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Hi!
>I really like your suggestion here of getting comfortable with a sequence before trying blinds. I am going to try and remember to do that.>
Is she in an in-person class or training group? You can ask your instructor or training partners to remind you to throw in a blind here or there after you’ve gotten the sequence the way you want it with a rear or front. Blinds are not required to be able to have a great agility career… but they sure make things easier LOL!
Her teeter is looking great! She is very close to having a full, finished teeter. YAY!!
>She seemed to like the speed (LOL) and still seemed confident.>
Yes! The only time I thought she was a little unsure was at the very beginning of the first rep – she stopped a little closer to the center of the board to figure out the tip, and then she was a little startled by the big noise when it reset (after she was off it). But that was the only time – she went directly to the end on the other reps and seemed very happy!
She was GREAT about staying in position until released, even when you ran past the end of the board. When you run past, you can also add in a FC so she gets used to seeing that (you were not in the frame when you ran past, so you might have been adding crosses that didn’t get caught by the camera :))
She missed the release verbal a couple of times… because she was still eating treats LOL!! But otherwise she was really excellent with moving to position and holding it until you released.
For the table: do you have something even lower? Maybe take the legs off the table you used here? And do a session with the super low table.
If not… let’s just fade the table out and let her do the full teeter. Warm her up with a couple of reps of the bang game before you run her across the full teeter.
>I did make sure to use the target plate. I feel like the teeter was a little too high so I helped her a bit here and there.>
The target helped! And I agree that it might have been a little too high, so you can lower it a bit so she doesn’t have to pull it down before leaping on.
You can also have the target closer to the end of the board, so it is about 6 inches from the end. We only want to give her enough room for her front feet to step off but still be pretty close to the board. The target was further out here so she was more stretched out from the end of the board, which might not give her enough weight shift at the end of the board to ride it down while being balanced.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>But I wanted to share because I tried a blind cross and I liked it! 😳🤣. >
Awesome! And we have video proof!!!! This is a fun sequence, and it looks like the bars were a little higher too with no problem.
This is actually a perfect spot to do a blind: you had a big send away before it which put you in a great spot with plenty of time. And the blind kept you moving forward to the next line. You had excellent connection too, before and after the blind. Super nice!!!!!!
>I do think it helped that she had already patterned the sequence a little bit. So I trusted her to read the lines.>
This might actually be a good way to get blinds into your repertoire of handling moves: work a sequence with rears or fronts, so you are both comfy with it and maybe she is a bit patterned to it. Then throw in a blind in a spot where it seems to fit – that way neither of you are having to think about the lines because you both know them, and you can think about the execution of the blind.
The other thing I really like is how she is looking for her lines. She is basically getting on a line and staying on it until you ask her to change her line. That is really terrific, especially for a young dog! That is what we need her to do as the courses get bigger and bigger 🙂
Great job here, thank you for sharing it!
Tracy
Hello!
This went really well – she has fantastic commitment! You did *not* over-help 😁
The goal of the handling is that you can get right behind her as she passes you on the wraps and she continues to wrap while you move past the wing (countermotion). Interestingly, she had no questions with this on the wing after the tunnel, but she did had a little more trouble committing on the wing before the tunnel at the end of each rep.
You can see this at :18 for example, where you were trying to move forward but she was not sure about finishing the wrap. On the other reps on that wing, you waited a bit longer to let her commit which definitely helped. You can also look back & point back at the ‘landing’ spot (the other side of the wing) as you move forward, that will also help support commitment.
Both of those moments are left turns, so my guess is that the visual of the tunnel was making commitment a little harder but she worked through it really well!
Nice job working through the connection needed to get her to the other side of the tunnel. Trying to point ahead of her to the tunnel (like at :41) didn’t show enough connection to the new line. At :51 you had the connection back to her was she exited the wing, then you pointed ahead to the tunnel so she asked a question there.
Then at 1:08 you had great connection the whole time, and did not point ahead until she was on the right line and passing you. That was perfect!
>Backside circle wrap did my head in when it came to the mirror image but I finally figured it out and we’ll have a session tomorrow!>
On that last rep on the other side, you didn’t need to do a blind on the tunnel exit. That sets up more left turns. To get the right turns, you can keep her on your left as she exits then do the circle wraps – you will end up on the outside of the wings rather than on the inside.
