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Hi!
Showing her all the variations with jumps and hoops is great for her NADAC future! And if you can get enough tunnels, you can do this with all tunnels too (FUN!!)
She did great here! She committed really well with the lazy game and then as you added speed and handling, she was committing brilliantly too! Nice job with the blinds – the most important past is the connection after the blinds (so she knows which side of you to be on) and she had no questions about that. Super!!! As she gets more experienced, you can start the blinds sooner without pulling her off the line.
Next step: keep adding the handling but spread the jumps out to add a much distance as possible in your yard.
Great job!!
TracyHi!
He is collecting nicely into the wraps!
>I wrapped the middle jump in the pinwheel as well as the one facing the tunnel and I’m not really sure why I did that. >
It was a good challenge, and your best timing happened on the rep there at :43!! You started the decel and cues for the wrap as he was over the previous jump, so he was fantastic on the wrap there.
On the first rep wrapping the middle jump, you were a little late starting the cues – he had already landed at :11. You can connect more when you are starting the wraps, keeping your dog-sit shoulder open to him. When you closed the shoulder, forward as yo started the wrap, his hedd came up, asking a bit of a question
The wrap cues for the outside jump can start at the same time as you started the cues at :43 – when he is over the previous jump (middle jump on those), start the decel and verbal. On the reps at :24 and :58, you started when he was halfway to the wrap jump, so he couldn’t adjust before takeoff and turned after landing.
>I also repeated one blind cross and tried to get a bit more lateral from the jump this time.>
That looked great!! Super nice line and connection on the blind to the tunnel at 1:12!!
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
>For those in the back who did not hear Tracy asked me to connect less!! 🤣>
Shout it from the rooftops! You can disconnect! But only in that one spot, connect everywhere else 😁
Sequence 1 walk through – Good job with the verbals and adding your speed to it! My only suggestion is to connect more to the invisible dog. You were tending to look forward at the obstacles a bit (especially at the tunnels). I want to be able to see where your invisible dog is, like I could see at the exit of the wrap at 4 -that was great connection!
Having a little less connection works really well for Cricket because she knows the game really well, and your teamwork is super solid 🙂 And the runs looked super!!! You over-ran the 2nd to last jump on the 2nd rep so she went wide and past the last jump but otherwise everything was great.
On Taq’s walk through, you can connect more to her, really exaggerate it in the walk through because young dogs need that exaggerated connection.
You held position to support the send to the wrap jump in the walk through, which is great! But you turned sideways on the send, pointing with your arm but turning your shoulders away from the jump which can create a question for a young dog (:11)I also think you were running slow than Taq-speed, so try to ramp up your motion in the walk through to get the feel of Taq-speed 🙂
The opening of her first run went well – you were definitely moving faster than the walk through 🙂 but you had your connections and verbals! Yay!
At :35, you sent her exactly like you did in the walk through (pointing at the jump but turning away from the jump). So she did not take the jump.Ideally on the sends, your arm stays back more (following her nose) so your feet & shoulders face the jump for longer, until she passes you and commits to it. That is more of what you did at :51, but at 1:22 you went back to being pointy and turning away. Be sure to watch the video between each run, so you can see what the handling is cueing.
You asked her there “what are you doing?” And she said “following your cues” 🤣😂😁
Her other question on the first run was at 7 (:41) – you didn’t move up the line enough after she exited the tunnel with enough connection, so she turned with your shoulders. At :14 in the walk through, it was exactly what you walked. At :55 you gave a stronger GO before the last tunnel so she exited straigher… but you turned at :56 (before she was committed) so she second-guessed and came off the line). At 1:27 you faced the jump after the tunnel for longer… so she took it. Yay!
On all of the fix & resends in the moment on the runs, you were facing the lines correctly.
>I have noticed she does not carry well to the wraps so wrote that down to work on separately.>
I think it was more about the change of line of your shoulders. She was following your line pretty perfectly! And she is too young to save your butt 😂
So for Taq’s walk throughs, exaggerate the handling and connection, keep your arms back, and take nothing for granted. She was reading you perfectly 🙂 Young dogs need extra support on lines, especially on tunnel exits. If you ramp up your connection, you will be facing the lines more and also you will see if she is committing or not.
