[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>It was finally under 90 AND cloudy, and he was ‘wet and happy’>>

Yay! Cloudy makes a big difference.

>>ignore my ‘outfit’ and hair please… because ‘after pool’ is the only way we can do anything outside in this weather>>

It was perfect! It is too hot to do anything but wear cool clothing 🙂

>>weather forecast shows 78 tomorrow at 7PM. Maybe we can try AG yard tomorrow… Wish they have pool there LOL so we can do ‘wet dog agility’. What makes it harder with him is that he doesn’t like being sprayed with water from hose or water bottle so I can’t cool him down with it. But I guess I can use cooling coat>>

My dogs also don’t like being sprayed and they don’t even like pools. Sigh. We had 78 here at 6am, so I did some training – the cool coat is great, and I also have a cooling towel that I drape over their back/neck (and my head sometimes LOL). No one got too hot as the temperatures started climbing. Your temperatures will hopefully drop after 7pm and at least there is a lot of daylight at this time of year!

On the video – He is doing great! He is really handling the heat well, I am impressed 🙂
I know he loves it when you move a lot, but I was really happy with how he was driving when you were not really running (at the beginning). We want him to blast around the line even if you are not sprinting 🙂

One thing I notice here: He really drives out of his stay behavior so you can totally use his stays in smaller spaces to get a more explosive drive into the game.

For example, at :50 he was in his stay. You led out a little, took a moment to look at him… then released. He really drove out of it! That moment of looking at him before the release builds up a bit of excitement 🙂 Then he was really galloping on the rest of the sequence. Yeah!! And nice job with the rewards being thrown out on the line, that was excellent placement and very motivating for him.

Starting from the wrap at 1:01 was harder for him (he is a big dude, wrapping is hard!) and he didn’t have the same speed as he did coming out of the stay. So for him, let’s take out the wrap start and replace them with stay starts. I think that will be a lot more motivating and you’ll get a lot more speed! He wraps really well, so it is not a wrap issue.It is more that because of his size, he slows down to produce a lovely wrap and we don’t need that at the beginning of a sequence.

When he sees a wrap in the middle of the course – he is wrapping really well, so after the wrap you can encourage him to blast back up to full speed by sending to the next jump with one step then you immediately move away to the next line. That will help expand his commitment skills AND he will then get to chase you on the next line (which seems to be his favorite thing to do :))

Of course all of this will be even easier when it is not 100 degrees out 🙂 But I think he is looking really strong.
Great job here!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>She slept on the counter motion and nailed it today! We also started the two jumps.>>

I love latent learning sooooo much! Yay!

This looked so good! The first few had the toy a little hidden (by the back)and when it was more visible in your hand, the game was harder. So let her sleep on it 🙂 and then next time, have the toy in your hand and visible but with you moving very slowly, and see how she does. The eventual goal is that you are running and she can immediately it even with the toy flopping around.

The 2 jump handling game looked great!

The Go looked really strong on the first rep. Be sure to mix lots of these in, between the other handling moves 🙂

On the Backide cues: at :36 (first rep) you were pushing in a bit too much and then a tiny bit too early on the rotation so she pinged off the jump. For now, she needs to be just about arriving at the outer edge of the backside wing then you can start the FC (like you did on the resend at :40 and also at :49)

The RCs are going really well!! YAY!! Remember that you don’t need to be as far ahead on the RCs: You were a bit too far ahead on the RC at 1:01 which made the info late – she was taking off for the RC jump and then saw the info. She knocked the bar trying to adjust to the correct turn (good girl, though, making the adjustment!)

At 1:10 you were a little less far ahead but also showed the RC info a lot sooner: As she was over the first jump, you were beginning to get on the RC line and that worked really well! NICE!

And on the last rep, getting the left turn wrap after all of the work on the RC and backside? LOVELY!! Your decel as clear and you also held the decel facing forward til she was committed (collecting and feet up to jump the wrap bar).

