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Hi!
>>I struggled with this perhaps because it was close as limited room>>
it is very tight! Two ways to make it feel like there is more room:
– spread out the distances, so you can move more
– lower the bars so she doesn’t jump as much… which means the handling cues have to come sooner because she will be moving a lot faster, like she would be on bigger distances 🙂>> I also need to leave early I get stuck watching her rather than trusting her. >>
Yes, staying in motion is key for her and for In Synch too… so I have a (crazy) idea for you. Try running silently. No verbals! Yes, I know that I bug you to add verbals but I think you default to verbals now in some spots and don’t move. So if we take the verbals out, we can wire your brain to tell your legs to keep moving, while maintaining great connection. Feel free to curse at me but this could be VERY helpful!!
Another idea: try to always start her from a line up and stationary position. She tends to want to stay in motion and when things are not clear for the start, either she ends up in the wrong place or she comes in and bites you (ouch!) She seems to like her line up cue, so use it every time consistently for clear smooth starts
Two spots to look at in the handling: The Switch on 3 (RC slice) was much smoother on 2nd run at :22 and after that and also at 1:40! On the first rep you were too far across the bar so she didn’t know you wanted the turn away. At 1:21 it looked like a wrap cue, not enough movement across the bar. The successful reps had a really nice balance of showing her the turn away there.
Also, the cues for the 5 jump can be sooner – as she exits 4 and is heading to 5 start turning to 6. You were controlling the line more than she needed you to, so she didn’t always know which way to turn on 5. Having to help after landing there caused some questions on the line 6-7 like at 1:50.
Handling without verbals will espeically help on the 2nd part here (after 2:00) – you were using a lot of verbals there but they were tending to be late (as she was in the air or landing) and without a lot of motion support. So my idea of running silently means you need to emphasize motion cues as well! Your connection was super strong overall, so keep the connection and try to run a sequence with motion cues only 🙂
Great job here!
TracyLet’s get him targeting! Here is a quick video summary of the progression, using a SUPER FANCY target (yogurt lid LOL):
In my hand to the side, then targeting downwards:
Then introduce the concept of targeting downwards on a travel plank:
The with target on a plank or stairs:
Have fun!
Tracy
Hi!
I am glad his nail is doing well!
>> Driving ahead at the end of a big course is an area of opportunity for us (how’s that for a euphemism for “we almost missed winning the Open & Invitationals Finals because he barely kept going ahead of me without turning back”).>>
Yep, I remember yelling GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and hoping your legs would hold out on both of those courses because they had huge closing lines!
For the driving ahead lines at the beginning and in the sequences:
>>l. I switched to a different soft frisbie that throws better than the fabric frizzers and still had some real doozies of throws, >>
He definitely loves the friz! Does the hard or soft friz do a decent roller? That might be easier to get distance on it than a regular throw. And you can throw sooner – like when he exits the tunnel and looks at the straight line, so he feels the joys of really leaving you in the dust 🙂 You can also mix in a placed reward or if you have other people around, they can throw the friz for you 🙂
You can also take out the last jump and move the 2nd to last jump further and further from the tunnel – that can build up into the big UKI distances too!
Looking at the backside wraps… the winner is the threadle wrap, in terms of better handler position and faster times!
Seq 1:
The circle wrap at :36 was a little slicey, meaning he was considering turning to his right. You can show more of the wing (heading to where the wing and bar meet) and show more decel, even being a little rotated in that spot (facing your next line). The TW was well done, even though he is still sorting it out and not quite blasting into it fully yet.
I timed the difference between the circle wrap and the threadle wrap – the TW was significantly faster even though the timing of landing from 1 to landing of 2 was almost identical on both. He turned on the rocket burners for the chase up the line from the TW! He was looking at you a little at :57 so throw sooner – you were starting to do that in the later reps and he totally drove ahead better. Yay!
