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Hi!
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 đ
>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!
TracyHello and welcome to you and baby MissL!! It is so cool to have a celebrity in class đ She looks keen to play! I am excited to see her work the games here đ Have fun!
Tracy
Hello and welcome!!! I am excited to see you here! Groove and Sonnet are fabulous! I am looking forward to meeting baby Grin đ
Tracy
Hi!
The first run was great! Nice way to break it up – short lead out and run to the happy hour moment. Then a longer lead out, longer run. On those big huge distances, you might need really big connection and a âjumpâ verbal as you get way ahead to help support the line with environmental distractions.
2nd run:
>She sat quickly so I figured she was ready but apparently she forgot to shake until after I released her.>
That was interesting but I like how she prioritized arousal regulation! Then the rest was strong. If she hasnât done her shake after the leash comes off, you can wait for it, or even try to elicit it with a hair ruffle. For the wrap at about :31 and :38, she had a little hesitation – this was mainly because your connection moved forward and she was not sure. So ramping up the connection there too will help! But over, really super!!!
I am looking forward to todayâs videos! Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>She has 2 runs each day so maybe Iâll try the in and out run as the 2nd run on the first day (assuming first run goes well). I think it may he harder for her to do that as the first run on the 2nd day.>
She might be feeling fresh and ready to roll on the 2nd day, if the first run is early enough. It is just hard to know with such a young dog. I am sure everything will go well this weekend!
>And yes, I was thinking about what opportunities I had left before the Classic and itâs this weekend at OTR or the early May Fusion trial. (Plus her 2 seminars at Fusion)>
Plenty of time LOL!!!
>Iâm finally getting better about pausing in the leadout before releasing her and now you want me to wait a few seconds for her to process the sit cue? Geesh! (Lol)>
Right? I am a pain like that hahahahahaha. but it might help! Or not, she might think you are nuts. There is only one way to know đ
Have fun!
TracyGood morning! Lots of great ring crew help here!
>Then to what you see here â he did pretty good in ignoring the RC so long as they sat still â motion is still real hard for him to ignore>
He ran the first course great, ignoring the âjudgeâ and the ring crew. This scenario with the ring crew not moving seems ready for you to have empty hands (I think the lotus ball was in your hand) and maybe before he enters the building, you can hide treats around the ring so you can surprise him with rewards during the run. That can help with the transition to having no treats in the ring/
As you mentioned, he had a harder time with the moving ring crew. He has had a lot of experience with the judge (and your instructor) moving, so that seemed kind of easy for him. The moving ring crew was weirder for sure! So that scenario can still have the lotus ball visible. And you can also have the person keep moving if he goes to see them, rather than stopping. That way he learns to ignore movement, rather than learns that visiting them gets them to stop moving. So the ring crew person can just slowly keep moving around the perimeter of the ring đ
>Another round â had some struggles with the DW tunnel discrimination â something else to add to the list of things to work on.>
That is a hard discrimination! You can try using the outside arm (like an old-school threadle arm, pointing to his nose across your body). That can help pull him in while you stay in motion.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
This sounds like a good plan! Taking it easy to let his body bounce back is great. Ideally, he feels perfect đ when he next does agility, so there is no pain association with doing agility. And a fitness program is good idea when he is feeling back to normal đ
Keep me posted!
TracyGood morning!
The class videos are looking strong!!
She found the backside really well at :45 but was not quite ready for the countermotion. Looking at the landing spot like you did on the reps after that as you push through can help support her. But also teach the desired coutnermotion/disconnect by tossing cheese behind you to the landing spot as you run through, without looking at her đ>I donât think she even flicked her eyes at the leash on the ground when we ran by it at the end.>
She wa great! There were random toy throws which were great fun but she ignored the leash and the exit til it was time to leash up and exit đ
>Did some pattern games on my shoes while I waited for the pair of Malinois to leave (married couple and they were working on some plank stuff together). I think this may have been the first time that she barked while I was leading out. >
It was a nice distraction and she did really well!! And she was on fire in the run, really driving hard. Love it! The lines looked good including the backside. She is doing some grown up stuff!!
