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Hi there! Your runs are looking great!!! I am thrilled with how well his runs are going. I feel your pain about the mask thing – I have a feeling we will be dealing with this for a while, so I have found a style of mask that is very easy to run in and easy to be heard through. I wear during the 8 hour teaching days and it is pretty comfy, all things considered. I also ordered those thingies that kind of hold the mask away from the face so it is easier to run and yell – I will let you know how it goes when they arrive.
T2B:
Super nice opening! You were really emphasizing the connection on the exits of the FC and the serp and he found the lines beautifully! That will continue to tighten up as he gets more experience, but I am loving his speed and focus!
Teeter looks great 🙂 Even with a freakin car alarm going off on the 2nd time over it! Good boy.
On think there were a couple of things happening on the RC after the a-frame: aforementioned car alarm honking might have gotten distracting. And you actually got too far ahead, so he saw the right turn/post turn line when he was committing and didn’t see the left turn/RC line til after he was in the air. To rear cross there, stay closer to the frame so as he is exiting it, you are pushing in towards the center of the jump and showing RC info.
You got him back in gear nicely there – on the big drive across the ring to the tunnel, connect more for the go and drop your shoulders forward. He made a young dog mistake of not being sure that he was truly supposed to run straight for miles across the ring LOL!
Good weaves in the dirt!!!JWW:
Ah! Yes I see his reasoning behind going to the tunnel exit: opposite foot and dog side arm swoosh working together to, for a heartbeat, turn your chest to the exit. As you noted, the dog side leg and a couple of steps would fix it – I would do a short lead out even though it is just a tunnel start.
OMG you used ALL the skills on this course! Nice connection on the lines, plus exit line connection for the serp exit, FC exit, RC exit, soft brake, and even a big OUT at the end. Super! It is a zig Ziggy course (this was Novice??) but you two nailed it. Bummer about the tunnel but clearly you will get your title the next time in the ring!
Great job here!!!!
TracyHi Jill!
Speedstakes won’t have any real backsides in it – if it does, they will be easy and in flow.
His out on the first rep looked great! That is a pretty big distance for a little dude and he got it. Good job cuing it while also keeping your line of motion forward!
Good job on the 2nd run – you can give him a little decel on jump 3 as you head back to the tunnel to turn him tighter, I think that is all he needs there.
For the backside cue: You can start the verbal cue just as he enters the tunnel, so he is expected to move away from you when he exits. And “hold” the cue for a few more steps until he is definitely moving to the backside: it looks like you had him thinking about it but then your dog-side arm pointed forward which turned your chest forward, so he took the front. Keep the dog side arm relaxed and maintain that extreme connection til you see him definitely getting to the backside wing. You held it long on :33 as on the fix moment and had a good extreme connection right at the end! So keep that great connection and stay in motion – that will really help him out.
Nice work!!!
TracyHi!
He is doing so well with the serps, coming right in to the jump around the cone! And even going towards the tunnel, he still came in for the serp beautifully. Happy dance!!!!
So, 2 ways to progress this skill (separately):
– same set up, same motion… higher bar. It is a hard jumping effort so gradually raise the bar but don’t add motion at the same time.
– same set up, low bar…. more motion 🙂 Send to the cone and build up to running through the serps. Gradually increasing motion will be challenging but I think he will be fine with it.On the sends – the connection as you send is critical open the right send to the once and then again on the left send, when he missed and went to the jump, you were looking at the cone more than at him so he was not sure which to go to. On all the others where he went to the cone: you were looking at him more on the send, and he nailed it. Yay!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I think it was smart training to wait to see the wrap cue executed properly before giving the next cue – it falls into the category of “don’t give him a forward cue until he is looking the direction you want him to go forward to”. This session went really well because you were making sure you got the critical part of the behavior before going to the next one – click/treat for you!!!!
To add more motion: You can then add moving away from the wrap sooner ( not facing him as long, but slowly turning your shoulders towards the threadle end of the tunnel) kind of like what you did at 1:25. Still rewarding it as a wrap, but turning – that was hard for him! When you got the wrap – he was awesome on the threadle. But getting the wrap was hard, especially after he had a taste of the “go tunnel” cue 🙂 So you would cue the wrap and slowly turn towards the tunnel, then reward just the wrap. Then build in to rewarding with the threadle cue so he gets the tunnel built into the reinforcement.
