[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

The set point is looking really good!! Watching each one – they are organized, nice jumping form, and consistent – he isn’t changing things around each time to try to get more comfy or use different body parts. He seems to be saying “I’ve got this!” Yay!
What heights has he seen ‘on course’ so far? We can build up heights on ‘easy’ jumping efforts like straight lines and then build up heights on the harder efforts as well when he is happy with the easier efforts.

On your Diamond blinds – the first rep was really good – great connection on the tunnel exit to commit to the wing, and you started the blind nice and early so it was basically finished at :08 just as he got to the wing. He read the timing really well and turned nicely! You rewarded from the dog side arm here, so try to pattern yourself to reward across the body to really open up your connection.
On the 2nd rep you had good connection to commit to the wing on your right side, but the turn was late and you had the toy in dog side hand – that delays the dogs from reading our turn cues, so he drifted wide.

The next couple of reps (:26, :33, :40) didn’t have the same connection on the tunnel exit so he didn’t commit to the wing. You had the clear conneciton at :45 so he committed – but the turn was late starting (as he arrived at the wing, probably because you were trying to make sure he took the wing :)) The timing is not a big deal if the connection on the side change is clear, so that is where rewarding across your body will really help – the toy was in your left hand (dog side hand) here, and showing it in your right hand and across your body will help him make the turn even if you are a little late starting it. At :57 on the next rep, you did show it to him and he came to the new side immediately when the connection opened up – so now add that showing of the toy as soon as you start the blind so he can see it instantly (or as instantly as possible :))
WHen you switched sides to go back to your left side – your connection and timing were spot on at 1:10! The BC was finished before he arrived at the wing at 1:12 plus you were instantly showing the connection & toy as he came around it at 1:13. Perfect!
When yo uswitchd back to the right side to start, getting the connection on the tunnel exit was harder which made the BC late. So keep doing the connetion & timing that you had on the left sdie reps 🙂 and see if you can make connection sooner & much more clearly (you might have to extra-exaggerate it for now) to get commitment to the wing on your right and then exaggerate the quick reward across the body there too.
His race tracks look good! He is tighter when he is on your left – I think there is a combo of him turning better to his right plus you being comfy with him on your left, which made the right side race track wider (where he turns left) and probably also contributes to the right side BCs being harder. It will all even out as you keep playing with this, the difference is pretty subtle 🙂

Great job on these!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

First up, some handling feedback!
On the FCs – you did a good job working out the timing and transition on these. You slammed on the brakes on first rep so she didn’t commit but then you were too swooshy (late and forward) on 2nd rep – but the 3rd rep was good in terms of connection and timing the transition with decel and rotation! THe bar was down, I think she just slipped there. 1:48 was also really good, you can get it even tighter with a more direct exit line back to the tunnel: try not to step out to the side after the FC, but rather run directly to the tunnel entry and she will chase that line.

lap turn –
On all these reps, you will set up a better line into the lap turn (and therefore out of the lap turn) with a turn cue before she enters the tunnel – I think her name will be all she needs there. The lap turn was good at 2:17! You didn’t give turn info on the tunnel at 3:10 plus you were moving so she was a good girl to go to the other side of the jump. I would have rewarded that – without rewarding, things went off the rails for a moment and she got frustrated and jumped up at you at 3:19.

Your spin rep looked good, you had a nice transition into it like you did on the FCs. The decel is more important to her than connection shift.

On the bigger sequence:
Your exit line connection after the blind at 4:03 was not clear, she didn’t know which side to be on – it appears she did not get rewarded. Then connection from the tunnel at 4:12 was unclear – still no reward…. hmmmm…. she is getting pissed here LOL!

You were much clearer on the next rep on the exit line connection – a little late so she was a little wide and the bar o the spin was down, but the last rep was earlier and clear and it looked really smooth. Yay!

>>She was jacked and jumping up and barking about 2 inches from my face. This is not normal, she had Ti outside barking and at class I would normally be using food to keep her with me from socializing. This could potentially be trial behavior>>

It might be trial behavior and she was stimulated… but she was also getting frustrated which was part of the cause. If something goes wrong in handling, reward her! Either reward her for the off course, or ask for a trick and reward her. Then figure out what went wrong 🙂 She was frustrated with lack of clarity followed by lack of reward – that plus arousal was causing the leaping up. Yes, sometimes we humans lack clarity in handling – but we can always reward! But if we withhold reward, we get unwanted behaviors. So, unless you are willing wager $1000 that the error was totally due to her bad decision and was not in any way related to a handling or training error… you should just happily reward her.

