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That is so weird! Youtube must have done a switcheroo and reverted to one of the older videos – I remember seeing the first part and then jotted some notes, then came back to the countermotion. Thanks for reposting it!!
>>Still missing hitting the prop on some parallel motion passes even with me close (and he doesn’t cut in on is path, he just trots over it without touching it)
I think 2 things were happening here:
– the ball was VERY hard to stop watching 🙂 It might be slightly too high in value for this particular game? Sorting out the reinforcement process is a real pendulum sometimes LOL!! Always trying to choose the right tool for the task at hand – not easy with pups!
– also, he did have some really intentional interactions with the prop – the interactions one the parallel path will look different than the sends/countermotions. The parallel path won’t necessarily have a smack or pounce look to it. I think of it as extension on a jump will look very different than collection for a tight turn. So you can totally reward those intentional interactions, especially when he looked away from the ball and put his head down to the prop (and feet on/near it). That works really nicely for the commitment concept were are building here. You can also make the prop bigger, a wider playing field to hit while in motion, by putting the yoga mat under it for now (I recall you did this previously, right?) And it would be fine to hit the yoga mat near the prop for the parallel part, because the prop is really just a jump bar replacement that we are building commitment for.>>This is the 3rd short session with the RC – I often get a turn the wrong way before he spins to go the direction I headed. I’m having a hard time pushing in on the blind-cross line since I don’t have him driving ahead much either. But this time I did get 1 correct turn each way. >>
Yes, I thought he did well here!! RCs are VERY hard and personally I have never taught them to pups this young. When you are getting the wrong way turns, it might be that you are late cutting in like at :35 and :41. So, to help be earlier on the line, start him closer to you and further away from the prop – if he is already a couple of feet lateral and close to the prop, it is harder to show the pressure without running (and we don’t want running yet). Have him start right next to you (a cookie at your side will help this :)) and then you will be on that RC line much earlier to get the turns. You did that at :55, for example, and he got it right. Nice!!!!
>>(He has the start of some nice right and left verbals but I didn’t think I should use them here since we want the body motion cutting behind his line to indicate the direction change)>>
I agree with that choice – protect the new verbals like gold and only use them when the correct answer is virtually guaranteed 🙂 We will add them soon enough 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyOMG the box is brilliant! I loved how you turned it then moved it away. It is perfect because she really has to wrap it and I agree – she did a super job!!! She was thoughtful and accurate but also speedy.
This looks great, so on the next session: start sitting down like you did, then go to your knees/kneel (if your knees are OK with that) then go to standing up. Do it with the box nice and close to you, because we only want one element of challenge (position change) at a time. I don’t think this will be a problem for her at all!With the toys: as soon as she realized that she had to let go of the first toy to get the second toy, she was perfect LOL! Only one behind the back cheat moment 🙂 With the toys, you can let them both get ‘quiet’ and see if she offers going around the stanchion (I bet she does). That way the stanchion with toys will look just like the box with cookies! And if that goes well, you can move to standing up like you did with the box 🙂
Great job!!
TracyHi! She is doing really well on these! Very definite hits on the target!!! A couple of ideas for you (which will transfer to the jumps when she is on those, eventually :))
Bear in mind that motion is a distraction 🙂 So try not to do much running yet. She gets very excited when you run, and it almost always results in a miss in these 2 games. So, you have to pretend that you are very chill 🙂 And move at a walk or light trot 🙂 When you were tossing the treat way far away then moving back parallel to the prop at a quick walk, she was GREAT like at :50 – really great! And also at :27, when you were moving but not running, and had your arm low and back: PERFECT. On the reps where you were running or had your arm up high, she had a harder time 🙂 She can go fast at this stage but to get accuracy on the commitment, you don’t need to go fast 🙂
The countermotion is also looking really strong 🙂 As with the parallel path – when you wanted to run forward after the send, it was too exciting and she missed. But when you were a little slower moving away from the send, she was great! Everything else was strong (connection, mechanics, etc) so remember to walk through these for now 🙂
Nice work!!!
TracyHi there! Lots of good work on these!
