Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi!
>>Ok awesome sauce put things in perspective!!! Thank you for that. Your mixie is obviously part kangaroo!>>
I figured you would be feeling better after you saw my baby Kangaroo mix LOL!!! She is now 6 years old and there is no leaping on her RDW (which is a good thing because I am waaayyyyy too lazy to retrain LOL!!!)
Rear crosses:
>> She opted in for each rep and I stopped before she opted out.>>
YAY!!! That is great 🙂
A disclaimer: rear crosses are like threadles. They are not natural or intuitive, and need a lot of training. So if you feel like they require more work… you are correct 😂🤣
One piece of it is getting her driving ahead as you move. So on the straight lines, you need to accelerate rather than stand still or decelerate and throw. Keep running until she arrives at the reward. Getting her used to seeing your running is a big piece of the picture, so she drives ahead as you accelerate. You were tending to decelerate an throw, so she was going straight but it was based off the toy throw more than the phyiscal cue.
The RCs are going well! The number 1 thing here is: don’t say go 🙂 I thought your physical cue on the RC at :15 was strong, but you said GO which means go straight rather than turn on the RC. So she went straight (especially since she had just done that a few times). A jump verbal is fine to use there, or a directional like “right” in this case would be best because it means take-the-jump- and-turn-right.
The RC info at :27 was a bit too early s she didn’t take the jump, but she read the RC well at :38! Yay!!!!
>>The mat lesson was so “do what tracy says first… “ excited to have the wing there next time.>>
Ha! And the rep at :52 where you clicked her for leaping over it entirely is totally relatable LOL!!!! I have done that, but you said ‘oh my god’ and I definitely used curse words LOL!!!!!! Ah, the joys of running dog walk training 🤣😂🤣
The reps with the wing went well! You can ‘hide’ the MM around the wing more, so she has to wrap the wing a tiny bit to get it. I tuck it in next to the wing, behind the feet of the wing. You can also add a temporary marker like “hit it” so she knows when to move to the mat. And you can add more of your movement! No need to spend too much time with you stationary because you will almost need be stationary with this behavior.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
I was hoping you would get a bit of relief from the humidity. Sounds like Beryl didn’t deliver that refreshing rain, unfortunately.The lazy game with connection went well – use your leg to step to the jump if you are doing a wrap or send to the tunnel. If you stop and your feet are together, he is not as sure
Now add running as you do this – I think that walking is good for you but not as motivating for him 🙂 he really liked it when you added running and the blind at 3:08 and the sections after that!
And if he doesn’t take a jump (like at 2:35 and 3:29 and 4:10 and 4:28) – don’t stop or fix, just keep going and reward somewhere else. Amplifying connection when that happens will help.
Remember to point your dog-side arm back to his cute little nose (nice and low, because his nose is not much higher than your ankles) At 3:29 – the cue looked like a blind to him so he changed sides. Your eyes were back towards him but he didn’t see that, due to your arm being at your side. Use your dog side arm to point all the way back and down to his nose, so he can see the connection
Compare at 3:49 when your shoulder was more back towards him, he got the line immediately. Yay! Nice!!!
One other suggestion that I think will help: for the next few weeks, try to have no rewards near you or from your hand when sequencing, even at the end of a sequence or when something goes wrong. There is a lot of reward for being near you (because it is hand-delivered or tossed nearby) so when in doubt, he is sticking near you.
We can shift that value: when in doubt, fling the cookie/lotus ball or toy as far as possible so he is always looking for something out on the line and not gravitating towards you. His turns are really lovely, so I am not worried about getting turns. The reward flinging can get him to default to staying on a line when things are not as clear, which should make it all easier for you 🙂
>>I see the differences but making my body do the things is a struggle.>>
Two things to help:
I posted up the run-with-a-drink connection game with this week’s games – this will be perfect to use on this setup or any setup and will help keep you cool too. And, did I ever show you the magnet fingers tip? Using magnet fingers will help keep the dog side arm/shoulder open to him, which helps a lot with commitment:
You can also see some things from the perspective of a small/medium dog n this video, in terms of what they see from behind us.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
OH NO, YOUR POOR KNEE!!!! OUCH!!!! That sucks. I am glad the surgery is scheduled soon, that means recovery will be soon too. We can use the time to get some pretty impressive skills and distance work going, so when you are back to running, she will be ready to roll!!>>If you have any suggestions I would appreciate it.>>
We can tweak all the games to find ways where we can protect your knee while building high level skills! We have done that for los of handlers here, so I will give you ideas on that looking at this video so we can get started on that right away.