On the lap turns – you were definitely getting the hang of facing her. You can step directly back with the leg next to the wing and that will give her more room to get past you (she had a couple of questions about that). On the tandem turns, you can keep your feet going straight rather rotating towards her (your arms will flip her away). And going a little closer to the tunnel exit will make it easier to keep moving – on the reps where you were up by the wing here, she didn’t have a lot of room to get past you. When you were not as far ahead (when you switched sides), it was much smoother.
Great job here!
TracyHi! Both of these sessions are looking super strong!
On the winging’ it with countermotion, great job getting her to commit! Small dogs really watch our feet as a primary cue, and with countermotion it might look like our feet are pointing the ‘wrong’ direction. But you did a lovely job with making your connection visible to her and supporting it with your arms. Things went best when you
maintained connection behind you and let the hand closer to the wing point back to it as you moved forward. That is when she committed really well! When she had a question, it was because you did not look behind you or pointing behind you, like at :22. But compare to the rep right after it at :31 – you used your connection to look back and pointed the arm closer to the wing back to the wing as well, and she had no questions. Super!On the race tracks, no need to use an arm to support the line around the wings – it blocks connection and was causing her to look up at you. Instead, you can just jog (arms bent instead of pointing at the line). You started doing this at the end and that was when her commitment and speed looked strongest!
Excellent session with the tunnel on the 2nd video! It looks like on each rep she knew exactly where to be when eating the wing! Your clear connection made that happen – very nice!!!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>The wing/tunnel discrimination exercise in Max Pup 2 was a disaster with her and muddling through it with the boys was all the energy I had (it’s still just not a skill I inherently ENJOY teaching, I like handling!) I guess it’s time to revisit.>
Yes, totally time to revisit! It is a necessary evil in today’s course design. Like threadle wraps, I started off kind of hating having to work on this but then it actually got to be fun!
>went “eh, kinda close, but let’s see” because I was too lazy to move 4 wings and a tripod again. First few reps I was definitely blocking her view of the wing. Sorry Beat. >
Yes, the tunnel was on her line when she was coming around to the left and also if you were blocking the wing. It is a good reminder that if there is any chance the handling created the off course, it is best not to mark the unintended obstacle as wrong, not to withhold reinforcement or change body language after an unintended obstacle.
Instead, call her in happily, reset with a cookie or toy, and change something to help her see what line you want. Otherwise it is confusing to read the physical cues correctly and the feedback is that it was not correct. There is always a reason that they go off course, and it is usually because we cue them to go there 😂😝
>Also seemed like turning my shoulder so it was a more definitive throw back send helped too. >
Yes! The decel into the rotation, and the rotated sends looked great! She got it brilliantly as long as you were not blocking the wing 🙂 There was a rep at the beginning where you were a little too far off the line on the other side, so it looked like a threadle wrap to her (good girl!)
>Shoulders turned at the tunnel even the tiniest bit sent her there.>
And that is correct 🙂 Showing the line to the tunnel should get the tunnel, even when you didn’t want the tunnel LOL! A good example is at 2:33: your line/motion/shoulders were totally cueing her to go into the tunnel. She didn’t go into the tunnel at 2:42 because you changed the handing there (rotated towards her, decel). She did go wide there, because after you did the rotation you opened back up towards the tunnel so she started going towards it.
The good news is that she is really tuning into the handling cues and responding to everything! That will also be the bad news for a little while 😂 because she might go off course very quickly based on what she sees. Keep rewarding her for them so she remains confident about reading the handling. But as you get used to running her and develop the timing needed based on her stride length, the off courses will go away and you will have some impressive distance skills balanced with gorgeous turns, tons of speed, and she will even process verbals! The future is very exciting!!!!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Distance and layering is definitely harder for the small dogs! They have to take so many more strides than a much bigger dog. He was confident working at the big distance to a certain point… then he starting asking questions.
You did some smart things that helped him:
At :39, you added a bit of convergence towards the tunnel entry, which totally helped.At :54 you moved the jumps in closer and that was the exactly right thing to do, and really helped. You can also move the tunnel in closer and make the entry to it super obvious so the entry I facing him as he is taking off for the jump.
