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Hi!
She did great with the countermotion!!! Yes, she used to think this type of “handler focus to line focus” was stooooopid but she seemed happy to play here! She didn’t seem to love coming to you when you were alreast bent over towards her – but she was happy to do a spin then come to you for treats. The only boing she did was actually cued, when you wiggled your fingers at her LOLAnd she was great about immediately going to the wing behind you! Nice job with the connection shift and step back, that was a clear cue to her. Be sure to not block the wing at all (she would correctly glance at the other wing). The tunnel moment was great – you can also do racetracks around the outside of the wings to get more excitement into it.
Straight line game:
On the go reps she did really well when you just ran with connection, no arm pointing 🙂She was zippy fast on the FC wrap, so you can start your decel sooner! You had a subtle bit of convergence at 3:44, so she read it as a rear cross. I think she was correct, based on the convergence. She had the same question at 3:59, so be sure to stay on whatever line you are on when she is approaching jump 1 – don’t push in towards the wing for the FC wrap. She got it nicely at the end!!
And the RCs were definitely clearer, but can be even sooner, getting right on the line even before she takes the jump after the tunnel or passes you. As long as you move to the center of the bar, she will be able to get past you 🙂
One thing that will make the cues even clearer and earlier:
You don’t have to straighten up to pass the jump after the tunnel, you can just get directly on the RC diagonal as you pass it. The same is true for the backside pushes: pass that jump already heading for the backside line.For the backside push – your line of motion was great at 1:30 but connection was not as clear (looking forward) so she had to check in with you before going to the backside.
At 2:28, you were actually on the RC diagonal so she didn’t take the backside.
At 2:42, you were facing straight as she was planning her takeoff for the jump after the tunnel, then you had too much convergence which caused her to almost spin away from the jump.
Basically – before she takes off for the first jump, she should already know what will happen on jump 2 🙂 it will feel early but she is ready for that now!
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!!
That’s super smart, to engage with tugging indoors in the a/c before heading outdoors! It gets the engagement without overheating him. Nice!!!
This session went well!
His questions on the circle wraps were all about connection:
You were looking at him too much at :10, 1:03, 1:44, 215, for example, which causes him to stop. Shifting connection will support commitment there:You had your hand there at the ‘landing’ spot – so rather than look at him, shift your connection to look at your hand 😀
On the reps were he was pretty smooth around the wing, you were not looking at him as intently and also you were stepping back a little. The reps were he was not as smooth were actually better mechanics of handling (from the neck down LOL) So all you need to add is the connection shift to the other side of the wing and he will be committing really well.
And yes, it was hard to get the correct tunnel entry on a 3 foot tunnel, but you had great connections!!!
You can move onto the 3 wings, but also be sure to mix in a ton of just running fast – these have a LOT of turning so you can keep things exciting with lots of crazy easy stuff too. 🙂
Nice work!
Tracy
Good morning!!
Great job getting the threadle wraps with countermotion! Remember to keep supporting it until she has turned her head to the correct side of the bar and taken the first step to it. You were a little early to leave at :21 but had much better timing on the other reps.
For the straight line:
You can run it without a dog side arm (pointing it forward turned your shoulders away) or use an opposite arm. When your dog side arm came too high and forward, she looked at you. But when you just ran and didn’t use much arm at all… she nailed it like at 1:27!! And the outside arm worked great at 1:52 and 2:07 as well!The backside Push wraps are going well – staying connected really helps her find the tunnel. These don’t get you as far up the line as the threadle wraps do!
Sequence 2:
She got the first threadle wrap on 3 really well, but you did a full post turn with her so she caught up to you at the tunnel. You stayed further ahead at 2:35 and after that, but doing countermotion (foot rotation forward like a spin, rather than the full post turn) will get you even further ahead – I bet you can easily blind cross the tunnel exit with that!The push wraps went well too – the blind cross to get to it on the last rep worked better than the FC on the 2nd to last rep, because you could get off her line sooner. The threadle wraps still kept you a lot further ahead!
All of the ending lines here were great – you ran with clear connection and no dog side arm pointing, so she had no questions 🙂 Yay!!!!
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Hi!
These are also going really well.One thing I forgot to mention above: when running him, take his collar off so there is no tag noise in his ear (it is pretty loud). His brain has to devote bandwidth to processing and ignoring it, so you can open up more brain room if you take it off 🙂 That extra bandwidth can he used for jumping and turning!
