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Welcome home, little InkDotWhiteSock LOL!! She is a cutie š
No worries about anything except settling in and some good sniffy walks for at least 72 hours after she gets home. And there is no need to load the clicker or add a marker yet – you can just see if she can eat treats from your hands (all words get added later when we know what will happen :)) And when she will eat treats, the pre-games are great for adding a marker: she touches the thing, you say a word, then you deliver a treat. Super easy for you both!
Have fun š
TracyWelcome to you and Cartwheel!!!!!! Cartwheel is a fantastic name, I love it!
I am excited to see you two play these games!
Tracy
Hi!
Yay! The little guy is getting the layering concept! This is definitely a mucho bueno session š It shows us that he did learn stuff even though you didnāt love his last session. Latent learning!
He was incredibly successful here – well done to you for cueing him clearly! There was only one blooper that I saw: exiting the wing wrap at :32 you didnāt cue the tunnel very clearly and definitely turned away from it as he was exiting the wing, so he followed you shoulders/feet.
Compare to :37, very clear tunnel cues got him right into the tunnel.
I was doing a happy dance when you did the balance sequences. Those are designed to balance working tight to the handler versus layering – he was excellent when he was seeing the balance (left and right to follow the line near you with super nice blinds, versus the layering like at :54 and 1:12. Your cues were very strong to get him onto the layering lines and he blasted away with no questions. YAY!!!!
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>I really like your suggestion here of getting comfortable with a sequence before trying blinds. I am going to try and remember to do that.>
Is she in an in-person class or training group? You can ask your instructor or training partners to remind you to throw in a blind here or there after you’ve gotten the sequence the way you want it with a rear or front. Blinds are not required to be able to have a great agility careerā¦ but they sure make things easier LOL!
Her teeter is looking great! She is very close to having a full, finished teeter. YAY!!
>She seemed to like the speed (LOL) and still seemed confident.>
Yes! The only time I thought she was a little unsure was at the very beginning of the first rep – she stopped a little closer to the center of the board to figure out the tip, and then she was a little startled by the big noise when it reset (after she was off it). But that was the only time – she went directly to the end on the other reps and seemed very happy!
She was GREAT about staying in position until released, even when you ran past the end of the board. When you run past, you can also add in a FC so she gets used to seeing that (you were not in the frame when you ran past, so you might have been adding crosses that didnāt get caught by the camera :))
She missed the release verbal a couple of timesā¦ because she was still eating treats LOL!! But otherwise she was really excellent with moving to position and holding it until you released.
For the table: do you have something even lower? Maybe take the legs off the table you used here? And do a session with the super low table.
If notā¦ letās just fade the table out and let her do the full teeter. Warm her up with a couple of reps of the bang game before you run her across the full teeter.
>I did make sure to use the target plate. I feel like the teeter was a little too high so I helped her a bit here and there.>
The target helped! And I agree that it might have been a little too high, so you can lower it a bit so she doesnāt have to pull it down before leaping on.
You can also have the target closer to the end of the board, so it is about 6 inches from the end. We only want to give her enough room for her front feet to step off but still be pretty close to the board. The target was further out here so she was more stretched out from the end of the board, which might not give her enough weight shift at the end of the board to ride it down while being balanced.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>But I wanted to share because I tried a blind cross and I liked it! š³š¤£. >
Awesome! And we have video proof!!!! This is a fun sequence, and it looks like the bars were a little higher too with no problem.
This is actually a perfect spot to do a blind: you had a big send away before it which put you in a great spot with plenty of time. And the blind kept you moving forward to the next line. You had excellent connection too, before and after the blind. Super nice!!!!!!
>I do think it helped that she had already patterned the sequence a little bit. So I trusted her to read the lines.>
This might actually be a good way to get blinds into your repertoire of handling moves: work a sequence with rears or fronts, so you are both comfy with it and maybe she is a bit patterned to it. Then throw in a blind in a spot where it seems to fit – that way neither of you are having to think about the lines because you both know them, and you can think about the execution of the blind.