You will be able to do the backside, RC, and FC sooner as she get more experienced, but for now that extra moment of supporting commitment is just perfect 🙂

Onwards to adding the tunnel to this 🙂

Great job here!!! Stay cool!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>Indy & I went out every 30 minutes tonight for about 5 min each time to work more of the exercises in week 2. >>

This seemed like a good way to battle the heat – he seemed free and spicey for all of it except maybe the rear crosses 🙂 See below for ideas on those.

Starting with the blind and front crosses:

The wrap and ending line warm ups went well!
To help get the timing of the blinds and fronts, you can run in closer to the tunnel so you are accelerating as he exits (and he hears you staying in motion while he is in the tunnel). That will help him propel him to the ‘out’ jump on the line to get the BCs and FCs even easier! If you are ahead of him when he is in the tunnel and decelerate, it makes it harder to get the middle ‘out’ jump because he hears/sees the decel and adds collection,

At :42 and :58, the BC was a little late getting started (he was jumping the BC jump). Same with the FC at 1:18. But check out the FC at 1:39 – fantastic timing! You started it as he was exiting the previous jump, so it was finished before he took off for the turn jump. NICE! And that gave you plenty of time to show him the turn and to set up a nice spin after that too 🙂 Really super!!!!

Looking at the BC to the tunnel:

You were doing a spin instead of a blind on the warm up reps at 1:55 – 2:13, probably because it there was not a lot of motion into it. The full sequences were true blinds and looked great!

Really good rewards for the ‘out’ jump to help set up the BC to refresh the independence needed to get him out to the jump so you could easily get the blind.

The first blind at 2:48 was just a step too early. But then you added that one more step to support the line – it looked good at 3:13 and looked GREAT at 3:31 and 3:48!!!! He was flying, your timing was good, you had a very clear line of motion to the correct tunnel entry and your connection was super clear so he found the line really well. YAY! Just lovely!

Rear crosses were harder for him. Was it because he was hot and tired by the time he did them? Or maybe he is not yet comfortable driving ahead of you versus chasing you (like the blinds). Or both? LOL! We will get it sorted out 🙂

On the first few reps, doing the RC with him turning to his right:
You had a bit too much decel at 4:01 as he exited the tunnel, so he slowed down. This is a good place to run un close to the tunnel so you can keep moving and he can drive ahead better.

You did go in closer to the tunnel at 4:18 to accelerate more, but he still had questions. He was reading the RC there and at 4:40, but he was reading them better when you switched sides so he was turning to his left – perhaps turning left s just easier to coordinate the rear crosses (they do require a lot more mechanics from the dogs, because they have to drive ahead AND turn away).

So he as getting them done correctly, but not with as much speed as the other moves. With this in mind, a couple of ideas:
– next time, start with these first so he is feeling fresh and speedy 🙂
– mix in lots of reps where you run in closer to the tunnel then running straight (no RCs) with thrown rewards to get him looking forward on the line. Then you can mix in some RC lines. Your line to the center of the bar was good, so it will be interesting to see how he does after a bit of latent learning kicks in 🙂

Mountain climbers – good job here! When he is on your left, make sure his approach is straight because that all help hm go even faster 🙂 He was faster when he was on your right (straight entry after the wing).

You can have the food already placed on the target at the end of the teeter (like cream cheese or something sticky so it doesn’t fall off :)) – it really incentivizes the dog to drive up without waiting for you to get there, while also allowing you add in moving past the board or you can rear cross it.

Great job here! Let me know what you think!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

112 degrees… holy HOT!!! We are supposed to be getting 100 degrees here on Tuesday, which is really unheard of for the mountains of Virginia. CRAZY! This was a good air conditioning game that involves no running in the heat 🙂

The wobble board shaping is going well!
I love how at :12 she bobbed her head at it… then looked at you like “WHY DID YOU NOT CLICK THE MAGIC FOOD THING” hahahaha

Showing her that you wanted her to touch the wobble board early in the session definitely helped her out, and you were very quickly able to fade the help. You got lots of repeated front foot touches after that.

