Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi!
The zig zag grid went well. One thing that was interesting: He did a funky little step-in on rep 1 and also at 1:41 – both when he was on your right. It was as if he was not sure which lead to step in on, so he was switching just as he started moving. We will see if he sorts it out – and if he doesn’t sort it out, we can help. He was not doing it on the other side (when he was on your left) so I think he will sort it out on your right side too.
>He did well until the last rep when I opened up the angle a bit more and he added a stride.>
The added stride was still a good choice – I’d rather see a nice balanced stride than a big fling LOL!!!
As the angle gets flatter the distance gets bigger, so you can overlap the wings more. That way he can bounce like he did on the other angles.
Lead out video 1:
>Started out running off with the toy. Maybe being crated a lot over the weekend and a 5 hour drive home…burning off pent up energy.>
Yes, that was probably it – that is hard for a teenager! He came back pretty quickly 😂 😆
Seq 1 with the FC wrap was nice! You can decelerate even sooner so he knows there is a wrap on 2 – you can be decelerated as soon as he takes off for jump 1.
The spin on jump 2 went GREAT at 1:51 – he turned beautifully and it sets a better line to the tunnel on this sequence.
Full sequence:
The entire sequence at 2:24 – 2:32 looked really good. I liked the timing of the FC wrap here – you probably don’t need to shape the line to the tunnel as much after it. As long as you are connected and moving towards the tunnel in general, I think he will get it. The blind looked really good!On the 2nd full run: The spin on 2 looked lovely too – when you see it in the middle of a sequence you will be able to start it sooner but the timing here was good to get commitment coming out of the stay.
The rear cross was harder for him to read – as he was deciding on a takeoff spot at 3:31, you were moving to the left turn side of the wing. The RC info happened after he started taking off at 3:32 so he adjusted after landing. Great job continuing!
When you did the RC at 3:47, you were too far ahead. The timing was earlier so he knew it was a right turn, but because you were so far ahead you got caught behind the jump. That ended up cueing a really tight rear cross so he correctly turned really hard to his right. The Go cues came too late for him to be able to find the line.
So for the RC on jump 5, you can either wait longer for him at jump 4 (start moving along the RC line when he is taking off for jump 4) or you can go in closer to the tunnel exit, so you can move sooner – that will help him see the motion for the RC cues while also making sure you don’t get caught too far ahead or behind the jump which pulls him off the line to the 6 jump.
The last full run was pretty perfect!! SUPER!! That blind worked really well!
>Is is just a baby dog thing or am I not doing something right for him to keep dodging the last jump? Maybe he just doesn’t have a full understanding of “go” yet.>
It was handling – he was really tuned in and responsive to the cues.
On the first run:
When he committed to 5, you disconnected, turned away, and threw the toy (2:34) so he thought he was done and went for the toy.Got it in isolation at 2:55 by cueing it 🙂 And got it with more flow at 4:13, nice cue! And got the GO on the last run with clear cues too. Lovely! So as long as you are connected and showing the line, he will do it (and don’t throw the toy too early :))
The RC timing contributed to his questions about the last jump, so that will go away when the RCs are smoother.
Speaking of the RCs – the RC on the 2nd video is a HARD rear cross! He was reading it really well, especially for a young dog. A little more experience and a little more deceleration will tighten up the line – for now, getting the accuracy is the more important part. The cue to the center of the bar was easy to show on the warm up reps, and harder to show in the full run.
You can decelerate and kind of wait for him at 4 til he catches up – with you facing the center of the bar for the RC. Then you can move directly up the RC line without pulling to the wrap line at all. You had the little ‘pull’ to the right turn at 1:52 and 4:14 which made the info a little late for him to turn tight.
The FC wrap to the right looked great! And the GO line on the last rep looked great too! His sequencing is coming along really well 🙂
>Hope I can get everything done by the end of the session. I am traveling far more than I normally would trying to regain my #5 spot for the invitationals. I do not understand why all 3 sizes of poodles need to be grouped together for the top 5. Doesn’t seem fair compared to other breeds who have multiple sizes. >
I always thought it was weird that ALL of the poodles were lumped together like that. It does make your accomplishments with Benni even more impressive though!
>I have not done the wingin’ it games for threadle wrap yet from last week. And still have to do the forced FC.>
To prioritize: if you do a bit of the fundamental threadle wrap stuff for now, that is all you will need for a while. We do need to get them looking good but they are not a priority. The forced fronts will be easy peasy for you – the advanced level of the forced threadle will be more important and more useful on course, so you can make that your top priority out of all of this threadley stuff (along with tandem turns, which are very useful!)
