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Good morning!
> in addition the dogs nails can really sink in deep because it’s pretty high piling.>
Deeper than good grass, or same as?
>Then I tried to move my hand along the surface and because of that high piling the whole carpet moved with my hand, up to 1/2”. 😔>
YIKES. That would explain why she slid sooooo far.
>Running Beat, yeah, it FELT like she was slipping, and I thought I could hear it, but watching the video I couldn’t actually see her feet slipping (other than the obvious). >She was doing a great job of NOT slipping for most of it, but running short, almost a bunny hop movement. I see tons of dogs doing that on turf which is why I take the unpopular position of most turf being detrimental to the dogs (even though I love it for myself!)
>I think the sound is the carpet fiber moving against itself. >
This is entirely possible. It definitely sounds different.
>I think what is happening is the dog’s brain is getting conflicting information: foot pads say the surface is stable, nerve endings in tendons and joints say it’s unstable. Recipe for disaster. >
Also entirely possible. There is SO much sensory info going into their brains that is makes sense that the brain is devoting a lot of bandwidth to the ‘don’t fall over’ stuff and not as much to the ‘read the handling cues’ stuff.
>To be honest, I hate most dirt surfaces and feel on average they are more slippery than is ideal, but at least the dog’s brain is getting consistent information about whether their foot is stable or not. >
Totally agree. There are some dirt places that I really love. But dirt takes a TON of work to get decent (I am NOT looking forward to dealing with that at the US Open) and then after a bunch of runs, it changes and can be too deep or as slick as an ice rink.
>And unfortunately our dogs need to be able to run on dirt since all national events are on it. Just like with dirt, I think they can learn to adjust for the slip, but is it worth it?>
I guess it depends on how they learn to adjust for it? On turf, they adjust by going to an unnatural stride which I think results in injury. I REALLY want all of those research people to do a SURFACE study and not be as concerned about the dog walk for now.
Dirt can also have weird issues but I see less compensation overall in dirt, Plus, I can also advocate for my dog by asking for it to be raked or stomped down if I see an issue. I definitely prefer dirt over turf (there are some turfs that I have liked in the past but haven’t run on them lately, so I might change that opinion :))
> After videoing my own hand moving with the turf, ugh, I’m not sure I even want to run Roots on it. >
I think center of gravity might have something to do with it? Beat has a higher center of gravity than Roots, which might contribute to him being more comfy on it? Plus he is adult and more experienced so might not have had to devote as much bandwidth to processing proprioception info?
>He’s never had an issue and was even moving with extra oomph than usual as even good dirt is usually his slowest surface and that’s what we’ve mostly been on. >
He did move well! And the course played to his strengths too in that regard.
>I hate “untraining” good proprioception so will have to think about it. >
Good point. I worry a lot about injury risk and wow, agility has sooooo many injuries. I was honestly shocked when I started flyball that there are far fewer injuries in flyball as compared to agility – and the predictable surface is likely a big contributor to that.
Keep me posted on what you think, especially from the veterinary perspective.
Tracy
PS – in the live chat last night, I posted some ideas to help with the jump-before-tunnel bar!
Good morning!
>Going on a long car drive to a new place can be a lot! I was so nervous!>
It IS a lot!!! And he did really well – that is why we do a lot of resilience work with puppies, to teach their bodies how to respond to stressors like long drives, new places, etc.
And yes – I can TOTALLY relate to being nervous at a puppy seminar! I used to try to calm myself down but now I just go with it and let the puppy see me being a bit nervous… that helps them recognize it as a good thing (puppy gets treats and toys even when mom is WEIRD) because I am going to be nervous at trials!
>I’ve had dogs that I thought would be OK in a new environment, have a meltdown, disengage and try to leave the ring. They wouldn’t take food and tugging was definitely not on the menu >
That is definitely harder! And those dogs need more support with resilience than Tribute seems to.
>so I was thrilled when this little guy walked into the building ready to go. >
YES!!! It is really so joyous!!!