Skills – as you get more comfortable doing the double blinds, you can start the 2nd one earlier, as soon as you see his head turn through the gap. He understood them perfectly and as you mentioned on the video – he totally knew where to go 🙂 On the threadles – you can add more motion now too – your feet will be pointing towards the exit wing, and you can walk to position and give the cue while yo uare still walking. The reward out there really helped and he did a great job with the default behavior there too!On the sequences:
At :58 and 1:11, you were almost perfect on the timing of that blind! You can anticipate it more – anticipate his tunnel exit so the instant you see his nose, you are saying jump and starting the blind. You can also stay in acceleration more – you were waiting a bit and it would be fun to see if he can get the commitment while you are blasting and blinding (I think he can :))2nd sequence – on this sequence, the jump after the tunnel is supported by your motion and connection after the blind, so you can do this blind while he is still in the tunnel (so it is finished before he exits). You started it after he exited at 1:27 and 1:41, which he read but I think you can send him to the tunnel from further away to get the blind sooner. That will allow you to not have to look back as much to time it on the tunnel exit… which allows you to get further ahead on the next line if it was a big course 🙂 You easily got there at 1:41, so you can just do the blind – it will feel crazy early but should be fast and fun!
Kramer looked FABULOUS!!! You did the blind here earlier with him… which means you can totally do it earlier with Ivan too 🙂3rd sequence: you totally did the blind while he was in the tunnel at 2:04 and look at the giant extension strides he took on the line! And you got to the backside really easily there!
4th sequence: At 2:21 you did the blind when he exited the tunnel, and I agree with that choice here – you were on a good path and if you turned sooner, you might have pulled him off of the jump. You were a tiny bit earlier at 2:35 but I loved your timing at 2:50: you were ready for him to exit, saw him exit and look at the line, and did the blind. Really nice!!!
Now this is a good set up to play with some higher bars – I see they are a bit higher already 🙂 On sequence 3 for examlpe, you can put the 2nd jump and the jump after the tunnel to 12 or 14 and see how he does! We don’t need to do a lot of reps at tall height, but we can start to slide it back in so we can get all the courses back to full height 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there!
The opening is hard!! To get the blind cross on 2, you can angle the jump to soften the angle a little but also turn sooner – the eye contact/reconnection is what cues the jump (it turns your shoulders to the takeoff line) and is especially critical with baby dogs who can’t begin to imagine that such crazy handling exists hahaha! Pippin is used to it 🙂
The middle line looked good – try to reward her with the thrown toy while things are looking so good – she might lose her brain a little when she stops when something goes wrong and has to come back, even though you are good about rewarding her, she might get off kilter with that.
The middle line again looked really good at 1:26!!! You had a good decel, send and go at 1:29, but I think her lack of experience showed up there and she took the off course tunnel (she is still learning to read the decel and subtleties of lateral motion). For now, a strong turn cue like a brake arm or even a spin can get her eyes off the tunnel when she comes driving in on a big line.
I like how she came back and was all like “nailed it!” LOL!!
I looked like she loves her aunties/paparazzi 🙂 So you can do things like short lines passing them and big rewards for ignoring them – the easy handling can be down by them and the harder stuff can be further away.
Coming back around the big line at 2:09 – she is really looking beautiful there! You had a moment of looking forward at 2:13 so she read it as a blind cross and popped behind you (part of it might be the visual draw of the tunnel!)
Nice reward for finding the jump after the tunnel and ignoring the aunties at 2:25!Oooh, I liked how she handled the slingshot start at 2:41! 1-2-3 looked really good, and when you trust her on the backside at 2 more, you will get through there even more smoothly! And you will be able to get further ahead there too as her skill builds to get the blind 3-4. as you mentioned you did with Pippin. The RC works too, remember to get on the diagonal so she sees the RC pressure happening sooner – you’ll probably have to decelerate at the wing of 3 to set it up so you don’t get too far ahead: you ended up pulling to the right side wing of 4 so she thought it was a right turn. The RC was a little late so she pulled the bar making the turn.
Yay! She read the decel at 2;54 and did NOT end up in the tunnel! Good girl! You had a pretty obvious decel there and it helped.
The line to the tunnel looked really good, she is putting together some really lovely lines! On the backside after the tunnel, remember to stay super connected to help get the shoulders pointed to the backside line. You were facing forward a bit so she ended up on the front at 3:05. You helped with a little more step to it on the next rep, but I think your position at 3:05 was good – just needed a little stronger connection and less arm.
