[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

The lead out game looks great! The course trend for this skill has basically evolved into more of a dog-training skill than a handling skill – meaning, we leave the dog in front of the jump we want them to take and we go basically anywhere to release them to it (I am seeing a lot of that on the WTT courses!)

So yes, your arm can be a little lower and you can direct the motion more to the takeoff spot (whether you are on the takeoff side or landing side). But also, it is good to get her to take the jump from any angle and with you anywhere 🙂 Since she did so well here and you already started adding angles, you can continue to add more angles. Keep adding the various slices and also instead of her facing towards you on the slice, you can start gently angling her so she is facing away from you on the slice.

If she is on your right side: the jump is at 12 on a clock and when she is facing straight, she is at 6 on the clock. The angles you added were in the 5 and 4 on the clock direction. So you can now also add the 7 and 8 on the clock direction. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂

Her only question was at 1:27 on the throwback, so you can look more at landing there and less at her, while throwing the reward to he landing spot as you move away to help her come around the wing and not back jump.

You can also add more distance between jumps (but with her on easier angles so we are not hitting her with a double whammy of challenge 🙂

On the backside video: She did really well with you n the line to where the wing and bar meet! You can start to inch over to get further across the bar – the parallel line motion and finding the sweet pot of where your dog-side arm should be will be on tap when you add that. I think you can also run more, as that forward motion will help propel her up the line.

The countermotion looked really strong too, and it will help with the throwback question she had in the lead out video. She is just about ready to have the backside cue and countermotion exit get put together 🙂

>>I tried flipping the loop to the side of doing it 180 with the loop on top and she seemed to like that better. I’ll have to get video of it and see if I’m imagining things or not.>>

That is clever! I know lots of small dogs who don’t love things going over their heads (or is it dogs with more coats, because maybe their fur got caught?) But having a sideways approach is smart!!!

Nice work here :)

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

The rocking horse game went well! You definitely showed the different types of turns: throwback at the beginning, followed by lap turns after :29. To help make the lap turns easier, you can send to the other wing from further away (you can sue your wrap verbal rather than a go verbal on those) so you don’t have to run backwards at all – then you can wait with your hand presented to him until he almost arrives at it – then step back with your arm & leg. Waiting til he was almost at your hand made for great lap turns! When you were a bit early, stepping back before he got to your hand like at :36 or 1:12, he read it as a throwback because how it rotates you to the wing. Good boy!

For the tandems, where you were moving forward then turning him away, you can clarify the hand cues (it is a hand-cue-heavy behavior :)) When you are only using dog-side arm, it looks a lot like a regular send around the wing – that meant you had to pull away a little more like at 2:07.
I think adding the outside hand will help him, making it visible to both draw him in and turn him away (like at 2:30 when the outside arm appeared he turned away really easily).

The zig zags are going well too! It really locked in at about 3:02 when you were using your feet a lot more – that is when he reads it best when he needs to push away and you are far up the line. So keep using the feet on those cues! He was also reading it when you were leaning into it, but not as consistently as when you also used your feet 🙂

Rear crosses are going really well! Your cues are super clear so he was able to get them and he had no trouble reading the difference with the Go lines too. Yay!!!

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Thanks for the photo/drawing! Yes, it is totally mart to visualize a bar instead of just wings.

Your bar placement on 7 and 8 are where I would put bars here. For the 1/4 and 2/5 wings, I would put the bars on the side edges of the wing so when he exits the 3 tunnel, for example, he can would be able to see a bar like it is the front side of a jump. The 1/4 bar would be parallel to the 7 bar (and parallel to the tunnel) and same with the 2/5 bar – parallel to the tunnel, to create a 180 with the 1/4 bar. Let me know if that makes sense!

