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Yes, have fun with all the different handling you can throw in there! Anything that you might see on a lead out or on a course is perfect to try here.
Hi!
He cracks me up!!! One of my dogs is nuts for that same ball – I spend zillions of dollars on toys and treats… and the Walmart special is the one they want. LOL!!Sly did well here: this game is *especially* difficult because the jump is the only thing out there so the pups try to offer it. At the beginning, he was perfect because the jump was not in play yet. The outs looked good when you added them – yes, your feet were moving to the jump on the first one but I think you then got on a good parallel line and didn’t step in to the jump. As soon as the jump was in play, things got harder. So you can move more slowly so he can process the upper body and also he did a lot better when you called him. I think you said “pup pup” or something, which is fine and helpful and his name is fine too. It will be easier when there is something out ahead for him to lock onto. You can also throw the magical bacon ball ahead when he looks towards you. The goal is that we fade out the arm across the body being so obvious for the ‘regular’ line and only use it for the get outs.
Because his get outs are going so well, you can add in the advanced level of the crosses!
Nice work 🙂
TracyNice run!!!! And yes, the get out connection there would get that last jump but no worries – it was a GREAT RDW and the rest looked really good! I think her jumping effort was strong – the only questions she seemed to have were on the triple (I hate that jump) and the panel (also an annoying jump hahah) But no massive flings in this run, so bubble mission accomplished here! You can also train to weaknesses but trial to strengths… so a rear cross in the opening here would be great – within the bubble AND a super strong skill that won’t leave you behind, if that makes sense!
T
Good morning!
A general note on the sequences when 1-2 was the serp start:
1-2 – stay closer to the line so the turn back to the tunnel happens before takeoff not when you step her back on landing. That will allow you to leave earlier than when you lead out further away and have to step back towards the tunnel. Then keep driving through it at the end, with shoulders facing the bar so she can see it before takeoff.
For example, at :20, you lead out pretty far away but then had to step back towards the tunnel, which delays your running line to 3.
The rest of seq 1 looks good!Good timing on the BC at :28 to the other end of the tunnel on the first rep of sequence 2! You are getting connection with your outside arm up high and shaking, and I worry that this will begin to look like a threadle cue. For the exit line, the outside arm should be soft and on your belly, just enough to get her seeing your eyes.
>>I’m going to go back and revisit the one where she was coming in over the jump on the BC instead of staying out. I think it was the 2nd sequence.
On that sequence, the BC was too early a :40 and :51 (she didn’t really see a backside cue for 5) – so be sure to keep cuing the backside and watch her head: when you see her head turn and look to the backside line, then you can start the BC.
Seq 3:
She did really well on the backside pushes at 4, both in going to the backside and coming back to take the jump as you left. Yay! Try to keep on a very parallel path to the center of the bar, resist temptation to run towards the entry wing – you went to the entry wing at 1:24 and then got delayed in the timing of the turn at 1:26 on 5 so she was a little wide there. Being center of the bar will allow you to get further ahead ofr a decel on 5 to tighten it up.
At 1:42 youwere movig to the entry wing but not as strongly connected so got the front side o 4. You compensated with more motion to it and more connection at 1:57 so she got it – but then you were totally smoked for 5 LOL! So just use the connection and verbal, not the motion to the entry wing.
On the very last rep, she got the blind on the backside really nicely (it looks like she is really understanding to take the bar on those types of backsides) so you got the next backside really well too. Your line showed the wing so she was tight going to it. You did a full post turn there at 2:08 – that delays the exit line so she looked up at you as she landed. I think a spin (deceling and turning your feet) will get you out of there sooner and also show her the line to the tunnel sooner.>>Let’s just say sending to the backside and then blinding was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do with her in those last few sequences. I think I did it like 5x to make sure she knew where she was going then I couldn’t do anything else but a full post turn on the next jump, my brain couldn’t handle it !!>.
