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Hi!
> I videoed my walk through (click/treat #1 for me), haven’t watched it side by side yet (I’ll probably have to use two devices). >
If you still have the original footage, you can send it to me via wetransfer.com (my address is agilityuniversity@gmail.com) and I can do the overlay or side by side. I think the run was a little faster than the walk through, so you can try to get your walk throughs faster than the run because that makes the runs feel easier.
> I ATTEMPTED to use a bunch of verbals he doesn’t know yet, slapping them on (click/treat #2). I wasn’t perfect in actually saying the right ones when running, but I tried. He’s probably never gonna actually learn them, but at least I still moved well enough to cue the things physically, something I struggle doing successfully in trials (splitting brain power between using verbals and moving well). Click/treat #3 I guess?>
Yes and Yes! Yay! Part of the verbal emphasis with Roots is getting you ready for running Beat.
>We hit a little snag (ok, it had the potential to be a HUGE snag). As I was walking him out to the course, he discovered a nest of baby bunnies RIGHT WHERE THE START LINE WAS.>
Holy sh*t that is a huge distraction! Good boy Roots!!! Good job to you for not freaking out (I probably would have freaked out LOL) Thanks for keeping it in the video, it was cool to see! I also would have responded strongly when he went to the nest, probably with something like a “HEY I WILL SHIV YOU IF YOU EAT THE BABY BUNNIES” LOL! I have a big “no killing things except mosquitos and ticks” rule here.
But seriously, that is a super hard distraction and he was AMAZING. He was for sure aware of the nest, but look at him hold the long stay and focus forward to the jump when asked. WOW!!
> I videoed my walk through (click/treat #1 for me),>
Yes, another click/treat here for sure, because during the walk through there were multiple spots where I could see where the dog was. That is the goal!! And I could hear verbals. Yay! I bet you can be more aggressive in the walk throughs: loud and faster! I like your handling plan overall, and the cool part is that I could tell what it was in the walk through and where Roots would be.
The first run went super! 1 through 14 was really spot on! My only suggestion was to add a brake arm on 10 (jump between weaves and tunnel) to tighten up the turn – but you added it in run 2 and it was very effective at 4:23! Super!
The lead out 1-2-3 looked good and you got a nice turn on 3! The 5-6 line might be able to be handled from more of a distance going into the BC 6-7 – sending to 5 from further can draw him into the turn with a slightly tighter line. You can also play with not diogn the BC to flip him away over 7 and maybe even layer the 6/18 jump when he is on the DW. Excellent send to the weaves off the DW!!
>Only mistake on our first try was the wrong side of the threadle wrap. Click/treat to me for not losing it and feeling like a failure for messing that up!>
Yes, you needed to turn your line of travel more to set the line to the threadle, basically turning away from the jump – you were facing the front of the jump a bit too much so he read it as a front side (or you can try for a BC there to set up a push wrap). It was a small blooper but you are DEFINITELY not a failure! When you did the fix at 2:34, you turned to the line better (note your feet were pulling away from the jump) and he was great.
One thing that was also strong about that moment was that you didn’t fix it on one jump – you fixed it in flow from the line before it, which means the handling had to be fixed and not just doing it as a one-jump exercise 🙂
You absolutely nailed it at 4:32.
The rest looked great! The 17-21 was really hard but you were very connected and timely, so he was able to read it. Yay! You might consider slicing him to the right on 20, as it might be faster that the wrap to the left – and not considerably more yardage either.
>Another click/treat for me STOPPING THE VIDEO and going to sit in the shade and actually watching it back before attempting the whole course a second time. Pretty sure it was my feet turning towards the front of the bar that cued the front side. >
Yay! You are in the minority, most people keep going without really seeing what happened. But watching the video really helps us see what happened to fix for the next run. I agree with your assessment that it was your feet turning to the front of the bar.
