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Hi! This also went well!
When you were behind him, you were very timely and his sends were great! Nice turns! Looks like you have lines on the ground to help out for the timing? Yay! When you were a little ahead, the timing ending up being later: you hit the decel when he was about 1 stride from the jump at :10 and :42). He still turned nicely, but you can hit the decel earlier so you can cue the tight turn and also be already moving the other direction as he is jumping 🙂> I varied where I dlowrd down and turned, but after looking at the video, I don’t think that was what I was supposed to do. I am having an off day!>
You are totally not having an off day – you were working through complex little drills with a very fast dog 🙂 When you were sending him ahead, you were nailing the timing of the decel being earlier than you might expect. So you can match that timing when you are ahead – when he a stride or so past the exit of the wing wrap, I bet that is the sweet spot for the decel to start no matter where you are.
Since he has a lot of skills on this setup, you can mix them all up to make sure he is reading the cues. You had Go reps mixed in (yay!) and they looked great. You can also mix in rear crosses and those backside wraps – it will challenge you both to be able to run them all in one session.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
OMG his stay looks great, even with you jogging to your start position! He even caught himself and re-sat 🙂 when he thought you had released him then realized you had not 🙂>Aghhh, It just doesn’t feel right. >
Actually, it is correct! It is just quick and maybe feels awkward? Your cues on the first rep were great. Your cues on the 2nd rep were a little late so he didn’t take the 2nd jump. But then you were quick and timely for the other reps, so I am guessing it just felt awkward because you are doing it right. The next step here is to have the wings and bars all touching, to tighten up the distance even more.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>These were really hard, as they were for Mason last year. I learned that Ellie can’t consistently do a wrap in front of a tunnel. I think it’s going to take more sessions to build that skill, so today’s video has mostly the baby-level stays without the wings.>
You crack me up because you make it sound like it will be a messy session… but it was SUPER nice! Yay! Your cues were very clear and she was very successful on the reps you had in the video. Really strong! Warm ups of just the tunnel threadle looked good then when you added the wing wrap before the tunnel threadle, she did great too.
> but we never got any wing wraps to work on the other side.>
Tell me more about what was happening, or post the video (I don’t think you put any in the video). Was she going around the wing and just heading into the tunnel entry in front of her? Could be a side preference question, or could be your turn cue (the physical cue) was not as clear as it was on the other side. You can also practice just getting that full wrap by blocking off the tunnel entries (both sides) so it is an easier visual, but then of course don’t send her into the tunnel 🙂
> I think this just needs more sessions and we’re heading into 3 days of rain, so it may be next weekend before the yard dries out.>
That can work in your favor to let her brain percolate on it 🙂
>The good news is that Mason finally was able to put this together (no video) after finding the tunnel threadles impossible last year. One year of “sleeping on it” appears to have done the trick!>
Yay! The brain re-wires as they exit adolescence and enter adulthood, which makes the hard stuff like this a lot easier.
Great job!
TracyHi! No worries about the noise!
This went really well too 🙂 The Go lines were perfect, he loves those 🙂
He is reading the decel brilliantly so you are getting really good turns! Super! One thing I notice here is that you were decelerating as he was getting near to your position. That worked in this session for the most part, because your position was in the decel zone. But, since that will not always be the case in terms of you position (you might be further ahead or further behind), you can change your position more so you practice the decel based on where he is, not to when he catches up to you.
For example, you can start right at the wing with him, so he gets ahead: and as he exit the wing and looks at the jump, you can begin the decel handling from behind him). Or, you can start much further from the wing and send to it, so you are further ahead. But the timing remains the same: when he is exiting the wing and looking at the jump, decel. Now if you are really far ahead, decel and don’t go pat the jump. You can hang out at the wing until it is time to rotate when he gets closer to the wing.
Great job!
TracyHi! These went really well! It was hard to see the 3rd jump, so you can add a wing on that last bar to make it a full jump (4 wing total in the game) and you can then stand all the way out at wing 4. That will make it a little more challenging but I am confident he can do it. You can cue faster and lower to help him be even quicker over the bars 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Lift Heller has a busier social schedule than most humans LOL!! It looks like fun though 🙂 Nice balance of travel, trials, training, with time off in between. One thing to factor in is how she does in the summer heat – with outdoor trials, you can tweak plans if the heat is hard (or easy).
For the USDAA – how are contacts and weaves going? Steeplechase would be FUN FUN FUN if they are ring-ready!
For Quad Cities, there will be something for her level for sure – please tell Dawn that you are part of the inner circle/friends&family and should get a spot 🙂
I like the overall plan of what to run/when, and of course I know you will shift it if she is happy to run for real more (or less, but I think she might tell us more).