Good ending line!!2nd video – the opening line is getting smoother on the slingshot! You were a little in her way on the landing of 2 at :08 – she can probably get that backside entry more independently so you can be further across the jump. Your movement through it was great, she just caught up to you really quickly because you were close to the entry wing 🙂
I thought your rear cross pressure at 4 was definitely earlier (:11) but she says it needed to be one step earlier 🙂 You can start putting the RC pressure on (running towards the center of the bar on 4) as soon as she lands from 3 and looks to 4.
LOVELY collection on 6 at :16!!! She read the decel/send really nicely! Great reward after that.
Good job with the backside after the tunnel! You can give her the right cue before she enters, which will give you time to switch to the backside cue. Nice connection on the backside send!
The ending line was almost perfect, she just needed a bit more connection to get the jump before the tunnel, and a go verbal (or a jump verbal) – that will all get easier as she gets older!!Well done here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This looked really good! And he is grabbing the food really fast!!! Loved it! He likes the food bowl LOL The 2nd rep was fine to stop and play, he ate the cookie so fast that you didn’t have a moment to be ready haha!!
I think he is enjoying the collection sandwich here: driving in, turning fast, and anticipating the drive ahead. Good job with the toy throws, perfect timing on getting him driving ahead while the toy was still moving. Yay! Now that he is feeling the wind in his hair and eating the cookies so fast (that is a BIG deal!), you can add in more rewards for the collection: cookie in the hand for the turning with you. Then, you can throw the toy and run run run 🙂
Great job! This is a game to take different places so you can help build focus in new spots (and you can use a long line if there are places where it is not safe for a puppy to be off leash)
Great job!
TracyHi! I think he is doing well on the parallel path! The throws were a little late so he had time to look up at you, so it is a good challenge to throw the treat even sooner.
If you think the hits are too incidental, you can raise the cap up on something so he has to step up a little on it (tape it to a book maybe?). You can also put an empty food bowl out past it on each side (a few feet away) so he has a target after the click so he knows where the cookie will end up and drive to it rather than look at you. I am not worried about the looking up, these are just ideas so you know the hits aren’t incidental – they looked pretty intentional to me. Plus, with the parallel path, it is less obvious of a smack when he is continuing straight, as compared to the countermotion 🙂
Speaking of countermotion – he did well here! I liked his speed on reps like at :50! Feel free to mix in tossing the treat back to the prop as you leave on these to keep that value high so he zips out to it like he did there – when the cookie was moving forward more, he was not as excited to go to the prop. So, we can mix in the reward on the prop as you leave 🙂
You mentioned RCs but I don’t see any on this clip? Maybe I missed it but I did watch a couple of times to see 🙂 When you rear cross, keep rewarding the new direction. If he is not reading it, you might also be late cutting in behind him, so start further back and cut in when he is still a foot or so away from the prop.
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
Yes, transitions in and out of toy play are one of the hardest parts of building and maintaining play! It was wise to leave this game along until you had unlocked the key to better toy play.
One thing that I think is critical to remember is that *we* think the offered sit or down is play… but the pups think it is work! So one thing I recommend in the toy play is that you avoid the rhythm of tug-release the toy-work (pup must offer something to get the tug back). Lots of letting him win the toy (yes, makes for very short sessions, but that is fine) as well as lots of giving the toy right back to him when he lets go of it will both help to maintain the high toy drive. So while he did really well with offering and squirrel avoiding here, you can see that as the session progresses, he is not as interested in the game (which speaks to reinforcement value, if that makes sense). So shift the ratios a little more when using the toy, to more of him having the toy and less work needed to get the toy back: tug tug tug release-toy tug tug tug release-toy sit tug tug tug throw toy. You will find that the sit improves, yes, but the toy play will improve LOTS as well. With pups that ADORE the reinforcement we are using naturally, this is still important but not as important as when the reinforcement is lower value. For example, he loves food, so you can have more “work” (sits) in the ration when food is involved. My little pup prefers toys over food, so I can have more work in the ratio when I am using the toy but less work and more party time when I am using food 🙂 Let me know if that makes sense! I figure we can digress into this because his stay understanding is looking really good so it is more about sorting out toy play 🙂
THi! I think he is definitely thinking of the prop, not just going back and forth with you. Watch his head: definitely looking at and looking for the prop!! The first minute of the session was really good – mostly good hits, some GREAT hits, and a couple of very-close hits. All worth a click. After about a minute, he lost his train of though a bit but then he ended with some good ones so it is possible that the session was just a little too long (I know, a minute doesn’t seem long, but he is so young). He really only had one moment (around 1:15 I think) where he was watching you and not considering the prop at all – then he got back on track. If you want to challenge him, put the prop on something that raises it up a little but so he has to step up onto it – this prop behavior is so easy that he can do it and look at you, so raising it makes it a little harder 🙂
You can also test to see if he is thinking of the prop by adding more distance away from it, laterally – start with it closer to the wall so you have more room to move over. Do 2 or 3 passes close to it, then move further away for a couple of passes and see how he does.
