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Good morning!
He did really well with the moving target game!As we add more to this game, you will find it easier to have a longer ‘handle’ on the toy: you can get that by tying another toy to it. That way you don’t need to bend over as you move.
And you can also try having a bigger toy on the end of it – having something bigger to target to will get his head a little lower and it might be easier to scoop up as he runs through it.
Great job here!! When you have done the set point a few times, you can add this to the set point!
Tracy
Hi! He looks great!
For the wraps – he is wrapping really well! And we can use the pool noodle or a cone for any games where you might see only wings, or you can use a wing (no turning away coming up yet).
>OK I’m confessing, I teach all my directionals as turn towards and turn away. I totally understand the rationale for doing it as left and right for the dog and I did try to convert during Sonnet’s foundation training. However for me it was a disaster. For some reason my brain just doesn’t work that way and yet turn towards and away comes naturally.>
Thanks for the confession 🤣😁😂 For now, as you develop teamwork with him, you can use what is easiest for your brain – there are a LOT of other things we have to think about with baby dogs! And then when things are feeling automatic and easy, you can re-evaluate. It is VERY easy to add the new verbals if you want to.
>I figure if I ever get a course where my dog can’t read my position then it’s my bad and I am willing to suck it up.>
That was my philosophy originally… then I found course after course where I was not able to help with positional cues and I had to accelerate up a line (in hopes of catching up haha) so I added the new verbals. It has been a lifesaver! But that is how courses have evolved here. If you are not seeing that (our kennel club courses don’t require that), then there is no need for it at this stage.
The moving target looked good too! His stays are awesome 🙂 You can use a bigger giant toy on the bottom of the leash as a bigger visual target (doesn’t have to be a ball, can be anything he will grab) – and he can grab it a little higher off the ground which is what he wanted to do here too. And with his speed, you can let him “run through the toy: when he grabs it, you let go so he keeps moving forward (and then he brings it back to you). This saves both of you from being pulled hard when he gets to the toy, better for both of your bodies 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning! She is looking like a grown up bippet!
The verbals warm up looked great 🙂 She is ready for the game we add tonight. She is hilarious – in a few places, she looks the correct direction and if you haven’t released her, she looks at you with judgey whippet eye, then back at the barrel.
The ‘normal’ sends looked perfect. And the turning away was a fun challenge to add. The ‘ski’ turn was great (lefty!) so maybe next time ask for the right turn first so she is not in lefty mode. And if she goes towards the correct side of the barrel even if it is is not perfect, you can reward that first effort. She did figure it out but yes, there is a bit of left-sideness happening. No worries, it all evens out.
>One sort of general question: you recommend using verbals for the dog’s right and left for things that are front side of the jump (tight wraps and loose turns) but for backside cues (whether push to the backside or threadle) the cue is specific to slice vs wrap, regardless of which way the dog is turning. Why is this?>
Great question! Every few years, a trend from Europe shows up with adding extra verbals for left backside lice versus right backside slice etc… then it disappears LOL!!
Why do we NOT need the extra verbals (at least not for now) – context cues! Specifically: the jump bar. Dogs are brilliant. If they have a general idea of pushing to the backside, for example, then there is only one possibility because the context of the jump bar cues the direction of the turn (and there is only one backside push possibility on the line – another possibility would be a threadle and not a push, if that makes sense (I can draw a picture).
So if I say “back back back” (backside slice cue) with some semblance of decent cue as to which direction the dog should be facing… then the dog moves to the outside of the wing and follows the line of the bar (which they can always see). Same with threadles and same with wraps – context cues are magic 🙂
>I’m toying with using “compound words” for some cues rather than come up with new ones, but wanted to see the rationale for why the same cue for those backside cues regardless of side first.>
I used to use compound cues (about 8 years ago) and my dogs found them very frustrating – the 2nd cue is always late! So my fast dogs hit a lot of bars (like backside slice versus backside wrap) because the wrap versus slice was late. So I went to slice versus wrap cues, which are more timely. But I have never needed to differentiate if it was slice to the left versus slice to the right, because back versus threadle differentiate that (this includes running dogs in Europe not just here in the US :))
Moving target looks good too! She wants to bite a little higher which is actually correct for what we will be using this for. If you are in a shopping mood, you can buy a super large holee roller (biggest one you can find, I think I got mine from Petsmart) so she can scoop it up.