>Question on the between the feet line-up, does the dog swing around to your outside (either side) and then line up between your legs from back to front? Or do they go through your legs to the back and then spin around and come forward again? If the former, I’m assuming this is distinguished from the send them behind you for a restart because you straddle your legs a bit?>
Great question! I do a straddle position and stand totally still. The dog goes around one leg (my left leg, only my left leg, because my dogs and I are a bunch of weirdos) then moves into position. I say “Line up” with little or no hand movement. For the behind the back, the dog is facing me and my feet are together, and I use a noise and a big hand cue.
On the set point video – she had some good toy play here! For the frizzer, it also looked like really good chasing! You might not get tug on it in new places, but maybe just do some frizz throw games where she retrieves it and you throw a 2nd frizz, like her very own UpDog event 🙂
What was the distance between jumps here? Just curious for tracking purposes. I am not sure if it is the sweet spot distance or not. The 10” jump with the moving target went well. The 12” jump seemed to surprise her on the first rep of it (she kind of levitated over it) but also on that rep she was a little far from jump 1 so didn’t push in as well (tapped her front feet before jump 1 at about 1:45). The start position on the next rep was closer and better so she could push into the set point better. For the next session, you can try 12” with the closer set up point and see how she does.
For the toy play – I think slow roll toy play is a good way to go because she is interacting more but food rules the day. And she has always been clear about her reinforcement rules LOL!! But adding in more friz play and ball play or toy play here and there in regular life then, more importantly, putting the toy away after one or two moments, will make the toys more valuable. You mentioned something about Kaladin and the frizz… will she chase her frizz more if he is out there, or less?
Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
Really nice session here! He did better with the out when you used the outside arm – that gave a clearer, earlier cue. He did go to the jump with the dog-side arm, but but it was a slightly later response.Great job with the advanced level of adding crosses! It took a couple of reps to get the timing (first rep was too late, 2nd rep was too early so he didn’t take the jump, the rest were great!). As with the baby level reps, the outside arm helped him commit to the ‘get out’ and it also gave you great connection to see where he was looking, so you could then start the cross. Yay!
>No matter what I do, he gets it.
Yes, he is doing great! And you can share credit for that – you are handling him really well and you’ve taught him the foundations!
That is why we add thing like the get out because it sends him away and you can get ahead of him again 🙂 He will have all sorts of skills for working at a distance so you don’t need to try to run faster than he does. For now, we break it down and as he get more experience you will see it is easier to put together the big pieces (we do that in MaxPup 3 over the summer :))
Great job!
Tracy
This was another super successful session and the setup seemed to be perfect, in terms of showing her the lines she might have trouble with. Yay!
>She had a harder time with this one but seemed to adjust when we went back to it later.>
Was this the ‘later’ session, or the first session? Either way, it was really strong. A couple of bloopers but not many and then you had a truly EXCELLENT reward when she dug in to get the hard jump on rep 2! And on the 2nd rep on the other side too. You were quick to mark the success and throw the reward, and it was surprising to her in the best way. SUPER!
I am liking what you are getting with food, so you can play with a toy before/after but for now, keep using food in the training session.
Since we want her to keep reading lines and digging in, you can change 1 small thing every rep! Even if it is a slight angle change, or changing the distance between 2 of the jumps by a couple of feet – make one thing look a little different. It is both a physical AND mental exercise for her 🙂
Eventually we can add in handling to show the harder lines, but I really want her to find the jumps more on her own 🙂
Super job here!!! These sessions really look lovely!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We did! That reminds me, I need to do a photoshoot for her. Little superstar!>
I mean, a big part of the reason to run for real there was to try for a super cool Nationals ribbon LOL!!!!
>Thank you for saying that. Maybe I’m feeling the growing pains? I just feel like she has a better handle on them earlier. I’ll read your comments over again before our next session and make the adjustments.>
It might be growing pains, it might be a bit of “sheesh can’t we finish training this already” and it might be a bit of her being a little ‘out’ physically after a long road trip and running her pants off in the ring. When weaving deteriorates, it is often a tightness in the back. Loosen that up, and the weaves get good again.
>>and you can have the MM hidden behind a wing so she doesn’t see you throw the reward all the time.>Apologies for my lack of caffeine which equals lack of clarity LOL!!! I meant that because you’ve been noticing her watch your hands more, you can carry the reward… but do 50% of the reps as a reward from the MM that is hidden somewhere. That will be surprising in a good way, and also help keep her from looking at your hands because the reward is out on the line somewhere.
