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Good morning!
Rocking horses:
Great emphasis on really connecting with her! These games are harder than they look because there is so much speed LOL! At :47, you hit a common error where we handlers look forward to soon on the send and it looks like a blind to the dog (so she confidently went to the other side of you). Excellent fix at :54 with more connection. And nice job on the running rewards! When these are more comfy, add in your wrap verbals!Send backs:
She is just such a happy particpant!! SO fun to watch. Good job onthese, great reward placement to get both the commitment and the turn back. Keep using the connection behind you as you step back (shifting to look at the wing), it really help as will holding the step back position. It looks like she was coming off the commitment when you didn’t hold quite long enough (you were beginning the first muscle twitch of moving away LOL!) So hold still til she is at the wing and then reward and move away. That will build into countermotion easily after a few sessions.Serpentines: Backyard training will be the norm for a while but that helps us work through distractions!
On the serp – you can be a little bit further from the wing, one extended arm’s length (gives her a bit more room). And, you can open up your upper body to be more of a full serp position – in this case, your left shoulder points at the wing, your right shoulder points where the other wing would be, and your serp arm (right arm here) is open way back to where the other wing would be. You were pointing to her and that was causing your shoulders to close – which will make a difference when we add motion to this. Then when you have that position – hold your shoulders completely still til she gets to the reward – turning them forward closes things off and can cause her to go around the wing rather than come in over the bar, like at 1:37. Changing the reward position helps her understand to come in over the bar, and shoulders open will help too (open shoulders help cue the next jump/turn away when we are running :))As she got to the slice line (2:44) you had more open shoulders, and that is the position for all of the serps, even when she starts on different angles.
Let me know if that makes sense! Nice work on these!
TracyGood morning!
>>Question on the ladder jump exercise….do all the jumps need wings? I have simple 6″ fixed jumps that I made for when I took the Salo course with CAVU. I used those for the jump grid exercises at that time. I’m assuming they will work or I can just use my regular jumps set at 4″ or 6″ whichever you prefer. I actually have done a bit of this with him before so should I just start with 4 or 5 jumps are still start with 3 then 4 then 5?
Has Benni seen 6″ bars? Those might be a little high for a starting point for him (he is smaller than CAVU, I believe) so maybe start at 4″ and then we can see – the fixed jumps should work for a lot of it, I just want ot be sure we start in the right place. Do a rep or two with 3 jumps and if it looks good, move to 4 and 5 jumps.
>>first I did the FC/BC too fast, now I don’t do the BC soon enough. I’m gonna get that right one of these days! He sure does love when I run away from him so he can catch up!
Yes, he loves the chase which is great for agility! And your mechanics are good so now we can do the “go faster” reps LOL! Nice work!
Tracy
Yay, this ended up strong! I think the first couple of reps were more about her just wanting the cookie and taking the most efficient path to it LOL!! A handler tweak – open up your upper body more. Your shoulders should be parallel to the bar, with the right shoulder pointing to the exit wing and left shoulder pointing to where the other wing would be, and center of chest pointing to center of bar. It is easiest to do this by extending your serp arm further from your body, almost pointing it to where the other wing would be, rather than pointing it to her. This keeps your shoulders more ‘open’ like they will be on full running serps. You were pointing more to her, which closed your shoulders and makes it harder to cue the serp. When she got out onto the slice line towards the end of the video, your arm was more extended and shoulders more open – that’s the position for the serp, even when she is not on the slice line. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
Once she realized how to earn the reward, she did a great job on the come-in-then-go-out serp behavior!!! Nicely done!
TracyHi there!
I think we can help him out with some subtle changes to the picture. It looks like you might have been too close, try to be a full arm’s length back which should give him more room to get in there but will still cue the bend. Also, many herding dogs don’t love the pressure of driving into serps so he might have been moving away from it – so you can have him come in and do a hand touch right in position, for a reward right on the touch hand (big cookie) or, to really get him driving in – after he touches the hand, throw a reward out behind you so he drives out of it. Then we gradually massage that over to touch hand and get reward thrown to serp line… then we go back to the toy already on the ground. That should quickly build value for coming in 🙂
Let me know what you think!Tracy
Hi there!
She was terrific on the serps, no problem at all. Yay! Try to keep your shoulder open and frozen until she gets to the food bowl, to simulate how you would cue the next jump of a serp (pointing forward might send her past the next jump). You were really good about keeping your shoulder open and not moving at :20ish! You were rolling your shoulder closed on the other reps as she was passing you, which you don’t want to do. It will make more sense when we add motion 🙂>>I have a question about verbals. Could I use the same terms left and right for both a wrap and a loose turn or do I need different words? I’m trying to keep it less confusing for me!