>In regards to the pre-run routine at Jacqueâs seminar, we ended up going first so it was rushed. >
That is actually a good thing to do sometimes, because that is likely to happen at a trial. So it is definitely good to rehearse sometimes.
>Since the line up the first time into the ring has been more challenging, I am thinking that for her first run, I ask for tricks on leash as we are heading to the line, take the leash off, ask for another trick (bark or spin) and then run off the start. >
That is a good plan, especially if you think the environment is challenging. If she seems completely relaxed about it, you can switch to using for a sit.
>Then toss empty toy and cue happy hour for the food box. Run back out for a 2nd rep, ask for a sit & leadout, mini sequence, toss toy, leash and out.>
Perfect!
> If the first run goes well, I may ask for a lead out right away for the 2nd run. >
Also perfect!
> If sitting is just too hard, then I think Iâll ask for a spin, run off the start, toss toy and out.>
Give her a few seconds to process the sit cue⌠there might be a delay of several seconds in the harder environment đ So you can cue it then wait and see if she gets into the sit several seconds later.
>Do you think she might be ready for an empty hands in and out run? >
Yes, I think that is entirely possible, maybe the 2nd or 3rd run. She will tell you how she is feeling about the environment.
This is all great! They are instructors with excellent reputations and good trial opportunities! With running speeds takes in the Classic as a goal, you will want to see if she can do more without toys in the ring at local trials before then.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
I am so glad she is doing well in the chaos of the class! Bummer about coming into season, but it sounds like she still has good things ahead.Looking at the videos: these are looking good – they are long sequences but she did super nicely!
The lead out on the first video looks great! She might have left the line early on the 2nd video? So definitely be sure to connect before you release and make sure she is still sitting đ
And she is definitely focused even though she has not been outside in a while. Your indoor work is transferring nicely!
>Yeah, I struggle with raising my arm too high.>
Yes, that was when the arm came up it was pulling your connection forward, ahead of her, so she couldnât see it. That was causing her to jump up and âtagâ your arm. You can see it at :08 and :12 on the first vide for example (and a couple of other places). Then compare it to :11 on the 2nd video where your arm was down and she did not jump up – so smooth! So as the weather improves, you can run with something in your hand to help remind your arm to stay down đ
For a better line from 3 to 4, slice her to her left instead of wrap to the right as it sets a better line to 4. The same goes for the turn at :28 – slicing to the right (instead of wrapping) set up a smoother line at ;31 in the 2nd video, so she could just accelerate down the line. NICE!!
She had a question about the first tunnel and I think it was because it was slightly offset, so the go tunnel cue was not as clear to her. She might have needed a âget outâ or opposite arm, plus some convergence towards her to set up the line to the tunnel.
>Maybe why she took the tunnel the first time instead of the 12 backside. >
That was so close to getting it on the first rep! You had a step or two of convergence into the backside at :34 and that is what pinged her off the line to the tunnel.
On the 2nd video, you turned and ran directly to the backside line and she had no questions – perfect!!Great job here! Fingers crossed for continued good weather so you can keep training outside!
Tracy
Hi!
He did well with the run here!!!
>Question â is he making a connection with ignoring the ring crew here or is it all about the obstacle performance in his head?>
Yes, I donât think the presence of the ring crew person can be separated from the contact, in terms of what he was processing. Plus, watching his head on the start line – he appeared to notice her and was actively looking at herâŚ. But ignored her. YAY!! That was a big success!!
And ignored her later on when you did a FC on that jump (and a blind on the next rep) and turned away from the frame – he ignored her again. All good!!!
