[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>I was wondering What cue do you use for the threadle? …and for the tandem turns. >>

My threadle wrap cue is “in in” which is different from my threadle slice cue, which is “close”. Tandem turn verbals will depend on the context, because tandems can be done on the front or back of a jump. On the front side, I will use the directional that matches the turn: left/right, or a wrap verbal. On the backside, I use the threadle wrap verbal because the dog is entering and exiting on the same wing, so there is a lot of collection.

>>. so that she feels good about reading me even when there is an error in my handling causing the issue I am trying to figure out

Yes! And staying in flow even if something goes wrong is great prep for trials, where there might be small bloopers but you will want to keep going.

On the videos:

The first 2 videos were spins (FC/BC combos) and not blinds. You can start those sooner, by decelerating then starting the rotation into the FC part of the spin before she gets to the wing, so the connection is already clear when she exits the wing.

This will be usedul when you do add the blinds (starting on the 2nd rep of video 3 and on video 4): the key to the tight blinds is the quickness of the reconnection, so you can start them sooner so you can reconnect before she exits the wing. Plus, because they are tight turns, a little decel into them will help too!

When you switched sides, the BCs were a little late on the first video (video 5) and at :25, she was not able to pick up the new side. Good reward! Your timing got better and better after that: earlier n the 3rd rep of video 5, even better on the video 6 especially at :48 – that was my favorite timing! You started the blind well before she got to the wing so the reconnection was earlier and that produced the best turn. YAY!!!! Your motion supports commitment to the wing on those blinds, so you can totally start early like that,

All of your connections on the exits of the FCs and spins after the 2nd wing looked lovely, so she found those lines really well on all the videos. Super!!!

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>Goodness girl, flyball AND feedback in one weekend?! Hope you get some rest!>

Ha! Yes, turns out having 4 dogs running in flyball and a 5th dog in a warm up position makes for a very busy weekend LOL!

This is a really useful session!!! We can see the difference between handling the dog, and handling the obstacles. This will really help his jumping when bars are in – if you handle the dog, he can focus on his jumping and keep the bars up. If you handle the obstacles, he has to split that focus: part of his brain has to figure out what you are cuing with less info available, which leaves less bandwidth for the jumping mechanics. Here is what I mean by that:

When he was exiting the tunnel, you were handling the obstacle (the wing) but looking ahead at it and doing the handling when you were close to it (not necessarily when he was ready to see it). Instead, you can look at him more as he exits the tunnel, with your dog-side arm back to him so he can clearly see the connection (it is a commitment cue). That will also give you the timing of the decel, verbal and rotation for the cues, so he can get the mechanics organized in time to jump 🙂 You can see that you were looking ahead at the wing at :11, :18, :25 when he was on your right and :33, :41 (he didn’t go to the wing), :49, :56, 1:05 when he was on your left.

Now, compare to your connection to him as he exited the wing on the FC exits and the spin exits: that was perfect handling of the dog each and every time, so he knew exactly where to be each time. You were connected to him and gave very clear cues about which side of the tunnel to go to. Nailed it!!!

Let me know if that makes sense! His commitment is looking really strong so now we can focus in on the timing and turn cues being more connected.

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Yes, this is a hard game for him, he is not a fan of the height. A couple of things to know before we make a plan:

– at least 3 of the Pizza 1.0s were afraid of the teeter at this stage as well (maybe more, I didn’t follow what was going on with the other 2 that do agility and #6 only does flyball). It is possible that some of the 2.0s are also having a struggle. So there is a genetic component that we will be training around. They all turned out to have amazing teeters, just needed some patience 🙂 and no pressure!

– I have a lot of experience training through teeter concerns: you might not know that my Export was the most terrified-of-the-teeter dog that I have ever seen. He would literally flee the area if he even saw a teeter. His teeter turned out GREAT and I learned a whole lot about how to train teeters with dogs who are concerned – so trust the process we have developed and he will learn to love love love it like Export did, as well as siblings Elektra, Stark, and Amore.