I think different words will make more sense to her, because the collection effort is pretty different on loose turns versus tight wraps. If you want to keep it simpler, you can have one verbal that means wrap (like digdigdig or something) and one verbal that means lookse (like “swing” or something). That is less complicated than a different verbal for each type of turn 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi there!
I got your email and replied, let me know if you find it.
As for hawks, how big is Benni? I have hawks in my area and they don’t bother the papillons when I am out wit them, including training when they are running around or when we are running in the field. I am always out with them so it hasn’t been an issue. They do have a great recall and I do watch the skies, but fingers crossed – no problems.On the videos:
Mini Pinny – his bending is loking good, right on the inside wing, no worries about one random rep that wasn’t as perfect 🙂 Now – move that middle wing a bit further away to gradually expand it. The goal is to maintain commitment to the left or right as the middle jump gets further away, then as the side jumps eventually expand too. As the distance grows, he might add a stride, and that it fine.
Rocking horses: the FC/BC is very clear! Nice! You can do the blind even sooner… and run faster 🙂 You are moving away but treading water a bit in the middle, so spread the wings out so you have to really run. Wheeee!The step backs look really good!! He is really getting great with commitment!!! You can start your verbal sooner, I think you were saying tight- but he was about 3 feet from the wing when you said it. You can start saying it when he exits the previous wing, even if you have not given the body cue yet.
The reps with all the running looked really nice!!! It might be easier on the footwork if you decelerated then rotated, I think you were trying to rotate at top speed. And if we sometimes step with the wrong leg – no worries, the pups should commit anyway 🙂 You can also add in the distance element of NOT running, when you start close to one wing and send him waaaay away to the other wing with a step back.
Serp – He is doing a nice job coming in and oging back out! Yes, don’t move – don’t let your shoulder close, freeze your shoulder so it doesn’t roll forward don’t move anything til he gets to the toy. You’ll be feeling odd, standing there with your shoulder frozen in position as he passes you – but that is how we would need to hold our shoulder to cue the jump after the serp, so it is all human training 🙂Nice work! Fingers crossed for good weather!!
TracyHi there!
Bending is looking good! She really gotten super engaged in her training, offering so much great stuff and ignoring the chickens LOL! She looked good over the bars too, so she looks ready for you to go to the next step: full jumps in the mini pinny, doing lefts and rights. Wheeee! The grandkids sound adorable in the background <3Targeting - looks like you have worked out a position to be in front and hopefully not make your knees angry. She is doing well here. Each target cue should mean move to position, so when she is higher on the steps then steps into position, she is correct like at 1:57. You don't nee to keep saying target at that stage, you can reward a couple of times then release, get her back higher on the stairs, then say target to move into position again. That might explain why she stopped and looked at the camera at around 2:05, then slurped your face LOL! She was probably thinking, "dude, I *already* did target!" haha so it is more than just a nose touch, it is the motion of stepping in - so repeating the target cue might be confusing her. Let me know if that makes sense.
Also - I think this is ready to go on an angled plank, like a low dog walk or low a-frame plank? What do you have available so we can add it in?Nice job!
TracyHi!
Yes, you are definitely moving out of them really nicely! Keep playing with doing the blind by looking more directly back to him, that will help him see it even sooner.
The step backs are look off to a good start. He thinks we are nuts, of course, because you aren’t moving forward, but that is exactly the point LOL!
At 1:03, he ended up on the wrong side of you – a connection break. Let him see you go from his eyes to your hand then back to the side of the wing you want. I think you were too quick and he missed it, just reading motion. So much clearer on the next rep at 1:07!!!
And EXCELLENT when you added motion!!! He is basically committed when you are early, on time, or late – perfect!Nice job on the serps! Good timing on the first couple with the MM – keep that up so he stops wanting to look as you as he comes around the wing 🙂 You can also tell him to get it, in case he is being polite and waiting for permission. He is still figuring out that he is totally allowed to move to the MM without you, but when you add motion it will be even easier. He did really well on the harder angles too, and that is a great bending game for him! About the other arm – you can use it with him, and you would just add it to this game rather than using the dog side arm. It is easier to run when you don’t have to use it and most dogs are fine without it, but you are a good runner so you can decide if you want it or not with him 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi there, good work on these!
On the mini pinny – work work from him! It is not unusual for dogs to offer a backside on these because it is easier than driving in nice and close 🙂 For a jumping challenge, you can move the outer jumps in about a foot closer so he bounces rather than strides. You can definitely add verbals to this – maybe something like ’round or swing? One note about left and right for wrap verbals – Jenny Damm suggests using them so they sounds different from each other in pattern and emphasis – something like Lehft and rightright rather than leflefleft or righrighright. I thought it was a solid suggestion!
