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  • in reply to: Jean-Maria & Venture (Cocker Spaniel) #83664
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Poor little buddy!!!! I’m glad the vet found the soreness. I know he’s bored but he will feel better soon. And I’m glad you’re going to the seminar, I think you’ll have a blast!

    in reply to: Wendy and Maisy the BC #83663
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Video review is really fun for this kind of thing!

    in reply to: Wendy and Maisy the BC #83656
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning!

    >I think my course walking has got a lot better through practising. I just get really disappointed when it doesn’t come off (pretty much every time).>

    Yes! Your planning and walk through is strong. Thank you for posting the video of it because it will tell us where the errors are (which then show up in the run).

    >This setup looked really simple and straightforward – line to the tunnel then a couple of wraps.>

    It looks simple but of course is not LOL!! And having it in a smaller space makes it harder because you have no extra time to set lines. Everything happens really really fast!

    >Mostly I do not anticipate the off-courses.>

    I don’t think the bloopers here were caused by anticipating off courses – they were connection questions. More on that below.

    >I am not sure about the left cue out of the tunnel – do I also need a wrap cue on the wing or should it be a wrap cue when she is in the tunnel?>

    I think a left cue before she enters the tunnel is useful, plus the wrap cue as she is exiting to cue the wrap on the jump. That part went really well on the run!
    Maybe it was YouTube being weird, but the verbals sounded off from the handling on the walk through:

    Left started as the invisible dog entered the tunnel but continued until after landing of 4 then tick tick tick on the tunnel send (:28)

    But the questions she had there (especially on the 1-2-3 line) were about connection!

    In the walk through, she is a little behind you at the release – then you turn forward to cue the tunnel as if she was ahead of you. She would not be ahead of you at that point and it ends up being a disconnection which turns your shoulders to the off course jump

    That disconnection/shoulder turn plus your position right near it is what caused her to come into the jump on runs 1 and 2.

    At :58 on run 3 you made an excellent adjustment, giving BIG connection over jump 2 and moving forward. That pointed your shoulders directly to the #3 tunnel and she read it brilliantly.

    Her other question was a bar down on the ending line, which was also a disconnection. O the walk through at :31, while she was in the tunnel, you turned forward as she is was ahead (she would still be in the tunnel behind you there). The same happened at 1:19 during the run, so a bar came down.

    I have screenshots of how the walk through matched the runs in these spots:
    https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CVZ4xJ7diZLHrr-j0qkoUBOQqMX6a9iJoJW-vU7j1qM/edit?usp=sharing

    The visuals are really helpful because we can really emphasize the connection in your walk throughs. The more connection you give, the better you can control the lines.

    So on the next walk through, focus only on BIG connection the whole way through, and try to run it silently 🙂 I know we are supposed to emphasize verbals here but I think your verbals are going well. If we can sharpen up the connections to match what she needs to see, you will have a big increase in being able to run clean sequences.

    Great job here! Let me know what you think!

    Tracy

    in reply to: 🐾💖Cindi and Ripley (Border Collie) 💖🐾 #83655
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Welcome back, and congrats on all of your successes!!! It was great fun to scroll around on Facebook and see you & Ripley standing on podiums 🙂

    This is a good choice of game to get back into home life 🙂 I am sure you saw a zillion jump-tunnel-weaves discriminations at the camp and the UKI event.

    He also did a good job with going to is mat even with a jump & tunnel right there, although he did not do it as passionately as he did the jump & tunnel 😂🤣

    He was quite perfect with the jump versus tunnel versus weaves – finding the tunnel was especially impressive because it was tucked in between a jump-weave sandwich. He was definitely thoughtful about all of his jump approaches – possibly because he was thinking hard about which obstacle and possible because he was also thinking about organizing a good takeoff.

    Since he was fantastic here…. Let’s add more motion 🙂

    You can take the 2 start wings and move them further away (20 feet, perhaps?) so that as he is exiting the second wing, he has to drive ahead of you to whichever obstacle you are saying – while you are also moving. And by being 20 feet away, your motion will not be a huge help because you will be moving forward by not really handling a specific obstacle.

    Since that will make the game harder and there was not a lot of motion in this session, you can start by walking to see how he feels about processing the verbals with motion added (and motion that might not necessarily support the verbal). If he is successful with that? Cool! You can add more and more motion.