>Some were a couple of weeks older, while many were in the 7 to 10 month range. They all had incredible startline stays and sequencing skills (through the wings no jumping). I am wondering if I am being too conservative and if I should be doing more. I>
A puppy with incredible sequencing skills at 10 months old has started learning to sequence when they were too young. It makes no sense from the neuroscience/behavior perspective to start that young. And from the veterinary perspective – it is absolutely too young to be doing it even if there are no bars. It can all lead to burnout, poor arousal regulation, etc etc
You are NOT being too conservative. It is better to spend the first year or so of training (which brings him to 14 months old, approx) getting ALL of the pieces in place (including body awareness, arousal regulation). And letting the puppy’s brain and body grow up. Then when you go to put it all together? Easy peasy and your pup will be further ahead than pups that started sequencing earlier because Tribute will have a better foundation.
> have seen young dogs that were amazing at first and then fall apart mentally when things became difficult.>
Sadly true. Physically and mentally fall apart. Poor pups!
>Question: How can I gage when to ask for more without crushing confidence and desire for the game?>
Part of it is making sure he has a very high success rate – a failure or two is fine, but repeated failures (more than 2 total in a session) is too much. And if he asks a question, we answer it with reward even if we simplify the goal (rather than add pressure or tell him he is wrong).
And part of it is making it all about play – lots of toy rewards, smiles, and laughter! And resisting doing too much repetition because that can really kill the joy.
Take your time getting him trained, ignore what other pups are doing 🙂 and enjoy the process! The long term goal is a long, happy career and partnership.
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Aelfraed was in a very funny mood today. We got one great repetition to start and then he wasn’t interested in his toys any more. I tried switching to a variety of other toys and he was not into it. He was however very into his cookies today, except cookies in the dirt were extremely offensive so tossing cookies for any of the games we did was not possible.>
I agree, that first rep was great! And he was tugging hard! I was watching to see if dirt got on the toy and that was offensive, or if there was a pain response to the tugging because he is teething? I didn’t see it on the video but it might have happened after the edit? My guess is it was teething pain, poor dude – he should be at the end of teething (he’s 7.5 months now?) so keep an eye on it! You can also show him a lotus ball for cookie tossing in the dirt, because dirt is a way of life for you in the winter.
The cookies reps went great, so you can keep adding distance and speed to the rocking horses!
Parallel path looked great! I think his commitment to the line is going really well, so we can play with the reward type and see if we can get him to look at you less.
You had targets out for throwing the food reward but he was trying to track the throw from your hand more than driving to the target. This is where a lotus ball or treat hugger can help for the cookie throws, so you can show them to him separately and see which one he likes. What will happen is you’ll get one reward then have to reload and do the next rep, but that is perfectly fine because the reps will have really high quality so you won’t need do that many. The other option is to have a couple of lotus balls so he gets the reward from one, then you go the other direction and throw the 2nd one.
He did well with the ‘get out’ the prop! It is a little harder when the pup is parallel to us, because they don’t see the line of motion or cue as immediately. If you feel his stay is strong enough that you want get a couple of steps ahead, you can use a stay. If you feel that the stay is not ready for this yet, you can load a cookie target, send him to it as you begin moving up the line a bit so you can get ahead. That will also allow you to add more motion in the form of jogging and running, and I think he will like that!
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Do you think I could put a tarp under the jump for the treats?>
Maybe? But I would be concerned that she would slip on it when she was running back and forth. I think towels on either side of the jump are good landing spots for treats plus they are visual aids to get more forward focus.
>Dot thinks a lotus ball is something you grab and run away with.>
You can put it on a line – most lotus balls have a piece of fabric on the bottom for attaching a line or another toy to it.
Rocking horse video:
This is coming along nicely!>She’s pretty distracted there as she doesn’t get to wander it on her own.>
She was actually really focused until there were a bunch of failures then she left at 1:35. We ca smooth out the mechanics to make the session more ‘clean’, which will reduce failures and so she won’t be looking at other things.