>>For this week I was training at home and I don’t have a tunnel so I used a jump and a wing to simulate a tunnel, hopefully, that is ok.>>
Of course! Using a jump-wing combo makes things go faster – less time for us handlers LOL!
>I love to run with my dogs so this is tough for me.
Yep, that love of running with them shines through in your videos! Your natural movement is pretty dynamic… and your knee rehab docs will of course tell you that movement is off limits for a while. So let’s approach training in general and a setup like this from the viewpoint of NOT needing to be dynamic, in terms of pushing off the new direction or hustling. I am thinking your knee docs will not want you pushing off any time soon.
Yes, keep your verbals dynamic, but start moving less – just strolling along the inside curve and rewarding her TONS for driving around the jumps without needing you to also hustle. For example, at 1:08 to 1:13 she is already working pretty far from you… so now use *less* motion so you are further and she propels herself on the line (lots of thrown rewards out on the line as you start this will help, so she doesn’t question why you aren’t running hard).
And with the wraps, we can work on getting her driving in and out of them without you at the wing. You can start the wrap timing at the same time, but just decel slowly and turn VERY slowly (FCs are hard on knees!) from wherever you are, no need to get to the wing. That will challenge her to get the collection mainly from the verbal – and that is a super useful skill to have in your toolbox, even when your knee is back to 100%!
We can also work the timing more: The decel and verbal for the wrap should start when she is in the air over the previous jump, or no later than exit of the tunnel (or exit of the jump-wing combo). That way she can commit independently of you being near the wing or having a dynamic decel/rotation.
You were a bit early with the rotation at 1:14 on the wrap. You hit the brakes hard and rotated towards her, so she didn’t commit. Remember to use deceleration as one of the biggest elements of the cue, so a few steps forward as you slow down will cue the wrap and then you can rotate slowly as she passes you. Decel rather than fast rotation will also make your knee doctors happy 🙂
You added decel at 1:27 and she committed really well and had a great turn! When you are working on the decel, add in an open bottle of water in your hand. If you hit the brakes too hard, you will spill the water. If you decel smoothly, the water will not spill.
You were throwing the rewards really well – as she retrieving pretty quickly? It looks like she was. That will be super helpful for building up more distance and independence when you are not able to run as much for a bit.
You can also add in throwing rewards to the landing side of the wrap jump, to get commitment to the wrap without you being at the wing for the wrap.
The blinds at 1:42 and 152 look good – nice decel at 154 to set up the nice wrap exit!!
The last section had the BC to the ‘tunnel’ 😁 The timing was a little late in the warm up (ideally it is before takeoff for the jump) and also late at 2:57 – you did it when she landed and that might have gotten an off course if there was a tunnel.
MUCH better timing at 3:17! You started it after she landed from the middle jump – that made for a much better turn and line!Try to send to the middle jump more to make it easier to get to the BC – she might have been a little hot or tired here and was not committed with as much speed.
On the start jump on that last section, be careful to line her up on an angle to the front of the jump and then move away so you are not right there. At 2:37 and 2:47 and 3:05 – you were on her line and she was set up looking at the backside, so the release pushed her to the backside – reward her then reset, rather than mark her as wrong (she justifiably got mad about it). Those types of openings are getting really popular now, so letting her see the line clearly will make them very smooth.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I seriously thought these were gonna be a walk in the park, but they were not.>>
These are easy with an experienced dog at 20 feet distances. They are wicked with a baby dog at shorter distances 🙂 But there is a lot of dog training that happens and that is useful!
