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Yay! She did great!!!! Pretty much the same Lift you have in classes, even with the added distractions!!!!! Congrats on a fabulous debut!!!
>She stayed focused even with the leash runner right where I wanted to start.>
Yes, and the leash runner was showing weird body language (back turned to her, then stiffly turning forward). Lift was like “ok, you are weird, whatever” LOL!
>She ran the outside of the tunnel on the first loop. Not sure if she noticed the photographer behind the tunnel but I called her name and she came flying down the line.>
It might have been the photographer but also it looks like the judge moved too and was very close – so she found the line but not the obstacle. That’s a normal baby dog thing, no worries. Hopefully the photographer got some good photos 🙂 And you were great to keep going and set up a lovely line for her!
>So proud of her rear cross to the finish jump. It’s a bit hard to see over the tunnel, but she ran straight to the leash with me and pushed her head through the loop right away.>
Yay!!! Looked like the same as class… and that is *exactly* what we want. No stress, no pressure, just fast happy trained behaviors. YAY!!!
>. She’s entered in SS, Jpg & Snkr which are the 2nd, 4th and 6th classes of the day. She would be first on the line in each class since it’s small to tall. My plan is to run one, maybe two depending on how it goes.>
You can decide in the moment, depending on course design, if she seems mentally tired, or if it is just better to end on a high note 🙂 And if something goes sideways? No worries, she is doing great.
Keep me posted!
TracyHi! Hooray for no snow!!!!!
The tunnel rocking horses are going well! I don’t think his questions were about verbal cue timing, they were more about connection. He was a little sticky in the early reps because you were looking forward and he was looking at you to see what you wanted. So to help that, lock your connection to him at the tunnel exit (saying the verbal directly to him) as you send him.
In the middle he jumped up at you – he was not sure what you wanted and when you stepped to the wing and he went to it, he got frustrated when he saw that was wrong. In his defense, I didn’t know what you wanted either 🤣🤣 It was hard to tell if you wanted him to sit? There was not clear cue. And I couldn’t hear what you said as you stepped forward. Being ultra clear will help him and also if something is wrong? Keep going or reset with a cookie.
>>when does this class end for feedback?>
February 25th is the last day.
> I am not sure if Ringo and I should be going into MaxPup 2 or if I should focus on the MasterClass Timing with him. or both? Your thoughts?>
He’s kind of at an in-between age… Module 1 of MasterClass is doable but Module 2 gets above his current skill set pretty quickly. MaxPup 2 has some good proofing games that we can pump up and jumping skills too.
Great job here! Let me know what ypu think!
Tracy
Hi!
Both of the sessions here went great!
For the countermotion serp exits – he’s definitely ready for you to add the rest of the serp to it (advanced level) and I bet you can use the same jump set up as the serp versus threadle session.
Or, a small space skill you can add to this is a slight tweak on what you did here: he is in a stay 6 or 8 feet from the jump, and you are right at the barrel facing the countermotion line.
Release him while you are walking forward on the countermotion line – he will have to pass you more dramatically and that is HARD!Seep versus threadle went really well! He’s finding the turns and bar really nicely, especially on the threadle with the MM out there on the slice! Yay! One blooper, no big deal, I think he was just looking in the wrong spot when released.
The thing to remember here for the handling is to have your hand in position as you are walking to the position (serp or threadle) – have it up the whole time. You were tending to move it into position and release at the same time, which will make the hand the release (he was starting to move on the hand movement). The hand can swing back a bit on the threadle and be stationary on the serp, but you will want it separated from the verbal release.
The last video day is February 25th, so keep ’em coming! Great job here!
TracyAwesome awesome awesome!!!! I’m glad you had fun at the seminar and double glad about the measurement!!!!
Keep me posted about tomorrow! Have fun!!
Yay! Latent learning is magic!
Since the opposite arm is generally the strongest cue, you can have a treat in your dog-side hand to toss back and that can help with mechanics. Keep me posted!
TracyHi!
Do you have more video of the easier side? The hand cue when she was turning left (:03) was a little different than the other side:On the left turn, your hand was a little more visible back to her, and it moved to help her turn away.