Great job! Let me know if the suggestion makes sense 🙂
TracyHi!
Lots of great stuff here, the games are going really well!!
Video 1: Go after tunnel. The Go was perfect! The first RC was good and the 2nd one was GREAT! You can start your rear cross pressure a little earlier on the first rep, more like you did on the 2nd rep. And I think he was watching your left arm move forward on the rears, so you can keep that arm (the dog side arm) slightly back. The last go looked really strong!
Video 2: adding wings:
The go is looking really good! The RC to the right also looked good, my only suggestion is to not let your dog side arm come across your body to indicate the jump on the RC – it is drawing his attention up to you when we want him looking at the bar.
he had a little distraction moment in the middle but finished nicely with a good RC to the right! He is reading your line of motion and listening to your verbals really nicely, so the dog side arm does not need to swing forward.Video 3: Get out
Nice!!! He was perfect about following your line on the straight lines. And he responded so nicely to the get out cues too – good boy! You can add more distance now, moving the wing further from the jump, so he has to get out even further. That will make the timing of your crosses even easier – he is so quick that you were a little late getting started on them because he was so fast to do the get out. You can move the wing 6 feet or more away from the jump, so you can start the cross when you see him turn to it and before he arrives at the jump. It will feel like plenty of time to get it done 🙂 The only other suggestion is to try to keep your feet moving straight up the line rather than going towards the jump at all – the strength of your out cue was turning your feet, so you can soften the out cue a little to make it easier to keep your feet straight.Video 4: Wrap Transitions
He did really well here! He is responding really nicely to your transitions, you don’t have too work that hard to get him to turn. He is reading the decel so nicely and setting up a lovely collection! So cool! And the GO is looking good – he ticked the bar on the last one but that was more about the timing of the reward throw 🙂
I was using a wing and a jump on the demo video – you can use 2 jumps but the wing and jump combo is perfect. You had your wrap verbals for the wing – because he did so well on the jump, you can add your wrap verbals on the jump too.Video 5: Turn Aways
The lap turns look great! I like how you went directly from the warm up into the mini sequence with the FCs and then the lap turn. The only suggestion is to send to the wing before the lap turn, so you don’t have to run backwards at all 🙂 I think on a couple of them you got a little tangled up, not sure if you were trying to do the tandem turn or the FCs? But you recovered into some really nice lap turns! He also read them really well coming out of the race tracks – as with the FC sequence, you can send him further away to the wing so you can be ready for the lap turn without backing up. Your mechanics look really good and he is reading it beautifully!Video 6 – he is doing well with his zig zag! You can reward him straight when he is doing the 2nd bar, more like what you did when you changed sides – that gets the 2nd lead change so it adds challenge. I think he is ready for you to add another bar to this, so he has 3 lead changes to do! I am happy to see him using his body so well – that is unusual in a good way for a young male dog!!
>>I tried the smiley face and he was not getting the kiss verbal and was also very distracted with leaves blowing around. I did not video yet as he was not doing very good. I was having to give maximum hand signals and walk him all the way to the opposite tunnel entry. He knows tunnel and goes in with the tunnel verbal from a distance. I know you recommend having a different verbal for the opposite tunnel entry but not sure I can handle all these different verbals. Makes me have to think an awful lot when not used to it! >>
If the entry of the tunnel that he could see was too tempting, you can turn it away so that it is a backside entry and harder to get into. And then he probably needs to see you walking very slowly through it – feel free to reward him for coming directly to your hand and not taking the tunnel entry in front of him – then send him to the other side of the tunnel. You can start past the tempting entry, so he would have to turn around to get it to try to make it less tempting and make the ‘other’ side more obvious 🙂 For now, you can use his name instead of a separate verbal – that can help get his eyes off the wrong side of the tunnel 🙂
>>When is the last day we can post videos?
The last day is November 22, so hopefully everyone has time to play all the games 🙂
Great job here, he is looking great!
TracyHi there!
