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Thank you for the kind words 🤩 It is fun to see you work with your pups because you are always so good about breaking it down and rewarding them – that is why it is so easy for them to put the bigger pieces together.
Have fun!
Tracy
Good morning!
>OMG!!! ****BREAKTHROUGH!!***MIND BLOWN!!”
I see what you are saying. It makes perfect sense. I went back and watched your video again and paid better attention to how you send and I can see what you mean about the arm lower and back rather than swinging forward and pointing. That little tidbit alone makes this class worth the price of admission.>Perfect! The little details are truly the make-or-break things in each run. And he totally sees *everything* you do and makes quick adjustments based on the info.
Nifty first video:
The timing on both was really good!!! On the first rep, I think the conenction was good but on the 2nd rep, the connection was much clearer (the opposite arm was more visible to help grab the connection :)) So definitely keep getting that arm visible as you fly through the blinds.2nd video:
Timing of starting the blind was good!Timing of finishing it ended up being a little late at :03 because your left arm was pointing out to your side. That blocked her view of your upper body and the next line, so she had a little zig zag line there. (More on this below)
Timing of finishing it was really good on the other reps! The exit connection was very clear!
When adding the 2nd blind – you got a little too close tot he wing at 1:18 but you still worked the timing and connection, so she almost got it even though it was a shade late. It was not the blind that caused her question – it was when you tried to send her past you with the dog side arm and the shoulders mmovement made it less clear if she should stay on your left or go back to you right. So if you are ever feeling late on a blind 🙂 hold onto the connection extra so she is sure of where to be. Good reward though, because she totally tried!
The last rep with the 2 blinds was great! You got the first one really well then sent her miles away to the 2nd wing. That allowed you to easily nail the timing and connection of the 2nd blind. Gorgeous!
Looking at Canny’s videos:
I see a pattern emerging that we can tweak to make things easier for you and both dogs!On the first video, the timing of the first blind was good but the connection was not as clear as the 2nd blind rep here. The left arm was pointing out to the line and blocking his view of your connection.
On the 2nd video, the blind connection can also be clearer with your left arm blocking connection a bit by pointing out to the line instead of being behind you (pointing back to him) so he can see your upper body clearly. That is why the bar came down at :05 – connection question!Compare to the blinds where he ended up on your right side – that right arm was back so the connection was super clear. He found the new line easily on the single blind AND on the 2nd blind at the end!
So the pattern I see is that on the early reps, when the dog ends up on your left side, you are not as comfy showing the exit connection as you are when the dogs end up on your right side. Aha! That is good to know. The left arm ends up pointing ahead of the dog and blocking connection. So when you have a blind that will end the dog on your left side, walk it a few times without them to remind yourself to get that left arm back and right arm crossing the body to really emphasize connection, so it is like that on the first rep. This will be especially important when you are at trials, because they will only give us one chance at the course 🙂
Great job here! You are ready for the more advanced levels and sequences!!
Tracy
Good morning!
> I bet you suspected that there would be a tunnel in today’s video 🤣 There is!>
Well, since Lew went through the work to clean it out for you, it makes sense to use the tunnel 🤣😂🤣
> So it was really my body language that was working not the verbal. I had a lightbulb moment that, if I am seeing what I want in my head, while I say the verbal, my body actually does what it is supposed to. Like “believe in your verbal”.>
Yes! Believe in the verbal and say it to the dog (not to the jump, the jump doesn’t care LOL!) That matches the body language to the verbal. She is still pretty young, so if the verbal says one thing and the body language says a different thing, she is likely to question or follow the body language.
>We went back to week 1 & did the Tunnel game. I was late. a lot. Bazinga gave me lots of grace!>
That is where we see her really maturing nicely – she doesn’t get mad if you are late and she tries hard to help you out 🙂 That is because we pay her with treats for trying hard even if the info is not quite right 🙂
What might have felt late on the blinds that were cued after she exited the tunnel was that you were decelerating til she exited… then accelerated before doing the blind. That is a bit of reverse motion, because the acceleration would cue her to stay straight on her original line rather than change sides. Your connection was really good so she got the side changes really well! So the blinds on those (at the beginning of the video) were not late, but definitely don’t slow down to wait for her – keep running 🙂
> I was so slow to react when I saw her headed to the tunnel!>
You were not slow on the video I was watching here! You had that blind underway nice and early, she had no questions. She had GREAT tunnel commitment so you were starting the blind perfectly! Maybe it felt late because it was not 100% finished before she went in? But it doesn’t have to be perfectly finished, as long as she sees the cross well underway (shoulder rotation/disconnection for the blind, feet connection for the front). She was always a solid 8 to 10 feet away from the tunnel entry when you started. There was a rep or two with the FC where you were working to remember to move into it, but those were still good!