Nice work here!!
TracyThanks for the update!!
>Question: Is it best to run them only once? More trial like and not get in the habit of getting it only on the 2nd turn?>
I think the best use of these sequences is to walk them very thoroughly and at the speed of the dogs. Then run it once! If something goes wrong, review the video, make an adjustment, then run it again. Then you can break it down into skills if you like, such as getting a tight turn at the end of a big line. That is probably a timing issue, bigger, clearer, earlier cues needed 🙂
>(I just couldn’t make myself pull out the tunnel LOL) >
I can totally understand that🤣😂
>both boys were able to find the jump easily.
Super!!
> Question: When adding a new cue in this case strengthening the verbal you use new cue “weave” pause and then the physical cue, correct? eventually fade out the 2nd cue. I want to make sure the sessions are not too frustrating, so I kept it super short and stepped in to help and their 2nd attempt.>
Yes – it would be new cue then the old cue. You can hold his collar, start saying the weave cue, then let go and move to the weaves. Holding the collar prevents him from moving until he has heard (and hopefully processed) the weave cue and letting go is the permission to start moving.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
FUN! Enjoy!!! I am escaping to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for the weekend to escape the terrible weather here!
T
Good morning!
Super nice session here! By staying in motion more and being on the line that shows him the wing, you were able to get an extra step or two ahead and be more accelerated on the next line. And his commitment is looking strong: you were looking forward more as he passed you, and he committed to the bar without needing extra help (you will see more of that in the super independent obstacle game posted yesterday). And his turns were gorgeous! Super!!
Tracy
Hi!
Keep me posted about what the conditioning person says. He’s at about the right age for sports evaluation stuff anyway – that can help with all the jumping stuff. And for motivation, keeping sessions short with surprising fun rewards will help! And he will be very motivated when it is easier in terms of mechanics too 🙂
TracyHi!
>but plan on setting up the walk through! We have a trial this weekend. I will likely also set up some big long lines for both girls!>
Fun! The walk through stuff should give you ideas for the trial this weekend!
>I tried to test her fluency on slice ( Introduced to her recently). We will stick with back as her single cue! It has worked well.>
I will continue to try to talk you into have 2 separate cues, one for wrap and one for slice 🙂 Separate cues given info sooner for pretty different behaviors.
You are going to laugh because I am going to tell you to look at her less LOL!!! As soon as she gets to the backside commitment plane, look forward (totally disconnect) but also throw the toy to the landing spot. You are looking at her too much as she is coming to the takeoff side so you need to disconnect more 🤣😂
Think of it as sliding past the exit wing while doing a blind
At 2:24 and 3:34, the disconnect and countermotion were really good, but you were waiting to see if she took the jump before throwing the reward. Don’t wait for that, for now – as soon as you look forward because she is committing to the backside, you can throw the to as you move forward. Remember that we are rewarding committing to the backside while also building up value for the bar by throwing the reward past it to the landing side 🙂 In other words: throw immediately so she learns to look for the bar as you drive forward past the jump.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
>I think I get the concept of messing with the visibility of the entry to both obstacles. I don’t have a curve in the tunnel because I am very hesitant to carry more tunnel bags. I don’t “approve” of only 2 sets of bags even on a straight tunnel but that’s that best I can do right now.>
I will send you drawings with straight tunnel and jump setups where the jump moves and the tunnel (and tunnel bags) do not move 🙂
>I am quite hesitant to mess with the pitch/volume/rhythm of my verbals because I doubt that I will be able to execute that in a trial. >
I admit it took some practice but the results were worth it! I walked around my house practicing without the dogs a lot LOL!!
>Also, would I use the louder verbal for the one further away or would tunnel always be louder/quicker and jump lower/slower?
I like to be consistent, so the tunnel verbal is always loud/long and the jump verbal is quieter/more conversational.
You are doing a great job keeping your motion pretty neutral and he was finding the obstacles pretty well on the original setup! Swapping obstacle positions was harder at first – this is where you can rotate the jump to be closer to 90 degree, so it is more visible past the tunnel.
He really does seem to like this puzzle, I am impressed with how he is able to keep moving fast, doesn’t get deflated, and is working to figure it out! Super!!!
