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Hi! This went really well!!
>> My yard set up looks small and tight but I did measure it>>
It looked good to me 🙂 It is a really tight setup, very deliberately to put all sorts of stuff in your way LOL!!
She did great with the layering! A couple of ideas for you:
– she wants to look at you a bit on the tunnel exits, so you can tell her how to exit the tunnel when you want a straight line/extension exit – for her, saying “GO!” before she enters will help. If you are quiet when she enters, she looks at you (:15) and that is useful if you need a tight turn (which we don’t need here).
>>She did well on the backside wrap when I was not really supporting it very well>>
Yes! On the first run at :08, you were a little late telling her about it and did not turn to it as soon as she needed. But on the second run at :19, you were earlier with the info and you turned to it, so she nailed it. Yay!
For the threadle stuff:
yes, you can do one jump threadle work but for this sequence, you don’t need this type of threadle 🙂 On the very last rep, prepping for the big sequence:
the threadle is on the other side – do a BC or FC so she lands from the first jump there on your left, then do a threadle to get the other side of 6 (you will be in the ‘box’ of jumps and on the same side as the tunnel.Great job here! Stay cool!
Tracy
Hi!
>> Is your opinion to use wrap cues for rears or should I use a “switch” command? >>
It depends LOL!!! It depends on exactly what each verbal means:
About switch:
The way most people use switch to mean ‘turn away for a rear cross’ – that is not specific enough in terms of how much of a turn we want so it can get messy and unclear for the dog and they end up ignoring it (and relying on physical cues). I use ‘switch’ in one situation only: when I am turning the dog away and then sending her on a big layering line. So I will say “switch” then the obstacle name of the next obstacle (like ‘switch tunnel’) and it means ‘turn away, get on the line, and ignore my handling position until I cue something else’. It has been SUPER useful with all of the layering required lately!About directions like wraps, etc:
I use directionals on my rear crosses, because they indicate which direction to turn and exactly how much of a turn we want (like wrap-to-the-right, or soft-turn-to-the-left). So you if you have a wrap verbal for each side, and a soft turn verbal for each side, then I highly recommend directionals. And then I choose the directional verbal based on what the course requires (on this sequence, it would be a wrap).
If the wrap verbal always means turns towards you, then you either need to add a wrap-away and soft-turn-away, or add the more specific verbals about which direction the dog should turn. The dogs appreciate the clarity of the very specific verbals (and with a little practice, we humans totally *can* remember them LOL!)Looking at the video:
great job sorting out the RC cues! The trick is motion towards the center of the bar of the RC jump, and having her see that *before* she makes a takeoff decision.
On some of the reps, you didn’t show enough of that line to the center of the bar before she made a takeoff decision, making the info late, like at :05 and :24
On one of the reps, you pushed in too soon and your feet ended up looking like you wanted the backside, which pushed her off the jump (:35).
And on a bunch of reps, you were able to show the line to the center of the bar and got a lovely RC: :13, :44, :54.I think visuals are really important, so I grabbed screenshots of each of those moments so you can see what she was seeing. Here is the link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V8qdUtK1wU37fcnYBMDJPJ8k6VOYVsgz_MH3dpRva3M/edit?usp=sharing
On the rep at 1:08 – you were a little too far away and a little late on the info, but she did the RC… so she had probably figured out it was a RC session LOL!! She is definitely smart like that!
So definitely mix in cueing straight lines so she is still reading the info and not assuming it is a RC 🙂2nd setup: she found the jump really well! Super!!!! My only suggestion on this one is to keep moving rather than stand still and throw. We want her to learn the cue of having motion support the line and not dilute the decel in favor of chasing the toy 🙂 To protect your knee, you can be walking or slow jogging, as long as it is steady motion with no transition to decel. You can now adding getting closer to the ‘tunnel’ exit 🙂 and walking forward so she drives ahead of you to the jump. And you can also send to your ‘tunnel’ and get waaaaaay ahead, to see if she can find the jump from behind you.
Great job on these!
TracyGood morning! I hope the weather is cooling off a bit!
She did super well with finding the jump! You can also send to the tunnel from further away so you are ahead of her, past the jump (move the jump in closer so it is easier to get past it). Many young dogs struggle to find the jump after a tunnel when the handler is ahead!
For the motion override game: this was hard! There was steam coming out of her ears LOL! At the very end, you were marching in place – I think that is where you should start the next session. Just march in place and when that gets easy for her – go to shuffling along rather than walking. That way she can process the sit cue, specifically. She was processing that it was *something* about stopping, but she was not 100% sure if it was sit or stand or down.