On the straight lines: you can get the reward ahead of him here too, so he doesn’t look back on the last bar – you can throw it as soon as he looks ahead on the 2nd to last jump.
Threadle wrap – those are going well and he is ready for you to fade out the arm cue to flip him away. They definitely get you a lot further ahead 🙂
Push wraps: try to decel and use less arm – that will cue the wrap better. The arm swinging forward can look like a slice cue, so he was wider there.
Sequence:
Nice blind!
After the blind, a turn cue is needed before first tunnel because he is exiting wide with his head up. (Directional when he is still 6 feet or so before entering should do the trick).The rear cross on the tunnel worked better there, in terms of getting a good turn. And you still had a good position for 4-5-6.
Nice decel into the FC on 6 at 52 and 1:10!!! That set up a great turn. Compare to 1:27 where the decel was not as clear so he didn’t collect as well. He definitely reads the decel as an important element of turning cues!
Super strong send to the 9 tunnel allowed you to easily get the blind before the push wrap, then even more easily get the threadle wraps. You were far enough ahead to decel into it and that really helped the turn. The next step is to see if he will find the threadle wraps independently without needing the 2nd cue of your arms swinging to the jump.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi! I’m glad your truck is working again!!!!
The long lines are looking good!!! We need to get the reward ahead of him sooner and while you are still accelerated, so he can drive ahead with a low head and better form (without looking back at you).
Since it looks like there were other people there, have one of them throw the reward so you can keep running (rather than decel and stop to throw). Or, when you need to throw it… keep running and throw underhand so he doesn’t see decel paired with an extension reward as that can dilute decel. And that way he will keep his head lowered and not look upwards for the reward.
The timing of the throw would be as he is looking forward to the last jump, so it lands before he takes off (so he doesn’t spin back to look at you).
He had a bar at :11 – you were decelerated til he took off at 2 then yelled tunnel and took off. He tried to adjust out of collection and didn’t quite make it.
You can do the acceleration as he lands from 1, so he approaches 2 in extension.
Threadle wrap: these definitely get you ahead and way up the line!!
Using your arms more subtley will help with the turn and bar. Drop your hands in low but then leave them there until he turns himself away. The high arm turn away was causing confusion about how tight the turn should be. He was jumping center of the bar on those, waiting for more info.
He is turning really well on the push wrap when you decel and use less arm like on the first one. The arm across the body tends to cue a slice, so he was wider on the 2nd rep when you didn’t have as much decel and had more arm.
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
Most of this was super!!!! The two trouble spots just needed amped up connection 🙂 here are some details:
Exercise 1:
The Opening looked good, that is a hard forward focus on 1!!!
Backside on 5: this was a connection trouble spot. Think of it as driving her to the backside, maintaining the cue until she is almost at the entry wing… rather than sending her to backside. The sending was causing you to stop short and turn your shoulders forward while keeping the dog side leg back: all of which cued the front of the jump.
You’ll want to keep driving to it and get the dog side leg to step forward as you decel. And part of that driving is BIG connection with the dog side arm back to her. If you swing it forward ahead of her, your shoulders turn to the front of the jump.
At :14 and :24
You stopped short and rotated so dog side leg stayed back, upper body rotated and front side was indicated.At :54 you rotated to the front of the jump to send her past you, which cued the front too.
At :36 and 1:04 you were up there but that is a different question than the transition into it 🙂 by being right there, you were able to rotate to the front because you were pretty much at the wing. At 1:25, you got up there better so position helped! Yay! But the big connection and driving to the backside rather than sending will make a big difference when you are not right up there.
She had a Bar at 1:06 and 1:25- those were due to lack of exit line connection, which provides the side info. As you exited the FC, note that your dog side arm has come forward and shoulders are closed off a bit. The ideal exit line connection will reveal your entire upper body: dog side arm back, eyes on her eyes (and opposite arm across your torso to rest on the opposite hip, to help open up the connection). This was also the cause of her tunnel versus jump questions (see below 😀)
Good warm up for ex 2!
Remember to threadle with arm back, making that super strong connection.
Nice blind to get the jump not tunnel at 210. Try the exit line connection there too (dog side arm way back plus opposite arm across your body to rest on your dog side hip). The more you rehearse it on the exit of every cross, the more it becomes second nature.
Great job getting around the tunnel! Nice connection there!!