> It really felt like a “cheaty” front cross, so I’m not sure I did it right?>
It was good! You were basically in the FC position when you sent to the wing, so it was really easy to turn your feet and do the FC 🙂
The one jump session went great! Her wing sends were 100% correct even as the angle of approach changed as the wing position changed. You were super clear with connection and not pointing ahead of her.
>In the first half, I see that I was early a few times. I need to remember to stay connected to her until she finishes the wing. I guess I’m rushing.>
I only saw one that was a bit early but she still figured out the line 🙂 The rest of the timing ranged from super perfect timing to really good timing. So she had no questions. YAY!!
The timing questions will actually get easier as we add more jumps and sequences, so you can move ot the 2 jump games 🙂
One thing to remember is to find your mouse line (the perfect line she needs to run on) and do the blind on it, so you don’t block her line to the wing. At :23, you were not quite on the line so she didn’t see the wing til after she was past you. Compare that to :43 where you were on a really good line and she found the wing after the blind easily.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! I hope your back continues to feel better and better!
>You solved the mystery of why Georgie sometimes drops the first bar! That’s huge!>
YAY!!!! Keep me posted on how she does with that in trials.
Georgie was a rockstar about being sure to NOT touch you on the video (thanks, Georgie!!!) I think she would rather do ANYTHING to avoid hitting you. I truly appreciate that and it will hopefully keep you feeling confident that you will be safe adding all the blinds 🙂 She was also really good about quickly finding the new side when you were deliberately late and in the way on the blind at the end of that session 🙂 Super!
The one jump blinds went GREAT! You actually made it a little more fancy (and harder!) by doing a rear cross to show the line to wing 2, but then you still easily got the timing of the blinds. Super!! Based on the position of the 2nd wing, the RC was needed to get the wrap because when you did it as a regular send (2:57) it took her to the threadle wrap side. You gave a little extra push to the wing at 3:20 and got the wrap side (she just needed a couple of more steps forward on that rep at 3:27 to get the balance rep to the wing without the blind).
Either way – you were nailing the timing of starting the blinds! And some really lovely conenction happening on the exit of the blinds/the new side – my favorite connection moments were at 2:59 and 3:50 where you finished the blind with plenty of time to reach back to her with your eyes and arm. Georgie had zero questions and was able to change her line with speed and accuracy. LOVE IT!!!
Since this went brilliantly in terms of timing and mechanics, you can move on to the 2 jump games! You can use a shorter tunnel if you don’t have enough room, or replace the tunnel entirely with a jump or two.
Great job!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I love the way you describe Kashia’s little brain and attitude towards these games. It’s so spot on, I think! LOL! She has such a funny personality!>
Ha! She is a BIG personality who makes her opinions known LOL!
>I really like blinds! This has been really fun so far! >
That is great! You are a really fast runner so you will be able to do a lot of blinds on course – your dogs will love it!!
> In fact, I’ll admit, one of my last trials, I was late on my blind, so Kastella was still on the “incorrect” side of me and totally bypassed the jump! My fault, though, because I thought she was on the other side>
That happens sometimes 🙂 The more we show them the blinds, the more they save us when we are late 🙂
>.I was able to fix my mistake when it was Kashia’s turn, so she got it flawlessly. 🙂 Sorry, Kastella, that mama handled you more poorly. It just depends on the trial day for which dog is my “guinea pig” for handling errors on the first run. ha ha>
Yay for you, fixing it for Kashia!!! You won’t need a guinea pig dog for much longer – I am sure you will be able to run them both flawlessly no matter which dog is first.
>I don’t know how to describe this, but for the one jump advanced game and two jump game, it was really cool to see the almost U-shaped line the girls ran because of the connection I had with them. >
TOTALLY agree – it showed a really cool level of understanding and teamwork. You’ve worked hard to teach them commitment and you are doing a great job with connection too!
I am so glad you are having fun! And it is really fun to see both dogs doing so well. Someday it would be fun to get to see them run in person 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
The discrimination session went really well!
