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Hi!
Mini pinny – It is a little tight for her, but it was fine to start to get her bending. You can spread it out in future sessions 🙂 She wasn’t thinking about bending on that first rep and was a little surprised when there was no jump in front of her. She thought about it nicely on the next reps! Add in the left-right verbals (I couldn’t hear if you were saying them), she is ready for them to be put on as the cues 🙂
On the go sessions – going well here too! You can throw sooner, both on one jump and after the wing wrap – throw it as she is looking at the jump, so the toy lands before she takes off. The throws were late so she was looking back at you over the bar. And you can move the wing even further away, so she has more space to drive ahead… which will make your life much easier in terms of reward throwing because you will have more time 🙂
Nice work!
TGood morning!
The set point definitely went better, she had a smooth pretty form and seemed to be looking down at her target. She took off in the wrong spot on the dropped bar rep, she was trying to power through it, no big deal. She just didn’t put her hind end in the right spot. The question is… did you do another rep after it? That is important to help her sort it out or let us know if we need to change anything.On the targeting – you should be full in front of her at this stage, with the treats ready – leave the target hand in position then plop the cookies into it (either dropped from above or the cookie hand moves (not the target hand) – she was moving because the target hand was moving. The other tweak here is to have her start with all 4 feet on the plank so she moves into the 2o2o to target (not already be there). The plank might be a little steep for that on this set up, so you can start with less of an angle to help her out.
Nice work! Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
The set up where you walk him forward between your feet is ADORABLE 🙂 Love that!! Great trick for lining up!
He did a great job here and your set up/position looks good. The only thing I would tweak is getting the toy (or treat target) on the ground before you release him, so he perform the set point looking down at it. He is looking up at you, so his head position is a little high and we aren’t getting the curve through his back. It is also a good stay challenge 🙂 So you can lead out, put the target (toy or treats) down, then release. You can kneel by the target or you can stand up again – it really depends on if the target causes him to look at it (or up at you). Try that an let me know how it goes, because we can then begin to add in motion 🙂
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
He did really well with the mini pinny! You can put the left and right verbals on a lot sooner (before you expand the pinny) to help with the commitment to that middle jump. And since the middle jump is hard, toss the toy out past it heading towards it (so the reward lands between 2 and 3 and not back at you). I would squish the pinny back up to slap on the left & right verbals on the easier pinny – he was a little hesitant with it at the end (hard to tell why, exactly, could have been the cookie container was not as stimulating, or he was still worried about whatever worried him, or, dunno. Dogs! They keep us on our toes. Something must have hurt when he shook the toy… is he still teething? Or maybe it whacked him in the head? Or he has a sore neck? So hard to tell! Give him a day or two off from tugging/training/wrestling etc and see how he feels. Poor guy!!T
Good morning!
He is looking good on the go! Getting focus forward is fine here – I find that focus forward develops pretty naturally anyway with this. What I do suggest is that you don’t use “ready” (I think that is what you were saying) as the cue, you should use “go go go” as the cue by holding him, starting your GO cue and THEN letting him go 🙂 It creates Go as the cue for focusing ahead on the line. When using focus forward on the start line, I use a different set of cues (not ‘ready’) but also, focusing forward on the line develops very naturally 🙂
When you have more room outdoors, you can add more distance to get better lines and to throw the reward sooner. The toy ideally lands before he takes off, so he carries on straight and doesn’t curl into you at all.
On the cone to the go – start your go much sooner so he doesn’t hesitate or look at you as he finishes the cone. Also, say it a few times (go go go) – it isn’t super important when the jump is this close, but it creates a good habit for you to repeat it to support the lines as they get bigger and bigger.>>I have a question on set point jump height. We’ve been doing young dog sequencing at 8 inches for a couple of months now. Should I set the oxer jump at 6″ and 8″ for the 2 bars? When I did the video, I think they were at 4″ and 6″. I am hoping he is going to measure into the 12″ class ultimately.
Yes, I think you can go to 6 and 8 on the set point for now. He is 15 months old and looks ready for the bars to start inching their way up 🙂
Tracy
That is so interesting! Did you get any of it on video? I agree that it was probably the dark color of the tunnel plus those new tunnels smell different (and they have a greasy substance in them – as I found out when Voodoo had a giant crash last time he was there 🙁 even though the owners have cleaned them by now, they probably still have the smell).