>>. I assume we don’t want them to think they can bail off the side?>>

This is not a concern – if the dog is worried for whatever reason, they are welcome to bail. I would rather have the dog understand how to get off an obstacle that feels unsafe than pressure them to stay on it. So – no pressure to stay on it and in fact one of the goals is to get him off it before he even wants to get off it.

>>2. Having them turnaround and go the other way – isn’t that teaching them something we don’t want them to do if they start to get worried while it tips?>>

You are thinking too far ahead on this 🙂 By the time we add tip, the dogs love driving to the end. If the dog is worried and needs to get off? Then by all means, they can jump off. That also tells us that we are pressuring the dog way too much and they are not ready for the tip. Our goal is confidence! And don’t let anyone pressure you into putting criteria on it until you have confidence. And turning around on a plank also teaches a lot of body awareness, so I teach it on the teeter and dog walk (along with how to safely jump off).

>>3. Is it bad to lure and to lure by putting the treats on the board? I found this worked and he needed less as he progressed.>>

TOTALLY not a bad thing! The way to use the food here (especially because he doesn’t totally love food) is to do incredibly short sessions (like 1 rep then be finished) with a big chunk of the highest value food (like cream cheese or rotisserie chicken).

When training mountain climbers, I put the massive food reward on the board and do exactly one rep if the dog has shown any concern at all. *** THIS WILL BE HARD FOR YOU TO LIMIT TO ONE REP BUT IT IS CRITICAL *** (yes I am yelling hahaha). The goal is to make it so freaking exciting that he wants to run on the teeter more than anything! I remember with Elektra, I would traipse out to the teeter in my pajamas with her entire breakfast of raw meat: do one rep of mountain climbing and she would get her whole meal on the board. One rep!

>>4. Would it be better to start with a lower teeter based on how hard this is for him?>>

You can totally lower it to half height but all of the other things apply – one rep of incredibly high value food and no pressure.

>>I used tugging in between sessions as a method to decompress.>

That was great! And you can use a tug toy for the other games involving the teeter (it is really hard to use on the mountain climbers but you can totally use it between reps!

>> I didn’t get him quite to the end but I did use a “jackpot” cream cheese when he got close enough.>>

Rather than do multiple treats and then the cream cheese: just use the one single chunk of cream cheese then be finished with the session until the next day. Eventually the massive reward will be at the end of the board but it does not need to start there.

And remember that we are not concerned with an end position yet (and it will ultimately be a 4on because he is too small for a fast 2o2o).

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>but I have nothing when I get to class so I took him to the building to work stays

The class situation is a lot more challenging, so you can work much simpler stays. Go back to super short stays that get tons of reinforcement and he will begin to transfer his understanding to the class setting.

Be really certain that the motion and the release word are separate – the release was coming right after the motion here, so it is entirely possible that he thinks the release is the motion (and not the verbal). So either be moving the whole time (rather than release as soon as you move) or lead out, and still, release, he moves, then you move.

Looking at the videos: his commitment looked strong for sure! So we can look at timing.
Video 1:
Good timing and connection on the blind (right turn) so he had a good turn there. On this video and the next ones as well, do the blind earlier enough to get the good turn and give you time to decelerate into the wrap for the next jump to tight that up.

Video 2: This was the left turn blind: The blind cues here started after he took off so he couldn’t get the side change (good reward there!)

Video 3:
On this one, the blind started at takeoff (he was lifting off when you started it) so he could not turn until after landing and was wide. So I don’t think it was a turning issue for him, it was more of a timing issue – to turn tight, he needs to see the blind cross info a lot sooner.

Ideally, when he lands from the jump after the tunnel , you cue the middle jump and start the blind so you are finished before he has to make a takeoff decision.

>>Also something I noticed when I use a verbal he talks back to me almost every time >>

Sometimes dogs vocalize when things are exciting, and sometimes they vocalize when they are frustrated. There were not that many vocalizations on these videos, but we did hear some when the timing was late or you were disconnected.