I don’t think collar grabbing her or a loud talking-to or petting her to calm her will be effective. The collar grab or the talking-to made her more stimulated (note the change in her barking pitch) and the touching at 2:35ish did not seem like something she wanted in that moment. Calm happy response to incorrect behavior is always best – if we bark at the dog, the dog just barks back at us 🙂

For the stay – establish a line up routine and a stay routine that is super clear. I think on some of your reps the release was not clear like 3:42 when she broke then ran, and 4:35 when she did basically the same thing and got in trouble. I liked the very last stay you did, where you led out, looked at her, praised, took a breath, then release. That was clear! Do the same when you reward: lead out, praise, breath, reward. And to get her into a stay, some tricks to line up will help too. (Tricks between reps also help her stay focused and not too stimulated).

So, I agree that we don’t want her leaping up or delivering tooth hugs – but take those as a sign of frustration due to low rate of success, and you can eliminate those by increasing her rate of success & reinforcement. Let me know if that makes sense!
Tracy

My instinct is to collar grab time out, I can’t. She has always scooted away from me.

Any other suggestions to work the stay?

Should I pull out the food to keep her next to me in between reps so she’s not jumping up, barking telling me I’m stupid?

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
He found the rear cross after the tunnel really nicely AND I think he did a great job finding the wing after the RC on both sides – nice!!! Great job handling it so it was clear to him 🙂 And the Go lines (and post turns) all looked lovely.

On his circle at :57 and also at 1:47/1:58, I think 2 things caused a little question from him on those – you were pressuring into his line so he was not sure if he should come take the backside wing… and also the visual of the wing out to the side was a little distracting. It is possible for a moment that with the pressure on the line he thought he should go directly to the wing. When you showed more of the wing at 2:08, he got it immediately. So be sure to run directly forward to where the wing meets the bar til he has passed you, then you can proceed to the next line. That should show a clear line to the wing and take out some of the pressure that might cause him to consider the other wing.

On the backside slice at 1:7, I think that you were moving pretty fast but you didn’t drop your shoulder back (like he is used to) until after he ran parallel to it. At 1:22 you took out the motion so he came in, but you can also slide through the serp like you did with less speed (from you, he can go as fast as he wants haha!) so he can process coming in even when you are moving but not necessarily opening up your serp arm.

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Yes, I think she likes this set up 🙂 Fun!!!
The Go lines are all looking good. Be careful of saying “go” on the rear cross reps though – I think you were saying that on the first couple of rears to the right so she went a little wider than needed because go cues extension on the original line (not the turn away). You did do a really good job on the RC pressure line on the right turns – you basically got right on the line as she exited the tunnel and accelerated so she was able to read the turn. You use “over” at :29 instead of “go” and I think that was more helpful for her to set up the turn! You could also use a ‘right’ cue or a ‘switch’ (to mean turn away).
When you switched sides, you were a step or two later getting onto the rear cross diagonal – that is why she pushed off the jump at :54 and was a little wide at :58 and 1:23 and 1:29. You can match her left turn rears to the right turn rears by turning your feet to the diagonal (center of the bar) just before she exits the tunnel so as you start to move, you are already showing the diagonal.
Your connection was basically perfect here! One little oopsie where you cued the tunnel and turned away too soon at 1:06, but the rest was perfect! It really helps her read the lines.
Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! I think this is going really well!!! You were really emphasizing your connection on the sends and on the exits of the crosses, so it looks like he knew exactly where to be – so helpful!!! The blind at the beginning looks really good – he was nice and tight and your connection was super clear. When you built it up into the bigger sequences – you did really nicely hitting all of your connection points and committing him to the wings & tunnel. He really liked coming in from the jump to the tunnel at the beginning (lots of speed :)) He was not quite as fast on the triangle of wings yet, because I think he was trying to figure it out 🙂 Give him a couple more sessions of this and he will be very speedy. And yes, practice makes perfect LOL! and it will make running courses when he is older feel nice and easy 🙂
Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Great job in class this morning!!!