One thing to add to your classes and training: See if you can move him around the ring without holding his collar or turning him by the collar. When you are going to the start line, or resetting for the next rep: do it hands-free đ Let him move with you without you holding him. And you can reward of course for him deciding to come with you. That will help teach him to stick with you in the ring and you wonât rely on holding his collar as much (or at all!)
>DW to weaves in this session -he had full view of the yappy PWD out of its crate straight ahead of him â no gate to stop him from visiting â he did great here â a proud dad moment!!>
Yay! And there was a big barking explosion at one point and he stuck with you. GOOD BOY!
>So do I do a few more sessions keeping it easy and successful like this or do I figure out how to make it more distracting?>
I think the key for Coal is not more distracting⌠it is about making it different. It is the weird/new/different things that cause him to investigate. So it doesnât have to be more people, for example, it just has to be someone in an unexpected place. And you can also add some deliberate find my face moments: you stop and look lost, then reward him for sticking with you đ
>my best shot at recruiting some ring crew. Any value from my RC here?>
Yes! It was new and different and maybe a little weird LOL!!! You can have it off to the side to tempt him to leave you investigate it. Anything new and different will be useful in that respect. He did really well here so you can change things up after each rep or two (like put it in a different spot or put something new/different out there too).
>Iâll have a chance to work with some live people â my thought was set up RC sitting behind tunnelâ¨sent to tunnel â reward success>
Yes – the ring crew behind tunnels seem to be his hardest thing at the moment (other than kids as leash runners) so I think that is a great plan!
>1 jump send to tunnel reward successâ¨2 jumps â send to tunnel reward success>
Yes – and keep handling and moving away til he catches up to you (especially if he wants to investigate the person) then reward.
Nice work here! Keep me posted!
TracyGood morning! Or is it afternoon now? LOL!
>also tyre was the last obstacle- although she knows it a little it is still a gap and she misses if any question. need to create a look alike tyre at home so becomes normal.>
You can buy pool noodles (not sure what they are called in NZ :)) and make a tyre. Or a small bicycle tyre? Just wrap it with tape so she doesnât get a paw caught in it.
>She definitely relised this weekend that lead coming off means we are about to run and she got very skirmy when we were still waiting. >
Yes – context cues. Leash offâŚ. GAME ON! So you can keep working on leash off, do more tricks, might be a delay. She will get more patient as she gets more experienced.
>lesson now need to keep her on lead until previous dog is almost finishing.>
Yes but that might strengthen the unintentional context cue. So make it more variable: sometimes yes, the leash comes off when the previous dog is almost done. But sometimes to comes off earlier and she does some tricks, or you pick her up. Start with short duration and then build it up – it can sometimes be 60 seconds of waiting on the line!
>Agility people funny. My rea friends were more excited about Fusions ribbon as they are hard to get. >
Ha! Yes, they know how hard you have worked with Fusion!
>Other people suddenly want to talk to me because we have an amazing dog- that suddenly means I am a good trainer as opposed to a shit trainer⌠I find this funny.>
It is funny! They will be very friendly at this stage, early in her career. Then when she starts winning a lot at the higher levels? They might be less friendly. People are odd like that!
> Others just commented how lucky I am to have such a biddable easy to train little dog â I just sniggered â biddable she is not âŚ>
That almost made me choke on my coffeeâŚ. She is a lovely dog but I agree, I am not sure I would call her biddable. She has BIG opinions LOL! And also, because of her tiny size and immense speed, I wouldnât say she is easy to train. Speed makes things hard, and small dogs are harder for us to see on course, plus she has to learn to drive big distance. Slow, medium sized dogs are much easier sometimes đ
>I find her harder to train than my other dogs- perhaps because she is small and feisty. But she is easier to run than Fusion. Although she has a similar commitment point to Fusion I can pull her off whereas Fusion once she is fixed she is hard to change.>
Possibly this is due to a difference in foundations. The training has evolved a lot even in the few years since Fusion was a wee puppy.