One thing I see in all the videos is that he is looking at you during the rewarding, and that is bleeding over into looking at you on the Iines rather than forward. That has to do with the placement of reinforcement. 2 ideas for you:
– With the food or the toy as reward: Use a marker for the thrown reward. Yo uwere using praise like yes or good boy, which was getting him looking at you. Ideally, you would use a ‘get it’ marker of some sort so he continues to look ahead.
– When you throw the reward, throw it far far away 🙂 so he is not getting it anywhere near you (where he can also look at you). That will really help build up his ability to drive the lines!Looking at the videos:
I agree, he is doing a great job finding the jumps and lines on the 2 lazy game videos here! Yay!!!Sending to middle jump was most effective (he didn’t look at you) when you were one step past the previous jump, like at :31 and :48 on the first video. As you send, make sure you let your hand travel with his nose and not ahead of it as that might cause issues as you add more speed.
He did well with he lazy game as you were moving more in the 2nd video! Yay! We definitely want to keep adding more and more motion.
As you do that, add in carrying the toy – we want him to be able to ignore the toy and find the jumps, so the lazy game is perfect for that. Yes, it might take longer to get the toy back 🙂 but it is worthwhile at this stage.
>>And wouldn’t you know, I couldn’t figure out which word to say when. >>
You will need to walk and rehearse the plan without him 🙂 Don’t try to run him, connect, handle, and remember the words without practicing it a couple of times beforehand. We humans are not great at multi-tasking LOL!
On the video – try to add a clearer lead out, even if it is only one step. At the beginning here, you looked at him for about 10 seconds then released and turned to the jump at basically the same time. That can pair movement into the release, causing movement to *become* the release – creating confusion with the stay. Same at :34 and 1:00 and 1:25 – he is releasing on motion there. Leading out a bit, saying the release word, *then* moving after he moves is going to help clarify the stay behavior.
Also, you need to be past that first jump to get the good send to 2 (:13 where he didn’t get it versus :19 where he did).
He did have a question on jump 3 when going to his left. He missed that jump several times. At :38 and 1:02 and 1:28 you can have your dog-side shoulder open back to him and fingers pointing to his nose to support the line. The connection was better at :43 but your shoulder still a little too closed forward with you that far ahead. Try to reward that jump too to help him find it even if connection is not very clear.
I think your shoulder was more open at 1:07 and he still missed, so being that far ahead was also harder for him.
These all got rewarded which was good – they were valid and legit questions 🙂 An application of the 2 Failure Rule is that if the dog fails twice (in this case, missing the jump) you can still reward but the next rep needs something to change to help the dog get the behavior we want, otherwise things get weird if we decide we don’t want to keep rewarding the dog. That is what happened at 1:30 –
At 1:30 you marked him as being incorrect (stopped, no reward, verbal indicating it was not correct) – that seemed confusing to him and he deflated and got a little sniffy. You changed the handling at 1:47 (staying closer to the jump) and he got it.
So for the 2 Failure rule – if he has a question (like missing the same jump twice) you can either make a bigger adjustment to help him get it, or stop and watch the video to see what he is seeing. That way he doesn’t have that many failures (ideally no more than 2 in the entire session, even if they get rewarded).
Wrap video:
This is a hard send on jump 1 at the very beginning, which actually mirrors what we are seeing a lot on corse nowadays: taking jump 1 away from the course. You moved away too quickly at :10 and were more patient at :14 so he got it nicely! And definitely patient with the cue and allowing him to commit at 1:09!At :32 you stepped backwards before he was really committed to the right turn (watch your right leg) so he correctly read it as a rear cross 🙂 Reward before you reset! Assume that all bloopers are caused by him correctly reading the handling, so it is all rewardable behavior.
>>He did need the turn cues, especially going to the right – he carried out a bit in that direction.>>
That was happening 2-3 on this video at :16 and also at :39 ish. Part of it is reward placement: looking at you as you move down that line especially if you move your hand towards it (:56). Using the marker and more thrown rewards will help smooth that out.