He had one question at 1:11 when you left the TW too soon – you had a little step towards the threadle jump and took off before he turned to his left so he took the slice. It did look like a potential rear cross on the backside. Compare to the rep at 1:27 when you waited longer then took off when he took his first step to his left – that is his cue for you to go. For the slice threadles, the cue is simply turning his head to the jump. For the wrap threadles, the cue is the head turn plus the first step in the wrap direction.
2nd sequence:
The TW went well here too!
He had questions on the push wrap here. At 1:57 – looks like you were blocking the wing and then when you did the big step forward with arm & leg, he read it as a turn to the tunnel. He got it at 2:15 but was careful, you were covering the wing a bit here too and pushing in more than needed. So head to the wing-meets-bar position and decel – then you can move to the next line as soon as he passes you.The TW was a little faster here too! So the more experiuenced he gets with the TW, the faster it will continue to be!!! Plus it gets you a lot further ahead, even if it does not feel that way because he accelerating and catching up to you 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! You’ve been busy! Yay!
>Hot Topics: Done in an indoor setting.
Seq 1 Buddy was up for the game so all 3 dogs played. All 3 nailed this first try.
Seq 2 Buddy and Mookie got this first try.
I didn’t cue early enough for Alonso and he went to the dummy jump first try. The second run was clean. I did have the jumps closer to the tunnel due to lack of space, so it was easy to go off course.>>It is good to have the jumps in close to exaggerate the challenge – it provides a good feedback opportunity from the dogs in terms of how early the timing needs to be.
>>Seq 3 Buddy was clean first run. Mookie took jump 5 as a BS as the jumps were close. I needed to indicate and say “front” and he was fine. Alonso took the bar down at jump 2, the rest was fine. I needed to use break arms at the start as he was raring to go watching his 2 other brothers go before him 😊>>
This is great info from the dogs! With Mookie’s big stride, definitely look for places where he might be looking at a backside and need a front side cue. And if Alonso is feeling spicy, stronger turn cues like a brake arm totally help especially early in the course.
>> For Mookie I needed to say “go straight” 9 to 10 as he took the tunnel from 9 first run. It was hard to cue early in a small space with speed. >>
So true about timing! But it is great practice to begin the timing really early – in some cases, if the distance is tight, you will need to begin the cues before he lifts off for the *previous* jump, so he has the info when he lands and can adjust for the next jump.
>>AND now I know why you wanted to know how we did on these Zoom sequences 😊
Ha! Yes! It is an important piece of handling 🙂
>> But, me and spins 🙁 I tried out a spin in a trial setting during a T2B class with Mookie once. The spin left me disoriented but Mookie managed to finish the course without me and even cued. He left me in the dust.>>
Since the FX wraps are in your comfort zone, and you are also really strong with regular blinds, maybe think of the spins differently: think of them as a FX wrap then run away for a few steps then do a blind cross. Think of it as 2 separate handling moves (and you are good at both of those). That might help you feel less disoriented. It is possible that you are being too literal with the spin and doing both moves all together in one spot – literally, spinning! And that can definitely feel weird and disorienting.
>>I was afraid I wouldn’t make it for the BCX but my tunnel sends are great and I was up there fine, but once up there I froze or turned the wrong way. I had to say “TURN IN” to myself. I will have to visit this without the dogs and try to learn it better. >>
Yes, definitely revisit this! You have strong tunnel sends so I am 100% confident that you can get the blind – so it is a matter of trusting the timing (do the blind earlier than it feels like you should!) and trusting that you are so far ahead that the dogs won’t run you down 🙂
>>Alonso needed “close close” arms with the verbal to come in for the BS circle wrap on 6 as jump 7 was really close.
Perfect! And yes, with 7 so close, the exit line connection becomes critical after 6.
