[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Yes, I feel the pain of the “Don’t Ruin The Baby Dog” pressure LOL!! You did great!
I think he had a great time. And yes, sometimes the course designs are not great for NFC but you still made it fun 🙂

For the tugging, keep reminding yourself to give him the full length of the toy – that will let you be more upright and also let him pull back more. I remind myself to slow down too, I think the time pressure of NFC makes me want to go really fast, but that’s not good for mechanics 🙂

>>They play often, but there was a much higher level of zoomies involved. I think it may have been a bit of decompression from the event! >>

Totally agree! Sounds like a big decompression zoom 🙂 and that is great!!

>>BTW – Reacher almost caught another rabbit tonight before it managed to squeeze under the fence gate at the last second. It was quite a chase >>

Ha! He was trying to add to your toy pile LOL!!!

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Thank you for sending this!

On the first couple of runs: was he able to come back and do anything? He found the situation challenging for sure, so I was curious about whether he could come back.
He definitely settled in on the last couple of runs – good job doing a really short and sweet one to help with that.

Yes, it is a very big leap from lotus ball and treats with you in the ring, to nothing here. I thought the start lines looked really good and he did his tricks too! You can do more of those as you move to the line 🙂 and you can also jog to the line, as that will keep things spicy and exciting too!

Leading up to the next trial, we need to take a 2-pronged approach:

– finding a toy that you can bring into the ring. I’ve used a furry lotus ball (never had food in it) tied to another toy, and I’ve also used tennis balls and frisbees in UKI.

– >>long term I do need to start fading the ball to remote reward>>

Yes, that would be a top priority now. He definitely needs to learn how to run full courses without reinforcement in the ring. We start the steps of that this week! Start these very small steps to build up the understanding.

These two things will let you be able to work the NFC progressions, which will make trialing much easier 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

I figure other folks might want to read this too so I will put our discussions here as well 🙂 We chatted back and forth on Facebook Messenger because that is often the fastest way to discuss things during a trial day 🙂 That option is open to anyone on FB – send a message! And unless I am teaching or sleeping, I am usually not far from my phone on trial days LOL!! so feel free to reach out 🙂

I thought this was a really fantastic debut. During the week before the debut, Kristin worked hard to figure out what would work as a good toy for NFC: mission accomplished LOL!!! That is probably the biggest win of the day: getting him to play tug in public, as a true reinforcement/motivator.

This is my messenger note to her at the end of the day:

He seemed super happy and VERY into the toy, despite the environment being really challenging (I mean, look at all of those tripods LOL!!!) and he was tugging right next to the photographer.

One of the goals is that we see the same performance (or better) as we see in class in terms of speed and comfort level. I believe you have achieved there here! And he did it all with FAR more distractions like the leash runner right there, the ring crew, judge, etc. He did not even look at them.

Give yourself a big high five for making it GREAT for him – all fun, zero frustration, and a great feeling!!!!!

**************
He had a grand time in the ring, and that is our highest priority. Sure, it doesn’t always work out that way but we will try our hardest to make it happen 🙂

>>Biggest learning was that the food box was too weird and small for him to find that rewarding. In fact it was more like punishment so we skipped that in the second run. >>

Yes, we thought that because he is so food motivated that he would love it! So I suggested using it, having a helper in there to help place it there so it would not be a distraction…. Reacher said NOPE!!!! It was way too small (tiny! Eek!) and he didn’t know what it was or why he was going in it and who that rando person was. NOTED! So the best thing to do was to abandon it and not use it for the 2nd run.

And the fast and furious chase-da-momma over obstacles/through tunnels on that second run was great, start to finish.

I suggested the sit as a trick in the ring to get a feel for where he was, mentally: could he respond to a cue? He said yes 🙂 But we don’t want to push that into a stay right away, because a start line stay is actually incredibly complex and stressful in that environment (more on that tomorrow night).

>> with essentially the same plan unless you have any additional suggestions.>>

Since it is day 2, and we know he used a lot of mental (and physical) energy yesterday – we don’t know if he will come in PUMPED UP with adrenaline and endorphins… or if he will come in depleted and mentally tired and unable to do it all again.

With that in mind, your first run might be a replica of yesterday’s first run (but without the food box and with more tunnels LOL!!). If he seems really engaged and feeling excited, you can ask for a trick or two in the ring for the tug toy. If he says “nope” then you can just run run run 🙂

And if he says “nope” in run 1? No worries! Depletion is real and baby dogs often cannot do 2 days in a row.