On the right verbal at 2:29, keep moving away – as she was approaching takeoff, you were facing forward so that is a conflicting indicator and might cue the tunnel. Plus, you were not quite far enough across the line so couldn’t get her past the tunnel.
You used a brake arm after she landed – youll get a better turn if you use it along with the right verbal to help her change her takeoff point.
Starting at 2:42 on just the jump facing the tunnel didn’t allow enough set up of the cues – she was already at her decision point before the release. So, tunnel 😀
Ex 3:
Opening looked great !The questions here were all about exit line connection:
You can see from the camera angle that your shoulders are closed forward, so there is not enough clear connection on the exit of the FC at 3:04 or 3:23 or 3:32 or 4:12 (you almost were backed up to the tunnel entry there). You could probably see her, but she could not see the side info, so was staying on her line to the tunnel.Urgent calls and decel helped but the connection is the key 🙂 clear exit line connection will allow you to stay in motion while still getting great turns.
Connection passing the tunnel at 3:35 was not as clear as at 4:14 where your dog side arm was back and connection was very clear. That was super!!!!
So the main thing is amping up the connection on the exit of the crosses. Rehearse the exit line connection (that opposite arm across the body will teach your brain the mechanics) and rehearse it obsessively LOL walking around the house, in the yard without her, etc. Then rehearse it when you walk the courses- it will make a huge difference 😀
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The FC and spins in the wing are going well! And good job with the verbals!
One thing to add is to make connection at the tunnel exit along with acceleration. He sees your position and motion but is looking up at you for side info. So, adding more connection as he exits the tunnel will help: always look at the tunnel exit so he sees the connection. And it will also make it easier to keep your arms down: I think you were using arms to urge him on, but he was looking at you for connection so had slowed down a bit.
The ladder is also going really well! As with the previous game, add in connection on the tunnel exit so he doesn’t look up at you. All of your connection looks strong on the wings!
As you are doing the circle wraps, try not to step back before going forward as he is going around the wing. Try to lean forward a bit so your first step is forward right behind him, allowing you to add more countermotion and get ahead even more 🙂
He had no trouble picking up the side changes for the different sides of the tunnel!!
The teeter going all the way to the ground was definitely surprising! He is very resilient and shrugged it off (your quick cookies totally helped!) I thought he did great for the rest of the session! He ran past it once then was fine when you changed the angle of the wing to get a straighter line.
The added tip was definitely harder and he slowed down to sort it out a bit, so leave it at that level for another session or two til he is very comfy, then you can add more tip 🙂
And keep going with the cream cheese – that is the true motivator 🙂 sounds like the kibble is getting in the way LOL
Great job!!
Tracy
Hi!
This is a great one to tackle with her!!! Small dogs have to take so many more strides on those huge lines. And she still drove past you, even when you startedway ahead up the line. Super!! Nice job building it up and throwing the rewards way ahead.One thing to consider on the sends: being sure she can totally see your eyes and shoulders.
At :36 and 1:09, she could really only see your back, so there was not enough connection to cue 2.Much better at :47 but try with your arm blocking your eyes less so she can see connection (bar down there).
Her biggest successes came when she could see your eyes and shoulders. Where your arm was didn’t matter as much, as long as it wasn’t blocking eyes and shoulders:
At :57 and 1:25, your arm was really high but also back, so she very clearly saw the connection and jumped the line beautifully. At 1:12 you used an outside arm, and that worked great too because she saw connection clearly too. So keep emphasizing the big connection, and keep the dog side arm out of the way 😀
Great job here!!
TracyHi! I am so glad you are getting a streak of good weather!!!
>> C to tunnels: Oh we are going to get it right. LOL
I did draw line on the ground as you suggested. The problem is LOL I can’t see it while running >>That’s a good point 😀 you can see the outer edge of the wing of the jump, and move forward from it towards the tunnel (rather than past it towards the bar). You seem to have a side preference: when he is on your left before the blind then you changed to your right side, your position was really good!! You can see this at :14 and :46. When he was on your right before the blind and you changed to your left, you were moving past the wing towards the center of the bar on those, so the turn was wider (like at :36). So staying outside the wing on your right will make it perfect. 🙂 The timing was good and being in a better position helps timing a lot too, because he can really see the turn coming sooner based on where you run to.
>>0:25 – I’m really not sure what caused him to knock bar here.