The get out cue uses the upper body to turn the chest laser to the line we want without having to turn our feet to it. That outside arm and direct eye contact to her creates an exaggerated turn of the chest laser, to point it right at the jump. Think of your arm being more of a fence and being stationary, rather than waving it – to direct your chest to the line. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂 I think she was beginning to figure it out – you probably have to move more slowly, I think motion was overriding the get out cue. She was trying to sort it out but the excitement of you running forward made it harder for her to change leads away from you. Moving the wing in closer so you can walk through it will help her to see that the upper body is giving her permission to move away from your line. Then when she realizes what you want – you can add back speed. She was perfect in following your line when you ran forward! Yay! And you were great about reinforcing her even when things we not perfect 🙂 She is turning out to be super fast, so I think this tool will be good so you can send her away and get to your next position on course 🙂
You are off to a good start – less motion will really solidify it. Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This is a really hard game for sure! The line of motion on all 3 options looks pretty much the same so we are asking the pups to discriminate verbals and upper body stuff.
At the beginning where she had a few questions:
I think upper body position needs to look more different for the serp versus tunnel. When you got her going to the tunnel like at :13 , your shoulder position was the same as it was on the serp release at :21 so she committed to the tunnel (plus the motion line was the same, as it should be, but the “ok” release word was also the same). So as you say your OK release word and want the serp, have your serp arm all the way back and center of your chest pointing to the center of the bar (rotated at the waist).This will look different from the tunnel cue, where you are not rotated at all and the center of your chest points at the tunnel entry.
Your upper body was clearer at :25 and :30, more opened up back to her and back to the bar, and she did a great job!
Your in in release looked great! She immediately knew to come in 🙂 She was not sure of the go back out part of it: I think you were too far from the jump on the first couple then she was guessing (wrong side of jump) when the tunnel line was not correct. Ideally you would be about an arm’s length away from the jump, or a little less. That way she won’t need you to close your shoulder or step to the jump at all to help her get it – position and motion will support it as she learns the verbal independently. Some of her oopsies when she went to the serp side of the jump had to do with you trying to close your shoulder just a heartbeat too early. You were closer to the jump at 1:52 and it helped her a lot – she was still came in nicely and then was able to go back out because the line was more obvious.
She is doing really well on this, it is SUCH a hard game!!! Stick closer to the jump for the threadle and keep your shoulders open like you had them on the serp & threadle too. Nice work!
TracyHi! This also looks terrific! She is a rare BC to want to drive in hard when you are facing her, she was great with that. Your lap turn cues were super clear – the shaking magic cookie hand is very compelling LOL and your timing or turning her away with your hand/leg: spot on! Yes!! Nice tight turns.
The tandem turn looks really good too – you can play with adding a bit of decel and also turning away sooner, to tight it up a little. She was a little wide on the wing, but it was mainly because you were moving fast and a little late turning her away. You can start to flip her away just as her nose is arriving at the wing: that will challenge her commitment skills more but I think she can handle it.She is definitely ready for you to build up more speed on these – adding in a series of FC before the lap or tandem, or a couple of race tracks – see if you can get her going full speed and then shift into the lap or tandem. Great job here!!!
Tracy
Hi! This looks super! She is REALLY seeing the difference in your cues and changing her line appropriately. You did a lovely job making the cues look different and running a straight path on all reps, letting your upper body and verbals do all the work.
This step looks solid so you can move on: add distance between the wing and the jump so she has to leave you further to get to the jump. At least 6 feet would be good, maybe more: because if she can do it at 6 or 8 feet, you should move to the Advanced Level where you do a BC or a FC when you see her turn her head/change her leads to head to the jump, so that your cross is done before she takes off. She is totally ready 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi there!
I think he sorted it out! Nice! He was able to lock onto the “other” end of the tunnel and leave you for it pretty independently, very cool!!!! He needed a minute on the first video to remember it but then: Got it, Mom! He did look a little subdued, 70 degrees after a month of cooler weather can be pretty hot – amybe he was hot in the rocking horses video too? But he was nailing it and going VERY directly to the correct end – not waiting for any additioanl help or cues.
