[Tracy Sklenar]

I totally understand getting excited about it all, she was awesome 🙂

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! I think the software developers are Ghostbusters fans, the keymaster designation comes with the program lol!!!

Yes, you understand it correctly 🙂 adding the motion that way will build in more reinforcement for being close to you. No need to change the way you reinforce 🙂
Have fun!!!
T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there!
I am glad the weather was good so you could play outside!

They are big courses with something at every angle… even on the ‘easy’ lines. They are designed to make trial courses look easy LOL!

Some ideas for you:

Course 1: This did go well, overall! Some ideas to tighten up sections:
We can tighten up the turn to 3 with a little tweak: on the opening line at :02, you were stepping forward as he was taking 1 and heading to 2 which sets an extension line on 2 and also blocks the path to the correct side of 3, causing him to go long over 2.
After the a-frame, you left 6 too soon at :11 – he hadn’t turned yet when you starting moving forward so he stayed on his line. This is definitely a ‘his head will give you permission to proceed to the next thing’ moment because you won’t want to move forward until he is looking at the tunnel.
The weaves looked great! You can use his independent weaving as an opportunity to get a few more steps past 9 so you can do the FC on a better perfect path exit line. At :21 you were backing up still so that pushed him a little wide.
Good timing on the wrap at 11 as well as the good job setting up the RC at 13! You can also try slicing 11 – I think it will be faster as it is all extension and creates a nice line to the correct side of 13. The wrap at 11 is really hard to get tight without slowing down too much.
He needed a little more connection and forward cue when he landed from 13 at :26.
You can do the FC at 15 and leave sooner, there was a bit of waiting at :29 so he got ahead of you for the 17 tunnel. If you are on the perfect path there on the FC, he will pick up the nice tight line so you don’t need to stay to set it up.
At the end: You used a go on cue on the tunnel to the last jump at :32 – I think it is more of a ‘get out’ (lead change away) than a ‘go on’ which generally implies stay on the lead carry on straight (which is what he did).

Course 2: this one is a doozy, I admit it 🙂

Looking at the different sections:
That #2 wrap jump:
:39 did look like a throw back (cue to turn right) – you indicated the jump when he was looking at the right turn line, so a lap turn-style cue would be helpful there: turn him on your hand don’t give permission to take 2 until he is looking to the left.
At 1:12, you handled it more as a wrap and it definitely worked better to get the left turn! We can get a bit more collection, 2 ideas: I think a reverse v-set might be the best way to do it (you are placed out near the takeoff spot so he shapes the line around your position), or using a brake hand (left hand down low and towards him) to tighten it up using the position and cue you used at 1:12.

Ouch at 1:14, he had a fall on 3-4 line. It looks like he made a jumping error took off in massive extension and just didn’t judge the distance. I can’t see a specific reason for it in terms of handling – it was a high speed moment coming out of collection, you looked connected, nothing weird happened but definitely something we can work on (in terms of judging good extension takeoffs coming out of wrap turns)

Out of straight tunnel – Similar to course 1, I think this is a get out (lead change away) which you did at 1:16! He got it on a ‘go on’ at 1:46 but you were ahead and he likely knew the sequence at that point.

The jump after frame (7) – On the first rep, he needed the turn cue before takeoff at :52. On the next pass, you had a “jump” then another verbal (“left”? Hard to hear it exactly) at 1:21 and he read it really nicely! You had a jump cue at 1:50 and a better shoulder turn, he read that nicely too.

I admit to a bit of evil course design on the 8-9-10-11 line… that tunnel is as tempting as an ice cream sundae on a hot day!

A RC at 9 can work if it is diagonal so you you can get right up behind him to cue 10, rather than too much pull and flick – that is what you had here and it showed acceleration into the tunnel at :54
On the next pass, you did a FC 8-9 but finishing the rotation of it didn’t give you time to cue the turn on 9, and the acceleration out of it at 1:23 put him right into the tunnel.
Going back to the RC at 1:50, you hung back and used switch which definitely got his eyes off the tunnel (along with a come here) but put you way out of position for the backside at 10. You can get it from where you were at 1:53 by keeping the left arm a bit further back and making your connection to his eyes more direct, which will rotate your chest to point to the line to the entry wing. Your left arm up turned your shoulder to the front of the bar. Plus, use that verbal sooner – he saw/heard the cue when he was already looking at the front because you were praising him.