– ‘not’ taking middle jump, I think I turned too much so that’s why>>On that one, you had a lot of deceleration before the jump after he exited the tunnel. So he was unsure – he collected (that is when he hit the bar) then didn’t take the middle jump because you had decelerated and turned. He was paying attention to your motion 😀
Compare that to the next rep at :33 where you had more motion after the tunnel, so he knew to extend. The bars stayed up and he found the line easily.
>>0:45 – again not sure why bar ‘down’>>
That one was more subtle – it looks like your shoulder turn was a little late there, so he thought he was going straight then adjusted for the turn a little late.
>>>Wings
I have some full-jumps there instead of just wings, because this is how the field was set up – and I didn’t want to move it too much and then have to move back. But I think that worked? ( He was waiting in the field while I was moving everything so I wanted to get it done as fast as I can. Next time I’ll just keep him in the car with AC ON while I do setup)>>It totally worked! At first, because there is so little motion, he seemed to think the counter motion was weird and he was slow. (I mean, it is a little weird 😂 he is correct) but then as soon as you started adding more motion and the jumps: he did great! His commitment and turning looked lovely, and he did well on the racetrack around the outside too 🙂
For added challenge on this one, you can spread it out so there is more distance!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>After a ridiculous amount of time walking the Ladder >>
Ha! Yes, that ladder is pretty complex handling!
First video:
>>think I start with Ven on the wrong side coming out of the tunnel>>
Yes, those first reps started him on the threadle wrap side. But he did them really well!!! Yay!!!
After the FC in wing 2, you did the push wraps and those went really well too.
As you send him past you, do can use a little less dog-side arm to get him around the wing and shift your connection and look at the ‘landing’ spot as you move forward. That can get even more independent countermotion there.On the 2nd video:
Be sure that you don’t block the wing. As he is exiting the tunnel, you were on his line so the wing was not as visible. He jumped up a little because he was not able to see the wing.Coming back down the line towards the camera, the wing was more visible so he went to it really well!
When he did not commit at :41 and 1:32, you accelerated forward and you were looking at him. That was a lot of countermotion, so it is a good spot to shift your connection to the landing spot to support commitment as you move forward. The acceleration forward right behind him was correct, but you can slow it down to shift connection to help him commit.On the next rep, you stayed on the landing side more. That helped him commit, but the countermotion is more of the correct cue so shifting your connection will totally help.
On the 3rd video, he had the same question about countermotion. You can also drop a reward in at the landing spot (other side of the wing) to help pump up the countermotion element too.
So to help smooth this out. Keep moving forward behind him on the circle wraps, but slow it down (like you did on the last rep here). Add in the shifting connection to look behind you, as well as dropping a reward on the landing spot, and I think he will have it easily!!
>better error handling?>
Totally yes! He never froze up and his tail stayed high, on all 3 clips here. Yay!!!
Great job!!!
Tracy
Hi! Nice work on this course!!! Here are some options to consider! I think videos 2 and 3 are the same (or the runs were identical LOL)
On the opening line:
The blind 2-3 totally worked but you can try to be further up the line. If she needed you between the uprights of 2 (which is a bit far from the correct line and putting you further from 4) you can train it in isolation, getting progressively further and further away.She did get it on the lead out push on the 2nd video, but you can also work on getting it from your right side and from miles away (breaking it down and rewarding 2 will help her sort it out)
The reason for that is ideally 4 is a threadle slice and doing 1-2-3-4 dog on right makes it easy with no questions 🙂
The circle wrap is slower, plus not being far up enough to cue collection makes the turn wider – she was jumping on the center of the bar, possibly waiting to see if it was a wrap or slice.
Nice weaves! And the 6-7-8 line looked good each time!
The FC on the tunnel exit shows her 4 so it was wide (block off the DW – right as I was typing that, she got on it lol – legit!!) Is It possible to take the leg off the DW? It makes the line into a different visual.
The blind on the tunnel exit worked so much better on the 2nd and 3rd videos to help take out her view of 4.
Something to consider: since the 11 jump is probably the most challenging jump on the course… put the BC between 7 and the tunnel entry. That way you get an even better turn on the exit and you are hanging out at 11 to set up the threadle1 wrap 🙂
Speaking of 11: to help her see the threadle wrap, you need to start a turn cue on 10 when she lands from 9, and as she is at 10, cue the threadle wrap with a change in motion, turn to the line, and connection. When she was missing it, your voice said threadle, small hand movement got lost in the forward motion… everything else said to take the front of the jump.