Using a toy in the last part of the session helped – she offered both front feet and there was a lot more excitement about it in general.

She was not interested in getting her back feet on – probably because of a combination of the board being small and also she was not totally comfy getting her back feet on to something that moves. So we can help her in both ways by stuffing a whole bunch of towels/dog beds/tunnel bags/mats etc so the wobble board is surrounded and propped up a bit. That will both expand the playing field (more room for back feet) and reduce the movement of the board (less unpredictable movement). Then as she gets more and more comfy getting her back feet on, you can start to remove the towels/etc bit by bit to add more movement and make the area she stands on smaller.

Great job here!
Stay cool!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! You did a great job on this – mostly nailed it, and found one spot we can add training skills.

1 through 9 ran beautifully on both runs – the independent weave skills you have trained allowed you to get to the 7-8-9 line try easily. And because of your position as he entered the 6 tunnel, he was amazingly tight finding the line to 7 and 8. NICE!

Strategically, your handling choices set you on to where you wanted to be on 10 in both runs. The FC to threadle at1 :13 worked as well as the push to the backside – both had very tight lines!

>>. On the first run, I tried to get #10 from a long ways away. That didn’t work.

I don’t think it was a bad plan – I think the idea of doing a far-away threadle I great and it is a trend that is definitely on the horizon (not quite here yet but I imagine we will see it a lot more in 2025 and beyond).

His question seemed to be about the threadle for 10 relative to your positional cue on 7. That doesn’t mean it was a bad idea, it just means that we can train it 🙂

You can take the bar out of the 7 jump and walk through the uprights, so there is a *bit* of layering but not a full layer. Or, you can be close to 7 but just on the other side of it, so there is still a distance element but not a full layering element for now. Based on where 11 is on this course, you can go closer to 8 so while he is exiting 9 and you are cuing the 10 jump, you are moving towards the 11 jump but not near it or behind it.

And if he needs you to cue the jump to take 10, you can use the in in verbal/handling just before he enters the tunnel and switch to the jump verbal/handling right as he exits.

You got in closer at :29 and he got it easily. Add in a collection cue for the exit of 10 (verbal and also peeling away sooner) will help get a sweeter line to 11. That exit of 10-11 is the reason why distance on 10 is a great idea: it will naturally create collection at the exit of 10, and puts you in a good place 11-12 for the RDW at 13.

On the 2nd run, being closer got the threadle easily -it was more like a throwback into a spin and that was lovely (created a really nice tight turn on the exit of 10 at 1:20) . You added decel into your switch on 12 at 1:23 ad got a MUCH better turn… and that decel also meant you were further ahead on the RDW entry which is an aded bonus.

Of interest – on both of the turns (10 and 12) there in the 2nd run, you had brake arms going (2 hands visible, especially on the exit of 10) and he responded with collection. Yay!

Speaking of the RDW: SUPER NICE left turn flip away to get 14!
You can get a better wrap turn on the backside of 16 by either decelerating in the circle wrap position (you were moving towards the slice line at :41 and 1:31, almost like a whiskey turn in terms of where your feet were pointing). That is a particularly challenging backside circle wrap, so you can use a brake arm there: right arm and left arm visible back to him before he passes you to get to the backside.

Or, you don’t need to do the side change – keep him on your right through the tunnel and do a threadle wrap there. That will also put you further ahead to get him to turn better on 19. I think he was convinced he was weaving 🙂 on the first run so an earlier ‘come’ verbal along wit turning you shoulders will help: as soon as he passes the dog walk between 18 and 19, you can start the turn info.

You were earlier (a stride before takeoff) on the 2nd run, but you can be earlier still by starting it as soon as he is past the DW. I think if you do it before he passes the DW, he might try to get on the DW.

