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Good morning!
>>She seemed to understand this even with the greater distance, but hated when she thought she should get a treat and either she did not see it get dropped or it was when I was not tossing one that time.>>
She did great here! That middle jump is a significant distance away and she solved the puzzle pretty quickly 🙂 She is a little stronger and smoother turning to her right, but that is normal and her left turns were looking strong by the end too!
And yes, the dogs do give us a little side eye when we do not throw a treat for every jump (or if they can’t see it immediately) – the marker for the cookie toss will clarify that. A ‘get it’ marker means look for the treat. No marker/quiet momma means keep going 🙂 That will help make things even clearer for her.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>What are the steps for progression? After they drive to the end from a wing wrap,mso you start lowering it gradually?>>
Yes – very very slowly start adding movement of the board. But, training an independent end position is super important (we do add that later in this class). Has she ever done a 2on, 2off at the end of a board using a target? That will be super useful for the teeter.
>>And we would need to stop doing the teeter while we retrain?>>
I would recommend that, because you’ll be practicing two different behaviors and that can end up being confusing as to what specifically she is supposed to do.
T
Good morning!
>>That game was much harder than I expected. Not so much for me, obviously, but for the dog to figure it out. Even my older dog was having to use a lot of thinking and deciphering. Interesting how it looks so simple but it’s really not!>>
Yes, it is a shaping game while we are moving. And most dogs have played shaping games but we are standing still. So the movement makes it harder. Plus, we have stripped out a lot of the info we normal give to get them to take the jumps (speed, big connection, verbal, arms, etc) so they are being asked to find it more independently and that is soooo much harder! But it will save us a LOT on course because we cannot always be showing a lot of info – and the current trend in agility is that the dog just needs to stay on the line.
>>When I was practicing, I didn’t even consider the heeling being more valuable. I didn’t think of that until later when I watched my video. >>
Yes – it was a good catch to figure that out. When you mentioned it, it was easy to see when she was offering heeling, looking at you, good girl! But not on your right side where you probably haven’t done as much heeling. She still did really well on our left side, probably about 75% correct and that is still really good!
>>>This makes total sense!!! I would have never thought of that but it’s so simple! Thank you! Great suggestion! I obviously can’t have her afraid of the first rep since you only get 1 rep in AKC classes! >>
I learned that from one of my most successful agility dogs… who was terrified of the teeter as a baby dog. So we would do one single mind-blowing rep, like for his favorite toy that he would only get for the teeter, or for a HUGE amount of cookies like his whole meal. I remember clearly on session where I wanted to give him just one Vienna sausage from that little tin that they come in… but when I reached for it, I dropped the whole tin so he grabbed it, ran around with it, and ate about 10 Vienna sausages for one single rep. Best day ever, according to him haha!! But it ended up building to an incredible teeter performance.
>>Ha ha ha I should have known most of the dogs had some Border Collie in them!!! It seems like everybody super involved in agility has some sort of BC mixed into their dogs if not a purebred. >>
Yes, a lot of the mixes put BC in them for size and biddability. I think agility is built with BCs in mind, at this point. I do a ton of flyball too so a lot of the mixes have BC and whippet in them. The whippets bring speed and can turn a lot better 🙂 My next dog will be a whippet/malinois mix 🙂
>>You definitely can’t deny their amazing talent when it comes to agility. >>
Yes! And also they have so much intrinsic motivation that a lot of them will keep going even if the training is crappy LOL or if there is too much training. I prefer dogs that will keep me honest – the whippety dogs will roll their eyes at me and grab an Uber if I am being a bad trainer 🙂 When I am being a good trainer, the whippety dogs are faster and tighter than the BCs they run against .
>>I’ll stick to my Brittanys. I’m a runner. I love running but I also love that my Brittanys are slow enough to allow me to make mistakes and still recover from them. Ha ha they are more forgiving because of their lack of speediness in comparison. >>
I love Brittanys! They also keep us honest in our training and handling 🙂 They are also a fast breed – they just don’t have the same frantic movement that a lot of herding dogs have, so it might not feel as crazy.
Looking at the plank game: Kashia thought this was super cool LOL!!! No questions at all when you were stationary, and no questions when you were walking back and forth. The back and forth is similar to the lazy game – so this game on the board will also help the lazy game on the jumps! You can add in a little more distance away from it, especially when she is on your left, so she has to move further and further away from you to get on the plank.
