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Hi!
Happy birthday Skizzle!! Fun times ahead!!!!I love your remote reinforcement word 😂 ⚡️ and yes, the neighbors were very good helpers here 🙂 It was a nice amount of background noise.
I think he was good here in terms of energy level. He didn’t know that “shazam” meant to go grab the toy – he likely believes that you will pick it up first and that is appropriate in this context.
You can keep extending the duration of moving away from the reward, and add a leash into the picture as well. That will be appropriate for ring entries at trials, where the leash will be on him.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Sequence 1:Run 1 went great! Pretty perfect!
Lovely connection ad motion, and the blind at the end was perfectly timed and connected, with a little bit of decel added to get a great turn.Rep 2 & 3 she didn’t take the jump after the tunnel: looked like you were a little disconnected (looking forward ) and not as far ahead.
On the first run, you were ahead and connected at :18.When she went around the jump at :42 and :55, you were not as far ahead and not really connected.
Compare to 1:14 and 1:29 – these were super connected and she got it really well 🙂
On the last jump at 1:19 you did a big post turn that was late so she dropped the bar tryin to adjust. On the other reps, you weren’t tuning there and she had no questions.
On the last rep, the blind at 1:32 was finished as she landed from 5, so she was correct to not take the tunnel. Good girl!
Seq 2:
You can start the BC earlier 3-4 ! When you see her at jump 3, you can start the blind so it is finished before she takes off for 4. You were tending to start it as she approached takeoff of 4, which made it late and wider.
The spin on 5 was the right choice! The post turn at :14 & :37 sent her wide. The spin at :55 & 1:24 & 1:48 looked great! Doing the blind earlier will make that easier to start earlier too.Tunnel discriminations: these were a really good challenge!
The key was to turn and face the new direction as she lands from the pinwheel jump so before she takes off for the jump before the tunnel she sees the new info. When you waited til she got to the jump before the tunnel (:19 & :40 & :51 & 1:24) – it looked like a straight line cue: she looked at you and decided you wanted the straight line.
Better timing at :30 and 1:07 and 1:41, where you were facing the tunnel entry you wanted before she took off and she had no questions there. Super!You can use brake arms to give even clearer info: as she gets to the middle jump, you can cue the turn on the jump before the tunnel with 2 hands, so she is already turning to face you. Then you keep turning and move into your tunnel threadle cues, which should take out any accidental off courses.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi! Super nice session here! I think most of his barking was just excitement 🙂
The opening line into the pinwheel was a commitment refresher for him: he was relying on handling and connection, and it was hard to get there because he was also running fast!!
On Run 1 and 2 – he just needed one more step to the pinwheel jump, good job continuing.
You got that on run 3 really well, then lost connection when you got behind on the way to the tunnel.
At :58 you were hustling to get to the pinwheel jump, lost connection so he went past 3
But the rest was lovely! And the last run was fantastic.Because he needed your connection to be perfect even though your motion was spot on, you can revisit the lazy game, but do it at a jog 🙂 and be not-great with connection, while rewarding TONS for finding the jumps without you needing to be perfectly connected or ahead.
I like that you tried different options on the ending line!
The rear cross on the landing at the end was a little late. You’d need to start the cues before he takes off for the previous jump. A rear cross on the takeoff side will work well!But the blind there on run 2 was gorgeous 😍 !!!
The blind on landing side was good too but I think that blocked his line so he went past the last jump.
You adjusted that blind on the last run so it was more of a serp-blind: perfection!Interesting that the lineup has gone away… is he bopping around and barking? Or coming to your side but not sitting? You can start reminding him further away for the lineups so he is less stimulated by the jump, or use a mat to sit on as a reminder to get some reward in.
Well done here!
TracyHi! Super nice session here. She was engaged with the toy (especially when you ran with it or threw it 🙂 And she was driving to the tunnels brilliantly!!
The warm up looked good although she might have been wondering why you were stopping her 😆!
For the turn at 3- we can tighten it up by doing the FC earlier. You were doing it as she was over 3, so she was already committed to landing long. You can play with how much earlier you can do it and still get commitment:
One stride before takeoff? 2 strides before takeoff? One stride after she exits the tunnel? The earlier, the better: if she sees you starting it one stride after she exits the tunnel, she will adjust her stride into collection, and land a lot closer.Then stay connected to get her to 5. You were pointing forward and looking forward at 1:58 which turned your shoulders past it, and inexperienced dogs are very literal even though the jump was right there so she zipped past it.
In that moment, keep going! Bloopers like that are always connection bloopers, so you can carry on with more connection and then add more connection there in the next run.
At 3:07, you had great connection and she committed really well! Yay!!!!!!
And the ending line looked strong through the session.
Great job here 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>Sunnie is targeting the bowl or little target at the bottom of the ramp. Is it ok that she does that or am I supposed to teach her to keep her engagement with me all the way down the ramp until we hit ground? >
I like that she immediately targeted her bowl and ‘got to work’ and was engaged. Trying to keep her engagement all the way down the ramp might be too much of a buzzkill and too mush pressure. We want the association to be a grand time 🙂
>She was getting distracted by them when she should have been going to potty.