    Great job here!!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Kim and Sly #83654
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning! The went well, both starting with the weaves and from the fast line before it. The fast line was much faster of course 🙂 because he had so much momentum. Super!!

    My only suggestion is to give him a name call before entering the tunnel. You had a little decel happening on the first run but he was a little wide on the first rep, so a verbal will help (I think his name is all he needs there).

    Everything else looked great!

    >I’ve got a couple other PopOuts that we played with yesterday and still want to review the times on the 2 different ways of handling PopOut 6.>

    Sounds good! I am looking forward to nerding out over which is the fastest option!

    Great job here!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Diane and Max #83653
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning!
    >But running big courses I am sometimes behind so I think it’s just him learning his verbal, or us getting more distance as team>

    Yes – part of it is about him learning verbals, but also part of it is strategically sending then going directly to your next position so you can get ahead anywhere on course 🙂 More on that below. He has very good sends!

    Rep 1 wrap:
    Nice decel, nice connection, nice wrap!! You can play with starting the decel earlier: as he lifts off to the jump after the tunnel, you can begin the decel rather than start it when he lands. That is one stride earlier and might get an even tighter turn.

    SUPER nice rear cross! Nailed it on the first try, right after a wrap. Well done!

    On the push, strategically you will want to be further ahead – you can do this by running a sharp angle to the line between 3 and 4, rather than running the curved line of the course with him. To do this, when he exits jump 1 you can send him to the tunnel with one step. Then head directly to the push line (landing of 3) so as he is jumping 3, you are ahead and looking at him.

    This is more of what you did on the last rep – after sending to the tunnel, you went directly to your line past 3 and trusted him to take 3 (which he did of course :)) and got the backside beautifully. You can probably send to the tunnel with even fewer steps, which will make getting to the backside line even easier.

    On the reps where you he took the front side, you took a couple of steps to send him to the tunnel, then rounded the line to run past 3. That meant he was parallel to you as he took 3 (like at :57) so it was hard to show the push. When you do get into a position where you are parallel to him, make a HUGE connection and maybe even use an outside arm (pointing at the backside entry wing) to turn your shoulders to the backside line.

    Great job!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Diane and Max #83652
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning! This is a hard game (and I think it also feels a little weird to be sending backwards) but it went REALLY well!

    >I am so bent over! It doesn’t look right…>

    You were only a bit bent over when you were looking at him and starting each rep – when you were moving, you looked good.

    On most of the reps, you did a great job shifting your connection from his eyes to the wing behind you as you pointed & stepped to it. You can really see it when you were on the wings closer to the camera (like at :23 and :39, but also on all the successful reps.

    He only had 2 questions (coincidentally on the same wing):

    At :11, he went to a different wing because you were blocking the wing you were sending to a little. You moved over a little so he could see it and he got it really well on the next send.

    At 1:17, you didn’t step to the wing (arm and connection was good but your feet didn’t move) so he didn’t go. That is good insight into how important motion is to him as a cue. On all the other reps, you used a big step and he did great.

    >tight, fast work is not my strength.>

    It looks like it is becoming your strength 🙂

    Last run when you did all 4 was GREAT! You nailed the countermotion and the connection shift to the wing behind you. Absolutely super!

    Another thing that went really well here was that he was able to ignore the big toy in your hand and go to the wing. That is hard but he did a great job!

    Nice work!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Kim and Millie #83651
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning!
    You totally nailed the first blind and all of the blinds here!!!! I couldn’t find a first pump emoji so here is a high five 🫸🫷

    She was definitely on board with the earlier timing because she added a new her of speed on run 2 and the next runs! Super!!!

    She is also looking so good, finding her lines! There was only one moment where things were a little unclear to her, but she still fought to find the correct line:
    At 1:04, you hesitated a little bit near jump 3 – you still got the blind in time but you were a little on her line so she for a moment thought about the backside at 1:06 but came in to the front side. Good girl!

    On this sequence, it is hard to keep connection on the exit of jump 5 without slowing down so you can also talk to her (name call) to keep her driving forward. Usually verbals can cover the moments when being super connected is more challenging.

    Great job here!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Zest #83644
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi!

    >He was good with the sequence wrapping right but struggled with bars when we changed direction.>

    He did great! And you were really running! The bars were just late timing stuff, more on that below:

    First run was LOVELY connection and timing, and he responded perfectly. It is what your future in the ring will look like! So fun!