>Thanks. I think we are making progress on the course work. Should be putting 6 poles together soon. Doing 4 + 2 now. See Saw almost to the half way tipping point. DW contact work is not his favorite. We start our novice class with Linda Rose tomorrow. Yay! She is incorporating jumps and tunnels for the dogs who don’t have everything trained yet.>
This is all excellent except the DW part 😂 does he find it boring? Have you added your movement yet?
Nice work here!
Tracy
It certainly makes it harder for him when there are BIG DOG BARKS aimed his way, but he is working through it beautifully ❤️
Oooh a coffee cart that served flat whites? Yes please!!!!! And yes, those long drives are exhausting especially after judging all weekend. Rest days are lovely!
Good morning –
Congrats on Roulette’s CH – and I am so sorry to hear about your Viszla… gone way too young. That is really hard. I hate cancer!!It was great that your husband helped with the jump grid! Lots of good reps here (she fell on her head a little at :24 pulling from the release, so we will ignore that rep :)) She was able to drive to the MM really well. If you think he would hold her again for another session, you can replace the MM with a dragging toy – something big like a hollee roller or a giant toy would be great. That can help with head position getting a little lower) and getting more explosiveness from her rear.
Do you remember what the distance was here between the jumps? It might need to be a bit shorter to get that hind end power but the moving target reps will tell us for sure.
Looking at the Go and Rear Cross video:
>I’m having a hard time getting Roulette to send and commit ahead of me. I tried two rear crosses and then switched up to sending her ahead to her ball. The ball is near the TNT in front of it.>
I see what you mean – the MM is nice but not all that enticing to her, so it was hard to time the rear cross cues. The ball was the definite winner but harder to see and we don’t want her to smack her shoulders into the ground stopping for it. You can put the ball in the dish of the MM so it is easy to see and grab? I used to put a frisbee on top of the MM for the dog that didn’t love the MM – that worked well!
She was getting happy with the GO reps with the ball in play, so definitely keep it as visible as possible for a while longer. We will fade it out as a placed reward and switch to it as a thrown reward when you’ve had a couple of sessions of her really driving ahead.
For the rear cross – you can go forward to the center of the bar more and cut behind her later. Because she was not fully driving ahead, you were cutting behind to the new side a bit early which caused her to turn towards you instead of going to the bar.
Continuing forward towards the center of the bar (which shows the rear cross ‘pressure’ cue) until she is almost taking off – then cutting behind her – will help get commitment for now. Then it will be easier to cut behind her sooner as the value of driving ahead builds up too 🙂
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
I am jealous that your rain has stopped! We have a few more days of rain coming our way here.
Indoor session:
The front crosses at the beginning and the spins during the rest of the session all looked strong. My only suggestion is as you finish the spin, look back to him sooner so he knows exactly where to be – the connection is the key to that. And the race tracks went well too.
The outdoor session accomplished what I hoped it would: it allowed him to open up and run! He was able to add his speed, without slipping. Look at him running but also turning tight! So fun!!!!
>I was pleased as this is the first time I have asked him to follow my handling outdoors.>
This was excellent – he was just as wonderfully focused and engaged as he is indoors even while moving faster. Love it! His responses were spot on and his commitment was lovely too. We transfer all this to actual wings very soon, he is ready for more!
As with the indoor session, my only suggestion is to look back at him as soon as you finish the spin, so he knows which side to be on as soon as possible thanks to the connection.
You might see him get tired more quickly when training outdoors because he is running more, so adding more breaks so he can catch his breath should help that.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>And I can really feel when I do these challenging sequences that my motion is missing or at least not supporting my dog.>
I think an important element will be to run in closer to the line in any situation where you do not benefit from getting far ahead – the benefit would be if you could stay in motion. But on the situations where you get too far ahead, you have to stop moving. For now, it is better to risk being late 🙂
> Maybe you have an additional video which shows how you cue it (how your arms and body cues support the line)? This would be really helpful!>
Try this:
>(You seem not to use the opposite arm in the videos on set up 2? But I would have expected to train it from the “lap turn cue” Does it consist 2 cues: “come in” and “take the jump”?)>
I use both hands for the cue 🙂 and the cue has its own verbal/physical cues, which means both come in AND take the jump. Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hello! Hope you had a great weekend!
>We had to train the “get out” first. I was happy how quick my boys understood that.>
The boys did GREAT with that, I am very impressed!!!
Overall, the sequences went really well and the boys did a strong job. And we got good information on things that will help them go faster in certain spots.