>I thought it was going well, so I added in the weaves. That isn’t even on the video because it was such a goat rodeo. >
Goat rodeo is one of my favorite phrases LOL!!! It is possible that he used up all of his brain juice and there was nothing left for adding weaves… thus the goat rodeo outcome 🙂
>I’m going to stick with just the tunnel and jump for a while longer. Or, what about if I pull out the jump and use just tunnel and weaves?>
Absolutely! You can do tunnel-weaves, or jump-weaves. Both are pretty common discriminations lately.
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
Poor Beat! Hope she is feeling better!Sequence 1 went great!
>Repeated that first sequence trying to get off his line 2-3. >
Mission accomplished, he had a much better line there 🙂
>Roots would need some intentional shaping of the line there or he would slice it, so I did it with Pick too yesterday.>
It would be interesting to see what Roots does with foot rotation as he is exiting the previous jump but without the shaping? Same physical cue as if shaping, but you would be more where you were here with Pick.
>I realized after the fact that it was silly to do, Pick turns easier (he’s slower but I think even at the same speed he turns better) and with jumping a whopping 8” shaping lines is just dumb!>
It wasn’t dumb, but it might be more than needed 🙂 He does turn really well! He reads your decel really well on the other turns!
> He got the backside at 5, but watching it back I realize I helped way too much over the bar and his line was wonky after that (see third sequence).>
On this sequence, there is a bit of convergence/countermotion on 5 to get the smoothest line to 6. You ran it pretty straight which might be why he didn’t see the smoothest line. More on that below.
Pop out 2: Nice forward focus on 1! He read the 1-2-3 serp really well. You pulled away further than you needed to but he stayed on his line nicely!!
The super technical section 5-6-7-8 went great! You can go in closer to the tunnel before moving to 6 to keep moving more so he doesn’t curl in at 1:04 (you were stationary and that caused him to ask a question).
The push to the 6 backside then the spin to 7 were excellent choices and well done! He might have a tighter line to 8 with a brake arm on 7, but that is something to try both ways and time: sometimes with terriers, the wider line is the faster line 🙂
Pop Out 3: This went well too!
You can have him sitting on a really angled slice on 1 to get as straight of a line to 2 as possible. And you can be on a line closer to 2 before you release. He jumped pretty straight over 1 based on his setup and your release position.
At 1:54 he had a a better position for the stay but you can be serping more even before the release (arm back in serp position) and further up the line towards 2.
He had the best line there at 2:42 because he was on more of a slice and you were further ahead and really driving on the release. Yay!
The turn on the tunnel exit is definitely a hard one! You can let him see the FC before 4 sooner. As you do the verbal and brake arms before it, he can see you turning and running away to the next line to set up the next turn.
>But then we were back to not being able to get him to take that backside after the tunnel without me having to take steps in the wrong direction to get him to come in. I>
Yes, because he was not comfortable with you sticking close and doing the bit of countermotion, you had to help which made the line much harder. If you have to help and it might take you off the line, you can get the next jump with an outside arm as if handling a ‘get out’ (which is what it will be if you are hanging back to help).
But, perfect timing to see his questions about this: the independent obstacle game this week is all about getting the dogs to jump the bar on backsides without our help and while we move through a countermotion line. That will help him get this line much more easily
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>On another note, Katniss has gone to 4 flyball practices with my local team (Harrier Jump Jets). She has done AMAZING!!! >
This is SO FUN!!!!! It is a whole new fun sport to enjoy 🙂 You can also come practice with us in Richmond!
>! But I got my IT team (i.e. my husband) to help me figure out the problem.>
It is lovely to have a built in IT division 🙂
>After having a pity party about how this was too hard for us, I decided to do some backchaining using my Manners Minder at the end of the teeter.>
Good for you!! So basically, you whipped out your dog training skills and taught her a really helpful skill. She did great! She nailed it in that first run! Keep rewarding the teeter to maintain the skill.
I think it was Susan Garrett who said “Irritation is motivation”. You used your irritation at the course design to turn it into motivation to train the skill 🙂 Yay!
The opening looked lovely each time!
