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Good morning!
> I managed to not use her release verbal until our last rep. Sheesh.
I guess I was using all my brainwaves on my body mechanics.>New mechanics do take up a lot of bandwidth! It helps me empathize with my young dogs when they are trying to concentrate on learning new mechanics for a skill.
Great job with your mechanics here! She is reading the blinds really well and running FAST FAST FAST! That is why you could hear the thundering Bazinga hooves LOL!
The view from behind was really helpful: when you were early with the blinds, it was really easy for her. But when you were a little late by starting the blind when she was more than halfway to you – if your re-connection was quick and clear, she changed sides immediately (:59, 1:06 for example). Now, I am not saying that you should be late 🤣😂 but it sure is nice that your connection is powerful enough that it overrides timing!!
Since this went well, you can give yourself a longer lead out and try getting 2 blinds on the flat 🙂 and you can also start the wing and tunnel games. Keep planning your mechanics before every rep – there were a couple here where the toy was in the incorrect hand but overall, the mechanics were spot on.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We are enrolled for yet another course 🙂>
Welcome! You are going to be busy LOL!!!
>I will be working with Copper for this course, but thinking Bandit can do some of the games as well. Please let me know if that is the case>
I think Copper can do everything in Week 1 for sure (he has already done some of it in MaxPup 1, like the BCs on the flat and the handling combos). He will be able to do some of week 2. Week 3 and 4 are likely to be Copper full time because they are pretty complex.
> here is my first clunky round of flatwork with Copper.>
I think it went really well! It probably felt clunky because the mechanics were very different. That clunky feeling will go away and it will become second nature.
Flatwork 1 – this went well! The first couple of reps just needed a longer lead out. There was not quite enough time for him to see the connection before he had to make a decision. You noticed that and at :59 did a longer lead out – then the rest of the reps were great!
Flatwork day 2: The single blinds went great!
The doubles need a much longer lead out so you have room to get way ahead and show him the 2nd one with enough time. He has a great stay, so you can do a 20 foot lead out with the first blind happening right after the release and the 2nd blind happening a few steps after that.Next steps: doing the flatwork while jogging then running 🙂 When you do that, you might find that it is easier to bend your elbows and keep your arms in tight – that makes the blinds even quicker 🙂
After you can run and do the good mechanics, add the wing games and the tunnel game 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
I am SO GLAD that I am not the only one who yells PIVOT! like Ross every time I see the word hahahaha
And that gift is AMAZING!!! So cool!!!!
He did well with the pivots here – after the first couple of rewards, starting to delay the find it/cookie toss was the key to getting him to pivot. When you were too quick (rewarding as soon as he got his feet on), he was stopping there. But when you were waiting a bit, the pivoting began for real! So… keep waiting 🙂 You can mix up how long you wait before the reward: some will be quick waits, some will be longer. That will allow him to offer more steps. You can even mix in some rewards for being centered in front of you so he has a good reason to get into that center position 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>Your instructions would teach it be shaping. As you can see, I lured.>
There is a definite element of helping (food lure or body pressure lure) to get the pivoting! I am perfectly fine with that all, I like lures 🙂 as long as we can fade the lure when we can’t use it as a cue. For agility, we can totally use food and movement 🙂 but for obedience, we will want him to be able to pivot without body lures or cues (more on that below)
Having him step over the bars was harder for 2 reasons:
– the floor is a little slippery for the balance required (you can see his back feet slipping a bit. Can you move it to carpet or grass?
– yur hands were at your side, so he lost the focal point that helped him pivot. Earlier, your hands were in front of you but a bit high so he was looking all the way up – but if you can have your hands in front of you but halfway down your thigh – I think that will be perfect!>I need to work to phase out the lure.>
Two ideas for you to phase it out!
– you can fade out your movement. Rather than taking several steps, you can take one step and reward him for taking several. Then fade that to just taking a half step (one foot moving towards him). Then when he can do that, you can stand still and let him offer.