One other thing to note – since we are working concepts, I am not too worried about the perfection of the foot hits 🙂 So all of the GREAT hits and really good hits are fabulous! And the very clear “didn’t try to hit” moments didn’t get rewarded, which is perfect for this 🙂 Great job!
TracyHi! OK, I am watching this officially now and not just for cuteness on facebook hahaha
I love how she can go back and forth between cookies and the toy, such a great skill!
You mentioned the rollerblading effect – we can teach her to sit into her rear more (and not slide on past) with some subtle tweaks:
The blind crosses are looking really good in terms of your connection (and you are generally awesome at rewarding across the body, I think the first one had dog-side arm but the others were across you). For now, to help her stop and not run past the toy, you can present it sooner and then let it stay in basically one spot (rather than dragging it forward) – you can wiggle it to keep it ‘alive’ but leave it in one spot long enough that she can lock on and slow down to grab it rather than run past. It was moving a bit too long so she went past it because she is a baby Whippet 🙂 When she is a little older, you can keep it moving more. You did a rep after the first toy race where the toy got low and it was exciting but wasn’t moving forward…. and it looks like she was able to grab it and not roll past it. Yay!Toy races are so cute they are distracting LOL! I had to rewind a few times to be able to form a sentence. I think she is running past the toy because of the pressure of the handling (you moving forward). Some dogs bow out away from handler pressure, some dogs sniff, some dogs just accelerate in a butt-tucked manner – I think that is what she is doing here. I love that you are down on the ground with her, you are a good puppy momma! So staying down on the ground and “running” forward on your hands and knees, we can build in the handler acceleration more gradually: throw, let go, like you did: but just lean forward and see if she can go directly to the toy and grab it, instead of past it. That will let us know if that is a good starting point (or too easy or too hard). If it is too easy, we can add you moving forward but not as fast, yet. If it is too hard, we will soften up the leaning. She will let us know!
Also, you can try with a different type of toy that is more easy to grab – I use a higher profile holee roller toy with my pointy dogs. I have a huge want for the older bippet and a smaller one for the tiny pointy: the holee roller sits higher so the pups don’t have to reach down as far when they are driving to it, making it easier to stop and pick up (and both are attached to longer toys for ease of tugging). Or you can use several toys tied together to make a ‘mound’ of toy that she can grab easily. Let me know if that makes sense!Lovely work here!!!! She is doing beautifully 🙂
TracyHi Lori! He is adorable and brilliant!!
Great job on the rive to handler. He was super good about getting the thrown cookie (of course haha) and then you were great with the presentation of the collection hand. He was nice and tight to your leg on all of the turns, which is exactly what we want. My only suggestion is to get your hand in a little lower for this game, so he is following it while looking downwards rather than looking up – that will promote even better mechanics when he moves into a turn over a jump, eventually. He is little so you’ll have to bend more to do that, I feel your pain 🙂
You can definitely add more motion to this now – throw the cookie further so you can run away, and that way he will see you run then decelerate then turn. I think you can also add in the week 2 game with the blind cross element too!Very nice work on the prop sends! I love your prop, I thought it was a real turtle for a moment there LOL!!! The paw hit was very clear – the hardest part for him was ignoring the cookie in your hand to send to the prop (he wanted to look up at the end hand). If there was a cookie in the send hand, you can help him ignore it more by sending from closer to the prop. And, to add more distance, you can send with an empty hand and reward with the other hand. If there was no cookie in the send hand, then start closer so he can look down to the prop more so we can get more of those terrific foot hits. I think he is ready for the sideways and backwards sends too at this point.