>I presume we want the whole “biteable” part of the toy on the ground, fleece and all in this case?>
A longer handle will make your life easier, but she can bite it with her head 6 inches to a foot above the ground (she can decide what is comfortable). The bigger holee roller will be a bigger visual target, but she doesn’t need to get her head all the way to the ground.
Great job here! I am excite to see her play the games!
Tracy
Hi!
>I knew 3-4 was going to be hard and it was.>
For that jump after the first tunnel (:22) the FC on the tunnel was great but the shoulder turn was late to cue 4 (it was after she took off and a brake arm 🙂 would be helpful there too) – but keep going when that happens, because you got some stress behavior (looping around) when you didn’t move. You can reset the line by moving her back to it with other obstacles to keep things going.
The ending line looked great!!
One thing I notice in all of these runs is she is seeking out the jumps and moving well – that is not what we saw when she had the struggle, so she might need regular body work to keep her feeling good, as well as being super careful about footing to maintain her confidence with the line finding!
Great job on these!
Tracy
Hi!
>I didn’t realize until watching the video her butt was up on her stay.>
Yes, you can be more connected on the lead out to see butt elevation. And since it is FEO, you can have someone give you a verbal or thumbs up if you put her in a stay if she is up or not.
At the beginning of (:28) – a sling shot start is good but 2 things: be sure you are not lined up indicating the jump you don’t want (you were totally indicating jump 2 here with position and motion) and watch her eyes to see where she is looking (she was also correctly looking at jump 2). You tried to step past it but she thought it was a backside send. Stepping all the way past it showed her the actual jump 1.
The opening line looked good! And smart to take a moment to train the board jump.Super nice run!
She found her lines nicely here too! Yay! Ad hooray for her stays!!
>She turned so tight on her first backside wrap that her line took her completely past the entrance to the tunnel – plus i felt like I disconnected from her too. >
Super nice wrap on 2 – but then the exit was disconnected. Your arm pointed to the tunnel but all she could see was your back.
There was a wrap later in the course that she didn’t take (:54) because you were blocking the wing, looking ahead and moving sideways. So she only had the motion cue to go on and that sent her to the line she took at :55.
>When I walked this i thought for sure that the broad jump would be right on her line so she should take it out of the tunnel – but I was wrong LOL.>
It was, but it was offset on a weird angle and she didn’t know how to approach it so went past it (better than crashing it!)
> I didn’t much have a plan for the ending so tried to wing it – not a good idea with her HA.>
Ha! Correct! But she found a nice line, so you can reward that. If you don’t have a plan and she comes up with a good plan, don’t reset her as if it was wrong 🙂
She is moving well on these jumps too, so either this turf is far better footing for her, or she had something tight that got released, or both!
Tracy
This run went really well, she found everything on the opening line brilliantly! The tempo of your running was spot on, allowing for motion and connection but not tooooo much motion. At the end, there was a lot of standing still trying to get the wrap so she thought acceleration was next and didn’t ‘see’ the long jump.
With the wrap, I think there was a lot of pressure across the bar with you standing there/facing the slice and without motion into it. So you can add motion into it and decelerate, facing the wrap wing.
Super nice run!
TracyGood morning!
>You could definitely tell J1 vs J2 vs J3 and seemed to really try to be appropriate for the level. >
This is good! The J1 courses in Europe are true J1 courses. I have not seen that be the same here in the US.
> One thing I’ll have to remember for NFC next time if I do another ISC trial is you have to leave the toy connected to you (no throwing it or placing it). >
AKC rules…… sigh. LOL!
>Lu has not seen the wall jump yet so that also added to the difficulty of making up a course for her because the nice areas where I wanted to have her run included the wall. >
Yes – the wall will almost always be in flow so maybe you can show it to her in a class, even if it is not her class? Just sneak in and put her over it 🙂
Onwards to the runs!
Tracy
Good morning!