>You might have to reward the first bowl then pick it up to get her to potty instead of working 🙂
I think the session looked great!! Plenty of engagement, then fast & fun progress to the next station. Then done! Loved it! We will be able to start integrating agility stuff soon 🙂
>I have raw in my treat pouch. Took me a minute to navigate the leash with my clean hand, dispense rewards (kibble down the ramp) & the hand that had raw all over it >
It was worth the wait – it is SUPER high value and Sunnie was great.
>My hands hurt from an outing at the park last night
I wanted her to explore, no definite pattern, just letting her go where she wanted to go & it turned out to be constant jerking on the long line & then birds appeared >Ouch! You might want to give her a little less agency, or maybe a harness that won’t jerk you as much if she pulls? You might want to consider gloves – we sometimes wear them in flyball for the dogs that are hard on the tug or we tug on the ball in their mouth. There are lots of cute colors too! That way your hands won’t hurt as much.
>I need it short, but would like to give her a bit length to sniff too or to potty.>
I wonder if she enters the yard on the short leash, gets the target reward when she goes to it then engages… then you can clip her on a long line or something as part of the cue to go potty? That might be a nice middle ground?
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
He was definitely happy with the blue tunnel here LOL! Good boy!
Since he was so confidently running into it at every opportunity 🙂 and he still wrapped the wing when you asked… we can move to the next steps of fading out your motion and getting him to do it independently. This might be a little challenging because he is so smol! You mentioned that he was ok with your hand on his chest to hold him: you can have your hand there, say the wrap or tunnel verbal 3 or 4 times… then let go so he can move without you moving.
You can also try the advanced level of this game, which is super fun with 2 tunnels in a row 🙂
>He lost interest in the toy, which maybe helped his stay but his “get its” were less enthusiastic. >
I totally see his conundrum! He did well, though. For now, we can take the great stay 🙂 Instead of a tug toy, you can use a food toy as the moving target: maybe the new food toy attached to a line, and a cookie thrown back to reward the stay.
>I’m also wondering if it is a good idea or not to use “get it” as a release – will it mess with the “break” cue?>
I think in this setup, it was fine to say get it. When you add to a jump, you can switch back to ‘break’ to solidify that in front of a jump.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>She had more propulsion when I was holding her collar with a tossed toy out there than a solid sit stay. I will try them at 5 ft this weekend.>
I think 6 feet will be her normal distance when we add the moving target, as soon as you are confident that her stay will hold up to a dragging toy 🙂
>she was stung by yellow jackets or wasps inside my tunnel. >
Oh noooooo that stinks!!! I remember you having trouble with them earlier in the summer.
>I can’t begin to tell you how much nicer this feels to work together with her.>
I agree, she did great here!!! Yay!
>I’d say most if not all the mistakes here are mine for losing connection or not practicing with the toy in the send hand to the tunnel.>
There were very few errors and they were all connection errors. Baby dogs need us to be soooooo perfect LOL!! The goal for now is to get and maintain very direct eye contact, even on the sends. If you point ahead of her, even if you are looking at her – the connection is broken and ahe has questions. You won’t always need to be this perfect 🙂 but it really helps for now.
Two examples:
The small blooper at :27 where was ended up on the wrong side of you was a connection blooper, not a toy hand blooper 🙂 As she rounded the wing, your head was turned back to her, but your right hand was pointed forward so from her view, she didn’t see the connection and thought it was a blind cross.Compare to :42 & 1:19 (on the other side) where you held your arm back and maintained very direct connection: lovely! No questions from Rou.
Something similar happened at :43 – she was behind you and you pointed forward so she didn’t take the tunnel. The pointing forward turned your shoulders away from the tunnel entry, and 1 year old dogs are very literal LOL!
Compare to 1:21 when you held the connection and got her into the tunnel. SUPER!
So direct connection is definitely the way to go.
>I do have a goal this term of trying to get my words out sooner.>
You are doing well! You can repeat the verbals too: tunnel tunnel tunnel tunnel! That way she doesn’t miss anything, as opposed to when you say it once. It is easy to miss if you only say it once because she is processing a lot of info.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Wow, this was just about perfect! He was sending to the tunnel brilliantly and finding the wing wraps pretty independently too 🙂
He also had no trouble switching gears to the soft right (wing to wing) instead the wrap. Well done!
Since. This was easy for him, you can add more distance between the wings and the tunnel to increase the challenge.
Question: what are you wraps verbals? I think the ‘right’ on the soft turn was pretty clear but I couldn’t quite make out the wrap verbals.
>I need to get some of my verbals out sooner. More practice is needed but I think we are on the right track.>
You are totally on the right track! Your connection was really strong, and that is more important than verbals at this stage. We will keep adding the verbals til they are second nature.