>The toy was hard for her. She spent a lot of time trying to grab it rather than work. >
That is a really good toy! And you might not need the highest value toy in the living room – you can use something a little lower value But also, I think cleaner mechanics will help with her begin able to ignore the toy. At the beginning, you were sending with the big toy in the hand right in front of her nose which was tooooooo hard for now (:22). She didn’t really know where to look (she is still young, of course) and when she was told it was incorrect by lack of reward and resetting, she got frustrated and jumped up for it.
Having the toy more tucked away helped later in the session: It was up in your armpit which was good! A smaller/less valuable toy will help too, saving the extra great toys for the outdoors.
Also reward her for giving it back, rather than going directly into the next rep. The reward can be a cookie or another bit of tugging. That will also help her not jump up for it as much plus it will keep her giving it back really well.
And if something goes wrong (like she doesn’t go to the cone, or heads to the wrong side of it, etc) it is fine to assume there was some lack of clarity and reset her with a cookie. That effort cookie will keep frustration levels down and let you keep cleaner mechanics.
About the mechanics: a clean lineup and start will make a big difference.
You can line her up (cookie) take a breath, connect, then send. Reset with a cookie if something goes wrong (because this is a new behavior, it is entirely likely the cue was not as clear as it needed to be).
For example, at 1:20, you were kinda lining up but then immediately stepped into the send and she was not really connected on the new side yet so she went to the toy.
Compare to 2:21 to the end: that was a very clear, clean setup so you were both ready and that was a lovely rep!! You can see the heartbeat of connection at each stage: lineup, connect, breathe, send. BIG difference!! So nice!!!!
She did well with the serps! That last rep where she found the jump on a hard angle was excellent!!!
>The pool noodle wouldn’t stay in place either.>
Yeah, it was a pain! LOL! You can try a strip of duct tape on each side to attach it to the carpet, very lightly so it doesn’t get gross stuff on the carpet? But it ended up being basically in place enough that she was able to work the concept really well.
You can move to the next step here and have the reward dangling a bit – it adds a self-control element and also brings in toy placement to get her going in-then-out. Eventually the toy goes to the floor – but for the dangling and toy-on-floor element, be sure to use a more boring toy at first 🙂
At this stage, with the placed reward, you might see the serp behavior change: she might start to side-swipe the hand target. It will look like her coming in but also turning to face the line to the reward. This is perfectly fine and rewardable, and it is actually what we want the behavior to move to being as we fade the hand touch/target. So if she comes toward the target but doesn’t touch it – you can totally still reward.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
The threadle session went great! Having a strong stay definitely makes the whole thing easier. Yay!!
Your ‘pose’ and looking at your target hand were great! And she did a great job reading the cues.
>Watching the video I think I need to be further off the wing for threadles.>
Not sure if you mean more centered on the wing so she can see more of you outside the line of the wing… if so, then yes 🙂 You can totally center your torso on the wing (rather than centered to the bar) so at least half of you is visible outside the wing (like you did at :52 and 1:45). If you are centered on the bar, with most of your torso visible between the uprights, then she will read it as serp (like at :33).
You can also be closer to the wing (close enough to touch it with a relaxed, bent arm) so that she bends around the entry wing and can easily see the bump/bar.
Next steps: Add the threadle slice verbal (it does release her from the stay – you can use it before you say ‘ok’ if she thinks that ‘ok’ is the only release). Also, you can replace the empty bowl with a MM or a toy on the ground so you don’t have to move to get her going to the reward. That will make it easier for when we add your motion, but helping her default to going over the bar after she gets to the correct side of the jump.
Leading with the head – this is definitely a game with harder mechanics! You can toss the treat from the clicker hand if that makes it easier.
To smooth out the mechanics, you can use the send hand to draw her further across the front of you, then turn her away to go back around the wing. Getting your hand to her nose level will help with drawing her across the front of you as well as turning away, in 2 distinct steps.
What was happening on the reps that didn’t get her wrapping the 2nd time was you were trying to pull her in front of you and turn her away at the same time – so the turn away hand was happening while she was still somewhat on the other side of the jump which is why she thought you wanted her to go back to the other side of it.
