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Good morning! She is reading the blinds and lines really well!!
And I agree that the connection was better, really nice!!!!
>Blinds are still a little late>
I agree with this too š The blinds were happening at takeoff for the middle jump – ideally the blinds are finishing at that point. That is why her turn on the BC was wide – she couldnāt change her line until after she lands, based on the info. The more ideal timing would have the blind starting when she is landing from jump p3 (jump after the tunnel) so it is completed before takeoff for 4.
What will help you get that is if you stay in motion on the line more – when you were waiting for her while she was in the tunnel, there were decel cues so she was not sure if she should really drive to 3. And that then showed acceleration to 4 rather than a turn cue. So you can flip that š by running in deeper to the tunnel (so you donāt have to wait for her after a send) and as she is exiting, she sees you accelerating up the line and getting ahead. That should lock her on the line so you can be getting to 4 and starting the blind when she lands from 3.
That earlier timing plus the connection you had here so really get a great turn!
Nice work š āØāØ
TracyHi!
I’ll keep looking for a class with feedback. I’ve work with Leslie Eide (a sports vet) online and she is fabulous! I know she has a Jumping class and does individual conditioning stuff, but I don’t know if she does group classes.
Thanks for the videos. I totally see what you are saying. Even before he came off the frame high and fell on his shoulder, he was not really pushing from his rear over the jumps. Even the bars that stayed up saw him pulling from his front. And it was weird that he didn’t want to sit. Definitely show the videos to the vet!
He was mentally in the game, but seems to be protecting something physically. Yes, the mid-back might be ouchy and also ask them to poke around the psoas.Hopefully it is nothing and he feels better soon!!
Tracy
Good morning! I am so glad you are back in action! Take your time, no rush, we still have plenty of class time š
>I thought it went well on rep 1. I did a second rep to see if I could tighten up her turns.>
I agree, rep 1 looked fabulous! Rep 2 looked great to! I think her turns were generally lovely rep 1 – the only one that was a bit wide was 5 to 6. The 2nd run was a little tighter so I timed then runsā¦ basically the same š Th 2nd run was a tiny bit faster but it was pretty negligible and might be because it was hand-timed. So maybe the thing that can make a difference is adding a brake arm to cue a tighter line 5-6 (brake arm begins as she is exiting 4).
I like to time things to see if tighter is really fasterā¦ sometimes it is NOT. The smaller the dog, the more often we see that tighter is not faster, so it will be fun to look at this with Indy too!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! This session went great, it is really so fun to see her putting the pieces together!
I hope your neck is feeing better!!!
>Being worried about whether she was broken did make it hard to concentrate on the right timing so I think I still wasnāt perfect but better.>
I can relate to this – constantly checking the whippets that they are not broken. The BorderWhippets are so much sturdier LOL!!! The WhippetMalinois mix is a brick wall in comparison. But compared to the terrier and BC-types, I spend most of the time checking to see if the pointy dogs are breaking themselves.
On the video – this went well! The reps where you had really low arms were super! And at :45 you started your decel and tight verbal as she was taking off for the middle jumpā¦ perfect timing and a she produced a gorgeous wrap on the next jump! YAY!
Your first BC to wrap run looked GREAT! What made it harder was that she produced a new gear of speed – wow! And you still nailed the timing and got the wrap cues. Look at that gorgeous turn even with all of her speed coming into it at 1:06!!!
The other side seemed a little less comfortable:
Going the other direction at 1:24 was not as early with the timing (you can be furrther ahead to get 3 which makes. The blind easier) But if you get behind on the timing (meaning you feel like the BC is late) you can in that moment face the wrap wing for longer to decel, so she is more sure about where to go next. Rotated almost immediate at 1:26 which pushed her into the RC turnO n the 2nd rep, you had better position and timing! Your arms came up really high so that actually delayed the reconnection after the blind – but like with the previous rep, you donāt need to rotate as early after the blind. You can keep moving to the wrap wing and face it while you decel, so she knows where to be
The last rep had good position and lower arms, which definitely helped you set the line to the correct wrap! YAY!!!
