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Good morning!
>She seems to be doing well with her start line stays.>
I agree – her stay is going really well! A good stay makes these lead outs sooooo much easier.
>>I do randomly reward them but she actually seems annoyed by that. In this session I did try throwing the toy back to her but she didn’t seem to understand that either.>>
Yes, a lot of Border Collies prefer to be released to run rather than eat a cookie in that moment 🙂 She is probably just inexperienced with the toy being thrown back to her – I bet she catches on after seeing it a bit more (she does love the frisbee!)
The sequences are looking really good!
The FC and BC openings went well – my only suggestion is to be closer to 3 as you release her, as that gives her even more early information about where she is going next. And definitely use the stay to get past 2 before you release her – she got mad at you at 1:38 when you released her before you got to 2, which made the FC late.
She read the lead out ‘push’ at 1:29 really well too, that rep had her best turn on 2! When you start moving, you can move more forward to 3 (you were backing up a bit there).
>I also did a rear cross because that is my default behavior. LOL.
>The RC looked great! You can also start her on your right side at 1 and rear cross the 3 jump. That is a useful move as well!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
I hope all is well with your parents!The dogs did well on these videos 🙂
Video 1, backside wraps: she had a couple of commitment questions here –
When she passes you on the way to the backside, no need to keep your dog side arm wrapping across the bar too – it slows down your motion and makes you twist around more than needed.
Instead, after she passes you, you can use your opposite arm to point to the landing spot (or throw the reward to it) as you look at the landing spot. That will help get the commitment while allowing you to continue moving forward.Fusion (2nd video) – She did well here too! For the BC at :12, start it when she is at jump 1. Yo started it as she was arriving at jump 2, so sh was not able to see the side change in time.
2nd run looked really good! Nice connection! Keep moving to the tunnel at :36 (more like what you did at :51). You can also do a blind cross to pit her on your right side, which will set a better line to the side of the tunnel you wanted
InSynch pop out 1: looked great! You wrapped her to the inside (right turn) – on a setup like this, you can place with wrapping to the outside (left turn, probably with a RC) and then we can see which is faster!
InSynch’s 2nd pop out looked great too! Like with the first one, you can play with wrapping her to the outside line because it might be faster (due to finding a better line on the next section).
Also be sure she doesn’t start without you 🙂 You can ask her to sit and wait after the leash comes off so you can at leash put it down 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! This went really well, he was pretty perfect on reading the jump cues!
>Did a set of all the jump approaches being ahead and then a set tucking more into the wing wrap.>
They all looked super! So the next challenge is so tuck right into the wing wrap… and release him as soon as he gets into position (rather than run past him then release him). That will potentially put you behind or parallel to him, which makes things harder of course 🙂
And you can sometimes deliver a reward, so he is not only getting released as he hits position, he will also be getting rewarded for hitting and holding position 🙂
>Also some dirty jump handling and effort cookie/hand touch cookie if bar dropped.>
Dirty handling is looking good too!
Your timing might be to a little too good on some of the rewards for the harder jump challenges 🙂 – the toy was thrown but he dropped the bar. To prevent that, you can delay the toy throw to not reward a dropped bar – you can swing the arm as if throwing it, and then only actually throw it if the bar stays up. He was able to call off the thrown toy, but the association of toy throw with the jumping that hit the bar is something we’d like to avoid 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Tunnel sends looked great to start, no problem at all. Then she was a bit on autopilot for the first weave send on each side, and went o the tunnel (the younger dogs all did the same thing LOL) I will chalk that up to lack of experience with this type of challenge – she got much better as the session went on and had very few errors! Super! And the harder entries were actually easier for her, she did great on those.
Two things you can add to this setup to add challenge:
– Curve the tunnel a little so the entries are very visible as she is heading to the poles
– Mix in more tunnel balance rep, so she has to really listen to the cue and doesn’t assume it is the weaves or tunnel based on what she did on the previous rep.
Great job here! Onwards to the countermotion!
Tracy
Hi!
Another puppy? Do tell!
This went really well! After the first couple of tunnel sends, she was definitely in tunnel mode so had a couple of misses on the weaves. She was not perfect when she did get them the first time, so you can reward the effort for getting into the weaves rather than tunneling even if the weaving is not perfect. And definitely mix in some tunnel reps too, so she doesn’t go on autopilot 🙂 That way you can be more sure that she is processing cues and not doing what she just did on the previous rep. She had a little trouble later in the video, but as you said – I think she was trying to go fast 🙂 and needed to slow herself down.