<< I need to practice spins at home more walking them without a dog. I need to be really sure if I try it at a trial. 🙂 I can get dizzy and disoriented at speed 😊>>
So try it like this, without the boys at first:
run forward
decelerate
do a FX on the jump, like a wrap
run back towards the way you came for a step or two or three
then do a BX on the flat.Let me know how it goes! And thanks for the update 🙂
Tracy
It worked! Yay! Well, sort of, it kept blipping in and out
but maybe that is the tropical storm that is currently overhead here LOL!Looking at the video:
Your exit line connection is good! Very clear and very helpful to him!!! You can add more transitions, and that will cue the turns even better:
>>I had after watching the video and trying to make adjustments during the session. How do I eliminate the wide turn going into the circle wrap?>>
On the first 2 circle wrap reps, you were not showing a lot of motion so what was happening at :09 and :27 that sent him wide was that you were side stepping to your left to get to circle wrap position. Sideways motion is still motion, so he stayed out on the line moving that direction. At :43 you had a much more direct line to the circle wrap position and he was totally coming in, until you sidestepped which pushed him away.
So ideally, you would drive up the line with acceleration, cue the turn on 5, then drive directly to the circle wrap spot. And as you get there, decelerate so he can get past you.
You did that more when you re-visited it on the last rep – he needs a brake arm on 5 at 1:51, but you were driving a lot more directly to the backside wing at 1:52 so he went to it more directly. You needed a bit of decel there to let him come in tight – when you kept moving forward, he accelerated too. So you can get to where the wing and bar meet, then decel and hang out there (kind of rotated) until he passes you.
You can add more acceleration then decel on the spins too! You were moving at a steady pace at :58 then did the spin, so he was surprised. Acceleration until he is jumping 4 then decel before the spin will indicate that something big is coming, so he will be ready and collect better. The rep at 1:08 had a little more decel so he turned better. Both of those reps had really nice exit line connection!
And then you blind 4-5 at 1:22 and 1:38 were SUPER nice! That allowed you to start the spin rotation on time – you can try adding a brake arm towards him and decel until you see him collect, then move away, just to get a little more collection there.
Super nice exit line connection there too!Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
He did GREAT with ignoring the toy (I am going to show his video to Ramen so hopefully Ramen will get inspired to ignore the toy on the ground LOL!!) I think you probably placed the toy where a lot of people place it, so no worries there – moving it over will protect his shoulders.>>. As far as the teeter goes, I am happy with 2o2o.>>
Have you started any of the targeting for it? I use a good ol’ lid or something on the ground. It starts with a head bob to it but I don’t require a nose touch or repeated nose touches 🙂
Tracy
Hi! It is nice to see her back in action! Great job with these courses – your plan to walk it then run it produced a lot of lovely work!!! Really exciting to see things coming together like this!
Standard 1 looked great! A couple of small details:
You can move to 2 sooner, she had a small question at :02 – to do that while still getting up the line to 4, you can stay lateral like you were but be closer to 1 – that way you can release and move to 2 as she starts moving. That will set the line to 2 so you can start heading to 4 sooner.
Hooray for the 4 backside off the RDW! Then you got excited LOL and didn’t exactly cue the next line, no worries! The 7-8-9 looked great! The weave entry – WOW!!!! You skipped the 11 jump (threadle wrap-ish at 11) but the 12-13-14 line looked great.
You were careful about the a-frame, which is fine at this stage (all the contacts looked really good here!). When you trust it more, you can leave her on it to get closer to her line at 15 to tighten the turn to 16. Hooray for finsing 15 and not the off course tunnel! The RC on 18 worked great and she drove ahead really well!
Standard 2: Also really nice!!
Question: were you wanting to wrap her to her left (to the inside) on jump 2 at :02 and 1:28? The handling cues indicated a throw back slice but it looked like you were wanting the wrap? It was hard to tell, so great job staying in motion and continuing! To get the wrap (which will likely be faster) you can do it ias a lap turn (facing her and turning her away on the flat before stepping to the jump) or as a threadle wrap or as a push wrap (starting behind the wing on the landing side of 2) .