Sequence 1:
Jazz:
Your blind crosses on the tunnel exit were perfect 🙂 He seemed to really understand the line after the tunnel, so the
blind from 5-6 at :13 can be sooner. But you were spot on at :32, starting it just after jump 4.Sammy:
Your blinds after the tunnel were perfect with him too! And he seemed to understand the line after the tunnel too, but you didn’t trust him as much 🙂 Your blinds from 5-6 at :54 & 1:15 can be sooner – he actually pushed away a little bit because the blind was late and he was not sure where to be. However, you had really strong, clear connection on the exit of the blind and he really drove through it with a lot of speed.One thing I notice with both of your boys is that they really drive fast when you are connected, so your timing is less important than your connection.
Seq 2:
Jazz:
This was interesting! You had very nice position – very nice after the blind on the tunnel exit but he slowed down there. I think part of it was that you were standing sitll and also that he could not see very clear connection. I think he will be faster 2-3 if you are closer to the tunnel and moving forward to 3 when he is exiting the tunnel – and show him a lot of big connection too.You did VERY nice blinds 5-6 at 1:42 & 2:04! I believe you can start them even sooner (as he is jumping 4). Your position was very strong and your connection was very clear, so the timing was not that important and he still had a great line. Once again, connection is super important to him!
Sammy – He did great! He did not slow down when you were decelerating at the exit of the #2 tunnel. So it is not as important to keep moving for him as it is for Jazz – my only suggestion there is that you can call him before he enters the tunnel, so he expects the turn there (he was a little wide). And it is possible that Jazz will like it too!
You had really nice position and connection for the 5-6 blind with him too and you can also start it sooner. He also had a lovely turn on 6 when you decelerated to set the wrap up. Very nice!
Sequence 3:
Sammy:
He didn’t drive away to 1 without motion at 2:48. Then for the blind cross 3-4 at 2:53, you were actually a little early and very quiet, so he slowed down to figure out the line. When he exited the #2 tunnel, you were already starting the blind so he could only see your back.I think what caused this was that you got a little too far ahead. To help that, you can start closer to 1 and run into it more (which will get more speed driving to jump 1.) Then go a little closer to the tunnel – that way, when he exits the tunnel, he will see you moving forward and more connected which will definitely maintain his speed.
Jazz said the same thing at 3:31 and 4:01 – your back was to him when he exited the tunnel so he slowed down, unsure of where to be. I think he will also like it if you are moving forward with a lot of connection when he exits the tunnel, so he sees the line before you start the blind.
You did the FC 5-6 with both of the boys – I know it might feel weird, but I bet the blind will be faster for both of them! They both slowed down a but (especially Jazz) when you did the FC and it is hard to get it finished in time. A blind might be perfect and very fast!
For Jazz on the big ‘get out’ line at the end – your arm was high and he couldn’t really see connection, so he got hesitant there. This is good to know – he is sensitive to not being able to see connection, so he slows down. Try to keep your verbals going and keep your arm pointing down and back to him, so he can see your connection. That will really help him maintain his speed.
Great job here – let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi! Hope you are having a great holiday weekend!
>Unfortunately, I’ve given up on title cards lol.>
Those title cards were great fun, maybe they will make a comeback when you aren’t as busy!
>I thought she’d be tempted by the tunnel but she really enjoyed breaking a stay towards me (we use “ok” instead of break). While her stays aren’t perfect, they are miles were they were when we started class 1 back in January. I’m proud of her!>
I agree about the stay! She is doing a lot better! You can watch her as you walk away – I think she believes that part of the release is when you look back at her, so watching the whole time really helps. And you can mix in throwing a treat back to her sometimes too, to reward her for staying in her spot.
She was a perfect girlie with the jump versus tunnel! I don’t think she had any questions about which obstacle you wanted. Super!! You can make is a little harder by having her be on a little bit more of an angle, nearer to the wing of the jump opposite where the tunnel is. That way, it is a little easier to run past the jump to the tunnel when you cue the jump 🙂 She seems ready for the challenge!
Great job here!!
Tracy
Thanks! 5 dogs running for real and 3 dogs doing warm ups was a bit exhausting, I might need more coffee hahahahaha
Hi!
He did well working in a very distracting environment! He didn’t quite ‘recognize’ the barrel at first with the cars right there. Then it was a bit of work trying to get the jump – it is a small bar so at first you had a tiny bit of pressure to the backside line on the first rep, then on the 2nd rep you were pulling away from the jump so he went with you.