Jumping – he started off well and was super great about moving to the back with you and lining up and focusing on the tunnel. Things went a little sideways when you didn’t cue the turn on the tunnel exit so he didn’t know to take the jump – in that moment, just keep going for a jump or two, reward, then you can try it again. Stopping and resetting without reward causing him to look at you more than needed, which contributed to the other questions (like bars).
I think he also was at 20” here and was having a bit of trouble sorting out the footing (trial environment changes processing).
On the SS run, he was better with the footing but also you didn’t have as many turns planned. He is definitely processing the 20” bars on turf (adding strides and you can see him balancing over the bars, each his tail LOL), so as much as you can get him seeing that with gradually adding turns, the better.
Your handling was connected and clear on that whole opening line! The only question from him was when you pointed forward, so the more you keep your hands low – the better he reads the lines. Yay!
>He had a little lapse in focus when I threw his leash (that’s why he skipped the first jump) >
That is a fun proofing set up!! Leash or toy tossed one direction, and he is cued to focus and release going the other way on the jump.
Super nice job on the speedstakes!
>a little bit of a slingshot start (and yes, I moved on the release again).>
You can play with setting your arm and leg into position for the send, then releasing. He held his stay nicely as you moved to your position!
And the run went well, especially driving out of the RCs. Hooray for tunnel sends! His jumping questions were how to balance on 1 stride distances, so that is something to add (probably on turf and mats, the 1 stride is tight on these big lines!)
Jumping:
I think jumping directly at the crowd (including the other dog) at the start was hard so he avoided it. Definitely a good thing to work in class too!
What happened at ::38 to :41 where you stopped, reached for a toy, but didn’t pull one out then kept going. Jim and I were both like “what, what?” LOL!! The rest of the run went well – a little decel where you didn’t need it pulled the rail on the ended line, but he is finding his lines really well overall!
>I do have a question on this – if he breaks when you’re doing this, do you just go back & reset and shorten it until he can hold it? >
Yes, you shorten it up and then throw the reward back – and I do a ton of this at home for treats or toys without agility equipment, just as a silly game.
> I just don’t practice them enough.>
Practice is the key, and loving to practice stays is the key (even if you have to brainwash yourself LOL)
> I might take some video of this and ask for feedback, if that’s OK? I know it’s kind of out of the scope of this group, but I could definitely use the help!!>
It is totally in the scope of the group! Send some videos!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Have a bit more going on outside the ring is good, to gradually expose her to more in the environment. She did really well!The first run was excellent! Almost for real!
>She had nice turns on the 2 RCs, but she is shortening her stride as I push on her line and cross behind her.>
I think that was just lack of RC experience. You can run in closer to the tunnel, for example, on lines like that so you are not needing to decel on those relatively straight line RCs. But she did great!!
>She put her head up and checked her stride a bit coming out of the tunnel at the far end. Not sure if it was the light coming in or the bar setter that she noticed. >
The next jump was far and I couldn’t hear if you told her anything before she entered the tunnel. But again, that is a slight lack of experience.
>No issues running past the exit gate to the last jump!>
Yes! She was great! When is the next SS? I think that one can be for real.
The jumping run went well too!
>I liked her level energy level coming into the ring on this one. I’ve been asking for a spin and then removing the leash as the reward but she backed off a bit when I reached in the first time so I asked for another spin and she let me approach to remove of the leash so of course the leash got a bit caught in her fur coming off! Then she needed quite the shake to get over that. >
Yes, but I also love that she self-regulates and was resilient with anything in this run that was unexpected. Yay!
> I did cue a jump for the long jump but she hasn’t done very many of those and went inside it. >
Yes – time to ask your instructors to get it out so she can see it regularly.
>Then my brain was still processing that so I was really late on the BC/slice and we got a little tangled up.>
She forgave you 🙂 Sometimes we mess us and it was good to see going and she recovered perfectly. The next line did set her to the backside of the jump (I think you wanted front side) so be sure to look for those when you make up courses.
> Did better with the jump wrap today. (I was wondering if I just did too abrupt of a decel on the 2 wraps that she questioned yesterday). >
I think the difference was that in this run, you handled the dog: connection, decel, etc. In the Saturday runs, you handled the jump: looking at the jump more and not as much clarity of decel.
>Anyways she ran with me to the leash bucket and shoved her head right through the loop.>
It looks like she had a grand time!