Bowl game: I think he enjoyed this a lot LOL! He was brilliant, picking up the back and forth easily. Definitely add in the upright to go around, starting the game the same way with the bowls. The upright can be nice and close to you for now and then, if he is happy to go around it, you can push it out away from you gradually (that can happen over the course of a couple of sessions).
Great job on the blind crosses – nice connection and excellent reward mechanics!! He is ready for more motion on this one too – as he is going to get the tossed cookie, you can start to move away – when he eats the cookie, keep moving, do the blind and then keep moving so he chases you 🙂 You can start by walking but I really think he will find that very easy, so I bet you can go to running very early on in the training session. Keep up thse great reward mechanics.
Lovely work here!!! Honey 14 weeks old…. he is a rockstar!!!!! Well done to you for setting him up for success 🙂
Tracy
Hi! I think the software developers are Ghostbusters fans, the keymaster designation comes with the program lol!!!
Yes, you understand it correctly 🙂 adding the motion that way will build in more reinforcement for being close to you. No need to change the way you reinforce 🙂
Have fun!!!
THi there!
I am glad the weather was good so you could play outside!They are big courses with something at every angle… even on the ‘easy’ lines. They are designed to make trial courses look easy LOL!
Some ideas for you:
Course 1: This did go well, overall! Some ideas to tighten up sections:
We can tighten up the turn to 3 with a little tweak: on the opening line at :02, you were stepping forward as he was taking 1 and heading to 2 which sets an extension line on 2 and also blocks the path to the correct side of 3, causing him to go long over 2.
After the a-frame, you left 6 too soon at :11 – he hadn’t turned yet when you starting moving forward so he stayed on his line. This is definitely a ‘his head will give you permission to proceed to the next thing’ moment because you won’t want to move forward until he is looking at the tunnel.
The weaves looked great! You can use his independent weaving as an opportunity to get a few more steps past 9 so you can do the FC on a better perfect path exit line. At :21 you were backing up still so that pushed him a little wide.
Good timing on the wrap at 11 as well as the good job setting up the RC at 13! You can also try slicing 11 – I think it will be faster as it is all extension and creates a nice line to the correct side of 13. The wrap at 11 is really hard to get tight without slowing down too much.
He needed a little more connection and forward cue when he landed from 13 at :26.
You can do the FC at 15 and leave sooner, there was a bit of waiting at :29 so he got ahead of you for the 17 tunnel. If you are on the perfect path there on the FC, he will pick up the nice tight line so you don’t need to stay to set it up.
At the end: You used a go on cue on the tunnel to the last jump at :32 – I think it is more of a ‘get out’ (lead change away) than a ‘go on’ which generally implies stay on the lead carry on straight (which is what he did).Course 2: this one is a doozy, I admit it 🙂
Looking at the different sections:
That #2 wrap jump:
:39 did look like a throw back (cue to turn right) – you indicated the jump when he was looking at the right turn line, so a lap turn-style cue would be helpful there: turn him on your hand don’t give permission to take 2 until he is looking to the left.
At 1:12, you handled it more as a wrap and it definitely worked better to get the left turn! We can get a bit more collection, 2 ideas: I think a reverse v-set might be the best way to do it (you are placed out near the takeoff spot so he shapes the line around your position), or using a brake hand (left hand down low and towards him) to tighten it up using the position and cue you used at 1:12.Ouch at 1:14, he had a fall on 3-4 line. It looks like he made a jumping error took off in massive extension and just didn’t judge the distance. I can’t see a specific reason for it in terms of handling – it was a high speed moment coming out of collection, you looked connected, nothing weird happened but definitely something we can work on (in terms of judging good extension takeoffs coming out of wrap turns)
Out of straight tunnel – Similar to course 1, I think this is a get out (lead change away) which you did at 1:16! He got it on a ‘go on’ at 1:46 but you were ahead and he likely knew the sequence at that point.
The jump after frame (7) – On the first rep, he needed the turn cue before takeoff at :52. On the next pass, you had a “jump” then another verbal (“left”? Hard to hear it exactly) at 1:21 and he read it really nicely! You had a jump cue at 1:50 and a better shoulder turn, he read that nicely too.