One thing to try is to cue the 7-8 line and as soon as you see him turning over 7 and looking at 8, do a blind cross – then as he is landing from 8, you are decelerating and moving away to 10 (I also recommend a soft brake arm here, I would use my right arm, and a right verbal as well). The blind might feel like you are showing a lot of extension but actually it buys you time to get to where you want to be and show the collection on 9.

You got back in the saddle for the serpy line across the back (yay!). Remember when you fall behind that you can still make transitions into turns – for the 14-15 turn, you can handle from where you were at 2:01 (which is actually a good spot, not far from the tunnel entry!) but remember to handle just like you would if you were ahead: decel with the verbal collection cue then rotate if you are going to use an arm or spin. You deceled but then faced forward and clapped/said ‘come here’.
On the out at 2:03, as you were moving out of it, maintain a connection to his eyes to push the line to the backside of the tunnel – when you looked forward, he went to the nearer entry which is what your shoulders were rotating towards. That is something that bit yo ua couple of times on these courses – looking ahead too soon or pointing forward, which turned your chest/shoulders away from the line you wanted.

Nice job on the weave entry send!! You were very connected and no arm pointing! And the ‘in’ for 17 was well-timed (just before he exited) so he read 17 AND 18. Give him that extra connection on landing of 18 to turn to 19 as he is in the air rather than after landing at 2:18. 18 is a serp jump, so the open shoulders and extra connection will set an even nicer line there.

Let me know if this makes sense! There are many many nice elements of these so it is now all about the small details 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Ha! Terriers TOTALLY judge, that is what they do brilliantly LOL!!!!

The serp skills are looking really good – you can drop that toy in a little sooner so that way she won’t need to look at you at all 🙂

On the backside pushes – on that first rep, she nedeed a little more connection to push to the backside, you turned a little too soon. But the reps after that looked good! She did well on her commitments – you drop the ball in a lot sooner though. You were using it as a reward for her jumping the bar – in order to really get the default behavior to a very independent level, drop the ball to the landing side as soon as her nose passes the entry wing. If it feels too early, then it is probably correct LOL!
Also, as you drop it, drop it far from you 🙂 We don’t want the value to be anywhere near you, we want it to all be back near the bar while you run to wherever you want to be,

>>I wish I had had my MM with me for the threadles. Seeing a ball on the ground turned the impulse control function off.

Yes, she had a little trouble ignoring the toy here indeed! You can work that separately and it will immediately improve her threadles: have the ball in one hand exetnded away from the body and have her do hand touches to your other hand, extended away on the other side of you. The ball can be a reward! And then the ball goes on the ground while she does hand touches to earn it… then the set up goes back on the jump. If you skip these steps, you will be using your upper body to steer and she will rely on it, which makes getting the threadles a lot harder.

On the sequences with Wilson:
The opening line looked lovely! The send to the backside was lovely!
Don’t back up or turn your feet through the backside at 1:45 – that shows him a front cross and then when you rotate back out to 7, he had to adjust after landing. Plus, all the foot rotation caused a big delay in the wrap info: When you rotated back to send to 7, you didn’t have time to decelerate and turn again for the front cross wrap – so he went super long (correctly) over 7. I think you said ‘go’, too, which was locking him on to the tunnel out ahead.

