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Good morning! These look strong!!
He is seeking out the entries from all angles. Your work on the ‘hard’ entries has balanced them now so he is much stronger on those! Yay! We can revisit those isolated entries here and there as needed, as the poles get tighter.The other thing I like is that he recognizes the rhythm and loop of the session – the MM is much higher in value now because it has been paired with the frisbee. And he seems to be in a really great state of arousal. Perfect!
So, that means we are officially in the “that looked good, let’s plan for the next sessions” mode 🙂
Using your Find Em set up, for the next session(s):
– move the MM a little further away, like 6 feet or so, so he runs more after the poles and collects less.
– on the next session, keep everything the same except 1 thing: no more line ups. What I mean by that is after he gets his MM reward, have him come tug on the frizzer, then get him on your side (not between your feet, no sits) and then send him around the wing.
The purpose of this is to layer in a little more arousal. The line up and sit is a bit of a soothing moment and now we can add a little more arousal 🙂 It will take some good mechanics from you to get him on the proper side before the send, so play around with it before you add the weaves. I like to do that by tugging with whatever hand. I am going to send with, tugging to get back into position for the next send, then making eye contact and doing a bit of “ready, ready”, then sending 🙂 He is ready for the higher arousal level!If that goes well for a session or two: next step is to do it all again but now tighten up poles 1-2 🙂
We are likely going to get real striding at that point, so you can then switch to your real weave cue.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>> Here is a bit of work with the get out game. I used first the trailing arm cue with a bent arm as well and then just the trailing arm and verbal cue.
This looked really good! The best case scenario is if you can get it all on a verbal so you don’t really have to do more than run and yell things 🙂 As you work through this, you’ll see that your get out cue (with and without the outside arm) is rotating your upper body a lot – which is causing your feet to rotate and get pulled in towards the jump rather than keep running straight. So the next step would be to see if you can ‘soften’ the upper body rotation a little but using the same concept but with the emphasis on your feet running straight. That will mean your upper body can’t rotate as much – so give him as little as possible in terms of the rotation, but as much as needed. So if you soften it too much and he fails, add a little back in – think of it as a fading process as the verbals solidify.
>> I’m so pleased that Kip has now learned these cues from all the zig zag work we did.
Yes! That is definitely a helpful benefit of that game! And it helps with the jumping effort on the get out jump because he knows how to do the sideways slices.
>>I like having the bent arm cue for added cue strength when needed!
Yes – and you might find using that outside bent arm is super useful when this cue is followed by a threadle or front cross.
>>We are still working toward tight wraps and powering out of tight turns so we are doing more “wind in your hair 2”>>
Great! That takes some noodling around to find the timing and rhythm of it, and it will change when he is an adult and working on full height bars.
>>I do appreciate the way your lessons come in layers. Also, I did enter the 031 class so now you will get to meet my crazed, adrenaline junkie Pyr-Shep Rik/Rik>>>
Awww, thanks! All this time in front of the computer during this pandemic year has allowed me to try to improve the structure. And I am TOTALLY looking forward to the CAMP class and seeing Rik/Rik get to play!!!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend! Great job here!
TracyHi!
We have plenty of time left – one more set of games is published on Monday, bringing the poles up to 12 poles. Then we have til the end of May to get it all done and submit videos 🙂Tracy
Hi! I think 8 poles will be fine! Warm them up with a slightly wider channel (2.5 inches should be good?) and then see how he foes. I agree that he would be able to get into the rhythm on 4 poles 🙂
TracyHi!
The Get Out is looking REALLY good, and she was a good girl to also NOT get out when you wanted her to follow your line!>>I think I am still late with the toy. Says to throw it when she looks at jump. Yea, I’m late. Last one I went to a better toy to throw. That went better. I’ll try distance and other side. >>
I think you can add a little more distance with the wing further from the jump – that will give you time to get the toy throw in earlier. Plus, that will challenge you to stay on a straight running line the whole time – and with more distance it makes the get out cue harder! But it makes the blind after it easier 🙂 So yes, definitely move to adding more distance on this side and the other side.