>I think a tandem turn, when the dog crosses my path is what I’ve called in-in with past dogs. Not sure if that’s the best name longer term. I’m not sure the dog would generalize that behavior to a “switch” at a distance in an ASCA gamble.>>

The tandem turn on 7 is definitely something that has a lot of names LOL!!! I agree with your definition that the dogs have to come in between us and the jump (you noted it as crossing in front of you). The typical use of terminology lately is this:

– a tandem turn can be on the front of the bar (if you moved your bar at 7 to be perpendicular to the tunnel instead of parallel to it) and or a threadle to the ‘inside’ of the wing or jump (which is what you have drawn here). And the main element of the tandem turn is that the handler also turns the new direction, very rear cross-ish, which is what is happening here at 7-8. And when used on the threadle side of a jump, the tandem is very similar to a threadle wrap (and that is the verbal that best suits the behavior when it is on the threadle side or backside of a jump.

– An ‘in in’ is commonly used as a threadle slice where the dog comes to the side of 7 you drew here (in between you and the wing/bar) and the main differences between that and a tandem are that an in in is never on the front side of the jump, and the handler continues going straight (does not change direction)

>>I’m not sure the dog would generalize that behavior to a “switch” at a distance in an ASCA gamble.>>

The switch behavior is a tandem turn as well, and always on the front side of a jump, turning away from the handler. I have never seen it on the backside of a jump in the gamblers scenario – mainly because you won’t see backsides in ASCA 🙂 and also because the threadle wrap cues have replaced it in the backside version of it. So yes, you can totally use it as a switch cue!

Since distance work and gamblers are on your radar, an idea to consider:
– On a tandem turn where the dog is coming right back to the line near the handler, I use regular directionals like left, right, wraps, etc.
– On a tandem turn where the dog needs to propel away into a distance line or a layering line, I use switch followed by the obstacle name. That basically tells the dog to accelerate away and layer or do a big distance thing, and to ignore my position until further notice LOL!

Let me know what you think. Fingers crossed for good weather ahead!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Thanks for the full session video – I agree that it was generally a good session. Yes, it can be shorter (we can make some things more efficient which will also be less frustrating) but having to move the jump does take up time, so these jumping games often take a little longer. A couple of ideas:

>>I had to modify the game since Mason doesn’t have a stay.

Before doing much more of the games that need to be modified because he doesn’t have a stay yet, you can prioritize working on a stay in front of a jump. It can be a stay on a Cato board or on the flat, but that skill can skip to the front of the line 🙂 It is much much easier to train skills and more efficient/less frustrating if you have a stay behavior that you can use and that he understands.

And you can also use a send to a ‘station’ for a stay in between reps and to reset more cleanly. The hardest part of this session was the in-between moments, that is where the failures and frustrations were.

>>Everything went to plan except that I wasn’t expecting Mason to keep trying to take the jumps as we made our way to the start line. >>

After showing him the MM or getting rewarded, he didn’t really know what was expected as you moved him back to the start. He was offering jumps (because motion near jumps is a valid cue for taking jumps) or jumping around near you – there was not a lot of info or understanding so you got a lot of behavior, which can tip over into frustration if nothing is rewarded or clear, or he is told it is incorrect.

So, one option after the reward is to send to a station so you can move the jump, then go back to the start, then call him to you. That is super clear and easy to reward.

Another option is to tug with him or do tricks for cookies on the way back, so he knows what to do and isn’t guessing.

>>I also had some trouble getting Mason to sit in the perfect spot.>>

The line up was also challenging because when you had him on your side and stepped forward with your leg or moved your arm forward… that also looks like a cue to take the jumps. So he did. Then it was wrong… frustration starts to bubble up. You can line him up cleanly by calling him to you with a cookie lure to start, bringing him into your side with a small hand movement and no leg movement. Or you can be facing him, with you on he other side of jump 1, so you can get him into a good position. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just relatively close to the jump. You can also have him on leash for that, if it clarifies the set up – the key will be that it doesn’t potentially look like a cue to take the jump. Or tugging at your side

>>I practiced this first in the hallway earlier in the day without jumps so that he would have an idea of what I was expecting from him when we went outside.>>

The difference between the hallways session and the jump session is probably that the movement in front of a jump also looks like a jump cue, so there were a lot of errors and resets. And what happens with those moments is that while the 5 jump reps might have been rewarded, there were enough errors during the in-between moments that the overall rate of success drops. That is where you might be seeing frustration in training: the skill rate of reinforcement might be high (100% here on the jumping reps) but if there are a bunch of failures on adjunct behavior, the rate of success can drop a lot and you will see fallout from that.