2nd rep – I really like where you strategized to get yourself on the backside push at 2:04!!! You were on the exit wing, he nailed it, yay!!!!! You decelerated a tiny near jump 4 to get that position and that caused him to look at you a little as he exited the tunnel at 2:00. You can run a few steps deeper towards the tunnel #3 then drive back out, so you have the support of the line to 4 with no decel and end up in that perfect position (it was gorgeous!)
You did *not* turn your feet through the backside serp and he read it perfectly. Good boy! You don’t appear to fully trust him yet because you did an arm cue and moved laterally and not directly towards 7 – but I think we can start trusting him more and more and see what happens! He is doing a great job on the backsides!
Moving towards 7 without rotating your feet at 6 helped you set up a MUCH better wrap on 7. Yay!
You don’t have to hold on to your close threadle quite as long – he had it at 2:11 then you kept saying it so he started coming towards you – trust him a little more and you will get a smoother line 🙂

>>I have a question about Wilson and bars. He drops bars much less frequently than in the past. His vet has assured me he is fit, muscular and sound. That said, I never know where to set bars when I’m training. I know low bars are important, and I do lower the bar when we are training skills or sequences, but when we start doing full courses why wouldn’t I put the bars at full height? I am afraid if they aren’t at 24 in practice, he won’t jump high enough in trials.>>>

Ah, good question 🙂 I have LOTS of opinions LOL!

It is good news that he is fit/muscular/sound, and hopefully he gets regular care from the PT vet people because all canine athletes should get that as preventative and not only when something hurts. And if the PT vet says he is fit & sound, then you can totally believe it. If your regular vet says it…. take it with a grain of salt LOL!

About 24 –
the more I see agility, the less I think the 24″ jump height should be in existence here in the USA, particularly in AKC, for 3 reasons:

– the AKC course design elements and spacing are too tight for the 24″ jumping dogs to have the proper room to jump safely. Looking at how you set the sequence here, you used lovely spacing, big lines that made sense and he had room to run at 24″. These are not the distances you wll reliably see in any venue except UKI at this point.

– the true AKC 24″ height class dogs are really big dogs with less angulation and more weight/bone… which means the 24″ height is actually harder than it is for, say, my BorderWhippet who is tall (probably as tall as Wilson) but super light and fine-boned and built like a piece of cooked spaghetti who can noodle his way around the course and make cat-like adjustments by getting low into his center of gravity (something that is nearly impossible for, say, a Doberman)

– many AKC trials (actually many agility trials in general in the USA, not just AKC) are held on artifical footing that simply do not allow the big dogs to grip the surface properly, which means a lot of slipping and adding tiny steps and restricted jumping styles. I see a major difference in how Wilson moves here on dirt versus how he moves on artificial turn versus mats. He moves naturally on dirt and he has to move unnaturally on the artificial surfaces. But yet so much training and trialing is done on artificial surfaces. I think that with the pandemic, this will change and trials will have to go back to dirt or grass because that is far safer (being outdoors or in large open arenas) than being in the smaller climate controlled buildings – and that will be better for the dogs.

Sure, the Europeans run their large dogs at 24″ – but those courses are MUCH bigger in terms of distances and there is more flow to the challenges. Plus they are more often on natural surfaces and there are far more Border Collies running at 24″ there and not nearly as many other breeds.

So, going back to the question of lowering the bars – yes, he should be jumping lower bars on any surface where he has to potentially move unnaturally (all artificial surfaces produce unnatural movement). He is more likely to be able to move with a natural stride on jump heights below his shoulders height.

And, approach full height jumping as a cyclical thing for athletes: most of his training time should be spent on what high level athletes focus on: technique, form, conditioning, teamwork. For example, the USA Olympic Equestrian Team does not run the horses over the tall stadium jumps several times a week, year round. They work all the little details, they work jumping grids, teamwork between animal and handler – and as they competition gets closer, they cycle “up” towards full height and bigger courses… then cycle down, give a rest period, back to flat work, conditioning, etc. Agility dogs are very similar and the same approach should be taken – and that is what we have done with getting ready for nationals and worlds. It means fewer local weekend trials but it also means better overall soundness and jumping skills.

