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Hi!
Get out is looking good! He is responding super nicely to the use of the outside arm! You can amplify the connection as you start the outside arm cue to get an earlier response – as soon as he exits the start wing, you can look at him *very* directly while you do the rest of the cue (the arm and motion like you did here). And he was SUPER about *not* taking the jump when you ran past it. YAY!!! You can definitely move to the advanced level now, where you add the cross after the get out cue 🙂
Nice work!
TracyThis is also going well! He figured out how to stay on the other sided of the tunnel really well 🙂 Adding extra jumps tended to get too much extension to find the turn to the tunnel easily, so keeping it to one jump behind the tunnel will help challenge him to both find the jump and also make it easier to time the turn cues to the tunnel (before he takes off for the jump – probably when he is about 10 feet away from it). He did have a little question about the threadles at the end, probably because they were out of context. It will be easier for him to read those when he is coming on from the front side of the tunnel 🙂
Nice work!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The Diamond games are looking really strong, the work you’ve put in really shows!
The best part of it was that you had really great connection on all the sessions here – great connection on the simpler lines as well as on the exit of the crosses. It was clear and he had no questions, especially on those tight blinds! Great job keeping your arms low and back to really let him see the connection.
His commitment is looking really strong – you can start the blinds sooner 🙂 The best timing here was at :31, when he was maybe halfway between 2 wings and you started the blind. Perfect!!! The others had you starting when he was closer to the wing (like at 1:46), which delays the exit info a little and he looks up at you, waiting for more info.
During the 2nd session (indoors): Yes, you had different barrel #2 but you were still getting it done! I am sure it felt weird but nice clear connection still got him knowing which barrel you were moving towards.
One suggestion is to carry the toy in your pocket or hand so it is easier to run with both arms. Having it in your arm pit is restricting your running because that side of your body has to hold pretty tight to hold the toy.
The race tracks at the end looked great! The toy was in your hand, he had no trouble with it. Super!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Good job having the arms and connection in place before the release, they were distinctly separate here and that helps the stay behavior a whole lot! Yay!He did well with this, especially on the reps where you were not moving as much.
>>We weren’t very successful with the serp line if he couldn’t see me through the uprights.>>
The serp position between the uprights is important, so it makes sense that he needed to see you there. I think he as having trouble with the lower body motion overriding the upper body arm cues for the serps/threadles. The lower body is a lot more visible because he is small 🙂
Your timing of the upper body cues got earlier and clearer as the session went along – you were a little late at :16 and :44, for example, with opening your arm back for the serp. But then at 1:03, 1:19 and beyond you got earlier and earlier which helped!Things went better when you were not moving as much, so something that helps small dogs see the serp and threadle cue better as you add motion is if you dip your shoulder down towards him – that movement plus the serp or threadle arm makes the cues more visible, which should help the upper body override the motion of the lower body.
That is probably all he needs – the added dip of the shoulder – for you to add more and more motion 🙂
Keep me posted on the tunnel threadle! If he was having trouble reading it, the question might be similar to what he was asking here – upper body not as visible as lower body. So you can try dipping your shoulder down to him and see if that helps.
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
>>He flew through the tunnel, then when I tried jump and tunnel he was blind to the jump 😅 More tugging it is!>>
Ha! Yes – the joys of that tunnel-vision in arousal. Sometimes it works in our favor, sometimes not so much LOL!!! But it is easy to rehearse and he will figure it out for sure.
>>One thing about our class is that it’s in a small training facility. He will never be able to jump full height there for one. And we rarely sees distances of more than 6ft between obstacles. >>
The tiny distances can be used as jump grid opportunities, like the little pinwheel he did – the close jumps and low heights make it more of a jumping exercise than a handling exercise and that is still very valuable! For handling, say you have 3 jumps in a row at 6 feet apart… maybe ask the instructor to pull out the middle jump, so you only have 2 jumps but t it will be more like 12 feet.
>>Plenty of distractions working around other dogs though, so that’s where I see a lot of value (video from tonight)>>
I agree – this is incredibly valuable and he looked great in the video! And the tunnel games are great too, because tall dogs don’t always love ducking down into tunnels.
>>Also, he did fill in these past few weeks! I like to think fitness is also contributing to the changes.>>
Yes! It is impressive how quickly the dogs can get fitter and it makes such a big difference 🙂
>>While I figure out where I can train with him at a bigger venue (and when it makes sense to start that, and who the right people to do that with are).>>
I will poke around in your area and see who is close enough to train with, that will also be a good fit with your style of training 🙂 Stay tuned for more info!