>so I think that affected those blinds on my right and caused that bar at the end.>
That bar was the high arms. It was the only spot that the dog side arm ended up above your head š You were flying plus your neck might have been feeling restricted, so I think momentum just grabbed your arm and flung it upwards.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning! He is definitely getting the idea of the RCs, he just needs the info a little sooner š
>Itās so easy to see on the video when Iām late. >
I think you were waiting til he exited the tunnel to get on the RC line, and that was why the cues were late. You are running the RC line but you can get on it even sooner so he sees it a solid stride or two before takeoff. No need to decel there to face the straight line, that is delaying the info for the RC – you can run in closer to the tunnel if needed so when he exits, you are already moving to the center of the jump so he can set the turn before takeoff.
On the RC on the jump after the tunnel, he got it but had little questions – You were squaring up to the jump a bit, so he was turning left then turning right (watching it in slow motion from :17 – :19 and :21 – :24 for example can give you a good view of it)
The other thing I think is causing a question is there is a conflicting cue when the dog-side arm comes across your torso on the cues. At :43 and 1:10 for example, your left arm is indicating that he should turn towards you, by turning your shoulders to the right turn line and not the RC. And you were not really on the RC diagonal, so he took off turning right then turned left as he landed (:43) or over the bar (1:10). So the combination of getting onto the RC diagonal (to the center of the bar) more immediately when he exits the tunnel, and not letting your arm come across your torso will make it even smoother.
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Hi! He is doing great with these games!
>He can back up really well onto a bigger object but the plank messes with his mind. I am literally starting him standing against it and just getting him to step back with rear feet at the moment.>
He did well backing up onto the board! It is more narrow than he is, so it is definitely harder – but great prep for teeter and dog walk in terms of knowing how to keep all feet on a narrow board.
You can keep your hands lower (maybe near your knees) so his head is lower for more a little more weight shift – and you can be more stationary so he is not waiting for you to move forward. This can look like rewarding him between your feet, then standing still to let him back himself onto the board.Motion override is off to a great start! Just be careful about your dog-side hand moving as you cue the sit – on rep 1, it moved back and on rep 2, it moved up on the sit cue. He is totally watching it LOL so you can just walk forward (and build to jogging) with your arms flapping around š
He sure does love his banging around on the wobble board! You can take the board to different surfaces to get different sounds: grass, concrete, or even put stuff under it like something metal to get a bit of a āclangā like many teeters make.
Excellent job!
TracyHi!
Excellent use of feet here!
After the balance reps, your feet were still facing straight at :13 and :25 so she took the front on those. But at :18 and :28, you were clearer with your feet and she got the backsides really well!
You did two more balance reps of the straight line and on the backside rep after each of those, your feet were *perfect* so she went to the backside beautifully. YAY! So Maisy is giving us great info: it is all about the feet! When you do your walk throughs and run planning, really emphasize your feet and lines of motion, and I bet she will find the correct lines very easily.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>The first time I set all the bars to her height and she freaked out about either a dog starring at her or the people holding the dog. I asked them to move further away and that was still not good enough do we went to the other side of the ring and she was able to>
Poor girlie!! You can whip out pattern games when that happens. There are unfortunately a lot of staring breeds in agility and people just let them stare at small dogs in particular. Makes me NUTS. But pattern games really help in that moment (and good for you for telling them to move away).
Looking at her run:
>About the same as Saturday. I think I should focus her work on big running more at home to help her with these lines.>Better than Saturday! Yes, you can totally work on the big giant courses and distances. Also, she needs to get out and around crowds and other people in the ring and weird visuals more – are there classes you can take her too to get more exposure?
Looking at the run:
Great opening!!! And back to your comment about running more big courses: yes, the more experience she gets, the more youāll see the great opening turn into great full runs šHer two big questions involved missing jumps (she was a little sticky in other spots but you stayed connected and helped her):
On the first missed jump, I think a bunch of visual distractions combined to pull her focus off the jump: part of it might possibly have been the visual of the 3 tunnel layout right in front of her, that is unique! But I think the main challenge was the proximity and path of the jump:
The judge was right on her visual line at :26 so Taq had to jump right at the judge (I have been a judge for UKI and I think this was a poor choice of judging path for novice dogs in particular!!) Plus as soon as Taq landed from that jump, the judge started moving up the line behind her. I am 100% sure that Taq noticed this and that is probably what drew her focus off the line. So since we canāt control judging pathsā¦ are there people you can add to the training so Taq can see this again and get used to it?
The other spot was the missing jump at the end: I think this line required a lead change away to the left, and you were flying to get there but you were not far enough ahead to push the line with only motion. And it was too hard to get a side change there, Taq as flying!! So you can use your āget outā verbal, connection, and opposite arm! That can get her to shift the line (she looked at you because she didnāt have the info).