Let me know if that makes sense! Nice work here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

You are definitely showing more trust and confidence when you are running her here!!! Your training on the skills sets is really paying off 🙂

First run:
I am loving the big loud verbals on the opening line as well as the backside send. And you did a good jump trusting her more on the backside at 6 – you don’t owe me a beer on that one 🙂 You can start the wrap cue for 7 as soon as she lands from 6 and comes around the wing – at :13, she was just about gathering for takeoff and you were starting the cues, so she landed wide then turned. You will probably not get all the way to the wing of the 7 jump, it will end up being more of a send, but that is fine because it gets a tight turn and gets you back to a good spot 8-9.
The close threadle looked good!! She got the other side of 8 but it looked intentional, or maybe you forgot to push her back out 🙂

Second run – I liked your opening line here even better, and you sent 5-6 sooner so she drove it better. AND you trusted 6 even more – look at how nicely she did there at :30!!! You definitely don’t owe me a beer on this one (unless it is a celebratory beer for good handling, then yes, I will take one lol)
On the 7 wrap at :33 – you were much better on the timing! Remember to do the deceleration element of the transition: you didn’t decelerate but instead rotated really fast, which pulled her off. The deceleration will help commit her. The other thing that caused her to go into handler focus and not commit was that you turned your head and looked forward at :32 right after she landed, which caused her to look up at you.
The ending line looked lovely!!!

3rd run – also really nice! Sadly, no beer for me because you trusted her and moved through the lines without dangling a helper arm 🙂 She was perfect! I guess that means that I owe YOU some good beer because you tried it and she did it! Yay!
This rep had the best wrap on 7 of the 3 reps here, but I do think you can decelerate sooner to be able to rotate sooner – you were definitely rotating here before she took off, so maybe 1 step earlier with the decel and the rotation, so you can be finished before she takes off.
I think you had a little moment of forgetting 8-9 because you were not as closer as on the previous rep but then the rest was really great!

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there! This is a great video – it showed us where you and he are a smooth working team and it also told us where he needs us to add more commitment understanding. I can already see where your commitment homework is paying off so nicely – those backside sends were a THING OF BEAUTY every time! And his lines in general were sooooo lovely. After watching it, I think his only commitment question has to do with countermotion on the backside – he had trouble committing to the backside jump properly on the reps where you were trying to move forward to 7 without helping him take the jump. Happily, I have ideas for you because I have been down the exact same road with my Voodoo (the big all black dog) – when he was Desmo’s age, he did the exact same things: didn’t commit or hit the wing/bar. So here are some ideas for ya!

First run – the opening line looked smooth and gorgeous, all the way to getting the backside send at 6! Very nice! He questioned the commitment to the backside jump there on the circle wrap. One thing you can do to train it is have just a wing out there instead of the full jump. He can do the skill on a wing nicely (I have seen it firsthand :)) so you can embed the wing into the middle of the course – that adds challenge because there is more speed, but also makes it easier to get it right for him because he will recognize the wing and say “ah! I know what to do with that!” You can also slow down the motion, so he can sort it out with feeling the need to hurry. When he can do it with a wing in the middle of the course, we add back more motion. And when you can blast through it, we add back the jump bar :)) Using just the wing allows for more reps to help him figure it out because there is less jumping involved.
7 looked good and then with the ending on your left, you will have to push in and push him off the line to get 9: I suggest a very strong extreme connection as he is approaching 8 to help him shift away from you.

Second run – another gorgeous opening line, another independent backside send, and he did a great job of taking the bar there on 6 (:22)!! You helped a little bit by turning your feet so he came in on 6, and that delayed you from getting in to show 7. We will keep working so you are comfortable trusting that he will come in automatically. That will allow you to get a little further ahead for the line to 7. More importantly, though, when you are sending from 6 to 7 out of the slice, make a big connection to his eyes to get him to the correct side of 7. You Pointed forward to send, which turned your shoulders away from the line and he ended up on the other side.

3rd rep – I loved all the connection in here and the lines you ran on this rep. Great handling! We already knew that you could easily get 1-5 but the lovely connection and clear backside commitment cue at :30 was a thing of beauty. You had more trust of his commitment on 6 and you moved into the gap better at :32, and the connection you had when he landed at :33 to show 7 is *exactly* what I was talking about above – click/treat! He hit the wing here on the countermotion.