Plus, it was a new place and he is a baby dog 🙂 You can shorten then tunnels up in new places and he will quickly learn to generalize the tunnel love 🙂
And yay for good jump commitment! That is generally harder to train so if it is stronger for now, that is a good thing 🙂
Tracy
Good job on the bending! He didn’t seem to have any struggles with his body, yay! Start him closer like you did on the last rep, so he has to power in with his hind end from a standstill… much harder to get his butt under him for that 🙂 You can raise the bars a little! More coming soon today to build on this 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi there!
She was a good girl here, like usual! I like the set point set up here. She is stepping into it really nicely but isn’t yet powering over it with her hind end by pushing off (she is carrying it a bit more than pushing with it). She seems to power over the jump on the Go games, so my thinking here is that the MM is causing her to sit back and collect too soon, even though it is pretty far away. So, try this with the toy! I think that she has the stay and self-control for that, so you can place the toy maybe 15 feet past the jump and see if it gets her to power.
And you can also add some motion – walking. Lead out and walk towards the target, when you are halfway between the jump and target, release her. And if that goes well, you can release sooner and sooner (but stay at a walk). We are looking for her to maintain her form and not go wild LOL! I think she will be fine with it : )Go: nice commitment on her go lines here! You can throw sooner – try to throw so early that is it landing as she is taking off (she moves fast, you’ll have to throw pretty early LOL!). The goal is that she doesn’t look back at you at all. It was hard to see where you were looking as you were moving towards the jump (remember to look at her) but she was doing a great job of looking at the jump til she was jumping and there was nothing else to look at 🙂
Nice work!!
TracyGood morning! Really nice sessions here!!!
On the jump offering: I love your distractions and especially the ring crew LOL!!! It was a little bit of a distraction but he worked through it (he had to check it out a little) and then it was super clever to use them as jump wings :)) You can replace your ring crew in the chairs with a higher level of distraction, using something like an empty food bowl or closed cookie bag to teach him to ignore in favor of taking the jump.
The commitment look great, indeed! I was very happy to see him taking the jump, no matter what. So yes, now you can experiment with leaving early – try to leave SO early that you are convinced you are going to pull him off 🙂 If he fails once, no big deal, try again. If he fails twice – make it easier.On the tunnels – again, he is showing lovely commitment and you had great timing of your verbals! On the GO verbal, keep moving forward (don’t be stationary when you say it for now) so the body cue matches the verbal cue. Great job on your reward placement! On the turns, great job with timing and physical cues and reward placement. You can mix in having him chase you for the reward on the turns. He was indeed beginning to sort out the difference in the turn versus go cues: check out 1:50, for example – that was incredibly tight on the turn cue! Woot! Commitment looked fabulous 🙂 And he looked happy 🙂
>> Because we started about a week and a half late I’m feeling a little behind. Should I wait and not submit any more video until next week or continue catching up with the rest of the class?
You can submit more video if you like this week, I don’t worry that much about time limits to the second 🙂 but we want to make sure he is having fun and we aren’t over-working him. Also, the class will have a couple of extra weeks at the end for video submissions, so you don’t need to feel any pressure or rush to get it all done 🙂 Usually there are 2 extra weeks but since I will be home for the next 6 weeks, I imagine there will be more than 2 weeks for videos here LOL!!
Nice work here!!
TracyHi there!
Yes, a little too far back on the first couple of reps, but no worries, you changed it for the last rep. She definitely found this a bit challenging, and that is good! We want her to think about form 🙂 She was not really stepping into it with power, so I think you should open up the cross bars a little so it is less visually daunting. So was probably thinking WTF?? Haha! So rather than having the cross bars touching, separate them by about 6 inches or 8 inches so the visual is still supporting but it isn’t quite as weird. 2 other things to help – put the target further away, so it is at least 12 feet past the 2nd jump. We want her to land then take a big stride to it. On these reps it was really close so she was landing almost on the target.
And when you lead out to the target, face her direction of travel (so you will be connected by turning your back to her more, similar to your first rep). Don’t face her, as that backs dogs off of jumping big (when I want massive collection on course, for example, I face my dogs). We want extension here, so we turn away (just like we turn and run on Go lines).
She was showing good form here, especially on that last rep, so these little tweaks will really help solidify it and get her jumping with big power.
Nice work!
Tracyhi again!