>see too many people here micromanaging the little dogs to get tight lines and this slows dogs down in that they dont drive their lines.>
I agree about this! And I donât think she would slow down⌠I think she would get very frustrated. She seems to really enjoy driving the big lines and working independently.
>This weekend only two jumpers and rest have weaves so fewer runs and training runs only. hen several weeks to teach weaves, contacts tyres need to start on serps, threadles and backsdes >
Perfect! Make a priority list: weaves and tyre and contacts are at the top. Serps are next – then threadles/backside are just below them on the list.
>In case we win out by accident ( I like secondsâŚ) but think sshe will be easy to teach the handling as already done alot of it.>
On the higher level courses, are there more turns? That might actually be easier to handle with her, in some ways.
>PS she is the size of a larger pap so runs in the lowest height class here.- always had dogs in the highest height class before with Fusion being my smallest dogprior>
Yes – I think she is the same height as my Pap, Nacho – but she is much much faster than he was in agility. My BorderPap (with a bit of Whippet in her) is about 375mm tall.
Keep me posted!
TracyGood morning!
>He did quite well this past weekend at the UKI trial. It was a very busy and crowded environment and it was pouring rain most of the time so it was difficult to walk a lot outside.>
I agree – he did great!! Yay! McCannâs is a nice place and the footing looked good too.
>In our first Standard run I layered a jump as he went from tunnel to tunnel and he came in and took the jump. I need to remember to support him more at trials than I do in training>
It is definitely a hard layer right at the beginning of the course – momentum helps layering so doing it at the start is hard especially when the tunnel was so offset under the DW. Plus, I think the second tunnel was a little offset too and not a straight line, so it was hard for him to see. What happened was that you ended up getting in a little too deep to the dog walk and had to decel and pull away laterally – he saw that as a turn cue to exit the tunnel towards you, to the jump.
You can set that layering by leading out less forward and more lateral – so he sees forward motion the whole time and no turn cues.
>I didnât layer the next run and he easily went tunnel to tunnel.>
Yes – your motion cued extension on the exit of the first tunnel and then you converged a bit to the next tunnel, and it worked perfectly!
>He missed his contact and jumped off the a frame while he was looking at me. He also slipped on the teeter, very unusual for him. >
He might have needed to see more connection on the frame and teeter in those moments – also in UKI, you can put a target on the ground (as long as it is not touching the obstacle) to help transfer his forward focus on the contacts into the trial ring. His dog walk looked really good!
Speaking of connection – in these early stages, you can add a little more direct connection to him as you run (less looking forward at the next line) – he was head checking a bit, looking for info. And when you were very connected? You had perfection!
>He left his start line to go behind him to see a female dog that had come up behind us too closely.I had to drag him back to the ring as he wouldnât come. He did hold his start the second time but he was over aroused and so was I, lol, so our connection wasnât great. Some parts were okay but on the whole not great.>
One thing you can do if you lose him temporarily to a distraction before entering the ring is to do some tricks and volume dial game, or even just tugging on the leash. (Plus, UKI allows a toy in the ring even on real runs :)) That will get his engagement back to you and off whatever cute girl dogs he is thinking about đ
And if a run goes sideways – I take it as a cue to give the dog bigger connection and keep going. That way I settle down đ and also the dog doesnât get frustrated. He was jumping up a bit when you were fixing things, so try to keep moving and pick up the line with more connection.
>Our third Speedstakes run was much better. I asked the gate steward to keep the dog behind us back until we got started. This helped me to know that he wasnât going to go visit. Although the leash runner picked up the leash as I was lining him up and he went to visit her but came back when I asked.>
These are fun things to add to class! You can enlist classmates to be up close as leash runners and have other dogs out behind him. It is a pretty normal part of the learning curve when young dogs learn to ignore the trial distractions.
>He entered and did most of the poles before missing one so I just continued on. We will continue to train these.>
Yes, the weaves were hard for him here – the weaves were moving away from the next line so maybe it was a weird visual for him. That is a pretty normal young dog question so you can set some of that up and throw rewards at the end (and can do this in NFC in UKI too!)