You can also switch sides in the same session – that keeps things spicy and fun if sometimes she is on your left and sometimes on your right.
Nice work here! Safe travels and I am excited to hear about the puppy!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The one jump work looked great in both directions, she was serping really well! Smooth and fast, the lead changes looking pretty effortless!
Adding speed was harder, of course – and as you mentioned, it went a lot better when you were in great position with a clear serp arm on the 2nd half of the session (dog-on-left). Yay!
When adding speed with you running – yes, keep going for the great position and you can also angle the serp jump to face the line ever-so-slightly so she can maintain her speed and still get the serp-in-then-out. That way you can still get the serp without being in that perfect position. This will help when you add the games coming from the tunnel too!
Did you catch what she did from :59 – 1:02? You asked her to sit and then you led out, all good. She started to sniff her butt then remembered she was working, so she whipped back around, all without breaking the stay. It cracked me up!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The wrap timing and cues were spot on, so she wrapped beautifully! You had nice deceleration too, so she collected and was able to turn tight and fast. Super!!
>I think I was using her name way too much. >
Yes, especially when she was on your right side at the beginning – it sounded like you were saying Go then her name, which can be a conflicting cue (to go or to turn?) That might be why she hit the bar, hearing Go and her name. On this type of sequence, you probably don’t need her name at all 🙂
You had some broken stays here – It is possible that she thinks the connection when you get to your spot and look back towards her is the release, or she is following the cookie hand.
You can clarify the release by leading out with connection, making a big connection when you get to your lead out spot, praising her – then either rewarding or releasing. That way she won’t move when she sees you turn your head back to you, and you can have a really strong connection before the release.Great job here!
TracyGood morning! This went really well! I think the spacing was good here – he was bouncing, which is what we want him to do. You can move the Manners Minder another 6 feet away from the 2nd jump, so he can power to it rather than decelerate to it.
You can ‘flatten’ the jumps a bit, so th outer wings get moved a little further away (the middle wings stay where you had them). When flattening it out, you might find that the spacing is too big and he adds a stride rather than bounces. If that happens, you can replace the jump bar with weave poles, because that will shorten the distance! let me know if that makes sense.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Run Wild then Canadian Open sounds like an epic road trip!
I sent you a link to someone’s page on FB. There was a really hard tunnel-jump-weave-countermotion challenge!
The session here went really well!! It looked like almost all of the hits were really good. You can reward a mediocre hit with an ‘effort cookie’ and save the toy for the great hits 🙂
>not a ton of bars and almost all my fault (totally stopping, being in his path, early toy toss). I want to proof against those things so they are explanations not excuses.>
You were not that much in the way, so you can set up jump stuff like this to proof it – I just wouldn’t do it at the same time you are also trying to reward good contact hits. You can deliberately get a bit in the way, move the toy early, etc… and give BIG rewards for keeping the bar up! I like to proof all the things they might see, and reward the dogs for keeping the bars up.
>so there’s some weird toy hand switching I would normally avoid here.
>I think it is good to do that! Otherwise everything is too “clean”. We want some dirty throws and timing, to help him learn to ignore the weird things that we humans do and keep the bar up 🙂
For the next contact exit game:
On this session, you were ahead of him for the jumps and tunnel as he exited the contact 🙂 So for the next session, start yourself closer to the wing so you are parallel to him as he exits the board and not ahead. Then start right at the wing, so you are behind him a he is going across the board – that will be hard but very useful!Nice work here!
Tracy
Holy wow, that is a great reason! Congrats on the new house – very exciting! I am excited to see you this weekend and we will work on them being less feral 🙂
Tracy
Hi! I agree, this went really well. His stay and hi commitment both looked super strong, which made it all easier!
A couple of suggestions:
The BC on rep 1 stared perfectly on time. Yay! Try to finish it faster – you finished it 2 steps later, so the reconnection on the new side ended up being a little late
For the lead out push (3rd rep) – get further across the bar of 2 and more in between the uprights before you release him. He turned after landing from 2, and being further across the bar will help him turn before takeoff.
>I cannot decide if my Fc at the end is late. >
Yes, it was a little late – you were only about halfway through it at 1:12 when he was taking off (ideally you’d be finished with it before he takes off for 2.) You can see he jumped straight then turned after landing. The blind works really well in that scenario, so you can use the blind there and not worry about the FC.