You will see she starts to have lightbulb moments and then working up to running will be easier. Doing it on your left looked a little like heeling when you lifted your left arm and decelerated ever-so-slightly at :41, so resist temptation to do that LOL!!! Just keep your arms in the casual position so there are no additional cues besides the verbal.Great job here!
TracyGood morning! Really good session here, and the neighbor dog is indeed a big distraction! He was great about ignoring it!
>> I am limiting sessions to 5 minutes because by then we’re both super hot and brain dead.>>
Perfect – 5 minutes in the zillion degree temperatures can be a LOT!!!
>>Yes he’s jumping up at me but not in frustration. >>
Yes, it totally looked like he was excited about the reward and not frustrated 🙂
Looking at the different handling cues:
He did well with the go lines, and these were the only spots you needed a bit more connection 🙂 So add more eye contact as you run forward – he had a question on the first one (a little curling in towards you) and the bar down at 4:06 on the first jump, mainly because he couldn’t quite see enough connection.
You can also mix in go lines more often, to kind of ‘cleanse the palate’ and keep him looking forward 🙂
The wraps looked really good here, and I think the wrap reps had the best connection and timing too! He is nice and tight on the turn. Yay!
The rear crosses are going well too. Be sure to complete the side change – at the very end (last rep) you stopped without finishing the cross, so he was not sure if he should complete the rear of if he should turn back to you in the original direction.
>> Am I correct to use the wrap verbal on the rear cross here? >>
Yes, in this context. Other rear crosses can have left/right turn verbals or even ‘jump’ verbals if there is a lot of extension on the exit.
>> I was shocked how fast he remembered the back command for the backside.>>
Yes! You were not quite that clear at 1:52 (not far enough ahead for a baby dog so he didn’t see the connection) but much better at 3:17!!! The more you can connect on backside cues and the less arm pointing forward you use, the better he will read the cues (I know, totally counterintuitive on sends, but works GREAT!)
>> So we didn’t do the last tunnel plus back side.>>
No worries, it was 80 million degrees out! You can start with tunnel next time. And when you switch sides, start with the tunnel too – that will geta lot of motion going, especially if dog-on-left is the harder side.
Great job!!
Tracy
Good morning! This went really well!
I agree that he had a bit of a side preference here:
All of the reps where he was on your right (turning to his left) looked great. Then at first he was not as sure when he was on your left (turning to his right), Pointing at the jumps is not helpful – the adjustment that helped him was when you strolled a little closer to the jump at :42 – :45. That got the big lightbulb moment for him!Then you were able to add more motion, verbals, etc. NICE!!!
He is ready for you to add the tunnel and more distance and more running! If the weather remains ridiculously hot, you don’t need to drag the tunnel out – you can replace it with a cone for him to go around. You can also add more distance between the jumps – try to get up to 18 feet between the center of each bar, he seems ready for that too!
Great job 🙂
TracyGood morning! Really good session here!!!
>>3. Using my marker for throwing the toy away from me. I missed it on the 1st & 2nd ones and then realized I did and was better after that. Though I still said ‘yay’ before chase it on one of them. Sigh. Hard habit to break!>>
I feel this pain!!! It is definitely a hard habit to break (what is that old song by Chicago?) But it is worth it when they are young.
The hardest part is to say the marker *then* move the reward. The dogs figure us out, thankfully, and he was definitely looking forward more here! YAY!!!
>> I probably need to throw the toy sooner.>>
You can mark sooner and have the toy in the air right after that, especially on the tunnel exits.
>>1. Not moving on my lead out. Not always perfect, but better (I think??)>>
Yes! Like at :33 and :51and 1:03, where you praised, released, he moved, then you moved. Click/treat for you both!
You can also do moving lead outs, where you are walking away and release while you are walking. The trick is that your motion and the release do not start simultaneously. Either you are in motion the whole time (like those running lead outs that are super useful) or you stop, release, then move.
If you stop then release and move simultaneously – that is when motion gets built into the reelase by accident.>>2. Keeping the toy in my hand. This led to a few amusing elevations by James that I think I edited out, but overall when he was running he was able to keep the springs in the box.>>
Yes, you took them out LOL!! You can use a toy that can scrunch into your hand better, this one was very visible so he might have come flying up to it when other cues were not as clear? On the reps here, you were pretty darned clear! Yay!
He is ready for you to move more – try this jogging and then build up to running! And add in the crosses. With the crosses, keep the big connection (and this is where a toy that can scrunch up into your hand will help a lot too).