These rear crosses are coming together nicely! It was a really good session: a couple of Go lines, a it of help getting that first rear to the left (nice early toy throw) then you got really good rear crosses to the right! That last one at :39 was a true legit rear cross 🙂 Yay! He is still figuring it out so he is not powering forward on the RCs like he is on the Go lines, so you can do lots and lots of Go reps and throw in a RC sometimes. Adding more room between the barrel and the jump will also help you get more momentum up those lines.
I think your arms are fine for now – maybe you felt like they were moving too much because of the toy throws? But you looked connected and he was reading the lines, so I would say arm use was fine 🙂
Nice work!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! He did really well here – bouncing the lines and bending nicely, leading with his head. I didn’t really see one side being stronger than the other – he looks pretty balanced on both sides. Yay! One suggestion is to reward him on a continued turn – he does his rights over the bars, for example, then after the 3rd bar you reward one more right turn by having him turn back to the entry wing (and get rewarded from your left hand in that case). That gives a little extra emphasis to the turns.
Since he did so well, you can totally add harder angles of entry. I bet you can also start the variations where he turns away from you, as well as working up to the neutral position!

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Sorry to hear about the crappy weather!!! It is getting to be that time of year 🙁

It is not unusual that some dogs get into a threadle vortex where *everything* is a threadle 🙂 You helped him see the tunnel when the tunnel was there, and then you were smart to get the tunnel out of the picture to see if that was muddying things up 🙂 I have several ideas to help him out:

– let’s put the threadles away for a while, they look really good so there is no need to include them in the training. We will come back to them at some point, we just don’t need to work them right now 🙂

– on the serps – change his starting position so it is easier for him to see the front of the bar and also so you can show him your position between the uprights – you can start by standing still and then you can add motion, releasing when you are fully between the uprights.

– we can change the angle of the jump slightly, on this game and also on the send’n’serp game. Angle the exit wing towards his start position a bit, so he is fully facing the bar and taking the correct side is pretty easy (both in terms of serping it as opposed to threadling it, and also not running past it :)) It won’t really feel like a serp at first but then you can angle it gradually back to that ‘flat’ angle when he is very successful. If you want a visual, we did this with Kyla & Lennan if you want to scope out their thread 🙂

I think the angled serp jump will be the easiest way to get him back on track with the serps! Let me know if that makes sense and how it goes 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there!
On the first rep, before the lap turns 🙂 a you were cuing the second tunnel entry at :10 – you looked a little forward, pointing to the tunnel and turning your shoulder away. Connection broke and he jumped on your for the toy. Compare that to the other tunnel cues in this session where you were more connected and using your zip verbal and he didn’t jump for the toy. So be sure to look strongly at his eyes for each tunnel cue.

On the lap turns, I think you did a great job of breaking them down! On the turn on the flat, you can add speed by doing a tunnel then having him come into you for a turn on the flat. Breaking it down to jut a wing (no bar) wa smart training. Your cue was good for most of the reps (one rep where he went to the wrong wide was where you were not quite rotated engouh) but even with a good cue, he was not too enthused about driving to you while you were facing him (this is normal, most dogs prefer the chase games :)) You can already see that he was faster coming to you when you had the toy in your hand – my only suggestion as you continue on that path is that, when he is coming to your lap turn hand, you throw the reward straight back behind you for him to chase (rather than stop him) so he powers into your hand on the first part of the cue. When he is powering to you, you can then add in turning him away and then throwing the toy forward out of the cue.

The full height line at the end looked really good!! You can add one of the full height jumping to the easier stuff at this stage and then gradually build up to full height on the hard stuff when he is comfy on the easy stuff 🙂
Nice work!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Bumping up! See you all in an hour 🙂

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!! Tons of god stuff on these clips!

