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Hi!
>Had more life stuff. And we’re working on some tricks and nosework, so less agility work for a bit.>
Life gets in the way of the fun!!!! And he is a good age for tricks and nose work, so he can finish growing more a the agility get more advanced.
He did great with the countermotion game here!! His stay is going really well – the mat really seems to help him out with that. You can fade it out by making it smaller and smaller til he is sitting on a dot, then sitting on the ground 🙂 But no rush to fade it out.
He seemed to have no questions about going to the barrel with the countermotion. Yay! Nice work with the reward drops. He didn’t always release on the first rep but that was probably a combination of the stay having a LOT of value and him having to think about going past you when you were facing him like that. No worries, he got it really nicely and was releasing beautifully but the end.
I was going to suggest you move just as you said “I am supposed to be moving” on the video LOL! The movement on the last rep was no problem for him so you can add more movement and also add the advanced level of the game.
Great job here! It has been a blast watching him!!
Tracy
H! The totally sounded like a trial there! Nice and noisy with people in the ring 🙂
>The background noise was a recording from the last trial here.>
OMG! Brilliant!!! I was wondering why they had the ‘ready’ voice in the background LOL!
This went really well and I love that they did this for people to train!!
>Simple and successful = better neural pathways??>
Yes – neurons that fire together, wire together! So if we can get all of the ‘ignore the RC people’ firing along with the ‘do the jumps etc’ neurons, we will be on the right path 🙂
I am curious to see what he does with a shorter lead out at the beginning of a run for now. He holds the stay with the long lead out, but is looking around and doesn’t always release right away. So a shorter lead out with a lot of connection and maybe you quietly saying “ready… ready….ready…..” Will be good for keeping that connection on the start line so he doesn’t look around.
>Did not work on handling here, much of the run was made up on the fly. My criteria was take the jump, ignore the RC and get a reward.>
I think I went well – it looks like you were focusing on fast & fun while going past the ring crew people 🙂
>Around the 3.20 point, almost lost him to the the motion of the bar setter but he recovered.>
He might have been a bit brain tired by then, but he did recover really well!!!
>1st round was very similar, with the addition of a judge type person walking around.>
Great! When is the next time they are doing this? We can progressively fade the food out (or have people hide it around the ring for you, so you know where it is but he does not and you can surprise him in the ring with food).
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
>Do you think two classes over 2 days would be okay?>
Yes, I think that will be fine at this stage.
> Or..I could just do Sunday only and do Speedstakes 1-2 & Jumping for 3 things total. >
That is also a possibility. You can reward weave in Jumping! Can you do day of show entries: 2 fun classes on Saturday then if you like what you see, add more on Sunday? If not…. Maybe enter all the things and you can always dial it back and do a short blast in the last run each day. And I think he loves the a-frame so maybe add one in. Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>I really do need to start incorporating a brake arm in my handling as you suggested. It is something I really will need to learn to use.>
It is very useful! You can ask your instructors to remind you to find places for it (90-degree-ish turns) and add it in walk throughs, so you don’t have to think about it when you are running him.
>What is your opinion on missing contacts or weave entries? Do you think we should continue or stop to work on it in training sessions involving short sequence? >
I try not to continue when there is an error on a contact or weaves or start line… but I am also very careful about how hard the challenge is o the dog has a good shot at success (and don’t fail more than twice, total). It depends on what his success rate is with the skill in the context of the challenges. I tend to ask for harder challenges in shorter sequence – such as high speed weave entries, or me running past a contact. That way I can isolate and reward the behavior I want. In a bigger sequence, I might dial back the challenge on the contacts or weaves to work the bigger sequences.
If you find yourself stopping a lot for contacts and weaves, then the challenge is too hard – you can dial it back with less motion from you, or an easier sequence (and be sure to reward when he is correct 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!!
The tunnel threadle is going really well! She seems to be having fun in the snow too 🙂
On the first couple of reps, you were a bit too far from the tunnel entry both laterally away and behind it. She had a
big lightbulb moment when you held her at :45 and you were a little closer. Being closer, positionally, helps her a lot!>We’ve done some work indoors with a focus forward cue while maintaining a stay which I think helped her understand to look forward without releasing. >
The forward focus work is showing u her nicely – I can see her processing where to go and looking in that direction. Nice!!!!