>>I usually give him a couple clicks of the MM for each rep since the treats that work well in it are pretty low value. I can see now though that the uncertainty about how many rewards there will be could also cause some frustration. >

You can do one MM click then a toy throw, or recall back to you for better treats. I think that waiting to see if the MM will dispense more treats might create an unpredictability that is not helping. So you can create a bit of a loop there: MM for cookies then back to you for a toy or more cookies.

The jumping itself is going well. I agree that he is still working out his mechanics on jump 3, but that is probably because he is processing driving ahead of you to the stationary MM – both of which tend to promote collection but the grid is asking for more extension. Getting a stay going will help, so you can be out at the reward or using the moving target.

>>The striding seemed ok to me and the bars stayed up (8 inches, moving to 10 inches on May 1st).>>

Don’t raise the bar until you have a stay 🙂 He needs to have handler position that supports the line when the bar is raised (which supports the case for a stay) and also, being able to raise the bar will be a reward for you, for prioritizing the stay behavior 🙂

>>Mason didn’t want to walk by the jumps which were still set up.
>> he flopped over onto his back and wouldn’t continue walking.
>> I really don’t know what to make of this. He has done this many times over the past few months. >>

Since it is something that is happening regularly, a couple of questions:
– what is your interaction with him when he is in the yard and near the equipment, during a session before you are ready to train, or when you are not planning on training?
– do you ever just ignore the behavior, or do you lure him out of it with a cookie or interaction?
– has he ever gone to the equipment by himself when it is in the yard, not during a training session? If so, what did you do in that moment?

>>he definitely seems to feel pressure when he’s near the obstacles, even if we aren’t doing any training.>>

I don’t know enough about the scenario to know why it is happening, but because there is a rehearsal of this pretty regularly, the first step is to stop the rehearsal by either putting away the equipment when you aren’t using it, or have him in a different part of the yard when the equipment is present. It is a little more labor-intensive but worth it to shift the behavior.

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Have fun at the trial!!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

This went really well! One suggestion: line him up parallel to the first wing of jump 1, so he can practice that sideways step to the bar fro the start. You had him facing straight which does require him to do some zigging and zagging 🙂 But you will get more out of this exercise if you have his left hip right next to the first wing (plus it will help him have a better approach when he is on your left, where he hit the bar on the rep at :19)

You can also have the toy on the ground about 12 feet past landing, so he doesn’t look at you at all.

>>I forgot to open the jumps up more. >>

Next session! He seemed ready for it to be a little harder.

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
>>He’d be looking right at me but go around the outside of the wing.>>

I think what was happening was a conflicting indicator: voice and connection calling him to you, but motion and position sending him to the other side of the wing.

For the lap turns, you needed to be fully rotated towards him and bent a little at the waist, arm extended to him, and hold that position until he just about arrives at your hand. You can see the success of that at :16, :39, :55, 1:06 for example. But when you were facing the wing or turned to send him back too early (:11, :22, :32, 1:36) then he read it as a send to the other side of the wing.

When you want a tandem turn, the same rules apply but you are facing the line (not the wing and not him) with your hands/arms visible that will pull him to the correct side of the wing as well (and you can be moving the whole time with the tandem turns rather than facing him or standing still til he arrives at your hands.

Let me know if that makes sense! Nice work here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
The lead outs went well! Small details kept these reps from being perfect:

On the first rep at :07, you were actually too early 🙂 with the BC happening before he landed from 1 so he correctly went directly to 3. You had better timing on the next rep at :18 but I think you trusted him less, so you moved towards 2 instead of away from it to 3 – that put you in his way so the bar came down. Ideally, your position would be heading towards 3 the whole time and timing would be when he lands and looks at 2, you start the cross (FC or BC both work well) – that is basically what you did at :26 and he read it really well. You stopped your motion to throw the toy and that is was pulled the bar – be sure to keep moving the whole time and he will nail it.