Great job!!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, the heat has been awful!!! Hopefully it breaks soon.
She did well on the mountain climber game!!
And she was fine to jump off when she lost her balance after turning around – she can even have a cookie for bravery 🙂Since she was happy to run up the board, you can add in a target at the top by duct taping something to the top of the board or underside so it sticks up and out a bit. Yes, I carry duct tape and a target to different facilities LOL!!
That way you can place a reward on it before she gets on the board. Then she can run up the board looking straight ahead to the reward, and you can add some independent handling (like moving past the end of the board). A bit of cream cheese is perfect, because you can put a dab of it on the target and she can lick it while you are moving away from the board or doing a rear cross, etc.Looking at the wing-tunnel-wing game:
I grabbed some screenshots so you can have a visual of the moments I am pinpointing here 🙂 Here is the link to them:https://docs.google.com/document/d/13Rr771QKL3b0oZ1bxOYQqgTh74QRtfmquG3tYqoGNv4/edit?usp=sharing
I think we can get better commitment by getting clearer connection and taking your arm cues out of it 🙂 You were tending to point ahead of her at the obstacles, which blocks connection and turned your shoulders away from the line. If you tried to move away, you got a refusal. If you held still til she saw the line, she got it but then you needed serious hustle to get the next part, which caused questions there.
Ideally, your arm follows her nose the whole time. So if she is behind you, your arm is pointing to her. Yes, the arm can go forward but that is best for after she passes you 🙂 And always have your eyes on her eyes as you move – that turns the line of your shoulders to the line you want her to take, and makes it very visible for her.
Looking at various moments:
You had a refusal at 1:29 (same thing happened at 2:14) – by using the arm to point forward, the send was turned away and there was no verbal, plus lots of other obstacles around. You can reward her for effort. She did get it at 1:52 but you had to hold position.
Compare to 1:41 where you had better position, better connection, and said tunnel. You can connect even more, look even more directly at her and point forward less.
Same at 1:45, after the tunnel: You were looking ahead and pointing ahead so she had a question about the line.
She got it better at 1:55 but that was based on you getting closer to the jump.When you ran with connection and had minimal or no pointing? She nailed it 🙂 Check out 2:10! You will tighten that turn by adding decel as she exits the tunnel, but let’s celebrate the connection first! And you had more gorgeous connection (and no questions from Tarot) at 2:43 as she exited the tunnel. That rep also had some decel so you got the collection before take off on the wrap!!
At 2:49, you did a big send by pointing ahead of her and that changed the line of the cue: connection blocked and shoulders turned away from the jump, so she came to you.
So definitely work the sequences with your arm low and back to her nose, and making eye contact (as you keep moving) the #1 thing. If you make the clear connection, she will not look at you at all 🙂 If you break connection by looking ahead and pointing ahead, she will look at you to figure out what you want.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
You and Fusion were AMAZING in class!!! Well done!!!!!!!!!!And I am glad we got it done before the rains came.
>>One question meant to ask the brake arm is this only used for tirns or can it be used for general collection eg before the weaves>>
I suppose it can be used before the weaves to help the dog. Ideally, the weave entries would be so well-trained that we would not need to, but it would be interesting to experiment with brake arms to see if the dog is more successful that way! Try it and let me know!
Tracy
OMG! I am glad you are all safe! Sorry about your truck, what a pain!!!!!!!!!
Looking forward to the videos when you have a chance to get to the field!Tracy
Yes, that was my screw up, sorry!!!! Thankfully you got the correct link in time. Stay cool!!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
She is doing really well with the layered line and finding the tunnel! Super!
One thing to consider with the verbals – it sounds like you were using ‘push’ for 4 (which is a front side) and for 6 (which is a backside). I think a ‘jump’ verbal is better for 4, and then push can be for the true backside at 6.
>>We are having trouble with commitment if I am moving. I feel that I’m looking at the landing spot, but maybe I’m not doing it correctly.>>
There were a couple of things happening here:
Yes, on the true countermotion reps where your feet were moving forward to the next jump (at :43 and 1:15) – you were looking at her and not back to the landing. So as she is moving to the backside entry wing, you can shift your connection to look at the landing as you move past the jump, and your dog-sde arim can point to the landing spot.
You were starting to do that at 1:31 and she came in a lot better. Be sure not to rotate your feet though, because that will make it a lot harder to keep moving forward on those backsides to be ahead for the next line.