The other thing I really like is how she is looking for her lines. She is basically getting on a line and staying on it until you ask her to change her line. That is really terrific, especially for a young dog! That is what we need her to do as the courses get bigger and bigger š
Great job here, thank you for sharing it!
Tracy
Hello!
This went really well – she has fantastic commitment! You did *not* over-help š
The goal of the handling is that you can get right behind her as she passes you on the wraps and she continues to wrap while you move past the wing (countermotion). Interestingly, she had no questions with this on the wing after the tunnel, but she did had a little more trouble committing on the wing before the tunnel at the end of each rep.
You can see this at :18 for example, where you were trying to move forward but she was not sure about finishing the wrap. On the other reps on that wing, you waited a bit longer to let her commit which definitely helped. You can also look back & point back at the ālandingā spot (the other side of the wing) as you move forward, that will also help support commitment.
Both of those moments are left turns, so my guess is that the visual of the tunnel was making commitment a little harder but she worked through it really well!
Nice job working through the connection needed to get her to the other side of the tunnel. Trying to point ahead of her to the tunnel (like at :41) didnāt show enough connection to the new line. At :51 you had the connection back to her was she exited the wing, then you pointed ahead to the tunnel so she asked a question there.
Then at 1:08 you had great connection the whole time, and did not point ahead until she was on the right line and passing you. That was perfect!
>Backside circle wrap did my head in when it came to the mirror image but I finally figured it out and weāll have a session tomorrow!>
On that last rep on the other side, you didnāt need to do a blind on the tunnel exit. That sets up more left turns. To get the right turns, you can keep her on your left as she exits then do the circle wraps – you will end up on the outside of the wings rather than on the inside.
On the lap turns – you were definitely getting the hang of facing her. You can step directly back with the leg next to the wing and that will give her more room to get past you (she had a couple of questions about that). On the tandem turns, you can keep your feet going straight rather rotating towards her (your arms will flip her away). And going a little closer to the tunnel exit will make it easier to keep moving – on the reps where you were up by the wing here, she didnāt have a lot of room to get past you. When you were not as far ahead (when you switched sides), it was much smoother.
Great job here!
TracyHi! Both of these sessions are looking super strong!
On the wingingā it with countermotion, great job getting her to commit! Small dogs really watch our feet as a primary cue, and with countermotion it might look like our feet are pointing the āwrongā direction. But you did a lovely job with making your connection visible to her and supporting it with your arms. Things went best when you
maintained connection behind you and let the hand closer to the wing point back to it as you moved forward. That is when she committed really well! When she had a question, it was because you did not look behind you or pointing behind you, like at :22. But compare to the rep right after it at :31 – you used your connection to look back and pointed the arm closer to the wing back to the wing as well, and she had no questions. Super!On the race tracks, no need to use an arm to support the line around the wings – it blocks connection and was causing her to look up at you. Instead, you can just jog (arms bent instead of pointing at the line). You started doing this at the end and that was when her commitment and speed looked strongest!
Excellent session with the tunnel on the 2nd video! It looks like on each rep she knew exactly where to be when eating the wing! Your clear connection made that happen – very nice!!!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>The wing/tunnel discrimination exercise in Max Pup 2 was a disaster with her and muddling through it with the boys was all the energy I had (itās still just not a skill I inherently ENJOY teaching, I like handling!) I guess itās time to revisit.>
Yes, totally time to revisit! It is a necessary evil in todayās course design. Like threadle wraps, I started off kind of hating having to work on this but then it actually got to be fun!
>went āeh, kinda close, but letās seeā because I was too lazy to move 4 wings and a tripod again. First few reps I was definitely blocking her view of the wing. Sorry Beat. >
Yes, the tunnel was on her line when she was coming around to the left and also if you were blocking the wing. It is a good reminder that if there is any chance the handling created the off course, it is best not to mark the unintended obstacle as wrong, not to withhold reinforcement or change body language after an unintended obstacle.