But after that was clear sailing! Yay! You showed him the jump and also showed him the line when you added back the barrel – super! He was able to do that then he was also able to do the rear crosses to the right. Good for him for not running off with the toy! Overall, a really good session. You can add a bit more distance between the jump and the barrel now, so there is more time to show the RC info.
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
> I was more tired than I thought. Took the day off work and spent half of it sleeping.>
Good for you!!!
The zig zags went really well. The hardest part was convincing him to line up very close to the wing on when it was on his right side 🙂 He read the zig zags really well when you cued them – great job working out how to cue the line when he was on your left. You can move the wings in closer together now, so he has to zig zag even faster.
One thing I notice here is that on a bunch of his sits, he rolls back and pops a leg out (usually his left hind, like at :27, 1:29, 1:55). Ideally, he shuld have a nice tight sit like at 1:40 and 2:05 for example – do you have a sit platform where you can do a little bit of conditioning to get the sit nice and tight, all legs under him? And when lining him up at the start, you can try for a tuck sit – usually holding the treat or the hand signal higher over his nose will do the trick.
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
He did really well with the left turns here, even with the big barking from the neighbor dog! Using the toy as a focal point really seemed to get the game going, then it was good to start to fade it out after a few reps. You can also use a food bowl as a focal point especially to the left – when the toy there at all, he had some trouble so a small visual aid like a bowl can be a nice transition to having no visual aid.
Since he has 3 turns to make, you can repeat the verbal a few times – that will help support the line as you fade the visual aid and start to add your movement.
When starting from the middle, he was not sure if the verbal was the release – be sure your hands are empty so there is no cookie above his head (poor starving dog haha) and definitely have the toy or bowl out there for now, until he realizes that the verbals are indeed releases from that position.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning! Hope you are having a great weekend!
>I use the word “break” when we are done with exercises and walks etc. I notice you use it for front releases or future straight jumps I think. What would be another good word for that?>
Since ‘break’ is your ‘all done’ verbal, other options for stay releases can be ‘OK’, or ‘free’ or ‘start’. I am sure there are others but might need another cup of coffee or 3 before I can think of them haha
Your rocking horse game is going well! He has decided he really likes it and wants to go really fast 🙂 Yay!
There is a lot of good work in this session: he loves his barrels and you were staying really connected.
One thing that I think will really help: have the toy in a pocket of your hoodie or tucked into your shirt. That way your hands are free and you will find it so much easier to move and make connection. Trying to hold the toy in your armpit and move and connect was too hard with such a fast pup!>I still need to take more time to make better eye contact with him.>
Actually, I think you were really strong with your connection! The moments that felt a little disconnected were probably when you were reaching for the toy in your armpit 🙂 For example, at the very end you had great connection, he was heading to the barrel, then you went to grab the toy and he came away from the barrel because the toy is fun 🙂 Having your hands free will help a ton! And we don’t need a precision reward for this game, so you can praise and get the toy out fast, but it can totally be in your pocket while you are cueing him.
>Also I fall at the end, that is how coordinated I am lol.>
Ha! No worries, we all fall over at some point LOL!! You landed gracefully.
>I haven’t added the words yet because I have enough to focus on my moves at this point>
You will be able to add them soon! And you can also spread the barrels out a bit to have more distance – that will be fun!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
This is going well!
>I started out with one mat and Tribute has such high value for the prop that I couldn’t tell if he was responding to my cue or if he was making a bee-line towards the mat on his own.>
Yes, on the first couple of reps you were moving towards the mat so Tribute was totally on board with going to it 🙂
>I added a second mat, one to cue forward parallel motion and the second for the out. >
Adding the 2nd mat got him on a line but it was not really a get out at that point (no lead change away).
So to clarify for him which we want (the get out or continuing on a straight line and *not* going to the mat) you can lay his leash on the ground as a straight line, with the mat 5 or 6 feet away from it laterally. Your feet will walk along the leash on every rep. On some reps, you will walk straight, no get out cues, and reward him for NOT going to the mat. That might be hard, so you can call his name and shake your dog side hand to help convince him 🙂
And on some reps – you will still move along the line on the ground, but your upper body will cue the get out so he has ‘permission’ to go hit the mat. That will be the verbal, very direct connection, and the opposite arm cue.
For the outside arm – using it might feel weird at first 🙂 You can look at his eyes pretty directly like you did here, and make the outside arm more obvious: as you look at him, you can point the outside arm ahead to the mat you want him to shift away to. That will make the outside arm visible across your body, turning your shoulders to the mat and he should drive to it.
Nice work here!Tracy