After a tunnel rep or two you can help him see the wrap but adding a little movement or the toy being visible.
To help fade out the physical cues entirely:
Since he did really well lining up with collar holding you can totally use that moment to begin fading the physical cues. Hold him until you have said the verbal 4 or 5 times, then let go. That gives him extra time to process the verbal before moving. You were releasing pretty immediately after starting the verbal so he was moving before fully processing (figuring it out on the fly LOL!). That was when you got a couple of mistakes. So letting him hear it for longer can help eliminate the mistakes because he will know what you want before he moves 🙂Nice work here!
Tracy
They look like little armadillos to me – I don’t think you have armadillos there which is good because they are kid of gross LOL!
Good morning!
Yay for the tunnel!
>apparently Rou said WTH is that thing, I can’t possibly go through a curved tunnel.>
Interesting! She might be out of practice with the tunnel and taller than when she did it last. She figured out how to duck down to get into the straight tunnel, so you can gradually start curving it again. Good job shaping it!! I bet she sleeps on it and it is once again super easy for her.
The dig on the wing then the line into the tunnel went well! Because she is tall, she has to work pretty hard to get low into the tunnel. You can move the MM further away so she can explode out of it 🙂 that will make the tunnel even more fun!
>We have an issue I’ve ignored for way too long and I left a short clip of the leaping and grabbing at me.>
Thank you for leaving it in! She definitely loves the ball so we want to be able to use it, but we also don’t want her leaping/grabbing so we will definitely address it.
>She can wrap and do the rockinghorse exercise with wraps and use the ball. She can’t do the smiley face with wings or the wrap to tunnel.>
My guess is that the tunnel means she can’t see the ball, so she can’t do it – then gets aroused/frustrated when asked to work without seeing the ball (then leaps/grabs). With the single wraps and rocking horses, she can see the ball the whole time.
So a couple of ideas:
You can shape the tunnel and let her offer it in order to get the ball. It is basically a puzzle: figure out how to get the human to throw the ball. You can take out your movement – walk or stand still – and see if she can look for the tunnel and not at the ball.
When she gets that, you can add more and more of your movement building to running towards the tunnel (with the toy in your hand). You can shorten the tunnel and keep it straight for this.
Then when she can do it, I bet it will be easy to add back the wings – just be sure to maintain big connection to her eyes so she has no questions about how to earn the ball (by going to the wings and tunnels :))
>am I asking too much of her puppy brain using the toy for this right now?>
There is a fine line 🙂 For anything new and hard, introduce it with a lower arousal reward (treat or a less stimulating toy). When she has the game figured out, bring the ball out in the next session. The arousal regulation needed to ignore the ball will take up a lot of brain energy, so we don’t want to try to teach her something new while also asking her to NOT leap/grab for the ball.
Let me know what you think! Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The ‘don’t hit the handler’ game went well – they both looked at you like you were a little nuts 😂 😆 but they did not hit you. Super!
I was going to write down which reps had good timing but it turns out ALL of the reps (except one) had great timing! Yay! You were nailing the timing of seeing both girls exit the wing then starting the blind, then showing the great connection on the exit.
The one rep that wasn’t perfect: You were early at 1:42 – the blind was finished before she exited the wing so she correctly did not take the jump (your connection told her not to, oops!) I think you felt it in the moment and she got rewarded, so all good 🙂 And it is nice to know she is paying attention and not just doing what she did before!
My only suggestion is that after the blind and seeing they are on your new side, when sending to the next wing, you can drop the cross arm that you used for the connection on the blind exit and go back to the dog-side arm for cueing the next line.
>I think my timing of the blind was terrible but my girls read it correctly sooooooo…??? Are they just forgiving or was my timing better than it felt and seemed in the video? I wasn’t ready to commit to the blind when they exited the tunnel because I wanted to see commitment on the jump! >
Yes, it is a fine line with commitment! With the blinds, our motion along the line also helps commit to the jump.
Looking at your timing:
I think your timing with Kashia was really good! She was maybe a stride out of the tunnel when you started and you finished all the blinds with her before she took off, so she had no questions. Maybe it felt weird because she was not moving that fast. You can get more speed from her by running in closer to the tunnel – she always thinks really simple setups are silly LOL so you can run more to get more speed.Kastella was happy to run fast even on a simple setup, which challenges your timing more. The first blind could have been a step sooner but then you locked in: at :54 and 1:03, you saw her exit the tunnel then started the blind immediately after that. Great timing!
