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Good morning!
On the first video:
He came right out and nailed that first layer, the same one he had questions about previously! Super! He dropped the first bar on the layering on the 2nd rep – rather than stop and reward (because it creates the question of ‘did we just reward a dropped bar?’), keep going and reward a smooth part of the next section.Now that he is getting the concept of layering with the verbals, you probably don’t need to decel and send, or use much arm motion at all – you can probably just start yelling the words as you connect and keep moving 🙂 For example, at 1:53, because there was a handling section on 5-6 you were not that far ahead and didn’t have time to set up the send. You told him to go go jump so he did! He was well into the layering before you even lifted an arm up, which tells me he doesn’t need much handling help for that anymore. YAY!!!
The full sequence looked lovely – connected, smooth, and fast. And you had no trouble getting to the backside at the end. My only suggestion is that as you finish the BC 5-6, you can add a brake arm on your cues to 6 (so you are cueing it with 2 arms) at 1:49 to get a better turn. He just needs one more bit of collection there and it will be perfect.
On the 2nd video:
Sequence 6 also went really well. You handled the 7 jump from the landing side with a bind to 8, which worked – but you can get a tighter turn on 6 and then further ahead by handling it from the takeoff side by layering the send to 6 and arriving in threadle position at 7 before he takes off for 6. That will cue a tighter turn on 6 (less motion forward) and then you can send to 8 from the takeoff side of 7. That can add more challenge to the ending you ran (sending him to the other side of the tunnel like the ending of sequence 5) or you can cue the 8-9-10 line into the tnunel then flipping him away over 10 to layer the tunnel as he gets 11-12.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
It might be a bit of an optical illusion due to the camera angle and possibly the size of the wings. The white wings are really big! But the outer wing is lined up more with the inner wing of the previous jump, basically matching the map.T
Hi!
It is fun that you can set up the course and the tree provides fabulous shade!
Opening line:
He does the send to jump 1 just fine, but you can get him wilder for it but throwing rewards to it more randomly. A throw friz for jump 1 as you run away? That would be super fun, I think! That can get the same speed going to it as he gives on the bigger fun lines later in the course 🙂>Laughing at your comment about no breathing -nothing but verbals on the layers. I was just thinking about whether I was too loud and cueing the jump too much for layers but I guess we have the answer here.>
Yes, it seems that quiet is a turn cue for him LOL! On the first run, you got quiet at :19 and he almost came off the line. Big and loud is the way to go and he doesn’t over-drive the lines when you do that.
The 4-5-6 line looked good – 7 as the backside went nicely and it also went well as a front side 🙂 You got a super nice line and turn at 1:15! At 1:32 you took him to the inside wrap at 7 so I timed the 2 ways – and even though it is possible the left turn/outside line had more yardage, it was mostly in extension so it was faster but about 3/10s on the full line than the inside wrap.
>I also wanted to test sending to the poles and he hit the 2nd opening twice when I didn’t escort him in more. (it’s hard to see with the shade)>
I don’t think you need to drive all the way to the poles, but you can support the line to the poles more by facing the entry for longer without turning until he is in the poles. You can also try to layer the tunnel to get there by getting close to 7 then sending to 8 and supporting with parallel line motion.
Small detail to tighten the turn on 14: you can handle the 13 backside more like a German, with countermotion, rather than doing the BC on the landing side.
The landing side widens the line 13-14 because you are on his line and he has to go around you to get to the tunnel, and the landing side blind also makes the physical cues for the exit of 14 late. The verbal cue was really well-timed so if you are going to have acceleration forward that might override a turn cue, you can add a brake arm before he enters to ask him to turn on the exit. You can also layer the tree 🙂 Going around the tree is a big part what made you a little late for the tunnel exit – the countermotion of the German turn on 13 (where you are basically doing the blind after passing the exit wing) will make that even easier because you will be on a more direct line to 15 – you can later and turn your shoulders too.One other small detail to take out an extra stride or two: As he is exiting 15, before he even fully exits the wing wrap, you can be moving forward and cueing the backside on 16. You decelerated into a send there – the decel created too tight of a turn on 15 (1:52) so he had to go back out to find 16.
The ending line looked really good! Yay!
