fun for her even when it didn’t exactly go as planned 🙂Let me know if I am missing a link!
TracyGood morning!
Wow, 2 seconds faster is really significant!
Sequence 1 looks great – you pushed hard on your turn on 2 and 4 with nice commitment and early cues and he did great!!! My only suggestion is that on the push to the 6 backside, stay a little closer to the jump with your shoulders open. At :14, you had a really nice backside push but your first step was back towards the tunnel so you had to step back in towards 7, which caused him to ask a little question. If you stay closer to 6 with your shoulders open to the bar, he will have a more automatic turn back to 7 for a smoother line. It is a subtle tweak but everything else was perfect!Sequence 2 – this is also looking really good 🙂 You might have gotten a tiny bit too far ahead on 1-2 so you had to wait a little to push to 3, so you can play with a shorter lead out to see if it s easier to push to the 3 backside without waiting. Great job driving the line to 4, he seemed to have no questions and had gorgeous slice lines 4-5! He was so fast, in fact that I think you were trying to handle 5 and he zipped away so fast to it! When you seem him looking at it, you can just leave for the tunnel there at :40.
Seq 3: wow, he did an amazing jumping job on the 2-3-4 section. The boy is an expert jumper, those slices were not a problem at all! And it looks like the 3 bar was full height too! that is one thing we have seen from Ivan all summer – anything that might be challenging turns out to NOT be challenging, he has a massive depth of understanding of so many things 🙂 Yay! His only question was on the tunnel exit at 1:13 – you were looking forward and not quite connected) so he looked up at you and had a little zig zag line. That was where the time was lost a little bit.
Great job on the convergences on this sequence – your feet were pointing into the lines so he easily pushed into the backsides as needed. Actually, all of your convergences on these sequences looked terrific – great job here!
Tracy