>The course were pretty challenging.
>Yeah, UKIā¦ā¦. It can be a little all over the place in terms of course design. And the courses are HUGE.
Cricketās run:
VERY interesting that the judge didnāt use the same position as path as Taqās run. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm maybe she realized it was a bad spot to be in? I know it was not the same course but the opening was very similar.
Anyway:
Great job driving Cricket around! She had some questions which appeared to be āwhy are there so many random obstacles everywhere and WTF with the 3 tunnelsā LOL!! That is something to show her more of for UKI because that is part of what makes those courses different/harder than other venues. Plus the yardage is huge, so there is a mental/physical endurance aspect too!!Great job here!
TracyHi!
>I think this might be a combo of me pushing too hard and her learning the new height.>
Yes, and also a good question from her about the cue. Here are the details:
Rep 1 was actually my favorite in terms of your handling – not a lot of arms, perfect line of motion, countermotion as you moved through, great toy throw!
But she sliced, hmmmmā¦. I will chalk it up to the tall bar, starting close to the jump on the first rep so not a lot of time for processing, lots of motion. And maybe because she had just done a slice session? But what you did in terms of handling was great!
The other reps with just one jump – she wrapped but you hung back on landing side. You can keep adding the countermotion so you can move forward like you did on rep 1.
When you added speed, this is where she had more trouble. I think 2 things were happening that caused the questions:
You were giving her extra support with your arm coming across your body to indicate the jump, but the arm across the body is actually a conflicting indicator: shoulders are saying slice, feet saying wrap. So she was considering the slice more than the wrap. Once she has passed you, you can either use no arms or point to the landing spot with the arm closer to the jump (as you throw the toy in this case). This is what you did on rep 1 and also at :58 when you used both hands down low, like brake arm, which is a great cue for the wrap and collection!
The other thing I see here is also what you mentioned about the height: when she has a question about the jump or the handling and doesnāt know how to organize the jumping, she goes around it. Honestly, that is better than slamming herself or getting hurt, so I prefer young dogs go around jumps if they have a question.
One way we help with the organization is get the dogs to organize their hind end into wraps. Here is the general progression:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKEDzuahWN4 (front sides)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf3GXlk95a8 (higher bar and backsides)
I have more recent videos *somewhere* but I canāt find them right now š But this skill is fun to play with and really helps.
Nice job here!
TracyGood morning!
>Also not sure if Iām rewarding correctly.>
Yes, the rewards looked good! Nice!!!
Starting from a wing wrap works great, and she also liked starting from the tunnel š
She doesnāt always go to the backside and it is because the cues can be clearer to commit her. You can add a lot more connection and parallel line running and less arm pointing š What was happening was your arm extended and reaching for the backsideā¦ but that pulled your shoulders and feet forward so the rest of the body said front side. And you were pulling away to the exit before she was committing to the backside, so she would pick up a line to the front on those reps. So to get her to go to the backside more consistently, use your dog side arm to follow the line of her nose: have it pointing to her nose the whole time and not ahead of her to the wing. That will keep your shoulders facing the backside line. And you can move forward on a parallel line more until she reaches the backside commitment plane – then you can peel away or use countermotion past the exit wing. That should really bring up her consistency with knowing to go to the backside.
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
Super nice job working through the challenges here!Looking at the landing spot of 3 as you pushed through to the blind made a big difference for him!
On the threadle – this was definitely smoother too! Watching your motion – you didnāt pull away as far as the previous session but you still pulled away then pushed back to the jump. I think that it is caused by using the opposite arm for your threadle slice cue. It is closing your shoulders which blocks connection, so I think you might be subconsciously compensating with a bit of pull-push motion. You can play with using the dog side arm swinging back, which keeps your shoulders very open to him and then you can keep moving forward.
The in in threadle wrap went well!!! The blind cross exit worked well too, putting you way ahead on the next line.
On the backside wrap at 1:40 – on the very first rep, you had lots of countermotion to move away (yay!) but you were looking at him o he came with you. You had a clearer indication of the landing spot as you moved away at 2:15 and he did well! That, plus playing the games where we deliberately disconnect and throw reward to the landing spot will help solidify that skill so you can move away like you want to at 1:40.