– you can start with you standing in front of the perch, and him off to the side. Release him to get on and he will likely get on and pivot towards you. And if you want to reward pivoting into heel position, you can place the reward at your side to encourage him to keep moving into heel position.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi1
Thanks for the video. It looked like a ton of fun! He did GREAT playing, especially in the smaller matted area – there was a lot of pressure with all of those people and dogs watching but he was so happy to play!>Tribute was all in! He had no issues with any of it and I honestly don’t know what I did differently so I don’t know what to repeat!>
From what I can see on the video, you were eliciting a lot of drive to the toy and tugging by throwing the toy, and using a really long toy for him to chase. The toys were moving away from him, not towards him, and you were also moving away. All of that, plus the high value furry fun toys, will get fabulous play/tugging like you had here 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
> I had Carpel tunnel surgery on my hand last Tuesday.
I hope you are feeling better and healing up quickly!
He was so cute when you said “cookies!” – he always seemed so surprised LOL! But he did super well moving away from the treats. You can also use a toy for this. The behaviors you asked for were a lot of obedience which will be useful for obeduience and rally. You can add in some silly tricks (like more hand targets, high fives, spins, etc) that are good for agility 🙂 And you can add in using the leash – having it on to walk away from the treats then taking it off and asking for a trick – that helps simulate entering the ring on leash.
Pivoting is also going well! He was having an easy time when you were moving – pivoting back to center independent of your motion was a little harder, especially moving to his left, so you can add more of that. And for obedience, you can reward him for pivoting all the way around to your side (if he takes a couple of steps back to center, you can place the reward at your side to help him get the idea that it is a good place to be.
> I have pivoted up and down from foam pad also but have not done over a pole. >
Time to add a pole! Be sure to duct tape it down on the ground so it doesn’t roll under his feet 🙂
Nice job with your threadle position, he understood that really well on the first rep – then yes, he had a moment of obsessing on the manners minder (because. YUMMY STUFF!) He worked through it really well, though, and it added a nice distraction challenge! He was still lovely with his stay and the threadle, even if his lineups were a little backwards LOL! So cute! You can mix in serps too, so he reads the difference in your position.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! He did great here with the threadle versus serp! Your position helped make it very clear. Super!
Only one suggestion, about the stay release:
When you leave him in the stay, get your hand and feet in position, hold for a heartbeat or two or three (maybe evenb add some quiet praise), then release him. That way he won’t think the hand movement is the release and cause confusion later on when you move your hand and don’t want the release.
Since this went really well, you can add a couple of things:
– a toy reward from your reward hand
– the reward on the ground – this will change for the serp (reward on the landing side line) versus the threadle (reward on the other side of the bar).
– and you can fade the target out of your hand, and just use an empty hand now.>As he gets bigger, he looks more like Elektra every day. Is she a BorderPap? If so, how big/tall is she now as an adult?>
Elektra is 50% Papillon, 25% Border Collie, and 25% Whippet. She is 15″ tall and weighs about 15lbs. And yes, Bandit does look a lot like her!! Both of them are super cute 🙂
Great job!
TracyOMG Jazz – she was absolutely adorable as she was absolutely not bringing that ball back to you LOL!!! I love her spicy spirit so much (although I am sure you were not loving that moment LOL)
Ok then, Operation Keep The Joy But Bring Back The Ball Is Underway.
I love her speed and joy when running the sequence at the beginning. You cued a right turn and it was such a gorgeous turn that it took her off the next jump! She would need more extension there, but she looked fast and happy.
So we need to figure out how to get the darned ball back or at least get her to come back to you without it – you get a click/treat for looking for patient here trying to get it LOL!!
She seems to be avoiding giving up the ball, like when you tossed a treat and she grabbed the ball again as quickly as possible when she thought you were going to reach for it.
So we can take reaching for the ball out of the game and can do back and forth ball games: throw one ball, then run the other direction, throw ball 2.If/when she chases ball 2, throw ball 3. If/when she chases ball 3, go grab ball 1, lather rinse repeat. She doesn’t need to bring the ball back for you to throw the next ball. Or you can use a disc! That way she is not going to think you are trying to get the ball back – you are just throwing things around.No need to try to do this when trying to train something else, you can actually sit on the ground and do it for now (she does like it when you are on the ground, do I remember that right from the Loretta seminar?). Or bring out your morning coffee or something and just throw things around.
