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Hi!
It took me a minute to figure out the sequence with you going to the inside backside of 5 LOL! I see now it is a space limitation and going to the other side of 5 for the backside was harder, even though you did get it really easily at :43 and :58. I definitely need more coffee hahahaha!>>I was surprised she struggled initially with the distance when we did a practice run yesterday.I struggled with the extra jumps lol.>>
I totally relate – dog and human brains struggle to ignore the jumps in our way! It takes a few times to get comfortable ignoring all of the ‘clutter’ 🙂
This session went well! You got the threadle at 5 really nicely at :05 and :18, by being there, rotated, calling her as she was over 4.
The layering worked well to get you there – her only question about it was at :29 when you turned too soon. Compare to :17 and he other layering spots when you were moving forward parallel to the line.
It looked like getting the push to the backside at :43 and :58 went very smoothly! She seemed to have no questions there and you get into position very easily, with enough time to show very clear connection.
Great job!!! Tracy
Hi! He is doing well here! The biggest highlight – I don’t think he had a single off course tunnel when you cued a backside push/wrap/threadle. SUPER!!
Looking at the little details – you used a brake arm at jump 3 at :04, and pretty massive turn cues for 3 at 1:00 and 1:15 (big decel, strong verbals, 2 strong brake arms). That is an extension line to 4, so I don’t think you need a brake arm or collection cues there (he didn’t collect at all, which he really should have done at 1:00 and 1:15 based on the strength of your turn cues there). Was he having trouble finding 3-4? He looked fine here without the collection help 🙂
You can also add a verbal ‘head’s up, something is coming’ before the backsides (push, wrap, or blind to threadle). I think a name call after he lands from 5, or using a GO GO GO TUNNEL versus a quieter “jump!” will help him organize sooner because he knows something different is happening.
He did well with the push to the backside at :17!! I think he surprised you because you had to hustle to get out of his way 🙂
>>Also is there something I’m doing that causes that far most bar to come down in the jump circle? Pulling off too abruptly?>>
That was mostly when you were doing the blind to threadle slice, and it was because you were too early 🙂
Looking at the reps:
You were too early at :35 (bar at 5 came down) and :48 on the blind (5 and 6 came down), starting it as he was over 5 so he was like “wait what?” and tried to adjust. The timing would be to keep moving forward, let him land from 5 cue 6 then start the blind. The distances are really big here, so you have more time to get the commitment. If you were doing AKC-style small distances, you would probably have to begin the blind as he was over 5, but there is less speed so he would have an easier time with the bar.At 1:04 he also dropped 4, but no worries on that one – he was probably watching to see what you were going to do and decelerating a bit to check.
On the threadle slices, he found the line better when you moved across the bar, parallel to it. At :36 you were moving away from the threadle jump and turned forward which did not support the next jump so he (correctly) took the tunnel. Your line was much better at :52, parallel to the jump, so he had no trouble with that section at all. Nice!
He had some questions about the circle wraps, and they were due to you blocking his line and blocking the wing. At 1:05, 1:20 and 1:41, your line was blocking the wing so he was not entirely sure where to go, plus at 1:20 and 1:41 you were also moving forward before he was past you (he spun a bit on those 2 reps). Ideally, your positional cue would be on the landing side (where you put the toy, approximately) where the wing and bar meet. As he is doing 3-4-5, you are moving on the line to that position so as he is jumping the previous jump (5) you are landing there and holding position until he is past you. You can reward him with the toy for it, but his question will disappear when he can see the full wing and you move forward after he is fully past your running line.
Let me know how the blind-to-threadle-wraps go! That will set you up for the new games posted this morning!
Nice work here 🙂
TracyGood morning!
I am excited that she has her own Chata And Friends Class!!!! Perfect for everyone. She did great!
>>Small group but she can’t expect to handle any type of league or trial if we always train alone. >>
100% agree. And she was terrific!
She was such a good girl on the start, holding the stay AND finding the first jump! YAY!! The opening line was lovely and you had a super nice blind 5-6, and lovely commitment to the 7-8 line as well.