Serps: This is going well! Watching the difference between when he gets the serp versus when he threadles – it is a connection thing, I believe especially on the left side. When he can see your connection pretty clearly with the line of motion, he gets the serp. That happens when you are close to the line either in the gap between the wing and jump, or way ahead between the uprights of the jump so he can see that as he comes around around wing. When he was threadling, you were in the gap rotated away a little more and your hips were turned pretty forward which probably changed the connection picture so he threadled. It didn’t seem to be a struggle on right right turns there, so on the left turns for now you can stick closer to the line and show a bit more connection there.
The wraps were really great, no questions there!! The only blooper was a slightly early click so he correctly drove to the MM 🙂

RCs – interesting about the left versus right because on the serp video above, I think he was turning to his right better there too. He is a righty (at least for today LOL!)
This was a really strong session!!! You are totally getting it. And I can see him really thinking about the rear crosses 🙂 He turned better to his right because I think your running lines were better on the RCs to the right.
On the left turn RCs like at :06 and :13 and :46 you were a couple of steps later getting right on the RC line, as compared to :26 and :34 where you got right on it and got his head turned to the right before he got to the jump bump. He did turn to the left pretty well, so try to get right on his tail as he exits the wing wrap and see if the early cue helps him turn sooner on the left turn RCs.
All the Go reps looked great 🙂 WHeeeee!

Find the jump: the pole made things interesting LOL! Good job NOT running into it (I always worry about that :)) He was actually at his best when you layered the pole LOL! You can start giving your go verbal before he enters the tunnel now – he was very strong with the skill so we can tell him sooner 🙂 The only blooper was an early toy throw so he aborted mission to chase the toy 🙂
When you added the RCs, on the reps where you tucked into the tunnel exit and then started the RC he was going wide: at :30 and :35 you started your RC info from further up the line and he actually saw it sooner because you were showing it as he was exiting the tunnel – and I think those were the 2 best RC turns. At :44 and :50, you tucked in a bit more to the tunnel exit and you were facing straight for a couple of steps when he exited before getting on the RC line, so his turns were not quite as early. The earlier RC line even with your position further away really helped him, he was a good boy to be able to read it with you a bit further away!

On the Minny pinny – look how nicely he is bending here and bouncing and not touching wings or bars! This is also a jumping foundation skill and he is doing really well! he was not as certain when you were doin the turning away so we got a bit of clicking the bars and trotting – but that was only because he was deep in thought about what the heck you wanted him to do LOL!! But…. he was nailing it and it is a HARD skill!! Good boy! And I agree – doing it in a more controlled exercise where you are not really helping with a physical cue will most definitely transfer easily when you are able to also support with physical cues.

Sorry to hear about the white stuff on the ground 🙁 Maybe it will melt!! You can do this Minny pinny game indoors with one wing and a bar, while sitting on your couch 🙂 I totally understand about the supportive husband thing… always better for them to notice the tunnel in the house *after* we have lugged it in hahahaha 🙂

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

ay for play between reps! Yes, it makes it a lot more fun 🙂
She looks really great here – she is pushing you now which is great! It’s also means you need to push harder and turn sooner 🙂

On the first rep, she is reading the blinds really nicely so you try to tome then sooner – as she is passing you to the wing, start the blind before she gets there. That will help connection be sooner which makes the next line even easier to show.

On the 2nd rep is where you can drive her more to each wing. The wraps looked really good and then you decelerated early on the 3rd wing, so she wasn’t sure if she should go to it. (Good job rewarding her, she was being a good girl :)) Compare that to the 3rd run at :26 where you drove her to that middle wing – not necessarily with more running speed, but with great connection and a few more steps to it til she was committed. Nice!!
The last 2 reps are looking really nice!! Your connection looks fabulous and you are moving along the lines with enough motion to help her commit but also not babysitting 🙂 The wraps look really good! Yes, add in your verbals – I think it will help even more as long as you stay connected like you did. You can also spread out the distances between the wings so you can run more (she will enjoy that :))

One small detail that I think is affecting your timing – watch your hands, you are switching the toy back and forth as you do your crosses. That moment of switch is ever so slightly delaying your rotation (because instead of turn and go, it is switch turn and go). So, either have the toy in your pocket or leave it in one hand only (or have 2 toys, one in each hand) and you will see how much earlier you can deliver the info.

Great job here!!! She is flying!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>1. when should I be using the outside arm to cue directionals…according to your feedback and then with Jessica today, I guess I am overusing that physical cue.