Your Lead out push at :34 looked great! When he lands from the jump, keep your arm back and maintain connection as you move to 3 so you can see him commit. You stopped your motion and pointed forward and that sent him right past it.

These are relatively small details so when you smooth them out, he will read these brilliantly! Great job!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

I think she liked the jump instead of a wing on the diamond game! She even recovered really well and took it at 1:11 when there was a little miscommunication! Yay for jumps!

>>Her line doesn’t always make sense for me to use right/left and then I rever to saying yes/yay and she’s like, what? as she boings.>>

If the line is not a true left or right, you can say ‘jump’ instead of yes – that is what you did here and it worked well! And on this setup, because she is little, I don’t think it is a left or right on the race track stuff – it is basically a GO line for all of it 🙂

The left/right verbals worked really well on the tight turn crosses. She had a little question about committing to the very first wing – it is a little offset so she was still figuring out her mechanics when you did the blind, so she pulled off. The blind was a tiny bit early, but only because she was sorting out her footwork to the wing (she sorted it out and was great on the rest of the reps).

You can also run in close to the tunnel on these, so you are accelerating up the line to the wing to set up the blinds (rather than decelerating and sending which makes it harder for you both like at 1:11).

Looking at the wind in your hair video:
The Go reps looked terrific, she had no trouble finding the jump in extension. Yay! And she read the first rear at :22 really well!

At :55 she also read it as a rear cross… looking at what she saw at the tunnel exit, the first position and first steps at :55 were pretty identical to :21: you got in close to the tunnel entry and decelerated then moved up the line in both spots. Yes, at :55 you then moved over to the right wrap wing but her decision to turn left was already made. So that is a good one to work on back-to-back: setting the RC and then for the wrap, staying in acceleration towards the outer edge of the wrap wing, decelerating after she exits the tunnel and is looking at the jump. She did get the right turn wrap on the next rep, but her feedback about the first time seeing it is valuable!

Great job here 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

On the Tunnel threadles video:

>>I felt like maybe the toy was a little too much for him, or maybe I was moving too fast?>>

I agree that the toy was a big visual for him (plus on a lot of reps you had it up high and were shaking it) so he did not understand the cue well enough to look away from it.

You can warm up the tunnel threadles without the wing wrap so there is less distance and also move more directly to the tunnel entry want. You were pulling away from it then trying to send him back with an arm movement or rear cross on the flat, and he was not sure what that meant. Ideally, you would just hold the arm up and say the verbal while you move directly to the tunnel entry you want (and he turns himself away, which is the hardest part). He did read the rear cross on the flat element better turning to his right, but you can take that out of the cue and see if he will go directly to the entry of the tunnel.

The ‘go tunnel’ reps looked great, no problems with the toy in your hand there!!

Looking at the rear crosses:

>>There was other stuff around that might have made it more challenging, but I feel like left was extra hard today.>>

Yes, the giant visuals of the contact equipment changed the session. The pressure in the environment they add changes his processing – he can’t just process the handling cues, he also has to process the visual input from the big contacts. It is not stressful, per se, but it does take up processing bandwidth in the brain so the other responses might be delayed or not entirely correct.

Note how he was slower going around the start wing, because he was going towards the a-frame with the gate in front of it. Our human brains have been processing that stuff for years so it doesn’t take up any bandwidth for us! But for his puppy brain, that eats up a lot of mental bandwidth (and puppy brains are not really developed in the executive function area which controls how much bandwidth is devoted to stuff like that LOL!).

And the dog walk was likely having the same effect, making the left turns harder because it was drawing his focus to his right (which is his stronger side anyway).