(On this video also, be careful to lead out more even if it is only one step, stand still, release, *then* move on the stays so he is not releasing on motion.)
For the BCs, you can add exit line connection with your opposite arm across your body (for example at :51, your right arm would come across to your left hip, which pushes your dog-side shoulder back and makes connection super clear).
At 1:29 and 1:44 and 2:04 his wideness was not because you were late starting the blind, that timing was pretty good particularly with a baby dog!! But as he landed from the BC jump, all he saw was your back and sideways motion. Yes, your right hand was out and you were looking down at where you wanted him to be… but dogs tend to not read that as a clear exit of a BC. Ideally, your left arm would be on your right hip there, right arm pointing back to his nose and eyes on his eyes to get the tight turn.
The visible connection and shoulders is what the dogs read as the BC exit, so think of it as looking at and pointing at where he is in the moment, rather than where you want him to come to.
Stepping backwards at1:47 was also confusing – you can wait until you see his feet up over the bump before you move away like you did at 2:06 And also just reward… when you withheld the reward to try to get him to do it again, he said “no thanks” and didn’t move for a bit. So be sure to keep going or reward if something goes wrong – and then if you are not sure what happened, watch the vide before the next rep so you can smooth out the info.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I think you will see a big difference with less arm/hand motion. A big improvement to me when watching it.>>
Yes! Totally agree! The more you watched her, the faster the moved on the line and the better she committed. YAY!!! Her only question was on the cues to take he other side of the tunnel at the end, so she slowed down. You can start turning towards that end of the tunnel sooner (before she is taking off for the jump before it). And also, you can clarify the cues – a threadle arm with the upper body (a lot of people like the opposite arm for this to help pull her in to the new line) as well a different, specific verbal (I know, more words 😂🤣). I say “tunnel” to mean to go to the straight ahead side of the tunnel and “kiss kiss” to come in to the other side of the tunnel.
She was correct on the 2nd video from yesterday when she went straight – you were late to change her line, which means your line still supported the straight ahead entry. Good job rewarding her 🙂
She was a bit slower on parts here, but I agree that it was a combination of the heat, plus she was thinking hard, plus this:
<
FUN!!! I bet she had a blast!!!
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>> The hopping terrifies me since her mother had had her dog walk retrained 5 times and I hope to not repeat these mistakes.>>
TOTALLY RELATABLE!!! I think the placed reward (MM or toy) can often produce the hopping, so I have worked through it.
For your viewing pleasure, here is some impressive hopping at the beginning of this video:
LOL!!!One option is to delay the click of the MM until the dog trots off it:
The other option is to put the MM behind a wing – she goes across the mat to the wing, and then to the MM. You can click the MM for a good mat hit, but the wing really take out the leaping.
There are other things we can do, but those two things are a good start!
To keep you hopeful, here is how it turned out for my leaper 🙂
(I had just had gall bladder surgery so was not allowed to run LOL!)
The send to one jump looked great! She was committing nicely and you really amplifid your connection. Nice toy throws! You can move that jump even further away and add acceleration (starting with you close to the tunnel exit the running forward), and then we can start adding some rear crosses in too 🙂
>>And Taq turned 1 year old! Can’t believe we started max puppy at 11 weeks. So many things!!! I never thought we would master the start line!!>>
Happy birthday!!!! 1 year old already!! And I remember when you were worried about her stay – she has a great stay! The next year will be even more exciting 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
He is responding to the verbal so well! I can totally see him looking at it!!! Whatr a good boy!!! Love it!He is totally a lefty 🙂 All of the turns to his left were easy and smooth! He did sometimes turn left when I think you wanted a right turn, so you can make the right turn easier by making the reward more visible on the right turn line, or adding a jump bump for him to go over (not that easy to do in the house – maybe a pool noodle?)
You can add more distance between you and him, and see how far away you can get and still send him to the wing!
>>) But Fly is ‘not an evening person’, by 7:30 PM he is ‘pretending to be a rug’ and just waiting for his dinner>>
OMG I think Fly and I are the same haha! We are not evening people LOL!!!!!! Hopefully the weather breaks soon but also, will he train for his dinner? Maybe you canask him to do a couple of things for dinner, even if it is one wing games in the house.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
I hope you get some refreshing rain but no other issues with Beryl!The tiny tunnel works really well here!