>>still has no threshold for fixing an error.>>
Actually…. She has a ton of tolerance for it, more than you are giving her credit for 🙂 Here is what I see:
The threadle slice at 9 was a little above her pay grade (you can tweak the angle by rotating it so it is either a straight forward front side, or angle it the other way to be a straightforward threadle). She was pretty resilient to the slight chaos of trying to figure it out LOL!!! So it was good to carry on and not try to obsess on it, the threadle slice is really not an important course element for her right now.
Having the off course tunnel out there added a new level of challenge too, especially in terms of finding the weaves.
I think effort rewards for the weaves are great! One suggestion: Be sure to REALLY reward the weaves when she gets them right rather only when she gets them not-quite-right.
Speaking of effort rewards: two suggestions for those:
– bear in mind that while she does like the cookies, effort rewards also involve stopping. And I think agility dogs know that stopping means something was not quite right. Add in that she is a dog that loves to move move move… and you can overuse stopping for cookies and end up frustrating her more than keeping her happy. So if something goes wrong, just keep going like it was correct (because the video will likely show you that was correct :)) and then fix it on the next rep after watching the video.– effort rewards must be consistent. If she gets an effort reward for one thing, and then the same exact thing happens… she should still get the effort reward! That also indicates that she is seeing something in the handling that is causing it, so you need to adjust. If she gets the effort reward *sometimes* but not others – and on the other reps is basically told “that is incorrect, try again”, she is going to get confused.
Putting this in context of the RC at the end:
You were a little early on the switch RC cue so she did not take the jump. What happened at 1:02 and 1:25 was that you were pushing into her line to change direction before she was past you, which pushed her off the line and kind of looked like a rear on the flat. She would have had to go through your flesh to get to the jump there 🙂
So with 1:02 and 1:25 being identical handling on the switch and producing the same response: 1:02 got rewarded. 1:25 got told that she was incorrect and needed to try again so she found her Uber shortly after that and left. True, you didn’t give a verbal correction or get mad at 1:25, but withholding reinforcement and going back to restart is totally an indicator of the response being incorrect (negative punishment) and also (NERD ALERT NERD ALERT) creates a dopamine drop out in the reward prediction error – which leads to a feeling of frustration.
Add in the start-and-stop from the threadle and the weaves, so there might have been a little frustration already, and withholding reward and stopping to re-do tipped her over the edge.
So if you get the same behavior twice? Reward it twice! And then look at the video to see what you did to cue it. Or, if you know, make the adjustment. At 1:51 your timing was MUCH better on the RC, and she was able to commit to the jump. YAY!
The ending line was great! She is really following the cues and your connetion looked fabulous 🙂 My only suggestion on the ending line is a handling decision suggestion: Rather than wrap her to the inside at 17, you can slice her to the outside there! It is a faster line and easier for you both. Yes, there is a juicy delicious off course tunnel there 🙂 but that is GREAT to work through. Your connection was crystal clear so I bet she would not have even looked at the tunnel 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think about the nerdy stuff 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>>I’ve been looking/ obsessing over the pop out jumping courses.>>
Hooray! Obsessing is my favorite thing!
Looking at the pop outs:
>>I think I can do 1 through 5. But, starting DOL and stand towards 2 to push to the back side and then blind cross?>>
Yes, that is one option for sure and would work really well.
>> I’m not sure I could leadout to the takeoff side of 2 and have her take one. >
That is where the forward focus on the jump comes in really handy! You can start getting closer and closer to the lead out spot o 2, rewarding the forward focus and release to 1 with a thrown reward.
>>Looking at 5-8 what seems to make the most sense is threadle slice 5-6 with DOR and turn 6 left which sets up 7-9 better. Is that reasonable assuming I could do it?>>
7-8-9 is ideally dog on left (or do a blind at 7 to get the dog on left for 8-9). To get there, yes you can try for a threadle slice on 6 (turning her a little left over 5 then slicing out away from the course on 6). That will require a BIG turn on 5 though and is a pretty big dance 6-7. You can let her stay on the natural line over 5 to 6 and push to the backside of 6 (so she turns left and slices towards the course). Then you can do a blind to threadle 6-7 in the gap between the jumps, to get her on your left for 8-9.