Super nice BC while she was weaving on the first run (she was at pole 10 when you started the BC) but the blind at pole 8 was too hard at 1:30 so she came out. I know I bug people to keep going, but that is mainly in the handling spots where it could be handler error. If she pops out of the weaves, you can send her back in and try it the blind a little later so she stays in.
The layerd tunnel-tunnel line at 4-5 looked great. To keep her exiting 5 straight and not looking at you, you can give her a GO cue before the 5 tunnel and teeter cues sooner (while she is still in the tunnel, start saying it) to help her look forward.
After the teeter: since she seems pretty independent on the teeter, you can move over to the threadle position on the 7 jump and release from the teeter with the threadle verbal and be in threadle position with arm way back – all the cues were too forward indicating, backside at :15 and 1:38
Question: Is your threadle slice cue a high arm opening up back behind you? You were closing your shoulder forward here with a low arm, so the upper body rotation towards her and high arm back and make it more obvious.
Using her name as a turn cue on 8 to set up threadle at 1:45 really helped! She has been great on BOTH of these courses about finding the jump near the tunnel without grabbing the tunnel: SUPER!!
Running dog on left 11-12-13 worked better when you tried it in the first run and did it in flow in the 2nd run. You were trying to slow her down or something on the a-frame in the second run so she was not totally sure (she was like “I GOT THIS, WE GO FAST” haha) and had questions on the line to the backside. You can let her rip on that a-frame and give feedback if she misses.
The ending line looked really good! You had more decel into 14 at 1:58 so her collection was really good! Make sure you give her big exit line connection as you move to 15 – she drifted a little wide waiting to see which side you wanted her to drive to.
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Hi!
On the video, the timing of starting the decel into the FCs and spins is definitely earlier, which really helped! And the timing of the blind on the blind cross sequence was also really good! And the spin is going well too, you are getting the flow of that FC-BC combo really nicely 🙂
On the opening warm ups and sequences, you were emphasizing the exit line connection so it was much clearer and she responded really well!
As you got more motion into it, the exit line connection was not as clear so she was wider. I think the main thing is to run with the reward in the correct hand, then keep moving while you show it to her to get the turn. I think stopping is kinda of a cycle: you stop moving so she goes wide, waiting for more info, so you stop moving even more 🙂
You kept moving really well at 1:13, you just needed to emphasize the exit line connection to help tighten up the turn. Compare to 2:19, for example, where you stopped so she went really wide.
One way to help her come in tighter and faster is to keep moving and have her chase you for the reward – then you can deliver it when she catches up 🙂
Only one other small detail: after the spin and you want her to go down the line to the tunnel, keep more connection with a lower arm. This is a good one to run with a bottle of water in your hand 🙂 You had a high arm and you were decelerating, which turned the line a bit so she had questions.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
She has great tunnel commitment, so you can start your verbal cues sooner for the Go and also the left/right turns. On most of the reps, you started the verbals when she is already in the tunnel so she can’t really hear them or process them in time. At :31, you gave your right cue when she was still over a meter away from entering the tunnel, and she had a great turn! So definitely cue the verbals sooner.
To help strengthen the Go verbal understanding, you can cue it sooner (and let her see you accelerating before she enters the tunnel). Then, throw the toy as she enters the tunnel so it lands straight ahead before she exits. That will keep her looking ahead as she exits. That will make it easier to add the wing, starting by moving it closer then as she commits to it better and better, you can begin moving it further and further away.
For the rear crosses: the rear cross verbal and physical cues should be given before the tunnel entry (you were doing them at the tunnel exits). To do that, you can start closer to the first wing with her. Send her around it then as she is exiting the wing, show the rear cross line (moving to the center of the tunnel entry) so as she passes you, she sees the cue to turn for the RC line. That should give her all the info beforfe she enters the tunnel. If she turns the wrong way, you were probably late on the physical cue (she needs to see it fully before she enters the tunnel).