Great job!
Tracy
So if everything is looking good medically, soft tissue, and orthopedically, and she is not doing it on courses…
I vote that we stop doing jump grids because they are creating a weird behavior and we do not know why. Do I get a vote? Ha!
No need to rehearse an undesired behavior when we can get the desired behavior in other ways! We can show her different heights and striding on sequences, and there are fun conditioning games with jumps that can help add height, slices, etc. Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Nice session here! You sorted out the cues and also you convinced your feet to not push him off the line (he kept you honest when you did accidentally psh him to the backside 🙂 )
>First session was one hand but working on the show him the hand and the check mark/J motion. Second session was both hands, sort of like the old OMD tandem turn, sort of…..
I think the 2 hands is our answer! I don’t use 2 hands for anything else that I can think of so it’s a unique look.>The one hand and the 2 hand cues worked really well here! It is hard to know for sure if the 2 hands are the better cue here because he has run the sequence a lot and knows it by now 🙂 So you can change the context (reverse it, for example) and start a session with the 2 hand cue and see if it is helpful. I personally use 2 hands because I think the dogs see it better (especially small dog), but it is really a matter of what is comfortable for you and Sly 🙂
One other thing to decide with this skill is how you want to use the verbal. I use it to only mean “turn away and we are layering”, to get a lot of line focus. For coming back to the tunnel (like you did at 1:38 and 3:26) I just use a wrap verbal which keeps the handler focus (no layering) . You were using it to cue the turn away in both contexts, which is fine of course! But I like having the “hey, we are layering now” cue to cover me when my handling is, um, not perfect LOL!!
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
Both dogs are looking good here!!
Enzo definitely loved the line to the weaves, no questions at all. Super!
>He would much rather turn wide and out to the weaves than wrap tight to the tunnel. >
I think that had more to do with the cue as he was exiting the tunnel. The cues were very similar at :06 and :20, so he landed long on both of them (too much movement forward, cueing extension).
At :31, your cue had more decel after the tunnel exit and before the jump so he collected nicely, versus the added motion that shows the extension to the weaves. At:57, the decel did not happen until he was in the air so he landed wide, thinking it was the weaves.
So to get the turn back to the tunnel – hit your brakes with decel and wrap verbal as soon as he exits the tunnel, to get the collection before takeoff.
>That proved to be very tricky, since he REALLY wanted to pick up that jump on the way to the weaves. So we worked on the “through the box” skill for a while.>
Yes, there was some confusion when trying to get him to find the weaves on the other side of the tunnel – mostly because you were cueing the jump by accident and not saying weave 🙂 he was locked onto the line to the weaves on most of those reps, and extra verbal or motion pushed him back to the jump.
For example, at 1:43 – you handled the left turn on the 2nd jump as a switch away, so he was on the line to the weaves. Then you gave him a big GO and big arm cue, which caused him to turn away from the line to the weaves and go to the jump. I think all he needed there was just the weave cue. At 1:55 you didn’t use an arm cue but as soon as you said go… he went back out to the jump (your shoulders and feet are facing the jump there)
Then at 1:49 I think you said “left” as he landed which got the tunnel. He was really paying attention!
He slowed down to wait a bit when you were using “come” – try just saying ‘weave’ when he is at the previous jump and see what he does, I bet he can find them 🙂
>I don’t feel like I totally understand the plan for Casper. The front-side wraps look pretty good to me whether with the toy or food. So I did a couple of those and moved on to the backside wraps with the food bowl out and toy in pants. See what you think. I forgot about trying to pair the toy with the food until about halfway through but I think it worked pretty well.>
The main thing is to get him to look down more as he is jumping (and not up at you). The consistent use of the bowl is definitely helping! You can see that at the beginning here (2:47) he was jumping with his head up looking at you, hoisting himself over the bar. Compare to later in the session like at 2:53 and 3:08 – he is looking downwards after the release and the form is a lot better! And he was looking downwards (and not as you) as he was jumping on the wraps too. Yay! Plus using the toy is getting him to drive to the food bowl really nicely.
Next step – try this at 14 inches for a session or two, then 16 inches. The height of the bar is the only variable that changes.
He did really well on the sequence to the weaves! And he is getting even faster. Fun times ahead for sure!!!