Ah, that explains all the post turns LOL!!! The main thing is to get you further across the bar on 4 so when you cue the backside, you have a lot more time to get to the next thing – spins require decel and rotation, so you need to be further ahead to have time to set them up If you run to the entry wing, it is really hard to outrun her to the next line.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>So as you can tell we took this session on the road to SOTC. First time there since last winter. My main focus was keeping her engaged and happy. She had besties there as well doing obedience homework ( bleh) but she handled it super.>
I think she did really well!! And the turf looks good there too! Such an improvement over those old mats…
Circle wraps – this is going well! I can’t hear if you were using a verbal cue on it on the first side for the first couple of reps, but I did hear the push push on the second side. She is bending really nicely on these!On the backside slices – I think the mechanics when she was on your left for the last rep were the best – she was line up properly, you were moving up the line and then disconnected with a good toy plop. The first couple on the other side weren’t as clear but that last one at 2:04 was great!
For both of these skills, begin adding more distance, starting her further away. Then you can add more motion!
2 jumps skills – On the wrap on the front side, try to decelerate and turn your feet sooner so it looks different from a slicing RC cue, She was committing really well, but your feet were facing the slice line so it might make it harder to get the slice in the future.
On the 1-2-3 sequence from the wrap – the full post turn works at 3:01 and 3:32 but I think it takes longer to ‘snap’ around to the new connection so her turn was wider. The spin move on 2 and staying tucked in on the inside of the wings will tighten up the turn and line to 3.
Circle wrap – these are going well too – her commitment on these is really strong, both going to the backside AND taking the bar! And her turning looks lovely too.
>>I tried SO hard to be in the right place and off her line for those last BC and watched later from my perfect camera angle to see me in her way; lol!!>>
Bwahahaha yes, got out of the way! Plan your running line to try to let her see the wing for a heartbeat longer so she can get past you. You were blocking the wing at 3:41 and 4:02 so she had to go all the way around you, widening the line to the backside. Your running path should be to where the wing meets the bar.
Same with the send to the slice – don’t block the wing 🙂 On this one, your running path should be towards the center of the bar. That will give her a clearer view and also make it easier for you to outrun her for when you need to get past the exit wing.
And plop the toy in sooner on the backsides as you leave, to reward her decision to go to the backside (which she did really nicely!!) You were a little late at 4:46 – it was earlier at 5:03 but can be even earlier to really expand the default behavior of looking at the bar. There is so much countermotion on those backside slices that we want to get the reward in nice and early 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning! I agree about the time change – I like LOTS of daylight!!
Go – earlier verbal and better when you were closer to the wings. On the first rep you were a little late and a little lateral so he looked at you out of the utnnel. On the send rep, you were closer to the wings so motion supported the line better – be sure to turn the connection back on as you pass the middle jump, so you can time the transition into the turn sooner. It wa a little wide at :16 because you wre a little late getting reconnected.
The push to the backside looked good! He was not going to commit to the jump as you moved away at :27 until you stopped moving. and when you did the blind sooner at :35, he did commit. When the blind was not as early at :45, he committed later. That tells us that he is relying handling to commit, so we can focus on the dog training: as he is committing to go aroudn the entry wing, keep moving forward but the drop the reward in on the landing side before he even has a chance to make a decision about taking the jump or not. That will help get him looking at the bar. When he sees that for a few sessions, you can delay the timing of the reward to reinforce him for taking the jump even when you do not do the blind or help with handling.
On the go at :50, he needs motion and more verbal to commit to the tunnel – you got quiet and drifted away a bit so he didn’t take it. Stay closer to the wings and also give a tunnel cue. The motion on the last rep was much clearer – I couldn’t tell if you also said tunnel, but that is totally appropriate there too.Video 2:
>>I was wondering if a serp could work on seq 1 to get the tunnel at the end?Yes, that is how I ran it – the BC there is not needed. The BC gets the other side of the tunnel for sequence 2. You did a great job with the blind, though! But yes, the serp is easier, handling it just like you handled 1-2. Now I need to go look and make sure I didn’t type in doing a blind there on the PDF!!