Great job!!!
TracyHi!
Yes, there is a lot to show the dogs in a very short amount of time 🙂
I think the main thing for her will be that you can decelerate sooner – she is technically a ‘medium’ sized dog but her timing needs will be very, very similar to your BCs (thankfully – you only have to remember ONE timing and not different ones!) So accelerate like you did out of the wing wrap but decelerate as she is arriving at the beginning of the middle section. When you did that at :32 and on the last rep: gorgeous! When you did it later, as she was almost at the jump: she was wide.So one thing I do is mark the different sections for myself – you can see that I marked the sections for fast – slow – rotate with red and blue cones here. And no matter where I was, when the dog passed the red cone, it was decel time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZqorl5UpIk
The decel will feel pretty early but it really helps the dog to do that 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense! You might have to mark the sections for Ruby too because she is so fast!!
TracyHi! The rear crosses are looking good!
>>The first Right RC at .17 was not too good >>
It was harder to get because you were waiting for her from further off the line, so it was harder to show the RC pressure there. On all of the other reps, you were much clearer on the rear cross pressure, so she had no questions. Nice!!! Yes, keep going in deep to the tunnel because it will make it easier to set the line for the RC.
And she had no trouble finding the wings after the RC! Yay! That was supposed to be hard, but she didn’t think it was LOL!Great job 🙂
TracyGood morning!
This is going really well!>>So she needs some more practice to know which word means which direction.>>
Yes, it does take some practice to get it on pure verbals but she did really well here overall. One note: if she has a miss, like turning right when you cued left – rather than start her on your side after the miss, start her from the between-your-feet position again and see if she can fix it. That will really help her attach the verbals to the correct behavior rather than rely on being on your side:)
Plus, when we add it into sequences, it will be much easier because it will make more sense than randomly starting between your feet LOL!Great job 🙂
TracyGood morning!
Since we were talkng about how to handle errors, I think you did a good job with that here: on 2 of the wraps to her right on the wing, she didn’t commit so you were all like “whee! Try again, let’s go” and she seemed happy with that, no frozen moments 🙂 She was a little more chill overall in this session, but it was proabbly because she didn’t get her normal naps in hahaha!!!!
On those right wraps around the wing, she needs more connection, really exaggerate it with your arm back – that is her more difficult turning side and when you point forward, she follows your shoulders. She is better turning to her left and you are more connected on those, so she was very successful 🙂
Nice work on the transitions! I think one thing that will make it feel less awkward and get her moving is if you accelerate more. I know, it is weird advice to say to run really fast into tight turns LOL!!! But as she exits the wing wrap, if you are accelerating towards the jump for several steps, she will accelerate too – then showing the decel and the turn will be much easier and feel more comfy for you 🙂 You accelerated on the Go reps really well and she accelerated too, so the transition reps can start with the same acceleration (but without the Go verbal) then shift into the decel then rotation. She is super responsive, so I think that you’ll find it gives you speed, commitment AND lovely turns.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Nice work on both of these!!!
>>I find her responsiveness really exciting. >>
Totally agree! She is very good at telling you what your handling reads, it is really cool to see!
On the videos:
Get out – I highly recommend either drawing a line in the sand or laying a leash there so you don’t step in and can just keep your feet moving straight 🙂 Your cues were good with your upper body on the first 2 reps but you can move along a straighter line there and not step in towards the jump. There was an oopsie at :19 – you didn’t quite get connection on the exit of the wing wrap beore the get out cue, and your arm was not indicating the jump so she was not sure where to go (I think you were htinking about the blind :))
The get out then the blind looked much better at :30 and on the next reps! You are paying really good attention to the quick connection mechanics *after* the blind and that really helps her see it.