>I was really pleased to get 21 both times, I thought it was pretty tricky.>

Yes, absolutely tricky moment – it would be easy to block the line or be out of position or accidentally show the backside line. Using the distance skills for 18-19 allowed you to get well past the tunnel exit AND you had your verbals and connection going, so I don’t think he ever considered the wrong side of 21. Fantastic!!!

Great job here! Let me know what you think!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Lots of good work here!!

Her teeter is coming along very nicely!! On the mountain climber game, she seems very happy to perch up there in her down while you run past 🙂 She is like a cat LOL!!!

Next step would be to add the tiniest tiniest bit of movement – you can move the support under the board out so it drops half an inch or less. Add movement very slowly so that she barely notices it (and keep the wing tunnel-bagged so it doesn’t move out from under the teeter).

Straight lines 4 ways game:

Realy nice warm up on 2 jumps!

>>my throws once again amaze me, how bad they can be!!>>

Ha! Next time you go to SOTC (I think that is where you are) loko up in the rafters and you will see a toy up there. That was from my terrible throw about 10 years ago or more hahahaha

One thing that will help your throws is if you keep moving while you throw. You were stopping to throw which makes the throws harder but more importantly: it shows her handler decel when we want extension. So keep moving forward on the go lines so she doesn’t learn to ignore deceleration. She was good at 1:50 to see you decel and not move away in extension. You can think of it as staying in motion and just tossing the toy.

Looking at the different handling:

At 2:01 for the rear cross, you pushed her off the line by running more on a backside line. Super nice adjustment to run to the center of the bar at 2:14 and nice at 3:49, those looked great!

On the front cross wrap, you needed to decelerate sooner at 2:26 (she was a little wide). You nailed it at 3:59! Super nice!!!! Good timing and connection there. You will notice that these cues start when she is over the jump after the tunnel.

For the backside – being ahead to make a big connection (while she is over the jump after the tunnel) as you move to where the wing and bar meet will get her to the backside more consistently. Keep moving forard with the strong connection until she is almost at the backside wing. At 2:38 and 3:00 you decelerated facing forward so she took the front, it did kind of look similar to the wrap cue.

Compare to the reps at 2:49 and 3:13 and 3:35 where you had th ebetter connection and kept moving up the line – LOVELY! YAY!

For backing up onto the teeter: to get her backing up more easily you can sit on the ground or in a chair for the backing up game (a chair is probably the easiest :)) That will get her head a little lower, which makes backing up easier. Also, the teeter had a little too much height off the ground here – she was able to use her back feet but she really had to reach up. You can try it just an inch off the ground to get things rolling, then add a little more height. I think that 2 or 3 inches in height off the ground is all she needs.

The countermotion game is going well! On the reps where she kind of pinged away to a jump in front of you (first rep and at 5:32), you were blocking the line to the wing. On the other reps she had a clear view of the wing as you stepped back, and she nailed it 🙂 Super! And nice job with your verbals and connection shifting!

So now add more counter motion: as soon as she passes you (and before she gets to the wing) you can start moving forward (slowly for now, slow walking) so you are totally moving the other direction before she gets to the wing. We can add more speed later on down the road, it will be plenty hard with you walking the other direction this early 🙂

She did really well with you running into the crosses! To protect your knee, you can focus on the countermotion element of walking forward while she continues to find the line behind you. Then as she reaches you, you can turn and send her behind you to the next wing. That can all be done at a walk, which will protect your knee and greatly expand her skills, making it MUCH easier when you are able to get back to full running 🙂

Great job here!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>. I’ve tried to watch all the videos from last week & they are running together!>>

That is totally relatable, the dogs do go around that loop a LOT haha!!