You did a FC on sequence 2, looked great! He collected a bit on it, which is fine – it would be fun to see if he doesn’t have to collect as much with a BC there instead of a FC, then we can compare and see which is faster 🙂 But timing and connection and commitment cues all looked great!Video 3: Also looking really good! On the backside, he was not coming in to take the jump at :07 til he saw the new connection (the BC) so the dog training ideas from the GO sequences will help tighten up that section as well, to help create the default of jumping the bar.
Video 4:
Looking good here too! Your backside sends are looking more and more independent on this first rep!
On the backside serp at 4, he had to think about coming in to take the jump – try not to help him with any upper bdy rotation, as this delayed your push to the backside at 5. But definitely reward his good decision to come in! I think he was coming in even without the rotation.
The oopsie at :19 (he took the front not the back) was that you were a little early in releasing the backside extreme connection cue: You were turned forward before he turned his head to the backside, so remember to watch his head – you will see him turn it to the backside and then you can release the cue and move away. You totally held it longer on the last rep here (he took a moment to bark at you LOL) but I think it was harder for him because you were even further across the bar (yay!!). Great job seeing his commitment before moving away.Video 5 – on this set up, you can do the FC or BC on 3 and then the RC on 4… or a double blind to keep you moving further ahead 🙂
On the first rep, the FC was a little out of position (too much on the line to 1) but the blind on rep 2 and rep 3 was on a much better line to 4. You can start the BC sooner so it is finished before he takes off – moving near the line and the verbal should work together to allow you to disconnect for the blind nice and early. And as you execute it, keep moving forward to 4 so he can see the line as he lands, doing the exit line connection while running. Your last rep at :50 was the best one, earliest blind, and you kepot moving so he sa a really nice line – yay!!!On the middle section – I think you were getting nice turns on 5 on each run! You can leave that 5 wing sooner to be able to send and turn on 6 – you were a little late getting away from 5 and pulling away from 6 so he was a little wide on 6 – one step with a little decel and a left verbal is probably all he needs there to find the front of 7. You moved up that line the earliest on the last rep and he read it really well. At :42 you waited a really long time at 5 so when you moved forward to 6, he read it as a rear cross because you were on the center of the bar moving towards 6.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>So I’m not exactly sure what you mean when you say to drop my shoulders forward for the run across the ring to the tunnel in T2B? Can you please clarify?
Run like a football wide receiver running down the field: arms pumping, leaning forward so your shoulders are a little forward, with urgency to your destination: but with your eyes on the ball. In this case, Benni is the ball 🙂 Kind of like what you did on the GO sequences below, but with more connection in places where you will need to keep connection.
T
Hi! He looks really good on all of these videos!!
Backside proofing:
He is doing really well!! You are doing a great job with your parallel path and your shoulders: helping with connection and your upper body rotating a little, just enough to cue him without you stepping to the backside line – yay! You will be able to get further across the bar really nicely. You can gradually change your line so you are moving more towards the center of the bar on the jump, I think he is ready for that.