>OMG – so glad to hear you’re not quite sure what she was protesting about either. There’s just so much going on her little brain with poprocks and who knows what else.>
It is probably a combination of a LOT of things in the last 4 to 6 weeks (she has done a lot of big stuff) that pile up, plus weather, and then jumping into the nothingness just tipped her over.
The other thing I like to do with young dogs is mix up the reinforcement a lot too. In general, I have habits where I tend to stick with 2 or 3 types of food rewards, and a couple of toys, and that can lose value for young dogs pretty quickly. For my 16 month old dog, I change food rewards every couple of reps and I change toys after every rep or two. That adds a big surprise factor of rewards, which is very motivating too.
I also cycle my training – if there has been a particularly intense stretch of time focusing on one thing, then I take a couple of weeks and set that aside to focus on something else. It actually strengthens what I set aside, when I come back to it.
And it is possible the gracilis tightness on the right is making mechanics of turning right harder – she was struggling with the right turns and not the left turns.
> Kaladin has class tomorrow night and while I think there’s space for me to bring Lift, I think we do better when I only have her to focus on and am not constantly swapping dogs out to the car (so neither rehearses bad waiting (aka FOMO) behavior in a crate near the ring). >
That is a good idea! I know focusing solely on her is a great thing.
> Lift is going to continue to get a break from doing much training at Fusion for the next month or so.>
That is also good – I don’t love the footing for her (or for any of the young dogs, they are all adding strides where they don’t add them on grass or turf) plus it will be good to see if any of the tightness clears up.
>Plus, we have so much to train at home with camp, weaves, and RDW stuff and at some point I need to pause the RDW a bit (or get it to a better place) so I can switch back to the teeter. I feel like going back and forth will confuse Ms “I am very Literal and hae lots of rules”.>
Have you tried going back and forth, with the teeter doing end games and the RDW separately? I think she will be fine with it as long as the difference is pretty clear.
>And speaking of Ms “I’m judgey and I have lots of rules”, I’ve had some interesting groups chats off and on with my 2 agility friends in Canada who have her litter mates (both boys). There are definitely some genetic (and/or early puppyhood experiences triggering genetics) that are at play with these 3. The small boy, Zeplin, seems to be more extreme than Lift in some of his “lack of pre-frontal cortex” and FOMO moments. (he’s the one that will add in biting his handler’s butt with his LLF moments) Wyatt (the Kaladin-sized one) is more moderate in temperament but also still has a ways to go in “growing up”>
That was fun to read! And yes… there is no escaping genetics and epigenetics. Lift is doing well overall, I don’t think she is lacking anywhere. Training young dogs always has its ups and down, but she really has been mostly up up up up over the past 6 months! You would be bored if it was too easy hahahaha 🙂
Great job here! Keep me posted!!
Tracy
Hi! I am glad Grace is feeling so much better already! Yay! And yes, Sassy can substitute at any point as Grace recovers. Her doc will tell us when she can play for real.
Have fun!
TracyHello and welcome! You and I are going to be BUSY this summer, but it is totally worth it! Have fun!
Tracy
Hi!
Poor Taq! I hope she is feeling better!!!The sequences went well!
The bonus tunnel at the beginning of the video was an example of ‘backwards and sideways motion are the same as forward motion’. You were moving towards the tunnel even though you were kind of moving sideways/backwards, so she took the tunnel 🙂
Getting closer and being fully rotated without backup up or moving sideways helped at :28. (On the pop out 1 section later in the video, you did a FC on the jump right before a tunnel and moved forward out of it and she did not consider the tunnel :))
The rest is looking really strong! And you were using your verbals! Question:
What does back mean versus slice? You used back for most of your backside slices and slice for the one that was the serpiest…. You might not need two verbals because the behavior is pretty similar. It sounds like push is your threadle wrap verbal – those all went really well!Second sequence:
On the 1-2 line, you can support the backside of 2 for one or two more steps before you turn. When she landed from 1 at :58, you said it once and then turned away. So she almost went to it but then your physical cue overrode the verbal so she came off the line. When you did it at 1:05, you can say it 2 or 3 times and took a few more steps parallel to her line before peeling away, and she committed really well! At 1:29, you did it more as a send where you were more stationary – she was not as sure about it as he was at 1:05 when you were moving.Nice tunnel send and super nice threadle wrap on 5!