I use that outside arm to cue a behavior in a couple of different places: a threadle, a get out (those two are big arm cues), as a soft brake for a left or right (90 degree eangle). I use it for myself for exit line connection after a cross with a young dog, but that is not to cue the dog – it is more to get my connection opened up back to the dog as they exit a FC or BC. Then on all other regular lines and on serps and stuff – no opposite arm.

>>2. when you say cue him before he enters the tunnel so he does better on the exits, what verbal am I using here because he really isn’t turning but just coming to me sort of straight out. Just use his name right after I say “tunnel”?>>

If it is a soft turn (not a wrap or a hard turn), then an attention verbal such as his name is perfect.

>>Also, I thought the lap turn and the throw back looked confusing and I still don’t think I understand in this scenario how to make it look different. I watched your videos and the feet are kind of similar? I know the hand and the eye connection is different but as he comes out of the tunnel – to me it looks the same initially. And on the lap turn, there is one step backward correct? But no stepping back on the throw-back?>>

Correct, the connection and hand motion (and verbal) are what makes then different. On the lap turn, the timing of the rotation is also earlier and your position is slightly different (closer to the wing you want him to turn on). You would generally be turned before he exits the tunnel and facing him. On the throw back, as he exits he can be seeing your transition into the rotation.
There can be a step back on both of them, but it looks different – the lap turn is that very distant step back and it is also later than on the throw back (it happens when he is arriving at your hand). On the throw back, the step back is pretty subtle (just part of the momentum) or non-existent, depending on how strong the dog’s skill is.
There is a subtle difference but timing and position make it clear to the dogs.

let me know if that makes sense 🙂

Tracy

We haven’t done the longer sequence for week 2 yet and you just posted week 3! I still didn’t catch up with a week break! Tomorrow is a day of rest so we’ll try to get up to speed over the weekend.

[Tracy Sklenar]

Thanks for the updates! I am glad the boys are doing so well!!

You ca always let Buddy watch Mookie for a moment – then do one run with Buddy while he is fired up – then back to Mookie 🙂 That can give you 2 fired up dogs to run 🙂
And your observations about how to shift connection for each sounds pretty spot on. Mookie is definitely a “look at his eyes” boy and I can see Buddy liking the swoosh to the landing spot a whole lot. Very cool to see the differences in the boys!!!!!

New stuff comes out on Saturday, I think you will have fun with it!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi again!
These are going well!!!

On the spins at the beginning: She is doing so nicely with her commitment, that this is also a spot where you might not have to shift your connection to the landing spot as you do them: look at her eyes, cues the jump with your arm while yo are rotating… but then just do the blind and look over your new side so it is finished before she comes around the wing. It is a pretty advanced technique (we do work on this later in the class :)) but I think she is ready for it now! Yay!

FCs:
These also look really good! Your exit line connection at :34 REALLY produced the best turn on these reps. You were good at :45 too and on the first FC, but you were not quite *as* connected as :34 on the exit line (you were really looking at her there) and her line back around the jump was fabulous. The connection shift coming into it on all reps looked good – you shifted to her eyes and rotated nice and early and she was great! So fun to see how strong her commitment is!

Last sequence:
The toy fell out in the perfect spot on the first rep LOL!
The spin and commitment looked good on all of these reps but we can smooth out the line into it, which will smooth out the line out of it. On the 1-2 line, try to be more laterally away from her rather than running close to the line – by being close to the line, you ended up being late on the FC on the tunnel exit, so her line there was a little wider and then the momentum pulled your running line a bit out past the exit wing, which made her line wider too. Leading out more laterally will allow you to start your FC before she enters (because you will be further across the tunnel when she enters it) so it is done before she exits. Yo can also do a blind there, it might be even quicker to finish it before she exits. And as you finish the FC or BC, you can be heading to where the wing meets the bar on the turn wing – so when you do the spin, she can land tight and come right back around it.
Also, being done with the FC sooner will give you a moment to set up the rotation sooner and look at her eyes. On these, because you were finished the FC and she was bearing down on you 🙂 your connection ending up swooshing to the landing spot and she was a tiny bit wide. It was not that wide, but based on the turns you were getting when you shifted to her eyes – it is definitely worthwhile to try to get the shift to her eyes here.

You two are looking great! It is fun to be able to look at these tiny details because everything else is going so nicely 🙂

Great job!
Tracy

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