The countermotion element looks really good too – as you get further around the wing, drop the reward in sooner so he sees it nice and early – and stops looking at da momma and more at the bar 🙂 You can also mix in a ton of stay rewards, the stay was the hardest part of the game for him here 🙂Lateral lead outs:
This went really well! You can also toss back a zillion cookies to reward the stay too. I am so happy with how he both found the line to the jump AND set himself up to turn. Note how when he was over the bar, he was turning his head and he was on the side of the bar closer to you: exactly what we want. He was even faster when you were on the ‘backside’ of the wing, but he still turned beautifully. He was having a pointer moment at 1:55 LOL! There were A LOT of birds, I can hear them loud and clear LOL! But he came back to focus and then ended in perfect focus. Good boy!!!! You can move this skill to to 2 jumps now, he is ready.Accordion: He is a big powerful dude! The MM is tempting so he doesn’t want to stay – when I have the MM out ahead on a grid, I throw back cheese and higher value rewards because the MM is so enticing, for some reason 🙂
I think his jumping is looking really good – bounced rep 1, bounced rep 2, nice one stride at rep 3 (it might have been a one stride because you were facing him a bit to make sure he stayed) . He did a one stride on the 4th rep (where he bounced on rep 2) but I think that was about you moving and him looking up at you. And he went back to the bounce on the last rep – good boy! He is reading the distance changes nicely 🙂On the next session, gives lots of reward for the stays so he lets you get all the way out to the MM – that will help him power through the lines even more. Ideally, you are standing out by the MM so he extends. If you are near jump 3 and not moving, he should actually collect so we want to be sure he knows he is allowed to extend.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, youtube likes to change things sometimes and then we have to figure it all out all over again. Annoying, right?? The vides below all came through, but the Smiley Face here did not. Can you repost? Thanks!
TracyHi!
Yes, she is usually so good with her stays 🙂
>>Since you suggested we only do 5 runs, I decided to let that one go. >>
Letting it go was fine – I might let one go but then not let any others go, otherwise it gets confusing for the dogs – I might stop the break and reset, leading to 6 totally reps, as long as Idon’t go past 6 reps (that is 18 jumps in one session, more than enough for a youngster).The flirt stick might be too exciting for the grid LOL!! It is funny that it is still her favorite 🙂
The jumping looked good! Are those 6 foot distances at the start? If yes – perfect. If not – you can try her at 6 feet and see what she does there. The only jumping question was on rep 4 where she broke her stay: she put in an extra stride where I think she will bounce… but I am 99% sure that was due to her having an oopsie moment on the stay break 🙂 If she does *not* bounce that on her next session we can tweak something to help, but I think she will. Her one stride looked lovely on rep 3! And she was reading the grid nicely as jump 3 moved around, no problems there. Over the course of the next weeks, you can expand the distances on the 3rd jump even more.
>>Measuring was fun – thank heavens for jump bars.>>
TRUTH!!! and weave poles for the 3 foot distances haha!
Nice work!
TracyHi! These looked to be SUPER easy for her – she exploded to the jump the instant you released her, no problem on either side of the wing. Yay! Definitely add more challenge now – it can be starting her further away from the jump so it is easier to cut in and a little harder to ‘find it’ – working up to 15 feet away and see if she can still get it. You can also add in motion on the exit, meaning when you see her heading towards the jump, do a FC and leave to see if she will still commit (I am confident that she will :)) You can also do this on 2 jumps – the visual of the 2nd jump in the Advanced level might be more of a tempting distraction? Or not, she might still be perfect 🙂 It gives you the chance to work even more handling moves, like serping the landing side of 2, or front crosses on the takeoff side.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>>This backside exercise was very informative. Keiko has been doing backsides, even from a distance, but usually with an leg or arm ( or both) to help the verbal cue. Not using my arm or leg in this exercise made it much tougher on Keiko and the first couple of tries she hesitated and had to think about what the word meant. >>
Yes, having this skill as more of a shoulder/connection/verbal cue is definitely morechallenging for the dogs as opposed to when we would step to the backside – but totally worth it in the long run, because then we don’t have to try to outrun them 🙂
I am going to make another video with a better explanation of how to use the shoulders – everyone is having the same question about shoulders so I need to clarify because it is a subtle but very important thing. Stay tuned for that later this morning! But basically, it is about a ‘soft’ relaxed dog side shoulder, and the further across the bar you get, the more the opposite shoulders comes forward of your body, almost pointing ot the entry wing.
On the first couple of reps, you had that really nicely and so she got it – yes, she had to think about it but that is fine 🙂 At :21, she almsot went to the front and what was because both of your shoulders were back, which tends to pull the dog to the front side (almost looks like we are rotating into a wrap on the front side, if that makes sense).
