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Yes, the heat today is a LOT!!! I want to get the whippets & lurchers out to train or at least run a bit, but the heat is a bit dangerous here!
Hi!
I am glad her shoulder is feeling better!The lazy games are going well! I agree – her forward focus looks super! YAY!!!
Since her commitment is also looking good, you can use your tunnel verbal sooner: as soon as she lands from the middle jump and looks down the line to the tunnel, you can start cuing the tunnel. You don’t need to stay jump then tunnel.Remember to use your markers for the thrown rewards, so she is continuing to look forward. You did sometimes but add them all the time 🙂 And I am glad you started using toys too! That amps up the excitement and she got to practice bringing the toy back and getting rewarded too 🙂
On the FC wraps – you didn’t quite have enough decel on the first one at 1:11, but your decel at 1:44 was lovely and timely, so her turn was great! You can totally add your wrap verbals, I don’t think you were using them here.
Speaking of verbals 🙂 nice job saying the verbals to her and having very clear connection!!
On the Fluffy blinds – good timing starting the blinds!!! The first one was good and 2:40 was good…. 2:19 was GREAT!!!
So since your timing was good, why was she so wide on the landing and even missed the side change at 2:41? It is the exit line connection 🙂 Both of your girls need to see more connection by getting your dog-side arm back.
Here is are some screenshots of the exits of the blinds. You can see that she doesn’t really see connection at all, and she sees your back. So she follows your line, not being sure which side to be on, until either the next jump is visible or you show more connection:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BfVmUU0zcVSa9Fhxgbml1kx_WyXREaJgr4djohh_AtA/edit?usp=sharing
So as you are working the BCs (and FCs too) – work the exit line connection by having the toy in the dog side arm before the cross. Then as you do the cross, that arm comes across you to what is now your dog-side hip – so as she lands, your opposite arm is on your dog side hip. That will help push your dog-side shoulder back – and your dog side arm on the new side should be extended and pointing all the way back to her nose, as you look for her eyes.
Ideally, when she lands, she will see at least half of the front of your torso. Think of it as getting your dog-side arm pointing to where she is (behind you) rather than where you want her to be (next to you). And your eyes are looking back to the landing spot of the previous jump.
If she ends up on the wrong side of you after a blind, reward her immediately if you can’t keep going (she did eventually get the toy there) Assume that your connection or timing were off, so she couldn’t read it. Then go watch the video 🙂
The blind was better at 3:00 because you did look back at her and she was able to see some of that. It will be even better if you get your dog-side arm back to her nose
Her only other question was at 2:23, where she came off the line partially because you closed your shoulders away from it, and partially I think she was really hot at this point (this is her first real summer of heat!) Great job continuing and rewarding success!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>>Ahh I love the screen shots. These are super helpful! >>
Yay! I like visuals. And you can re-create screenshots in the moment by looking at the video between runs. You can freeze the video in the moment she makes a decision, and see what the handling was showing. Is it a small pain in the butt to have to watch the video? Yes. But does it make your entire session more successful and efficient? Double heck yes!!!! And that leaves more time for snacks and beverages.
>>I do feel like working with someone in the moment to fix my sloppy handling really needs to happen because it’s just these minor tweaks that are causing the issues.>>
Yes, working with someone in the moment helps. Virginia is just a short commute away LOL!
And you can develop a library of “when I do this, she does this” type of thing. For example, when I point forward on the backside push and my dog is behind me, the younger ones will take the front side. So if they take the front side, I know that I was probably being too pointy and can make the adjustment on the next rep. Another example: if the dog does a rear cross when I was cuing a front cross wrap (or spin), it is always because I am stepping in and putting too much pressure on the takeoff spot. No need to look at the video, I can keep going and fix myself on the next rep 🙂 But if you don’t have that library or are not sure what happened: video if your best instructor in the moment.
>>I’m having a hard time with Sahweet balancing RUNNING FOR MY LIFE BECAUSE SHES FAST AS FUCK versus slowing down and using decel to handle. >>
Entirely relatable! She reminds me of Voodoo when he was young, or my Border/Staffy, Matrix (I don’t think you ever got to see her, she was born in 2008). Those dogs COME AT YOU AT 10,000MPH and BIG WHITE TEETH FLASHING lol!!! I did a lot of pretending I was calm by running with an open water bottle in my hand, to smooth out my flinging arms and clarify connection.