The double whammy went well too! On the first rep you were too far from the threadle end but then at about 2:00 you got closer and she got it. So be sure to be moving towards the threadle end of the tunnel to help her get the positional cue/motion info as well.
>I marked a few times when she turned the correct way and she pulled out of the tunnel,>
Yes, it was amazing how fast she could change her line LOL!! So you won’t want to say ‘get it’ on the head turn, and don’t move your hand to prep to throw the toy – mark when her feet going into the tunnel LOL!!!
Looking at the threadle wraps –
>since she’s really made those seem easy indoors in a small space, but she said otherwise>
Most of this was really strong! I think some of her errors (especially later in the session) were more of a split brain issue and not a threadle wrap issue. The birds were singing like they were in a freakin’ Disney movie LOL and that might have been distracting her just enough that she couldn’t differentiate the cues if you were not past the barrel (and if you were moving fast). On the reps where you were pat the barrel? She was fine! Yay! If you were not past the barrel get, she went to the other side – so if you are not past the barrel, give her more room on the line by being further away laterally, so position helps her differentiate.
>So I guess threadle wraps are just going to go on the list of things we aren’t going to figure out before the end of this class>
I think she has the basic idea! Now it is a matter of getting it with you not past the barrel, and getting the birds to shut up for a moment LOL!!! But she has the idea in general and you’ll see it gets easier and easier for her.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>So, funny stories.
Yay! I love stories!
>I got yelled at for exactly this on Tuesday night in class. >
Ha! It is good to know that we are all being consistent… connect and run run run!
>(she was having a girl’s day with my husband)>
I am not sure what that entails but I am sure it was enjoyed by all 🤣😂🤣
> BUT – in his ‘real’ class (his last puppy class!!!) on Wednesday night, I did a full-on blind, a rear, and some other stuff, like I was running Mo, and he. was. BRILLIANT. So a good lesson for me.>
YAY!!!!!
>You’ll be happy to hear that I did do this correctly on all the nights, to the point where Shenna even cheered for me and told me she could see I was thinking REALLY HARD about not moving while I release. So I swear it’s getting through – I think it’s only like the 50,000th time I’ve needed to hear it.>
Yay again! And the more you focus on the stay, the easier it will be – he is speedy and we definitely need a stay 🙂
>He is also getting lots more excited about doing agility though, so we’ll need to keep working on it.>
You can start to make the stay behavior into the gateway drug for agility 🙂 You can also let him ‘train’ you for this: I let the dogs offer the stay in order to get me to release them for a sequence. It starts off easy: I look at the dog, they offer a position. It can be any position, I don’t care – most offer a sit, one offers a stand, one of the whippets offers a down (weirdo! Ha!), one offers a sit while barking at me. As soon as they are settled into position, I move away (I am not really cueing a position or stay) and release. The release comes after a step or two early on, then gets expanded into longer lead outs. I also mix in throwing rewards back to the dog.
> I will stay far away, and might just use our jumpers runs in the March trial to do happy stays, and we’ll save sequences for Speedstakes.>
And a lot of it depends on the course design, so that can be a last minute decision when you see the maps.
>I have a half-day novice handling seminar with Karen Childs this weekend. I’m hoping to use it for big ring time (has been hard to get this winter) and for practicing baby stays and me not being weird. I’ll get video and will post, as proof that I truly can follow directions if nothing else. 😀>
Fun!! Have a blast!! Send video 🙂
Tracy
Hi! I am glad t see a video here! Yay!!
> I kept in the part where I was trying to engage and using a little Volume Dial as we walked out to the field. >I >As you can he disengaged and took a detour (he does this in the wide open field we practice in.) The good news is he didn’t go as far away as he typically has and I was able to re-engage him much quicker than in the past. >
You are going to chuckle… but I think your volume dial game was too chill 🙂 It is totally counterintuitive, but to get him more engaged, you will want him to get more pumped up before the run.
You can use food for this, but have him do moving tricks and chase you a little for the treat. Don’t do anything really calm, as that doesn’t prepare his body for the excitement of running and he probably takes off to deal with the arousal of that.
>I pulled a tug out of my pocket too. Of course the tug got his engagement but also sent him to a very high excitement level. >
The tug is definitely more exciting! You can use a combo of tug and treats – you can do a trick, a few seconds of tugging, then trade for a treat. That often produces the right arousal level and great engagement!