Pop out 2:
Bearing in mind that one of the themes is blind-to-threadle 🙂
Dog on left 7-8. You can FC or BC 8-9 (no threadle needed there). Then push to 10 backside with the dog on your right). Then the options at 11 are:
– BC to threadle, to handle from the takeoff side of 11
– Push to backside of 11 then RC to get the slice to 12
– Push to backside of 11 serp, then flip her away to the tunnel while you stay on landing side of 11
– Push to backside of 11 then blind (German turn) but I think getting far enough across the bar soon enough for the blind would be hard on this particular set up>>But, I’m not sure what to do to control the turn at 10 to get to 11 for a wrap. >>
Yes, the turn at 10 needs some control but 11 is not a wrap – the wrap sets up a harder/lower line to the 12 tunnel. The slice is going to be easier and faster even though it might look like longer yardage by a little.
So how to control the turn at 10? Brake arm!
>>I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be fast enough to get to the landing side of 8. So, if you send to 8 DOL and serp 9 to a blind, then what do you do at 10. Multiple turns in a row are not my strength.>>
At normal distances, you can easily send her away on the line 6-7 with connection and verbals, so you can head directly into the gap between 8 and 9 and get the cross on anding side of 8.
And yes you can do a Serp-blind on landing of 9 (or rear cross takeoff of 9) – the brake arm for 10 would be applied at the same time (as she exits 9 and you are cuing 10) but you won’t be as far ahead of her.
Looking at the videos:
Look at her looking at jump 1 on pop out 1! YAY!!! Remember to reward that a LOT! She basically looked at jump 1 before you even asked her to do it, and as soon as you pretty much arrived in your lead out position. She seems to be recognizing context and that is AWESOME.
Pushing to the backside at 2 worked well! She had hard time seeing the line to 3 but I think that was spacing – work her at 8 inches here to give her a little more room
She found the threadle nicely too. You moved a bit too early at :26 which is what contributed to the bar down the and a hard tick at :36. You can hold threadle position until she is a few feet away fro the entry wing to help her see the specific line, which will help her organize her jumping.
7-8-9 went well here! Now, bearing in mind there would be a tunnel out ahead and more speed coming into it, you can use a brake arm on 7 to ask for more collection before takeoff.
Pop out 2:
Yes, especially in the shorter distances, you would need to use big brake arm on the backside here. You had it here at :23 and she turned. You used it right before takeoff – ideally you would use it as you cue the behavior send as she exits 9. I think you can also not go all the wy up to the backside at 10 – send to it using the brake arm as part of the send cue. Not being as close to 10 will make 11 much easier!>>I also could not get a threadle slice in popout 2.>>
Two things were happening:
– by being so close to the 10 backside, the FC put you right on her line at :32, :46, 1:29 so she did not have room to get to the backside. Being further from 10 can put you in the gap to 11 sooner and on the takeoff side.– in keeping with the thinking of being further from 10 – getting into the gap on the takeoff side of 11 will allow you to show her a clearer physical threadle slice cue. When you did it in isolation, you had a very clear cue and she had no questions! Being further ahead will allow you to use that cue (upper body rotated to her and threadle arm all the way back)
If you are not on the takeoff side, you can also open up your threadle arm a lot more – it was closed a little forward and so that supported the line to the side of the jump she took.
>>She understands the reverse wrap cue.>>
Yes! Those looked great both in terms of understanding the cues and producing beautiful turns! Super! You can can also try a rear cross there (whiskey turn) to get the slice, or move across the landing side and try to flip her away as if there was a tunnel there 🙂
Great job! Stay cool!
Tracy
Good morning!
Oh no! I am sorry to hear you were sick! It was a gross hot week anyway, you didn’t miss much in terms of outdoor training opportunities!
The lazy game looked great, it is perfect as you recover from being sick!! Let him do all the running LOL!!!
He was perfect happy to zip around the lines. You can totally add in the tunnel, sendign with a verbal as you turn to face it but no need to sprint to it for now – let him sprint to it 🙂The sending looks great. Nicely connected and clear cues, so he ws happy to get that middle jump. And he was setting up a nice turn as well, so remember to use your left/right verbals. The turns were even better when you did add the verbals!
The only suggestion I have is that you use a ‘get it’ marker when you want to throw a reward rather than ‘yes’ or praise. The ‘get it’ tells him to keep looking forward, and ‘yes’ words tend to get the dogs look at us… which means we might accidentally pull them off a line on course if we mark something with ‘yes’ (I have first hand experience with this LOL so feel free to learn from my errors).