You did a bit of training after that – really good training session:

At :38 you had MORE countermotion towards 7, which is correct handling with you moving forward like that.
At :41 you helped him come over the bar by turning your feet – we would only want a foot turn on this 6 jump if the next jump was heading back towards the 4 jump (FC). At :47 you did NOT turn your feet and stayed on the serp line and he got it right – yay! At :51 and 1:00 you added more countermotion to that good running line (it was good handling!) – he ran past it. At :55 and 1:05 you had a little less motion as you moved through the countermotion and a verbal at 1:05)- he dropped the bar at :55 and hit the wing at 1:05.

So, since the countermotion is the hard part, here is what I suggest as a plan (do these on a very low bar for now so the jumping element is easy – we will add more jumping challenge when he can do this on a low bar):

First do some “easy” reps where you send to the backside and drop the reward in on the landing side as you move away – remember that the timing of the reward being dropped in has nothing to do with a decision to take the jump, it is just the reward for the good decision to go to the backside. That will help him look at the bar and thinking about defaulting to jump it, rather than jumping towards you (hitting the wing) or not taking it at all. I think you can do this on both the slices and the wraps for the backside.

Separately, you can have him sit on the takeoff side of the backside and isolate the countermotion element: start walking forward through the countermotion line towards where 7 is (like you did at :51, for example) – as you are passing the exit wing – release and throw the reward back behind you to the landing side. Basically it is a serpentine with countermotion (you can see a demo of what I mean in the serp custom skills sets)

When he can do both of these, we will meld them together and add countermotion to the backside sends. And then we will raise the bar back up. I found that this progression convinced my Voodoo to jump more on the center of the bar as he committed automatically, rather than throw his shoulder into the wing.

Thank you for the course maps!! So if I am reading this correctly, he went 14-15 t the exit of 3 in the Trial 1 map, and 14-15 to the exit of 10 in the Trial 2 map (basically, tunnel-tunnel). Was he on your left going into 15? Did you do a FC 14-15? My guess is that yes, you were pushing in towards the 15 tunnel and driving straight instead of turning your shoulders and moving laterally towards 16, plus he probably needed a verbal cue (right cue or a name call) when he was still 6 feet away from the tunnel entry at 15 (verbal plus seeing your shoulders turn to 16). So the last thing he saw before entering 15 was probably an explosive GO cue… so he went 🙂 Remember to plan all turn cues in front of tunnels when he is still 6 feet away from the entry. I think the a-frame sitting there in the middle added challenge too – because as you go from 14-15, you have to move towards 15 in order to NOT run into the a-frame.

Let me know if that makes sense! Great job here!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>>Seq 2 – very nice too! What were the verbals you used? I heard the release then the jump cue, then he barked LOL! I think you were calling his name but you can also use your threadle verbal there.
Verbal? I said Ben Ben (not in-in)….should have I have said in-in? LOL I guess they kind of sound the same…oh oh.>>>

Yes, you can say in in there, it is a threadle. I don’t think he will be confused – this did sound like you said Ben Ben there

>Seq 3
>>I was undecided about whether I would need a backside cue for 6 so I didn’t use one and he read my handling as a threadle I think. So on the 3rd rep I did say “back” and he nailed it.>>

Yes, that is what is looked like, the backside cue totally worked there.

>As for verbal on the serpentine…am I supposed to have a verbal for that? You mentioned using a verbal when running a sequence.

It will be course-specific, such as his name then left or right.

>>YES, backside…can’t wait to try that one….need to work on that for sure and I haven’t gotten a chance to try the backside circle brake hand drill which I thought might be a good one to try or do you think he doesn’t need that so much?>>

You can work them both in the same session! The slice commitment is probably more important.