If the first run is brilliant? You might consider either greatly simplifying run 2 by just doing a tunnel or two then getting out, or skipping it entirely. He is sure to be mentally depleted by run 2, and I want you and Reacher to end on a fabulous note.

My mantra with young dogs is “Don’t Be Greedy” 🙂 So keep your eye on the future of his career: if run 1 is great? Definitely do NOT ask for more in run 2, and consider skipping it entirely so his brain can lock in the memory and learning of the amazing run.

Great job here! Keep me posted!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
She did really well here!!!

Food patterns – she wants to do them fast but she also wants to chew the treats, so I think the tiny bits of goat cheese (I too would work for goat cheese!) or ham or string cheese would be perfect. I suggest using sizes that are big enough to be high value but not so big that she ends up with an upset GI system. The chewing is slowing her down and also then there are crumbs on the ground to sniff for, so any high value food that she doesn’t have to put in her molars and chomp 🙂

>>As you predicted when we took our games on the road she was less interested in toy play. She did not care about running dogs or people.>>

She might not overtly want to run over to the to anything, but her brain definitely cared and had some processing to do – but she did great here too!
With the toy, she was definitely interested but the small toy and you bending over was too much pressure so she didn’t really grab it.

When you kneeled and it was stationary in front of her – no interaction. But when you kept it moving side to side, behind your knees, and then tossing it? Winner! She even retrieved the ball for more and did fast tricks to get it. Super!

“You’re going to be on TV soon” cracked me up!

>>I have an idea for our feo to bring her holler roller on a long bitey tail>>

Yes – all of the toys in the trial environment should be tried to a longer toy (fur if possible 🙂 ) – the length of the toy should make it so that the toy reaches the ground easily without you having to end over, and it is easy to swing around. Feel free to tie several toys together to make one mid-blowing toy! The movement and the chase of the toy will make things very exciting, especially if you can run and have her chase it. Test drive a couple of those at home, then keep them away from her so the magical chase toys come out only at trials for her to go wild over 🙂

Great job here!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
His barking sounds great 😁 this will be a useful trick! For playing with the ball: I think you will get a better grab on it at home and more interest in it at other places if you move it away from him rather than move it towards him. Let him chase it a bit! And you can tie it to a longer toy, so you can drag it on the ground for him to chase. And when it is in his mouth, let hm do all the work of pulling on it – if you pull too hard, it comes out of his mouth and then he loses a bit of interest.

But you can also do the Woo trick and the other tricks for treats! It think he will like that too 🙂

I am glad the pattern games are going well!

>>He struggled more this week when training at the agility training field.>

This is normal – the training field has a lot more distractions and pressure! So to get speed right away, try to bring him in and get his tricks or barking, right among the obstacles as you are taking the lash off… then start with a fast fun send to a tunnel and take off running *without* asking for a stay or a 2o2o on the contact. Just get him doing some tricks and barking, then go go go and take off and run so he can chase you. Taking out the stay or complicated handling will help get the speed and confidence – and both will be added back in pretty quickly.

Nice work here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
The pattern games work best outside the ring before the run (and before the tricks) so she can process the environment before the run. Big chunks of cheese work well in grass (and a little sniffing in that game is actually a good thing :)) or using the up and down game with cookies on your shoes can work really well too 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
He did really well outside the ring, the pattern games looked really good and so did the volume dial!

Yes, he had trouble going to the start line but there were. A couple of factors in play. The top 2 factors were that it is a big leap (pun intended :)) from indoors with food in your hand to outdoors without food – too big of a step forward for now until we add a few more skills to his toolbox. We begin those steps tomorrow!

Also, 2 ideas for NFC runs:
– will he play with the toy on the leash, or a toy in your hand? That can smooth the transition from outside the ring to inside the wing, by bringing the fun into the ring at trials. If he won’t like a tug toy, we can use an empty lotus ball attached to a long line. That will both increase his arousal in a good way, and help him transition into the ring.
– if he will play with a toy and you do an NFC run, don’t start with a stay 🙂 That is the most stressful position! Instead, run to a tunnel and send him through a tunnel to get him running. Getting him running and chasing you with a toy will be a big breakthrough moment!

Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Sounds like a great experience! And since you were on dirt, the pattern game to use is the up and down game, where you can put the treat on your shoe 🙂 rather than toss it to the side where it might get lost in the dirt.

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Thank you for the update! I am glad she did well!!

>>she was completely overwhelmed, but did blast through some tunnels, and came in to me after visiting and exploring.>>

What is your pre-run and ring entry ritual looking like? I definitely recommend pattern games around the ring, followed by the volume dial game just before entering and on her way to the start line.

>> By the third run, we got through the entire course, five tunnels and multiple hoops, coming to me on the tug several times. We called it a success and ended on that.

Awesome!!!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Lots of great moments on these and great info for how we can smooth out her questions!

I grabbed some screenshots from this video and the others, to capture where she had questions and what might have been happening to cause them:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1sQGcb3oXWfQAitdNuuS3LrYbR05bDJecstkAJVPUsp8/edit?usp=sharing

Three things I see causing questions:

– Soft connection (arm parallel or ahead of your torso on a send/decel) is a definite trigger for questions (and leaping)

– Lack of verbals: silence is *not* golden, according to Lift 😁🤣 and she slows down even with clear connection. Unless it is praise – that doesn’t help her because it draws her focus up to you and away from the line. She is definitely a “just the facts, ma’am” type of dog!

– Long toy dangling – I think this is causing her to question where to look if the handling is not perfect, followed by big frustration. She is more resilient to things being a little soft or quiet if there is no dangling toy. It is entirely possible that her brain cannot root out the full info on a handling cue if it is not super clear AND ignore the toy dangling.

>>I was wondering if part of her leapiness was me holding the exciting lotus tug. >>

Yes, I think the dangling toy was a factor for sure. Carrying a toy is fine, but have it crunched up in your hand so it is not as visible swinging around as you run. Bear in mind that these are not precision reinforcement games, so you can throw it a bit late but also you can have someone else throw it. I think that will also keep her looking at lines, if the rewards appeared on the line more frequently in a sequence and not from you – let them surprise her out on the line.

>>Having a toy in my hand never seemed to affect her when she did agility for a toy pre-adolescence, but that was months ago>>

The work was simpler then, and also the pre-adolescent brain is MUCH better at processing those things than the adolescent brain is.

Looking at the class video – you had the pattern game moving into the volume dial, which was great! One suggestion: add in playing with the toy during the volume dial so she gets more focused on it as a reward and doesn’t look at your hands for the first reinforcement on course.

She did well overall here and found the lines nicely! She had a question on the first jump at 2:33, where her sit was angled away from it and you didn’t cue a forward focus, so she drove the line to you when released. We can definitely pump up her forward focus on those lines! You can point her toes at the jump and lead out laterally, then cue the forward focus with a hand cue before releasing (we can work on this separately too if it is not a strong skill yet – more on that coming on Monday).

She also had a legit question about the jump after the tunnel under the a-frame, like at 3:47:
After you cued her to go to the tunnel, you got quiet, (no verbal exit cues) and your line was cuing a right turn (because you had to avoid running into the a-frame 🤣)

If you zoom in as she exits at 3:49, she is turning towards you and your arm was pointing ahead of her so connection was blocked. She continued to turn right then looks like she got a bit frustrated. That soft connection on a send where you are heading away from the line is a definite trigger for jumping up. To help her out, a big GoGoGo before the tunnel entry followed by massive connection with your dog side arm pointing back to her (perhaps even an opposite arm to help her shift away on the line to her left lead, since the tunnel creates a right lead there).

Ring rental/Seq 4- she did like chasing you to the first jump! Really exciting!

Very nice opening! And super nice clear exit line connection at 1:09. She had no questions there, and then you followed it up with really good tunnel exit verbals. Super!

At 1:13 – your high arm blocked connection, note how she looked at you/curled in. It was even higher at 4:37 and she totally came off the line, seeking more info. (Check out the screenshots of these :))
To support lines, it is most effective if the arm can be low and back to her so she sees your face, or up over your head completely so she sees your face from under your arm pit 😁 but having your arm parallel to your shoulder blocks her view of connection. You were closer to the jump at 1:59 on the next video and she got the jump, but definitely keep the connection clearer so you don’t have to rely on proximity to the line.