Also, the backside push verbal is a compound verbal that means ‘go to the other side AND jump the bar’. I think she has understanding of the first part (go to the backside) but not of the 2nd part (jump to bar) so you will want to train that. To train it, lower the bar, don’t move as fast, and cue the behavior, Keep walking through it it and as she is approaching the backside entry, shift your connection to the landing spot (eyes and arm). And, this is the important part: toss the reward to the landing spot as you keep moving past it. The placement of reward is super important here – dropping it independently of your position really helps solidify understanding to take the bar rather than relying on your physical cues to help her come in to take it.
When she can do it with you walking (and not rotating your feet), you can start to go faster: jogging then eventually running.
On the reps where she did come in (:56, 1:03, 1:24, 1:45, 2:02 you were helping without countermotion by staying on landing side and rotating your feet. That definitely got her to successfully come over the bar, but I think using the countermotion and dropping the toy on landing as you move past the jump will help get her to do it without needing any foot rotation.
During the training, remember not to get caught up in trying to execute the handling move 🙂 Look for the training opportunities and how to build the skills, as these are more important than the handling moves. When you were having trouble getting the blind cross exit on the backside, you started to get frustrated and stopped rewarding her so she slowed down a lot… then 1:51 – you sent to where she went on 4 and then told her she was wrong. She starting getting careful (trotting) so you will want to do 2 things to avoid her slowing down:
– keep rewarding and breaking the skills down is a handling move is going wrong, rather than withholding reward
– stop and watch the video and see why it is going wrong, as the video will givey you great info!>>Also, I know you have been busy, so it might not have been posted yet, but did I miss an email about the conditioning guest instructor camp webinar being posted?>>
The email is probably flying around in spam somewhere LOL!! The webinar is posted here:
Recording Of Special Guest Instructor Live Zoom with Stefanie Theis!
Great job!!
Tracy
Good morning! Nice work here!
Seq 1 – this opening is one where you will definitely want to get her looking forward on the brake arm release. She was looking at you on the first release and did not take the jump. You can use a bowl or toy on the other side of 1 to work the skill, then fade it (starting with you closer to the jump, then gradually moving further away). She got it on the 2nd rep at :29 when you stepped in more, but was still looking at you on the release.
Getting the turn on the tunnel exit:
The decel and brake arm were timely before she went into the tunnel at :35 – Nice!! You can add a directional such as ‘right’ or a tight turn tunnel exit cue at the same time as the physical cue, to help her differentiate between the turn and the straight line exits.
Your arm cues were even stronger at :57 and she had an even better turn. SUPER!!Layering worked well at :47 because you had a parallel path the whole time and were ahead when she exited the tunnel. That gives you a positional advantage to be able to use a brake arm in this context. On the 180 at :48 and 1:41, for example, that is a perfect spot for it – as she exits the tunnel, you can be showing the brake arm along with the dog side arm, and a little decel as you turn your shoulders. Without the brake arms there, she lands long then turns after landing. The brake arms should allow you to turn and go while also getting lovely turns before takeoff.
The brake arms for the wrap at 1:43 were GREAT – that was a nice turn!! The brake can probably come sooner, when she is about halfway between the 2 jumps. But it was really fun to see how well she responded!!
The last sequence had the backside wrap at 2. You had too much forward motion on the first few reps. For example at 1:56 – as she was landing from 1, you were moving forward and that set her on the line to 3. You had less moment forward at 2:19 and 2:32, but still had motion so she went to 3. She was pretty convinced! And when the dog is pretty convinced, we can assume there is *something* in our cue that is unclear about what we want. So rewarding her is fine and I highly recommend stopping to look at the video so you can see what the cause was.
Showing it to her from just jump 2 was fine, but the context is different and doesn’t change the response to the cue she was seeing 🙂
Be stationary and a little rotated (with your right hip near the bar) so she can see the wing. You were moving forward on the release on the last rep, but when she landed from 1 at 3:05, you stopped moving and you were rotated. You can see her head turn because motion no longer supported the off course, so she came to the backside at 2.
The rest of the sequence looked great!! Running the line with her was a perfect way to end – fast and fun!!Great job :) Tracy
Good morning!
The mat work started off a little hoppy, probably because of the different visual. Then it ended up being just fine! She had really nice hits on the last couple of reps. We actually want her to lope more than run at the moment so she can organize her mechanics and so you can see what she is doing. Give this game a day or two off between sessions so latent learning can work its magic 🙂 You will see faster progress that way, rather than trying it every day.
Hooray for the rear cross! She got them in both directions – nice cues!!!! Just be careful to NOT do a rear cross when you say go and throw the reward straight (:47) 😁. And keep mixing in lots of straight lines so she keeps that skill fresh.
Great job!!
Tracy