If she gets sticky on backside pushes like at 1:05 and 2:55 it is mainly a connection question. It ill feel counterintuitive, but using your dog-side arm to point forward to the backside actually cues the front side by turning your shoulders to the front. So keeping the dog-side arm back helps a lot and you can even use your outside arm to help push her to the backside. (Same on the backsides at 8 at 3:05 & 4:07 and 9 at 2:31 – less arm, more eyes 🙂 )
You used less arm at 2:13 and 3:56 and she did great finding the backside!
A little decel on the tandem and making your arms more obvious will help her turn away. When you were isolating the tandem, there was decel built in so she read the cues really well. When you were running into it, you were driving fast then tried to turn her away, so she was not ready for the collection required. then a to more connection to set the line to the tunnel at 1:33. Restarting from the jump there will help with her understanding too and help get you to the next line
She had a bar down in the same spot at 1:51 and 3:31 – on both of those, you were decelerating but facing forwards rather than to the next line. I think you can decel and turn to the next line (like you did at 5:24), and she will be able to set up the turn there.
Ending looked great each time! The backside and the layering were fabulous. Great job with your connection through that section, that is what made it flow so nicely!!
Nice work 🙂
Tracy
Hi, welcome back!! Sorry to hear about all the rain, it has been a gross weather summer!!!
She did well with her lazy hoops! She seemed surprised by the first reward then totally got into the zone of offering the hoops pretty easily. SUPER!!
Since this went so well, you can move on to the parts 2 and 3. And you can spread them out to add more distance! And you can totally use hoops or jumps or a combination of the 2 🙂
>I will stop and brag a minute on Wayne. Trialing has been great for him, really using a lot of the skills we learned from you! Wayne finally earned his first novice Regular Q last weekend and has moved up to the Open Class in both Tunnelers and Gamblers (earned 2x 20 point Q’s last weekend)>
YAY WAYNE!!! He is really blossoming! Congrats on al of your Qs and successes!!!
Tracy
Hi!
She did really well with the tossed cookies here – I love how she just started looking ahead and not at you! Smart!!
The tug break was great and also informative LOL
I admit to snorting out loud when she did her first leapy loo after the tugging. She settled down pretty quickly and regulated her arousal but the leap was helpful information!!
>Do more of this with frequent play breaks to keep the arousal up so she learns to do it in arousal?>>
Yes, exactly. She needs to sort out the mechanics in high arousal, so she needs to be brought into high arousal in order to do that. I was glad to see her be able to regulate so quickly and not continue to leap around!
Do you do any balance stuff with her, on unstable surfaces? You can use the same concept to get her balancing and working the mechanics (it is part strength, part brain training :)). You can get her wild with tugging (on the flat) then on a low slightly unstable surface (or a few of them so the dog can stand naturally and not be compressed), reward her for balancing. Definitely make sure she is already happy to balance on those before you add the arousal, but I am thinking she already knows how to do that 🙂
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
>I tried it today and it did work well.>
Yes! It worked brilliantly!!! Super!!!
This session went really well!
>Now, I have to tell you that I HATE blinds. I cannot do them. I have a mental block and I am scared to try them in real life.>
Thank you for letting me know! It is understandable that you would be concerned about them – we don’t want Ellie to hit you by accident! One thing yo did her was you stayed off of her landing spot, meaning you were pretty far away from her as you did the blind, and that makes them much safer and (hopefully) less scary. Thanks for trying them!!
>The last clip here was actually our first try and it was our best attempt.>
Do you mean the rep at is at 1:50 in the video? That was really lovely, especially because you trusted her to stay out on her line to 3 more, so you could easily get to where you needed o be to show her the front of the jump after the blind. NICE!!!!!
On the reps where she ended up on the other side of the jump after the FC or BC, it was mainly due to you helping her at 3 more than she needed (by staying close to it). Then when you did the FC or BC, you ended up not getting quite far enough over to show her the front of the jump, so she thought you wanted the backside of the jump. Good girl!!!!
So the key is to send her to the #2 tunnel more and be further from 3 and 4 so she find that line independently (as long as you are connected, I am sure she will!) and then you will have an easy time with the FC or the BC.
On the tricks to getting the exit of a blind is to use what I call ‘exit line connection’ where we really open up connection as we finish the blind. It looks like this:
You can use it for front crosses too, but it really makes the difference for blinds.
Great job here!
Tracy