I am only 1 cup of caffeine into my day so let me know if it still doesn’t make sene 🤣
>We are headed to a trial tonight for Sat & Sunday. I am bringing tiny puppy Lew and am feeling very “We’re coming as we are and we are not ready for prime time” I expect a weekend of chaos! I suck at teaching life skills to dogs because I am a pushover and I know he is not ready for crating. PRAY FOR US!>
Thoughts and prayers 🤣😂🤣 He is so cute that it really doesn’t matter if he has life skills or not. Just carry him around everywhere in the trial environment (he is so smol!) and soak in his cuteness. You might experience some lack of sleep (it I hard with a puppy on the road!) and a little bit of the girls being “off” (lack of sleep plus a new puppy throwing off the routine) but it is all good and totally worth it! Have fun!!!
Tracy
Hi! I think all of the rain you have has arrived here – cold and rainy! Your session here looked really strong!
OMG! Her stay is looking so good! That contributed to the success of the session. Plus your cues were very clear, so she knew what you wanted. Yay! Since it was pretty easy for her, you can add challenge by moving the wings and barrel closer together, so she has to zig zag faster 🙂 You will have to cue faster too of course LOL!!
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
He did well here! The GO lines were easy and fun 🙂 Nice connection!
>I omitted the rears bc I literally used the wrong directions and the first 2 reps she turned the way I said not the way I moved. ( good dog. Bang head here)>
Yes! Good girl! But also the physical cue was late, like at :25 where she was gathering for liftoff and you were just starting the RC line. So Be sure she sees you going directly to the center of the bar, even if you start that line before she passes you (otherwise the cue is late).
The backside wraps are going well too! She is at her best when you were walking through the countermotion – running through it was still a little hard. And tossing the reward behind you is really helping too 🙂 You can gradually add more and more speed as she learns to take the jump even with the countermotion.
And she also found the backside easily when you maintained the connection until she got close to the wing. At 1:17 you ‘released’ the connection too soon (looked forward) so she curled into the front of the jump.Great job!
TracyThank you so much for the gift!!!! I’m so grateful! I wish I saw you sneak in, it would have been fun to say hi 🙂 I’ll definitely see you in July at Paws in Groton!!!
Tracy
Hi!
I admit that I was secretly hoping you’d do FAST for real, but I didn’t want to suggest it because we hadn’t seen the courses or environment, so it was more of an ‘in the moment’ call. She did great!
She looked perfectly at home in the soccer center! And I think she really likes the footing! I have never seen her run this fast OMG!
>I said her name and she turned on a dime & came out of the tunnel! That was allll me. I say Frankie’s name when she’s in the tunnel so she turns to my voice and that is not going to work for Bazinga.>
I think with more experience, it won’t be an issue. She is probably not used to big sends like this so she was paying extra attention.
>The second FAST she got! She even did an A Frame! She got her very first official AKC Q <3 I don’t have a video of her Q though. >
Bummer about the video but congrats on a great run! Did you at least get a cool Boston Terrier ribbon?
The FEO runs were also really good. Looks like she gave back the leash and lined up really well! And she was FAST FAST FAST! The only time in JWW that she didn’t find a line was when you were praising her or calling her too much (she was like “what is that cue, HUMAN?!?!” Hahaha). She had a little off course at the beginning of the Tuesday JWW because your turn cue was late – she was FLYING.
She might have left the start line in the 3rd JWW before you released her, so be careful of that 🙂 She did great here too, SO FAST! I liked the spacing on these courses too, the dogs could really run run run!!!
Looking at the weaves – I think they are going better than you think they are going 🙂
When she is on your right, the weaves are going really well! Keep adding a little more of your motion and also easier angles so see if she can control her speed and decel into them, and you can have the MM hidden behind a wing so she doesn’t see you throw the reward all the time. The only “nope” on the right side is when you tried to rear cross, but no worries, we don’t need that yet.
>She seems better on offside than onside but we are struggling.>
Yes – dog on left is HARD (this is normal). So for that side, separate it from the other side in terms of what you ask her to do. You can open up the weaves a little when doing dog-on-left reps. Ask for simple entries with you moving alongside her or a little ahead. When you are behind her and not moving as much, she curls out of them (probably just needing a bit more motion support for now).
And use a lot of line up cookies between reps especially on that side: when she has a miss, no worries, you can still use a lineup cookie. That way she won’t be as frustrated as she works through any failures (and you won’t be as frustrated :)) When she is frustrated on that side, she loses her mechanics. So keeping it easier on the hard side and using those line up cookies will totally help!
I think things are going well – she is definitely weaving on your right now we have to balance it so she can do it from your left too 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