>He still has ZERO start line stay….definitely something we can use help with!>How is his stay, when there is no agility around? You can do the stay practice where you cue a sit then throw a reward back to him, and you can gradually move away more and more to get a longer lead out. He is fast so we definitely want a stay 🙂
The sequences looked good and I loved the applause at the end! So fun!! He was at his best when you were just running and looking at him, and not really pointing. He was able to really see your connection nicely. When you were pointing at to the obstacle, he would look at you or miss the obstacle. This is because pointing blocks connection (he loves connection!) and also pointing turns your shoulders away from the line you want. So simple running and connecting works best for him.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>So we did a wrap at 15 to the #6 tunnel with the intent of working a turn out of a straight tunnel with a placed toy after it. I didn’t feel like she really even turned with the toy and Jen Weaver said I was being too picky.>
I vote with Jen LOL!!!! I think accelerating from the start jump to the tunnel overrode the more subtle left verbal and direction of your motion. She would need to see that in flow and something that would really help… a brake arm. I think a visible brake arm on the soft turns would be a game changer for you and Lu 🙂 so have Jen bug you about adding it 🙂
>But the turn out of tunnel to take jump 4 became impossible. I didn’t think it was a hard turn which is why I tried it but that was obviously incorrect.>
It was harder than it looked for sure at :51 – tunnel exit pointed directly at the backside plus a jump right there blocking you from adding lateral distance. So the line plus your position close to it plus 20″ jump made it seem like a backside line. Plus, even when you sent her over it, the jumping form was hard. That is great information!!
>I think this week was just overall frustrating because I’m not sure how to fix this issue.>
It was great info about what she needs – yes, it can totally be frustrating but that also is where training plans are created.
A two-pronged approach can help:
– finding lines with you very close and moving fast on low bars (high speed lazy game)
– finding lines with 20″ bars with you not as close and not moving as fast, so she can sort out the jumpingThis will gradually get merged together 🙂 The other things you can do are:
– work on striding into a 20″ bar with an accordion grid (3 or 4 jumps, with the first bars low like at 8″ and 6 feet apart, and the last bar 20″ and changing distance from 12 to 15 to 18 to 21 feet)
– get her checked by a PT person to make sure there is nothing locked up or hindering her movement. Winter weather and snow can cause some trigger points or locked up areas which affect jumping.And wrap her feet flyball-style so she has more grip and will trust the footing more. I will post that video soon – plus Animal Inn has some of the best flyball people in the country. maybe they can help too!
> I have her signed up for an ISC trial (jumpers only which I was going to FEO and move her back down to 16″) but I’m leaning towards just pulling her for now. >
When and where is the trial? Who is the judge?
> yet I want to do something that is productive during the winter.>
Winter is brutal for being productive (as I stare out the window and see the field covered in snow and ice 🙁 ) but you can work the jumping stuff indoors to help her out.
> But maybe I just need to say screw it and wait until we can really focus on things like this during the spring/summer instead of rehearsing bad habits.>
Spring is thankfully pretty close! And we don’t want to rehearse unwanted behavior but more importantly, we don’t want to build stress or frustration into the trial ring. So before trialing, see how she does as you build up to finding jumps and lines with you going faster and being closer.
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Looking at the speedstakes course – this is a hard one on paper (harder than it looks!) and also the way it is set, there is pressure on the lines that make it even harder.
>1-3 was great.
Yes! Super nice! You were decelerating into the cross and connected. Yay!
>But then she just ran around everything>
A couple of factors here caused that:
– after the cross, you had to accelerate which cues her to accelerate. That is hard for her on 16″ bars when you are right next to the line and even harder on 20
– The tunnels being that close to the line forced you to be close to the line and running, which pushed her away. She does better when you are further from her line and not running as much as we see in other moments from the runs
– add in the complication of the 20″ jumps – so she ran around them because she just didn’t know how to organize them. I do think she struggles with the footing (she was a bit hoppy here, even when she was coming back to you or going to the backside at :51) and I think having all the bars at 20 made it hard to recover if she got off balance.Getting her running shorter sequences with you close to the line and you running hard is moving up to the top of the priority list! First with all bars at 16, then move one up to 20, then mayeb 2 up to 20 etc.