>> there have been times that if I ask for a dig, dig or check, check he will spin in front of the jump and bark if I am to early with the verbal.>>

That is probably a frustration bark. Do you have video? My guess is that is doesn’t have anything to do with the verbal, but it is more like there is a disconnection or you didn’t transition into the turn by decelerating before you rotate. Post video if you have it and we can figure it out 🙂

Nice work here!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

These went well! Turning away like this is NOT a natural behavior for the dogs (they like to turn towards us 😁 ) but she was great!

>I’m guessing you’ll tell me to keep my hands and arms much lower.>>

There were maybe a couple of spots where your hands were a little high, like at the beginning of video 1 and a couple of times when she was on your left… but the vast majority of the reps had low hands and clear connection! Yay!

Tandems video 1 – things started off well but I think it was harder when you were moving with her. It really helped when you added the stay after :59 – that looked great!!! And it all looked definitely better when your hands are lower – think of it as showing her your hands but look back and letting her see them. The backside balance reps went well, and I loved your connection when you were adding the speed from the tunnel – it was a great camera angle and your cues were really clear.

>>I blame it on lack of sleep working two 14+ hour nights in a row…>>

Yikes! Those are long nights!!! Yes, your brain was probably tired. But these looked good, your brain was probably also too tired to tell you that it was going well! You didn’t look discombobulated. 🙂

Getting closer to the wing helped on the 2nd video and you were really strong with connection and low hands. And you easily showed her the difference between the threadle wrap and the backside pushes. Yay!!!! She did give a couple of her “what the heck is this?” looks like she sometimes does when she learns new handling, but then on the next session she is always fast and happy with it LOL!

So since these are going so well… time to choose a verbal! I scrolled up but I don’t think we talked about it yet: for the tandem turns, the verbal will depend on if it is the front side of the jump and she turns away (that can be the left/right or wrap directional) or if it is the backside of the jump. A tandem turn can be used on the front or back of the jump.

If it being used on the backside of a jump, then it is a threadle wrap so uses the same verbal. My threadle wrap verbal is “in in in” which is different from my threadle slice verbal (which is ‘close’).

When the verbal gets added, we will then work on getting her to be really independent turning herself away on the threadle wraps, so you won’t have to help as much with arm cues.

You did well with the tight blinds! Tight blinds are weird because we have to turn away from the dog while decelerating, and our feet want to turn towards the dog in that moment! You did well and your connection was really strong throughout, so she could read it easily. You only had one uncle connection moment, at 1:32, so she ended up on the other side of you and went to the tunnel. Compare to 2:15 where you were super clear and she nailed it 🙂

>>I mean she clearly had no energy but she still gave me some effort while I struggled through trying to figure out my right and left>>

Interestingly, she was not into it at the beginning but got faster and faster towards the end. Maybe the horses were cheering her on? LOL!!! But getting faster even when she did not have a ton of energy means she was finding it easy to read and motivating to do. Super!!!! And taking little breaks probably helped too. That was good to her you figure it out – either you had it figured out and there were no bloopers, or you were fantastic about continuing when there was a small blooper LOL!!

Great job here!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! I am glad the 5.5 distance went well!!

>> I noticed that Mason is starting to go into a crouching vulture position as I lead out. Back when my 15 yr old was a young dog, some trainers thought this was very bad, but others didn’t seem concerned about it. What is your opinion? Should I try to get Mason to sit straight up in front of a jump or not worry about it?>>

It is *not* very bad, and while ideally he would sit up straighter…. it is probably not even something he realizes he is doing so it is SUPER important not to add pressure by trying to get him to sit up straight. I see a ton of people doing that, it stresses the dog out, and then dog ends up crouching again. So – if he starts to lean more than we want on the start line, we can go to a stand-stay or a down-stay, both of which might be a better choice than the sit stay for him.

We will see how it develops!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
This went well!!! It is indeed a really hard game. She had a little trouble differentiating the tunnel versus wrap on the first rep when you switched to the different one. You can use physical cues more as you start this game to help her differentiate more easily:
Hold her collar and start the verbals like you did, so she hears them a few times before either of you move. Then let go and you can move to help her get it right. That order of festivities will still help her learn the verbals because the new cue (verbal) comes before the old cue (physical cue) – so she will begin to anticipate the physical cue and respond to the verbal.

When you had motion on the mini sequences, she was great! You can add the sequence where you cue the tunnel, cue the tunnel again (wheeeeeee!) then cue the wrap – that might definitely need a physical cue to help.

Great job!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Bummer that it is cold again! But at least there is no snow!

>>Started at 3ft and then tried about 3.5ft>>

I think 3 feet was slightly better for now – but it might look different when the toy is on the ground and dragging before the release. If her chosen toy is a bit short to drag, you can tie it to a longer toy perhaps to get it dragging. That should get her looking at it before the release, which will help with organization on the step in to the first bump. She was looking at something so was not quite as organized for liftoff.

I think you can also add the bigger bump on jump 2 now!

>>Had some feelings about lining up. I’ve been using the treat to help with the toy release and using it to get her lined up and then giving it to her and asking for the sit after the treat.>>

It looked like there was no treat here? Hard see exactly – but there is also a lot of pressure with having to line up so to close to you and the jumps, so you can reward by throwing the toy way behind her, so part of the reward is also the release of pressure 🙂

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! I am glad to hear the new turf is nice!!!!!!

The sessions looked good here!

Good job with the tunnel warm up to get her seeing it!

Really timing on the right & left verbals and nice contrast between the tunnel verbal! As she develops more commitment, my guess is that you are going to need them to be a stride sooner. You can add that earlier timing of the verbal and support with the physical cue for now.

She had a question on the wing wrap after the GO on the tunnel exit: that wing is hard to see (big distance for a little dog!). A bit more connection was needed at 1:44 like you mentioned: you were looking ahead and were converging in towards the wing then rotated too soon – in those moments, you can do a “I meant to do that!” And run back to the tunnel instead of stopping and rewarding. In moments where the objects indicate running (tunnels, wings, being in the agility ring, etc), I think it frustrates her when there is a stop. So the reward that come after a handler error can be continuing even if you have to freestyle a bit LOL
At 2:07 you had much clearer connection but the convergence towards the wing caused her to move to her right – another place to keep running 🙂
At 2:44 (last rep) there was less convergence (a little bit at the last moment) so she was better able to lock onto the wing and you delayed the FC until you knew for certain that she was going to the wing – super nice!!!

Part of what was happening was that the tunnel-to-wing was in an entirely different context of shooting straight out of the tunnel then finding a wing. I bet she sleeps on it and knows it the next time you try it.

Wind in your hair looked great! Nice! She is recognizing the cues and driving ahead REALLY well. Yes, you can throw the reward sooner but I am really excited to see how well she is looking ahead even as you added real running. You can do 2 things now with this game (It is easy and fun so I like to revisit it for different things):

– you can start really close to the wing and stay there til the wrap is done, to get her driving ahead of you to the jump. Throw the reward super early on this on, or have it placed about 8 to 10 feet past the jump.

– send to the wing from as far away as you can so you are miles ahead of as she exits the wrap and is finding the jump. It is actually pretty challenging for the dogs to find the jump with all of that motion happening in front of them!

Great job here!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

It is great to hear that Teagan had such a successful day at the trial! How fun!!!

Both of these videos looked really strong:

He did well with the toy lowering to the ground! He had a question on the first rep but then had a bunch of great reps in a row!

When you started moving it, be careful to not move the toy at the same time as the release because then the movement will become the release. There were 2 reps where this happened. On the reps where you released him then moved the toy, the release was very clear. You can also start moving the toy for a couple of feet then release him – that might be a little harder 😁

He looks ready for the next step, where you play this game with the jump bump between you and him. It can be just a jump bump if you are indoors, and if can have jump wings on it if you have more room outdoors.

Let me know how that goes and then we can move him to the next steps. Great job!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>And, I am sticking to the 2 error rule—there’s no leeway with this little monkey!>>

This 2 failure rule has made things much easier in training – far fewer challenges as we train and far more successes 😁 Keep me posted!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>Sorry for all these notes!

No apologies needed, I think notes are great!

>>We didn’t attempt backsides since we don’t know those yet.

You can take out the bar and treat it like a wing wrap where you want him to go to the outside the wing: BIG connection and motion towards it will get him there.

Looking at the reps here, your lines and motion were all good! So why did he have questions on the bars? Because you were looking at the obstacles, and not at his cute face. So he as behind you trying to see the info without connection, so he read the lines but took down bars.

The RC was the most connected sequence and he did turn the correct way! Super!! You can drive the line to the center of the RC bar even sooner, and as soon as he is getting close to takeoff, you can turn and move the new direction.

>>– What do you think is up with his jumping on that last rep (second jump going the other direction)? Youngster carelessness? >>

I think what was happening here was that there was a lot of motion and speed but not enough connection, so he struggled with processing the motion and processing his jumping mechanics. So, no need to go as fast, but you can ramp up the connection and that will smooth things out nicely.

>>I included his favorite reward at the end, just for fun.

OMG! It is so cool that you have the swimming right there! I wonder if he was heading for a swim swim in the previous video – adorable!!!!

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

This went really well! It is a super hard game and he was very smooth, nailing just about all of the reps. The sequence you did at 1:37 – 1:45 was great!! And so were the race tracks in both directions.

He only had 2 questions, in the same spots: On her 2nd rep and at 1:10, he pinged away to the wing closer to the camera. It was hard to see why: possibly your position was blocking the wing, or there was something out there that was catching his eye? He was pretty sure of himself on those reps LOL!

His other question was at :51 and 1:20 – as you exited the FC, there was no connection so it looked like a pin and he was correct to go to the your left side. Reward that! He only saw your back so he had to take a guess and he was not wrong.
Compare to 1:27 when you made connection and he got it 🙂

Great job 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

The wing-tunnel proofing looked great! Very clean starts to each rep and he nailed it! The mini sequences were no problem. Super! You can add in 2 more challenges to this:

– do a mini sequence of tunnel then the tunnel again then the wing wrap. This will get a little bit of layering started and also get him really pumped up: can he still get the wing wrap?

– after the tunnel, you can meet him at the tunnel exit and move forward as you are cuing the wrap: can he drive ahead to it and wrap, even with forward motion?

On the 2nd video:
– The two set point reps looked good. I think the distance is a little wide *for now* so shorten it up by maybe 6 inches, and I am sure we will expand it again as he grows. He was a rockstar with his stay and focusing on his toy!!

– The pill bug games are going well! You did a lot of inside turns, where he is between you and the tunnel. Those went well, but it is hard to add speed to those. You can stick with having him on the outside of you so you can run more while staying connected. The blinds looked great!!

Tunnel exits: super nice line ups, and lovely connection on the exit of the wraps!!

At :54 he saw the acceleration for the exit. The GO can come sooner but the most important element is your connection on the tunnel exit: point at his eyes and look at his eyes, to turn your shoulders to the line. At :55 you were pointing forward and looking forward, which rotated your shoulders away from the line. It is super important that you reward him anyway, even if the sequence does not to according to your plan: he read your physical cues perfectly, and “go” just means “go straight on the line I am showing”. He was correct and it will be confusing and stressful if you withhold reward. Bringing it back to fix it does not help with what caused the error (handler disconnection) so it is better to reward him and then look at the video if you don’t know why he didn’t go to the wing.

You were pointing ahead at 1:09 as well, so he looked at you but you were further ahead so he did find the wing. Looking at him more will help him drive forward without looking out you, especially when you are not that far ahead.

Nice shoulder turn at 1:18 and 1:29 and 1:37 for the left turn! Be sure to add the verbal coming before he gets into the tunnel (he won’t hear it that well if he is in the tunnel). The right turns looked good too – he is reading the lack of motion to help with the turns, which is fine for now – adding the verbal sooner (about 6 feet before he enters the tunnel) will help for when you are running harder into the sequences.

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>the weight shift has been THE big focus.>>

Yes – the last minute, super confident weight shift at the top of the board is key! The tip it device actually does get the weight shift, but there are also 10,000 different teeter games to play that get it too 😁

>>I can post some work on the real teeter tomorrow>>

Yes please! I love teeter training!

>>Right now it is a 2 on 2 off but it may end up as a 4 on.>>

How much does he weight? I am 99.99% sure he should be doing a 4on at the end of the board because he is too light to do a fast 2o2o. To do a 2o2o, he will have to slow down a whole lot, and even then he might get tipped off a board if it has a lot of bounce to it. About weights: usually 18 lbs is the lightest the dog should be to have a great 2o2o position. My Export was 19 lbs in his prime and his 2o2o was great. Hot Sauce is about 20 lbs with a 2o2o. Elektra is about 13.5 lbs right now and she does a 4on (13.5 lbs is just too light to push down on the board if it bounces up under her, and it will bounce up under her). I believe Pesto is even lighter than Elektra! So he will definitely be 4on. And you should start that criteria right away to get weight shift at the end of the board (there are also 10,000 ways to train it 🤣😂😁)

He was a good boy with the Cato plank! Nice and confident! And this was a terrific session for working on holding position until released.

Seeing the 2o2o position here: I vote for a 4on ( have given myself a vote LOL!!!) and that criteria needs a head position as well. Structurally,2o2o is uncomfortable with his whippety length of forelimb and the high head position. He is stopping, then stepping into position (weight forward when he does that, a good example of that is at :18), then shifting back a bit. It inverts his spine right behind the shoulders and it is not the weight shift we want (I will get photos of what we are looking for). So ultimately, we can get him to do the 2o2o on the real teeter but it will be slow. The Cato plank is deceptive because it doesn’t have the weight or whip of a real teeter.

Let me know what you think and I can give you lots of ways to get a great, fast, 4o on the board 🙂

The straight lines 4-ways went well!
Go reps: I think you will find it easier to throw the toy is you run up the line, rather than send or walk (the game is about handler motion, so definitely run run run!). You can throw sooner or even place the reward out ahead. The more motion you had, the better he read it. Yes, he could do it if you stood still and threw the toy early but we want him to see the difference in motion cues, not just verbals.

Wraps looked really strong! You had excellent wrap timing of the verbal on these reps! You can run more here too – run up the line until he is over the jump after the tunnel, then you can show the transition into decel when he is landing from the jump. As you start the verbal, try to be quieter – that will help get the turn too (loud verbals tend to propel the dogs away in extension).

Looking at the RCs: – correct, no physical cue on the first one, all he got was the verbal a bit late but the physical cues said to turn towards you. When there is a handler error, the two option are to either reward or keep going: he did exactly what your body told him to do and the swing verbal is too new to override that. Plus, if there are conflicting indicators (body says one thing, voice says another) he should be paid for his efforts to sort it out. His reward should not be contingent on whether it goes according to your plan or if you get it right. There is a 99% chance he is reading the physical cue correctly, so reward him then watch the video immediately to see what happened.

The other RC reps had much better info and he read the RCs really well! Yay! You can accelerate up the line more on all of them, as long as you are on the RC line (to the center of the bar) and not pushing him off the line (he will end up on the backside if you turn your feet too early.

Also, because he is moving so fast: Don’t praise him unless you are going to reward. Keep delivering the info so he can fly to the next line 🙂

Great job here!!!
Tracy

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