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Wow! What a lovely run! VERY connected and he really loves when you are connected. He didn’t see the teeter after the tunnel, probably because the tunnel had a slight curve and was kind of facing the a-frame. When he did get it, you were converging more and had BIG connection (he has a great teeter!!!). And facing the weaves for an extra heartbeat (til he had the entry) really helped.
I agree, he didn’t seem worried about the music at all. So you can have other people walking in the ring (not just the big instructor dude :)) and other dogs outside the ring and maybe even barking. Crank it up to be like a trial 🙂
He has a trial this weekend, yes? Keep me posted! Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>Took a bit longer than usual to re orient to me after we walked in so waited and then tossed a treat when she did turn back. >
There was some bang or something right as she walked in so she looked at it then back at you. She hd to assess what the heck was happening then dismiss it 🙂
>Had some feelings at the start but then sat when I asked her to,>
I think that the leash being tossed far drew her eyes towards that line – that is definitely a distraction for youngster so maybe for now drop it down off to the side rather than throw it far.
<Did her first long jump (took a bit of a look and collected to add a stride but jumped it nicely). >
She did good job with the long jump! Yay! And the handling looked good – she had one question at 1:36, where you started moving backwards on a wrap cue so she pulled off. For now, decelerate forward on wraps til she lifts her front feet, then you can turn and go the next direction.
>She was noticing the rest of the class coming in to set bars near the end and then I didn’t cue the right turn to the tunnel well at all so she kpet on her line and went right up to Dawn (who had just set a bar to 16in) and had to stare at her for a bit. I purposely stayed in the ring a bit longer to test her on whether she noticed/cared about the BC coming into the ring on the far side but she was fine.>
Yes – the line definitely sent her towards the person doing strange things 🙂 so she was flummoxed for a moment but recovered well! And otherwise she did well ignoring the people all around – that is a lot of pressure for a young dog and most likely something she will see at a trial.
On the 2nd run:
>I liked our “setup” for the 1rst sequence here. Followed me in, did her bark and off we went. I think I want to do something like that for her first NFC run. >
Yes! One thing for the NFC run is she might be jumping towards people or tables of stuff etc, so be sure she is taking off for the send jump before you run to the next line (or if she refuses it, just keep going).
>Check out about 1:30 where Dawn accidentally got more in our way than we intended and Lift ran right by her as she was trying to get out of the way!>
Ha!!! Lift probably thinks it is another crazy human training trick LOL!!! She did great!
Let me know how her Casey seminar goes tomorrow, and I am looking forward to hearing how the weekend goes!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>Our next trial is next weekend. I just found out they moved the agility field to a possibly nicer spot (less bumpy) so we may be able to do longer runs than I planned. I was going to do In & Outs since the ground is yucky, but now maybe I can do a run with no toy & see how she does.>
That is great!! A variety of options open up when the footing is good!!!
>We took a break from weaves because l lumped a little with 6 + 4 and phasing out the Manners Minder, so we took a little break. We tried again this morning with 6 poles & the MM behind a wing. 6 poles was too hard, so I went to 4 and she was more successful. I feel like the MM being far away is making her rush and she was skipping the last set of poles. Here is what the set up looked like – the MM was beyond the wing.>
The setup looks good – one thing you can try as you fade the MM is to open the poles a tiny bit so she can be successful, then close them back up. That way, one variable gets harder (MM moves further away) and one variable gets easier for now (weave open a tiny bit). Then the MM being further away will become easy, so you will be able to close up the poles pretty quickly. Let me know what you think!
The other thing you can do is throw a toy or treat between the end of the poles and the MM, so the MM is still visible but no longer the reward.. which will cause her brain to fade it out 🙂
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
The angle helped her a little here plus she is getting the hang of it. She was getting a little fatigued (lots of bar ticks) so be sure to just do 4 or 5 reps and then be done for the day – it is hard work 🙂 And you can totally add the moving target/bigger toy idea to the angled grid here too!> We have some more training time scheduled this weekend that I was going to set up the grid again and have it slightly off her line. >
Based on your weekend plans… I suggest skipping the grid work this weekend. Saturday should be an easy day so just do simple things and let her rest – the seminar and trial will be hard so we want her to have an easy day in the middle of that sandwich 🙂
>We do have a fairly big weekend this week. Friday we have a seminar with Casey Keller and then that evening we have the skills class again. Saturday we have our scheduled training session. And on Sunday we are entered in a UKI trial. She’ll be running in Speedstakes and Jumping. I was thinking, depending on the course, that I would run Speedstakes for real and NFC jumping (skipping the weaves for now). >
Busy and fun! I think you will enjoy Casey! And yes, Speedstakes for real if the course looks fun and NFC in jumping to skip weaves sounds perfect!