I admit to a bit of evil course design on the 8-9-10-11 line… that tunnel is as tempting as an ice cream sundae on a hot day!
A RC at 9 can work if it is diagonal so you you can get right up behind him to cue 10, rather than too much pull and flick – that is what you had here and it showed acceleration into the tunnel at :54
On the next pass, you did a FC 8-9 but finishing the rotation of it didn’t give you time to cue the turn on 9, and the acceleration out of it at 1:23 put him right into the tunnel.
Going back to the RC at 1:50, you hung back and used switch which definitely got his eyes off the tunnel (along with a come here) but put you way out of position for the backside at 10. You can get it from where you were at 1:53 by keeping the left arm a bit further back and making your connection to his eyes more direct, which will rotate your chest to point to the line to the entry wing. Your left arm up turned your shoulder to the front of the bar. Plus, use that verbal sooner – he saw/heard the cue when he was already looking at the front because you were praising him.One thing to try is to cue the 7-8 line and as soon as you see him turning over 7 and looking at 8, do a blind cross – then as he is landing from 8, you are decelerating and moving away to 10 (I also recommend a soft brake arm here, I would use my right arm, and a right verbal as well). The blind might feel like you are showing a lot of extension but actually it buys you time to get to where you want to be and show the collection on 9.
You got back in the saddle for the serpy line across the back (yay!). Remember when you fall behind that you can still make transitions into turns – for the 14-15 turn, you can handle from where you were at 2:01 (which is actually a good spot, not far from the tunnel entry!) but remember to handle just like you would if you were ahead: decel with the verbal collection cue then rotate if you are going to use an arm or spin. You deceled but then faced forward and clapped/said ‘come here’.
On the out at 2:03, as you were moving out of it, maintain a connection to his eyes to push the line to the backside of the tunnel – when you looked forward, he went to the nearer entry which is what your shoulders were rotating towards. That is something that bit yo ua couple of times on these courses – looking ahead too soon or pointing forward, which turned your chest/shoulders away from the line you wanted.Nice job on the weave entry send!! You were very connected and no arm pointing! And the ‘in’ for 17 was well-timed (just before he exited) so he read 17 AND 18. Give him that extra connection on landing of 18 to turn to 19 as he is in the air rather than after landing at 2:18. 18 is a serp jump, so the open shoulders and extra connection will set an even nicer line there.
Let me know if this makes sense! There are many many nice elements of these so it is now all about the small details 🙂
TracyHa! Terriers TOTALLY judge, that is what they do brilliantly LOL!!!!
The serp skills are looking really good – you can drop that toy in a little sooner so that way she won’t need to look at you at all 🙂
On the backside pushes – on that first rep, she nedeed a little more connection to push to the backside, you turned a little too soon. But the reps after that looked good! She did well on her commitments – you drop the ball in a lot sooner though. You were using it as a reward for her jumping the bar – in order to really get the default behavior to a very independent level, drop the ball to the landing side as soon as her nose passes the entry wing. If it feels too early, then it is probably correct LOL!
Also, as you drop it, drop it far from you 🙂 We don’t want the value to be anywhere near you, we want it to all be back near the bar while you run to wherever you want to be,>>I wish I had had my MM with me for the threadles. Seeing a ball on the ground turned the impulse control function off.
Yes, she had a little trouble ignoring the toy here indeed! You can work that separately and it will immediately improve her threadles: have the ball in one hand exetnded away from the body and have her do hand touches to your other hand, extended away on the other side of you. The ball can be a reward! And then the ball goes on the ground while she does hand touches to earn it… then the set up goes back on the jump. If you skip these steps, you will be using your upper body to steer and she will rely on it, which makes getting the threadles a lot harder.
On the sequences with Wilson:
The opening line looked lovely! The send to the backside was lovely!