>>I tried to pay attention to clearly showing the send tonight. I need to work on it some more – hard to show it and yet get out of there.>>
One thing you can do is just work on zipping around these little sequences without using your arm at all 🙂 I have a game that is specific for that, usually it is at the end of this course (week 8 I think) but I might move it to this coming week. It is fun and really helps!!
>> I made a serious effort to never let him know if he missed a jump or did something incorrect.
Yay! Definitely reward all handling moments, even if there are bloopers – the bloopers are created by us humans so the dogs are reflecting the info they are getting 🙂 You can just keep going if he misses something, that will be more motivating than stopping and bringing him back to it. Or if he ends up off course? Woohoo! Big party, he was being a good boy and reading the info he saw 🙂
I think the connection is the most important cue for him. When he was nailing it? Your connection was super clear! When he had questions, your dog-side arm was blocking connection so he didn’t know where to be.
For example, on the blind at :53: connection is what actually cues the side change. You had your dog-side hand blocking the eye contact and your moving was sideway towards the tunnel entry he took, so he was correct 🙂 You might have been able to see him, but he could not see your connection so he followed your motion. Definitely rewardable!
Note the difference in connection at 1:19 and he got it perfectly – both reps are rewardable 🙂 On this rep, your dog-side arm was back and he could clearly see your upper body and eyes.
You can see it on the pinwheel jumps too – when the connection on the send at 1:45 was too forward too (looking ahead, arm blocking his view of it), he had a question on the send. And at 1:49 and 4:29 – your arm was too high and parallel to your body so it blocked connection and he did not know which side of you to be on, missing the jump. He had questions at 2:14 and 3:40 for the same reasons.
But compare to the other direction at 2:36, and also at 3:09-3:14: super connected, no arm pointing or blocking, and he was lovely! Yay! You were connected and moving, and he found his line beautifully.
So for the next session (this setup, or the next ones) just try to run without arms and make BIG connection, saying all of the verbals to his cute face! That will support his commitment really well.
Great job here! Hopefully Beryl is past by the time you see this!
Tracy
Hi!
>Yes we do alot of toy switch and retr games outside of agility and it is getting there – agility is too high value a the moment. probably need to do work on transition one jump toy on ground and then a toy switch so get attention before she goes into zoomy mode.>>
Great! Bring it into agility now – don’t wait til it is perfect away from agility 🙂 Start with one jump or a wing or a cone and work out the markers and being able to carry a toy, and getting the toy back.
For the teeter:
>> Ideally i would love a toy at the top but that would guarentee here going off the side>>
You can use a toy to play before and after, but I agree that a toy at the top will not help her stay at the top 🙂 And since food is not super high value – take a fistful of great food and do just one rep where she gets all the food.
Looking at the video: she is so fast and fun! And she is really engaging nicely!
She is doing MUCH better about finding lines and ignoring the toy in your hand (even when she had to run past the toy to get to the jump! Yay!!!)
You were using “get it” to indicate that she should get the toy in your hand.. that is fine as long as get it doesn’t also mean going to get a thrown reward 🙂 so be careful that your markers are distinct so she doesn’t look at you for all the reward.The blind crosses are going well. She is late to read the side change because after the blind you are closing your shoulder forward and not making connection. You can see it at 1:17 and 1:18 where she finds the correct side when she sees the next jump, so there is a bit of a zig zag line. At 2:40 she did not make the side change, by the time she saw the jump, it was too late. She was being really good about not chasing the toy there – she just needed more connection to know where to be.
If you finish the blind and make eye contact back to her and point your arm back to her (not forward) then you will see a really nice turn from her. You had this great connection on the exit of the FC wrap at 2:58 and her turn was lovely!!