>Second try, I was trying to get him to be more clear about focusing on jump 1 before releasing, to me it looked liked he was looking at jump 2, but he self released and took 1 any way, probably because he DID know which jump it was and was like “get on with it, I know where we’re going”.>
Ha! Yes – he was like “I KNOW WHICH JUMP IT IS, SURELY YOU HAVE RELEASED ME” LOL And right before the release on the next run, he looked towards it and leaned towards it to really emphasize that he knew – he cracks me up!
>Next attempt I never really gave him turning cues on 5, I was still saying go on go to cue going straight after the a frame to the jump, never gave a verbal or physical turn cue really. >
Yes – and he had an impressive response to his go cue LOL!! It was not a problem on the first run so no worries about the extra credit here.
The last run looked awesome, start to finish!
> (No click/treat there, but I AM trying!)>
No worries about imperfect verbals here and there! You still get rewarded for your effort 🙂 The more you do that, the easier it gets!
One other thing worth talking about is that your connection is looking great – on the first run and the last run (both of the full runs), your connection was spot on throughout! That makes a huge difference in the runs, he always knew where to go. And most of your verbals seemed pretty automatic – yes, there are spots where you are still thinking about it but for the most part, you are getting them out while maintaining great connection. That is also leading to lovely timing – I don’t see any late parts to bug you about 🙂 Connection makes good timing more automatic!
Now, of course we want this success to transfer to trials. How often do you run big courses like this at home, start to finish? That is something to do more frequently if is it rare. If it is something you do pretty often, we can add more distractions to make both of you feel like you are in a more trial-like state 🙂
Fantastic job here!
TracyHi!
Yay! I am so excited that Grace gets to play! She did great here!
>There is a question about how much string cheese I should be feeding her but I thought it would be easy to find. Not so much apparently.>
Yes, we don’t want her to have too much cheese 🙂 I think it did take an extra moment to find it but it was still pretty quick.
> In fact she was more motivated for the toy which is probably a good thing!>
She was very happy to play this with the toy! So you can do some cheese but mainly the toy as the reward. You can also spread out the jumps so she finds that at bigger and bigger distances – gradually spread them out as much as possible so she learns some big distance skills 🙂
And you can add the 2nd level of lazy games too! Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
The countermotion on the circles wraps is really hard!! Arrow did best when you were still on what would be the landing side is a bar was there (like at :26, :38, 1:35), meaning there was a little less countermotion and you were more visible.
> except for a couple of wraps where Arrow balked – b/c I got my timing wrong, and I was rushing, I think.>
On those reps, you were driving forward more and faster, which is wrong or rushing – it is actually desirable! You were trying to get more to the takeoff side and not be as visible on the landing side. But at this stage of training, you can help support the commitment with connection shifting while you do that: as you drive forward, shift your connection to the landing spot (looking behind you and not at Arrow). You can also point to the landing spot with the arm closer to the wing, to help him see you look at it and point at it as you move forward.
On the reps where he had a question (:11, :45, 1:09, 1:23) you were either looking at him or looking ahead to the next wing, so I think the connection shifting and pointing back will definitely help!
The threadle wraps looked fabulous! Your connection was spot on – you did not look forward or ahead of him, you were locked onto him and (when he turned away) the landing spot on the other side of the wing. The other thing that helped was that you decelerated into the threadle wraps, and didn’t run forward again until he was committing to turning to the wing. That is 100% correct! That really helps with commitment and his turns were lovely too!
Well done!
Tracy
Hi!
> so I didn’t have to pull the tunnel bags back out>
Ha! I totally relate, tunnel bags are annoying LOL!!
This session went GREAT!!!! Most of it was perfect: FCs 1 then 2 wings, perfect. FCs on all 4 wings – perfect. Race track around 4 wings: perfect. 2 FCs to race track: perfect! Yay!!
There were a couple of questions sprinkled in:
At :15, I think you moved away really fast and that surprised him, so he came with you (but it is the only time it happened).
You did a spin at :23 and :33 rather than a FC, so he ended on the side of you that pointed to the race track wing on his line, so off he went! You hadn’t decelerated or shown the toy like you did at :28, so he was correct to stay on the line around the outside there. Good boy!