Doing the cues separately – pull her across then turn her way – was when you were most successful, like at 1:46 – 1:59 for example. Compare to right after that, at 2:07, where the cues were more simultaneous and she didn’t make the 2nd wrap. So keeping the ‘come across the front of me’ and the ‘turn away’ cues very separate will really help. It will feel almost slow motion, but that is correct 🙂
Nice work here!!
Tracy
PS – I forgot to mention that you can move to the advanced level of the head turn game and do the full 360 wraps with you moving!
T
Good morning
The head turns on the upright went well!
The nice low hand helped him get a good head turn.That barrel is huge! LOL! But he did really well with it too :_)
>When I switched to the barrel and the wing, I wasn’t sure when to click.>
The timing of the click is the same as you were doing on the upright: click as soon as he turns his head away to tart the 2nd wrap and the cookie gets tossed to the other side – this is what you were doing on the barrel and he did well!
The wing was different for him but he quickly adapted and wrapped really well too. The timing of your click was actually early here – on this section, you were clicking when he was heading to your hand (finishing the 1st wrap) which was early because he had not yet turned his head away. So when using the wing, you can use your other hand to cue the head turn away and then when he does it, click then toss the treat.
On the stay video:
The stay itself if going well – once he is in position, he is being great about not moving. You’ve really done a lovely job with this because just a few short weeks ago, he was all movement and no stays – look at him now! SUPER!!!>I am going to start doing more platform work for positional awareness with him. >
Totally agree!! He probably needs to learn proper tuck sits and also roll back sits (both of which are very valuable).
Do you have a conditioning person who works with Benni? You can bring him to a puppy fitness evaluation – I don’t recommend truly doing fitness or conditioning with a puppy, but you can do proprioception stuff like sits on a platform, balance, etc. If there is no one local to you, there are a couple of online classes I can recommend. I can offer some very basic exercises (like tight sits on the platform) but it is not my area of expertise so I defer to the certified fitness folks.
The Canine Conditioning Coach gets great reviews and I can recommend her as an all-around lovely person too! I just looked at her site, and she has this:
https://canineconditioningcoach.com/listing/posture-sit-beginner/
And also a puppy program! Looks pretty inexpensive ($79 if I read it correctly for a lot of info), I might be signing up too LOL
https://canineconditioningcoach.com/program/puppy/Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
> I’ve introduced her to the “Station (cato board), and she really likes it. So we start at the station, go to the start of the game and return to the station afterwards. She gets a high value reward (chicken) for coming back to me after taking the jump bump.>
Fantastic! I knew the find-the-jump element would be super easy for her so I love that you worked on the other elements too! You can keep doing this, and take it outside so you can add more distance. Bring the Cato board outside too!
The rocking horses are off to a great start! You had clear connection and nice job with the verbals! She was perfect on the 1st two wraps. Her question here was on the 3rd barrel, so maybe she needed one extra step? But she was also happy to get her reward then go back to the cato.
You can also add in more tugging and getting her more excited, so she maintains this level of focus and impulse control even when she is a bit wilder 🙂
Great job! And keep me posted on how she does with the end of run games too!
Tracy
How fun! MEB always does fun puppy workshops.
Thanks for the video – it looks like he was super engaged and WOW that drive back to you on the retrieve!!! He was adorable when he dropped the toy trying to run back to you and was trying to pick it up. He did a lot of running so I can see why he would get tired 🙂 He was super – you must be so proud of the little guy! Yay!!!!!
T
Hi –
Yes, the software reaches a point where there it has trouble processing a lot of video in a thread so it might struggle to load especially with Apple devices. Starting a new thread will solve the issue.Looking at the parallel path:
>She is still going by the wing a fair amount. >
She did really well and had a lot of success! Her questions were mainly at the start of each session, like at the beginning where you came in and just started so she missed a couple of times because she was just following you. Be sure to engage and play a bit before starting the session, to get her into training mode. And if she goes past the jump, don’t reset her – just keep walking then turn and go back the other way so she has another shot to find the jump. Once she got rolling, she did really well.