On the reps where she struggled on the right turn side, the cue was less clear: your left arm was out ahead of you and I don’t think she could see it, so when you added movement it probably looked like a send to the other side of the barrel. When you broke things down and your hands were lower and more visible to her, she was able to come to the correct side of the barrel nicely! And you used your hands to turn her away.
So for the right turns, try a little less motion (for now) but more obvious/bigger hand cues: the opposite hand should be across your body towards her (elbow touching your chest) with a bit of rotation towards her so she can see it and see connection. And you can give her a little arm “swoosh” away to the barrel at first, that is pretty easy to fade when she knows what the cue is.
Nice job breaking it down for her here!! Let me know how it goes with the more visible cue!
Tracy
Wow! What a lovely run! VERY connected and he really loves when you are connected. He didn’t see the teeter after the tunnel, probably because the tunnel had a slight curve and was kind of facing the a-frame. When he did get it, you were converging more and had BIG connection (he has a great teeter!!!). And facing the weaves for an extra heartbeat (til he had the entry) really helped.
I agree, he didn’t seem worried about the music at all. So you can have other people walking in the ring (not just the big instructor dude :)) and other dogs outside the ring and maybe even barking. Crank it up to be like a trial 🙂
He has a trial this weekend, yes? Keep me posted! Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>Took a bit longer than usual to re orient to me after we walked in so waited and then tossed a treat when she did turn back. >
There was some bang or something right as she walked in so she looked at it then back at you. She hd to assess what the heck was happening then dismiss it 🙂
>Had some feelings at the start but then sat when I asked her to,>
I think that the leash being tossed far drew her eyes towards that line – that is definitely a distraction for youngster so maybe for now drop it down off to the side rather than throw it far.
<Did her first long jump (took a bit of a look and collected to add a stride but jumped it nicely). >
She did good job with the long jump! Yay! And the handling looked good – she had one question at 1:36, where you started moving backwards on a wrap cue so she pulled off. For now, decelerate forward on wraps til she lifts her front feet, then you can turn and go the next direction.
>She was noticing the rest of the class coming in to set bars near the end and then I didn’t cue the right turn to the tunnel well at all so she kpet on her line and went right up to Dawn (who had just set a bar to 16in) and had to stare at her for a bit. I purposely stayed in the ring a bit longer to test her on whether she noticed/cared about the BC coming into the ring on the far side but she was fine.>
Yes – the line definitely sent her towards the person doing strange things 🙂 so she was flummoxed for a moment but recovered well! And otherwise she did well ignoring the people all around – that is a lot of pressure for a young dog and most likely something she will see at a trial.
On the 2nd run:
>I liked our “setup” for the 1rst sequence here. Followed me in, did her bark and off we went. I think I want to do something like that for her first NFC run. >
Yes! One thing for the NFC run is she might be jumping towards people or tables of stuff etc, so be sure she is taking off for the send jump before you run to the next line (or if she refuses it, just keep going).
>Check out about 1:30 where Dawn accidentally got more in our way than we intended and Lift ran right by her as she was trying to get out of the way!>
Ha!!! Lift probably thinks it is another crazy human training trick LOL!!! She did great!
Let me know how her Casey seminar goes tomorrow, and I am looking forward to hearing how the weekend goes!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>Our next trial is next weekend. I just found out they moved the agility field to a possibly nicer spot (less bumpy) so we may be able to do longer runs than I planned. I was going to do In & Outs since the ground is yucky, but now maybe I can do a run with no toy & see how she does.>
That is great!! A variety of options open up when the footing is good!!!
>We took a break from weaves because l lumped a little with 6 + 4 and phasing out the Manners Minder, so we took a little break. We tried again this morning with 6 poles & the MM behind a wing. 6 poles was too hard, so I went to 4 and she was more successful. I feel like the MM being far away is making her rush and she was skipping the last set of poles. Here is what the set up looked like – the MM was beyond the wing.>
The setup looks good – one thing you can try as you fade the MM is to open the poles a tiny bit so she can be successful, then close them back up. That way, one variable gets harder (MM moves further away) and one variable gets easier for now (weave open a tiny bit). Then the MM being further away will become easy, so you will be able to close up the poles pretty quickly. Let me know what you think!