>> supposed to have a private with Jess tomorrow. Not sure whether to go or not….just so darn humid along with the high temps. She does not have AC in that facility….just fans.>>>

Eek! Maybe it will be tolerable, or you can do stuff where you don’t have to run too hard 🙂

>>I was looking at the novice courses for this package…looks daunting and I can’t figure out handling for some parts. Have to set it up and hopefully physically walking it will make the light bulb go on.>>

I am sure that walking it will help! And, you can print the map and draw lines to see what his best line would be and which side you start on and want to end on – then you can fit together the puzzle pieces in the middle 🙂

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there! Lots of good work here – Ivan is telling us that we can really trust him!

Great job on the skills sets!! He is doing a great job committing to the bar on the backside slices so you are able to move through! My only suggestion is to remember to throw the ball on the landing side and not ahead of you after the exit like at :07 & :27. On the other reps, you tossed the ball ahead – he was definitely happy about it, but you’ll get more default value on the bar with the ball appearing near the landing spot. I love how he was digging in and driving, though!!!! So fast and tight!

Great job putting these skills immediately to work in the sequences 🙂
Seq 1: nice backside send at :52!! You can go to the blind sooner – as soon as he nears the entry wing, you can turn your head for the blind – it is a commitment challenge but I think he will be fine with it 🙂 The threadle 8-9 and the serp at 10 looked good!

Seq 2: perfect timing on the blind at 1:10!! That set up a strong send to the backside at 5 then a serp back to the tunnel – he was chasing you the entire time, which is his favorite thing to do 🙂 The send to the 8 backside was also really clear and independent! This is another spot (like jump 6 in seq 1) where you can do the blind cross head turn just as he is arriving at the entry wing.
The only question he had was that he slowed down a little as he exited the tunnel – so you can go in a stride or two closer to the tunnel and start your around cue earlier. I think he saw you setting up for the send and slowing down, so he went into collection for a moment.

Next rep – another perfect blind at 1:34! I liked your serp at 6 at 1:39 better than the same serp on your first rep here – you moved through it even sooner, getting more ahead on the way to 7 so his line was even better. Nice!!
On the tunnel exit at 1:43, you had bigger strides (maybe went in a step or two closer to it) so he was faster on the exit and still got the backside send really nicely!
One little tweak – as soon as you send to the backside at 8, try to step forward as directly as possible to the 9 jump. You took a couple of steps on a parallel line to the jump bar. which made you a little late for getting on the next line. I think you were watching for him to jump for too long – so that is a great spot for the big disconnection 🙂

Last rep – another perfect blind at 1:54! You are nailing it! Your serpentine at 2:00 was good (more like your first rep) but I liked the one at 1:39 better because you were further ahead so he could go faster.
At 2:04, you did the best job of sending to the 8 backside and immediately stepping through to 9 (not moving sideways) so you were on the next line as he landed from 8 – so he had the best line to 9 – tight and fast.

I think Ivan was perfect on his commitments here, showing a strong understanding of the skills. So we can keep pushing to get you as far ahead as possible, really leaving his lines as early as possible. If at any point we break the commitment – cool!!! We can train that. But for now, keep on trusting him to commit so you can get way up the line, so he can chase you at top speed.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Nice work on these, I liked all of your different options on just a row of 3 jumps!!!

On the first rep, with all of the backside pushes: I bet you can stay super close to the jumps and just keep your chest rotated towards him, so he will self-send to the backside (I just made up that term, self-send hahaha) Keep doing the verbals like you did, and the chest turned towards him will cue him so you don’t have to use and arm to send.
2nd rep – really nice serpentine line!!!!! You can challenge him by getting even further ahead and seeing if he will still commit to the serp jumps!
3rd rep – very very nice threadles here! If you wanted more crazy threadles, you can do a threadle to a blind cross (in the package 3 skill sets) – as soon as you see his head turn towards the threadle jump, do a blind!
For added adventure, try doing doing blinds on these lines too. Wheeeee!
Great job! Stay cool!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there!
Thanks for letting me know about the header – oopsie!!! And take your time working through these – it is wicked hot out! We have time in this class, I am pretty sure that we will be looking at videos until the first week of September at least 🙂

Great job on these:
Seq 1: very nice! You can show serp handling a bit more 4-5: he has to turn right then left on that jump, so opening your upper body to him like a serp will smooth put that line.