>>When you mention demanding a turn, what would that look like? >>
For Sahweet, it will be a brake arm towards her like a stop sign, with perhaps even a little more intensity than this by shifting your connection very directly to her eyes:
You can do it while you are moving too, without rotating the lower body. You can see it on the live class demo videos from live class 1.
>>She’s amazing but I don’t want to push her too hard because I want her to stay fast. >>
Yes, she is looking great! She also reads you REALLY well so if you are tempted to tell her that *she* was wrong… remember to keep going and reward something because chances are that *you* were wrong 😁
>>Also re the 3/4 1/4 mongrel. I’m totally sold on the part whippet breeds. She’s so snuggly. Her ability to hear her words and listen at speed is incredible. >>
Yay! People ask me ALL THE TIME what the whippets bring to a Border Collie and why the mix is so cool. One of the things the whippet brings is the ability to execute with precision and process verbals, at super high speed. The other thing they bring is the ability to turn (better than BCs!!). They can turn and land facing the new direction at top speed, with minimal effort. I mean, whippets are murderers so it makes sense that they will murder things better when they can turn better to chase them LOL!!!
Oh the 3rd thing they bring is the incredible latent learning – the training session can be mediocre but the whippet brain sleeps on it, and comes back knowing the behavior and also knowing the next 5 steps to the behavior. I have never seen anything like it (my full whippet is INSANE with this ability – he basically learned the full flyball run by sleeping on it for a couple of nights).
One of the things the BCs bring a bit of tolerance for our human silliness, in ways that a whippet would roll their eyes at us LOL!!
>>I’ll have her while Courtney is at EO so she will likely join in again. But running dog walk has also been my summer assignment >>
Fun! One thing with whippet mixes and RDW is to consider more of a front foot target behavior and not a split rear foot target. Their stride length is different, their shoulders and different, their rears are different, and their forelimbs in particular are different from BCs… that makes the split rear feet awkward at best. The whippety dogs do better with front foot targeting. Food for thought.
Have fun!
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, definitely on the right track! Yay!
The first couple on just the two jumps were a little harder, because sending to the backside then trying to get the blind then the threadle wrap made the cues a little late. You got it sorted out after :43 – you were also moving away laterally which can help but we don’t want the dogs to rely on that (see below about ending up on his line).
On the full sequence – you can send him away to the line sooner so you can then get to the BC sooner and be running towards the threadle wing – at 1:35 and 2:05 you are converging towards the bar of the BC jump which puts you on him landing line and makes the threadle wrap cue late (he is looking at you there).
The decel on the last rep at 2:05 was the best of all the reps here! NICE!!! That also really helps set up the threadle wrap.
And remember to reward the threadle wraps with a toy throw back to the landing side – you were placing them forward past the jump for most of these, and the landing side throw as you keep moving will help solidify the cues (especially the verbal).
The next step is to balance the threadle wraps with some going straight and some threadle slices, all in the same session. Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>>I’m not sure about the spacing. Is there a picture somewhere? I couldn’t remember how far over the Klimb was.>>
I posted the video, it is here:
Recording Of Special Guest Instructor Live Zoom with Stefanie Theis!
That way you can get the visual and the explanation for different sizes.
Tracy
Hi!
>>Ok awesome sauce put things in perspective!!! Thank you for that. Your mixie is obviously part kangaroo!>>
I figured you would be feeling better after you saw my baby Kangaroo mix LOL!!! She is now 6 years old and there is no leaping on her RDW (which is a good thing because I am waaayyyyy too lazy to retrain LOL!!!)
Rear crosses:
>> She opted in for each rep and I stopped before she opted out.>>
YAY!!! That is great 🙂
A disclaimer: rear crosses are like threadles. They are not natural or intuitive, and need a lot of training. So if you feel like they require more work… you are correct 😂🤣
One piece of it is getting her driving ahead as you move. So on the straight lines, you need to accelerate rather than stand still or decelerate and throw. Keep running until she arrives at the reward. Getting her used to seeing your running is a big piece of the picture, so she drives ahead as you accelerate. You were tending to decelerate an throw, so she was going straight but it was based off the toy throw more than the phyiscal cue.