He took a different wing than the one you wanted at 1:10 – I think you were blocking the wing you wanted a bit, and then you looked at him and not behind you so he went to the red wing. The rest were very clear though and he had no questions.
The last rep of FC to race track to FC was great too!
For the next session, you can spread the wings out even more and that means you will run more too 🙂 which also means more deceleration needed to get him to turn on the wings for the FCs. He is ready for it!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Hi! Sends the clips! That sounds frustrating!!! (Training young dogs can alternate between glorious highs and big frustrating moments). It seems odd that she was going around 1. Going past 3 (after the tunnel) seems less odd, so the plan was to do a big turn cue before she entered the tunnel. But spending timing getting 1 and 2 made that harder, I bet. Send the clips and either we will see something to tweak or we can trash them and try again. I feel the pain of sometimes just having a poopy session!
T
Hi!
>Yes, I have loved teaching weaves ever since a friend showed me how 2×2’s work. In the early 2000’s, she came home from Susan Garrett’s and used her fingers to demonstrate how to start with a “tunnel” and rotate the sets-of-two in order to develop the weaving motion. I was SO EXCITED. My previous dog was taught on channels and never totally understood. All subsequent dogs have been taught with 2×2’s>
That is so cool!! I didn’t know you used 2x2s – it is a pretty genius concept. Funny story: SG was developing the concept when I was an apprentice – I have strong memory of her and Mary Ellen Barry and a couple of other big names discussing & planning it in the back room of a facility in Philadelphia, using plastic knives sticking out of a block of Philadelphia cream cheese. I have never looked at cream cheese the same way again LOL!
Looking at the video:
>Enzo
Well first, once I reminded Enzo that “Dig” meant wrap a jump (not just U-turn to the right), I was very happy with pop out #2.>I think he was also reading the direction of your shoulders there:
at :09, you were closer to the red jump and by using the left arm high to point, your shoulders and feet were turned to the line to the red jump.Compare to :21, where you were in basically the same spot but had a lower arm and more connection so your shoulders/feet faced the wrap jump better. – that, plus an extra step as he entered the tunnel go more commitment.
You can get even more commitment with less arm – as he exits the tunnel, keep the dog side arm lower and further back so you can use it to help send him to the jump – that will also keep your feet and shoulders facing the correct jump. You did this “less arm at the start of the send” approach on the beginning of the next sequence (:31 – :33) and it worked beautifully. Your arm started back at his nose and moved with him during the send, rather than already being ahead of him and up in the air.
The rest looked really strong! The FC on 6 with the earlier rotation and great connection at :26 set up a lovely ending!
>So happy, in fact, that I added pop out #3 on the fly. That was not the best plan, since I tried to get down for a FC between 4 and 5 (disconnect, skipped #3, not going to make it anyway).>
Yes – 1-2 was great then he was not sure which side to be on for 3-4. But it is great to seeing you running hard enough to disconnect!
On the second rep you flipped him away to 2 and I think that worked better than the send then post turn of reps 1 and 3, in terms of you getting ahead again for 3-4-5 and for him finding 3 very easily
>I think it is interesting that he totally knows he is going to “wrap” #5 but chooses to slice, land, turn.>
I see what you mean there! Looking at it in slow motion, I think he is asking how much of a wrap collection you want – there is a little extra forward motion into it and that is making your feet late to turn, so he is a little wide. You can play with decelerating sooner, sending him past you with decelerated cues, and as soon as he passes you feet: turn them to the new line. That should get the collection on the takeoff side of the jump.
>Casper was pretty funny but he caught on. I included a few “good” ones.>
These were definitely good!! You can add more of your motion, like walking through a serp and asking him to sit while you are still slowly moving, then releasing him to take the jump. And you can send him to the backside and into the plank to sit, while you do crosses or serp too! And if that goes well, you can raise the bar.
