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Good morning!
First, some answers:>>So I do have a question on the sends when I am leaving early…related to the feet forward stuff I did with CAVU where we changed our lower body early to indicate the lead change for the turn….I’m thinking that is what you mean by rotating 3-4 feet before he reaches the wing? Also, when we are doing the running with opposing handler motion, do we still send with a step or keep our motion going and use our motion to send the dog?
When things really get moving, you will feel it as a transition – you will be moving forward, slowing down, then rotating. So there won’t be a big step forward like we are doing in these early stages, but there will be motion towards the wing/jump to indicate commitment. Eventually, you will be rotating and leaving as he is passing you, or earlier!
>>Also, so as not to overdo with repetition for the sake of the dog, how many short sessions are advisable for exercises…especially wrapping with tight turns? I keep the reps low per session. Twice a week?
I try to spread out the games and do one thing every day – one different thing. So maybe 2 minutes of wing wrapping, then leave it alone for 3 or 4 days – mixing in a shaping game then a tunnel game, etc, each on different days. Or, if you are going to a training facility – do a minute or so of each game, then leave it alone for a few days. We have time on our side so there is no reason to do a ton of reps. For my youngsters, I do fewer than 10 wraps and then don’t repeat the game for a day or two.
On the video: really nice drive to the tunnels!!! Good boy! Nice toy play too. When you are getting him revved up before you start (ready ready ready), no need to poke him with your fingers – it caused him to bark at you and turn towards you with teeth a bit… we want the youngsters to be a bit calm & boring at this stage LOL so no need to get him aroused towards your hands. On your next tunnel session, add in exit info when he is about 3 feet in front of the entry: either call his name (or use a left or right cue, if you have been adding those) when you want a turn. Or, yell GO! for a straight exit. And match your physical location and placement of reward to the verbal – you were doing a great location/reward for the nice tight turns here, so you can add in running straight and throwing the toy for the Go! exits.
Nice work here, he is SUPER fun!!!!
Tracy
Hi there
Rocking horses – his commitment is looking good, and good job with the verbals! I can see where he was starting to lose his oomph – heat is a factor for sure, and you can also throw the reward out past the wing too as they get further apart. 2 more ideas-
he was game to go, so if he starts without you, call him back cheerily and start quickly. I think he was told nope a few times and that burst the bubble a little. The other thing to do to keep it exciting is to run when you reward, which makes it more active.Jump value – I think at this point you can reduce back and forth over the one jump, he is showing really good value. Building it to a couple of jumps is a good extension of the lazy game (something that we will be adding an encouraging). It should not be confusing, only helpful 🙂
Tunnel sends:
He seems to be liking his tunnel, yay! Fun exciting rewards too! You can definitely add more distance on the sends, which will also give you more time to cue a turn on the entry. You were a little late because you were starting close, but better to start close to build the value 🙂Stay tour – looking good, especially near the jumps! We want him to love the stay most of all right now :). When you go to the food reward, be sure to get all the way back to him then put the food in his mouth. You were leaning and extending, so he wanted to move his feet. When you release to the tunnel, be a little closer to the tunnel entry so he knows exactly where you want him to go.
Nice work on all of these!!
TracyYay, I see toy found the thread starter!
He looks great, such a cool pup!The rocking horses are going well! On the first rep, he did a great job committing. As you ramped up the timing to leave earlier, he wasn’t as sure of which side of you to be on as he came around the wing- he would only see your back til he was almost at you, so he drifted a little wide. To help that, keep your arm a little further back and make a bit more eye contact as he comes around the wing, to really clarify which side to be on. Your arm was beautifully low and your lower body was perfect!
His commitment as you added distance was great!! And he really liked when you were running on the last rep. I think the occasional barks are just excitment 🙂
Now… you can try to leave even sooner! You were rotating just as he was arriving at the wing. So build it up to where you are rotating when he is 3 or 4 or 5 feet from the wing… then build to where you are rotating as he is passing you. Hard but fun!!
And great news about the tricks and the stays. He is doing great!!!
Looking forward to seeing more 🙂
TracyHi there!
Her stays are looking really good! She has so much lovely drive for the game that putting all this value on her stays at this point… totally great investment in the future 🙂 definitely something to keep maintaining – she should almost look like she’d rather stay than run at this point LOL! And the more you can include her favorite people and dogs, the better 🙂Tunnel sends: definitely nice value on the Tunnels and I am glad you mixed in stays as well. She had a little trouble with her friends coming in but that is great to work through. She was great about letting you turn and leave – you almost pushed her off one LOL! The timing of the physical cues looked good (before she went in, so she could totally see the cues). The only thing I’d tweak is the verbal: you were generally using her name at the exit (the last rep was right as she entered) so try to time the verbals to match the physical cue, which is about a stride before she enters. And if you’re working on left and rights, you can use them here too because she is reading the physical cue so nicely. I like to say the cue one stride before entering, then I keep saying it so it is easy for the pup to locate me at the exit :).