Looking at her frustration moments when she jumped up: (screenshots here too!) to see the common denonimators:

– 1:37 you had praise but soft connection on the send and no verbals for the send
– 2:46 as she was over 2, you had a subtle head turn forward (could have been the beginning of a BC cue) and softening of connection, plus your toy was dangling – she did a blind then got frustrated. Compare this to the first run (1:05) where you had that subtle head turn to glance ahead, but it was earlier and you didn’t have the toy dangling on the other side.
Then as you tried to re-start her, you were not connected back to her clearly (the arm parallel to you, moving ahead, toy in other hand) so she get frustrated there too (2:52 and 2:57). Using a quick decompression moment or pattern game, then a clean re-start will help her out there.

Video 3:
She was happy to come in tugging (yay!) ad then go to food chasing – this might be a better arousal regulation strategy but she will let us know as you experiment with it.
You did not have the dangling toy here so even thought the connection got a little soft at :47 (screenshot) she was better able to get on the line. Try not to give a ‘yay’ or praise there, because that drew her focus up t you and off the line too.

You had a bonus jump after the tunnel there, she stayed on the line – you need a bit of foot rotation for the FC before she enters the tunnel at :55 to get the tight turn.

1:49 – 1:52 was a good ‘silence is not golden’ moment – even though your were close to the lines, you were very quiet and when the connection got soft, she didn’t take he lines. As soon as you got loud? She got right on the lines. So definitely add those verbals in!

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>These are perfect for walking agility!!!

It is fun to see her understanding things at a distance without needing you to run alongside her. That will be VERY advantageous even when you are back to full running speed!! There is so much distance lately in all types of agility 🙂

The hardest part here was the opening: you were tending to over-help her a little, so you got different responses (she was reading you correctly each time).

On that very first rep at :02 – she was correct to take 2 was a backside because you were on her line and stepped to the backside. She knows her backside cues, good girlie!!!

You got off her line on the other reps, but be careful of doing too much pull-then-push from 1 to 2, because you got the backside at 1:52 when you turned your shoulders back to 2, a bark (2:26) then a rear cross (3:26) when you pushed back too much from a distance. Good job free-styling there and doing a short sequence before rewarding 🙂

The most ideal way to handle it (and the easiest 😁) is like a serpentine: as she is facing the slice line at 1, you are showing the serp position of left arm back, shoulders facing her, but feet facing 2 (giving her room to get on her line). Then as she lands from 1, you maintain the serp position as you move forward, with connection, until she turns herself away to find 2 without you having to push her back to it. You can be as lateral as you want to be, as long as you use the serp handling for the smooth line.

You had a nice line 3-4-5 to the tunnel and a nice whoa cue on the tunnel each time. Nice turn each time!!!!
When you were connected back to her, the lines went perfectly (like the entire time 1:10-1:29, and on the last full run too!) She reads her lines brilliantly with you connecting and moving to the next one.

She did have a couple of bar questions, and they boiled down to some legit things:
– If you over-help her (like stepping to the 6 jump which sent her to the backside at :40 or the blind-to-RC at 2:34) or disconnect (she pulls bars with sudden disconnection because the info changes and she has to look at you more, like at 4:02) things are not as smooth. When you prioritize connection and give good info, and let her do her thing? She is perfection!

– This might make you chuckle: If you praise her while she is out on the line, she almost always drops a bar (2:37 is a good example). This is actually pretty common: praise is more of a distraction, because it *could* mean the reward is coming and it doesn’t give her any info about the line – so she has to look at you for more info. So, no praise needed – use handling cues or reward markers (and the praise can be for the end of the sequence or course 🙂

There was one other spot where she had a bar down, on the jump before the tunnel at 2:29. That looked to be caused by different motion on the 1-2-3 line before it where you more more lateral and got past the 6 jump. So as you were cuing the tunnel and the whoa, you were also pulling back towards the takeoff side of 6 – she was likely processing that motion as a potential turn cue. Compare that to your line of motion on all the other reps there, where you did not go past 6 so you were moving parallel to her line the whole time and she had no questions.

I think as she gets more experienced, you won’t have to worry about that level of handling perfection 🙂 and the verbals will override that subtle step. It is pretty amazing how much these dogs see in their peripheral vision!!

You ended the session with teally great connection and line of motion on the last run, so it was also perfect! That low-arm connection just makes it all soooooo clear for her. Well done here!!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Keep me posted!!! Can’t wait to hear how it goes! Get video 😀

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

It was a good session, she is giving great info and I have some ideas for you!

But she has done jumping work for multiple days this week, so give her a couple of days off from this so her body and brain can rest & reset, and latent learning can work its magic 🙂 She had a LOT of success here and rest will actually consolidate the learning better than continued training.

You can work these without her though, to get the mechanics 🙂

>>I’ll work more on a standing start line through the class but threw it in a few times. I think she might like that better.>>

For a lot of dogs, standing is actually clearer because I don’t think they realize their butt is moving when they go from a sit to stand. So as long as you maintain the criteria of “no feet moving” you might find the stand stay more effective.

The key for her is that you keep moving at a steady pace with connection and verbals, rather than stopping then accelerating.

The 2nd rep was a good example of move and talk and connect without sudden acceleration (and you also don’t need to pull away from the jump – that closes your shoulders away, presents a lot of motion, and we want her to find it even when you are just running alongside.

You can see the sudden acceleration sent her wide on the left turn moments, like at 1:09 and also at 3:13 and 4:01 (after facing her with the brake arm). You went from being relatively stationary cuing the jump after the tunnel to accelerating to the next jump… that propels her away.
Plus, the sudden acceleration and pulling away from the jump closes your shoulder away from her (you can see it more clearly at 1:10 and 3:14). That makes things disconnected which could contribute to her going wide there (moving herself further away to have a better view of connection).

So to get the smooth, steady, connected line: get a full cup of water and run with it in your dog side arm low and pointing it back to your invisible dog so you can stay connected. You will immediately feel if you are slamming the brakes or hitting the gas too hard, because the water will splash out 🙂 Try to run smoothly and slowly enough to *not* spill any water.

Try it without her and if you can run your invisible dog without spilling water, then try it with her 🙂

One other thing I think will really help:

Throw the reward more distinctly close to the landing line of the jump – not as far or as wide as you are throwing it, because it is not really correlated to the jump in particular as it is correlating to going really fast out there somewhere. So the toy placement should be super consistent and maybe 15 feet past the jump (so she doesn’t splat herself getting it) and not off to the side anywhere. Throw the toy to where you would want her to take off for the next jump 🙂

And you can also throw it on the line between the 2 jumps after the tunnel so she is really driving to the line and not looking out to the big areas where the toy is getting thrown.

Looking at the brake arm: this is another good one to do with a full cup of water 🙂
At 1:31 and 1:56 and 3:56 – you had full foot rotation towards her, which shows a full front cross and we don’t want to dilute that cue. On the brake arm, the lower body movement should be exactly the same as running the line without a brake arm, with your feet facing the next line of jump – and add the 2 hand cue visible to her on top of that. There will be a bit of rotation at the waist but no foot rotation to face her unless you are doing a cross or spin. With a cup of water, you can work on the upper body showing both arms back to her, but you will spill the water with foot rotation or a sudden stop 🙂

Great job here!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

This first sequence went really well! Nice connection on that opening line!!!

As you bring him to the star line, rather than tug to the line then line up – do some volume dial tricks so you can see where his arousal level is before running the sequence. It is a good habit to get into for when you start trialing!

His stays are going well! To help keep the releases really clear and consistent you can raise your arm – praise – then release. Swinging your arm up and down makes him twitchy because the release comes on the next arm movement, and we don’t want to desensitize the arm movement as the forward focus cue. Lifting your arm first and well in advance of/ separate from the release will help you be able to cue the forward focus on a jump without getting the release at the same time.

After the front cross, he was a bit wide especially on the first run (where he gives the most legit feedback because he doesn’t yet know the sequence :)) That was because as you finished the FC, you had your dog-side arm near your side and that closed off the connection. You could probably see him, but all he could likely see from his lower position was your back (see screenshot). He was not sure where to be until he could see the jump. Check out the screenshot of it here:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Iou28t_gri5rm8fNWQB0_4uXJ3Oc2jmfDZTK0bw0p9g/edit?usp=sharing

To tighten that up, add more exit line connection by having your dog-side arm (left are in this case) pointing waaaaaay back to his nose and your eyes reaching back for his eyes. I get this to happen easily by putting the other arm (right arm here) across my body – when my right arm is on my left hip, my dog side arm automatically gets out of the way and the connection is much clearer. More exit line connection

4-5 is indeed a backside line as built here (plus footing is a little slippery) so good job adjusting it – but it is still a backside line without a turn or threadle on 4 🙂 As soon as you added a turn cue: perfect!