Placement of reward will really help too: rather than rewarding at the exit of the tunnel, you can get the reward out on the line where he is working at his biggest distance away from you. This would be between the jump and the tunnel.
Since he loves that little ball: As he is committing to the jump and heading straight (before he starts to second guess), you can throw the ball out on the line towards the tunnel entry. That will give him a big “Yes, you are totally allowed to be out there!” And he will get more comfortable working miles away 🙂
And bear in mind that latent learning will help here. You did get some big successes especially on that last run – so now let him sleep on it for a few days 🙂 It is possible that he will come into the next session knowing it with no questions 🙂 That happens with my young dogs a lot, especially the sighthounds LOL!
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>Are you purposely bringing up your threadle, non dog side arm for the NO TUNNEL? Or would you suggest just connection and verbal?>
Do you mean at 1:43, for example, of this game:
If so, then I have my outside hand on my dog-side hip to show the dog exit line connection and make it very very clear where he is supposed to be. The arm used like this in exit line connection is too low and too flat to me to be considered a threadle arm by my dogs, but it is great for opening up very clear connection. And that clear connection helps with the NO TUNNEL moment 🙂 If you turn your shoulders or use too much dog-side arm, it will look like a tunnel cue!
Here is an explanation:
Tracy
Hi!
I am doing 2 things to indicate the rear cross to the left:– motion to the center of the bar on the rear cross jump (as compared to the last rep where I did a wrap to the right, so I turned towards the right wrap wing)
– >Are you using any verbals?>
Yes, in this case I am using my left wrap verbal. I don’t think it is audible on the video because it is a very quiet verbal (a tststs noise) and my back is to the camera.
Tracy
Hi! He did really well! And having other people training as well is perfect, because he will learn how to get this behavior even when he is really excited and stimulated.
Jumping on from the side went well! I think the target is a tiny bit far from the end of the board, so he is reaching for it which is pulling him off the board on some of these reps. You can move it so it is about 3 inches from the end of the board, which will help him balance on the board better.
Now to solidify staying in position… add your motion of slowly (oh so slowly 🙂 ) walking past the end of the board while he stays in position. Then throw a reward back to him or run back to give it to him – but if he might one when you are heading back to him, throwing it back to him (with a ‘catch’ marker) will be cleaner and clearer.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Well done to you for getting these done even with school starting! I am sure it is a busy time!
The other side of the DW game is great for Nox! She got good rewards for gong straight even if she didn’t get the jump on the first couple of reps – she got the rest of them really well!
Weaves are definitely harder! Be sure to have the reward way out past the last weave, nowhere near you – it was on the line halfway between the we’ve exit and you. You can throw it almost to the other side of the poles, to really exaggerate the whole “go do the thing out there and don’t look at me” 🙂
>She struggled to get the weaves when they were to the left of the tunnel, so I ended up changing the angle of the entry to make it easier.>
Changing the angle was great! You can also simplify it and put out a base of only 2 poles there, rewarding pretty much any interaction with the 2 poles to build value for going to them and not turning back to yell at you 🙂 Then you can go to 4 poles, then 6 poles, and so on. You can use 2x2s for that, or you can use stick in the ground poles.
She did really well with the switch aways! Yes, they are a rear cross-ish move which makes them harder for sure.
You did a great job with VERY clear arm cues and good line of motion with your feets at :27, for example!
You weren’t as clear at 1:19 – your arms were smaller and you pulled to your right more, almost pulling her off the jump . You pulled a lot to the right at 1:45 but kept moving forward as you did it, so she got the switch – but I think you can keep moving forward and not pull the other way as much with your feet/line of motion.She had a question about the right turn jump before the tunnel on some of these reps: At :40 and 1:02 there was not a lot of motion towards the jump (feet were turning t the tunnel) or connection, so even with the verbals she was not sure of what to do. You changed the position of the jump before it, but you also used more motion and connection – and I think it was the clearer handling that got the line there at 1:10 and 1:35 and 1:40 for example.