So when working on anything that has big visuals in the environment, stick to easy stuff that will not require a whole lot of processing to respond correctly, because his brain will be busy dealing with the other stuff. And for the cues that require a lot of processing like a rear cross, work them without any other distractions in the environment for now. The Go lines were easy here because they take less processing and he has a longer learning history on them too 🙂

Placing the toy totally helped because it enhanced where you wanted him to go, and gave him a visual that could easily compete with the new visuals of the contacts.

Also, you can add more room between the wing and the jump – the spacing was tight wing-to-jump here so you didn’t have time to show the rear cross line early enough. On the left turns without the toy at :05 and :15, he was almost at the jump (and turning right) when the RC pressure was starting. At :20 on the right turn, the timing was a little late too but
he is better at turning right (and the big visual was to his right) so he was able to adjust in the air.

The lap turns went really well! He turned well in both directions! The key to success was when you kept your arm pointing to him and feet together til he just about got to you – then you stepped back into the turn. If you were too early (like at :07 or :41) then the cue looked like a throwback and he ended up on the other side of the wing (correctly, good boy!) You can send to the first wing from further away so you don’t have to back up more than maybe 1 step! And you can definitely move to the tandem turns – I think you will find that you use those more frequently and also they turn into threadle wraps quite nicely (and we see those darned threadle wraps all the time now!)

Layering:
This went really well! The ball was a great choice of reward to get the layering because the presence of the ball is what will get him to stay on a line (ball = throws and running at a distance 🙂 ) Getting into the tunnel was more challenging partially because he had done a bunch of jump reps (a bit of patterning) and partially because perhaps he didn’t want to take his eyes off the ball 🙂 So you can mix in more tunnel reps so he is not anticipating that it is all about the jump. And you can add in the FC from the jump t the tunnel to get him reading a mini sequence there 🙂

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
The wind sounded crazy! I am sure that contributed to the stay challenges and also he was very excited for the toy 🙂

>>I think I messed up the accordion exercise in class Wed night. I re-watched the video and I put 4′ between the jumps when I moved them out so they were actually spaced double and triple the 4′ spacing he usually sees. I went ahead and did the exercise again using 4′ to see if anything changed from Wed class.>>

Since it is a distance-reading game, using 4 feet is not messing it up, it is just asking him to read 4 foot distance changes 🙂 The 3 foot distance is just a suggestion that can be tweaked. You can leave the set point between 1 and 2 at 4 feet and keep moving the 3rd jump in and out – that way he gets more experience reading different distances. So you can make use distances away from jump 2 like 8 feet and 12 feet, or move it out in 3 foot increments, or double it up so it becomes 12 feet then 16 feet on reps 2 and 3, etc. Ideally he doesn’t see the same distance too many times in a row because we want him to process his mechanics to stride the varying distances.

His bounces on reps 1 and 2 look good! On rep 2, he added a one stride but he was also coughing up a cookie, so I am sure that changed his striding LOL!!!
He extended the 1 stride in rep 3 and compressed it in rep 4 – that is what we are asking him to do, in terms of reading different distances and making adjustments. And back to the bounce on rep 5. GOOD BOY!!!

My only suggestion is that when you mark the different distances to make the session more efficient (that was smart!) – use a marker that is not a big visual like a wing, because the wings can change the depth perception which can change the striding. So something small and flat can help, even if it is a golf tee or duct tape on the grass 🙂 Just remember to pick them up when you are done so he doesn’t try to snack on them 🙂

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

It sounds like he did really well! Bear in mind that adding recalls in between the pattern games will raise his arousal, so you might need more distance away from the other dogs when he is ding the pattern between his turns. And yes, I agree that you can use more distance away from the super exciting dogs 🙂 And keep playing the pattern games at home without exciting thing present, so he doesn’t pair patterns with the excitement of dogs running (which can accidentally make the pattern games too arousing) and also, so he is super fluent with them, making it easier to go to new places and play 🙂

I do think it is a little short but that is ok for now because he was mainly sorting out how to release from the stay and step into the first jump – he had a couple of questions right at the beginning, then one question when you switched to the moving target… but he totally sorted it out and did super well!! Yay! The goal is that he uses his rear and core to power out of the sit with no extra strides or foot tap before jump 1… and that is what he ended up doing. There was one semi-broken stay but I think he was just anticipating the release and caught himself 🙂 The 4 foot distance was fine here but I do think he will end up needing it to be bigger, so for the next session try 5 feet and see how he does 🙂

Great job here!

Tracy

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by Tracy Sklenar.

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Happy birthday, Indy!!!! Fun times ahead – and I love his tie!

The games are looking strong!

On the get out game: Using the dog side arm was harder for him to see the cue (it was not quite different enough for the go-straight cue) so you were using a foot step to send to the wing as well. You might want to play with the outside arm pointing to the jump to see if you can get him to send out without needing the foot step (plus it looks different from the go-straight cues.

Going straight and not taking the jump when it was not cued was perfect!!

Mission transition: be sure to reward everything here because there is a high likelihood that the dogs read the handling correctly on all reps in this game 🙂 there are so many possibilities of behavior on the jump that they will reflect what the cues are telling them 🙂

The absolute best rep where you totally nailed it was at 1:40. You accelerated til he was at about the halfway point between the wing and the jump, then decelerated but kept moving forward/facing forward – then rotated as he approached the jump. PERFECT!!!!! That is the timing you are going for (your position can be anywhere as long as you start the decel when he is at about that point). The reps at 1:10, 1:22, and 2:03 were a stride after that, making them a little late so he was a little wider on those.
There were 2 bloopers and he responded in a way that will tell you what the caused the blooper:

At 1:01, he red the cue as a rear cross and turned away. That happens when we don’t decelerate and instead we hit the brakes hard and rotate – the dogs pretty universally rear cross when we do that LOL!!

The other spot was at 1:47, where your arm got high and blocked connection, turning your shoulders away from the jump – so he looked at you and went past the jump.

On the zig zags – he does really well when you are pulling him towards you (especially on the first jump, and on the other jumps when you give an exaggerated cue with a little bit of foot rotation. When pushing him away, he needs your feet involved so you can add in stepping to the bar instead of just using your arms. He reads your feet more easily than arms, so if feet are saying one thing and arms are saying something else, he is likely to go with your feet 🙂 A big step to the takeoff of the jump should help.

Rocking horse – at the beginning, you were doing ‘throw backs’ which are like exit of FCs where you are fully rotated and he goes to the other side of the wing. They aren’t lap turns but are still good to practice!

The rep at 3:49 was a lap turn where his line was between you can the wing and he turned away. Super!
I think you were going for that again at 4:03 and 4:09 but moved your arm and leg too early so he did the throw back. To get him to come in for the lap turn, you can keep your feet together and arm extended to his nose until he is within a couple of inches of your hand… then your hand and leg can move straight back to draw him between you can the wing and turn him away. The timing and stepping straight back are what differentiate the lap turn from the throw back.

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

The lateral lead outs looked great – she seemed to have no questions bout finding the jump with you on either side of the wing. And adding the 2nd jump wasn’t any trouble at all – nice timing on your front cross!!!

For the grid –
Because we are asking her to focus on the different distances, we don’t also want her to process different movement or handler position. You had different positions on the reps here, and that caused jumping questions because she was also trying to process potential handling cues (which didn’t match what the grid and toy placement were promoting).
On the first rep, she curled into you because you were behind her and moving in decel, which adds a handling cue (and doesn’t support the forward focus).
On rep 2, you were stationary out at the reward (she bounced the distance without touching the bars/bumps).
On rep 3 and rep 4 you were at the wing of jump 3 mostly stationary, so she ticked the 3rd bar – “Is this a collection game, human, or a bounce grid?”
On rep 5, you were out at the toy and she did not tick jump 3 (similar to rep 2)

So ideally you would be out at the reward on each rep so she only has to think about the changing distances. The reward can be stationary for the first session or two, but then you can go to the moving target reward. That will give us a really good insight into her form and if the 3.5 foot distance is good (I think it is!)