    The second run was also really good. At 1:24, your shoulder turn was late as you gave him his whoa and brake arms – you were facing straight when he took off for that middle jump, as compared to the previous run and the next runs at 1:39 and 1:53, where you were already turning and he had no questions about the bar.

    You got a little past the wrap jump at 1:41 – that caused you to have to push him back to the next jump which made the turn late at 1:43 (bar down).

    You cued a SUPER nice wrap at 1:54, which set up the easy send and good timing of the shoulder turn, so he found the line and had no trouble with the bars. YAY!

    >I don’t think my teeter food was good enough tonight so I’ll up the game next time. But he didn’t fly off! >

    He was very good! And I agree – when you had placed the food at the top, it didn’t even register at first LOL!! So using amazing stuff will really help him drive to the end of the board.

    Great job 🙂
    
Tracy

    in reply to: Joan & Judge #83643
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi! I am glad he had a great check up!! Yes, start with some hind end conditioning and plyometrics before doing a lot of grids – then you can start set point work with a higher bar to help get more hind end se.

    >And we are going to start working at some height – he actually looked better doing a set point at 20″ than at a lower height.>

    Yes, that makes sense because he has more bar to have to get over! But don’t do a lot of that until he is really great with his plyometric work. (Side note: does your conditioning person have him doing plyometric work?)

    He did well with the sequence here!
    No need to be stationary at the jump when he driving to it, that might be confusing about being stationary when you want a collection.

    When you started running, he really looked great! Nice timing with the cues and the reward throws. You can totally run in closer to the tunnel so he drives ahead of you here too, and keeping adding the distance as well – looking lovely!

    Nice work 🙂 

Tracy

    in reply to: Michele & Roux #83642
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi! It was very windy! Wow!

    Good work on these sequences! I am definitely going to try to convince you to do the walk throughs running at her speed, with connection and verbals. That rehearsal will lead you to be able to nail the runs the first time – no bloopers, no wide turns 🙂

    Even if you did walk each sequence, you should definitely video and post so we can see where the rehearsal happened which caused the blooper in the run.

    You had one walk through here for sequence 1, but you were walking and very quiet 🙂 And you didn’t put the other walk throughs in. Ideally, you run the sequence as if you are running her, video it, then post it with the run so we can see where the common good stuff is, and where the common oopsies are. That way we can keep the good stuff and eliminate the oopses 🙂

    And rehearsing running at her speed (with connection, verbals, etc) will directly correlate to much better trial runs. Side note: you can also set these sequences at smaller distances to get the feel of AKC courses.

    Looking at the runs:

    Seq 1:

    The opening went well – nice timing of the left cue to get the turn on the tunnel exit!
    You can send to 2, no need to go as close to it because you will get a better turn by sending and leaving. She had a bar down there because you drove to 2 then pulled away, making the turn info late.

    On the backside wrap on jump 4, you can get into backside wrap position, tucked in to where the wing and bar meet while facing the next line. At :59, she sliced the backside jump and landed wide because you turned to face the slice line – she was reading the cue there. You can get the wrap more by facing forward to 5 (and not facing 4 as much) and letting her go past you to the backside. That should get a nice collection there! She was tighter on the next reps because you didn’t turn to face 4 as much, but I think you can get even better collection without rotating to the jump at all 🙂

    Then be sure to make connection as she exits 4 to send her to 5. At 1:01 you looked forward which she read as a blind cross cue. She still had the line, so you can keep going and try to finish the sequence! The connection made a big difference on the next rep – you can make it even more of a send by using connection and 1 step with the wrap verbal to get it.

    (Since I am bugging you about the walk through 🤣😂, that is a spot to rehearse in the walk through so you can connect and send, avoiding the blooper there).

    Seq 2 –
    For the sends into the tight turn then FC on the backside at 2:31, you can stay o the line to where the wing and bar meet. After sending her to the backside here, you stepped across the bar as if heading to the tunnel. Then at lifted off, you did a FC right in her way so she hit the bar. When you repeated it at 2:59, you were not as far across the bar so she had a much better jumping moment there. Super!

    At 2:38 on the backside on 9 – you had a really good position and timing of the FC and she got it really easily! Super collection there! That was a great example of how to execute the FC on the backside wrap.