The other thing you can do is throw a toy or treat between the end of the poles and the MM, so the MM is still visible but no longer the reward.. which will cause her brain to fade it out 🙂
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
The angle helped her a little here plus she is getting the hang of it. She was getting a little fatigued (lots of bar ticks) so be sure to just do 4 or 5 reps and then be done for the day – it is hard work 🙂 And you can totally add the moving target/bigger toy idea to the angled grid here too!> We have some more training time scheduled this weekend that I was going to set up the grid again and have it slightly off her line. >
Based on your weekend plans… I suggest skipping the grid work this weekend. Saturday should be an easy day so just do simple things and let her rest – the seminar and trial will be hard so we want her to have an easy day in the middle of that sandwich 🙂
>We do have a fairly big weekend this week. Friday we have a seminar with Casey Keller and then that evening we have the skills class again. Saturday we have our scheduled training session. And on Sunday we are entered in a UKI trial. She’ll be running in Speedstakes and Jumping. I was thinking, depending on the course, that I would run Speedstakes for real and NFC jumping (skipping the weaves for now). >
Busy and fun! I think you will enjoy Casey! And yes, Speedstakes for real if the course looks fun and NFC in jumping to skip weaves sounds perfect!
>I might have to schedule in a walk during one of those days too for some decompression.>
Yes – Saturday 🙂 Friday and Sunday are big days!!!
Have fun and keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
These were definitely hard, especially when you started moving faster and she was doing the tunnel. She was not quite ready for both 🙂 so keep your movement pretty slow for now.One thing to tweak here is the reward: the toy is small so her head is really low, and the physics of stopping for it that close to the 3rd jump are putting a lot of pressure on her shoulders. So switching to a larger toy that she can scoop up while she moves will really help (I use extra large hollee rollers for this):
https://www.petsmart.com/dog/toys/fetch-toys/jw-pet-hol-ee-roller-dog-toy-color-varies-5017149.html?gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADiLNNk68lVgAuOIvoqjfKhmNf6Qs&gclid=CjwKCAiAqrG9BhAVEiwAaPu5zm5rE7JE7TmRHtfeaFsnND15-8Bh1QkJ8O1wfwEAxwVAEi1RlEXxZRoCeEQQAvD_BwEAnd you can use a moving target so the toy is in motion and further from the last jump as she lands, and she doesn’t have to come to a fast stop to grab it:
This is something to revisit here and there, she was sorting it out really well and then you can add more and more of your motion.
Nice work!
Tracy
Start line practice looks good here! You were both a little twitchy on the first rep LOL but then you walked away faster and she held the stay a lot better.
One thing to consider – it looks like you were giving her treats as she sat. It is not a bad thing to do, but it is something that will never happen in the trial environment… and we don’t want the or lack of treats to be something that tells her that there is no reward and potentially creates questions or overarousal. So getting in the habit of not handing her a treat for sitting will help transition the skill to a trial too.Nice work!
TracyYay! This is a hard sequence because the cues have to all be in place before the tunnel – and you got it both times. YAY!! At :20 (first rep) you were earlier: as she passed the exit wing of the wrap, you started the decel and right cues. Super! She saw and heard everything one before she went in. On the 2nd rep (:37) you were later – she was halfway between the jump and tunnel. So she saw the decel and heard the verbal, but probably did not see the shoulder turn so the turn was wider. The earlier cues definitely worked best.
Great job!!
TracyHi!
>We’ve been running at 18″ in class so I decided to try out 20″ for the first time. I thought her jumping looked great. Thoughts?>
I agree – I think the jumping looked great 🙂
>One item I took away from this sequence is she’s always looking for more information on where we are going next. We worked a wrap back into the tunnel and I had to leave earlier than what I thought otherwise she assumed she was going straight.>
Yes – with her stride length, the cues for a turn start the instant she exits the tunnel at the very latest. And if it was a jump? The turn cues would start at liftoff to the jump *before* the turn jump.
Looking at the turn on the jump after the tunnel here (especially because the sequence set up so much speed coming into it):
The 1st rep at :09 was late, she was already past the halfway point between the tunnel and jump. When you started the cues. The last rep was better but still little late – at :43, the cues started when she was a full stride past the tunnel exit.
The rep at :26 was the best one – the cues started as she exited the tunnel. And not surprisingly, that was the rep with the best turn 🙂And you were good about decelerating before rotating – that made a big difference for her!
Great job!
Tracy