Since she likes this so much, we ca use this plank to help her love the teeter movement by putting stuff under the plank to elevate it a bit – like a block on either end? You can elevate it by just a couple of inches on each side with whatever you have on hand.
Then, when she is happy with that (will probably take 3 seconds haha!) you can put stuff under the board that make it wobble and move a little. If you have any of those inflatable conditioning things, you can do that under the plank. Here is a video of one of your classmates with 2 of those inflatable bones under her plank:
I buy some cheap inflatable disc things at Walmart 🙂 or borrow from friends. No need to sped a fortune on it!
Or, you can put other things under it like small logs on each end – anything that will make the board a tiny bit less stable.
>>She kept repeating the exercise even when I was done practicing and cleaning up.>>
Ha! That is hilarious! I guess she likes her plank LOL!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

Good morning!
He did great with the baby level lazy game!!! He is not really even looking up at you and that is perfect: we want him looking at his line and not at you 🙂
2nd video had ore distance to the outer wing and a little less movement from you – he had a little place at you the way to the middle wing (totally normal and expected) but then he carried on around the wings. Yay!
So two ideas for you to advance this game in the smaller space: using the 3 wings, first in the baby level position then in the advanced level position, you can do lazy ‘sends’ after he passes the first wing: use the dog side arm and leg to just point to the middle wing, very casually, and see what he does 🙂
You probably make wings 1 and 3 into jumps, I think there is enough room for that, to help bring the jump bar into the picture.
Looking at the wingin’ it send game: interestingly, he had trouble with the right turn wraps back to the tunnel at the beginning (he went to the middle wing in a very convincing manner :))
When you moved a little more to the tunnel, it helped him come back to the line. And he didn’t have that same question on the left turn side but he was a little wide. I think it could have been two reasons it was happening:
On the right turns at the beginning, I think he needed more direct eye contact (exit line connection) to see the turn. Extend the ‘new’ arm (the dog side arm after the FC, so the right arm in this case) back to his nose so he can see the front of your chest and your eyes. The middle wing was soooo close, and if he had just done the lazy games, then I can see why he would be locked onto the middle wing if the connection didn’t pull him through the gap.
The other small detail might have been a bit of backwards motion happening. This was NOT happening at the beginning, but it was happening on the other side at :45 and :51 – as you are finishing the FC you are also stepping backwards with right leg (leg next to the tunnel) so he was staying out on his line while you stepped backwards… but then turned to the tunnel immediately when you turned your feet to the tunnel at :46 and :52.
Compare that to how tight his turns were at :58 and 1:09 – you didn’t step backwards as he was exciting the wing so he went very directly to the tunnel. His commitment is looking fantastic, so you can eliminate any backwards motion but starting the FC sooner so by the time he gets around the wing, your feet are facing the tunnel.
Great job here!!! He is looking great!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The lazy game is looking really strong, she is doing a great job of finding the jumps without a whole lot of help 🙂>>When I turn my back completely to her she sometimes misses the first jump,
In those moments, she needs just enough connection to know which side to be on. You can see that at :15 and :37 where, after eating a treat, she doesn’t see any connection so she catches up to you (missing the jump), checks the connection, then finds the jump. Compare it to :24 and 1:26, for example, where there was a hint of connection the whole time and she had no questions.
One more step you can add to this week’s lazy game: move the middle jump of the pinwheel further and further away… and add lazy sends to it after she lands from jump 1 🙂 Usually when you send her, you are dynamic and connected! So now you can be less connected and less dynamic to see if she can send with less info to build that commitment even more.
The wobbly plank looked great too – she was not bothered at all by the movement. Super!!
>>When she turns around she is a bit erratic, because she is so food obsessed.>
Ha! Yes, she is definitely food driven LOL! For turning around, you might need to move your hand very slowly and reward after each one – it becomes more of a conditioning exercise when the board gets more wobbly, so slowing it down is perfectly fine. She was super fast running back and forth across the plank, and the angles were great (also no questions from JJ on those).
Great job here!