>. My friends were yelling at me to reward her for something, but I felt like she was just running and not taking anything until the end when I reset her.>
You can reward the tunnels! Or you can reset her and do something easy which you did in the last run. And if she runs past a line, rather than ask her to do that whole line again: just ask her to do one jump and reward. Then maybe 2 jumps and reward.
She was able to pick up the jumps from :51 to the end, with you not running much and being a bit further from the line – but the jumping looked uncomfortable (you can see her butt going higher than her shoulders). She was taking a lot of small steps to figure it all out then pulling over the jumps rather than pushing from the rear. Also, she was able to figure it out because there was less pressure on the line and you were not moving as much. And that makes sense why she couldn’t do it when you were really moving and close to the line at the beginning of the run (because you had to get around the tunnel).
So in training, simple fast line sequences with you nearby are top of the list! Think of it as the lazy game, but with you starting slow and building up to going faster and faster and faster (and gradually raising the bars).
Onwards to jumping!
T
Hi!
Looking at the stuff here, I think moving all the bars up to 20″ and running on the mats is really hard for her.
One thing about going up to full height – you can do it one jump at a time to ease her into it, rather than all the jumps going up at the same time. And I think wrapping her feet to give her grip will really help too!> No matter what I did, she just could not get jump 5. She went around it to the tunnel every time. She was jumping 20″ but I moved it down to 18″.>
I am guessing that she went around the outside of 5? Is it possible that the line from 4 put her on the backside line to 5, and without a backside cue she just continued to the tunnel? And that is where you can have 4 as a 20″ jump, but 5 can be 16″ because it is a harder line to pick up.
The 2 things to take away from this are:
– remember the 2 failure rule! going around a jump twice in the session means it is too hard, so everything from that point needs to be easier for success 🙂 Then you won’t be as frustrated by anything that happened.
– always video all the things 🙂 so we can see what was going on.Onwards to the trial runs!
T
Hi! She seemed fully recovered from her weekend here and happy to run! And the two of you seem more “locked in” than ever, in terms of teamwork and handling. Very connected and speedy!!!!!
>You can hear her barking before we go into the ring -didn’t have much time to get her acclimated inside before her turn but she is getting better at handling that.>
Yes! The more positive experiences she has in the ring, the more she will naturally adjust to the optimal arousal state (and will need less mental warm up time). She is also getting really good at ignoring people in the ring or entering the ring.
First run:
The layering is looking great!!! It was a hard one because there was not a lot of momentum into it (being the beginning of the course) and she seemed to have no questions. SUPER!!!Remember to balance the layer lines with ‘don’t layer’ lines by cueing the turn instead of the layer.
2nd run – backside slices are going well! I bet she doesn’t need you to push her out quite as far – she was heading to the backside and then went extra wide because you were pushing extra hard to it.
>Totally didn’t connect with her at 2:15 and she decided that was a blind cross moment.>
Yes, that is 100% what it looked like (blind cross). The connection to serp needed big exaggeration which is what you did on the next rep.
You did a lead out towards the end and she was perfect – I think that is something you can move higher in terms of priorities: long happy lead outs (and also forward focus for those slice openings and send-away openings, where you might not want to be next to her).
These are things you can do with one jump indoors, varying your position and rewarding for stays and forward focus to the jump.
>She doesn’t have any ring time until class next Tuesday. It is supposed to hit 40 this weekend so I’m hoping the snow melts. Kaladin gets to do a seminar with Karen Childs tomorrow night, but there wasn’t a session I wanted to put Lift in so we’ll be figuring out what we can do in my indoor space.>
Maybe she can do stuff in the breaks, like little lead outs or short sequences?
>I did enter her in 2 classes (P1 Jprs & Snkr) for 1 day at the USDAA trial next weekend.>
Perfect. FYI, since I only ran FEO at USDAA with the young dogs, I didn’t have to have them measured and no one cared LOL!!! The P1 classes will be fun!
Great job here! Enjoy your heat wave!
Tracy
Hi! Thanks for posting the runs!
I agree, he was in flight mode at the beginning of the JWW run – his ears and tail definitely told that story and his eyes were big and wide. He was able to come back and offer jump 1. Yay! Good job to you for keeping him in motion. He seemed concerned about the ring crew person in the corner – almost stopping as if he was afraid of her. That might just have been because of the weird noises? But we will keep an eye on it in case he shows that concern elsewhere. What a good boy to nail his weaves! And he found most of the jumps even though he was definitely looking a bit concerned about the noise.