>I think if I work on us both learning the verbal as you suggest it will really help.>
Also yes! With the specific verbal, he will have a clearer picture of exactly what to do which should totally help.
>I just have to work it myself so I donāt forget to use my words!>
The walk through stuff will make it automatic. It feels awkward at first and takes practice to lock it inā¦ but it makes a massive difference especially in staying connected and spitting out all the verbals š
Great job!
TracyHi!
The discriminations are off to a strong start! The pups did well here but I think we can break it down more to help them out.With both dogs, if you are not moving: it will work better to start with holding the collar so they donāt move before they have a chance to process the verbal – there are more mistakes hen they move as soon as they hear things. Holding them til they hear the cues a few times will help.
Also for both of them, I think this was more of a session on how to go past a jump to find a tunnel, so you can break it down more so they are more successful. One way to do it is to start without movement, positioned at about the center of the bar of the jump, hold her collar, and start cueing the tunnel so she passes part of the jump to find it. Then you can gradually move yourself back and back until they can go find the tunnel and are passing the jump entirely (with a couple of jump cues tossed in).
Then you can add in going around the wing and walk on a neutral line. Nox & Katniss did well on the mini sequence with both the tunnel and the jump when you were moving, but you were handling a bit and not being totally neutral on your path. It helped them a lot for this first session and you can then get more and more neutral as you work the skills.
>I was trying really hard to play this game similarly to āthe lazy gameā so that I didnāt give her much help in terms of handling pressure>
You can also do this, but put yourself far enough ahead to get success so they are seeing that yes, they can go past an obstacle to the next one š
Adding the weaves to make it a 3 way discrimination happened a bit too early in the learning here. They were like: wait, we are just figuring out a 2 way discrimination now we need to do 3 way? That is why they had a lot of frustration/barking. So when they are super successful with the 2 obstacle discrimination, you can add weave but take out one of the other obstacles – that way the weaves come in but it is still a 2 obstacle discrimination.
And when they are happy with that? You can ask for the 3 obstacles, keeping motion as neutral as possible.
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
I know a couple of bars came down, but I really liked this session š I am glad you didnāt stop him for the bars here – he was trying SO HARD and the bars that came down were questions about the handling cues. It might make him a bit frantic if you were telling him he was wrong when the cues were maybe not as clear as they could be š I almost never stop for bars because when I look at the video, it is almost always a handling issue causing the dog to ask a question. And sometimes the dog just slips, which I donāt get mad about.
On the first couple of reps, you were running fast but not as connected, so when you pointed forward at :03 he couldnāt see the connection as well and had to al the question over the bar (bar cam down). On the other reps, you were very clear and connected, no arm pointing neededā¦. He was lovely š Good boy!!
He gave great info about his needs for the pinwheel jump – the verbal and shoulder turn were not enough to get as much collection as he needs there, so he went really long on that jump (bar down there too). So as he is landing from jump 3 (jump after the tunnel), you can be cueing the pinwheel jumps with both hands (brake arms) and a quiet collection cue. I think you are saying āwhoaā but it is loud and there is a lot of motion, which sends him long over the pinwheel jump. The quiet verbal plus the brake arms will get a bit of collection as you move into the wrap.
On the wrap – try not to get past the takeoff side of the jump, because it changes his line – if you go past the jump like at :20, he thinks he is jumping longer and then he pulled the rail trying to adjust.
At :07 and especially at :33, you were not as far past so he was really lovely on those turns (bar stayed up!) You can add more decel so you donāt end up past the takeoff side.On the last run (which was great) it looks like you were running a little slower but very connected and giving the cues earlierā¦ that was HUGELY helpful for him! Since he is so fast, you donāt need to try to also go really fast. You role can be to steer the sports car š which means timely cues and not rushing, so he can really see the connection.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The countermotion game is going well!
Looking at the slices: He is committing to the jump nicely after arriving on the backside of it! You can add in getting further from the entry wing of the backside to cue it – you were right at the entry wing, so you can start moving over to run more towards the center of the bar (and eventually to the exit wing). That will set up even more countermotion opportunities because you will be able to get forward past the exit wing and do a blind as he is arriving at the takeoff side. And since it is harder, definitely throw the toy as soon as he commits to going to the backside.
Wraps were a little harder – you were throwing the reward a little late, as if waiting to see him take the jump but you can throw as soon as he is arriving at the backside wing. That will solidify the skill because that countermotion was harder for him and sometimes he gets it (like the last rep) sometimes he follows your motion and doesnāt take it (2nd to last rep).