Don’t back up or turn your feet through the backside at 1:45 – that shows him a front cross and then when you rotate back out to 7, he had to adjust after landing. Plus, all the foot rotation caused a big delay in the wrap info: When you rotated back to send to 7, you didn’t have time to decelerate and turn again for the front cross wrap – so he went super long (correctly) over 7. I think you said ‘go’, too, which was locking him on to the tunnel out ahead.2nd rep – I really like where you strategized to get yourself on the backside push at 2:04!!! You were on the exit wing, he nailed it, yay!!!!! You decelerated a tiny near jump 4 to get that position and that caused him to look at you a little as he exited the tunnel at 2:00. You can run a few steps deeper towards the tunnel #3 then drive back out, so you have the support of the line to 4 with no decel and end up in that perfect position (it was gorgeous!)
You did *not* turn your feet through the backside serp and he read it perfectly. Good boy! You don’t appear to fully trust him yet because you did an arm cue and moved laterally and not directly towards 7 – but I think we can start trusting him more and more and see what happens! He is doing a great job on the backsides!
Moving towards 7 without rotating your feet at 6 helped you set up a MUCH better wrap on 7. Yay!
You don’t have to hold on to your close threadle quite as long – he had it at 2:11 then you kept saying it so he started coming towards you – trust him a little more and you will get a smoother line 🙂>>I have a question about Wilson and bars. He drops bars much less frequently than in the past. His vet has assured me he is fit, muscular and sound. That said, I never know where to set bars when I’m training. I know low bars are important, and I do lower the bar when we are training skills or sequences, but when we start doing full courses why wouldn’t I put the bars at full height? I am afraid if they aren’t at 24 in practice, he won’t jump high enough in trials.>>>
Ah, good question 🙂 I have LOTS of opinions LOL!
It is good news that he is fit/muscular/sound, and hopefully he gets regular care from the PT vet people because all canine athletes should get that as preventative and not only when something hurts. And if the PT vet says he is fit & sound, then you can totally believe it. If your regular vet says it…. take it with a grain of salt LOL!
About 24 –
the more I see agility, the less I think the 24″ jump height should be in existence here in the USA, particularly in AKC, for 3 reasons:– the AKC course design elements and spacing are too tight for the 24″ jumping dogs to have the proper room to jump safely. Looking at how you set the sequence here, you used lovely spacing, big lines that made sense and he had room to run at 24″. These are not the distances you wll reliably see in any venue except UKI at this point.
– the true AKC 24″ height class dogs are really big dogs with less angulation and more weight/bone… which means the 24″ height is actually harder than it is for, say, my BorderWhippet who is tall (probably as tall as Wilson) but super light and fine-boned and built like a piece of cooked spaghetti who can noodle his way around the course and make cat-like adjustments by getting low into his center of gravity (something that is nearly impossible for, say, a Doberman)
– many AKC trials (actually many agility trials in general in the USA, not just AKC) are held on artifical footing that simply do not allow the big dogs to grip the surface properly, which means a lot of slipping and adding tiny steps and restricted jumping styles. I see a major difference in how Wilson moves here on dirt versus how he moves on artificial turn versus mats. He moves naturally on dirt and he has to move unnaturally on the artificial surfaces. But yet so much training and trialing is done on artificial surfaces. I think that with the pandemic, this will change and trials will have to go back to dirt or grass because that is far safer (being outdoors or in large open arenas) than being in the smaller climate controlled buildings – and that will be better for the dogs.
Sure, the Europeans run their large dogs at 24″ – but those courses are MUCH bigger in terms of distances and there is more flow to the challenges. Plus they are more often on natural surfaces and there are far more Border Collies running at 24″ there and not nearly as many other breeds.
So, going back to the question of lowering the bars – yes, he should be jumping lower bars on any surface where he has to potentially move unnaturally (all artificial surfaces produce unnatural movement). He is more likely to be able to move with a natural stride on jump heights below his shoulders height.
And, approach full height jumping as a cyclical thing for athletes: most of his training time should be spent on what high level athletes focus on: technique, form, conditioning, teamwork. For example, the USA Olympic Equestrian Team does not run the horses over the tall stadium jumps several times a week, year round. They work all the little details, they work jumping grids, teamwork between animal and handler – and as they competition gets closer, they cycle “up” towards full height and bigger courses… then cycle down, give a rest period, back to flat work, conditioning, etc. Agility dogs are very similar and the same approach should be taken – and that is what we have done with getting ready for nationals and worlds. It means fewer local weekend trials but it also means better overall soundness and jumping skills.
Let me know if that makes sense! Nice work here!
Tracy