Looking at the 2 jump games:
Kashia liked these better LOL so she ran 🙂 And your timing as lovely! Same with Kastella – your timing was spot on! You saw the girls exit the wing, you started the blind, and was finished with the blind before they took off. Your connection was super clear with both, so they had great turns! Super!
Maybe it felt late because blinds in general can feel weird? LOL!! But you were spot on with all the elements of getting in and out of the blind. Click/treat to you and the girls responded brilliantly 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
I am really excited to see that he seemed to have no environment issues with playing outside! He was perhaps even faster because the grass is easier to dig into.
All of the wing/tunnel sequences looked great!! Wow! Commitment to the tunnel and the wraps/FCs? Fabulous!
And the rear crosses on the easier approaches looked strong, he seemed to have no questions about which way to turn. SUPER!!! You can start to move the wing before the tunnel on the RC reps to gradually harder angles to see if you can till get the RC info to him nice and early like you did here.
>He thought we could go into the building for round 2 after we were done in the field,>
Ha! That is funny! But also really nice that he can switch to outdoors so easily. It has been a while!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
The set point is going well! His best stays were when you stayed connected as you walked away and were very clear about the release: talking or putting the toy down were a little confusing to him unless you were repeating the wait cue. So to help him hold the stay, you can totally repeat the wait cue a bit so he understands that it is not general talking that is the release, and not the toy moving as the release.
For the actual jumps: they should probably be a little further apart. You can try 1.5 meters and see how he does. And you can add a a low bar on jump as well – I think he is ready for that.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Yes! Hands in back pockets works like a charm to show connection and keep your arms from flying out 🙂 That is something to revisit for sure!
Tracy
Hi!
>We do have weta…. which are huge and aren’t cute.>
I had to google weta: they are NOT cute LOL!
This is a pillbug:
Looking at his video:
This is on a big slope! I guess it makes sense for the way your city is built, I remember walking many hills!
He did really well following the handling – great job showing him the connection so he could find the line. He was able to pick up a lot of speed which didn’t make it easy for you 🙂 and yes, the slope was hard. That resulted in some of the blinds being a bit late especially when you were trying to run uphill: you can use that use your connection to make even more eye contact which will help even if you are a little late. Keeping your arms in tighter to your ribs will help make showing the new connection sooner too.
Nice work here 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
First two reps looked really good: Strong connection, great timing, clear line of motion! Yay!
When you switched sides – the timing and line were still good, but the connection was not as clear so you can see him slowing down and looking up more. You were looking forward or at your side more (like at :21) rather than back to him so he was looking at you more.
The same held true when you switched back to the other side, even when you changed the angle of the jump: great connection going away from the camera but then not as much connection coming towards the camera. Interesting! So keep the timing and line the same on all reps, but be sure to connect more on all reps so he sees connection coming back towards the camera too 🙂 That will get even more speed.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
Overall this is going really well! The mechanics of the blinds are looking good, especially the connection you are showing him as you finish the blind. Super!
>but he still knocked many down – mostly due to lack of speed I think. >
Most of those were the bar of the blind cross jump after the tunnel (like at :36, 1:23, and other moments when that bar came down). What was happening when that bar came down was that you had stopped moving and were sending to the jump. That caused him to think it was a tighter turn – then he had to make an adjustment when you moved forward into the blind cross.
Ideally, staying in motion and moving past that jump will set the line and help keep that bar up. Staying in motion rather than sending is what you did at 2:24 and you both nailed it there! Then later in the video on the 2nd sequence (at 4:26-5:04 for example) you kept moving past the jump and the bars stayed up AND your timing was really strong!
He had one other question, on seq 2 – at 2:55 and 4:12 you were on his line so he ended up on the wrong side of the jump after the blind. Good boy! On the other reps, you ran a great line so he did really well and had no questions.
>In watching these, I realized I need to pay attention to my verbal cues as well. I accidentally called a simple jump an “out” and a “back” more than once
>You can totally give yourself a walk through with the verbals before you run him to make sure the right words come out 🙂
>We head to Europe on Sunday (next weekend), >
OMG! I am jealous! So fun!
>so I will send you a couple videos of Copper’s contacts by Friday.>
Great! I am looking forward to it!
Nice work here :)
Tracy