TracyWow, he was a superstar here! What a good boy!!! He seems very confident running up that big board 🙂
The next step is to get a bit more independence from him, like you were getting when you pre-placed the treat on the target on at the top of the board. He needs a few more reps to really get the hang of driving to it without looking for you, so since he is easily portable 🙂 you can pick him up, show him the yummy that you place up there – then carry him back to the start and send him up the board to the yummy 🙂
You can go with him on the first couple of sessions, then we will start to fade you out of the picture and have him do it without you.
Great job!!
TracyHer teeter is looking good! We can definitely get more drive to the end and more speed. As she is reaching the top of the board, she is slowing down and looking up at you, which slows her down and causes her to stop before the end. I think she needs a more independent job (if you want a slide, the 2on, 2off is the best one for that) so she can go do it and shift her weight into her rear rather than look at you.
And the mountain climber will get her independently driving to the top. You can prop the teeter with something else (like a big barrel or solid jump wing or even a small ladder) so we can work that skill 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Really great session here! Lots of great sending and also really useful info in the couple of spots he had questions 🙂
>>Sometimes my arm is too high
I love low hands! But I also didn’t notice your hands being too high, I think they were good!
>>– Toy in the wrong hand?Also didn’t notice this as an issue 🙂 It is hard to always have it in the ‘correct’ hand especially when we do multiple crosses on one sequence. And he didn’t have questions about the toy.
One thing I do notice is that he turns to his right a tiny bit better than he turns to his left. Part of that is your timing of the FCs on the sending:
When he was on your left (Turing to his right), you were earlier on the FCs so he was very tight and fast! You were rotating and completing the FC before he arrived at the wing. The only one that was a little late was at 1:20 – on that one, you were stepping back and not completing the FC as early.
When he was on your right (turning to his left) you were later on your rotations, almost waiting to complete them til he wrapped the wing (which caused him to go wider, waiting for the rotation, like at :33 and at 1:24). The FC at 1:10 was GREAT!
>>I’m baffled at 0:40. Had to end up removing a wing and still got wide turns there.>>
He is very good at responding to exactly what he sees at :38 and :43 and :49 – those were valid responses from him. It was a conflicting indicator: the verbal said wrap but the body cues were pointing to the soft turn line – so he went with the motion. If you freeze the video, you can see the arm/shoulders were facing exactly where he went even when you took the other wing out. To tighten it, you can rotate earlier so you are fully facing the tunnel before he exits the wing, or do a spin on the wing.
Really nice soft turn to FC sequences at :53-:58 and 1:04-1:07 and 1:15-1:19! Lovely turns, sends, and connection!!! I don’t think you need to go as close to the middle wing on those – I bet he will go without you needing to move past it as much. That is what got the little blooper on the last rep at 1:27-1:29 had a too much motion past the center wing (moving backwards as you were doing the FC) so he was wide on the center wing and didn’t pick up the new line. Staying a little further from the center wing will help him turn tight and let you do the FC sooner so he picks up the new line.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>her first time staying in hotels so she was extra exhausted from that new environment.>>
She had a lot of new stuff! She did great!
>>The Lazy Game did not go so well.>>
Actually, she did really well especially for the first time doing it! It is a little weird 🙂 but the goal is to really shift the value to the jumps so you don’t have to work as hard as a handler 🙂
>>Afterward, I thought maybe she was thinking more about “I have to heel next to mom” than she was “take the jump next to mom”>>
I agree that the value of heeling was conflicting with her value for the jump. She was sometimes doing the jump, sometimes heeling.
I was going to suggest switching to your right side but you read my mind hahaha! She did REALLY well on your right side, probably because there is not as much value for heeling on that side. So, work this more on the right side for now, then when you switch to the left side you can throw the rewards a lot sooner: toss the treat as she is on the way to the jump, before she takes it, to help her understand not to come to heel position when there is a jump in front of her. This will make handling sooooo much easier! She might not go fast when you are slowly walking, but that is fine: we will be adding speed soon 🙂
>>Her clockwise reps were the first ones we did and she never got all three jumps in a row during all reps. You stressed no verbals and no hands so I tried just looking at her with normal connection and I tried walking close to the jumps. Her counterclockwise reps were nearly spot on every time. >>
Clockwise = dog on left, heel side. Counterclockwise = dog on right, not as much heeling value 🙂 So it makes sense that she got the counterclockwise reps pretty easily.