When you added the ‘go tunnel’ out ahead on the 2nd video, things got spicier! He was moving faster- but still correct. VERY nice!! The ball on the ground added challenge but he still processed the threadle cue – good boy!!! So as the weather cools… this game will get faster by itself, which is a good next step. Then you can spread it out and add more speed to it (I have a game coming tomorrow that also adds more speed to it).Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, he is totally getting this, yay! I think the lap turns are going well, but they might feel awkward because you are a little close to the previous wing then have to really hustle to get back for the lap turn. If you send to the wing more like how you did at 1:24, it will be easier to get to the position. I think your mechanics were strong, and seemed very clear to him. The tandems are really looking good too!!! I do think he is either finding this version of the rocking horses a little dull or the cookie rewards are too chill – he wasn’t all that excited by these LOL!! So you can get some wildness going with tugging and also spreading the wings out so there is more running (he likes the running!) That will also make it easier for you because he will be driving to the wings more. Your only blooper was a disconnect pointing forward too much, trying to drive him past you to the wing. So feel free to get him crazier on these, he is reading them really well!>>Just confirming on the mini sequence with the 3 jump ladder grid: that means he’s doing a ladder grid with motion in to it instead of from a sit?>>
Yes – he is moving into it, not sitting 🙂
T
Good morning!
One of the Saturday live people has switched to Weds for this week – since you are home and have good weather (I think) do you want to play in the class with Presto? Let me know.And I promise to get the next class sorted soon!
T
Good morning!
>>Ok…so I have the ability to sleep in today and my body says NOPE and I’m up at 3:45am as per usual…
I feel that. LOL!
>>so I watched the videos in slow mo and can now see that stride! Still…wouldn’t it be more efficient if she put in another/longer stride? How can I communicate this…I tried telling her to put a #%^*ing stride in…doesn’t work.
Yep – it was a tiny quick stride (I count front feet hits – yet another reason to play flyball is that you learn to see that tiny stuff LOL!) Yes, it is more efficient but when we are rushing, we all make errors in judgement regarding efficiency. Have you ever done striding grids with her? I am just finishing up the video for the puppy class so I can post it when it is done.
>>Yes, I was REALLY trying to stay connected and in her bubble but no change. And quads man…we both work our quads and are certainly good, but not great. Ok…maybe I’m speaking for myself more, but if I do a TON of quad work and STILL can’t one leg deep squat, I still have a quad deficiency…so the same could be true for dogs I’d imagine!>>
Yes, I have a whole new respect for fatigue – when I do gym workouts, I feel it – or on runs. For some reason, I never used to think of fatigue as an issue in my dogs, how silly was I?!?! I asked a vet rehab friend to do it as a topic in one of her FB live sessions, I want to hear more!
>>So part of my current insomnia has been to rewatch my videos…seriously…about put me in happy tears! She’s really come along! We’ve come along! Thank you!!! ♥️
She is totally coming along! You are doing the work and it shows!!!
>>HA! Yes…we get SUPER EXCITED because mommy is nervous/excited too! I’m trusting the process, being patient, focusing on the journey…trying to be zen. I swear every dig has been sent to teach me patience…apparently I haven’t learned yet! LOL>>
Patience is ridiculously hard!!! And I get excited too – I mean, I theoretically know when to start a blind cross and how to stay connected… and yet why do I mess up at trials? Arousal changes processing.
>>She seems to do this especially on end lines and towards tunnels. I try to tell her running is faster than jumping big…but she’s not convinced.
Tunnels to her are like ice cream to me: poor decisions happen when they are highly visible LOL! I think balance grids and striding grids with the tunnel visible will help.
>>Anyway…just wanted to say thanks again. Rewatching videos really helped me to see such strong improvement!
Take a stroll down memory lane and watch the first video – the improvements have been MASSIVE 🙂 You are rocking it!!
>>We have a few crazy days coming up…my oldest dog is cast in an upcoming HBO series, so we have filming next week and because of COVID testing we are at a hotel during filming and I won’t be going home. At least all 4 will be with me and I’ll get some schoolwork done…hopefully!
Whoa that is so cool!!!!! I am excited for you!
>>Unless I can sneak something in this weekend, you get a break from me!!!
No rush, rest is good for brains and bodies – there are more sequences getting posted this weekend then we have til late November to do videos.
Have fun!!
Tracy