Looking at the discrimination:
She did pretty well here! Yay! She seems to really understand the tunnel verbal and didn’t need much help at all with that. She needed a hand to point to the mat (along with the verbal), so work is separately by saying the verbal *then* pointing… then you can fade out the pointing to get it just on a verbal.
>>t did give me a lecture on why should she do the mat- probably also mat usually do inside or when sitting at a show so a training gap here.>>
I think part of that was that she needed the hand cue too, then she got frustrated with the food reward. Using the toy totally helped – it can be in your hand so that you can reward for the tunnel and also you can toss it to her on the mat. Yes, she might run around with it for a moment, but that is a fun part of the reward 🙂 while helping the mat become more rewarding.
To help her understand the tandems, she needs to see the hand cues before she starts moving to the wing. It was all happening at the same time, so she didn’t always see it in time. Empty hands that are low and slow will make it easier for her to see –
You can show your hands before you release her from the stay. But if she won’t hold the stay when you move your hands, you can add another wing to wrap before so she is exiting that wing towads the line you want – and you can be showing her the hand cues before she exits the first wing then turning her away when she locks onto your hands.Walking the course with the drink in your hand definitely keeps your hands down! Nice!!!! You can add a dog to it now, using a very simple sequence so you can keep connection and low hands.
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>> never mind, saw the answer to question below on FB! Yeppee late Sep, our weather should be MUCH better by then!>>
Yes, I moved the last day to September 23rd because it has just been such a gross weather summer.
Serping is going really well!
He did well with his jump commitment here! The first reps on one jump were sends (where he is moving away from you rather than towards you), The 2 jump setup had more serpentine action on jump 2 – he did great! The turns were looking strong and he seemed to have no questions about finding the jumps.
You were showing super nice connection – you can open up your serp arm back even more, rotating more at the waist, to make it even more obvious for him. Think of getting your arm to be parallel to the jump bar as you keep your feet moving forward.
At about 1:09 you switched so jump 1 was the serp – that was a little harder only because the cookie toss start was bringing him back to the jump at angles that were not making the serp line clear. When he was lined up nicely, it went great!
Starting from a stay will make things easier when jump 1 is a serp, so he can be on a good angle to see it. Plus, a very common course challenge lately is serping jump 1 towards the handler, so this will be good to teach him for future course work!
>>-only after watching the video, I realized I should have put wings.>>
This went well without wings. Yes, it is a little harder without wings but he did really well. When you do threadles, though, definitely use wings to make it a clearer visual for him.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
The zig zag grid is off to a good start! The decreased angle seemed to help her get the feel of the bounce. You can have the dish further away so she takes at least 2 extension strides to it (stopping for it caused the bar down early in the session, and we don’t want her to consider collecting at all on this). So you can have it 15 feet past the 2nd jump and see how she does.
There were some distractions in the environment that caused interesting footwork (barking dogs) so you can grab a youtube video of barking dogs and have it playing in the background when doing easy reps 🙂 She did better in the 2nd hlaf of the video when there were fewer distractions.
For the adjustable grid – she is understanding the concept and the compression jumpinug looks strong. She asked a really legit question on the last distance! Your position (being stationary near the last jump and somewhat lateral) is a conflicing indicator with the reward dish out ahead on a straight line. Body position/lack of motion indicates collection and turn, reward dish indicates some straight line extension – you an see her question at :11, :30, and 1:19 (looking at you and adding strides).