    Seq 3 – to get the best line on this opening here, you can turn her the other way on 1 (to her right). Wrapping to the inside (to her left) requires you to have to stay there to push her back to 2, and then turn her hard to get 3 because the send to 2 lines her up for an off course. Turning her to her right will set a great line 2-3-4. You lost connection she ended up on your other side on the first run. On the second run you got the connection (yay!) but that set her on the line to the off course jump, so you had to really pull her in.

    Seq 4 went well! You went a bit too far across the bar on jump 2, so she was wide on the line there (that is something to plan and run in the walk through 😁😁) The section from 3-7 was really nice! The wrap cues for 8 were late (4:44) so she was wide. You can plan to decel and begin the wrap cues as she is over 7, so get a really lovely turn there too!

    Nice job on the ending line!!

    So overall the sequences are going well. There was something you could do on each one a little differently to make it a clean run or tighten turns… and that is where we want the walk through to really see what to rehearse and smooth it out 🙂

    Nice work!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Zest #83634
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning!

    I think that teeter has a lock of whip to it (watch the bouncing up and down of the other end as he reaches the top!) so he is being careful. That is good self-preservation!!! He will work through that of course and get faster and faster. The heavier teeters will probably be easier for him because they won’t bounce around as much.

    >When I added motion the first time I think it was too exciting and he just kept going off the end.>

    Yes, and you were not even moving that fast! It is also possible he was trying to get the heck off the teeter because of the whip under him, but he was really good on the next reps! When adding your motion, it will help him focus on the end of the board if the reward is placed at the end of the board. You can use a bit of duct tape as a target and smear some cream cheese or peanut butter on it – that way he is not trying to watch you and the end of the board, he will just go directly to the end of the board.

    Great job!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Kim and Millie #83633
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning! She is reading the blinds and lines really well!!

    And I agree that the connection was better, really nice!!!!

    >Blinds are still a little late>

    I agree with this too 🙂 The blinds were happening at takeoff for the middle jump – ideally the blinds are finishing at that point. That is why her turn on the BC was wide – she couldn’t change her line until after she lands, based on the info. The more ideal timing would have the blind starting when she is landing from jump p3 (jump after the tunnel) so it is completed before takeoff for 4.

    What will help you get that is if you stay in motion on the line more – when you were waiting for her while she was in the tunnel, there were decel cues so she was not sure if she should really drive to 3. And that then showed acceleration to 4 rather than a turn cue. So you can flip that 🙂 by running in deeper to the tunnel (so you don’t have to wait for her after a send) and as she is exiting, she sees you accelerating up the line and getting ahead. That should lock her on the line so you can be getting to 4 and starting the blind when she lands from 3.

    That earlier timing plus the connection you had here so really get a great turn!

    Nice work 🙂 


    Tracy

    in reply to: Jean-Maria & Venture (Cocker Spaniel) #83627
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi!

    I’ll keep looking for a class with feedback. I’ve work with Leslie Eide (a sports vet) online and she is fabulous! I know she has a Jumping class and does individual conditioning stuff, but I don’t know if she does group classes.

    Thanks for the videos. I totally see what you are saying. Even before he came off the frame high and fell on his shoulder, he was not really pushing from his rear over the jumps. Even the bars that stayed up saw him pulling from his front. And it was weird that he didn’t want to sit. Definitely show the videos to the vet!
    He was mentally in the game, but seems to be protecting something physically. Yes, the mid-back might be ouchy and also ask them to poke around the psoas.

    Hopefully it is nothing and he feels better soon!!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Patty and Indy #83625
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning! I am so glad you are back in action! Take your time, no rush, we still have plenty of class time 🙂

    >I thought it went well on rep 1. I did a second rep to see if I could tighten up her turns.>

    I agree, rep 1 looked fabulous! Rep 2 looked great to! I think her turns were generally lovely rep 1 – the only one that was a bit wide was 5 to 6. The 2nd run was a little tighter so I timed then runs… basically the same 🙂 Th 2nd run was a tiny bit faster but it was pretty negligible and might be because it was hand-timed. So maybe the thing that can make a difference is adding a brake arm to cue a tighter line 5-6 (brake arm begins as she is exiting 4).

    I like to time things to see if tighter is really faster… sometimes it is NOT. The smaller the dog, the more often we see that tighter is not faster, so it will be fun to look at this with Indy too!

    Great job here!

    Tracy

Viewing 15 posts - 331 through 345 (of 18,694 total)