The RCs are going well! The number 1 thing here is: don’t say go 🙂 I thought your physical cue on the RC at :15 was strong, but you said GO which means go straight rather than turn on the RC. So she went straight (especially since she had just done that a few times). A jump verbal is fine to use there, or a directional like “right” in this case would be best because it means take-the-jump- and-turn-right.
The RC info at :27 was a bit too early s she didn’t take the jump, but she read the RC well at :38! Yay!!!!
>>The mat lesson was so “do what tracy says first… “ excited to have the wing there next time.>>
Ha! And the rep at :52 where you clicked her for leaping over it entirely is totally relatable LOL!!!! I have done that, but you said ‘oh my god’ and I definitely used curse words LOL!!!!!! Ah, the joys of running dog walk training 🤣😂🤣
The reps with the wing went well! You can ‘hide’ the MM around the wing more, so she has to wrap the wing a tiny bit to get it. I tuck it in next to the wing, behind the feet of the wing. You can also add a temporary marker like “hit it” so she knows when to move to the mat. And you can add more of your movement! No need to spend too much time with you stationary because you will almost need be stationary with this behavior.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
I was hoping you would get a bit of relief from the humidity. Sounds like Beryl didn’t deliver that refreshing rain, unfortunately.The lazy game with connection went well – use your leg to step to the jump if you are doing a wrap or send to the tunnel. If you stop and your feet are together, he is not as sure
Now add running as you do this – I think that walking is good for you but not as motivating for him 🙂 he really liked it when you added running and the blind at 3:08 and the sections after that!
And if he doesn’t take a jump (like at 2:35 and 3:29 and 4:10 and 4:28) – don’t stop or fix, just keep going and reward somewhere else. Amplifying connection when that happens will help.
Remember to point your dog-side arm back to his cute little nose (nice and low, because his nose is not much higher than your ankles) At 3:29 – the cue looked like a blind to him so he changed sides. Your eyes were back towards him but he didn’t see that, due to your arm being at your side. Use your dog side arm to point all the way back and down to his nose, so he can see the connection
Compare at 3:49 when your shoulder was more back towards him, he got the line immediately. Yay! Nice!!!
One other suggestion that I think will help: for the next few weeks, try to have no rewards near you or from your hand when sequencing, even at the end of a sequence or when something goes wrong. There is a lot of reward for being near you (because it is hand-delivered or tossed nearby) so when in doubt, he is sticking near you.
We can shift that value: when in doubt, fling the cookie/lotus ball or toy as far as possible so he is always looking for something out on the line and not gravitating towards you. His turns are really lovely, so I am not worried about getting turns. The reward flinging can get him to default to staying on a line when things are not as clear, which should make it all easier for you 🙂
>>I see the differences but making my body do the things is a struggle.>>
Two things to help:
I posted up the run-with-a-drink connection game with this week’s games – this will be perfect to use on this setup or any setup and will help keep you cool too. And, did I ever show you the magnet fingers tip? Using magnet fingers will help keep the dog side arm/shoulder open to him, which helps a lot with commitment:
You can also see some things from the perspective of a small/medium dog n this video, in terms of what they see from behind us.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
OH NO, YOUR POOR KNEE!!!! OUCH!!!! That sucks. I am glad the surgery is scheduled soon, that means recovery will be soon too. We can use the time to get some pretty impressive skills and distance work going, so when you are back to running, she will be ready to roll!!>>If you have any suggestions I would appreciate it.>>
We can tweak all the games to find ways where we can protect your knee while building high level skills! We have done that for los of handlers here, so I will give you ideas on that looking at this video so we can get started on that right away.
>>For this week I was training at home and I don’t have a tunnel so I used a jump and a wing to simulate a tunnel, hopefully, that is ok.>>
Of course! Using a jump-wing combo makes things go faster – less time for us handlers LOL!
>I love to run with my dogs so this is tough for me.