Instead, call her in happily, reset with a cookie or toy, and change something to help her see what line you want. Otherwise it is confusing to read the physical cues correctly and the feedback is that it was not correct. There is always a reason that they go off course, and it is usually because we cue them to go there šš
>Also seemed like turning my shoulder so it was a more definitive throw back send helped too. >
Yes! The decel into the rotation, and the rotated sends looked great! She got it brilliantly as long as you were not blocking the wing š There was a rep at the beginning where you were a little too far off the line on the other side, so it looked like a threadle wrap to her (good girl!)
>Shoulders turned at the tunnel even the tiniest bit sent her there.>
And that is correct š Showing the line to the tunnel should get the tunnel, even when you didnāt want the tunnel LOL! A good example is at 2:33: your line/motion/shoulders were totally cueing her to go into the tunnel. She didnāt go into the tunnel at 2:42 because you changed the handing there (rotated towards her, decel). She did go wide there, because after you did the rotation you opened back up towards the tunnel so she started going towards it.
The good news is that she is really tuning into the handling cues and responding to everything! That will also be the bad news for a little while š because she might go off course very quickly based on what she sees. Keep rewarding her for them so she remains confident about reading the handling. But as you get used to running her and develop the timing needed based on her stride length, the off courses will go away and you will have some impressive distance skills balanced with gorgeous turns, tons of speed, and she will even process verbals! The future is very exciting!!!!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Distance and layering is definitely harder for the small dogs! They have to take so many more strides than a much bigger dog. He was confident working at the big distance to a certain pointā¦ then he starting asking questions.
You did some smart things that helped him:
At :39, you added a bit of convergence towards the tunnel entry, which totally helped.At :54 you moved the jumps in closer and that was the exactly right thing to do, and really helped. You can also move the tunnel in closer and make the entry to it super obvious so the entry I facing him as he is taking off for the jump.
Placement of reward will really help too: rather than rewarding at the exit of the tunnel, you can get the reward out on the line where he is working at his biggest distance away from you. This would be between the jump and the tunnel.
Since he loves that little ball: As he is committing to the jump and heading straight (before he starts to second guess), you can throw the ball out on the line towards the tunnel entry. That will give him a big āYes, you are totally allowed to be out there!ā And he will get more comfortable working miles away š
And bear in mind that latent learning will help here. You did get some big successes especially on that last run – so now let him sleep on it for a few days š It is possible that he will come into the next session knowing it with no questions š That happens with my young dogs a lot, especially the sighthounds LOL!
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>Are you purposely bringing up your threadle, non dog side arm for the NO TUNNEL? Or would you suggest just connection and verbal?>
Do you mean at 1:43, for example, of this game:
If so, then I have my outside hand on my dog-side hip to show the dog exit line connection and make it very very clear where he is supposed to be. The arm used like this in exit line connection is too low and too flat to me to be considered a threadle arm by my dogs, but it is great for opening up very clear connection. And that clear connection helps with the NO TUNNEL moment š If you turn your shoulders or use too much dog-side arm, it will look like a tunnel cue!
Here is an explanation:
Tracy
Hi!
I am doing 2 things to indicate the rear cross to the left:– motion to the center of the bar on the rear cross jump (as compared to the last rep where I did a wrap to the right, so I turned towards the right wrap wing)
– >Are you using any verbals?>
Yes, in this case I am using my left wrap verbal. I don’t think it is audible on the video because it is a very quiet verbal (a tststs noise) and my back is to the camera.
Tracy
Hi! He did really well! And having other people training as well is perfect, because he will learn how to get this behavior even when he is really excited and stimulated.
Jumping on from the side went well! I think the target is a tiny bit far from the end of the board, so he is reaching for it which is pulling him off the board on some of these reps. You can move it so it is about 3 inches from the end of the board, which will help him balance on the board better.
Now to solidify staying in positionā¦ add your motion of slowly (oh so slowly š ) walking past the end of the board while he stays in position. Then throw a reward back to him or run back to give it to him – but if he might one when you are heading back to him, throwing it back to him (with a ‘catch’ marker) will be cleaner and clearer.
Great job here!
Tracy