At :23 you closed your shoulders forward and she said “ah yes, the backside.”
Then compare it to the connected moment as she exiting the wing at :33 – for a heartbeat, your oustide shoulder was forward as you delivered the back verbal – so she went to the backside. Yay! Now, on that rep she almost didn’t take the jump (hello, tunnel!) – probably because you turned, accelerated, moved the toy and she starting thinking about the toy 🙂
The other reps also looked good on the backside cues: your shoulders were NOT back behind you so she could see the line better. Stay tuned for the video comign with more details 🙂 And great job rewarding the jump commitment on those too!>> Do you see anything about my motion that could be improved?
Your motion was good! You can start adding more speed too!
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
He is definitely a dog that sees all of your body cues! The shoulder position on the backside slices is hard, I am going to make a video of it because so far everyone totally has the connection element but the shoulders are too far back… so the dogs are curling into the front of the jump. Stay tuned, I will get that posted this morning.
In a nutshell: when you are connecting, you dog side shoulder is relaxed like it was but then outside shoulder comes slightly forward of your body, almost as if it is pointing to the entry wing. Your shoulders were both all the way back so that is why he was curling in on the first reps, until you got closer to the line. In order to help you not have to be closer to his line, we will work the shoulders but clearly I need to improve my crappy explanation LOL!!!! It is a visual so I will do a video today 🙂 When *everyone* has the same question, it is clearly not the fault of the student but rather the fault of the instructor. I will blame it on lack of coffee 🙂On the reps where you were facing the camera (he is on your left) you can see that opposite shoulder peeking forward a little and he was getting the backsides nicely 🙂 It is similar to the get out cue 🙂
Look at the rep at 3:24 (your videographer (Jen?) said “He thought about it) because for a moment, your outside shoulder was forward, so he was going to the backside. Then you dropped your shoulder back, so he came in to the front side. Dogs see EVERYTHING LOL! Then at 3:33 and the next reps, that outside shoulder stayed more forward and also he patterns it. That first rep is the hardest so that is where the forward shoulder will be needed the most.The countermotion looks good – you were really good with some nice early toy drops and that helped set up good choices later on. When you were all the way around the wing before release, the early toy drop is probably most critical, because the presence of the bar really has to override the entire direction your body is facing LOL! He is doing well with it!
Stayed tuned for that video, I think I was not nearly clear enough because everyone is having the same question so far! Oopsie!!!
Nice work 🙂
TracyGood morning!
The jump grid is going well – he is thinking and reading and that is exactly what we want 🙂 I think the best info comes in reps 3, 4 and 5, because that is where the beigger challenges are. Rep 1 is really a warm up LOL! Rep 2 is a bit of an awkward distance, somewhere between a bounce and 1 stride – so he chose a longer bounce, good boy! I think rep 3 was a nice balanced one stride and then he balanced back to the bounce on 4 (it was consistent with rep 2) and then rep 5 looked more balanced and powerful than rep 1. Yay!! Next time you play with these, repeat the distances and see how he does. Then if it is still good – the time after that will be his compression distance between 1 and 2… but then jump 3 begins at the extra 3 feet past the compression distance , then rep 2 is another 3 feet, and so on: so you will be building up to 9, 12 and 15 foot distances (9 might still be a bounce but 12 and 15 are likely to be one-strides.
Hooray for going to new places and playing familiar games! It was extra smart to do the GO first, his favorite 🙂 The Go looked good, the RC looked good! The wrap needs more room for you to be able to show the transition into the rotation, so that you can accelerat then decel – you were close enough to already be decelerated so he didn’t really see it on the first rep, You were more pronoucned on the 2nd wrap so he collected nicely! On the right turn (soft turn) this also needs an earlier decel and line change, so you more room between the ocne and jump will make it easier.