So you would say your ‘get it’ marker then throw, then you can totally praise 🙂 as long as the ‘get it’ comes first.
Great job!!! Feel better!
Tracy
Good morning!
He did great here!!!!>>I found that I was crowding the line & moving in towards the jump! It’s hard to stay straight>>
Yes, there is a magnetic pull to the jump sometimes!! You had your wing out there as kind of a placeholder, and I think that helped you stay on the line. I also like to put a leash on the ground (parallel to the line I want to run) so I know not to go past it and not get close to the jump.
You were able to add a lot of lateral distance! Yay! One thing that worked great was when you ran down closer to the tunnel so you were in full acceleration as he exited (like at 1:52). When you were stationary and waiting for him, he would look at you before going up the line. But when you were moving, he had no questions.
You can also send to the tunnel and get way ahead, staying in motion, to challenge him to find that jump from behind you – he seems ready for that!
The other thing to add is giving him his verbals before he enters the tunnel: right before he goes in, you can be saying “GO!” Or “Over!” So he exits looking straight (and keeping saying it :))
As you got further away, your arm got higher (and you had some outside arm too) – be careful not to block connection, so keep the arms lower. This is especially true for the dog side arm – it can be pointing low and back to his nose so he can see your eyes.
Great job here! Keep adding distance and also try it getting way ahead 😁
Tracy
Good morning!
>>It was finally under 90 AND cloudy, and he was ‘wet and happy’>>
Yay! Cloudy makes a big difference.
>>ignore my ‘outfit’ and hair please… because ‘after pool’ is the only way we can do anything outside in this weather>>
It was perfect! It is too hot to do anything but wear cool clothing 🙂
>>weather forecast shows 78 tomorrow at 7PM. Maybe we can try AG yard tomorrow… Wish they have pool there LOL so we can do ‘wet dog agility’. What makes it harder with him is that he doesn’t like being sprayed with water from hose or water bottle so I can’t cool him down with it. But I guess I can use cooling coat>>
My dogs also don’t like being sprayed and they don’t even like pools. Sigh. We had 78 here at 6am, so I did some training – the cool coat is great, and I also have a cooling towel that I drape over their back/neck (and my head sometimes LOL). No one got too hot as the temperatures started climbing. Your temperatures will hopefully drop after 7pm and at least there is a lot of daylight at this time of year!
On the video – He is doing great! He is really handling the heat well, I am impressed 🙂
I know he loves it when you move a lot, but I was really happy with how he was driving when you were not really running (at the beginning). We want him to blast around the line even if you are not sprinting 🙂One thing I notice here: He really drives out of his stay behavior so you can totally use his stays in smaller spaces to get a more explosive drive into the game.
For example, at :50 he was in his stay. You led out a little, took a moment to look at him… then released. He really drove out of it! That moment of looking at him before the release builds up a bit of excitement 🙂 Then he was really galloping on the rest of the sequence. Yeah!! And nice job with the rewards being thrown out on the line, that was excellent placement and very motivating for him.
Starting from the wrap at 1:01 was harder for him (he is a big dude, wrapping is hard!) and he didn’t have the same speed as he did coming out of the stay. So for him, let’s take out the wrap start and replace them with stay starts. I think that will be a lot more motivating and you’ll get a lot more speed! He wraps really well, so it is not a wrap issue.It is more that because of his size, he slows down to produce a lovely wrap and we don’t need that at the beginning of a sequence.
When he sees a wrap in the middle of the course – he is wrapping really well, so after the wrap you can encourage him to blast back up to full speed by sending to the next jump with one step then you immediately move away to the next line. That will help expand his commitment skills AND he will then get to chase you on the next line (which seems to be his favorite thing to do :))
Of course all of this will be even easier when it is not 100 degrees out 🙂 But I think he is looking really strong.
Great job here!Tracy
Good morning!
>>She slept on the counter motion and nailed it today! We also started the two jumps.>>
I love latent learning sooooo much! Yay!