>>I don’t think I overstressed it.>>
I agree – she didn’t seem stressed or bored. She was thinking hard, steam coming out of her ears, in a good way 🙂 This game is a lot harder than it looks!!
Looking at the teeter video:
>>Where the fear comes from, I have no idea. She scales hay bales every day. She climbs up my giant haystack for my cows that’s at least 20 feet high.>>
It is pretty normal that adolescent dogs suddenly get worried about something that they were not worried about before. And it might not be a height issue – it might be the movement or noise or narrow plank? Based on how she got on it happily on the first rep and then got sticky/worried at the top, my guess is it is the movement & slam that concerns her? No problem, we can get her happy to do it!
After the first rep, she was able to predict that it was not going to slam or move, so she was definitely happier.
Now, because the first rep is the important one, we can do the teeter training as single reps with mind-blowing reinforcement. You can have a whole meatball for her at the top. Or, some cream cheese or something insane like that! And do exactly one rep 🙂 Then go do something else, and come back later and do one more rep.
Doing the reps one at a time like that will help her associate the teeter with the amazing reinforcement, so she will drive up it like a wild woman on that very first rep 🙂 This will become even more important as we add movement 🙂
>>By the way, I love that you have less common dog breeds as your agility dogs. >>
Thanks! I like to train all sorts of different types of dogs 🙂 I started agility with a couple of shelter rescues and Dalmatians. Little Elektra is half Papillon, 25% BC, 25% whippet (I have 2 other Papillons as well – they help me understand Spaniels!) Contraband is 50% whippet and 50% Border Collie. Ramen is a full whippet from racing lines (fun!) Hot Sauce shows up in a few demos and she is a mix of Rat Terrier, BC, and a couple of other terrier types. And the 2 solid black dogs are both 50% BC and 50% Croatian Sheepdog. So…. There is a lot of variety in the house LOL!!!!!
Nice work here! Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
Her commitment is looking really good so now we can play with the subtleties!
One suggestion is to use wings, even if jumps are available. That will help her get the collection and also ‘saves’ her body a bit more, considering all the reps.The sends on videos 1 and 2 are looking good! Interestingly, the little blooper on each was at :17 on both LOL!!! At :17 on the first video, you needed a little more direct connection on the send. At :17 on the 2nd video, there was pressure to the rear cross line and the opposite arm tossed the treat… so it totally looked like a RC which is how she read it. Good girl!
The rest looked great!You can definitely add your wrap verbals here so she adds more collection. And, add more distance from the tunnel exit to the wing for the send, so she can drive even further away to it.
Video 3 is also looking good! You can use the wrap verbals when you are going to do the FC directly back to the tunnel, and the soft left/right verbals when turning her to the middle wing. Her commitment is really looking strong so you can add even more distance here! It will be fun to see how far away from the tunnel you can send her – using connection and one big send step, can she send 15 feet? 20 feet?
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
>>Since we already do the teeter, might you have suggestions to speed it up? I had hoped to get a slide with her, but I most likely didn’t train it properly.
Yes! Do you have any video of her doing the teeter? Then we can formulate a plan. If you don’t have a video, no worries 🙂 The mountain climber game definitely helps speed up the teeter!
Tracy
Hi!
>>What is the difference between the deliberate disconnection and the extreme connection for backsides These seem like opposite types of connection for the same behavior, so I know I’m missing something.>>
They are definitely opposite types of connection! And they produce different behaviors. The extreme connection is the cue to move away and go “do the thing” like sending to the backside. The disconnection is not a cue at all – it is a device to be able to run faster 😁 and we are relying on the dog’s understanding of motion and verbal to get the desired behavior.If we disconnect and try to send to the backside, most dogs will end up going to the front of the jump. Or, if we get the dog to the backside but then use extreme connection to their eyes as we run past the backside, most dogs will not jump the bar.
So, for the more complex backsides, we can use extreme connection to cue to the dog to go to the backside. Then as we see the dog heading to the backside of the jump, we can deliberately disconnect and run like mad to get to our next spot (because of the understanding of the backside skill).
This is what you were doing on the first video: big connection to get her to go to the backside, then disconnecting as you ran forward past the exit wing. It went well!