> ALSO, I realized he is quite weak in his core, so I’m starting the sit to sit-pretty exercise. Not sure why he doesn’t know it. Previous dogs have known: sit/sit-pretty/up/and back down under control. All while staring at a cookie, of course!!>
The PT vets have been discouraging the sit pretty lately, as they feel it has too much spinal compression. My PT vet has replaced it with down to stand to down with no foot movement (at first) and then when that is easy: down to stand to down to stand while I am holding one of the dog’s front feet up in the air. That is VERY hard! And of course pop back sits can mix in: stand – sit – stand – down, etc,
>Today’s weave challenge was dog weaves north while handler walks south. I have actually used something very like this in a trial and I really want to have it. We have a pretty good beginning. On the last rep, he shocked me by being successful even though I was holding the toy instead of having it planted ahead.>
That was awesome, especially the last rep when the toy was in your hand and not on the ground. AMAZING!!!
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>Another session I thought went very well, other than nearly breaking herself at the end>
I agree, this went great! She was fast AND tight on the turns, thanks to your connection, position on the line, and deceleration into the turns. Click/treat for you both!
And yes, she had a little fall-on-your-face moment but I think that was her hashing out the mechanics of these turns having deceleration followed by big acceleration. That is why I still ask the pups to do this on wings (less chance to break themselves as we handle)!
The FCs and spins at the beginning were lovely!
When adding the circle wraps:
>I was especially impressed with her practically fixing herself on the wrap that she pulled off of. I didn’t do much other than shift my gaze back to the wing (where I should have been looking any way) and she was like “oh yeah, that”. Didn’t have to show any motion back towards the wing, bit of a big girl moment in my eyes.>
Yes! She was SO GOOD!!!
Also yes – the connection shifting back to the ‘landing’ spot really helps with commitment at tis stage of training. You did that on all the other reps and she was pretty perfect!
As you ramp up this circle wrap skill (because she has a future in UKI where she will see these circle wraps), you can add in the game from CAMP where you move through the circle wraps kind of slowly but *without* connection and throw the reward back behind you to solidify commitment as we strip away the connection shift to landing.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Ha! Yes, there was a bit of freestyle happening but it is still good practice for handling!
On the first couple of reps, you did a FC on the tunnel exit – that would actually work better as a blind, so it can be finished sooner and he can get right on the line. He had to wait to get past you to the wing as you were finishing the FC there.
When you were going from the wing back to the original tunnel entry, try it it as a spin instead of a post turn, both to work the spin skill and tighten the turn.
On the FC at :25, :33 – he was committing really well, nice connection from you too! Add in deceleration so you can both cue the turn sooner and power out of the FC sooner. You were running then rotating, so the momentum caused an extra step so you could plant your foot to turn. On a jump, that changes the cue timing and could lead to a wider turn. So deceleration will help you cue the turn and rotate to move away, all before he gets to the wing (or jump when it is a jump).
Nice work here!
TracyOMG these runs were SO NICE!!! Bummer about the bars in what were otherwise perfect runs.
I put them on a big screen and played them in slow motion: I don’t think you were late! On both bars (:32 in video 1 and :38 in video 2) you looked forward and rapidly accelerated as she was taking off – towards the end of the course where you were getting ready for the big ending line. The rest of the run was pretty connected and controlled in terms of steady motion over the bars (accelerations happenings at contacts/tunnels/weaves). So really emphasize the connection and steady motion (no sudden changes) because the smaller distances in AKC don’t allow for a lot of room for adjustment if she sees a sudden change.
Keep me posted on how the rest of the runs go!
Tracy
Good morning!
The blind cross run at the beginning looked great!
Bar down at :15 – his starting spot was too close, he didn’t have enough room to power out of the stay. The bar after the tunnel there was probably because you were undecided about stopping or continuing 🙂
He was further back at :30 and after that, and had no trouble clearing the bar on jump 1 🙂
>I tried both with the toy in my pocket and in my hands and I don’t think it made a huge difference!
I don’t think the toy in hand or pocket made a difference, he was a super good boy!!!The toy falling at 1:05 was great because it rewarded a nice jumping effort! It might have been accidental but we can say it was a brilliant reward placement 🙂
>I think I was late every time and he took the bar lol.>
Yes, it is really hard to get a good FC on this particular setup because it is hard to slow down to start it then finish it all before he takes off for 4 (I think I am late with them too in the demo video LOL!).