On the last sequence: at 1:57 – the switch info started as she was taking off for the switch jump The other reps were sooner but something to try is to not pull away as much. For the switch aways, you can run directly to the exit wing or even a little bit of pressure into the RC line. On these, you were running away from the exit wing which can almost be the same line as a threadle wrap.
So I think the main thing here is that your arms can do a pull-then-switch move but your running line does not need to 🙂
>I was disappointed I wasn’t able to do more with Katniss. I’m not sure if she is on the mend or not. She looks much better, but her gait still looks off to me. >
Ugh, I know that feeling all too well! If your regular vet can’t find anything, and the bloodwork/rads are clear, then next step is to go to a rehab vet who specializes in the soft tissue stuff. An elbow issue might not be an elbow issue, it might be the opposite shoulder, for example. Trust your gut and keep looking to see what it is! I have used Dr. Ballengee in Burlington, NC (she is brilliant) and also Skylos in Maryland. There might be some folks closer to you, I will ask around!
Great job this summer!!! Keep me posted on how Katniss is doing!
Tracy
Good morning!
OK, why is River in a cone? Asking for her friend, Ramen, who is also in a cone (from being poor whippet life choices).
>We made it! Last Jumpers courses.>
Yay! And it might have added a bit of pressure to get them done, which is good for training the human brain!
I think the videos are mis-labeled, so the ones labeled Jumper 1 are actually jumper 2, and the walk versus run labels are backwards but I am over-caffeinated so I figured it out LOL!!!
Looking at the Jumper 2 course which is posted first:
Since you are planning your winter training with an eye on IFCS, one thing to do is take this course and work sections and time them to see which is faster. These include:
– Slice to 3-4 (towards 6) rather than wrap towards the tunnel)
– Threadle wrap at 7 rather than FC then push wrap 6-7
– send to the other side of 7 (where the 9/19 numbers are) so she slices toward the poles
– 9-10-11, wrapping the 10 backside versus sending her to the entry closer to 6 and slicing towards 11 (you walked/ran 10 as a front but it is a backside)The reason I suggest this is because it can be surprising to see which is fastest! And often the slices turn out to be faster, even if they are a bit weirder looking in terms of the line. But with the smaller dogs, wraps sometimes are faster. More extension almost always wins the day and the only way to know for sure with each dog is to time things.
Overall, I thought your walk through plan was clear (which is why it was easy to figure out that it was course 2 and not 1 :))
Other than 10 being walked/run as a front, there were 2 other spots to think about which can clarify things even more for her:– you can give a clearer tunnel discrimination at 15. Do you have a specific verbal for the other end of the tunnel?
– The turn at 18-19-20 looked a little ambiguous, she might end up in the tunnel. A brake arm and a left verbal will help, beginning at landing from 18.On the run:
The opening ran really well! Yay!
The 11-12-13 line got a bit zig zaggy, – partially because you ran 10 a as front side, and partially because you gave her a big ‘out jump’ for 11 – so she added more extension. For 11, you can add a turn cue like a right and a brake arm (look for places to use that magic collection-adding brake arm!)
For the tunnel discrimination 14-15 – Super nice arm movement to get the other side of the tunnel – do you have a verbal for it? Using tunnel for both is potentially going to cause confusion if you are not in perfect position like you were here.
Your running line had a little too much convergence in towards 17, she almost turned right at takeoff (:45). You did get your left verbal out and pulled to the left so she got it. You can run straight with connection and I think she will commit with no extra convergence needed.
She was jumping straight over 19 based on motion and verbal (turn info was late) and ticked the bar (:48) and that contributed to running past 20. That is a good spot for a left verbal and yes – a visible brake arm. I think you had your left arm up but it was hidden in front of you as your turned. So as she is at 18, you can be saying your left verbal and showing her both hands, which should get a collection to land her facing the front of the 20 jump.
Course 1 (2nd set of videos) –
Walk through:
Looks like you added an extra jump between 2 and 3?
I think the walk through handling indicated a right turn on 4 (jump after the tunnel). You used a verbal, but the left on 4 needs more than just verbal: switch away arms and/or RC line of motion.I like the layering plan to get to 7!
Don’t be as close to entry of the 10 backside, so you can be ahead on the exit of it to get a nice line to 11.