One other detail – when you have her sit for the start line, try to have both of you facing the direction you will be going. When you were not facing the correct direction, she was turning to follow you which resulted in a broken stay. You can use food to work the line up at your side to get her facing the correct direction.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>> What is a UKI style double? >
It is basically 2 jumps pushed together to create a double 🙂 instead of a fancy double jump made by Max200 or one of the other companies.
>>She actually qualified in that open run. You can have one wrong course. >>
HOORAY! The best thing about Open is getting out of Open 🙂 Open courses are notoriously awkward! I am glad you got that Q!
>>So, today she had her first excellent standard run. Unfortunately, I don’t have video. Nice contacts, a lovely difficult weave entry and no dropping the first bar! We got a wrong course and she bypassed a jump, but I just kept
running like she was correct.>>Sounds successful! She is in Excellent in both now? I think the courses will be better. And UKI will have different distances, so she might need to adjust a bit but I think you will both enjoy!
>>I messed up the lead out in jumpers. She came around the second jump and I tried to reset her. But, then she just went feral and ran on a line half wah across the ring. It was a hot mess.>>
She was probably just mentally fried. It has been a busy few weeks and add in the heat, so her brain probably had no fuel left to give there.
Fingers crossed for the heat wave to break!!
Tracy
Hi!
Apologies for the late reply, I somehow missed this in the insanity of the weekend!!!>>Sorry it’s all one video. Let me know if you want me to split them next time.>>
No problem! All in on video is great – you can do whatever is the least amount of work in terms of editing 🙂
>>So we mirrored these and they don’t look exactly as prescribed but my course design was wonderful >>
All good! There were good lines and everyone got a good session 🙂
I grabbed some screenshots to show you some of what the girls were seeing, so you could see why they were opinionated in some cases LOL!!
Here is the link to it:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vCHQg52IeTC4HuJX9pisrPTgx7DYk2G6CojRNvjKsLQ/edit?usp=sharingPop out 4 with Puddin’ was at the beginning here: She is so fun! I think the FC 2-3 was delaying you from showing the threadle and the backside after it (bar down on 3) so you can try moving into a blind there instead of a FC so you are quicker to the threadle (will help with the bar) and then you can try a brake arm as you cue the circle wrap at 4 (:05) to get more collection as you run through.
After the tunnel – you can run into the tunnel for a few steps so you don’t end up
too far ahead at BC 6-7. You passed the ideal handler line there so the line was wide (:09) and at :27 you were so far ahead that you pulled her off the line.I have screenshots of the backside moments in the doc for you to match visuals to the thoughts here:
She had some thoughts about the backside info 🙂 When you were pointing forward as part of the commitment cue, she came off the backside line and to the other side of the jump.
You connected better at :44 but then released it and pointed forward (:45) so she came in.
Sahweet also had opinions 🙂 At :56, sending to the backside of the jump: you were looking ahead and not ahead of her, so that turned your shoulders to the front of the jump and she took the front not the back. You told her she was not listening but in fact she was having to choose physical versus verbal cue (You owe her a cookie for blaming her LOL!!) so she went with the physical cue.
Then she bit you LOL. Payback LOL!!!! She cracks me up LOL
Compare to 1:42 where you were ahead and she could see more of your face – already better info so she went to the backside. Yay!
Pop out 3 (2nd on the video):
She did well with her forward focus on the #1 jump here!!She needs a harder, clearer turn verbal on exit of 2 tunnel – don’t be shy about demanding her attention for a turn 🙂
The threadle wrap section after the tunnel gave us good info about what she needs to see for the threadle wrap. I have screenshots of this too:
She was not sure about the threadle wrap at 2:17 – I think the stationary position with your shoulders/feet facing the front of the jump cued the front side. She was definitely trying to sort it out!
2nd rep at 2:50: definitely stronger verbals for the tunnel exit and different body position (turned away from the front of the jump) made it clearer!
You are also using hand motion (a bit of a swoosh) of the opposite arm which helps – and it sounds like you said you used the wrong word and she still got it, so the physical cues are very important!I am confused about the lie down at 3:24 LOL Looked like a snooker move LOL!!