You started with the sending, and then went to driving him around and sending to the tunnel at the end. It all looked great! YAY! Nice job sending him to the jumps without working too hard to get him to do it. He said it was no problem 🙂

His commitment is looking really good, so you can now add in the handling with the wraps and blinds. He is totally ready!

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! This is going well – this setup totally helps sort out the different cues.

First video:
the go line looked great! The wrap looked good too! You don’t need to use the ‘go’ verbal on the wrap line, you can just use your wrap verbal as he is landed from the previous jump and as you start the decel into the wrap.

2nd video:

>>Venture started jumping the blue wing. For today I switched the blue wing for one of the big PVC wings but wonder what if anything I need to do about this.>>

I think what he was doing when he was jumping through the wing fabric was splitting the difference between the front and back side of the jump. CLEVER!! LOL!! We can clarify things for him:
For the backside cues, try not to use your arm much at all 🙂 Keep it pointing at his nose and use your big connection and forward motion to where the wing and bar meet to cue the backside (plus the verbal). If you stop short and point ahead of him, your hand and verbal say backside… but your shoulders and feet are saying front side. Since the cues were a little conflicting, he was jumping through the wing (more on the cues below).

With clearer cues, he will not go through the wing 🙂

>>Third short video, we really struggled with rear cross and back side with dog on left. How should it look to Venture and what tells him the difference between these two? Only the verbal or should I be showing something clearly different?>>

On the first 2 backside sends, you can see the difference in the cues:
At :06 you pointed forward ahead and stopped moving forward, so he was not sure if he should keep going. At 1:00, you had clearer connection for longer (your arm moved forward *with* him rather than *ahead* of him) and you moved forward for longer…. and he got it! Yay!

So the more you keep moving forward with connection to where the wing and bar meet and your arm back to him, the easier it will be to commit him to the backside.

For the rear crosses, the handler line is different – be connected and don’t use your arm much like with the backsides, and your line of motion is towards the center of the bar. That will looked pretty different from the backside line (and yes, the difference verbals too :))

I think the backside will feel better if you are not as far ahead of him – at 1:37 here he got it but you were ahead, even with your feet pointing to the backside. So for the backsides – totally get ahead of him to show him the cues from ahead. For the rear crosses, you can set the line from the previous jump then accelerate up the line to the center of the bar.

Let me know if that makes sense! Nice work here!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>First I tried to do the sit exercise- lesson learned dont try and get a hard listening exercise that involves stationary with a mad border pap…. I quickly decided it wasnt happening – but thought you might enjoy her expressing herself…>>

Oh yes, she had BIG OPINIONS here! LOL!! What if you used a plank or sit platform for this? That might be clearer to her and less rage-inducing.

On the 2nd video:
Her stay is definitely improving!!
I think using toys for stays is GREAT and I train stays with toys all the time! SO I won’t tell you off LOL! But also be careful to NOT swing the toy around, that was too hard for her to hold the stay. One thing I do with stays when using a toy is I throw the toy back to the dog (rather than release forward) as that helps solidify the stay. You did some of that, but use a different marker (I use “catch” because “get it” means to come forward, so that might have been part of her confusion).
She seemed to like playing with the thrown toy for a moment then wanted to come play with you – that is fine! You can throw the toy as the reward and then call her to you to tug. A double reward!

>> so big note to self need to do this more. Definitely the higher arousal (teeth were chattering and eyes spinning) >>

Yes, definitely keep playing like this, to help her with the arousal in front of a jump when the toy is present.

On the wobble board video – I think the toy was definitely something she liked as part of this! Because the wobble board is something that concerns her, you can stuff a bunch of towels under it so it doesn’t move much at all. She was putting a front foot on it, but really didn’t want to put more than a foot on it. So you can ‘split’ the behavior by packing pillows and towels around the wobble board so it barely moves. Then as she gets more and more comfortable, you can start to remove the things supporting the wobble board so it moves a little more.