Since this approach may not work :)we can try a social learning approach! This is how my lazy self has taught retrieves to several of my dogs (especially Contraband who used to take his toy a stand by a tree and refuse to even come in the house LOL). Jack is a willing participant!
Bring out a bucketful of balls and discs. Have both poodles around. Throw one for Jazz – she can do whatever she likes with it. As she is parading around, you can then play with Jack however he likes to play: ball or toy throw, the trade for another ball or toy, or even a cookie – then throw a toy again. You will see Jazz start to get interested and you can ask her if she would like a turn (I literally say to my dogs: ‘do you want a turn?’)
If she comes towards you – throw a ball for her, then resume your game with Jack. She will watch and figure it out and get involved. Might take a couple of sessions but she will turn on to the idea of coming back to you (with or without the toy – what matters is that she returns herself to you :))
On the 2nd video – this was fun to work out the timing with her! Jack is more experienced of course and recognized the setup, so he did beautifully.
Jazz did GREAT with all of her stay releases! You can also tweak the opening to send from the other side of the jump so you don’t need to always start with a stay.
On the first run, you did the cross on the middle jump then got a little fancy with another cross 🙂 – but you kept going and that was great!
One of the things that Jazz was doing here was turning really well on the middle jump. And because she is inexperienced, when you were sending to the middle jump so responded with a tight turn so you had to push her back to the next jump before the blind.
So rather than send to the middle jump, you can be further away laterally and accelerate into the line to get more extension on the middle jump – that can make it easier to get up the next line for the cross!
>I automatically defaulted to a front cross for 2 of these.>
No worries! You were working to commit her to the line AND stay connected… this is not easy with an inexperienced dog! But most importantly you stayed connected and kept going, and she had a grand time 🙂
She was so funny on the last rep – when you sent to the middle jump, there was a lot of decel and she was like “are you *sure* you want this much turn?
>Note – I left Jack in so you could see that I do know how to do this (if you had any doubts haha).>
I had no doubts! And I also have green baby dogs so I know how hard it is to run sequences with them 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hello and welome! I am happy that Elektra and I have started making your head explode a little 🙂
>I thought that the “correct” blind cross involved the handler moving across the dog’s line so that the dog’s path didn’t adjust. >
There are definitely a small percentage of blinds where this is the case and it is basically a simple side change with no turn or line adjustment for the dog (“A” in the video). We have to be careful about it, though, as it puts us handlers into the ‘death zone’ which can cause a collision.
But the vast majority of blinds now are used to adjust the dog’s path (“B” on the video) – and the handler path (mouse line🐭) is the key to doing it, along with mechanics of the connection. Timing is relatively important but not as important as line of motion and connection clarity.
I start talking about the mouse line in Wing Work 2, but we go really in depth with it in week 2 and beyond. I didn’t emphasize it much in week 1 because without the connection mechanics, the line of motion is not relevant on blinds – the connection clarity will make or break the blind.
It is completely stolen from the Europeans who have mastered the fine art of blind crossing 🙂 On the flat, you can really see the dog adjust (plus without an obstacle, she is a little hoppity so you see it even more). When we add jumps, you will see it as turn strides before takeoff, depending on the specific line.
Have fun!
Tracy
Good morning and welcome!
>My name is Kathy Povey and I live in the southern Adirondacks.>
I need more caffeine because I read this as Alaska not Adirondacks and I was confused for a moment hahahahaha
> I will be working with Nifty (5 yo BC) and Canny (3 yr old sport mix from Julie Tune, Camper x Munchkin 2.0).>
Super fun! And Canny is a half sibling to my Elektra who will be sharing demo dog duties here.