The other thing that will help is making the reward easier to find. The difficulty finding it interrupted the flow and probably interrupted the chain of thought (and unravelling the line did too at one point). So let’s look at options to get the reward delivery cleaner which will clean up the whole process:
– you can use big huge obvious rewards, like big chunks of white cheese. You won’t be able to do as many reps because of the bigger chunks, but they will be high quality reps 🙂
– you can put large mats or towels on each side of the jump for tossing the treat onto. That way she can find it easily and get right back into the next rep
– you can teach her about a lotus ball or treat hugger. She definitely won’t miss it in the grass, but she might think it is very fun and grab it LOL!Having you stay closer and not moving as fast definitely helps too, we can add more speed and distance soon enough.
>I’m not sure I should even try the threadle or backside stuff yet as the front side doesn’t have a ton of value yet. Let me know if that’s reasonable.
>I think she has done well with the serp, so you can do the threadle because it has rewards for the jump but from the other side of it. For the backsides, give the parallel path 1 or 2 more sessions then we can add the backsides.
Great job adding standing for the fold it in cone game! She definitely likes the new toy!! And she did a great job going past the toy. Yes, she had one error but we actually need that one error! It is an important piece of clarifying what we want (around the cone) and not just go to the toy. She did really well when the toy ended up back in the same spot where she had the error and was successful twice! Super! She was thinking a whole lot there, good girl 🙂
You can try it with a cookie in a food bowl too 🙂 and in a separate session, work the other side.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>We both had to figure things out and it felt like we were successful. Yeah us!!>
Exactly! It was great!
The tight turns also went really well – she was doing a great job with her turns and your timing was good!
> I’m not sure if my mechanics are right as once I got out there I couldn’t remember which hand when.>
Yes, your mechanics worked really well. You had her lined up at your side then sent her and turned her with the same hand (rewarded with the other). It feels weird at first but she read it really well!
>Some turns are a bit wide, most likely due to the position of my hand. >
That leads to my only suggestion: having your hand a little lower, more at her nose level, and right in front of her. When you did that, she was nice and tight (like on the rep at :44-:47, super nice!!) When your hand was too high or too far, she was wider – so you can either lean over or sit in a chair to get your hand nice and low.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning! Glad you had some lovely weather!
Verbals only: She is overall doing really well – but note how she would generally get the first rep incorrect then figure out based on the feedback on that first rep… until you changed something then she was incorrect on that first rep of the new thing again. That was because she was moving on the first bit of sound but not really processing the actual verbal.
To help her process the verbal and get that important first rep correct, hold her as you start saying the verbals so she hears the verbal 3 or 4 times before moving. Without that, she is likely to go to whatever she is looking at because she was not processing the verbal – then if she doesn’t get rewarded, will guess the other option on the next rep because she is smart like that LOL
And if you cue the jump and she does a backside, you can reward backsides instead of fronts for now because it is not the tunnel 🙂 We will hone it to the point where she can discriminate back versus front.
When you added the handling :very nice! The line of motion was similar and you were really good about not showing a lot of connection. She was very successful! You were more connected when you added more motion (especially to the tunnel) and she did really well. So the next stage would be to diminish connection as you are also moving fast.
I don’t know why she took the a-frame on one rep other than it was right there and she was guessing because it hand’t been used yet.
Maybe your line had slight convergence towards it so she pushed out? But there was really no a-frame cue so it was a definite “you’re clever but no reward” moment 🙂When you added the backside slice towards the end – she went to the backside (yay!) but ran past the jump so for now, get all of the rewards for that on the landing side of the jump and not out past the jump.
Great job!!
TracyHi! Yay PICK!!!! What a good boy!!!!! Super fast, paying attention, and did a good job with the footing.
>Ideally, there’s zero visiting of course, but is this realistic for a dog working through dealing with all that arousal?>
Yes, this is realistic, and we can get it. More below 🙂
>I didn’t even stop to reward (which I actually find sometimes breaks the flow and can actually tip him over to being overaroused and needing to visit, so the toy is mostly a back up plan to help refocus him if needed).>
I have certainly seen plenty of dogs find that stopping to reward a weird thing – they are in the work flow. It begs the questions: Is the toy play actually a reward in that moment? Or is the toy more of a context cue that reward will be available at the end? Might be a context cue.