>>She did her usual trick of lying down bewside it and commenting- she does this with a number of things>>

I don’t know about why she does it in other situations, but she was doing it here because she wanted the reward but did not feel comfy getting on the moving board. So taking out a lot of the movement for now will get her happier to offer behavior on it.

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

That is crazy!!!!!! We are seeing 100 degrees in the forecast here, which is just nuts for this part of the world. No worries, we can stretch out class to give everyone more time without baking!!!

Stay cool 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Nice work on these!!

On the video:

>>Did you mean jump 5 instead of 4? I didn’t mean to use push on 4 so maybe I was early. I was treating jump 5 as a backside. Is that not correct because of the angle of their approach?>>

I think you were just early, and perhaps using push as a way to get her out on the line? That was for the previous sequence/video. On this video, it sounds like you said “push” for jump 4 at :30 and 1:03 but 4 here is a front side (she doesn’t need to go to the other side of it). Jump 6 is a backside, so push is good for when you send her to the other side like at 1:06.

Blind to slice: looking great. YAY! You can do the blind a little closer to the entry wing of the threadle slice. And she reads it so well (and your line of motion was great) so you didn’t need to help her with the big arm cues.

There was a bar down at 1:01 – you were walking and quiet so she was not sure how to attack the line there You were running there on the other reps and she had no questions.

At 1:05 you handled the 6 jump as a push to the backside:

>>Are you saying that my feet should be facing straight toward jump 8 (jump after backside) and not toward the backside jump?>>

Correct – always try to have your feet moving to the next line. Think of your upper body as showing the dog the present, what you want her to do right now. And your lower body (feet, motion) showing her the future in terms of where you are going next.

She found the line nicely at 1:05 and 1:29. Then you rotated to bring her over the bar which ended up having you get caught behind the jump and not able to get the blind there.

At 1:44., you weer much further across the bar (yay!!) and rotated your feet to her less (double yay!) so you did get the blind. The only thing to add there is to keep moving, so you are basically going to end up on the takeoff side of the jump as she is taking off

You did the circle wrap at 2:06 –
2 things can help smooth this out:

– as you are heading to the jump, go to where the wing and bar meet (you will be on the landing side) so that she can see the wing. Then stay there til she is passing you, then move forward. At 2:06 you were blocking her line and tghen turned to the bar, which looked like a slice line for a moment. She slowed down and sorted it out, but we don’t want her to slow down 🙂

– a different verbal 🙂 The circle is a very different behavior than the slice so using a different verbal will help her a lot too.

>> My one question is, when you do the blind before the backside (7), how are you differentiating between the slice (going back to jump 3) and the wrap (going to the tunnel). When I did the blind decently, I think she gets a nice slice to the jump, but the wrap went a bit wonky.>>

It is all about the direction your feet are facing 🙂

The last rep was the blind to the threadle wrap. She read it as a slice because you turned your feet to the bar (same as when you wanted the slice). To get the threadle wraps, keep your feet facing the tunnel the whole time – and use your arms to turn her away to the wrap. You will probably want to do this walking at first so she can read the info, and you will want to be adding decel anyway for this move even when you are running a full sequence with it.

Great job here! Have fun at ASCA this weekend!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Great seeing you today! Katniss is looking awesome!

The brake arms sequences went really well!

One general suggestion: When you want her to exit a tunnel straight and stay on a line, you can use her ‘go’ verbal before she enters the tunnel – if you are quiet, she defaults to turning to you, which might make it harder to get the next line.

The brake arms at :10 and :25 looked great for the wrap! Nice use of the arms and decel got great connection so she easily got the turn. You had a bar down at :20 on the 180 – that looked to be because you didn’t decelerate, so even with the brake arms she did did not get enough turn info as compared to the other turns.