>PS. My older Golden had a lot of fun with this exercise.>
Yay! It is a fun one even for experienced dogs, and you can practice the verbals with Folger too 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
Nice job in this session, bringing the wing in close to set up success then gradually moving it further and further back. He was great about finding the jump with you moving as well. Yay!
Since he is getting the idea, a future session can start where you left off here: do a couple of reps just like the last one here. Then see if you can take out the target on the ground, and move to a thrown reward (he likes the lotus ball, if I remember correctly?). That way you can throw it when he looks at the jump, no need to wait til he arrives at the jump.
When he is happy to find the jump without the target out ahead, you can add more and more distance between the wing and the jump.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>He was excited for sure with the toy. Is it ok to toss toy back to him vs the food? Not sure which would be better but I question if it might help.>
Yes – you can toss a toy back too, I think he will like that. To help him understand how to stay even when you put a toy on the ground, lead out with 2 toys: one is the long one that you put on the ground, and the other is a short one you can throw back to him after he holds his stay.
>For the wind in your hair is it ok to say jump before the go go go? Guess with the shorter distance I would think he should take the jump on the word jump or do we think that will come with time?>
The GO directional will tell him more about the situation (jump in extension) so while you can say jump, you don’t need to say jump. Jump doesn’t mean extension, necessarily, so Go will delver better info sooner.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning!
Nice job with the walk throughs and runs!Your plan was clear on the walk through – the big difference I noticed was that the dogs move faster in the run, which means practicing that final walk through at a faster speed will better prepare for the run 🙂 That will include the verbals and connection all happening faster – and it was he connection that stood in the way of nailing the run with both of them.
In Watson’s run – the opening looked strong, and the closing looked strong! The connection was not visible to Watson on the first FC at :14 – you saw him then you closed your shoulders and looked forward before he saw the new side and made the connection.
Compare that to the 2nd run at :43 where you got the connection and held it so he could see it and make the turn. Yay! Then the rest of the run looked great too!
Levy – the opening looked strong with him! The connection on that run is what caused the blooper: he went a little wide at 5 and you disconnected going for the FC (:10) so when he turned back to the line, he saw the side change happening.
Since he ended up in the correct side of the tunnel you can keep going to get the ending line.You mentioned it as the handling plan being something to change but I think your handling plan was strong! It is more about maintaining the connection in the moment even if there is a wide turn – that will keep him on track 🙂 And that’s why I tell everyone to keep going even if there is a blooper – it trains us humans to think on our feet so we can still get the rest of the sequence done 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Yay for the friend! He definitely LOVED the set point with the toy here. Powerful and nice form!
He is focused on the moving target toy, which is great! I agree that he is also releasing from the stay when you put the toy down, so you will want to keep the toy movement and the release separate: put it down when you get to position, praise, then either release or throw a reward back. Don’t be surprised if he thinks the toy is the release and breaks on the toy movement. Maybe your instructor can reward by feeding him when you put the toy down too?
Great job here!
Tracy
Hello and welcome back! Yay!
I love her happy insanity at the beginning, she was pumped up to play!
Looking at the wing versus tunnel game videos: She is doing a great job with a challenging game. And she did well on both sides!
Only one suggestion: have her wear a collar so you can gently hold it, say the wrap or tunnel verbal 4 or 5 times… then let go. Even doing it from a stay becomes all about watching motion, so holding the collar is the best way to get the verbal happening before anyone moves.
She was trying to guess based on motion and watching you very carefully. To really solidify the verbals, having her hear them before either of you move will really help – and that way you won’t even have to move or handle much at all!After a session or two of really emphasizing the verbals, you can go to the advanced levels.
Looking at the set point:
She is understanding the concept and did really well, so now we can definitely tweak the setup to get more power.
These jumps were a little close together for her, so you can add one foot more between them and see how it goes.Then we can get more drive forward to the target by using the moving target from the pre-games. You will have the moving target starting where you target was in this video, then as you release you will walk forward while dragging it. If she hasn’t done the pre-game yet, start with that and add it to 1 jump before adding it to this setup.
>*Feel free to skip :45-1:57. I was really proud of her long stay and wanted to leave it in for the sake of memories >
That was impressive! She was a good girl 🙂
>Admittedly, this game speeds up quite a bit when a toy is involved.>
Yes, the toy is what will bring the wind in her hair for sure 🙂 The treats were fine… but definitely use a thrown toy reward for this game so she can blast through it.
Since this went so well, you can add more distance between the wing and the jump, as well as more motion with you running 🙂 Stay connected like you were here and you can throw the reward as soon as she looks forward to the jump.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>He keeps running away with his ball UP THE STAIRS>
Ha! He’s giving himself a good workout. You can also block off the stairs with some wings so he can’t get up them LOL
I think he very much enjoyed this game!!! Fast and driven!
Only one connection blooper at :25, where you looked forward so he didn’t know which side to be on. You adjusted it perfectly in the next rep and all of the others so he had no other questions. YAY!!
Since he loves this game so much, you can keep adding distance and also you can stay at the start wing longer… then as he finishes the wrap you can start running forward. That will allow him to get ahead of you 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