So if I feel a dog *needs* a toy reward in the ring, we might create a sequence that appears to have an ending, handling it like it is the end, reward – then set up the next sequence like it is the beginning of a ‘new’ course. The dogs are happy with that.He did really well in the NFC run with all the distractions in the environment: music, leash runner walking behind you (he indicated he was aware of that), people in the ring, etc.
>. On the actual run, no visiting even with the judge doing a running commentary as we ran past him>
Was that someone saying “nice” etc? Probably not a helpful things for NFC dogs who are often learning to NOT be distracted in that environment LOL especially since those words are often paired with rewards. But Pick was a star and ignored it – note that he had the context cue of the toy on course with you, visible in your hand.
>so I let him take the off course and I don’t think he ever knew.>
I agree, I only kinda sorta know where the off course was 🙂 It was a lovely run!
Real run: Good job!!
>Tried to give him some extra time setting up due to a sneezing fit>
He might sneeze as part of his coping with stress at the line (all dogs cope in one way with the stress activation at the line). He did it at the start of his NFC run too.
Since this was a real run, the toy stayed with the leash.
He did BRILLIANTLY. So proud of him! Lovely connected, aggressive handling from you 🙂
He had the off course towards the end, and it was handler blooper:
At 2:03 when he was approaching the jump before it – you did say GO as you were facing the off course jump and had a lot of forward motion. The RC info was late – yes, there was a visual of a ring crew person there which might have contributed to him not being able to fix it before the off course, but the cue to take that jump did happen at the time he would be making of the decision of where to go next. Good job continuing! He was a good boy!!
He did have a ring crew visit in this run. Nothing major and he came right back, but it brings us back to this question:
>>Ideally, there’s zero visiting of course, but is this realistic for a dog working through dealing with all that arousal?>
I think the big leap from NFC toy in hand (what I call Step 1: Just Like Home) from For Real (toy with leash) was too big and the context cue of the toy in your hand needs to be faded more gradually and systematically. No worries, we start that with this week’s games 🙂 If we fade the toy in your hand systematically in training and at trials – he will not visit ring crew and you will get runs that look like the NFC run, except they will be for real 🙂
>But where do I draw the line and say he just isn’t trial ready, that he’s just rehearsing what I don’t want?>
I don’t think it is black and white like that. We can be more systematic to teach him not to visit.
>Is rewarding him running past the ring crew even worthwhile since it seems to actually INCREASE the chances that he checks out and goes visiting? >
It depends on when/where the reward is happening exactly, and if the reward is actually a reward (see above) – but yes, it might actually enhance the ring crew making them more obvious to him. And it might shift his arousal state/attentional state to where he has lost the flow and suddenly doesn’t know what to do.
>Rewarding him for running past ring crew also just feels off since I get the feeling that the visiting isn’t even about the people, and it’s just coping with the arousal.>
This is also not black and white, and we don’t really know which it is Probably an element of both, rooted in the amygdala’s F responses to activation: some dogs zoom (flight) some dogs get reactive (fight), some dogs get frozen (freeze), some dogs scratch or sniff (fidget) and some dogs visit (fawn). His response is to fawn so it is probably part reflexive response (dammit, amygdala!) and part coping. He might not even really enjoy people, but he is wired to have a fawning response. But all that is good to know because we can work through that!
Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Hope you don’t mind that I post some questions about both?>
Perfectly fine!
I am really happy with what she did here, what a good girlie!
>She unfortunately had a bad crash that I think basically gets chalked up to baby dog doing baby dog things.>
It was the footing 🙁
She was already having to move differently on it to avoid falling, but then couldn’t adjust to save herself on that big crash. Earlier in her run, you can see her running ‘short’ to keep herself balanced on the lines that had the gentle curves and you can see her ‘hoisting’ her hind end over the jumps because she was not able to properly push off.>This facility has turf that really doesn’t agree with some dogs >
Yeah, she says it doesn’t agree with her! What she was doing is exactly what I see similar dogs doing when the footing is too slippery for them (including my BW and my Whippets, both of whom no longer run on this type of turf – my small girl dogs just slow way down, which is also not desirable). I’ve never even tried it with the adolescent Whippet x Malinois, because that would be a train wreck for sure. He wears a strip of rubber on his flyball wraps for grip, so he would need that too on the turf.