Also it will be easier NOT to do a cross between 14 and 15 then try to outrun her to the 17 backside – sending ahead to 14-15 from the tunnel exit, or doing a massive layer and switch away to the 16 tunnel can help you show a ton of convergence to 17.
You can run the ending line on your right and RC 20 like you did, or run it on your left!On the run:
Yes, you did add an extra jump after 2 🙂 It went well but when under time pressure, make sure you double check your maps to not add or delete anything 🙂
She turned right on 4 – good save and you still got 7! On the 2nd run, you had a bigger arm cue and rear cross pressure onto the line (1:48 and 2:06) and you got a lovely left turn. You might have cut into the turn too severely because she did not take 5, so one more step to commit her to it will help, and maybe a GO verbal to override the RC turn. Getting her back on the line to 6 made the turn cues late (1:51) and pushed her into the off course tunnel.
You took the extra step to 5 at 2:07 and he found the line really well! At 7 there (2:10) you were took early leaving the circle wrap – she had not passed you yet, so moving into her path put her into the tunnel, good girl!
Ended up further across 10 so the 10-11 section looked good on the first run! On the second time through there, you were still calling her when she was halfway between the tunnel exit and backside (plus not very connected/moving away) so she read it correctly as a ‘take the front’ cue (2:20). It looked great again at 2:27! She has gotten a lot better at understanding to take the jump on those backside slices when you are moving through with some countermotion. Yay!
Looking at the 13-18 line:
On the first run, you needed to be a bigger ‘presence’ as she exited the 16 tunnel to get her attention and show 17 – the motion before entering 16 and as she exited, plus late zip verbal all locked her onto the off course tunnel. You basically would need to serp across the tunnel exit with big connection to get the TW.
On the retry at :53 – keep pushing into her line to get it. She considered the turn to the jump but the positional cue overrode the arm and verbal.
You changed the plan and did the FC on the exit of the 13 tunnel and sent to 14-15, which put you miles ahead on. The exit of 16 (yay!). That easily got you the blind to the push wrap, and you would also have been able to get the serp to the TW there too. And you did run the ending on your left, but you went in too deep towards 18 – so she saw you moving to your right as she was entering 19, which pulled her off 20-21. You can hang out at 17, send to 18 without going past the tunnel exit – then you will be ahead of her as she enters 19 so you can show the exit very easily.
On the last run, you did the FC 14-15 but sent to 15 more so you were easily able to get the blind to the push wrap. And you sent to the 18 tunnel even more, so you were ahead 19-20! She still wanted to curl on 20-21 (bar down at 20, refusal on 21) so fro the handling perspective: you can send t 18 from as close to the 17 wing as possible, then get way ahead on the 20-21 section. And you can use your outside arm to support the line to 21.
From the training perspective – set up these giant lines across the ring and throw (or sometimes place) a reward for her to drive ahead to, to sharpen up the skill of driving ahead on an ‘easy’ line (because it is not so easy when we get behind!)
And you can try seeing if going a bit deeper to 18 then running that section on your right (19-20-21) can be more effective because the RC option might support 20 and 21 even more.
Great job on these!!!!! It is fun to see how well the walk throughs match with the runs!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
I agree – this was a really successful session and there is definite progress!!!!! Yay!
>With where the sun was, I also couldn’t really see so it made my body language that much more ambiguous! >
Ha! Mother Nature was helping with the session LOL!!!
On the video:
He jump reps at the beginning were really strong. On the first tunnel rep – he seemed to know it was NOT the front of the jump (yay! Good boy!) but was looking at you like “it is really legal to go into the tunnel without you moving to it?” so he ended up between the jump and tunnel (backside). But then he got it on the other reps!
>on another my toy throw was far less than ideal reward placement lol. >
He was not concerned about the one rep where the toy flew somewhere unexpected LOL the marker still told him he was correct and then he nailed all of the tunnel reps after that.
When you changed sides – he was heading to the ‘hup’ side of the jump til you reached for the toy to throw and that pulled him off at 1:02. He was great when you did not reach for the toy on other reps or moved it to the throwing hand after he was well-committed to the obstacle.
At 1:29, when you witched back to the original side – the toy was swinging more visibly than other reps so he came off the line looking at the toy.