>For many years, I was from the “no blind crosses” school of handling. Although my brain has let that go, my body sometimes has other ideas.>
SAME!!! And for a long time I was telling people not to do blinds… but then I realized that they were in fact only helpful and NOT ruinous hahaha
> Many times, when running a course, I plan a blind, but when we get to that spot, my body does a front instead. Sonofab*tch!!! Looking forward to the fun.>
You will see a heavy emphasis on mechanics for the first couple of weeks as we build up the sequencing – and your brain will get used to producing blinds.
Have fun!
Tracy
Welcome back! I think you and the girls will have a lot of fun with the blinds 🙂 I am looking forward to seeing you in action!
Tracy
Hi!
The wind in your hair review went well! All of the Go lines looked super! You can slow down & elongate the soft turn verbals so they don’t sound the same as the more rapidfire go go go verbals.
>We’d both benefit if I used the intended directional word for the blinds, and if I said it earlier, >
When he is running around with his reward, walk the next sequence and say the verbals – while the camera is running. That way you can compare to the walk through to the run to see if that moment of practice helps.
Looking at the rear crosses:
> if I moved more clearly to the middle of the jump from the wing (or some of this). The L-run definitely didn’t work, like you said it wouldn’t >Yes, the magic of the RCs is running directly to the center of the bar without getting too far ahead. The best reps where when you waited at the wing then ran forward to the center of the bar. The right turn RCs were definitely harder here –
If you were going strasight for a step or two he was prepared to turn to his left (1:10 for example) then you drove to the center of the bar as he was passing you which pushed him off the bar (1:11).
Pushing into him at 1:14 and 1:19 correctly pushed him to the backside line even though you wanted the RC. Reward his effort and his feedback there!
The rep at 1:27 was better about running forward to the center of jump at 1:56 was great because you were running to the center of the bar the whole time, no straight line steps forward at all and he got the RC beautifully. Super!!!< For the backsides, I need a better plan for myself than to stop moving, as I can see his questions about that. < He actually had very few questions about the backside - only one, but that was a disconnection question. As you were cueing the backside, he saw you shift your connection from him to look forward to the wing at 1:38 so he correctly blind crossed to the front of the jump. ) The next rep was much clearer with connection. > I think you said to keep running around the jump – not sure why I didn’t try it (next time).>
You don’t need to turn to the bar after he gets to the backside – you can keep your feet facing forward and throw the reward behind you to the landing side of the jump as he gets to the backside takeoff spot.
He had one mountain climber rep at the beginning here and it went well! You can keep placing the reward on the target at the top so he practices driving up the board without you. You can also rotate the teeter slightly so he is driving to the top of the board and into basically nothingness 🙂
Backing up into the 4on position was really good! You can give him one cookie in position to keep him standing, then release forward for another cookie in the bowl (he will be happy to get double cookies LOL)
I am not concerned about the sitting – when we add a target at the end and the board is moving, it is highly unlikely that he will sit.
>. I could also remain silent and wait for him to move…instead of “beep beep” for each one; I think him rhythm was better without the words.>
Yes – cueing it then being quiet to let him offer helped get all 4 feet on more consistently.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The countermotion game went really well! Her commitment is looking strong especially when you are moving. There were a couple of reps where she had questins (middle line up at :42, and turn away at :55, similar question at 1:17) but those were all when you were starting and you were both standing still… she was perfect when you were moving so I am not going to worry about the starts 🙂 You can start with a ‘normal’ forward wing wrap then you can move into the countermotion. She did well with the race tracks too! You can add more running to all of these 🙂
She was very happy to run across the slightly bouncy plank! Remember that having her jump on it from the side and more importantly jump off it are very useful for balance. You cna elevate it a little more to work on the hop on/hop off.
And yes, stay connected after the wrap so she knows which obstacle to choose with a tunnel nearby. 🙂
>. She seems focused on me coming across the plank, is this something we want to change or is it ok for now?>
No worries about where to look for now – when you start adding the end position, she will be able to continue looking forward. You can add more tugging in this stage, so she is managing her mechanics and balance even in a higher arousal state.
Great job!
Tracy