Her jumping was more extended at :54 because you were further up the line, but she still had a question because you were not all the way up and you were lateral. So to fully support the jumping, you can stand right next to the reward target on the straight line (not even laterally awya from it for now). That way the physical cues and the reward target match in what they indicate, and she can concentrate on her striding
Looking at the lazy contacts video:
She seemed very happy jump on the plank and to scratch the target! Yay! Since it is so hard to get the target in place where it won’t move around or her feet are not in the way, you can leave the lazy version of the game now 🙂 and just have it attached to the board in advance. That way she can jump on the board and immediately start the targeting behavior. This will help her gear up for the bang game! You probably don’t need to click the behavior at this point – a quick marker then place the cookie on the target will keep promoting the scratching and the weight shift.>>In other news, I may have discovered something about her tugging. She hasn’t been interested in tugging before a training session even if I try it in another room.>>
Really interesting! It is possible that the indoor training setup (along with regular life stuff) is associated with food more than with tugging, so tugging is not even on the radar in that moment. Having her do it in different places than gradually bringing it back to the ‘training’ setup can totally help! I don’t think she has this happening outdoors as much, where training is more about running and tugging and other crazy stuff – even throwing food as the reward. So you can take some of the food-associated stuff outside and see if she will tug when she sees it there.
Keep me posted!Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Yep, the weather has been gross and now we have all this rain… fingers crossed for better weather ahead (and class time has been extended into late September so there is still plenty of time to get stuff done 🙂 )
He did really well differentiating the 4 cues in the first video! You had push wrap, push slice, threadle wrap, and threadle slice and he read them all really well.
For the push wrap and push slice – do those have the same verbal? It sounded like ‘push’ on both? If not, and the verbals are different… yay! If the verbals are the same… I am going to talk you into two different verbals because they are two entirely different behaviors and you don’t want to rely on handler position to cue them, in this day and age of crazy distance and layering.
Small details:
On the push circle wraps – don’t block the wing because he has to go wide around you (:33 for example. you can see that it changes his jumping line) The ideal circle wrap position is where the wing and bar meet, so he can see the wing.
On the push to slice, you can open up a serp arm a bit more on the threadle slice since you are serping across the jump. That will help him come in sooner and turn correctly over the bar.
On the in in threadle slice from the tunnel: Add a turn cue on the tunnel exit. without it, he exits straight (correctly) and doesn’t have a lot of time to process the threadle cue especially when he can see you between the uprights.
>> Also, I am REALLY pleased that I am now able to put a pre-placed toy on the ground for a reward.A week ago he couldn’t ignore it, but I worked on this and he seems to have gotten the idea!>>
Yes! He did a great job ignoring it!!! Make sure you don’t say “yes” or “yeah” beforehand, just use ‘get it’ – otherwise the marker gets muddy and he will just start taking the toy when it is on his line 🙂
One thing to consider though with the placed toy, is placing it far enough away that he doesn’t mash his shoulders stopping to get it. When it is very close to the jump on a 16″ bar, he is landing hard on his shoulders to get the toy. Watch it in slow motion and you will how he lands with all of his weight on his shoulders and the rest of his weight torquing his shoulders because of the physics of the turn (like at :05, :13, and the other reps where the troy was on his landing spot). The sports vets have strongly advised against placing toys that close during jumping.
With all of the shoulder injuries in agility, we want to minimize impact on his shoulders and torque on his spine, so 2 ways to do this:
For the slice jumping efforts (push slice or threadle slice), place the toy far enough away that he slices then has at least one full stride before getting to the toy. That way he can land and run to the toy, rather than land *on* the toy. You had the toy pretty far away on the threadle slices and that was great (just be sure not to say ‘get it’ til he is lifting off, not just coming around the wing LOL!!!)
For the push wrap and threadle wrap efforts, you can have it placed all the way around the wing so he lands, comes around, then gets the toy (like you did at :33). Or you can have it placed a stride or two past hte landing spot (or throw it there) – it won’t create a wide turn when it is not there.
Besides the shoulder safety issue, having the having the toy that close changes the jumping mechanics – they either slow way down and don’t use their hind ends with the power needed (because they are getting ready to stop) or they start widening the turn to avoid the shoulder slams – he was doing this on the left turn wraps.