So the next great adventure is a jump-tunnel – moving toy discrimination 🙂 In his defense, when he was young 9 years ago, there was really zero or very limited emphasis on toy markers so he probably thinks the toy swinging or switching to the other hand is part of the marker.
>Overall, I was very pleased with how he did, even with moving the obstacles pretty close together. It only took us the entire course to get him to figure out this ONE exercise, and I haven’t varied the setup at all or brought in weaves/a third obstacle. >
It is actually tremendous progress on a skill that he had super limited experience with (verbals discriminations) and I think that is bubbling over nicely into your course running too – the hardest parts of your recent courses running were choosing exactly which of the subtle handling points worked best for him. Bringing in weaves might be easier because the weave verbal is probably something he has heard a LOT but jump verbals are much newer.
>Who knows if he will still be able to do it when the obstacle positions are switched>
It is something to revisit very couple of weeks!
> when there’s more movement/in a sequence, >
I am figuring that when you support the verbals with handling, he is going to nail it. Maybe someday he can learn to nail it on verbals when the handling is doing something opposite (which is what Beat is going to learn :))
>We taught the 9 year old dog at least one new trick! >
Heck yeah! And it might be his hardest trick (verbals) so I am super pumped up for you two!!
>I think the biggest change I’ve been able to make from all this was your advice to treat myself like a student and it’s helped me stay more objective during a training session. >
This is awesome!!! That type self-talk is so important – we don’t want to sugar-coat things for ourselves but being able to look at things objectively is HUGE. That smacks down the intrusive “I suck!” thoughts and builds up the “this is what I will do” focus and goal setting. When training alone, I remind myself all the time that video is the best instructor/interpreter so that keeps my brain out of the ‘I suck’ spirals 🙂
Great job here!!!! And fantastic work all summer!
Tracy
Good morning! Great question, because we are always so nervous about bringing dogs back from even small injuries!
I always follow the return-to-sport stuff given by my rehab vet, but in general this is the plan:
I slowly add pieces of it, starting with low impact obstacles then gradually adding in higher impact obstacles. And I am very careful about surface, to avoid slipping – good grass (not soaking wet, not dry/dead) and well-groomed dirt are best! Long-blade turf (with infill, usually) that gets groomed is generally good. The shorter blade turf and the stuff without infill is usually slippery.
So the lower impact obstacles are low height jumps on relatively straight lines and gentle turns, and – surprisingly – the dog walk especially if it is a stopped contact. Over the course of multiple weeks as prescribed by the rehab vet, the bars can come up for the ‘easy’ stuff, and the harder stuff (wraps and backsides etc) can be brought in on lower bar.
I also add in straight-ish tunnels that are dry inside so there to avoid slipping. No severe bends in the tunnels, and no severe tunnel entries/exits.
The weaves, a-frame, and teeter are the highest impact so I save them for several weeks into return to sport (or longer, depending on what the rehab vet says).
And cross-training is always best, so I really only do agility once or twice a week at most. The rest of the time is spent mixing in conditioning, rest, regular life activity, and other sports like flyball 🙂
For example, Hot Sauce and CB had a very busy weekend of competing and then a long drive on Monday. They rested for the remainder of Monday and all of Tuesday, just doing regular life runabouts in the yard. Nothing structured. So I might do a few minutes of agility with them today – easy stuff on low jumps. Then the next day or two, regular life plus some conditioning. Then maybe agility on the weekend.
Hope that helps!!
Tracy
Hi!
>Max is a little distracted lately, so trying to keep it short. >
What type of things is he distracted by lately?
This sequence went well too! The forced front cross and lead out pushes looked great!
>We had trouble on jump 3. I am trying to keep my arms quiet, I think Max expects a little arm for a backside, even when I felt I was going deep into the jump.>
On the reps where he did not go to 3, he pulled into the gap because you turned too soon and he was following the line of your shoulders.
When you were more connected and ran toward it until he was more locked onto it, he got it really well! The two best reps of that were at 1:06 and 1:37. The rep at 1:37 was perfect!!! Clear connection and clear motion to 3. Lovely!
And the last run was great too – that was a FFC to the tight wrap to 3 and the GO on the ending line. Super nice!!!!!
Great job :) Tracy