On the extreme connection to the backside, she needs a little bit of convergence towards the backside wing added to the extreme connection to get the backsides consistently. You had the convergence at the beginning, and also at :31 and 1:00 and after that, so she went to the backside nicely!
More convergence was needed at :16 and it can come earlier at :22 and :47 – it can be subtle but based on her responses, the convergence has to be starting before she takes off for jump 1.
She did GREAT with finding the bar even with the disconnection! Yay! Great job throwing the reward behind you!
Looking at the wraps – for her to be able to see the extreme eyeball-to-eyeball extreme connection, you need to be further ahead for this so as she is landing from the first jump, you are almost at the wrap jump and you can turn on the extreme connection. Deceleration is needed to, so there is not too much slamming on the brakes which causes the dogs to not take the jump (this is what happened at 1:41).
Bear in mind that the extreme connection on wraps is not something that all dogs need – most dogs turn really well using regular or shifting connection. So, it is possible that Nox does not need extreme connection on wraps at all 🙂 One indication that the dog doesn’t need it is if they stop in front of the jump rather than jump it, which is what Nox did when there was the most extreme connection element. The other reps had a softer and more regular connection and she did really well.
Looking at the combos: These went well!
Remember to use serp connection on the backside serps to the wing – that is where your feet keep moving forward to the next wing but your upper body rotates to ‘face’ the jump. Each shoulder is lined up to a wing of the jump (your shoulders were perpendicular to the jump bar here). That also sets up great exit line connection on the backside serps too! You were looking forward on these, so she was she is jumping the bar towards you and looking at you (and barking a bit lol). You can see it at :11 and again in the sequences at 1:10, 1:24, 1:41.
Looking at the threadle element: she definitely reads the cross arm for the threadles! It looks like it worked really well because there was more rotation and connection back to her – the rotation might cause a little delay on running forward so you can experiment with just how much rotation does she need to see with the cross arm and still get the threadle.
The cross arm threadle cues at 1:18 and 1:35 were a little late, but she came in immediately to it when she saw it. Yay! So you can start the cross arm even before she exits the wing wrap before the jump, so she sees. The info sooner.
The one arm threadle at :23 might work too if you give a big connection shift back to your threadle arm. Those threadles are generally easier for running forward so it is worth it to see if she can read it 🙂
Building up the whole sequence: This went really well! There was a small blooper on the wing send at :44 (you broke connection on the send to the wing) but you adjusted to add the connection on the other reps and it looked great! She thought the wing-to-wing was stooooopid (because running a long distance and having to pass a jump is stoooooooooopid, thus the barking) but your handling and connection were clear 🙂 so she did it. Yay!
As mentioned above, the threadles worked well and you can start them earlier, and you can rotate your shoulders to face her more on the serps (shifting connection to the landing spot). Those are small details to tighten up lines and keep her focusing forward on the lines.
Great job here!!
TracyPerfect!! They often open it to JAG members first but Linda will send the info early to “friends and family” who are non-members – so definitely tell her that you are in the “friends and family” group and should get a spot 🙂
T
Hi!
The
1st rep here versus second rep also showed us how important the BIG connection and rotation is – if it is BIG, he does the out moving to his right. If it is too gentle 🙂 then he goes straight or to the backside of the straight-ahead jump. And the timing of that is important too: if you start out with the BIG connection, he gets it. If you start out too gentle, he goes straight even if you try to add the big connection after he lands. So he needs to see the strong connection (and accompanying rotation) as he is in the air over the previous jump (or sooner).I do think that pulling the ‘out’ jump in closer will make it easier, so you don’t have to exaggerate the cues as much and increase the success rate.
Great job!
TracyHi!
I think this session gave us a really good look at what helps him read the ‘out’ cue: BIG upper body rotation as part of the connection. If it is not quite enough (not enough rotation or looking the jump and not him, he doesn’t read it at at that distance (like on the 2nd rep or at 2:30).He has a much harder time going to his left on this skill, so definitely move the jump in a lot closer – ideally it would be one stride away so all he needs to do is move away by one stride (not several). And, having the jump in closer will help you be able to not have to rotate as much when he is moving to his right, so you can get the response more easily.
T