Your rocking horses are also looking great, his wrap commitment is getting really strong 🙂 And you can spread the wings waaaay out if you want a running workout and less tiptoe motion LOL!
1st rep looked great, gorgeous emphasis on connection. 2nd rep also great til he didn’t commit on 360. You will probably have to slow down a bit and let him turn more before moving forward on the 360s, then throw the reward in behind you. I think you were just moving with too much speed (running too fast lol) for his commitment at this stage.
You can also start your verbals sooner- as soon as he rounds the previous wing, even before you send him – it trains you to be early and it trains him to predict the wrap will follow the verbal cue.
Poor guy at the end! That is exactly why you will want to slow down so he figures it out LOL! Ouch!On the serps – was that steam coming out of his ears? Good boy!!! Very very challenging exercise but he did really well. It was wise to keep it simple for now. One suggestion – you can have him come in and do a hand touch for cookies right on the hand or a surprise frizzer because I know he loves his frizzer! And for border collie types that need to learn to drive hard into the handler, you can also throw a reward directly behind you a few times after he moves towards your hands.
Nice work!!!
TracyHi there!
You did a really nice spin on that first rep! Perfect!
On the 2nd rep, at :12, I think you wanted him to stay on your right side – he just needed more eye contact there, you looked forward a little too soon. You nailed it at :15! His commitment on the 360 was great!
On the 3rd rep, it was a nice blind but indeed a blind LOL! Still, good to practice all the moves! On the last rep, you did a spin then another blind (super fancy!) so if the reward across the body is messing you up, focus just on getting the spin – then we will add the reward across the body back to it. You walked it perfectly without him, it will get easier with more practice 🙂 The reverse spin and the Jaakko are very similar moves. You can think of them that way as long as you are moving forward out of them (like you did here) and not spinning in place.His commitment looked really good on all of them!
On the mini pinny – setting them closer towards the end of the video was getting the bouncing, yay! I think that is the good starting point. If he hits a bar, he gets a calm quiet boring cookie. If he doesn’t touch any bars… big party using his favorite rewards. Woot!
About the height:
>>Raise the bar so he needs to put in more effort? I did that to the set point this morning by 4 inches, and he really started to think and not be so bored, but then he knocked the bar twice out of three. He got it the last time. I then lowered it again. I don’t he realizes he needs to push off with his rear.>>I agree, I don’t think he knows he needs to push from the rear. More work on the bars where they are (super low) will help, with some differentiation in reinforcement. Asking for more effort is not a good idea when he doesn’t know how, as you saw when he it 2 of 3 this morning. So keep the bars low for now until he almost never touches them.
Nice work!
TracyHi there!
On your mini pinny – yes, he is hitting that middle bar, so we can work a bit on that! Try moving the 2 outer jumps in closer to the center jump, so he bounces rather trots. It will probably end up being a distance of 4 feet from center of each bar to the next one, but feel free to play with it to get the correct distance. And stand still for now, give only enough motion to give him permission to go through it. I am sure he will sort it out once we get him bouncing and using his hind end. Then all of the motion and verbals will be easy to slap on 🙂 Don’t start to pull them out until we have him bouncing and not touching the middle bar for a couple of sessions.He was *Awesome* on his tunnel rear crosses! I think he has figured it out! You can add in distance (starting further back) and angles to these as well. He is a big boy – he seems taller than the tunnels LOL!
About slowing down the video – on YouTube videos, you will see a “cog” in the lower right corner of the video – if you scroll over it, you will see it says “Settings” . Click on it, then click on Playback Speed and then you can slow it down.
Think of the spinny moves on the rocking horses as being a front cross like you’ve been doing – then, as you are moving away from the FC, you do a blind cross by turning your head.Yay, this looked great! Ah, neighbors LOL the barking dogs are actually a GREAT prep for running agility trials 🙂 My neighbor always chooses my video times to mow his lawn and yesterday his son was practicing pitching on their front lawn when I let the puppy out for a run (no fences here LOL!) The son is a minor league pitcher so the balls were moving fast, thankfully the puppy didn’t really see or he would apply to go live with them 🙂
The video looked really good – the FC sections were really strong. Using cones here is fine, they are big enough to be meaningful to him. He did best when you had fast motion then a little decel then you rotated – excellent powering through and commitment! When you weren’t moving as much, he got a little “hoppy” which is his version of asking a question. He still committed but needed you to move a little more.