>I might have to schedule in a walk during one of those days too for some decompression.>
Yes – Saturday 🙂 Friday and Sunday are big days!!!
Have fun and keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
These were definitely hard, especially when you started moving faster and she was doing the tunnel. She was not quite ready for both 🙂 so keep your movement pretty slow for now.One thing to tweak here is the reward: the toy is small so her head is really low, and the physics of stopping for it that close to the 3rd jump are putting a lot of pressure on her shoulders. So switching to a larger toy that she can scoop up while she moves will really help (I use extra large hollee rollers for this):
https://www.petsmart.com/dog/toys/fetch-toys/jw-pet-hol-ee-roller-dog-toy-color-varies-5017149.html?gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADiLNNk68lVgAuOIvoqjfKhmNf6Qs&gclid=CjwKCAiAqrG9BhAVEiwAaPu5zm5rE7JE7TmRHtfeaFsnND15-8Bh1QkJ8O1wfwEAxwVAEi1RlEXxZRoCeEQQAvD_BwEAnd you can use a moving target so the toy is in motion and further from the last jump as she lands, and she doesn’t have to come to a fast stop to grab it:
This is something to revisit here and there, she was sorting it out really well and then you can add more and more of your motion.
Nice work!
Tracy
Start line practice looks good here! You were both a little twitchy on the first rep LOL but then you walked away faster and she held the stay a lot better.
One thing to consider – it looks like you were giving her treats as she sat. It is not a bad thing to do, but it is something that will never happen in the trial environment… and we don’t want the or lack of treats to be something that tells her that there is no reward and potentially creates questions or overarousal. So getting in the habit of not handing her a treat for sitting will help transition the skill to a trial too.Nice work!
TracyYay! This is a hard sequence because the cues have to all be in place before the tunnel – and you got it both times. YAY!! At :20 (first rep) you were earlier: as she passed the exit wing of the wrap, you started the decel and right cues. Super! She saw and heard everything one before she went in. On the 2nd rep (:37) you were later – she was halfway between the jump and tunnel. So she saw the decel and heard the verbal, but probably did not see the shoulder turn so the turn was wider. The earlier cues definitely worked best.
Great job!!
TracyHi!
>We’ve been running at 18″ in class so I decided to try out 20″ for the first time. I thought her jumping looked great. Thoughts?>
I agree – I think the jumping looked great 🙂
>One item I took away from this sequence is she’s always looking for more information on where we are going next. We worked a wrap back into the tunnel and I had to leave earlier than what I thought otherwise she assumed she was going straight.>
Yes – with her stride length, the cues for a turn start the instant she exits the tunnel at the very latest. And if it was a jump? The turn cues would start at liftoff to the jump *before* the turn jump.
Looking at the turn on the jump after the tunnel here (especially because the sequence set up so much speed coming into it):
The 1st rep at :09 was late, she was already past the halfway point between the tunnel and jump. When you started the cues. The last rep was better but still little late – at :43, the cues started when she was a full stride past the tunnel exit.
The rep at :26 was the best one – the cues started as she exited the tunnel. And not surprisingly, that was the rep with the best turn 🙂And you were good about decelerating before rotating – that made a big difference for her!
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
I am so excited that you both had a great time at Westminster! She looked fabulous on the videos!!! Happy and fast 😁 in that super noisy busy environment.
Standard was beautiful! JWW was also lovely!
>I panicked & did a sloppy BC to try & save it but my bad arms confused her and she came to the wrong side. >
It looked smoother than it might have felt. What happened was that you got the BC done at :31 but then looked forward, which cued her to stay on your left side. But she was happy and confident when you fixed it!
I am so thrilled with how she did in front of the big crowd. YAY!!!! You totally should stay floating on that cloud and enjoy the high!!