2nd sequence, with the backside wrap at 2:

>> On sequence 2 with the circle wrap at 2, I was showing her the line to the other jump. She corrected to the backside, but it took her a while to know where we were going. How should I have shown that differently from the other sequences where it WAS the other jump?>>

Yes, you were blocking her view of the wing at :36 so she almost went from 1 to 3 so it looks like the same line when ou did want her to go to that jump on the previous sequences and at :55. To make it look different, you can change your positional cue: move to where the wing and bar meet, so she sees the entire wing to go around for the backside. And if you run out of space to move forward? Hang out in that spot where the wing and bar meet until she is past you. That will make it clearer for her.

I love how she is focusing forward on her jump at :50 at the beginning of the last sequence!!!! And the brake arms for the tunnel exit turn looked GREAT – nice timing and super turn!

>>. On the last rep, I realized I threw it really close, so I took a couple of steps back (not really on purpose, but my brain was telling me I was too close to the toy). Does that count? 😂>>

We will count it because it was so funny LOL!!!!

On the Hot Topics video: I agree, this went really well!!!

>>I did a terrible job throwing the reward away from me. I’m going to get it right at some point, lol, I swear!!>>

Plan for it, or if you are training with others, make other people hold you accountable (or have them throw it :))

She did well with the warm up circle – remember not to get too far ahead of her, as that makes it harder for her to process the jumping mechanics.

When adding the layering, setting the line with parallel line motion will make a big difference:
At :17 – that was good line setting so she got the layer.
At :24 – you were already pulling away when she exited the wrap on 1 so she came off the line (correctly). The other reps after that were better when you were setting the line before moving away.

On the German turn attempts: that parallel line of motion is important to set up germans too! You can go closer to 3 and 4 (the 2 jumps after the tunnel) so you can handle the 2 jumps before the German with more lateral distance and running on a parallel line to her.
You got a little too close to the jump before the german and had too much decel at 1:04, which cued collection and brought her off the line. She took the front of the jump ther (good girl!)
Big difference at 1:26 where there was no decel, and you supported the line better with parallel line motion so she found the backside with no questions. Super!

Blind to threadle:
You were a bit too early starting the BC at 1:43. Nice adjustment on the next 2 reps to start a little later, so she committed better – and that set up the threadle really nicely there. Looked great!

On the threadle wrap reps, one adjustment to make is to keep your feet forward (facing the tunnel) the whole time – don’t turn your feet ot the bar at all. Feet-to-the-bar indicates a slice (like at 2:21).

You did get her to wrap but it looked like a slice for a long while (2:55) and she was wide there. So the feet facing the next line (rather than the bar of the threadle jump) will help her know the difference. Plus, the positional advantage of handling with the threadle wrap comes from your feet alreayd facing the next line so you can leave for it sooner.

Push to wrap – this is where you can also go to where the wing and bar meet (3:13) like you mentioned in the live class sequence, so you dont block the line to the backside.

The threadle slice the other direction (3:36 and 3:55) looked great! That is the definite winner for the line on that side.

On the german turn that direction at the very end – you got a little too close to the jump after the tunnel, so you were a little in her way when she landed (she barked at you). To get a better German there, you can send more to the jump after the tunnel by staying closer to the middle of the tunnel. Then running a parallel line to her should get you easily past the exit wing as she is committing to the backside.

Great job here!!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

The plank game went really well. The catos were great for getting it higher. She seemed very comfortable on it – back and forth, different angles, on and off the board in the middle, turning around, etc. Turning to her right away from you was hard – it is not that important on the plank at this point, but definitely something to see if she can do easily on the flat (for handling).

I think the next stages of this would be about getting the RDW foundations going (I am assuming you are doing a RDW 🙂 ) Then you can attach it to the plank. And separately, teeter foundations too! You can rest one end of the board on the 16” table and the other end on the ground, so she can run up it.

She totally remembered the lazy game! And was moving pretty quickly through it, which is great because most dogs stroll when the handlers are being ‘lazy’ like this LOL!!