On the FC/BC – I think you are trying to do them too fast (especially the first one) – think of them as 2 separate moves, done one then the other with a step or two or 3 in between. So as he is approaching the cone or wing, start the FC (just as you did here). Move away doing the FC for a step or 2, as you did here in the beginning of the video. Then, as he is rounding the cone/wing, keep moving forward and just turn your head to your other side for a blind cross on the flat. The FC is done relative to the cone, the BC is done on the flat. It will feel a lot slower and easier, hopefully (slower for you, not for him LOL!)Overall, his commitment is looking great which is why we can noodle around with the exact mechanics of the FC/BC. Great job!!
Tracy
Wheee! These are also a good handler workout LOL! This is going well.
One overall theme for the dog training side of things: mix in rewards tossed back to the wing pretty regularly. She is still learning her commitment and asked a question on each of these games – so start each game with a reward tossed to the wing (as you leave) and then mix in the running rewards (you did really nicely on those!!)Adding spinny moves: This went really well! Definitely toss some rewards back to the wing so you can leave earlier and earlier. You did all sorts of good moves – but I don’t think you did a spin on them LOL!! You did FCs, a post turn or two, and some tight blind crosses (NICE!) so on your next workout, add I n the spin by thinking of it as doing a FC then continuing to move away, then as you see her commit to the wing, turn your head to the other side for the blind. But your tight “regular” blinds looked really good!!!!
Step backs – they might have felt awkward but they are looking good. The single step backs looked really solid! And she knew you were about to run the other way, so it is a great spot to toss rewards back to the wing. As you drill yourself on these, remember to run less: you will be stepping back to send, then turn and face her then step back/send with the other leg. No breaking a sweat on this one, even when you add distance to it LOL This is really more of a dog training exercises (because you hopefully would never be completely stationary on this cue) so you can totally mix in throw rewards.
The 360 wraps at the end – nice!!!!!!! What a good girlie! She had a question on the first one (I think her question was something like “wtf??” Haha!) so you can start each round with a reward tossed to the wing. But then her commitments were really fabulous! I was going to suggest that you turn the wing so it is ‘flatter’ so she can see it better – but based on how she did after the first rep, I believe she doesn’t need that, she was nailing it on that angle.
Very nice work!!!!!!!
T
Yay, this is looking good! It might be easier to sit on your bum? Whatever feels easier – it is an awkward position for us humans 🙂 The only other suggestion is to leave your target hand closer to the steps, so she stays in the stand and doesn’t accidentally come off the steps – the hand was a little far and that is what you were getting those. Next question – have you added in a plastic target of some sort? I think she is ready! Adding the target is followed by getting it to the ground, then eventually we fade you out from being in front.
Have fun!
TracyGood morning! Hope all is well!
>> he doesn’t wear a collar, wears a harness and would probably be horrified if I grabbed it. He’s not much of an opposition reflex guy.>>
Yep, that is why I asked 🙂 Not every dog likes it! Some downright think it is gross. And we don’t want to associate something icky with agility!
On the go session – he did really well! You can start as close to the cone as possible to really get him driving waaaay ahead of you. You can also mix in some turns cue on the jump, so he wraps back to you (and gets rewarded from your hand. That will give you a lot of training opportunities without having to run – should help save the Achilles from more pain!!!
Set point: also looking good! I think the reward is helping to round his form. In the next session, you can add a bit of motion (walking) by leading out halfway between the jump and the reward target, release then walk. You can also stay in the parallel plane to the reward as you did here, but add challenge with lateral distance! I suggest holding off on another set of jumping games for a day or two, we don’t want to jump the dogs every day (even on low bars), so you can add those challenges later in the week.
Mini pinny – he is doing a great job of performing this independently! Good job adding the verbals in, try not to say go before the first jump though because we don’t want extension on it 🙂 Starting with the left or right cue is the permission cue here. One tweak now is to reward on the angle of the turn after the 3rd jump, so the last left or right cue gets the turn on jump 3 as well. And as you expand the distances, good job rewarding ut after jump 2 – I think he was asking questions (“should I go this far away??”) so the rewards will help build the confidence 🙂
>>I thought I was remembering everything, then realized you wanted the original stage to be a bounce. So, I messed that part up since this was set as a traditional 180 degree pinwheel and ends up being 1 stride between each jump when he takes it on the innermost part (where the distance is the shortest).>>
No worries! This game covers both the bounce-bending and also the add distance. You can revisit it where the bars are super low and he bounces rather than strides, and mix in spreading it out so he can add striding. He will be bending on both challenges, just different kinds of bending skills. As with the set point and other games – give him a day or two off from jumping work, then revisit it later in the week. I like to save their bodies by not asking for jumping (even on low bars) every day.
Nice work here!!
Tracy