This looked so good! The first few had the toy a little hidden (by the back)and when it was more visible in your hand, the game was harder. So let her sleep on it 🙂 and then next time, have the toy in your hand and visible but with you moving very slowly, and see how she does. The eventual goal is that you are running and she can immediately it even with the toy flopping around.
The 2 jump handling game looked great!
The Go looked really strong on the first rep. Be sure to mix lots of these in, between the other handling moves 🙂
On the Backide cues: at :36 (first rep) you were pushing in a bit too much and then a tiny bit too early on the rotation so she pinged off the jump. For now, she needs to be just about arriving at the outer edge of the backside wing then you can start the FC (like you did on the resend at :40 and also at :49)
The RCs are going really well!! YAY!! Remember that you don’t need to be as far ahead on the RCs: You were a bit too far ahead on the RC at 1:01 which made the info late – she was taking off for the RC jump and then saw the info. She knocked the bar trying to adjust to the correct turn (good girl, though, making the adjustment!)
At 1:10 you were a little less far ahead but also showed the RC info a lot sooner: As she was over the first jump, you were beginning to get on the RC line and that worked really well! NICE!
And on the last rep, getting the left turn wrap after all of the work on the RC and backside? LOVELY!! Your decel as clear and you also held the decel facing forward til she was committed (collecting and feet up to jump the wrap bar).
You will be able to do the backside, RC, and FC sooner as she get more experienced, but for now that extra moment of supporting commitment is just perfect 🙂
Onwards to adding the tunnel to this 🙂
Great job here!!! Stay cool!
Tracy
Hi!
>>Indy & I went out every 30 minutes tonight for about 5 min each time to work more of the exercises in week 2. >>
This seemed like a good way to battle the heat – he seemed free and spicey for all of it except maybe the rear crosses 🙂 See below for ideas on those.
Starting with the blind and front crosses:
The wrap and ending line warm ups went well!
To help get the timing of the blinds and fronts, you can run in closer to the tunnel so you are accelerating as he exits (and he hears you staying in motion while he is in the tunnel). That will help him propel him to the ‘out’ jump on the line to get the BCs and FCs even easier! If you are ahead of him when he is in the tunnel and decelerate, it makes it harder to get the middle ‘out’ jump because he hears/sees the decel and adds collection,At :42 and :58, the BC was a little late getting started (he was jumping the BC jump). Same with the FC at 1:18. But check out the FC at 1:39 – fantastic timing! You started it as he was exiting the previous jump, so it was finished before he took off for the turn jump. NICE! And that gave you plenty of time to show him the turn and to set up a nice spin after that too 🙂 Really super!!!!
Looking at the BC to the tunnel:
You were doing a spin instead of a blind on the warm up reps at 1:55 – 2:13, probably because it there was not a lot of motion into it. The full sequences were true blinds and looked great!
Really good rewards for the ‘out’ jump to help set up the BC to refresh the independence needed to get him out to the jump so you could easily get the blind.
The first blind at 2:48 was just a step too early. But then you added that one more step to support the line – it looked good at 3:13 and looked GREAT at 3:31 and 3:48!!!! He was flying, your timing was good, you had a very clear line of motion to the correct tunnel entry and your connection was super clear so he found the line really well. YAY! Just lovely!
Rear crosses were harder for him. Was it because he was hot and tired by the time he did them? Or maybe he is not yet comfortable driving ahead of you versus chasing you (like the blinds). Or both? LOL! We will get it sorted out 🙂
On the first few reps, doing the RC with him turning to his right:
You had a bit too much decel at 4:01 as he exited the tunnel, so he slowed down. This is a good place to run un close to the tunnel so you can keep moving and he can drive ahead better.You did go in closer to the tunnel at 4:18 to accelerate more, but he still had questions. He was reading the RC there and at 4:40, but he was reading them better when you switched sides so he was turning to his left – perhaps turning left s just easier to coordinate the rear crosses (they do require a lot more mechanics from the dogs, because they have to drive ahead AND turn away).
So he as getting them done correctly, but not with as much speed as the other moves. With this in mind, a couple of ideas:
– next time, start with these first so he is feeling fresh and speedy 🙂
– mix in lots of reps where you run in closer to the tunnel then running straight (no RCs) with thrown rewards to get him looking forward on the line. Then you can mix in some RC lines. Your line to the center of the bar was good, so it will be interesting to see how he does after a bit of latent learning kicks in 🙂Mountain climbers – good job here! When he is on your left, make sure his approach is straight because that all help hm go even faster 🙂 He was faster when he was on your right (straight entry after the wing).