The 2nd run was really good – I haven’t seen an Indy video in a little while and there is a big improvement! He is finding his jumps, finding the lines, weaving, etc. Yes, he had to look at the jump and ring crew person but that is lack of experience, I believe. Winter is a hard time to get to classes and fun runs, but any time you can get to a run definitely ask people to be nearby as the judge and crew… and deliver good treat to him for ignoring them 🙂 Once he is 100% comfy with the judge & crew, you are going to see his runs be consistently fast and smooth! Yay!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
He did great here on these runs! So much here to be proud of!!
>He was able to wait in a chute system with some excitement but stayed focused on me with our pre run routine we are working on.>
That is great! The chute queue can be hard and it is not something we see or practice a lot. I am glad he was fine with it.
> He held his Startline for his 3 runs even though he was sitting very close to the waiting dogs in the chute!>
Yay! Good boy!!!!
> In the first Speedstakes run I blocked his entry into the tunnel and forgot to give his tunnel cue 🤦♀️ so he took the jump,>
Yes – based on your line there, I thought you wanted the jump. He was reading you well!
> then I didn’t support his send out a bit later and he pulled off but went back when I resent him. Yay! I also got mixed up and sent him to the wrong jump at the end but he followed my cue to take the proper jump.
>No worries, those were BIG courses!!! When stuff like that happens, you can keep going to stay in flow – we don’t want him to slow down to avoid being wrong, so continuing is the best bet even if it is not quite the right line.
>He took a tunnel instead of a jump which E us, along with half of the other dogs.>
That was a definite brake arm moment 🙂 As he was exiting the tunnel before the jump (1:21), you can start your here verbal or your left verbal and bring up your outside arm to visibly join your dog side arm – that will create the collection. You had acceleration and a shoulder turn so the off course tunnel was on his line there.
>I noticed I am keeping my arms too high which is sending him wide and I am forgetting to give him my verbal cues on his turns. Homework to work on. I think I will tie my arms to my waist!!!>
The arms were not too high – I think you were trying to send, so adding more decel into the send will help keep your arms a bit lower (sudden stops tend to make our arms fly up :)) And definitely practice your verbals during the walk through, that will help you get them out during the run.
>He came to me nicely at the end of the runs even with lots of dogs and people around a wide opening for us to exit out. He tugged with a toy at his leash and we went to a pre placed tug and food pouch close by to reward him. 🤩>
That is AWESOME!!! YAY!!!!
>>It was so busy with two rings and the warm up area >in the middle! He was able to warm up a little on one of the jumps and stay with me even with dogs running on both sides. We have another trial coming up in a couple of weeks. AAC trial at a familiar venue. It will be much quieter.>>
He did really well – he seemed to be exactly the same as he is in practice or quieter places. It looks like the added people/dogs/excitement/distractions were really not a problem for him! That is SUPER!!!! He seemed very comfy in the busy environment.
Great job here!!!
TracyHi!
This went really well – the added motion and countermotion was no problem. He might have found the left turn a tiny bit harder at first (it looks like he was considering coming to you and not the jump at first) but then sorted it out really well.
>. He decided after a couple of reps that he’d rather have a food reward, so I switched.>
I don’t think it was a reward preference as much as it was confusion over whether the toy was meant for him or not –
As you keep adding motion, the only other thing to add here is a marker that indicates it is OK to get the toy. Your toy placement was really good! But you were quiet so he was not sure if he should take the toy or follow your line, so he followed your line. A ‘get it’ marker can affirm that yes, the toy is his 🙂 He had no trouble getting the treats without a marker, probably because there is less stimulus control on tossed treats.
You can also add a blind cross exit (like a German turn) to this!
>I will look into setting up some kind of rocking horse. I do have a 3′ training tunnel if that is something I could use.>
That would be great if you have enough tunnel bags to keep it secure – I imagine he is pretty powerful running through tunnels 🙂
Nice work! Stay warm!
Tracy
Just sent it! And here it is:
Hi all!
We have a zoom chat tonight!!! See you at 8om eastern – bring your questions and ideas!Here is the link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86118691122Tracy