>With the 2nd run yesterday where she shook after the release, I remember thinking that I was hovering a bit too much at the start and not letting her have the space to shake or do anything before I asked for the sit.>
Yes, and it is possible she might not always need to do it.
>I think the lotus tug as a marker for the remote reward may be losing its effectiveness.>
Great! The goal of that was only to be used as a temporary bridge, and then get faded. You can fade it for SS runs and then maybe bring it back out when you debut the contacts and weaves (pairing it with food again in practice).
>She did play with a different toy with me outside the building when we were warming up (and was tugging pretty hard) but said no to the same toy inside the building. I have gotten her to chase and tug on a toy (non-lotus ball) a few times in the last month while training at Fusion and even for 2-3 reps of something really easy like a tunnel or a jump wrap, but she has to be in just the right mood to think that is rewarding.>
The toy play is coming along! I bet she gets into it inside the building when she is more experienced in the trial environment.
>I was going to have her sub in for Kaladin on Tuesday night but I think she might do better just taking the week off. Plus, I haven’t started packing yet and we leave for the Invitational on Wed AM. >
I don’t think she needs the week off, the trial did not seem to be mentally taxing for her and also, her week is going to be boring LOL But also I understand the need to get packed!
>I saw you said you were driving home from Canada. Does that mean you’re not going to be at the Invitational?>
Oh, I will be there, I leave in about 2 hours LOL! Yes, I am nuts – went to Canada to audit a seminar that I had high hopes for, now off to the Invitational.
See you there! Great job with Lift!
Tracy
Good morning!
>. I am a bit concerned with her doing tricks with no lead on at the moment as she could easily decide to start>
You can do all this with the leash on, leaving the leash on until you are ready to line her up to run.
>I think the big difference fusion and InSynch in the ring is all the brain camp stuff we did (plus slightly different natures) so she knows how to stay more focused. Fusion is doing so much better (not there yet) but when I get the timing right reverse spins and brake arms are huge. I did a reverse spin on one course when she was in full flying and she pulled off the jump in front and then stayed focused for the whole course (pity about the rail on second to last jump) and another course missed first brake arm (too slow at start) but second one I saw her collect and glance at me before she went in tunnel and turned. >
It sounds like both are doing really well!!
>the other difference I think is the number of strides (although same speed) in that she has time to still turn.>
Yes, they can save us with more strides 🙂 But the timing of the cues s basically the same.
>The other thing about B is slightly less tolerance for baby dog behaviour as having won out of C you are supposed to have skills so am happy to play in C while we are sorting things out but if we dont its not a biggie.I>
That makes sense. No need to go to a higher level until she is ready.
>But missed a couple of jumps – fusion missed the same ones suggesting I missed the fact they would come of of a tunnel so wide but she tried hard .>
Great job on the good weekend! I think that the dogs missing the same jumps are probably also a connection issue. You look at the video and look for when you are calling them (before the tunnel) and if you are connected on the exit.
Great job!
TracyHi!
Happy birthday Judge!!!!! How tall did he end up getting? And double hooray for the snow being GONE!He was cracking me up with the moving target – grabbing the smaller part of the toy rather than the holee roller LOL! But as soon as the toy got moving, he was focused on and grabbing the holee roller. Perfect!! It will be easy to add a jump. And the wraps looked great! I am excited to get started!
Tracy
Hello and welcome! I am excited to see him do the more advanced games in this class 🙂
>He was SUPER jacked up.>
Jacked or not, he did great with the wing wraps! I think you were saying ‘yes’ as the marker, but you can use your top-in-hand marker there. He only had one question (at the end when he didn’t go directly to the wing) – that was probably because you were further away and maybe not as connected as you were on previous reps, so he swung around to look at you. You were more connected on the last rep and he was great!
> We worked on moving target too.>
Super!
> He did great last week at some open ring time (like to the point of putting a low jump in) but today he had no clue what sit meant. Eventually I just lured it with food and we at least got a few baby reps in.>
If he has a struggle for whatever reason, you can always move to a pattern game to help him process the environment. The back and forth game we did in the resilience track of MaxPup 1 is perfect for that!
Great job here!
Tracy