Be careful with the backside cues for her too – pointing forward and high is not as effective as arm back and she seeing connection (check out the screen shots to see how the high arm and pointing forward changes the line to the backside and the verbal does not override that).
For Puddin’ – if she misses the jump on a start, you don’t need mark or stop. You can keep running to support her confidence. You could see her start to sniff and wander off at 4:11. You stepped in a lot more on the release at 4:31 which helped, you can also throw the toy to the landing spot.
When you revisited pop out 4 with her later in the video, you had a much better line on the blind at 4:40, you stuck closer to the jumps and it set a better line! That created a tighter turn! She slipped a little on landing so that means you can be sooner with it: by moving in closer to the tunnel, you can decel at the jump and start the blind no later than when she is halfway between the exit of the tunnel and the 6 jump.
Looks like there was a little Three-Quarter-Border aka Cool Whip action at the end! Super! I think she found the lines super nicely, especially for a baby dog! You can connect more on the tunnel exit so there are no questions – when you were looking forward on the first run, she curled in a bit. On the second run, she hesitated on the tunnel exit a little. So as you move past, make a big connection which will turn your shoulders to the line, and she will zip right to the jump.
Great job! It was fun watching all of them!
Tracy
Hi!
>>Before doing 1 through 11 of the Standard course, I practiced backside circle wraps and slices with both dogs and both did well with the warm up. Both dogs nailed 1 through 11.>>
Super!
>>With Mookie I was able to achieve more distance sending to the backside for the circle wrap at 4 and I think because he has a huge stride compared to Alonso.>>
Yes, the longer stride helps and also he is more experienced so probably commits a little better. Did you also try this as a threadle wrap, keeping the dogs on your left for landing side of 3?
>>But I could also stay on the other side of 3 with Mookie as well and send him from a distance to 4. I am still learning how to cue Alonso from a distance and to stay connected as well as his stride is so different then Mookie.>>
Yes! It is a good skill and will get you way ahead 🙂
>>Both dogs sliced 8 without a problem.
Yay!!
>> And Mookie is totally handler focused while Alonso is both handler and obstacle focused.>>
That is really interesting – Mookie used to be very obstacle focused and if I remember correctly, it was a little harder to turn him when he was a baby dog.
>> I really notice the difference when they run at speed as the flying squirrel is not slow and needs to be cued more verbally where the flying bird has his eyes on me constantly throughout. I have a hard time getting verbal cues out on time for Alonso>
That is why it is good to work both of them and keep practicing the verbals – it will get easier and also Alonso will get more experienced, which will also make it easier for you 🙂
>>And this week I was also able to do the entire jumpers course 1 & 2. I usually only get to do the pop outs. It was too hot outside so I was able to get some indoor training time 😊>>
NICE! It is good to do full courses with the boys!
>>Jumping Course 1: Mookie nailed it slicing 17 to 18 as he turns tight. Alonso nailed it first time. I also sliced him 17 to 18 but he went wide. I tried it again with a circle wrap and he was tight and smooth. Buddy I could either slice or wrap 17 to 18 and he stayed in tight.>>
I think the slice on 17 is the fastest line on ther 16-17-18 section. If Alonso was wide, you can add in a brake arm: as he is landing from 16 and you are beginning to cue 17, add in the 2nd hand moving towards him and see how much collection you can get.
>>Jumping course 2: Mookie nailed it with 2 backside circle wraps in a row on 13 and 14 with ease. This is a strength for us. I then tried a backside circle wrap on 13 and a slice backside on 14 and it also flowed for Mookie.>>
Nice! The circle wrap on 13 and the slice on 14 is the fastest line on that section. You can also do a blind on the exit of the tunnel and then do a threadle wrap on 13! That makes the slice on 14 much easier because you will be further ahead.
>> I could use a threadle verbal “in” 16 to 17 for all 3 dogs. >>
Perfect! That is a good spot for it!
>>The jumpers was a nice fun challenge. 😊
I am glad you liked it! Sounds like all the boys did a great job 🙂 Thank you for the update!!!
Tracy
Hi!