>>When I tried the blind crosses, we were really wide. Assuming the handler was really late. I thought I rotated pretty quickly on the last one but we were still wide.>>
Yes, they were a little late starting, which makes them late finishing – and with baby dogs, they really don’t respond until we finish and reconnect because they are really inexperienced. You did rotate and reconnect quickly which is why she got the turn and not the other jump. As the pups learn this, they will respond as soon as you start the cue so the turn will get tighter and there will be less pressure on us humans to be perfect in timing 🙂
So for the wide turns: Part of it is she had just been rewarded a few times for going straight and part of it was timing – as soon as you see her turn her head to go look at the jump, you have to start the blind (so much trust!) and ideally, you finish the blind in time to see her taking off for the jump 🙂 But no worries – you can spread this out and make it closer to competition distance, which will give you more time to do it and then the turn will be much tighter 🙂
>>. I really wanted to eliminate the get out verbal and go straight to the tight left turn verbal, but I didn’t.>>
When you are on bigger distances, you will have time for both verbals. The smaller distances make it harder 🙂
On your tradition dances 🙂 I mean, transitions LOL
Trial and error is part of the learning for us humans 🙂 as long as we assume the dog is correct and keep reinforcing, the dog will allow us to try different things and give us feedback 🙂Looking at what worked and what didn’t work on both videos:
On the first video:
Rep 1 – you did the decel and rotate at the same time, thus the rear cross
rep 2 – good!!!!
rep 3 – you never accelerated, so the decel was harder to show. Start really close to the wrap wing so you can drive out of it. The acceleration is an important element of the commitment cue.
rep 4: on the Go balance rep – make it a true go if you are going to use the go verbal, and run run run 🙂 and throw the reward long. Don’t decelerate and reward her for coming back tight to you, so you don’t lose the Go value. The Go balance reps are good to throw in to ‘cleanse the palate’ after all the turns 🙂You had good transitions at :38 an :50! One little oopsie between the 2 of them at :44, where you were not connected and turned your shoulders away, so she read it as a tandem to the backside (clever!!)
On the 2nd video –
The 1st rep was a flipped transition: you did a decel then accelerated so it did read as a RC to her. Then you got into the groove:
:10 better, :20 was good and :27 was GREAT!!! Note her commitment AND her lovely turn. That was the feeling and timing of the transition. Yay!Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The target fading is going really well!! The first rep was weird with him kind of jumping off, but almost all of the rest was good – I think he finds it important to have that one moment of break between the line up and slam cue so he can prepare himself – the only errors were when you did it all at once. And you can totally lure him to line up in a perpendicular position, otherwise he doesn’t use his hind end as well to leap on when he is on your left side to start here (and also with the Bang Game).
Bang game: He is super confident, which is great! Also, he is stopping at the beginning of the target not *on* the target. So the 2 choices are to revisit him putting his feet *on* it, such as reminding him he can scratch at it – or fade the target to the very edge of the board so he puts his feet at the edge of the target which will be at the edge of he board 🙂 I vote for fading it to the very edge because I think the other games will also encourage him to get to the very edge of the board.
Elevator game warm up:
On that first rep – I think your cookie hand was high and moving over his head, so he was focusing on that and came off the board – on the 2nd rep, you got the cookie hand out of the way – same with the next elevator reps, and he was perfectly fine 🙂 So just be careful about your hand being a cookie helicopter above his head LOL! On the elevator game, he paws the target which gets him very close to the edge. Perfect! You can make the target more narrow here so it is closer to the edge too.Crazy elevator went really well! He seemed perfectly fine with this new element, lots of confidence. He didn’t have a ton of speed because he was starting very close to the board. So for the next session, start with the regular elevator warm up, then for crazy elevator: set him a couple of metres away from the board to see how he does with more speed. Then add a wing to wrap around! I am confident he will be fine with all of that 🙂 I am not worried about speed, he is going to be VERY fast so it is more a matter of helping him understand the weight shift at the end of the board.
I know the rules about teeters have recently changed in NZ – is this the full height of the teeter? It looks low to me but it might be the camera perspective.
Great job here!!!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
Ah yes, the joys of when plans go sideways haha!