Yep, that love of running with them shines through in your videos! Your natural movement is pretty dynamic… and your knee rehab docs will of course tell you that movement is off limits for a while. So let’s approach training in general and a setup like this from the viewpoint of NOT needing to be dynamic, in terms of pushing off the new direction or hustling. I am thinking your knee docs will not want you pushing off any time soon.
Yes, keep your verbals dynamic, but start moving less – just strolling along the inside curve and rewarding her TONS for driving around the jumps without needing you to also hustle. For example, at 1:08 to 1:13 she is already working pretty far from you… so now use *less* motion so you are further and she propels herself on the line (lots of thrown rewards out on the line as you start this will help, so she doesn’t question why you aren’t running hard).
And with the wraps, we can work on getting her driving in and out of them without you at the wing. You can start the wrap timing at the same time, but just decel slowly and turn VERY slowly (FCs are hard on knees!) from wherever you are, no need to get to the wing. That will challenge her to get the collection mainly from the verbal – and that is a super useful skill to have in your toolbox, even when your knee is back to 100%!
We can also work the timing more: The decel and verbal for the wrap should start when she is in the air over the previous jump, or no later than exit of the tunnel (or exit of the jump-wing combo). That way she can commit independently of you being near the wing or having a dynamic decel/rotation.
You were a bit early with the rotation at 1:14 on the wrap. You hit the brakes hard and rotated towards her, so she didn’t commit. Remember to use deceleration as one of the biggest elements of the cue, so a few steps forward as you slow down will cue the wrap and then you can rotate slowly as she passes you. Decel rather than fast rotation will also make your knee doctors happy 🙂
You added decel at 1:27 and she committed really well and had a great turn! When you are working on the decel, add in an open bottle of water in your hand. If you hit the brakes too hard, you will spill the water. If you decel smoothly, the water will not spill.
You were throwing the rewards really well – as she retrieving pretty quickly? It looks like she was. That will be super helpful for building up more distance and independence when you are not able to run as much for a bit.
You can also add in throwing rewards to the landing side of the wrap jump, to get commitment to the wrap without you being at the wing for the wrap.
The blinds at 1:42 and 152 look good – nice decel at 154 to set up the nice wrap exit!!
The last section had the BC to the ‘tunnel’ 😁 The timing was a little late in the warm up (ideally it is before takeoff for the jump) and also late at 2:57 – you did it when she landed and that might have gotten an off course if there was a tunnel.
MUCH better timing at 3:17! You started it after she landed from the middle jump – that made for a much better turn and line!Try to send to the middle jump more to make it easier to get to the BC – she might have been a little hot or tired here and was not committed with as much speed.
On the start jump on that last section, be careful to line her up on an angle to the front of the jump and then move away so you are not right there. At 2:37 and 2:47 and 3:05 – you were on her line and she was set up looking at the backside, so the release pushed her to the backside – reward her then reset, rather than mark her as wrong (she justifiably got mad about it). Those types of openings are getting really popular now, so letting her see the line clearly will make them very smooth.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I seriously thought these were gonna be a walk in the park, but they were not.>>
These are easy with an experienced dog at 20 feet distances. They are wicked with a baby dog at shorter distances 🙂 But there is a lot of dog training that happens and that is useful!
One thing I see in all the videos is that he is looking at you during the rewarding, and that is bleeding over into looking at you on the Iines rather than forward. That has to do with the placement of reinforcement. 2 ideas for you:
– With the food or the toy as reward: Use a marker for the thrown reward. Yo uwere using praise like yes or good boy, which was getting him looking at you. Ideally, you would use a ‘get it’ marker of some sort so he continues to look ahead.
– When you throw the reward, throw it far far away 🙂 so he is not getting it anywhere near you (where he can also look at you). That will really help build up his ability to drive the lines!Looking at the videos:
I agree, he is doing a great job finding the jumps and lines on the 2 lazy game videos here! Yay!!!Sending to middle jump was most effective (he didn’t look at you) when you were one step past the previous jump, like at :31 and :48 on the first video. As you send, make sure you let your hand travel with his nose and not ahead of it as that might cause issues as you add more speed.