SUPER nice run here!!! These courses are training courses so there are a lot of challenges – running clean the first time is HARD! Well done!
One thing I would add in general for him: if you need a turn on a tunnel exit, give a tunnel exit turn cue before he enters the tunnel. If you are quiet, his natural behavior is to go straight. You are quiet at :03 and :17 when you needed turns, so you ended up with a wider-than-desired turn on both of those tunnel exits (2 and 9).
>>there was some lazy-ass handling there but the passes through the tunnel underneath the DW pretty much discourage one from handling with too much speed, since you would wind up going in and coming back out. At least, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.>>
I would not call it lazy, I would call those moments strategic. You used hanging back to set up a parallel line of motion, to support the layering. It worked brilliantly! I mean, it makes no sense to haul b*tt up the line then try to race him to the next line, when you can set the line and then easily show the next one.
One place you can be even more strategic is the opening: rather than changes sides, you can handle the 1-2 line more laterally so you can use serp handling on landing side of 3 and then threadle wrap 4 to the DW on your left. We are starting to see this as a popular design element now too, so it is good to practice.
Super layering of the line to the a-frame (angle the frame more to have a better entry) and a GIANT CYBER HIGH 5 for the layered threadle. HECK YEAH!!!! That was impressive.
And you had another super nice strategic line to set up the layered weave entry (this is a popular challenge on the higher level courses lately). You set up a parallel line to move along and used your verbals – he had no questions. YAY!
The jump after weaves (14) should be a backside which might make it easier to get the left turn on 17 – push to the backside then send away to the threadle at 15, using the parallel line you set up here at :29. Then you can move directly towards the center of the bar of 17 getting on the RC line sooner (use more phscial convergence/pressure on his line to get the left turn on 17 at :30).
The ending looked great!!! Fantastic job!!
Tracy
Hi!
I agree, you two were definitely more of a connected team. SUPER!!! And she is indeed working really well 🙂You used your distance skills to your advantage, to get to the threadle slice. It took a couple of reps to smooth it out: at :08 and :38 you were a little too early, doing the rotation for the threadle before he was committed to the previous jump. 1:32 was much better, and 2:00 and 2:17 were really lovely!
At :21 and 1:45 you did a cross and brought her to the other side of the jump for the backside wrap – it worked but it is a really hard line for her, so when heading to the jump on this setup, the slice you did as a threadle was a better choice, or the push to the backside then the blind you did at 1:23 was great too!
At 1:01 you did the circle wrap on the side closer to the tunnel but then sent to the jump – to worked, but it was a really hard line so the slice was better here too.
Great job!!
Tracy
Hi!
This turned out well! The only thing I would add is a marker that indicates that you have thrown the reward (like a ‘get it’). I don’t think you were using one, but my ears are numb from flyball LOL!
You can also start to move faster – that might especially help when he is turning right and kept offering that lovely left turn threadle wrap when you wanted a simple right turn 🤣😂 Being a little ahead can support the simple line there.
About the struggles getting to this point:
>>I moved the set up twice because there were spots of grass he wanted to avoid – he often gets weirded out by a stick or leaf that looks funny to him -but in this case I think it must have been a place there was previously a poop and I have never known him to be have such delicate sensibilities >>
You can embrace those moments and maybe go to the highest value motivator (food or toy). You can basically say to him: yes, that spot is weird, so I will give you a pay raise 😁 The might help work him through this stuff so you don’t need to move the setup.
>> after so many set changes the pinwheel only vaguely resembled the spacing you had shown>>
The spacing is fine! I want to see if we can get him over the avoidance of weird spots and weird things 🙂
>> he started finding the backside of the middle jump while avoiding the gross patch of grass in the beginning (and we’ve been working on our zip verbal) but he kept doing it in the new set up
I had to stay close to middle jump to keep him on front side>>Yes, it was quite a lovely zip LOL! You can also leave the jump in the weird spot and change the angle, so the front of the jump is very visible and the other side is not as visible. You can move it almost 90 degrees which can make it more of an obvious side of the jump.
Great job!!!
Tracy