Yes, she probably thought sitting that close to the bars was WEIRD hahaha! I lure the dog in close at first, but standing in the gap between the cross bars and first jump, facing the dog, and lure them with a cookie to get in close (nothing wrong with a good ol’ lure in this case :))She is showing nice jumping form so far! Let’s give her a target to look at some she isn’t curling towards you. If she might struggle with a toy on the ground, you can use an empty food bowl and then drop a cookie or toy into it when you release her. Or you can use a closed bag of treats then open it when she gets to it 🙂 That will help maintain her head position and good form as we add more elements to this.
nice work!
TracyHi! The stay tour is going well! When you go back to deliver the rewards, be sure to get the treats in fast and low so she doesn’t lift her front feet. And also remember to release to the toy so she doesn’t release when you move. I avoid both of those by throwing the reward back to the dog when I am way out ahead – I throw it back and release as I throw, so she can move to get it 🙂 That really helps build the value of the dog staying as you get further away (rather than you being close when you deliver the rewards) and it also helps with distractions. For whatever reason, she was distracted in front of the jump – so if you lead out and randomly throw back rewards (I surprise the dog by saying get it and throwing it to them), she is going to watch you more and think about the distractions less. Start with you relatively close then you can gradually add more and more distance!
About the set up – early on, I am not too picky about the dog being exactly in the perfect spot 🙂 I just want to make it all super fun to sit and stay in front of the first jump. Since you are already working on the between-the-legs set up, you can do it as a trick in front of the obstacles and she will get more and more comfy doing it. And you can also do the side line ups as silly tricks, so then you can get more and more precise about exactly where she is.
nice work on the stays!
TracyHey there! I think we all have a bit of free time lately, perhaps? LOL!
On the GO video: he was taking the jump but looking at you while doing so (multi-tasking LOL!) so I want to convince him to NOT look at you. From the handler perspective, you and look at him more (more connection) and don’t look ahead, plus you can be on slightly less of a slice so the bar is more directly in front of him to look at and drive to.
Normally I would also suggest throw sooner, right when he looks ahead rather than when he gets to the jump… but he wasn’t really looking ahead enough to allow you to do that LOL! So, we can help give him the idea with a couple of lure reps (I think I did this when Voodoo was a baby dog, 100 years ago :)). Set up the same way, hold his collar, look at him, throw the toy past the jump – then say go and let go of him. It replicates the toy races so should remind him to look ahead. Do 2 or 3 reps like that then, if he is looking ahead, do one with a super early throw and see if he drives ahead without looking at you. We can fade the lure really easily when he realizes that he does not need to look at da momma (boys and their mommas…. LOL!)The set point is looking good!!! Distance of the MM and a bit of motion are giving us some good form. You can add a bit of jogging to this at this point as well. We will revisit this once a week or so, and I use it to get bars up to full height (eventually).
Nice work!
TracyHi there!
Bending on the wings looks good! It was easy for her to acclimate on the wings, so adding the bars was a good decision. The bars were harder for her, she couldn’t decide if she should trot like a cavalettis or jump them LOL! No problem, the next exercises will help her sort that out, stay tuned for more coming today.
She looked nicely balanced on the set point, but I have a couple of tweaks for you – move the reward further away, so she can stretch out her stride to drive to it. A food reward tends to slow the dogs down, so we don’t want it too close. We want a big extension stride to it after landing, so at this stage you can move it to maybe 15 feet past the 2nd jump. And, swap to a toy now and see if she can maintain her form 🙂 Good rewards for the stay!!!
One other suggestion is to get her more room to step in between the cross bars and the first jump, it was a little too short here. You can do that with a wingless jump set up further away from the first jump, and 5 foot bars if you have them. She had to jump these bars here, so using the wingless jump to set up the cross bars should ideally create at least 6 feet from the cross bar to the first jump (this looked more like 4?)
If she is still nicely balanced (she should look almost bored haha!) then you can add motion – walking forward while you release, with the reward still out ahead as a visual target. She is probably ready for that, but if motion changes her form or she gets frantic, go back to standing still out by the target.
The GO at the end – you can now start further back so she can more room to smoke you – I mean, more room to drive ahead 🙂 Ha! Two suggestions -first, while you are holding her, look at her and don’t look ahead. You were looking ahead so she was looking at you a bit. It will feel weird to look at her, but it will help turn your chest to the line so you will be able to support the line better.
And, throw the toy sooner – starting further back will make this easier, because you can throw as she is driving ahead, looking at the jump, and before she gets there. If you wait til she is taking the jump, she will end up looking at you. So, throw nice and early 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