On the backside at :41 where he didn’t go to the jump, you were blocking his view of the wing then pushed in, so it pushed him off the line. You were much clearer on the others, so keep focusing on that line to where the wing meets the bar – no need to try to get past that line til he tail has past you 🙂 And keeping the motion somewhat “chill” for now is helping him commit as you move past, especially on the right turns.He loved the tunnel to jump games! Go was easy peasy of course! Your first wrap wrap was a little late but then you showed a clearer transition – really nice tight turns! Yay!!!
On the cone-jump-tunnel games, 2 ideas for the set up: more distance, so you have to move more 🙂 Motion plays a role in the turns so adding more will be helpful. A
Also, don’t have the teeter quite as close because we don’t want him to ignore it when there is general motion towards it. He probably doesn’t have a ton of value on the teeter yet, so keping it out of the picture for now won’t desensitize him to it.
I think he did really well on the variety of cues here! A couple of things to be careful of:
At :208, you said “go right” (I think that is what you said) so just say riiiight riiight and not go 🙂 You gave a nice calm left left cue at 2:23 and it was very smooth!On the front side wraps: he is turning really nicely, so now you can add in leaving as soon as you rotate (you were being chill t here and waiting a bit to make shre he committed -I think now you can rotate and start to leave with more urgency. It will challenge his commitment but I believe he will be fine with it 🙂
On the flip side – you need to be super chill and just walk through the backside wraps especially on the first rep of it (like at 2:36). The other thing I would suggest is as you keep moving forward, drop the reward in behind you sooner: you can drop it in to rewrd the moment he turns his head away to the bar after he gets to the wing. You were tending to wait for a jump decision, which is harder to get – getting the reward in early will help create the default, so then eventually you can shift the timing to a jumping decision.>>Lennan thinks that plucking the toy out of the sand is icky so there were no thrown toys. >>
One thing that I do with my dogs is tuck in a Manners Minder on the wing (landing side) – so I can carry the toy and reward from hand between reps – but for this skill, as soon as the dog turns his head, I click the MM and keep moving. It is also a good challnge because they have to go past the MM in order to get the MM 🙂 That way you don’t have to worry about sandy toys or which hand the toy is in 🙂
He was also really good on the semi-circle at 3:03 where you were nicely chill in your motion and then the big reward was the tunnel 🙂
I am really pleased with how he is using his body to turn – he is turning his head and bending through the center of his body. That is going to end up being REALLY nice on those full height bars!
Good boy learning the tire at the end! That looked good, looks like he has no commitment questions on the tire.
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>>although he hasn’t quite resigned himself to the fact that standing by it and staring at it doesn’t trigger the treat.Just wait til he starts smacking it LOL!
>>I actually think he had better drive to it than food in a dish. Is that because it’s more fun when your treat rolls out at your feet?
That is quite possible – I think the click-like element of it plus the way it reinforces behavior triggers happy-making chemical releases in the brain so food driven dogs LOOOOOVE it LOL!
This was a good session! His first rep was kind of a wake up rep – totally different than the last rep on the same distances where he landed more centered in th gap. And I agree that he looked comfy with the 11 foot one stride. The 8 foot was a weirdo distance, according to him LOL!!
I would change nothing for the 2nd session of this… see what latent learning brings to the table. Let him percolate on it! He will either get more balance on the 8 foot distance to bounce it, or put in a one-stride. If he still feels the 8 foot distance is weird, then the 3rd session later in the weekcan be 5 – 7 – 11 and see what he does.
>>The first rep of 5ft bounces he wasn’t powering through as much, but I know he can since he is having to compress back down to control the 5ft bounces when I did the mini sequence. I was wondering if I should do 5.5ft or 6ft in that context since I think we need to work more on extension than collection at this point.>>
I think focusing on the 7 or 8 foot distances will work to get that. The other option is a slightly different grid for more bouncing: 5 feet, 6 feet, 7 feet (or 5, 5.5, 6) where we gradaully extend the bounce. I didn’t add it to the puppy class because they needed to learn about striding. but you can totally put the progressive grid into the rotation.
Let me know what you think and how the next session goes!
Tracy