The other thing to consider here is using two different verbals, rather than a compound verbal for the wrap. You had push as the main verbal for both the slice and wrap. So that is the first info he will process – adding around to the wrap ends up being late, plus if it is repeated (push around push around) it is harder to know if it is a slice or wrap. And at the end you were saying pushpushpush as he approached the bar without the around. So I donāt think he is confusedā¦ I think he is ignoring the verbals because they arenāt really clear, so he is waiting for body language. I know people out there recommend compound verbals like a backside cue followed by a wrap cue, but the dogs respond better to distinct verbals for two very different behaviors.
I think of it as like sit and down – two different behaviors. If the dog is asked to āsit downāā¦ which is it? At first they are confused then they just start to ignore the verbals and guess based on context cues š A compound verbal is like saying āsit downā š Food for thought!
Nice job on the course, lots of fast lines and only a couple of questions! Looking at the questions because you said you wanted to run it again before it got hot:
His first question was on the German turn on 3 – it is a countermotion spot like we are working on the obstacle skills games. For now, look at the landing post as you move through the countermotion to help him – you were pointing at landing but looking at him on both runs so he was looking at you (and you can throw the rewards to landing as you move through, like in the skills game too!
The other big question was on the threadle slice at 7 – you were pulling away to use motion to help get the correct side of 7, but then moving back to 7 and cueing it set the line to the 18 tunnel. He almost took the 18 tunnel on run 1 and confidently took it on run 2. So for the threadle, reverse your line of motion: rather than pulling away fro 7 and pushing back to it, as you threadle you can be going towards 7 (using a big threadle arm pulling back and rotating your upper body towards him, rather than closing forward). Then when he is approaching the 7 jump, you can be moving away to 8 and calling him which should take his eyes off the line to the tunnel.
You can also look at landing as you move forward on the circle wrap on jump 14 – he is still learning the countermotion there, so looking at landing (and throwing the reward back there) will support the line on the coursework.
I will mention again that it is the same verbal for different behaviors (jump 3 and jump 14) so it is possible the extra looking at you is to see the physical cues because the verbals are not helping š
Everything else looks lovely, donāt change it š Especially that super nice ending line!!!
Nice work here! Stay cool!
Tracy
Hi!
>Itās also very wet and like 92% humidity which doesnāt help and he gets wet and it slows him down>
This has been a TERRIBLE summer for heat, humidity, and storms! Ewwwww!!!
Looking at the video:
>I have noticed Max pattern so once he gets in his mind that this means this, heāll keep doing it until I really can break that somehow.>
I didnāt see any of there here š He was responding correctly to every cue! So if you think he is patterned and not listening, stop and look at the video and you will see that he is listening š
The GO cue looked great on all the reps!
Wraps are also looking good! You can decel sooner to get a tighter turn – you can start the decel as soon as he is taking off for the jump before the wrap jump. Your decel began when he was landing (like at 2:12) so he was a little wide. Starting it sooner will get it even tighter!
For RCs –
>Max and I struggled a little bit on the rear crosses.>
Only a little, there were plenty of good RCs here!
It is all about getting on the RC line pretty aggressively!
You can be driving the RC line (running to the center of the bar) as soon as you pass the previous jump and even before he passes you. This is what you did at 1:05 and 1:38 and it worked great! āØCompare 2:30 to where you got on the RC line late and he didnāt see it til after he took off, versus 2:38 where you got right on the line and it was fantastic!
(Also, maybe my sound is weird but it sounds like you were saying left and it was a right turn? )
Push cues at 1:12 and 146 and 2:48 were great !! Super!
He did miss the tunnel at 2:18 – you said tunnel but took off without connection, so he came with you. He was paying attention, good boy!!
>Of a backside throttle where the dog is between you and a jump and he needs to go to the backside and wrap it. I couldnāt really figure out what I was doing with my arms because he was a good 5 feet in front of me. We just had the worst time getting it. I donāt know if you have any tips.>
The key is really to turn to the line parallel to the one he will be on to get to the backside, and use low hands to kind of pull him off the front and then flip him away to the back (if he needs help to flip away). If he was ahead of you and going to the front, I would bet your feet were pointing to the front. Try to grab video at the next class and we can see for sure! Or if you have video, post it and we can figure it out.
Great job here!
Tracy