So ideally, avoid this turf at all costs especially early in her career. She is going to have to adjust and run short and not use herself correctly – which I believe contributes to injuries (I am suer your knowledge is greater than mine in that regard).
If you do have to put her on the turf, do short stuff where there is not a ton of speed but more importantly: wrap her with powerflex to give her more traction. This is happily allowed in UKI! Even doing short sequences will cause her to have to compensate her striding.
And I actually have a video of how to do it for agility, made for people running fast dogs on this type of turf – those dogs were slipping and also shredding their feet. The wraps helped immensely! When I used to run on this turf, I would wrap the faster dogs with powerflex and sometimes with Elastikon too. I stopped running on this type of turf when my BW, even wrapped, was having to run short to make turns, then slipped on takeoff to a jump and smacked his toes hard enough on the bar that he started limping. The last thing we need with whippety dogs are toe issues!
When people ask why I don’t run on that turf anymore, I just say the dogs are too fast, center of gravity too high, and cannot grip the turf. No one argues, having seen how fast they go LOL!!
>Dogs mostly wait outside the room and just the on deck dog comes in to be next to go. Started as a COVID rule and while it’s not a rule any more, it’s sort of the culture here now. With really no time to acclimate, I was happy with how she came in the ring>
That is a little weird in this day and age, but she was marvelous! Very focused and engaged, but didn’t seem overaroused or concerned about the environment at all. Happy dance!!!
>I was happy with how she came in the ring and the course was well set up to not need a lead out, though I think with a lead out, I could have been out of her way better and #3 wouldn’t have come down. >
Possibly! But she had a nice turn on 1 and your blind was lovely! And also – I think we will do some work showing her what she needs to know about the jump before a tunnel. That is the one spot so far that we are seeing questions (bars or running by). More on that below.
>Very happy with how she handled those soft turns, really working hard to find the right jump.>
Yes for sure, especially because she was also processing mechanics and having to really adjust. She went past the jump at :45 as she was adjusting and she needed more connection to shift to her left to get the jump – and you did that brilliantly at 1:06. Super!
>She did run past the blue jump on that back line along the wall. This was my main hesitation about giving her big extension lines off the bat, that she just doesn’t have the experience to “find” the jump on a line like that and it’s a habit I’d rather not get her into- defaulting to just going around the thing (although given what happened next, maybe aborting mission SHOULD be her default for an ambiguous approach!)>
No worries about that, I think it falls into the ‘jump before tunnel’ questions category. You can set up a speed circle or similar wide open novicey sequence (I can draw one up for you) and we can look at teaching her how to find the jump before the tunnel at high speed (by using an accelerated lazy game concept) as well as dialing back motion/amping up connection to help her keep the bar up even when you are yelling TUNNEL TUNNEL TUNNEL hahaha 2 approaches to help her out – then it will be no problem at all 🙂
>Then that last line, I wanted to try to layer those jumps>
She did well with the layer!
> Unfortunately her line was wonky between those two jumps, more like a v set and she locked on to the wrong tunnel. I think she felt pressure from the line I was running, lost focus on what she was doing and wound up wiping out a stride before the tunnel, slamming into the side of the tunnel and literally somersaulting through the tunnel. >
Maybe the line was a little wonky, but nothing happened with the line or your handling that was so crazy that should have resulted in a crash like that. It is the footing. I was panicking and I already knew how it ended! Poor girlie!!! I am glad she is OK!! But it is stuff like this that has made me swear off turf like this. If the boys are OK with the footing, you can enter her and do controlled things like lead out rewards, or contact stuff perhaps – but definitely not weaves or anything fast so she doesn’t slip or crash.
I will go draw up a jump-before-tunnel game for her and if the weather is OK today, I might even bring out a dog to run it!
Tracy