You can have the food already placed on the target at the end of the teeter (like cream cheese or something sticky so it doesn’t fall off :)) – it really incentivizes the dog to drive up without waiting for you to get there, while also allowing you add in moving past the board or you can rear cross it.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
112 degrees… holy HOT!!! We are supposed to be getting 100 degrees here on Tuesday, which is really unheard of for the mountains of Virginia. CRAZY! This was a good air conditioning game that involves no running in the heat 🙂
The wobble board shaping is going well!
I love how at :12 she bobbed her head at it… then looked at you like “WHY DID YOU NOT CLICK THE MAGIC FOOD THING” hahahahaShowing her that you wanted her to touch the wobble board early in the session definitely helped her out, and you were very quickly able to fade the help. You got lots of repeated front foot touches after that.
Using a toy in the last part of the session helped – she offered both front feet and there was a lot more excitement about it in general.
She was not interested in getting her back feet on – probably because of a combination of the board being small and also she was not totally comfy getting her back feet on to something that moves. So we can help her in both ways by stuffing a whole bunch of towels/dog beds/tunnel bags/mats etc so the wobble board is surrounded and propped up a bit. That will both expand the playing field (more room for back feet) and reduce the movement of the board (less unpredictable movement). Then as she gets more and more comfy getting her back feet on, you can start to remove the towels/etc bit by bit to add more movement and make the area she stands on smaller.
Great job here!
Stay cool!
TracyGood morning! You did a great job on this – mostly nailed it, and found one spot we can add training skills.
1 through 9 ran beautifully on both runs – the independent weave skills you have trained allowed you to get to the 7-8-9 line try easily. And because of your position as he entered the 6 tunnel, he was amazingly tight finding the line to 7 and 8. NICE!
Strategically, your handling choices set you on to where you wanted to be on 10 in both runs. The FC to threadle at1 :13 worked as well as the push to the backside – both had very tight lines!
>>. On the first run, I tried to get #10 from a long ways away. That didn’t work.
I don’t think it was a bad plan – I think the idea of doing a far-away threadle I great and it is a trend that is definitely on the horizon (not quite here yet but I imagine we will see it a lot more in 2025 and beyond).
His question seemed to be about the threadle for 10 relative to your positional cue on 7. That doesn’t mean it was a bad idea, it just means that we can train it 🙂
You can take the bar out of the 7 jump and walk through the uprights, so there is a *bit* of layering but not a full layer. Or, you can be close to 7 but just on the other side of it, so there is still a distance element but not a full layering element for now. Based on where 11 is on this course, you can go closer to 8 so while he is exiting 9 and you are cuing the 10 jump, you are moving towards the 11 jump but not near it or behind it.
And if he needs you to cue the jump to take 10, you can use the in in verbal/handling just before he enters the tunnel and switch to the jump verbal/handling right as he exits.
You got in closer at :29 and he got it easily. Add in a collection cue for the exit of 10 (verbal and also peeling away sooner) will help get a sweeter line to 11. That exit of 10-11 is the reason why distance on 10 is a great idea: it will naturally create collection at the exit of 10, and puts you in a good place 11-12 for the RDW at 13.
On the 2nd run, being closer got the threadle easily -it was more like a throwback into a spin and that was lovely (created a really nice tight turn on the exit of 10 at 1:20) . You added decel into your switch on 12 at 1:23 ad got a MUCH better turn… and that decel also meant you were further ahead on the RDW entry which is an aded bonus.
Of interest – on both of the turns (10 and 12) there in the 2nd run, you had brake arms going (2 hands visible, especially on the exit of 10) and he responded with collection. Yay!
Speaking of the RDW: SUPER NICE left turn flip away to get 14!