It is amazing how internal arousal can change the behavior! But also a good window into ways we can plan for training. And also a good example of why I work so much on just a random plank – to get all of the oopsies out on a ‘meaningless’ thing so the actual obstacle is only associated with joyous correctness LOL!!So – looking at the 2nd session, first: this is more normal for him: fast and accurate, no problem, plus I think you were more prepared for it by dialing back some of the excitement and motion coming into it. The first session was more of a session about variables: as soon as you see he is not in the right state, you can noodle around with changing variables to get him into the right state: stuff like switching to food, adding in chin rests as part of the reset, etc. It is a good opportunity to work through something that is guaranteed to happen at trials – he is a bit over-aroused and we need to know how to center that arousal. It means that the target fading goes out the window but that is a great opportunity to work on the other stuff.
For example, when my Voodoo gets very stimulated, I get him back to center in terms of arousal with a routine of barking at me (howling, mainly haha), a precision paw wave trick, and tugging in the leash. We have to figure that out for each dog.And one other thing you can add, which will come in very handy:
using the success of the 2nd session here, start off your next session the same way… then stimulate him more 🙂 Since he did really well with the more centered arousal, and since he might end up needed to self-center (is that a word, even?) at trials… I do a LOT of stimulating the dogs and then doing simple elements of the training to teach them to do it even when fully aroused. That is why they all bark on cue, because I can use it as a stimulator. And wild tugging gets it going too 🙂 That will all help the end result on the teeter 🙂Nice job here! Let me know what you think 🙂
TracyGood morning!
Good job here on both!!
Fading the target on the bang game is going really well. He was kind of ‘chill’ at home so you can ramp him up now before each session, that will help get rid of extra salad moments LOL!
2 little details – when he is on your left line him up more parallel to the board and less perpendicular to it, so he doesn’t have to turn to leap on: it is more of a straight down approach like when you were doing when he was on your right.And to get the leap right onto the end, try not to have any moving starts at this stage: always start right next to the very end of the board, getting him a little wild 🙂 and that can build up the explosiveness to the end position (and also gives him an extra moment to think about driving to it).
Elevator Game – great idea to have the Toppl at the ready to move away from the really loud reset of the board! That is a noisy board indeed! He did really well on the elevator game, and it was a good warm up for the next level.
Crazy elevator game – this was a great intro in a new place! He seemed confident running up the board on all the reps – not a lot of speed from the stay but that was probably because it was the first couple of reps and it is hard to sprint up a board coming from a stay position. But that is fine, we mainly wanted him to see what the game was about and not go flying off the end 🙂
But then he got a LOT more speed coming up the board from the wing wrap! YAY!!!
At 2:25, note him looking for the target and starting to move to it during the countdown, even before you dropped the board. Nice!! So the next steps are to keep on adding your motion after the drop, and to also start closer to the wing so you are running as he is approaching the board.
You asked in one of the other threads about the teeter verbal – feel free to add it here when he is exiting the wing wrap! So it would be:
cue the wing, say your teeter cue, catch the board, reward, countdown, target cue, drop the board reward 🙂Great job here!
TracyHi!
Yes, she can totally have more outdoor sessions with toys and without needing too bring them back or train 🙂 I have a ‘go for a run’ cue which means ‘go have a party of one’ LOL!!!
And for the other stuff – yes, sounds like developing the loop of toy play will be really helpful! And just doing it with the loop of play, exchange, play, exchange will get it started – then that loop can be installed into training other things too 🙂
TracyHi! Glad you are having fun with this game, it is one of our proofing class games 🙂 He is doing well! Yes, the motion is hard! You can have the target in place to help him out as you build up to running (I think the target is faded here). When you can run, it will be easy to fade the target again.
As with the elevator game, he is sometimes offering a 2on 2off, probably because of the rewards being out ahead a lot. He did best when you did not have the cookie target out ahead here towards the end of the session. So try rewarding in position like you did here, no cookie holder out ahead and the target on the board…with you jogging the whole time now 🙂
Let me know how it goes!! Nice work!
Tracy