She might need to be in her start position an inch or two further back from jump 1 – she was ticking it on several of the reps (with her front feet) so it is possible that she was too close to the bar. If starting a tiny bit further back (so she still pushes from the rear without adding a stride before jump 1) don’t help, we can do some set point stuff to get more power in her rear 🙂

Nice work here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>It is rather noisy in the building especially if it is windy. >>

We do often see increases in noise sensitivity in adolescent dogs, so the noise might be part of her concern.

>>Starting during the week 3 and 4 games she was in season and maybe she was more sensitive.>>

Yep, hormones can do it too!

>> Ginger doesn’t seem to be painful anywhere. She is also at the point where her chest is dropping and getting deeper and I imagine this might cause some discomfort.>>

I don’t think the natural growth of her chest dropping would be painful, but there does seem to appear to be something going on – you can see it in the later videos with a gait change. You might consider getting her checked out by a soft tissue person/massage person or an ortho vet or even check for tick stuff like Lyme to see what’s up.

Onwards to the videos!

On the Looking ahead/driving ahead video – she is finding the jump well ! Nice! So now you can add in more of your motion, moving up the line the whole time (rather than being stationary and throwing the toy to get her to see the jump). That way the motion is part of the cue. As you are moving up the line, watch her head and throw the toy past the jump when she looks at the jump after the tunnel exit.

You can also move more on the wrap to the tunnel – you were stationary so she was actually turning too tightly! Good girl!

Video 2 – this the straight lines 4 ways video. She did well with the 2 jump reps! You can decel sooner on wraps – the distance was a little short, so you can start the decel as she is landing from the first jump. When there is not a lot of room, you can keep the bars at 4 inches so she has plenty room to stride the line.
You can accelerate more on the go lines so she sees motion as the cue. The RCs and backsides looked really good!
When you switched sides, the video didn’t pick up the turn jump but based on your responses, it seemed like she did super well! Nice!

Love the slam game – she did the first couple of reps then decided that the teeter was concerning (she was circling it but not offering to get on it). It might have been the motion or the noise, but either way we can break it down for her:

– you can reward any interaction that moves the teeter or makes noise, she doesn’t have to get all 4 feet on yet.
– do super short sessions, like 1 or 2 reps total, with giant rewards like a handful of cheese or something really exciting! The short sessions will build up the motivation to interact with it over time, while longer sessions might reduce the motivation because she thinks about it more rather than being finished before she can think about it a lot.
– you can also reduce the tip a little more, so it is only moving perhaps a centimeter at a time. That should be easier to interact with, coupled with short high value sessions. That will help her want to interact with it more.

Wingin it – these are the circles. She did well here! You had really strong connection throughout the session too. Super!
You can drop in a cookie to the ‘landing’ spot behind you so you can keep moving forward. She did well with the countermotion when you were visible on the ‘landing’ side of the wing but she had questions when you tried to move forward more (especially wen turning to her left on the wing in front of the tunnel). So dropping the reward behind you as you move forward should help her continue her commitment as you can stay in motion moving forward.

The Countermotion commitment video was a little harder for her. As with the previous (and next) video you can toss more rewards to the other side of the wing as you move the opposite direction, but also she was moving differently. At the beginning, she was trotting and sometimes cantering holding her hind end close together. Then watch her from :38 to the end: she is pacing (lright front and right rear leg moving together rather than in opposition like a trot) – that is an abnormal gait for dogs in general and definitely for her. I can’t remember a time that I have seen her pace in a video, so it is definitely worth getting her checked over to see what is causing the gait change. And as her gait changed, her motivation waned too. You can see the in the ladder video as well – she was doing the skill but not as fast or smoothly, with some intermittent pacing too.

I think that might lead you to the reasons why she has been sometimes refusing jumps or wings! Her understanding is strong and your handling is looking good, so she might have soreness somewhere.

Nice work here! Keep me posted!

Tracy

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