You can get a better wrap turn on the backside of 16 by either decelerating in the circle wrap position (you were moving towards the slice line at :41 and 1:31, almost like a whiskey turn in terms of where your feet were pointing). That is a particularly challenging backside circle wrap, so you can use a brake arm there: right arm and left arm visible back to him before he passes you to get to the backside.Or, you don’t need to do the side change – keep him on your right through the tunnel and do a threadle wrap there. That will also put you further ahead to get him to turn better on 19. I think he was convinced he was weaving 🙂 on the first run so an earlier ‘come’ verbal along wit turning you shoulders will help: as soon as he passes the dog walk between 18 and 19, you can start the turn info.
You were earlier (a stride before takeoff) on the 2nd run, but you can be earlier still by starting it as soon as he is past the DW. I think if you do it before he passes the DW, he might try to get on the DW.
>I was really pleased to get 21 both times, I thought it was pretty tricky.>
Yes, absolutely tricky moment – it would be easy to block the line or be out of position or accidentally show the backside line. Using the distance skills for 18-19 allowed you to get well past the tunnel exit AND you had your verbals and connection going, so I don’t think he ever considered the wrong side of 21. Fantastic!!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!Tracy
Hi! Lots of good work here!!
Her teeter is coming along very nicely!! On the mountain climber game, she seems very happy to perch up there in her down while you run past 🙂 She is like a cat LOL!!!
Next step would be to add the tiniest tiniest bit of movement – you can move the support under the board out so it drops half an inch or less. Add movement very slowly so that she barely notices it (and keep the wing tunnel-bagged so it doesn’t move out from under the teeter).
Straight lines 4 ways game:
Realy nice warm up on 2 jumps!
>>my throws once again amaze me, how bad they can be!!>>
Ha! Next time you go to SOTC (I think that is where you are) loko up in the rafters and you will see a toy up there. That was from my terrible throw about 10 years ago or more hahahaha
One thing that will help your throws is if you keep moving while you throw. You were stopping to throw which makes the throws harder but more importantly: it shows her handler decel when we want extension. So keep moving forward on the go lines so she doesn’t learn to ignore deceleration. She was good at 1:50 to see you decel and not move away in extension. You can think of it as staying in motion and just tossing the toy.
Looking at the different handling:
At 2:01 for the rear cross, you pushed her off the line by running more on a backside line. Super nice adjustment to run to the center of the bar at 2:14 and nice at 3:49, those looked great!
On the front cross wrap, you needed to decelerate sooner at 2:26 (she was a little wide). You nailed it at 3:59! Super nice!!!! Good timing and connection there. You will notice that these cues start when she is over the jump after the tunnel.
For the backside – being ahead to make a big connection (while she is over the jump after the tunnel) as you move to where the wing and bar meet will get her to the backside more consistently. Keep moving forard with the strong connection until she is almost at the backside wing. At 2:38 and 3:00 you decelerated facing forward so she took the front, it did kind of look similar to the wrap cue.
Compare to the reps at 2:49 and 3:13 and 3:35 where you had th ebetter connection and kept moving up the line – LOVELY! YAY!
For backing up onto the teeter: to get her backing up more easily you can sit on the ground or in a chair for the backing up game (a chair is probably the easiest :)) That will get her head a little lower, which makes backing up easier. Also, the teeter had a little too much height off the ground here – she was able to use her back feet but she really had to reach up. You can try it just an inch off the ground to get things rolling, then add a little more height. I think that 2 or 3 inches in height off the ground is all she needs.
The countermotion game is going well! On the reps where she kind of pinged away to a jump in front of you (first rep and at 5:32), you were blocking the line to the wing. On the other reps she had a clear view of the wing as you stepped back, and she nailed it 🙂 Super! And nice job with your verbals and connection shifting!
So now add more counter motion: as soon as she passes you (and before she gets to the wing) you can start moving forward (slowly for now, slow walking) so you are totally moving the other direction before she gets to the wing. We can add more speed later on down the road, it will be plenty hard with you walking the other direction this early 🙂
She did really well with you running into the crosses! To protect your knee, you can focus on the countermotion element of walking forward while she continues to find the line behind you. Then as she reaches you, you can turn and send her behind you to the next wing. That can all be done at a walk, which will protect your knee and greatly expand her skills, making it MUCH easier when you are able to get back to full running 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>. I’ve tried to watch all the videos from last week & they are running together!>>
That is totally relatable, the dogs do go around that loop a LOT haha!!