Seq 2 – very nice too! What were the verbals you used? I heard the release then the jump cue, then he barked LOL! I think you were calling his name but you can also use your threadle verbal there.

Seq 3
first rep – opening line looked good! He read the rear cross nicely, he totally knew to turn left! He was a little wide, mainly because you were decelerated while he was in the tunnel then you accelerated into the rear cross. If you flip that: accelerate while he is in the tunnel then decelerate through the rear cross – he will have a tighter turn on the RC wrap. Plus, it will put you closer to the 5 jump (RC jump) which will let you set the serp at 6 better. You took off at :08 so he just chased you.

2nd rep – good job with the right cue on the tunnel, nice timing! At :23, you didn’t show enough of the RC line so he wrapped to his right. The fix at :27 was the nice RC line.

3rd rep – looking good on this one!! You had the good verbal on the tunnel, acceleration then decel into the RC (nice clear RC line) and the backside verbal on 6. SUPER connection at :43 to get him into the #7 tunnel!!

4th rep – also looked good! You can do that blind sooner: you used the same running pace as on the rear cross line, then had to do some last minute hustle to get the blind. At 1:07 he was jumping 4 and it was jump starting when ideally it would be finished by then. If you send 1-2-3 more laterally then I bet you can get past 4 sooner – which allows you to do the blind basically while he is in the tunnel, which gives you tons of time to decelerate into the wrap on 5.
I do think the BC was faster than the RC, but it is definitely good to train the RCs too!!
And nice ending line here as well.

Serp default: great job on your casual toy dropping, it made me laugh, so smooooth! But perfect placement, well done!!! And he did really well, doing this with very little ‘help’ other than your motion and some connection. He had a bar down at :54, and I think that was because he went a little wide after the wing wrap (wheeee!) and the realized he needed to hurry back and take the jump – and you were not helping all that much AND you had some countermotion – so he just didn’t set up the jumping as well as I know he can. But he fixed it on all the other reps, including the various angles you worked too.
Now, when I say “you weren’t helping all that much”, that is CORRECT for this exercise LOL!! Of course, when running a sequence, we would want you to use a verbal and be as perfect as you can. But in training, you were perfectly casual and perfectly NOT calling him 🙂 I think he did well! Onwards to the backside serpentines now.

Great job! Stay cool, it has been a BEAST of a summer!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! I love the Moonlighting dreamy effect hahaha!!
Great job here – my biggest suggestion on the straight lines was that you were too connected (I know, I know hahahahahaha!!!) Your connection is a good habit! So trying to disconnect to drive the line is REALLY hard. He is ready for the disconnection on these straight line elements for sure, so keep playing with it. The other stuff that was difficult is skills work we can do to make it easier. Here are some ideas:

On the straight line to the tunnel: The 1st 2 reps – very connected, too connected hahahaha! You can gradually show him less connection and see how it goes. On rep 3, you were less connected and he didn’t take the jumps – I think that was more about you moving away after the wing wrap and the big toy 🙂 From the tunnel up the line of jumps – you were mostly connected with some disconnects (yay!) and he found the line, good boy!!!! He had a bit of over jumping but that is because the reduction in connection was distracting but then he smoothed it out on the next reps. The last rep of this section (jumps to tunnel) – much better!

On the backside push section, we can break the backside skill down into 2 elements:

– getting to the backside – as a young dog, his main frame of reference is jumping the bar. And that bar becomes a pretty big distraction when we need him to go to the backside! So to help him pop out around the backside wing, start the skill on just a wing (take out the bar and the exit wing so the appearance of a jump is not there, and send him around only the entry wing, rewarding back near you). When that is easy for him (he will learn it fast), put the bar back in but in a relatively boring way: one end on a 6 inch jump cup on the entry wing, and the other end on the ground (no exit wing yet). That way you can introduce the distraction of the bar without it being too tempting! When he can go around the wing and take the backside bar, you can add back the exit wing.