You took a harder path on 6 as the backside and she dropped the bar there but that might be where you forgot the course for a moment. On the last rep, you ran it as a front side there and the wraps on 7 and 8 were gorgeous! YAY!!!Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>Even with a wing stuck in the tiny tunnel, the silly boy took it a time or two. >
That was pretty hilarious! He was COMMITTED 🙂
Also hilarious was the ‘let me make sure it is running’ video check which I also do about 1000 times when training 🙂 When it is a million degrees out, we only have a few minutes so the camera needs to be running LOL
>I really like this setup as a way to build up to ASCA gambles so while we are going to move to some pop outs for a few days, I am planning to revisit with weaves or a jump where the tunnel is. So often I need the dog to stay on the line and not take the jump near me for gambles. >
Totally agree! This skill works for gamble challenges (ASCA, USDAA, some UKI, AKC FAST) and is super useful for general course design nowadays.
On the video – throwing the toy is definitely helping! He was looking for the lines a lot better! Great job! To build the distance with the layering, the best toy placement is actually after 3 (first jump in the layering section). That will get him wanting to be out there, which makes 4 much easier (and doesn’t ask him to do much to find 4 so he doesn’t overthink it or drop the bar).
Now the next step in toy throwing is to throw it as far from you as possible 🙂 If he is layering? Get it to be on the same side of the layered obstacle he is on, and on the other side from you 🙂
At 2:54 he took the tunnel: the voice said “go” which could apply to the jump or tunnel, and the body as fully turned to the tunnel when he landed so he took the tunnel. Compare to the next rep at 3:04 where you had more acceleration and were facing the 3 jump, so he took the jump. YAY! You can totally throw the reward between 3 and 4 for that! He was not as sure about finding 4 (partially because you were pulling away to get around the tunnel) so throwing the reward after 3 will help him stay on the line no matter what you do 🙂
He got a little frustrated and froze at 3:11, probably because he had just put in a big effort on 2 reps and was told he was wrong on both (even though he was following physical cues) – so throwing the toy when he goes and gets 3 will be super helpful with that too.
Using the ‘go jump’ veals at 3:30 plus the parallel path motion really helped him find that line! Super!
>Any observations on Ven’s jumping here?>
Considering the distance challenge her needed to process and the tighter space, I think he did well! The 2 bars he dropped were on sequence 2, and that was just because he needed more momentum into the sequence on those reps. He did drop the last bar at the very end, but that was when you stopped moving and dropped the toy really close to the bar, so keep moving and throw it far far from you.
Nice work here!! Stay cool!!
Tracy
Hi!
Kaladin did really well with the bigger distances!
He had one question at :10 with your arm up high in giraffe-feeding position 🙂 which blocked connection and he was not sure about the line.Sequence 2 also went well. You can tell him the go go go for 5-6 sooner so you can then be in threadle position sooner – as he landed from 6 at :37 he was looking around a bit because you were not yet showing/saying threadle. Ideally, he would see you already rotated and facing him in threadle position and hearing the threadle verbal, as he was taking off for 6 🙂
The RC looked good before the layering – this is a spot you can add a turn-away-and-go-layer verbal! That will get a lot of automatic drive out of the RC if you wanted layering and it will maintain the wrap for when you want a wrap back to the tunnel, for example.
I don’t think you can get quiet with him on layering lines – you dared to maybe take a breath haha at 1:03 and got quiet, so he almost came off the line. Compare to 1:17 where you were repeating the cues and he had no question there. No breathing allowed, only yelling of verbals 🙂
You can also surprise him more frequently by throwing rewards right into the middle of the layering lines – that way he will pay a little less attention to your arms or breathing, and stay on the line more easily.
>Had some issues with the end of sequence 5 where he went around jump 11 – I think I was rotating to the right arm for 12 too early.>
Watching that section: he was accelerating through the layering (yay!) and saw the turn cues at 1:30 but based on your line of motion, he read it as a parallel path backside line at 1:32. To get to the blind on the takeoff side, you inadvertently put pressure on his line, which is why he was pretty convinced it was a backside.
And I agree with your assessment that you were early with the BC on the first 2 reps there, so he also went out a little further to see your connection. You were later with it (but not late :)) and you stopped moving, so he found the front at 2:05. Yay! You can get to the front without pushing on his line and without stopping by sending to the layering element before it, from further back so you don’t get up near the tunnel at all. that way when he is finishing the layering, you are already turned and heading to the backside rather than converging into the line to get past the backside wing.
Lift’s video:
She likes that opening line, she really drove out to 3!!
Good reward throw at the beginning! She almost took 4 (bailed at the last minute, jumping towards nothingness might be weird for her) but you still rewarded out past it which is good 🙂> that she still had some LLF moments.>
Yes, she was having a BIG MAD about something here! She was REALLY telling you. What she was saying? I am not entirely sure LOL Was it that she didn’t like the closed shoulder at :52 to send her to 2? Or was it jumping into nothingness (weird visual)? Or turning to her right? Turning to her left on the other line was fine, and she was not mad at the end when you did the other layered line (which is also easier to see).
> I am wondering if the recent weather is a factor. In the last week we’ve had several downpours and then the air pressure got weird again yesterday and we had some pretty bad thunderstorms overnight which kept waking all of us up. Tari was very sensitive to air pressure changes and I’m wondering if Lift has a touch of that too. Tari used to be clingy when the pressure dropped in advance of a storm. Lift doesn’t get clingy but I feel like she has been more on edge. had less impulse control in everyday life, and had less resilience in training.>
Yes, these can all play a role – it generally all piles up, and then we get the BIG MAD when they are asked to jump towards a shed LOL!! So if it happens, especially when you don’t know why, having her do some treat sniffing and pattern games helps a lot, and you can place the toy out ahead to help with the visual to get her over the jump. And switching gears to go back to the other section was great! She finished really strong there.
And there might be things to help with the other factors… more rest, more decompression, etc when the weather is crappy! This can be especially important if sleep is interrupted – studies are showing that animals are affected by poor sleep too and it manifests with similar issues as humans: less resilience, less impulse control, etc.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
> This guy really does try so hard! I hope we can work through some of his focus issues in competition rings and be able to trial because he really is so cool!>
I am glad you are working him – I agree, he is SO COOL and has a lot of talent!
>I’m “slapping on” the “jump” and “hup” verbals here (and even snuck some “ski’s”). Way easier with the 8” dog (he actually measured into 12” for UKI, he’s a flat 15” tall, so we train at 8” and have started doing some NFC at 8” select) and while he’s not exactly running slow, he’s still got the little dog strides to let my brain think of the right words.>
Yay! Yes, there is more time with more strides. And also there is probably less of your brain bandwidth needed to run him than when you run Beat – there is a lot involved with running the baby dogs and a lot of brain bandwidth devoted to it! So it makes sense that the verbals are easier with Pick for a number of reasons. And great rehearsal for running Beat!
He did well with the pop outs!!!
The first one went well. He read 1-2 really well then had a small question on 3-4 section (the send to the jump and tunnel). He got hoppy, changing his striding to go more upwards then outwards to the line. He is probably not super experienced with this type of tunnel send and needed to hash it out (which he did, good boy!)
>I got in his way and pushed too hard to get 6 and sent him to the backside there.
You had a really nice backside send then FC on the 4-5-6 line at :13-:14! I think you were connected but overhelping 🙂 by staying there to push to the next jump, which is why you ended up on his line. The overhelping my have also been a moment of ‘what is the word’ hesitation, as you mentioned.
You moved through it really well the next time and got the front with no trouble and also a really nice brake arm at 6 to get the turn!
Your FC rotation was a little late at 7 so he was wide then at :37 thought he was getting the toy 🙂 You can totally run empty handed (toy stuffed in a pocket somewhere) so it is one less thing to worry about as you run (you switch it from hand to hand in a lot of places, which requires your brain to devote bandwidth to that) plus it builds in the visual of doing agility with empty hands (useful for trialing!) . Sequence work generally does not require precision rewards, so you can whip it out at the end. If you need to throw it somewhere on time, you can have it in your hand to throw.2nd run was great!! You kept moving, have the verbals going, brake arms as needed, the rotation on 7 was great, and the 2-handed send to 8 to get collection before the tunnel was GREAT. All the things came together really well!
The toy play at the end of the first part of the session was great. He didn’t play as much at the end of the 2nd run – but he looked HOT so cool treats can be incredibly rewarding there too (I freeze string cheese so it is cold out on the field). And the excitement of the toy might wane after the first rep, so you can switch to a different toy or switch to food.
2nd sequence:
Super nice forward focus on 1! Couldn’t hear the release verbal, so hopefully it was a wrap verbal. This is a spot where you can use 2 hands to indicate the forward focus because it will tell him to look at the jump and be ready to turn.> I was surprised how hard it was to be off his line going 4-5, the bigger dogs would have had even more issues I think. Backside sends with running on the dog’s line are still a work in progress for him and I think he sorted it out very well in this session.>
Yes! This is the hardest section of this pop out! Being closer to 3 to be able to push to 4 without having to step to it (and while setting up the FC) is what will help get the FC done more quickly without backing up, but is it really challenging.
Another option is to keep him on your right and rear cross the tunnel, which sets up a nice line to 6 and puts you in a great spot for 7!
He had trouble with the 7 jump: he went to the backside really well then did not take the jump. This is more of a dog training question than a handling question, and you knew that so you broke it down to do some dog training. Super!
You can help with the handling by looking at the landing spot (and pointing to it) on the landing of 7 as you move through and move your arm back a bit to serp him in (you had great arm placement on the last rep!) Don’t look at him 🙂 That will help him commit. And if he doesn’t take it, just keep going (he is not a dog I would stop and fix things in the moment with). We will be training this more specifically in the 3rd training package 🙂As you were building it up, he needed a little more support to the 7 backside at 2:20, probably starting from the tunnel was the best idea to get momentum. And keep going even though he got the toy… I think the toy is nice but staying in motion is nicer! Stopping mid-sequence usually indicates something is wrong and the dogs can tell the difference between a reset reward and a ‘that was amazing’ reward.
Since we were chatting about placed rewards… the placed reward at 2:44 and 3:02, etc to get him to come in for the backside was not really a reward, based on his response of “yeah just gimme the cookie” LOL! I think it was more of a visual aid and did help. He gets it and brings it to you but doesn’t really play with it. So to make it more rewarding… use a treat hugger or something where he can immediately get the treat, or you can use a toy on a line and take off dragging it for him to chase/bite/shake/kill 🙂 When you threw it, it was more of a real reward (and he took it on a victory lap for a moment). But you might find that placed rewards are more effective when you ten drag them for him to chase 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>“Toy placement is a bit rooted in operant conditioning/transactional learning which is fine because OC is a part of learning, of course… but it is actually a pretty small piece of it and ultra control on a toy on the ground might be detrimental to the other elements which are super important! Fascinating, nerdy stuff“
I am certainly intrigued by this!>It comes back to dopamine in many ways, and the operant conditioning dog training world largely doesn’t realize what dopamine actually does (and they assume it is released every time we reward the dog, which is really not the case). The surprise element of throwing toys or placing them in surprising ways is both better for operant conditioning (Reward Prediction Errors are what drive encoding learning) and for motivation – motivation is what happens before we ‘reward’ the dog 🙂 and yes, it is dopamine based too. Freakin’ dopamine LOL!!
And being very predictable (placing the toy the same way over and over) is not as great for learning as many think it is (dopamine release doesn’t happen in that way then things are too predictable) and worse yet: placing a toy and withdrawing it/punishing drive to it even if it was not ‘cued’/putting too much control on it/too much pressure in the environment/playing on HUMAN terms when it should really be on the DOG’S terms can actually cause a dopamine drop out because of reward prediction errors.
In my experience, the placed rewards with ultra control on them are most useful for (and largely taught by owner/handlers of) breeds that have a more intense intrinsic motivation for herding-style games (agility is most definitely a herding style game).
Plus all individuals are different, all breeds are different… I am sure there are breeds and individuals where the intrinsic motivation for work is so high that it doesn’t matter what we try to deliver as a reward or punishment LOL!
It is both complex and extremely fascinating, and makes my head hurt a little. But looking at our training through the lens of operant conditioning can really limit us! And because it is so fascinating, I’ve gone back to school to learn the neuroscience because it really changes my perspective on training.