I know you will see people placing toys like this but note the torque on the bodies… the laws of physics rule the day, and slow motion makes it easy to see. Moving the toy further away so he can stride to it rather than land on it will get the same results (or better, in terms of conditioning/mechanics) and will help keep his shoulders safe.
Looking at the teeter question:
He was a happy teeter slammer here!! Yay!
>>He is much more into the slamming with a toy vs. the food rewards I gave him last time.>
The toy brings a lot of arousal (less deep thinking) which is very helpful when we are asking the dogs to run around on a narrow board that will move under them LOL!! Plus, I think his flyball foundation has helped him be happy to slam the board 🙂 SUPER!
So next question: have you decided on what you want his end position to be on the teeter? 2o2o? 4on? I know that 4on is very trendy but 2o2o is easier to train and maintain (clearer for the dog) and faster because they drive more to the end.
Either way, we can start showing him the end position on a plank and when he gets that, we can add it to the teeter games.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
Looking at the zig zag grid – she is finding the jumps nicely so now we can work on the striding!
>>I couldn’t get the extra step to go away. I tried setting her up close shortening distance moving jumps in and I seemed to make it worse. Not sure how to remedy this. >>
The flat jumps are a bit too hard for now, because she is adding extra strides with her head up. So, to get her to ‘bounce’ between the jumps (each foot hits the ground only once), you can make 2 adjustments:
– angle he jumps so she can see basically a straight line through them. Angle them as much as needed to get the bounce behavior. A good starting point is probably this:
– have a reward placed out on the ground about 10 feet past the 2nd jump. That will help keep her head in good position and looking forward (not at you).
When she can bounce it consistently and is looking forward, you can slowly begin to ‘flatten’ out the angles of the jumps again. This takes multiple sessions, so don’t move the jumps more than once in a session – it is a really hard jumping skill.
When you are cleared to be on your feet and moving around, you can do the jump grid from a standstill, using a long lead out where you are standing at the reward. And you can definitely have your daughter help! Part of this particular grid is a conditioning element, so it only needs to be done once or maybe twice a week as part of her rotation of games 🙂
The sequencing with the wings and tunnel looked great!
On the first few reps, you had a nice tandem turn then I think you were so far ahead of her, it made more sesne to your feet to turn and face her for a lap turn. That is fine for when you are way far ahead like that.On other reps where you were not as far ahead, you had really good decel into the tandems (like at 1:04, and 2:40/2:50 for example) and they looked great. Roux really seemed to recognize the difference and your line was clear, along with your hands and connection. Yay!!
Very nice adjustment in the connection on the sends: at :52 (not enough connection so she didn’t take the wing) versus :57 (great connection so she knew exactly where to go).
Nice work with the tunnel threadles – I really liked the 1:33 – 1:36 and 2:05 – 2:08 sequences as well as thje full sequence ending at 2:25! Very nice turn on the line at the wing before the tunnel, and then great job moving forward to the correct side of the tunnel with a clear arm, connection, and verbal (no need to turn your feet towards her). You can keep moving towards the correct tunnel entry so she finds it on her own, without you needing to help by turning her away with an arm cue.
Be sure to add a wrap verbal for the wing before it as that helps set up the turn to the correct tunnel entry as well (I think “pow” is your tunnel threadle verbal, yes?).
And the last full sequence looked great too – the speed line, blind, wrap, tunnel threadle – very nice!!! YAY!!!
Hoping for an easy and highly successful surgery tomorrow!!!! Keep me posted! And when you are back on your feet, we can tweak all the games to keep her training moving forward as your knee moves forward to being 100% recovered 🙂
Tracy
The interesting thing about the tandem turns and their super popular cousins, the threadle wraps, is that they are decelerated handling ‘moves’ that involve slowing down, turning the dog away primarily with hand cues (and some verbals), making sure the dog picks up the cues…. then running to the next spot 🙂 For some reason, no one ever discusses the decel that helps soooooo much!
Have fun!
Tracy