He did well with he lazy game as you were moving more in the 2nd video! Yay! We definitely want to keep adding more and more motion.
As you do that, add in carrying the toy – we want him to be able to ignore the toy and find the jumps, so the lazy game is perfect for that. Yes, it might take longer to get the toy back 🙂 but it is worthwhile at this stage.
>>And wouldn’t you know, I couldn’t figure out which word to say when. >>
You will need to walk and rehearse the plan without him 🙂 Don’t try to run him, connect, handle, and remember the words without practicing it a couple of times beforehand. We humans are not great at multi-tasking LOL!
On the video – try to add a clearer lead out, even if it is only one step. At the beginning here, you looked at him for about 10 seconds then released and turned to the jump at basically the same time. That can pair movement into the release, causing movement to *become* the release – creating confusion with the stay. Same at :34 and 1:00 and 1:25 – he is releasing on motion there. Leading out a bit, saying the release word, *then* moving after he moves is going to help clarify the stay behavior.
Also, you need to be past that first jump to get the good send to 2 (:13 where he didn’t get it versus :19 where he did).
He did have a question on jump 3 when going to his left. He missed that jump several times. At :38 and 1:02 and 1:28 you can have your dog-side shoulder open back to him and fingers pointing to his nose to support the line. The connection was better at :43 but your shoulder still a little too closed forward with you that far ahead. Try to reward that jump too to help him find it even if connection is not very clear.
I think your shoulder was more open at 1:07 and he still missed, so being that far ahead was also harder for him.
These all got rewarded which was good – they were valid and legit questions 🙂 An application of the 2 Failure Rule is that if the dog fails twice (in this case, missing the jump) you can still reward but the next rep needs something to change to help the dog get the behavior we want, otherwise things get weird if we decide we don’t want to keep rewarding the dog. That is what happened at 1:30 –
At 1:30 you marked him as being incorrect (stopped, no reward, verbal indicating it was not correct) – that seemed confusing to him and he deflated and got a little sniffy. You changed the handling at 1:47 (staying closer to the jump) and he got it.
So for the 2 Failure rule – if he has a question (like missing the same jump twice) you can either make a bigger adjustment to help him get it, or stop and watch the video to see what he is seeing. That way he doesn’t have that many failures (ideally no more than 2 in the entire session, even if they get rewarded).
Wrap video:
This is a hard send on jump 1 at the very beginning, which actually mirrors what we are seeing a lot on corse nowadays: taking jump 1 away from the course. You moved away too quickly at :10 and were more patient at :14 so he got it nicely! And definitely patient with the cue and allowing him to commit at 1:09!At :32 you stepped backwards before he was really committed to the right turn (watch your right leg) so he correctly read it as a rear cross 🙂 Reward before you reset! Assume that all bloopers are caused by him correctly reading the handling, so it is all rewardable behavior.
>>He did need the turn cues, especially going to the right – he carried out a bit in that direction.>>
That was happening 2-3 on this video at :16 and also at :39 ish. Part of it is reward placement: looking at you as you move down that line especially if you move your hand towards it (:56). Using the marker and more thrown rewards will help smooth that out.
(On this video also, be careful to lead out more even if it is only one step, stand still, release, *then* move on the stays so he is not releasing on motion.)
For the BCs, you can add exit line connection with your opposite arm across your body (for example at :51, your right arm would come across to your left hip, which pushes your dog-side shoulder back and makes connection super clear).
At 1:29 and 1:44 and 2:04 his wideness was not because you were late starting the blind, that timing was pretty good particularly with a baby dog!! But as he landed from the BC jump, all he saw was your back and sideways motion. Yes, your right hand was out and you were looking down at where you wanted him to be… but dogs tend to not read that as a clear exit of a BC. Ideally, your left arm would be on your right hip there, right arm pointing back to his nose and eyes on his eyes to get the tight turn.
The visible connection and shoulders is what the dogs read as the BC exit, so think of it as looking at and pointing at where he is in the moment, rather than where you want him to come to.