The Speedstakes run was a great example of driving the lines and maintaining connection – gorgeous! Really super run. The tunnel sends were great and that skill really helped set up all of the jumping lines!
>I managed him from his crate in the other building into the agility building and ring carefully with lots of pattern games and simple tricks to keep him focused on me as you taught us in the course. >
Awesome! As he gets more experienced, you can dial up or dial down different levels of intensity, to see what helps him most in the ring.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I use the hoop and target ON the dogwalk so Iâll just plan to skip that. >
One thing that I did with my RDW training was as I wa fading the targets that were on the DW, I didnât remove them – instead, I faded them into smaller things and moved them further and further from the dog walk. So the mat they used became a 2 in wide/10 inch long white plastic thing that was on the ground 10 feet from the bottom of the dog walk. That was a target I could bring into the UKI ring to transition the DW into competition – and also super easy to fade as I added more obstacles. I think that would be pretty easy to show Reacher too! (Believe me when I say I didnât put a lot of effort into it hahaha)
>Hereâs a video from class last night. I tried the opening sequence two different ways; I think he liked the blind cross better. >
Both reps looked fabulous! He really exploded off the line and ran hard! Love it! The only way to know which one he liked better is to time the sequences. So I did! I timed from the feet landing at the first jump to the feet landing at the jump after the tunnel in the back of the ring (before the weaves). The 2nd run (blind cross) was faster by about half a second! So yes, the blind cross was the winner here. We can keep track of that stuff to see if it is a consistent trend – I bet it will be.
He was GREAT with the weave entries, WOWZA! Because on this particular course there was no place to go after the weaves in terms of driving ahead of him – the best option was to stick with him. But that doesnât draw as much speed from the weaves as if you were running hard, so one thing you can play with in class is either rear crossing the entry or keeping him on your right and blind crossing the exit. Both of those options will cause you to have to hustle to get ahead of him. And that handler hustle gets more speed in the weaves.
Sticking with him in the early stages of bringing the weaves into the trial ring is definitely the right thing, no need to get fancy with the weaves yet đ
>Also, I might have to stop rewarding so much after the weaves because I think on one of the rounds here he was fully expecting to get the toy and then was surprised when I just went on.>
Ha! Yes, the party after the weaves was really big but to prevent him from wondering where the reward is, you can be variable: sometimes the party is for the weaves, sometimes it comes after the next jump, sometimes it is a few obstacles later, etc. The cue to continue becomes part of the reinforcement as they get more experience weaving in sequences.
Your connection looked really good here and the lines you ran were also super clear. Only one handling suggestion is on the threadle: you can open up your arm more back towards him (instead of closing your shoulder forward). That will get your shoulders rotating back towards him, which is a more visible cue as you run.
Great job here! I am guessing today and tomorrow are relatively quiet ânormal lifeâ days for him, to be ready for the trial. I am looking forward to hearing about it!
Tracy
Hi!
>Update Dr McCall saw Knight this morning. His right side/hip area quite tight. Since this was an intense adjustment, she does not want him to do any agility for the next 2 to 3 days so the adjustment can integrate. Minor adjustment in the back area. When he gaited after the adjustment for Dr. McCall, I could just tell he was moving more freely.>
I am glad Dr. McCall found this! And it is normal that the chiro vets want the dog to have a few days off so the adjustment holds.
>I will make a decision if I want to do CPE speedway run through on Saturday or just wait until class on Sunday with Joel.>
Since he had some big stuff going on, I would wait as long as possible and when he does go back into the ring, have a ton of treats and do jumps without bars. No tunnels (he could slip!), no contacts (hard on the body, especially the a-frame and teeter) and no weaves (too much bending). That way he can move safely while his body recovers a bit more. Then see if you can have him seen again before doing ‘real’ agility – we don’t want him to feel any pain and have that associated with agility.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