Nice work!
TracyHi! Welcome! Perfect job with the video, she is adorable!!!!!
On your rocking horses – because of her small size and inexperience, I think keeping your send arm lower and softer, along with more eye contact as she comes around the wing, will help build even more commitment.
For example, at :02, :12, :20 :29 and :34, you had a low arm and good connection and she really committed and drove around the turn. Compare that to the higher arm and you looking forward more at :05, :16, :28 and :31 – she had more questions on those, in the form of slowing down and looking up at you. So lots of low arm and eye contact throughout will help! Your lower body was perfect.
Well done!!
TracyHi Sandy and Benni! Welcome! If you scroll down to the bottom of all the threads in the Forum page, you’ll see where you can start a new thread. Also, you can read more about how the new site works in the User Guide on the Course Syllabus page.
Have fun!
TracyHi! This looks terrific! The first warm up rep was good but you can see how pointing forward isn’t as clear as rotating early as you did in the the next reps! She slipped a little on the forward facing rep, but had the info earlier and set up really nice turns on the earlier reps. It is a Classic example of why we need to rotate nice and early! Yay!
Her commitment looks great and your connection is strong. The squeaking is just an added bonus lol!
So two ways to increase challenge:
1- you stay in the middle the whole time, doing one step sends and rotating early, but not running towards any wings. Hard! Move the wings in close again to start this.
2- have a tunnel randomly sitting out there, as a distraction, and play the rocking horses game as you did here. You can add in sending her to a tunnel as a reward too 🙂
Nice work!!!
TracyHa! Well if you and Brenda are bringing the wine, I will come over and we can do puppy games because we all have puppies. LOL! Looks like I won’t be doing much traveling any time soon…
Hi there! Good stuff here!
1st rep was perfect, so you were right to move the wings further apart. On the 2nd rep, you were leaning back as he was almost at the wing, and he was not quite as sure… but he committed GOOD BOY!
3rd rep you tried to leave sooner at :25 and he was all like NOPE lol!! You said it was about the toy, but he successfully ignored it moving around on the last 2 reps, so my vote is that it was about your motion LOL! He did better committing on the last 2 reps – you were a little closer to the jumps, which helped. Definitely keep playing this game so he lets you cue and leave as fast as you wanted to here (you were pretty darned speedy!) with one tweak: throw the reward back to him at the wing as you leave, so that the balance of value gets shifted to maintaining commitment even as you speed away from the wing.Tunnel commitment video: he did a GREAT job of committing to the tunnel as you left in all sorts of crazy directions. Well done!! He is still learning to turn on the exit, you can see he wasn’t always sure where you had gone even when you had a really early visual/positional cue. That will come with experience, no worries. But, you can definitely call him a lot sooner. Your first Robie call at :07 was your best one, he was still about 3 feet from the tunnel when you called him. On the other reps, you were either a little late (calling when his head was entering the tunnel) or really late 🙂 calling him when he was halfway through or almost out. So, remember to call 3 feet before he enters. His tunnel commitment appears to be super strong so you can time your cues to be nice and early. And if you have been working on a left or right cue, you can use those too!
Lazy handling video: wait, no glass of wine? I highly recommend a relaxing beverage during this game LOL!
I swear I snorted and startled my dogs when he walked into the wing at :05 LOL! <3 puppies <3 Thank you for leaving it in the video, we will look back someday when he is winning big things and remember this LOL!!!
This was a GREAT game for him - finding the jump without a massive effort from you is going to be really helpful in his future course work! When you were just strolling along, yes, he did want to default to heeling: but the jump should override that when you are moving towards it. Definitely do a couple of sessions of this til he immediately goes to the jump. He was starting to figure it out nicely towards the end of the clip. He won't be going fast yet on this, and that is fine - we just want him to find the jump 🙂Nice work!!!!
Tracy
Good morning! First, some answers:
Yes, this is where you can post your videos 🙂
Tags are just if you want to add key words for searching later on, like “rocking horse” or something. I haven’t found a need for them, as the forum threads keep things in order very nicely 🙂
Adding a picture:
Our website software pulls profile images from a popular profile image service called Gravatar. You can create an account at Gravatar.com using the same email address that you use on agility-u.com. Then follow these instructions to upload your profile photo over on Gravatar:
https://en.gravatar.com/support/activating-your-account/And lastly – video! Yay!