Oh no! I hope the trial stuff gets easier!!! At least you got to do a fun seminar! This class runs until May 15th 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
Tunnel threadles – he was readying things well, but like you mentioned, not moving at his usual speed.
>> I didn’t quite have it down & Indy could tell. I think I was really demotivating him.>>
I think it was a deceleration question: not enough motion. You can spread things out so there is more motion for you both (15 to 18 feet between the wings and the tunnel should help get more acceleration, and feel free to add even more distance depending on how much you want to run 🙂 You didn’t have a lot of room to go fast, so he was questioning if he should read your motion as decel or if he should stay in extension. Since we don’t want to dilute the deceleration, spreading the distances out will help! You were trying to compensate with more arm movement but I think that blocked connection and turned your shoulders away from the line, so he slowed down waiting for more info (like at 1:30)
Lateral lead outs: These went really well! And using the mat helped to get him to stay and on different angles. The harder angle a 3:05 took him a moment to read, but then he got it nicely and the other reps looked good too, with you on both sides of the jump and also with you adding crosses after jump 1. Super!
He is a little confused about the release: you are moving at the same time (arm movement and shoulder leaning forward), so if you don’t say the release and move anyway (like at 2:47) he will release.
To avoid this confusion, you can get to position, raise your arm, stand still, then release. That should clarify for him that is the verbal release he needs to wait for, not just the movement.
The zig zags looked good! Definite improvement! You can add the bars to them from the next zig zag lesson (one end of the bar on the jump cup, the other on the ground). You had very clear cues (he only missed one, then you made the cue bigger) so as the bars go in, you can keep those really big obvious cues with arms/shoulders and feet to help him find the line.
He did well with the serp versus the tunnel too! I think he is ready to see you walking into position and releasing as you are walking, like he would see on a course (the cue coming as you are moving).
For both the tunnel and the serp cue, you can separate the verbal release from the movement. It looks like he thinks the movement is part of the release here too, because all of the releases had the arm movement. And the one time you did the arm movement and did’t say the word… he released (5:44). I can see his argument here LOL! So, to clarify it – get your shoulders into position for the cue you want to give, wait for a heartbeat or two, then say the release. As you add movement to it (moving forward along the line) you can have your shoulders already in position and release as you are moving. You are moving for several steps before the release in that case, so they won’t get paired accidentally like they do when we release and move at the same time.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
That is the thing about dog training… we keep learning and learning 🙂 I like your plan to keep him in FEO for a while to kind of ease him into the harder trial environments!
Have fun!
Tracy
Hi!
Generally when we get the freezing on the start line, it is either too much pressure or something is ouchy.
So for the ouchy possibility, see if you can get her into a massage or Chiro to make sure nothing is bothering her or tight or sore.
For the pressure possibility: she has been doing a lot of things that an be pressure games lately: lots of jump grids from stays (that is a HARD visual when sitting in front of a grid!) as well as the station work and the harness stuff… so even if it is not all stays, there might be a pressure build up and her brain needs some time to let it go. So take all stay behavior out of her life (all of it, that is HARD for us humans) for a week or so, and just do silly fun stuff race tracks and running through tunnels. (No jumps though, in case there is an ouch factor in play). Then come back to adding some fun stays back in (like in front of her favorite tunnel or jump :)) for short easy games. You can toggle the hard stuff back in, but over-balance it for now with easy peasy fun run run run stuff because, well…. Adolescence 🙂 Adolescent dogs are far more susceptible to feeling the pressure and we see stuff like freezing when there is pressure.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
The tandem were a little late on some reps and on some you turned your feet to the new line to early. Good job just staying in motion on those.To help make the tandems less late, you can call her name before she enters the tunnel to put her into handler focus so she exits looking for you. Then even if you are a stride late, she will still be ready to receive the info. The last one was well-timed, especially coming after the big race track! Yay!
>>However using go instead of directionals for the racetrack parts really seemed to help her out – she just flew on those parts and no pop rock explosions ensued. Even got a tunnel threadle.>>
Yes, the go is really stimulating and fun and those race tracks do have a lot of extension, so she really liked the go cue and the running 🙂
For now, do more of the race tracks and less of the turning and hard handling stuff (see next post for why) so she can just have the joy of relatively mindless running for a week or so 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi!