>Side note: She has 2 barks now. A soft, almost a lip-synch bark but with full facial expression – is this her trial-polite bark? Haha. She is also giving me a louder more insistent bark, if the treats are slow in coming.>
Ha!!!!! You can give the silent bark a different cue, like “Silent Movie” or “Inside Your Head Voice” or something 🤣😂
>I found a Back on Track blanket and got it for her crate at trials! She loves blankets! It’s pretty cool – like a comforter but small-dog crate sized. It was a pretty good price on Amazon.>
Perfect! And you can use it on yourself – I have used the Back On Track stuff to heal strained quads and a knee injury on me 🙂
>Do you think I should drop some of the FEO runs hat I have been doing and do 2 real runs so she has less runs per day? I’m conflicted because I want to keep it fun for her but maybe as the remote reinforcement games make it easier for her to leave her treats & have fun in the ring, I’ll need them less?>
It probably depends on what type of runs they are. The T2B and regular runs don’t seem to take up too much bandwidth, but the Premier classes have a lot more weird turns, so maybe fewer FEOs if you have Premier classes? Or if 2 Premiers are offered, maybe enter 1 so you can still do a fast and fun T2B a the FEO?
>Our next trial is a local trial, outdoors on grass. I was not going to enter because I don’t like the surface, one of the rings has uneven areas. But I thought I could use it as an opportunity to do “In & Out” runs or ask for a start line stay and release them to a toy quickly. Do you think that is a good idea for both pups?
For Frankie – when is the trial? The NYC trip was probably exhausting so if it is this weekend then yes, skip it 🙂 so she can rest up and recover. If Frankie likes the quick release to a toy, then yes you can do a quick in and out in a few weeks. And Bazinga can totally do it!
Tracy
Hi!
Registration opens on Friday (2/14) at 11am, so you can sign up here when it is open:
Have fun!
Tracy
Hi!
This session went really well! He got all of the rear crosses except 1 (that one was just a little disconnected).One thing that will help make it feel even smoother if is you start moving before he gets to you or passes you. You can be a bit further from the jump and toss the treat as far away as you had it here – then a he finishes eating it, you can start moving forward to the center of the bar for the RC.
The other option is to start with a barrel wrap before the jump (about 10 feet away or more) – that might feel even smoother! And you can mix in some ‘go straight’ reps so he can read the difference between those cues and the RC cues.
Great job here!!!
TracyHi!
Fingers crossed the cold weather goes away – this winter is already too long LOL!!The Serps are looking good from position 1 and 2! He had a little trouble with position 3 – the angle looked like a threadle angle, so you can make position 3 a little easier and also you can be more visible been the uprights of the jump.
The other thing that will help is if you are closer to the jump, so he collects to turn before he takes off. You were a bit too far from jump on the first side (he could fit his whole body over it before turning) so try to be close enough to touch the wing with a relaxed, bent arm. You were definitely closer on the 2nd side!
>Mostly just working on getting him to move faster. I need to remember to do more tugging at new/distracting places and when he’s fresh>
Looking at the parallel path commitment games on the jump and the tunnel – he was doing this really well and moving faster for sure! I think you can change the reinforcement to get even more speed – the back and forth with the cookie has probably maxed out on speed here because there is not a lot of running needed to get the cookie and also it is not that exciting 🙂 So you can use a thrown toy for the reward: what does he love? Fur tugs? Ball? Or you can use a lotus ball or something with food – you can throw it further and he will really be able to chase it and run run run 🙂
Nice work here!!!
TracyHi!
>Well Sunday did not go! The class was cancelled due to snow.>
Darned snow! I am ready for spring.
>This Saturday I have Knight scheduled for Speedstakes 1 and 2 and Jumpers on Saturday. Then on Sunday I have him scheduled for Agility 1 and Agility 2 and Jumpers. I can also do mulligans after each of these runs if I want to.>
That is a lot of runs, especially at this time of year when the pups might not be outside running around as much as normal. So feel free to scratch runs if the course is weird or if he is at all tired, or even if he does great and you want to end early on a high note.
> Figure in Speedstakes I will start him at a tunnel. Jumpers at the weaves or tunnel. Sunday start at dog walk, Aframe, teeter, weave poles. Also thinking about starting at a jumper before the contact. Your thoughts.>
Excellent idea, especially because of how much he loves contacts! Fingers crossed the course design has lots of contacts and tunnels near the ring entry!
>You might have done this, but you can mix in a run or two in class where the rewards are outside the ring (then run to them at the end). The other runs can have rewards in the ring with you, but mixing in rewards outside the ring can keep those remote reinforcement skills sharp!>
Yes, you can totally do this. It is totally up to the handler so you can decide in the moment what you want to do, based on what you think will be most successful.
Have fun! Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
How was Westminster? It looked wild!You couldn’t find it because I forgot to post the recording. SORRY!! It is here now:
