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  • in reply to: Holly and JJ #61457
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning!

    >>Again I wish i had instant replay in my head so that I could work on these things immediately. >>

    So true!!!! That is why I stop and look at the video a lot during each session – I learned to do this from flyball training, where the dogs are doing things in the hundredth of a second, nearly impossible to see with the naked eye: so I watch each rep on video right after I do it. And doing that in agility is a complete game changer! We agility folks have a habit of training then looking at the video hours (days?) later which diminishes the value of the ue of video in the moment.

    And by reviewing the video in the moment, I am training my eye for each dog, so I do begin to develop that instant replay in my head and then I don’t need to watch the video as much.

    Is reviewing video after each rep a total pain? Yes. But is it incredibly valuable? HECK YEAH! 😁

    The first clip went well, she did really well with finding the correct side of the wing! You didn’t have a lot of connection, so looking at her more will help rehearse what the cue will need when she exits the tunnel so she knows the difference between the threadle wrap and the push to the other side of the wing.

    As she sees more of these, you can start to eliminate using your hands to turn her back to the wing: as you walk past, keep the cue going and see if she can turn herself back to the wing. That is ideally what we want her to do, otherwise we humans have to time the come in AND go out elements of the cue – it is much easier if the dogs do it automatically.

    Clip 2: When adding the tunnel on this clip and the others with the tunnel, be sure to call her before she goes in – that way she comes out in handler focus and not focusing on the line to the other side of the wing. You were calling after she was in the tunnel.

    As you mentioned, you can add more connection to your threadle cue – think of it as turning back slightly to her and showing her both of your low hands. The low hands really help and a touch more connection will really make it smooooooth!!!

    Clip 3 – on this clip you were giving a bit less hand cue and that was great! Keep dialing up the connection and giving less of a cue to flip back to the wing so it becomes more automatic.

    It is definitely time to add the threadle wrap verbal.
    The verbal cue will help with this because it will help her anticipate what is going to happen so she will not need the handling cues as much. Her name can mean a lot of different things, so it is not as helpful as the threadle wrap verbal.

    Clip 4 and clip 5 –
    >>I still need to keep moving on so many of these clips. >

    You might notice that she was getting wider as you added more motion – actually, you can add a little decel! There is an element of decel on this cue as there is with every type of wrap – you can decel while cuing the behavior, then as soon as she turns her head to the wing, you can move fast to the next line. Moving fast past the wing plus not using a specific verbal and with the hand cues a bit late drew her wide – she didn’t know if it was the wrap or a bypass so she had to wait for the hand cues.

    That bit of decel til she turns her head away to the wing will tighten up the wraps on clip 6 and 7. You are decelerating to let her get past you for the push to the circle wraps, and those are nice and tight (also on video 8!)

    Video 8 – had a little blooper at :35, where the cue was not clear so she was correct to go to the backside (when in doubt, commitment to an obstacle is a good thing). That is a good place to remember to look back more and show her your hands, and I think the threadle wrap verbal all help smooth that out too.

    Nice work! Fingers crossed for no more rain 🙂

    Tracy

    in reply to: Dixie and Seren #61456
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi!
    Hooray for hubby taking great care of the agility field! It looks lovely. The sound is no problem at all!

    The first rear cross went really well! You can get on the RC line even sooner, no need to wait for him to pass you while you are still facing straight (:16) as he is taking off for the jump before the RC jump, you can already have your feet pointing to the center of the bar of the RC jump and be moving on that line. That will give him the info sooner without any conflicting info about physical cues saying ‘go straight’ and verbal cues saying ‘turn away’.

    It was that conflicting indicator that caused him to turn left at :43. You ran straight until he took off, so he was correct to turn left. He turned right as soon as he saw/heard the cue, which was after landing.

    >>I am in trouble as it does not look like a rewarded him after the first try. >

    Yes – lack of reinforcement and turning and walking away from him there is actually a punishment for him reading the cues correctly. That is confusing to the dog and can be stressful! The dogs start using questions and slowing down. So before each run, remind yourself that he will be rewarded even if it does not go according to your plan. And after a reward, watch the video so you can see what happened before doing the next rep.

    The last rep was earlier info and that really helped!

    To help him differentiate the rear crosses from the straight lines, you can get moving to the center of the bar no later than when he lands from the jump before the RC jump, and keep moving forward until he has passed you and he is approaching takeoff for the RC jump.

    On these reps and on the next videos, you were running straight til just before takeoff and then cutting in for the RC, which is a little late – so on the 2nd video at :12, he was able to get it but at :13 on the last video, it looked like a FC on the flat so he was confused (nice reward there!) And also good rewarding at :16 on the 2nd video – you never said tunnel and when he landed from the jump you had turned and were facing away from the tunnel entry, so he was correct there.

    On the other reps like on the 3rd video, he had figured out that the game was to turn right 🙂 so he was getting it even with info coming right before takeoff (like at :31). This can dilute the FC wraps, because we want him to not think that last minute pressure is a RC. So you can get on the RC line earlier and also mix in from FC wraps to keep the cues looking very different.

    Great job getting the BC in before the tunnel! That is hard coming from the rear cross! Your arms were nice and low, which really helps him see the connection on the new side. Yay!

    Nice work here 🙂

    Tracy

    in reply to: Jackpot and Mary #61454
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning!

    Wow, the pillbug game looked AWESOME! You were connected and fast and exciting… and he was perfection. He was fast but also turning really well, and didn’t get overaroused or jump up (many dogs struggle with arousal in this game). And he went from food to toys beautifully. Great job!!!!

    The footing looked good! Hopefully your knee agrees with that assessment. And you can add in the next steps.

    About the tunnel exits:

    >>He was 100% solid on this. The instant he was in neutral (lined up centered between my legs in front of tunnel entry), he didn’t know which way to turn at the exit.>>

    Don’t add this yet on the tunnel – we teach this first on wings/jumps next week! The tunnel is a harder obstacle to learn this on, so we will add it later, which will take out the errors and any frustration.

    For the tunnel exit game, it is more about your handling and timing: can you say the directional and show the handling before he goes in? And his response will tell you if it was clear or not.

    >>But if we want a true verbal, and he only understands left or right based on his position relative to me, then I think I need to do additional work to better prepare him for cued directional tunnel exits that aren’t reliant on which side he’s on relative to me>>

    We totally do want a true verbal… but that takes time 🙂 So you can still use handling & verbals for the tunnel game (because that will also help teach the verbals) while we work the verbals separately as well.

    >>especially prevent frustration, which he feels in a big way if things aren’t always smooth (like he does with any situation that doesn’t suit him).>>

    Since he is an adolescent, his brain is still developing and he might not have the brain development yet at 7 months old to regulate arousal and frustration. So it is important to not dive into any frustrating sessions – I have a 2-failure rule: if the dog fails twice (either in a row, or in the entire session) then what I am doing is way too hard and I need to make it easier (especially for adolescent dogs).

    We will very gradually build up the independent verbals but it takes months, so stay tuned for the process coming on Wednesday!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Taq to be continued! #61453
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning!

    >>But her outgoing brother was less outgoing today at an agility trial. So we may be in a stage.>>

    It is great to be able to follow littermates! Yes, thanks to the neuroscientist behaviorist veterinarian who educates us on how to stay sane with adolescent dogs 🤣😂😁, it is entirely possible that she is having a period of brain development that does not lend itself to confidently running through tunnels, for whatever reason. The executive function required to tell the amygdala to be quiet and calm down is simply underdeveloped in our adolescent dogs, and it takes them 3x longer to bounce back to baseline than adult dogs. So much great science that tells us about brain development! And keeps me calm whenever my teenage dog does something weird.

    The science tells us to just do something else for a few days and try again at some other time, because the teenage brain is different every single day. That is NOT easy for us humans but works really well for the dogs 🙂

    The good news about the set point is that I have to watch it in slow motion now to see what she is doing 🙂 Her mechanics are coming along nicely! The reason we spend soooo much time on the framework before worrying about form is because form is easy when the framework is in place. I think she did well here!

    >> She was ok setting close to the bar with no cookies but a few times she was watching me more than the moving toy.>>

    I think on those reps she was in cookie-mode, looking up at you a bit more. If you are using a cookie for a set up, you can use a dragging food toy as the reward target. That way you get rehearsal of the mechanics we want and we can work on food & toys in the same session separately, when mechanics are not the main focus.

    >>She seems o real less e gaged with toys and more interested in food. We are transitioning to eating with all the dogs so she is eating less. Also she is more integrated into the house so less alone time.>>

    It is normal to see motivator values swing bak and forth between food and toys a bit. Plus there are pretty big life changes happening too, meaning she might have a bit of life stress that is showing up in training. It doesn’t mean it is a bad thing… stress from changes can produce this. And if she is eating less at meals, I can see why she would be more interested in food in general. So keep going with easier stuff for a few more days until the life changes are in place (I like 3 day buffers) and then you can do hard stuff.

    Nice work here!!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Jen and Mason #61452
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning!

    >>
    Editing the whole week of videos on one day seems to work well for me >>

    Great! Editing can be a pain, I am glad this is working for you!

    >>he’s probably still getting the target at about the same distance as before or maybe even sooner.>>

    Correct – but the target is moving so he is not decelerating to get to it, he is staying in motion because he will be moving to get it. So it is working well for our purposes and will be even easier when his stay is stronger.

    >>Switching to the toy did help with the upward hop though. >>

    That is one of the reasons we move to the moving target 🙂

    Rep 2 & 3appears to be the sweet spot for his set ups position but ticked 2nd bump on those – so keep him in that set up spot and shorten the distance between the 2 jumps by 6 inches and let’s see if that helps. I am guessing that he will be a 6 foot distance when he is adult, but now let’s look at 5.5 and see how he goes. And if he still ticks the 2nd bump, you can shorten to 5 feet and see what he does. We will continue to noodle around with distances as he develops physically into an adult.

    >>In this session it happened to be when the toy was in my left hand, but I don’t know if that was a coincidence.>>

    Excellent observation!!! We will watch to see if this is a pattern or not. Could be coincidence or could be he has a harder time on your left.

    Pillbug game:

    >>Even with the toy on the ground I edited out a bunch of reps with him jumping up and us crashing into each other.>>

    Leave those in, so maybe I can see what was causing it: too much motion? Lack of connection? Timing? The video will reveal all 🙂

    The toy on the ground worked nicely here! And U agree, a TON of potential! He is crazy fast and probably needed to figure out that it was a game where he didn’t need to use all his speed. Your connection was good on these reps too, and his impulse control was great with the toy on the ground! And your reps were short here, which is great because this is a hard game to do long reps on in the beginning stages as he learns it.

    So if you still have some bloopers, feel free to post them so we can see the difference and figure out why it was happening.

    >>Do we want our arms moving like we are running or do we want our hand out to the side? At the end I did some walking/slow jogging with my hands on my hips and then my arms moving to try to get some of the focus off of my hands.>>

    I generally run for my life on these with my arms moving like running. A hand out to the side, pointing at the dog’s nose, is fine too. Both of these are secondary to connection, though, because the connection will make or break it 🙂

    >>I picked out the best reps from each sequence to include here, so it looks like we had a lot more success than we did in the actual sessions>>

    Leave in the bloopers – they are great info from the dog so we can compare when he doesn’t get it to when he does get it, and smooth out the info delivery. There was only one example of cutting in front of the wing (see below) so definitely add in more bloopers along with the highlights 🙂

    Good timing of the left verbal at :15 and :48 and 1:11! Nice!!
    The Right verbals were a little late at :26 and definitely late at :38 (he was in the tunnel) especially because the physical cue was accelerating forward. That will get easier when he is finding the left wrap on the wing more easily.

    SaySay cue is for the left turns, yes? I think the left turns might be harder for him in general so he needs more connection (like at :40) and line support. The right turns seem much easier.

    He got the wings on the left soft turn (:49 – :52) but your arm was high & a little forward and there was a bit of disconnection.
    Compare to the increased connection at :59 and 1:22 on the right turns and he had NO questions 🙂 And connection was strong on the left turns at 1:13 approx and he also found that line easily.

    >>That’s why he ends up so far away from the wings at times.>>

    Don’t worry about that – that will ultimately be the fastest line when we add bars in 🙂

    The ‘Go’ was late at :53 and 1:16 (he was in the tunnel) plus that wing is far away with you behind him plus it is a left turn… hard! So to help smooth that out, you need to be a little further ahead when he exits the tunnel to make connection and show the line to the wing (you can move the wing closer too). To be able to get to the tunnel exit before him, you can send to the wing before the tunnel and the tunnel from further way, hanging back a bit – that might look like you being approximately parallel to the middle of the tunnel when you send him to it, which should put you easily ahead of him for the exit.

    Great job here!!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Brandy & Katniss 🏹🔥 #61451
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning!
    She is doing well with the set point! 3 small details about the setup:
    – she can be a little further away for her start point than most of her reps. I think where she was at :55 was the sweet spot, giving her enough room in front of the first bump that she could lift off without tapping it.
    – when using a stationary target and stationary handler 🙂 you should be right out at the target, parallel to it, so she doesn’t have to sort out driving past a stationary position. That can dilute standing still as a potential turn cue, so you will want to be right next to the target and parallel to it.
    – the MM can be another 6 feet away, so she is not decelerating over jump 2 to get to it.

    Since she has proven she has a great stay 😁 you can move to the moving target version of this posted in week 2!

    The smiley face went well! Good job on putting the sequences together!!

    >>The biggest issue we had was me not giving her the right amount of connection at points

    Yes, that is the universal issue for all of us in agility LOL!!! That also means you have officially entered the “Assume It Was Handler Error And Reward Or Continue” Era. No stopping without a reward (and definitely don’t mark the moment as a dog error) and it is actually better to just keep going if possible. The reasoning behind this is that the dog either did exactly what the handling told them to do and were therefore not wrong, or they didn’t have enough info and had to take a guess.

    For some of the reps, like at :04, the connection was turning forward and looked like a blind, so she was correct to consider coming to the other side (definitely rewardable!) Compare to :36, where your connection was super clear and she found the barrel really well.

    Some of the reps (:22, 1:14, 1:31) had a bit too much lateral distance from the barrel on the wrap at this point and not enough connection so she didn’t get it. But when you gave more connection and a clearer step to the wing (1:27, for example, and the other successful moments) she got it really well! So because she is young, remember to really amplify the connection and step to the wing.

    Soft turns also looking good! Excellent connection on those moments! You used “out” on the first one and then switch to left later on… I think this is more of a left/right context, than out, depending on what ‘out’ means specifically.

    Wow, the big sequence at the end had all the elements! Connection, verbals, timing, and some fancy handling! Super!!!!

    Well done!!!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Brandy & Katniss 🏹🔥 #61450
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi!
    It is hard helping dogs relax while their housemate is doing something fun! Is there a way they can go to separate classes, so Katniss is not stressed when Nox comes out of the crate? Can she safely stay in the car? And a MM in the crate or xpen is a possibility (tape the lid down so he doesn’t open it by herself LOL), or a stuffed kong or bully stick. The main goal is to bring her into those environments and through adolescence without building in stress or frustration or high levels of pressure.

    Tracy

    in reply to: Chaia & Lu #61434
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    I sure did miss it, sorry!

    Yes, tandem turn is dog and handler moving the same direction, then they turn the same direction (dog turns away) and go back the way they came.

    Lap turns have the handler facing the dog and not moving much.

    T

    in reply to: Chaia & Lu #61432
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi!

    >Please keep reminding me if you see it. I’ve been trying to catch myself doing it and instead following through with the tunnel sends but obviously I’m missing it a lot.>>

    Challenge accepted LOL!! And you can rehearse the post turn by slowing yourself down (I know that is your favorite thing to do 🤣😂🤣) and practicing stepping towards the tunnel and not rotating away from it.

    >>This is one thing I don’t do during the session but need to start adding. I review after during editing and catch it then :-/

    That is an agility thing: we video and then at 10 o’clock that night, we sit down to edit it and see that the errors were ours, not the dogs. That was a HUGE learning moment for me when I was getting frustrated with my youngster (now 11 years old) Voodoo for not turning tight… until I watched the Voodoo and his turns were incredible. Oops, bad me!

    So I have adopted a flyball style of video review: in the moment, each rep, unless I am 10000% sure of what happened. Plus, it has really trained my eye to know what the dog is doing in terms of movement and commitment, which also helps!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Dixie and Seren #61431
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi!
    The playlist worked like a charm!!! It is an easy way to get your videos on line without wasting time with all the editing.

    All of the clips looked good and he found the jump each and every time. Super! He did better when the motion (running) and the verbal (go go go!) matched. If you were walking and saying it, he had a valid question: mouth says go, but body does not!

    So to get the physical and verbal cues to match, you can let him see you accelerate and start saying go go before he enters the tunnel. When you do that, it is important that you do a post turn on the tunnel entry, turning your feet fully to face the tunnel then your motion faces the curve of the tunnel before running up the line: that is a physical cue for a GO exit. On several of the reps, you did a spin on the tunnel entry (rotated like a FC then did a BC) – that is a strong turn cue, so that is why he was looking at you when he exited: are we turning mom? And we don’t want him to learn to ignore a turn cue on the tunnel exit by pairing it with extension.

    He only really had one question, which was in the last clip – you were saying tunnel but facing the jump, so he correctly did not cut behind you to the tunnel (tunnel is a forward cue, not a go behind the momma cue LOL!)

    For the next session, you can work more on getting him to drive ahead of you by deliberately going very close to the tunnel until just before he exits, then running up the line saying go go go. For those (and for any of these reps), you can throw the toy as soon as he look ahead rather than wait for him to get to the jump. Or you can have someone else throw it, that is easier, as long as they throw it as soon as he looks at the jump.

    Great job here!!
    Tracy

    in reply to: Holly and JJ #61430
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi! These went well and we have a really good idea of what JJ responds to in terms of cues: BIG connection and both hands nice and low, and very visible before she has to make a decision.

    First side, up close to the wing – looked good! You added distance and faced forward more, which worked great, as long as she can see the cue before you both start to move. On the last rep, you showed the hand cue before moving and that really helped!

    2nd video, from tunnel exit – yes, more motion really helped. Also you got your hands and connection in place beautifully on these 2 reps.

    3rd video: As you mentioned, you were facing her a bit and that was more of a lap turn version of this. Still a good move to practice! I think you ended up facing her because that made more sense to your feet when there was not a lot of motion.
    Backside was great!

    4th video, 2nd side
    Adding more action! And when you add more motion and speed into it, be careful about converging motion towards the wing (that will push her to the other side). Keep moving forward on a parallel line to the one you want her to take.

    She is also starting to release on the hand motion, so be sure you are using a clear release. It can be the verbal for the cue (see below). You will want to show her the hand cues, start moving…. Then release.
    At :48 – the hand cues were there after you both were moving so it was not as clear. The reps where she nailed it had the hand cues in position before you both were moving (or when she exited the tunnel).

    5th video: good first rep, from the tunnel exit!
    When adding the tunnel, you can add a call for the turn before she enters or she will go blasting out the wing. The call was late here (when she exited) and you were stationary, so she had questions.

    6th video:
    A similar thing happened at the beginning of this video: At :02, the verbals started at the exit of tunnel and your hands were completely hidden and you were not connected (turning forward)- so she took the other side of the wing (correctly). At :08, you showed massively different cue and she came to the side you wanted. Yay!!!!

    When a blooper happens, always assume it was handler error and not dog error, and reward or keep going. The reward is not contingent on whether she did what you planned it is contingent on if she did what your cues showed her. Stopping and not rewarding can be very very confusing to the JJ, who read you correctly but the stopping/lack of reward tells her she was incorrect. This can lead to slowing down, frustration, stress. If you are not sure if it was dog or handler error: reward anyway and then stop the session to watch the video in slow motion. If the video 1000% shows it was a dog error (this is highly unlikely 🙂 ) then one reward is not a big deal. However, on the flip side, withholding rewards or stopping when the dog was correct can quickly build undesirable behavior. So…. Reward her work even if it was not your plan.

    The last video from the tunnel went well, and the physical cues looked really different so she was able to read the tandem versus the backside. Super!!!

    So from the tunnel, try to add more motion so you are not stationary – keep moving forward on the parallel line. To help her know this is coming, start calling her when she is at least one stride in front of the tunnel entry, so she hears it (and sees the hands) before se goes into the tunnel.

    Have you chosen a threadle wrap verbal on yet? You can add a verbal other than her name to it. If we treat these tandems like she is coming to the backside, then the threadle wrap verbal will be perfect. Or, if you treat them like they are a front side, then you can use as directional or a rear cross verbal.

    Great job here!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Taq to be continued! #61429
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi!
    Yes, something was going on with the tunnel. I don’t think you did anything different here in terms of volume or motion. Did anything happen before the session, like you told her she was wrong about something? Or were their weird noises in the environment that she was being sensitive to? When this happens, 4 things come to mind as possibilities:

    – something hurts – check her over and see if she is sore or painful anywhere
    – something is weird/scary in the environment. Maybe she can smell or hear something that we can’t see. Here in Virginia, it would be something like gunshots (neighbors like target practice, ugh!) or coyotes nearby.
    – false pregnancy – if she just came out of a season, depending how long ago it was, this is a possibility.
    – something smells weird in the tunnel – it is possible that there is something in the tunnel that was gross or distracting.

    Adolescent brains can also just have weird days. So you can clean the tunnel and do different games for a few days, then move the tunnel to a different spot and try it again. Keep me posted!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Brandy & Katniss 🏹🔥 #61428
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning!

    >>We were both a little tired in this video I think. I alternate working her and Nox, and this was her last turn. They only work for a few minutes at a time before getting a break, but I’m finding that she tires more quickly than Nox ever did as a puppy. I don’t know if it’s a mental or a physical thing (or maybe both).>>

    That is a good observation! If Katniss is in the vicinity and can see Not working (or is on a station or something) what you are seeing a mental fatigue. Yes, her “training” sessions might be short but alternating is exhausting, mentally, because of the mental energy and bandwidth required to produce impulse control. I don’t ask my young dogs to alternate in a way that can be depleting: one will remain in the house while the other trains, and then I switch. They have a lot more mental bandwidth to devote to training that way.

    I also don’t have my adult dogs nearby or watching or running around when I am trying to teach the puppy something. That is yet another pressure that the puppy needs to process, leaving less bandwidth for other things and leading to faster mental fatigue. I know that a lot of folks put that pressure on their young dogs early, but I see a lot of fallout from that in a way that make things a whole lot harder for the pups.

    I do work specifically on alternating… but that is the only training and there are no other real skills being asked – just simple stuff that the pup is very familiar with.

    The wing in your hair game went really well! It looks like she found the jump each and every time. Your connected was great! Yay!!! You can change your position to start really close to the wing and see if she can drive way ahead to the jump (feel free to add more distance between the wing and jump). Or, start a lot further from the wing and see if she can find the jump with you miles ahead.

    The further from the wing you get, the more you will need your dog-side leg as part of the send – when you used it, she sent perfectly! If the dog-side leg was not moving forward, she was not sure if she should leave you to go the wing (like at :45).

    >>Our biggest challenge was the toy. She is getting much better about bringing the toy back or at least to my general vicinity and then letting me walk over to play with her.>>

    Yay! Keep working the toy play games! And also, be sure that bringing it back is sooooo much fun with more play, more toy throws, toy trades, etc. And watch what happens when you get the toy back: do you bring her right back to work and take it away and ask for more? That is what happened :31 and that is one of the things that causes dogs to stop bringing the toy back (party over, back to work so they start avoiding it).

    The placed reward was enticing for her and totally works for this game – but keep it as the main focal point and don’t pull anything else out. You placed it at 1:27 but pulled something else out at 1:32, which changed the focal point so she did not go to the toy.

    Great job here!!!

    Tracy

    in reply to: Elizabeth & Yuzu #61427
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Good morning!

    >>Wow, I am really struggling with my dog side leg! >>

    To get your leg more involved, play some wing games without your arms – have your arms behind your back 🙂 Maybe do it with Robie first because he won’t mind that we are doing weird thing hahahahahaha

    I think this session of tunnel exits went GREAT!!! Your timing was terrific!!!! There was exactly one late verbal (the last GO cue at the very end, he was already in the tunnel) but the toy throw got him happy to exit straight. All of the other verbals were on time (aka significantly before he entered the tunnel) and that is HARD to do but you nailed it. YAY!!!

    The left & right verbals at the beginning were well-timed and the physical cue supported them, and his turns looked really good! You had a moment or two of moving away from the wing wrap too fast, but you sorted that out really well.

    The only wide turns on the right turn verbal were at 1:09 & 1:20: the timing of the verbal was great but the physical cue showed acceleration forward on a straight line… that is a conflicting indicator (my new favorite phrase haha). Voice said once thing and body said something else so he was running forward but looking to his right for more info. You will get a tighter turn there is you cue the right verbally like you did, and add in supporting it with physical cues like letting him see you peel away to the wing after the right turn.

    Only one other small suggestion:
    Keep saying go go go for the straight lines as he learns this. Your timing was good but you only said it once, so he looked at you on the tunnel exit.

    >>I won’t move on to advanced level until I get the soft turn better.>>

    I think you can totally try the advanced level – your timing was spot on and you can add in that physical cue support. It is a fast and fun game which should be a nice balance for some of the more cerebral games LOL!

    Great job 🙂
    
Tracy

    in reply to: Chaia & Lu #61419
    Tracy Sklenar
    Keymaster

    Hi! I know you mentioned you struggled here but I think it went well!!!

    Yes, you did spins on the first few but then you caught it and got a lot of really nice blinds! One thing to be careful of is to NOT do a spin on the tunnel entry when you want a straight exit… we don’t want her to learn to ignore tunnel turn cues.

    Your BC timing is coming along really well – at :35 and :45 nice timing! SUPER nice at 1:48! She is turning pretty tight here and it would be fun to try to decel into it, to see if she can turn even tighter 🙂

    There were two bloopers that happened a couple of times:
    At :48, 1:12, and 1:29 you took off with no connection back to her, so she took the other side of the tunnel Reward all of those because she was correct! You rewarded the first couple but then didn’t reward on the last one… but she was still correct 🙂 And while she is playing with the toy, look at the video to see if you were connected or not 🙂 When you were connected: perfect!! So remember to maintain BIG eye contact back to her on the side you want her to be on, as you move away.

    >>Starting to see a trend – I kept catching myself on her line so she really couldn’t even see the wing –

    I think you might mean at :58 and 1:50 – it was hard to see if you were blocking the wing or not, but you were definitely leaning forward/looking forward… and your feet accidentally stepped to the tunnel so off she went. Good girl!
    So even if you are not completely out of the way, keeping your connection back to her and not leaning forward with your arms forward will help her see wing and not the tunnel.

    Nice work here!
    Tracy

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