Seq 2: The RC on jump 3 works in the opening to help preserve the stay. He was not quite ready for a more than a few steps past 1, but you can also use a similar progression: lead out, stop, lift hand, praise…. Then release. This line will eventually be a moving lead out/release when he is adult, but I think you will want a more solid release before you add movement to it for now.
You can also do the lead out push or BC 2-3 by setting him up in front of 2 so he doesn’t break the stay as much.
Try not to use any “yay” as info for him on course – it causes him to look at you (“what does that mean, human?”) and caused a drop bar (seq 1 and seq 3) or he went around 4 (seq 2). Stick to information of either “keep going here is your next cue” or a reward marker.

The rear crosses looked great! Super! And he found the next line perfectly with his jump and tunnel cues – happy dance!

>>I think doing 3 in one day was maybe too much and *could* be why we both fell apart a bit on sequence #3.>>

He looked pretty on-task in this clip! Sequence 3 requires the most complex handling so if he was finding lines that you did not intend, it is possible that you were cuing the line. But since it did not make it into the video, we will stick with the great stuff you got here!

We will definitely add more forward focus work so you can get the lateral lead out on 1 – stay tuned for that coming on Monday in the Zoom talk! That will make the opening easier for sure.

VERY nice timing and connection on the send to 3 at :38 (it was in progress as he was landing from 2, note how you were looking AT him as you sent and your arm moved with him to support it, rather than pointing ahead of him to the jump). (I grabbed a screenshot of the BC timing too)

That led to super nice timing of the BC 4-5 because that was in progress as he was landing from 3 so he saw the connection change and line of motion. You looked back at him more directly (better exit line connection) so he had a much clearer visual of the next line (screenshot). Super!!! Then stay calm and keep cuing so he doesn’t drop the bar 🙂

Great job here! Let me know what you think!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

I agree – the is a great session, perhaps my favorite session of yours so far!

Well done with the connection and clear releases on the stays. She was VERY successful! She does sometimes lift her butt on the stays. That probably caused by a combination of arousal and anticipation. Throwing rewards behind her (or leaving one on the ground behind her and cuing her to turn back to it) can help her keep her butt on the ground. Also, you can consider leaving her in a stand stay at the start line – when she lifts her butt, she doesn’t move forward at all. So a stand stay might be a super easy position for her (I use this with 3 of my dogs and it is very easy for them). It is not hard to train – I just line them up and say stay and when they settle in, I lead out.

Keep that great connection on the lead outs, and it looks like you added more of a pause and praise (and some arm waving to help her be sure it is not the release :))

All of the sequence work was particularly lovely: the right balance of connection and driving lines and low arms and running at a patience tempo so you didn’t get too far ahead.

The FCs on 3 all went really well but the timing and connection of the FC at 4:08 was especially fantastic – it was in progress as she landed from 2: decel then rotate (no slamming the brakes), new arm up early to indicate collection, great connection before and after it, and that was a lovely collection there!

About that pesky last jump:
Good job showing her the last jump and trying to help her. She just does not see that as a normal front side line – she reads it as a backside line and even when she gets it, her behavior is more of a threadle behavior than a natural front side (like when you did the arm change at 3:49 and 4:48)

A couple of training ideas, since I don’t think this is a handling question:

– You can see if it helps to move the last jump over onto her natural line (where she is running past it now) to be able to pump up the value for it. Now, it is still entirely possible she will run around it 🙂 but it is a good start to see if moving it over makes it more obvious.
– After moving it over, you can also move it closer (lower the bar to 16 for that) so it is very visible after she exits the tunnel.
We can also see if this is an organization question here (jumping organization) – she is turning left here, so you can set up the mirror image out of a tunnel on a right turn, and see if she finds it more easily.

– you can use a break arm between the tunnel exit and the next jump to set the line better – that can help her see it, then you can more the moment she commits to it and reward it right past landing.

And if that is still a struggle, do a few reps with a placed reward maybe 10 feet past landing (lower the bar to 12 so she doesn’t splat herself) so we can use a visual target to help her set up the line. If she gets that, we can go to a visual target (but not a reward) then we fade. The target too! It would be cool to get the behavior without the toy lure and without the target, but it is also great to get the behavior this way as long as we have a plan to fade it (and we do have a plan).

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

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