Nice job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>so still injured and actually found out I did break a rib at that trial 2 weekends ago (found out after 3 days of competing in the West Coast Cup this past weekend) >
Oh no! Ouch!!!!
>So, we did some lowkey “other side of the dogwalk” stuff from Package 4 skills but with the real dogwalk since this isn’t new to him.>
Perfect! Plenty can get done with this while your ribs heal up.
GO cues and the weaves all looked good even with the sharp decelerations 🙂 He also turned really well on the tunnel its when asked: You can add a brake arm to the right and left cues if the need a tighter turn on the tunnel exits, depending on the course design.
Since this went so well, you can add some higher level challenges:
– move the line of weaves slightly so that he actually has to turn slightly to his left to find the entry! I have seen that a number of times on the soft side entry
– put a jump out there too, so you can do jump or weave cues as a discrimination
– use different verbals on the jump: Go, wraps, soft turns, even turning him away if he can do it at a distance!Weave-tunnel discrimination work also went really well! You were gradually adding countermotion and he did really well – the one thing I don’t think you need is to keep your arm up and be super connected when he is heading to the entry and weaving (you didn’t use it as much later in the session). Treat the weaves like a tunnel: cue the entry, see him lock on, then run without supporting them that much. Watch him just enough to see if he weaves or not 🙂
When your ribs are feeling better, add more running for this game 🙂 And, a new challenge that is popping up in UKI and ISC: swap the tunnel and the weaves in this setup, so he has to go right past the tunnel to find slightly recessed weaves. I am not sure I like this new challenge we are seeing, but might as well prepare for it!
>Added a couple of clips from 2 weekends ago where we had some of this on our courses – I LOVE it when camp stuff shows up immediately for me in a trial.>
OMG! That makes me happy! Well done! These are all things we have been showing the dogs in some form recently, and it looks like he found them to be pretty easy!
>so I used my Gamblers run to practice the weave layer for the Masters Agility class that came after it.>
If the judge was not wanting people to practice it, he would not have had that setup in gamblers. Thanks, judge!
>I’m too short so to see if he hits the entry so I have to like peek under the dogwalk. >
Ha! That is relatable!
>I want to work on the contact exit skills next so will set that up. >
That is perfect for not having to run much. You can replace the start wing with a short tunnel if you wanted more speed into it.
>He’s still having LOTS of issues with aframes in trials when he extends and just leaps apex, lands halfway down downramp and strides off. At some RDW issues when his stride really extends and his beautiful perfect hit 4 stride becomes a 3 stride that leaves the dogwalk 12″ above the contact.>
Often the discrepancy is in the arousal state in training versus trialing. We train the dogs in 2 different states, and that can hinder trial performance because the higher arousal state will change their mechanics… which changes the striding. There are a gazillion studies in humans about this (state dependent learning and memory) and so we just assume that mammal brains are close enough to each other to also apply this to dogs 🙂 And it works incredibly effectively – and it is also efficient because we can do fewer reps if the internal states match up as much as possible.
So as you are working the skills on the contacts – only work them in the highest arousal you can muster from him. How to do this? I think you’ve played the 10 tunnel game with him, where he zips through the tunnel 10 times in a row til he is basically frothing at the mouth 🤣😂 then immediately cue the contact behavior you are training. Wild tugging can get this (when your ribs are feeling good again) and also adding a LOT of speed with big distances before the skill will get the higher arousal too. Ive also played loud fast music AND had my other dogs help by barking their heads off.
And while I am getting that arousal state, the behavior is sliced into smaller pieces so there is more chance of success. And we don’t want 100% success – it is that friction of habit of failure that actually advances the learning the most. So try to get at least 1 failure out of every 9 to 10 reps. And doing 10 reps might be hard while maintaining the arousal state, so you might only get 4 or 5 reps in which is fine too.
>’m trying – for the first time with running contacts a “hit it” type cue after the runnning contact obstacle cue to see if that gives him the clarity he needs. I really don’t want to have to use that long term since I really like being able to tell him once he’s committed to the contact with the contact verbal how to exit the contact and to which obstacle, but so far that’s way too often leading to missed contacts when his stride gets really extended.>
Maybe eventually the hit it cue can be the obstacle cue – hit it for the frame and spot for the RDW, instead of obstacle names? Then you will still be able to tell him how to exit – I agree that is important!
>He did great on this today in a short session so we’ll see if it translates and gives him the clarity he needs.>
Keep me posted on how he does!
Tracy