Rocking horses:
The first set look good, complete with the multi-wrap! Interesting that he looked at the tunnel first – good information from him about where his focus is directed even though there was no real indication of it. So, a way to add challenge is to bring the tunnel into it by moving it closer and sometimes giving him a cue to take it in between wing wraps. That way he can hash out when the tunnel is in play, and when it is not in play. You can even put the tunnel out past one of the wings for added excitement (I have some proofing games coming soon that ask these questions of the dogs :))Nice use of wrap verbals!
Now, what to look for to reward – his commitment looks good so I would look for effort at collection before the wing to reward. And, ideally, effort at collect NOT on a multiwrap (it is very easy to collect on wrap 2, I like to see collection on wrap 1!) My favorite of his collections was at :13 (wrap to his right after the first multi-wrap) – that is a good moment to reward. Throwing in a multiwrap here and there is fine, but don’t do too many because it tends to slow the youngsters down too much – they wait for multiwraps, especially if those get rewarded a lot.
You can reward the great collection/commitment either by running out of the wings to a toy, or with a cue to the tunnel. Wheeee!!! I like to reward collection with the opportunity to explode forward.2nd set, more distance – well done! You warmed him up with a bit of simple sending forward, then ramped it up by leaving earlier with countermotion. He did a great job maintaining commitment AND turning. Woot!
Adding the jump bar in – you can really see how leaving early gets him to think about how he sets himself up to commit AND turn. Yessssss 🙂 When you are facing forward for too long (like at :46 and 1:00, which were the first reps), he reads it more as a soft turn cue so lands wider. Compare that to :52 and the wraps in the 2nd session, where you were rotated and leaving much sooner, and he was able to set up much better turns. It definitely challenged his commitment, I could see some steam coming out of his ears! But he nailed it!
Nice work here!! We will be building on these even more very soon. And I use the beginner level (with just the 2 wings) on the warm up jump before a run at a trial, to get the bending and commitment warmed up. Food for thought as he gets ready for trials 🙂
TracyHi there!
RC on the flat: the trick to consistently get her to come in is to draw her to your hand before you step back, then step straight back and not to the wing. At :16 and :30 and :41 you had the slight delay on the leg but at :22 and :52 and 1:0 and 1:260, for example, you moved too quickly (you might have also been too close to the wing to give her enough room to squeeze in there). This cue can be done pretty slowly, to get her focused on your hand (I find it helps the young dogs for us to look at our hands too!)
About the verbal… what does “close” mean? Threadle? If can work for this, but usualyl in threadles we are moving forward (feet turned the other way) and not rear crossing. So you can consider calling her name here then either a wrap-away cue (or wrap directional).
The dig dig dig on the 2nd part of the video is looking good! You can use a bit less of a hand cue, just kind of pointing towards the wing (like at 2:08) rather than using your hand for the fulll circle. It might have been too hard for her to have the cue hand also have a treat in it, so you can try the empty hand and see if it is easier. Although it was fine with the cookie hand on the other side!And the quick session of one then the other looked really good, your mechanics were crisp & clear so she was able to read the cues nicely!
And her hand touches at the end looked really good! She is not quite as precise when your hand is a high enough that she has to reach up or jump up to do it, but the reps where your hand was nose-level were pretty perfect. Nice!!!
Great job! See ya over in MP 3!!
Tracy
Hi there!
1st rep looked good! On the 2nd rep, she didn’t know which side of you to come to at :13 and :20. This was a conection break, meaning she could no longer see your eyes so she thought maybe it was a blind cross starting, or not sure of which side to be on. So to fix that, keep your dog-side arm low (like it was, yay!) and back – and make a moment of eye contact with her as you turn. The arm back plus eye contact will give her the connection to know which side to be on.
At :28, you show her a cookie and that helps, but compare the :13 and :20 connection with the connection you had at :32 (getting her on your left) and then getting her to your right at :45. Those were really good and she knew where to go.
She did well here on the commitment – she wasn’t quite ready for you to leave really fast, so keeping to smooth for now will allow you to build up to the fast 🙂Jumping shaping:
She loved it! Good girl! And no worries about the big hello to the paparazzi LOL!!! She was also happy to let you expand motion in the lazy game. You can add challenge to this now in 2 ways:
1 – note the 2nd jump out there – you can do a 2 jump in a row lazy game by walking by both of them – rewarding each sometimes, rewarding only the 2nd one sometimes.
2 – you can do the lazy game by starting her on an angle with you a couple of feet away (I like to hold the collar and the let go as I start to walk) and see if she can pick up the jump from angles!Nice work! Have fun!
Tracy