You started with the sending, and then went to driving him around and sending to the tunnel at the end. It all looked great! YAY! Nice job sending him to the jumps without working too hard to get him to do it. He said it was no problem 🙂
His commitment is looking really good, so you can now add in the handling with the wraps and blinds. He is totally ready!
Great job here!
TracyHi! This is going well – this setup totally helps sort out the different cues.
First video:
the go line looked great! The wrap looked good too! You don’t need to use the ‘go’ verbal on the wrap line, you can just use your wrap verbal as he is landed from the previous jump and as you start the decel into the wrap.2nd video:
>>Venture started jumping the blue wing. For today I switched the blue wing for one of the big PVC wings but wonder what if anything I need to do about this.>>
I think what he was doing when he was jumping through the wing fabric was splitting the difference between the front and back side of the jump. CLEVER!! LOL!! We can clarify things for him:
For the backside cues, try not to use your arm much at all 🙂 Keep it pointing at his nose and use your big connection and forward motion to where the wing and bar meet to cue the backside (plus the verbal). If you stop short and point ahead of him, your hand and verbal say backside… but your shoulders and feet are saying front side. Since the cues were a little conflicting, he was jumping through the wing (more on the cues below).With clearer cues, he will not go through the wing 🙂
>>Third short video, we really struggled with rear cross and back side with dog on left. How should it look to Venture and what tells him the difference between these two? Only the verbal or should I be showing something clearly different?>>
On the first 2 backside sends, you can see the difference in the cues:
At :06 you pointed forward ahead and stopped moving forward, so he was not sure if he should keep going. At 1:00, you had clearer connection for longer (your arm moved forward *with* him rather than *ahead* of him) and you moved forward for longer…. and he got it! Yay!So the more you keep moving forward with connection to where the wing and bar meet and your arm back to him, the easier it will be to commit him to the backside.
For the rear crosses, the handler line is different – be connected and don’t use your arm much like with the backsides, and your line of motion is towards the center of the bar. That will looked pretty different from the backside line (and yes, the difference verbals too :))
I think the backside will feel better if you are not as far ahead of him – at 1:37 here he got it but you were ahead, even with your feet pointing to the backside. So for the backsides – totally get ahead of him to show him the cues from ahead. For the rear crosses, you can set the line from the previous jump then accelerate up the line to the center of the bar.
Let me know if that makes sense! Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
>>First I tried to do the sit exercise- lesson learned dont try and get a hard listening exercise that involves stationary with a mad border pap…. I quickly decided it wasnt happening – but thought you might enjoy her expressing herself…>>
Oh yes, she had BIG OPINIONS here! LOL!! What if you used a plank or sit platform for this? That might be clearer to her and less rage-inducing.
On the 2nd video:
Her stay is definitely improving!!
I think using toys for stays is GREAT and I train stays with toys all the time! SO I won’t tell you off LOL! But also be careful to NOT swing the toy around, that was too hard for her to hold the stay. One thing I do with stays when using a toy is I throw the toy back to the dog (rather than release forward) as that helps solidify the stay. You did some of that, but use a different marker (I use “catch” because “get it” means to come forward, so that might have been part of her confusion).
She seemed to like playing with the thrown toy for a moment then wanted to come play with you – that is fine! You can throw the toy as the reward and then call her to you to tug. A double reward!>> so big note to self need to do this more. Definitely the higher arousal (teeth were chattering and eyes spinning) >>
Yes, definitely keep playing like this, to help her with the arousal in front of a jump when the toy is present.
On the wobble board video – I think the toy was definitely something she liked as part of this! Because the wobble board is something that concerns her, you can stuff a bunch of towels under it so it doesn’t move much at all. She was putting a front foot on it, but really didn’t want to put more than a foot on it. So you can ‘split’ the behavior by packing pillows and towels around the wobble board so it barely moves. Then as she gets more and more comfortable, you can start to remove the things supporting the wobble board so it moves a little more.
>>She did her usual trick of lying down bewside it and commenting- she does this with a number of things>>
I don’t know about why she does it in other situations, but she was doing it here because she wanted the reward but did not feel comfy getting on the moving board. So taking out a lot of the movement for now will get her happier to offer behavior on it.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