Stepping backwards at1:47 was also confusing – you can wait until you see his feet up over the bump before you move away like you did at 2:06 And also just reward… when you withheld the reward to try to get him to do it again, he said “no thanks” and didn’t move for a bit. So be sure to keep going or reward if something goes wrong – and then if you are not sure what happened, watch the vide before the next rep so you can smooth out the info.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I think you will see a big difference with less arm/hand motion. A big improvement to me when watching it.>>
Yes! Totally agree! The more you watched her, the faster the moved on the line and the better she committed. YAY!!! Her only question was on the cues to take he other side of the tunnel at the end, so she slowed down. You can start turning towards that end of the tunnel sooner (before she is taking off for the jump before it). And also, you can clarify the cues – a threadle arm with the upper body (a lot of people like the opposite arm for this to help pull her in to the new line) as well a different, specific verbal (I know, more words 😂🤣). I say “tunnel” to mean to go to the straight ahead side of the tunnel and “kiss kiss” to come in to the other side of the tunnel.
She was correct on the 2nd video from yesterday when she went straight – you were late to change her line, which means your line still supported the straight ahead entry. Good job rewarding her 🙂
She was a bit slower on parts here, but I agree that it was a combination of the heat, plus she was thinking hard, plus this:
<
FUN!!! I bet she had a blast!!!
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>> The hopping terrifies me since her mother had had her dog walk retrained 5 times and I hope to not repeat these mistakes.>>
TOTALLY RELATABLE!!! I think the placed reward (MM or toy) can often produce the hopping, so I have worked through it.
For your viewing pleasure, here is some impressive hopping at the beginning of this video:
LOL!!!One option is to delay the click of the MM until the dog trots off it:
The other option is to put the MM behind a wing – she goes across the mat to the wing, and then to the MM. You can click the MM for a good mat hit, but the wing really take out the leaping.
There are other things we can do, but those two things are a good start!
To keep you hopeful, here is how it turned out for my leaper 🙂
(I had just had gall bladder surgery so was not allowed to run LOL!)
The send to one jump looked great! She was committing nicely and you really amplifid your connection. Nice toy throws! You can move that jump even further away and add acceleration (starting with you close to the tunnel exit the running forward), and then we can start adding some rear crosses in too 🙂
>>And Taq turned 1 year old! Can’t believe we started max puppy at 11 weeks. So many things!!! I never thought we would master the start line!!>>
Happy birthday!!!! 1 year old already!! And I remember when you were worried about her stay – she has a great stay! The next year will be even more exciting 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
He is responding to the verbal so well! I can totally see him looking at it!!! Whatr a good boy!!! Love it!He is totally a lefty 🙂 All of the turns to his left were easy and smooth! He did sometimes turn left when I think you wanted a right turn, so you can make the right turn easier by making the reward more visible on the right turn line, or adding a jump bump for him to go over (not that easy to do in the house – maybe a pool noodle?)
You can add more distance between you and him, and see how far away you can get and still send him to the wing!
>>) But Fly is ‘not an evening person’, by 7:30 PM he is ‘pretending to be a rug’ and just waiting for his dinner>>
OMG I think Fly and I are the same haha! We are not evening people LOL!!!!!! Hopefully the weather breaks soon but also, will he train for his dinner? Maybe you canask him to do a couple of things for dinner, even if it is one wing games in the house.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
I hope you get some refreshing rain but no other issues with Beryl!The tiny tunnel works really well here!
>>I tried to pay attention to clearly showing the send tonight. I need to work on it some more – hard to show it and yet get out of there.>>
One thing you can do is just work on zipping around these little sequences without using your arm at all 🙂 I have a game that is specific for that, usually it is at the end of this course (week 8 I think) but I might move it to this coming week. It is fun and really helps!!
>> I made a serious effort to never let him know if he missed a jump or did something incorrect.
Yay! Definitely reward all handling moments, even if there are bloopers – the bloopers are created by us humans so the dogs are reflecting the info they are getting 🙂 You can just keep going if he misses something, that will be more motivating than stopping and bringing him back to it. Or if he ends up off course? Woohoo! Big party, he was being a good boy and reading the info he saw 🙂
I think the connection is the most important cue for him. When he was nailing it? Your connection was super clear! When he had questions, your dog-side arm was blocking connection so he didn’t know where to be.