– taking the jump of the backside as a default. When you got him to the backside, he didn’t know we also wanted the jump 🙂 so check out the custom skills sets I posted on Monday – start with the serp default to jump then you can quickly build it to the backside serp game.

Good job working the timing on the forced front crosses! Your first rep was too early, 2nd rep too late (like Goldilocks and the 3 bears: too hot, too cold) and the 3rd rep at 1:37 was just right! The blind cross after it there worked really well, and will continue to get more comfortable as you play with the forced front cross timing.

He found the lines nicely on the last rep! You are actually still too connected for this challenge of disconnecting fully hahaha! You had little connection breaks and he did just fine – feel free to continue working to run those lines without connection (I know, so weird LOL!!!) On the threadle to the wing at the end, because he is still learning the threadle, you can hold onto his head for a little longer. Think of that more like a rear cross on the flat to the wing – don’t turn his head away until he is past the wing. As his threadle understanding continues to develop, you can release him sooner and he will set it up himself.

Nice work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>3 blinds in a row ???

So fun! Life on the edge! Tokaji would love it!

>>Something to aspire to. I imagine the timing would have to be spot on and you would have to keep moving thru it>>

I bet you can do it. Yes, 1000% you would have to trust and keep moving. But the timing is not that hard, it is all about the reconnections (so no hands needed):
first blind happens when she is at pole 10-ish, so it is done before she exits. 2nd blind is done as she is approaching the backside wing. 3rd blind is done as she gets to the backside and turns her head to look at the jump. If she has seen a couple of blinds in a row in the past, she will find it easy to read these.
T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Yay, this was very fun to watch! The value of the prop was very high so you were able to add a lot of opposing motion – and having played with the concept to a pre-placed reward is likely to have helped as well. As he was picking up speed, his mechanics changed – note the lower head. That is good, because it is a sign of subtle weight shift, preparation to turn (because he was understanding that it was a hit then drive back). I like when the dogs set themselves up to turn and shift their weight!!

You were able to leave really early, which is great. Now we can also focus on a higher level detail of the countermotion: pressure on the line. This will support commitment on the SUPER tight turns on course, especially the ones with rotation. As you leave on the countermotion, we want to the dogs to stay really tight to their lines. He was moving out a tiny bit away from the pressure, so we can teach him to stick tight to it: Using the same set up, send him to the prop but time your moving forward so you don’t move til he is right at your leg, passing very close to it. Move slowly at first so he is happy to be very close to the pressure, then we can add more and more speed like you had here. Let me know if that makes sense, I am not sure that I am explaining it properly hahahaha

Great job!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! He is so cute with his smacks! Good job really working to lock into the foot smack only and not just when he trotted near/over it. It was NOT easy to see but it definitely helped clarify that it was a touch behavior, not a ‘near it’ behavior 🙂 I think this session directly contributed to the success of the session below!! It is all about teaching a commitment concept and he did really well!!

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! The lead outs worked nicely here! The game went really well – my only little suggestions are little tweaks to handle: lead out a little further (gives you more time to do the blind LOL!) so you can get a little more eye contact at the reconnection after the blind (it will get him to switch sides sooner) and also you can throw the toy ahead sooner – as you are doing the collection/turn, you can also be throwing the toy so it is in motion and out ahead as he finishes the turn. He was looking at you after the turn for one step, so we can get him driving ahead sooner by getting the toy out there sooner (and yes, you might need 35 arms :))

Speaking of throwing the toy – I think he definitely drives ahead better when the toy is landing On the drive ahead after the turn) as opposed to when it has already landed (when you were doing the straight line driving ahead) It is maybe one step of difference – but it is a big difference in his acceleration! So keep letting him go before the toy has landed to really maximize the acceleration. And we will be able to gradually release him to drive ahead later to help build value for the ‘dead’ toy. Let me know if that makes sense. Great job!
Tracy

[Author]

Posts