The reason that the BC is better than the FC here is because the BC can be finished earlier because there is no need to slow down or rotate – that allows him to see the next line sooner and it allows you to set up the turn on 5 and 6. With the FC being harder to get on time, the info for 5 is delayed and then 6 is delayed.
So definitely choose BCs in this type of setup: FCs are not as useful here for sure!
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Please ignore the bucket – there was a huge ant bed there! When is summer going to be over??!!!>
OMG!!! For real, this has been a hard summer. We have 60 degree temperatures coming in tomorrow for about 24 hours and I am VERY EXCITED LOL!!!! I hope your area gets some relief too.
The tandem turn session went great! She is really paying attention to the outside arm as part of the cue – because she is responding to it so nicely, you don’t have to turn your feet away from the wing as much.
For example, in spots like :05-:06, :23, :43 and 1:26 when you kept your feet pretty parallel to the line you wanted her to get on to get to the correct side of the wing
Compare to spots like :33-:35 and :52-:53 when you stepped back away from the line, and she almost turned away too much!
That is good to know – to get the tandems, you can give her enough room to get to the correct side of the wing but you don’t need to pull her off of it the line a lot because her response to your hand cue is really excellent!
Great job! You can try the threadle wraps now, where you keep moving forward past the wing.
Tracy
Good morning!
The GO and the right turns (wrap on the jump and turn on the tunnel exit) looked really strong!
>She threw in a bonus weave from a soft turn out of the tunnel so I took advantage of that.>
That was great! So fun!
>We started on the dogwalk obstacle which went fine till we tried a left wrap cue>
I think a couple of things were happening here:
On the first left wrap at :34, there was no GO cue to get extension on the tunnel exit, then when she looked back to ask the question, she saw the high arm which turned your shoulders to the backside. When you got the right wrap really well at :12, you had given her a strong GO! That got her extended on the tunnel exit which helped her see the jump.
The other thing happening on the left turns might be that she might also having been showing a side-preference: she seems to be right-handed 🤣😂 When she had a question here at the end, she would offer a right turn instead of a left turn. This is useful info! If left turns are harder, then you will want to break that side down and be closer for now to convince her to turn left (and reward it).
The first part of that would also include lots of GO reps when she is on your right side: she will be on a left lead for those, which is the first step to convincing her to turn left when you cue the harder turns.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Great job with this! I always find this walk-versus-run to be really hard with young dogs but I think this went really well. it gets easier as the youngsters get more experienced.
>I was having a hard time even knowing how to handle the #4 jump because of the way she usually blasts out of tunnels with this kind of set up. However that was probably the best part of the whole run is that she actually turned lol.>
The turn on 4 is a definite decision-point! I turned left (wrap) there based on it being a better line to 5. It looks like your set up had 5 a little further over so it is possible that the slice to the right was better, as long as it didn’t open up the backside of 5 instead of the front.
Leading out by positioning yourself already at 4 was smart 🙂 because she can send 1-2-3 then you are already there for 4-5! And she turned really well, good girl!!!!
And specifically for Lu, in terms of planning – there is a lot of acceleration on the line to the 6 tunnel, so using a turn cue to get her to see 7 can really help. It will feel more exaggerated for now, but that is fine because as she gains experience you can exaggerate it less and less, trusting her to find the jump more independently.
Comparing the walk to the run:
The opening looked great and pretty identical walk-to-run. Super!
Jump 4 – on the run, you had to stay there a bit longer to get commitment – nice job staying connected!
>I watched my first attempt and thought I had lost exit line connection on #4. So tried to exaggerate it for the next attempt and did not go well.>
It was more of a motion question than a connection question:
When you started moving to 5, she was still adjusting her take off spot at 4 (had not yet really committed to a line) so she read your motion (correctly) as a rear cross, good girlie!