For example, on the blind at :53: connection is what actually cues the side change. You had your dog-side hand blocking the eye contact and your moving was sideway towards the tunnel entry he took, so he was correct 🙂 You might have been able to see him, but he could not see your connection so he followed your motion. Definitely rewardable!
Note the difference in connection at 1:19 and he got it perfectly – both reps are rewardable 🙂 On this rep, your dog-side arm was back and he could clearly see your upper body and eyes.
You can see it on the pinwheel jumps too – when the connection on the send at 1:45 was too forward too (looking ahead, arm blocking his view of it), he had a question on the send. And at 1:49 and 4:29 – your arm was too high and parallel to your body so it blocked connection and he did not know which side of you to be on, missing the jump. He had questions at 2:14 and 3:40 for the same reasons.
But compare to the other direction at 2:36, and also at 3:09-3:14: super connected, no arm pointing or blocking, and he was lovely! Yay! You were connected and moving, and he found his line beautifully.
So for the next session (this setup, or the next ones) just try to run without arms and make BIG connection, saying all of the verbals to his cute face! That will support his commitment really well.
Great job here! Hopefully Beryl is past by the time you see this!
Tracy
Hi!
>Yes we do alot of toy switch and retr games outside of agility and it is getting there – agility is too high value a the moment. probably need to do work on transition one jump toy on ground and then a toy switch so get attention before she goes into zoomy mode.>>
Great! Bring it into agility now – don’t wait til it is perfect away from agility 🙂 Start with one jump or a wing or a cone and work out the markers and being able to carry a toy, and getting the toy back.
For the teeter:
>> Ideally i would love a toy at the top but that would guarentee here going off the side>>
You can use a toy to play before and after, but I agree that a toy at the top will not help her stay at the top 🙂 And since food is not super high value – take a fistful of great food and do just one rep where she gets all the food.
Looking at the video: she is so fast and fun! And she is really engaging nicely!
She is doing MUCH better about finding lines and ignoring the toy in your hand (even when she had to run past the toy to get to the jump! Yay!!!)
You were using “get it” to indicate that she should get the toy in your hand.. that is fine as long as get it doesn’t also mean going to get a thrown reward 🙂 so be careful that your markers are distinct so she doesn’t look at you for all the reward.The blind crosses are going well. She is late to read the side change because after the blind you are closing your shoulder forward and not making connection. You can see it at 1:17 and 1:18 where she finds the correct side when she sees the next jump, so there is a bit of a zig zag line. At 2:40 she did not make the side change, by the time she saw the jump, it was too late. She was being really good about not chasing the toy there – she just needed more connection to know where to be.
If you finish the blind and make eye contact back to her and point your arm back to her (not forward) then you will see a really nice turn from her. You had this great connection on the exit of the FC wrap at 2:58 and her turn was lovely!!
One other detail – when you have her sit for the start line, try to have both of you facing the direction you will be going. When you were not facing the correct direction, she was turning to follow you which resulted in a broken stay. You can use food to work the line up at your side to get her facing the correct direction.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>> What is a UKI style double? >
It is basically 2 jumps pushed together to create a double 🙂 instead of a fancy double jump made by Max200 or one of the other companies.
>>She actually qualified in that open run. You can have one wrong course. >>
HOORAY! The best thing about Open is getting out of Open 🙂 Open courses are notoriously awkward! I am glad you got that Q!
>>So, today she had her first excellent standard run. Unfortunately, I don’t have video. Nice contacts, a lovely difficult weave entry and no dropping the first bar! We got a wrong course and she bypassed a jump, but I just kept
running like she was correct.>>Sounds successful! She is in Excellent in both now? I think the courses will be better. And UKI will have different distances, so she might need to adjust a bit but I think you will both enjoy!
>>I messed up the lead out in jumpers. She came around the second jump and I tried to reset her. But, then she just went feral and ran on a line half wah across the ring. It was a hot mess.>>
She was probably just mentally fried. It has been a busy few weeks and add in the heat, so her brain probably had no fuel left to give there.
Fingers crossed for the heat wave to break!!
Tracy