Adding the tunnel was great – she seemed to enjoy it and picked up more speed! And she was doing what we want: Moving fast and independently on the line without a ton of sprinting from the handler. YAY!!!

Adding the sends: this went super well too! She barely needed a cue on the sends – she seemed to be recognizing the line and driving to it. The distances were not a problem for her.

Since this went so well, you can spread this out more (go to 15 feet or 18 feet, getting closer to full size competition distances!) and add in the handling games. That will mean more running for you and I think she is ready for that…and that she will really like it too!!! Yay!

Great job!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

This sequence had some good spots to play with for him!!! For the handling choices, at this point I mainly look at it from the viewpoint of getting the fastest possible lines with no questions from Kaladin. Pretty fun to be at that level of obsessing!!!

He came off the line at :08 (missed 4). It looks like you started to look which turned your shoulders, and I don’t think there was a verbal. You were more connected for sure at :40, a little closer, and sounds like you said jump. He got it easily there with a lot of speed. I am not sure he needs a lot of connection in those spots anymore (maybe through the clutter boxes he does?) but definitely the verbal will help support the line. Being quiet with the softer connection is part of what pulled him off the line.

Looking at the send to 5 before the Serp-blind:
He had a little extra yardage at :41 (you were a little late with the send). I am not sure, though, if getting a collection stride with a brake arm, for example, will be faster. So you can be more lateral as he exits 4 (without layering, which you noted as a little slower and also looked like he was not driving as hard) and sending sooner – that way you can use your verbals and run through the serp sooner. It might chop off a tenth of a second…. But at this level, we will take that tenth of a second as that can end up being a winning margin!

The other place to talk to him more is after the blind on 6 and heading to 7 – running around the tree worked great 🙂 but you were quiet on the first run so he looked up at you a tiny bit. That is a spot where keeping him looking ahead can take off another tenth or two.

Leading out on the other side of the tunnel: that was harder than expected, but I am guessing he doesn’t have a ton of experience with layered openings (I also say “dude!” When the dog does something surprising LOL!). He got it when you were further ahead of him, but we still want to build the skill of taking the jump with you parallel or behind him. You can move the jump closer to the tunnel to decrease the distance challenge for now. And you can place a toy or bowl on the landing side of the tunnel – he was looking at it but not taking it when released, so having the reward as part of the focal point can help jumpstart the behavior too.

Have fun in Winnipeg!!! Nice work here!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>Levy did well with sequence 2 Part 2 when I used the Front crosses at both 3 and 4 and was on the landing side of 7 to 8. >>

Awesome!!!!

>>Trying to serp to the blind did not go well. by the time I did the serp both Watson and Levy were in front of me so no chance for the BC and of course they went to the tunnel when I tried to flick them to the jump. >>

Were they correctly coming to the jump, but you were not able to get blind? That might mean you were not far enough across the jump – one thing you can do is send them away on the line more so you can layer the jump as you run a parallel line to them, then you can be closer to the exit wing as they are on their way to the backside.

And there is countermotion too: as they are coming to the backside, you are looking at the landing side but also moving forward towards the tunnel.

>> it worked fine for Levy but not for Watson. It was timing just didn’t give Watson enough connection and didn’t complete the BC in a timely manner. >>

Was he going off course to the jump straight ahead? If so, yes, it might have been timing but also, it might have been that he didn’t see enough connection. He is so small so you might have to connect downwards more and keep your arms back more.

>>This is a note to me that Levy needs more distance work and a stronger get out. He found taking the jump with the tunnel in between us difficult. Your suggestion for Watson (send from other tunnel entrance) worked like a dream. He nailed it the first time easily and I was way ahead.>>

Yay! I am glad it worked! You can totally build up the distance gradually. The key will be lots and lots of thrown rewards. That will really help commitment, because the toy appears out ahead on the line as you are running and they don’t have to look back to you 🙂

Thank you for the update! It sounds like the boys are doing really well!!!

Tracy

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