Don’t get frustrated and stop rewarding or change tone when it went wrong the 3rd time on video 1… it was basically the same handling that she was seeing. It is good feedback from her! Reward then watch the video – check to see if she saw connection, decel and a turn to the correct line (parallel to the threadle line) and the clear arm cue. Spoiler alert: she did not 😀 she was being good!
She heard the change in your tone and note the change in body language from her when you cued a sit – we don’t want her to slow down or get worried, so if there are 2 failures? Watch the video and adjust the handling.
At 1:12 when she got it, your handling was entirely different (decel, connection, hand position, change in line).
On the 2nd video – you gave a better turn cue on 10. Yay! You still had a lot of acceleration so she didn’t know which one was the theeadle jump, so she passed the jump looking at you and did a threadle wrap on the next jump (good girl, thar was supported by motion, nice nob continuing!!
Threadle slice on 12 then the 13-14 line looked great!
Note the threadle wrap cues at the end- nice change of motion and line and arm. Yay! Very clear for her 🙂 You probably don’t need to turn with her (you can turn away).
That lovely threadle wrap put you way ahead for the ending line!! Super!!!Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning! I am glad you’re having fun with the different options!!
First video was pop out 4:
1-2-3 looked good!You can Decel sooner into the threadle wrap at :09 and move away sooner and more directly – you were stationary then stepped backwards so the bar came down there. That delayed the transition into 5 so the bar came down there too.
2nd rep looked smoother in terms of leaving the threadle wrap at 4 more directly which allowed more time for the turn cues at 5. Layering the line worked great and he found the tunnel on a verbal. Yay!!
3rd run had a more independent threadle wrap, which is great!!! Your decel was more timely and you didn’t help him flip away as much – he gave a little head check then figured it out nicely!!!!
And using a tunnel threadle with the layering worked great too 🙂
When you returned to it a few days later, the threadle wrap was even smoother there – Latent learning for the win!!Trying it with a circle wrap on 3 is slower – the circle wrap on that jump has a ton of collection as compared to the slice on 3. Plus it is hard to get off his line in time 🙂 The cue for the 4 backside was a conflicting indicator (voice said back, body said front) so you can totally reward him or keep going.
The other option is a slice on 3 then push to the outside for a slice on 4… but that sets up a huge collection on 3 plus more distance, so not any advantage in speed for a medium sized dog that can turn really well like Sly 🙂Pop out 2:
Doing the BC on takeoff of 3 makes the line to 4 harder so be sure to give big connection and push in a little so he doesn’t have to look up at you (:05, :29,You had more acceleration and connection to 4 at :47 and 1:06, that totally helped. It would be interesting to see if a blind on the landing of 3 set the line better for him, based on the way this is set.
The 5-6-7 line can be a slice for hin on 6 – you can do a blind to a threadle slice there to get lots of speed!
The circle wrap works but it is a lot more collection and probably the same (or more) yardage.
The FC to a backside push was faster than the wrap… but harder to get off his line, so he had questions about the turn away to the tunnel on the first run. You stepped in a lot sooner for that turn on the 2nd run at the end of the video and that got rid of the questions. Super!!!
So you can also start to look for places where a blind to threadle option is available, as that might be the fastest/easiest way to get the next line.
Great job here!!!
TracyHi!
Oh yes, he was feeling spicy doing the racetrack as the first thing! Perfect! That challenges you to maintain connection as you send him you to the wing for a FC, because he is driving harder which gives you less time 🙂
When your hand stays low and back to his nose, he had very clearly connection and no questions. When you pointed forward too soon, like at :10, connection broke and he zig zagged a little behind you. When your arm moves forward ahead of him, he can only see your back so he was waiting for more info. So on the sends, keep your arm low and on the racetracks, you don’t even need an arm send: you can just run run run 🙂
For more challenge on this setup, you can spread the distances out even more – that way there will be 15 feet or more to really build up extension.
Looking at the tunnel to wing game: as with the sends into the FCs on the previous game, he was fastest when you had clear connection (low arm) when he exited the tunnel, like on the first 2 reps.
When you switched sides and pointed ahead of him as he exited the tunnel at :56, he looked up at you to get more info
Moving the wing to a better line helped but you also had clearer connection on the last 2 reps, so he had an easier time reading the cues. Yay!So definitely keep emphasizing the big connection and minimizing pointing 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
You can try running with a drink in your hand to remember to keep your arms low – if the arms come up, you’ll feel water slosh on you 🙂
Tracy