>> I got totally behind on my videos the last 4 weeks.
You did get a lot of videos posted, so that is really great! Originally you were not too sure about getting any posted, and you did a lovely job getting a lot of games posted 🙂
>>Not sure if I should repeat MAX 3 as a worker or just keep going and finish Max 3 on my own.>>
Keep going then join up in MaxPup 4 (after the summer :))
>> My question is do you suggest another course I could take that I can send videos and get feedback for Seren. >>
MaxPup 4 is the next one, and it also hits on getting ready for trialing. I don’t have a start date for it yet, stay tuned!
>>he would do a few obstacles and then go visit ring crew and after restart he would do a few more and then go sit near score table and refuse to rejoin me on course.>>
Yes, he looked stressed in the video. I love your idea of doing a TON of FEO in CPE… smaller trials, less pressure, more fun. He is really young so you want to make it fun fun fun fun 🙂
>> At home and at class he is fine and loves training. >>
Rewards are very visible and predictable in those environments. Trials are radically different and unpredictable, so getting him used to the environment with FEO runs will really help.
> need to definitly be aware of his mental state and what he can handle at all times.>
Yes! It is hard for young dogs to go from training to trialing, so lots of toy-in-the-ring and not trying to Q will really help. Also, listen to the video with the sound up and your eyes closed: holy COW who was screaming in the other ring? What was the banging (teeter??) The noise was A LOT and I am sure that affected him too. He might not be ready for noisy 2 ring trials where people scream LOL!!!
Keep me posted 🙂
TracyHi! That is GREAT news about Grady!! So fun!!!
>>I do have question regarding the teeter…both Cassie and Lori are fans of her learning a stopped teeter. Grady has a running teeter, has only been called on it a few times. One time was a fly off when I truly believe he thought it was dog walk.>>
I vote with Cassie and Lori 🙂 The stopped teeters have clearer criteria about exactly where to go and exactly when to leave the board. That clarity makes it easier to learn and easier to reward, so the dogs get faster and happier doing them. And it is easy and fun to train a stop on the end of the board, she will love the extra meatballs 🙂
Tracy
That is fantastic! Sounds like she was a perfect girlie 🙂 I am not surprised, it sounds like things have been coming together really nicely 🙂 Great job with all of the games and keep me posted as she starts doing the grown-up stuff too 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>>There is a lot of really good intentioned peer pressure to take advantage of mat time opportunities >>
So true about the peer pressure! I like that they recognize his talent, so now they just need to let him grown up a little 🙂
>>Anyway, we are going to try me running around him in recalls and your suggestions for how I catch him after recalls and are arranging to practice alternating recalls with a more seasoned calmer dog at practice>>
Perfect! Keep me posted!
Looking at the video:
>>1 I don’t know if adding the tire is ok? So we just tried a couple – he did hit his feet on it once so maybe not a good idea?>>
Yes the tire can totally go into the grid! He had a toe nail click probably because he was slowing down to the get to the reward, but other than that he did well! You can raise it a little (to 8 inches) to get more hind end involvement.
>>2 tried accordion grid – he had just upgraded to 5 ft grid 2 sessions ago so I wasn’t sure if he would struggle with the larger spacing but seemed ok – didn’t bounce the 11 ft gap but did bounce the 8 ft gap>>He did really well here! You can switch the jump bar on jump 1 to jump 3, and put the bump from #3 onto 1 – that way if he has an organization oopsie on the first jump, he doesn’t drop the bar. And, you can also add a little more height on jump 3 – that will help with striding too. He didn’t bounce 11 feet because there was no elevation to the bar so he was just running. So add a 6 inch bar to #3 and if he is fine with it… go to 8 inches and if that is fine, go to 10” 🙂 We will start adding more challenge!
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
Gotta love the training rings at trials! Was it UKI?
>> You mentioned an A frame training method for littles. I tried the box method for my 25 pounder and it worked fine but really did not work for my 12 pounder. >>
I use a mat target method, but also for the littles I teach them to lightly jump the apex and also to focus forward on the exit. Because littles often have different shoulder structure than, say, Border Collies 🤣 we need to get them looking down more and without lifting their heads. The box can work for that two, but the striding over the apex is critical and so is a target to head to after the box when they exit the a-frame (usually 12 to 15 feet away from it).
Have fun on your trip!!!
Tracy