Excellent job trying to stay in motion and keep going – that is key to trial success! You were a little in her way, so she went to the backside of 5.
On the 2nd run, you put a lot of pressure on the takeoff spot of 4 which created a left turn, plus the quick movement made it an extended left turn so she went to 1 to turn left.
That pressure caused you to block the landing line you wanted, so you can be more upright and moving/indicating to the slice landing spot so the line is clear – you can indicate the slice line by pointing to the slice landing spot and looking at it, as you move away forward from the wing.
You showed it to her as a FC at :11 and she did well! It can also be a throwback where you indicate that slice line then do a BC on the exit.
She had pretty tight turn at :11 and the line to 5 still read as a backside line. So two options there: don’t exit 4 with her on your left side – you can exit with her on your right side to get a tighter line to the front of 5, delaying the blind to your left until after she is on the line. Or, keep her on your right and RC takeoff of 5. She can work the 6-7-8 line at a distance with no problem.
For the tunnel exit at 6-7 – yes, Lu said she did need a turn cue before it. Also, things being a little sideways can cause youngsters to watch more and flank lines a bit, so that seemed to play in here too. She was organizing nicely for the jumps that were clear, so running past stuff seemed to be more of a question about which line to take. So while she is still 6 feet or more away from entering the tunnel, you can give a big loud verbal and 2 hands so she turns to find the 7 jump.
Nice work here!!!
TracyGreat to see Enzo in action!!! He seemed happy to be back doing agility 🙂
Both runs looked really good – we can tighten up a couple of turns:
On both runs, you can use a wrap verbal on 2 to get a tighter turn. When you are keeping him on your right, you can have 2 hands raised as part of the cue (and also use his distance skills to put yourself further up the line near the tunnel – that will help tighten the turn and make the flip easier).
When you were doing the FC to put him on your left, you can send him to 2 while positioning yourself closer to the tunnel entry and even as far up the tunnel towards the exit as you think he will still commit to 2. It makes it easier to get 3 and will naturally set up a better turn on 2 and get you even further ahead.
>His flip was very wide>
I think he was surprised by it – you started it just before he exited the tunnel, so you can try moving up the timing so he sees it before he enters the tunnel. Another thing to try is using the outside arm too – if the low inside arm is not a big enough visual coming out of a straight tunnel, the outside arm being used with it can really catch his attention.
>I was LATE with the “left” cue on the second to last jump.>
Yes – the left cues can begin as soon as he is exiting the jump after the tunnel, on the flip or on the backside wrap. You had some extra verbals in there (like Go and Jump) which I don’t think he needs.
>Then there are the two best examples of Casper doing the organized front wrap.>
This is looking good!!!! You can add a little challenge by releasing as soon as his butt hits the sit 🙂 And you can also be slowly moving the whole time, walking though the FC even before you release him. Let me know how he is doing with the slice angles with this skill!
>Finally some weave training with Casper. This is in here just for fun – we like to train weaves. We are working on “go left to weave right”. Casper is starting to develop some mad weaving skills!>
OMG! He is doing so well, plus he seems to really really love the weave challenges! You have alway been excellent with your weave training, so I am not surprised that Casper is also becoming a rockstar weaver. Yay! In the next set of challenges, I have a set of weave challenges coming – I think it will be great to add to Casper’s toolbox!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
This session went really well, her commitment was no problem at all! And when you asked for a tunnel turn? She was perfect. Happy dance!!!A couple of ideas for adding challenge:
The visual blockers on either side of the tunnel will change her processing, so definitely add in the wings extending from each side of the center of the tunnel as if it was a dog walk plank. And if that is easy, you can put the tunnel under the actual dog walk 🙂
You can also let her see you slam on the brakes while still cueing the GO to the jumps and weaves: as she is approaching the tunnel, you can keep using your verbals but stop your motion abruptly – that challenges her to process verbals to override motion.
For the jump – you can sometimes use the GO and sometimes mix in a turn cue on the jump, like a wrap verbal. That is HARD but great for distance work too!
Nice job here!
Tracy