>The most prized toys for all 3 of my Rats have been the buffalo/coyote hide toys from Tug away C U Win.>
They make the BEST dead animal toys. I can also get you some flyball dead animal toys, gross and fabulous!
>He would probably like a water bottle in a toy, but pretty sure those fall under toys that make noise and can’t be used in NFC runs.>
I have used water bottle toys in UKI NFC and it has never been an issue – the bottle is not even loud enough for me to hear it. But it is the favorite thing for the murderdogs in my household: whippets, half whippets, terrier 🙂
> I have some raccoon tails stitched to a line. But none of his favorite toys seem to hold any interest beyond a few seconds in trial environments.>
Novelty is probably key for him. I find that true with a couple of my dogs too, so I go into NFC runs with 2 or 3 different toys stuffed in my pockets. I play with one then the next reward is a different toy. Many dogs really thrive on novelty and that is cool with me, because we get them trained and then everyone is happy. Some dogs hate the novelty of new reinforcement but I don’t think he would hate it at all.
>He is wild for flirt pole/lunge whip type of games, so wonder if I could attach the raccoon tail to a mini one for rewarding at trials. >
YESSSSSSS or tie 3 toys together for a long crazy toy and you swing it around and he can decide which part to bite/shake/kill 🙂
>Or we just keep working the food reward zones, especially for the summer when it’s hot and maybe not worth pushing the toy play until it’s cooler. They are “our” trials, the ones I help put on, so almost one a month.>>
This too! Build a big toolbox of reinforcement and then you can use it all to be happily surprising… which is extremely great for motivation, focus, and engagement.
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
The cat covering your husband was HILARIOUS at the end. I will be chuckling about that all day LOL!!!!! I am sure he would be glad to know you kept him off the video LOL
The courses ran really well!!!! And you did a great job working through the hard parts to help her out or to tweak handling cues.
Looking at the different sections:
Course 1:
The layering worked really well on the opening line – you don’t need to drive up far at all on the first reps, especially when she was feeling fresh and spicy! The further up you go, the more you set the line to the off course – so try not to go past the tunnel at all 🙂
At :50 and 1:30 you both committed her to the line and turned your shoulders so she was able to make the turn to find the 3-4 line and you were easily ahead there. Yay!
That also made it a lot easier to be ahead of her when she exits 5 to show the 6 backside (you got behind at :33). By being miles ahead at :54 and 1:36 the backside at 6 was easy peasy!
I liked the flip away 7-8 at :59 – she had a great turn and nice line. And you were able to get ahead again! You rotated a little too early there at 1:39 so she was not as sure about driving past you. At :59, you were decelerating forward then rotated as she was passing you, compared to 1:39 where rotating as she landed which is why she slowed down to be sure.
That weave entry was AMAZING! She was a bit wide over jump 9 at 1:02 (probably needs more of a turn cue on a the send, such as sending with two hands to get a little collection and maybe a name call too). She dropped the bar there at 1:44 so definitely adding a turn cue will help her.
The wideness caused her to be turning to her right over 10 which, in theory, takes her off the line to the weaves.
However, you said “weave” as she was over 9 and you were super connected and you maintained the parallel line to the weave entry even from all that distance away from her. So she got the entry AND stayed in. WOWZA!!! That is highly rewardable!
The backside cue at 1:11 was not as clear – you were looking forward and pointing ahead of her and rotated before she was committed, so it ending up cueing the front of the jump. When you re-did it at 1:20 – much clearer connection and line! Super nice!
The FC on the landing side at 1;21 and 1:56 sent her to the off course jump, good rewarding there at 1:21!
And sending to it as a post turn at 2:03 also cued the line to the jump. You got it with the FC at 2:13 and 2:27 by slowing down a lot but that puts you far behind on the next section.A blind cross exit of the 13 backside will get the tunnel and get you ahead! It is a ‘German’ turn: push to the backside while you drive forward with countermotion, then as she is approaching takeoff and you are passing the wing, you do the blind. That gets you ahead and allows you to cue the exit of 14 and turn on 15 to get the 16 backside.
On 15, ideally you would slice her to her right because that is both faster and sets a great line to the backside of 16. A slicey rear cross would work there. The left wrap is hard/slower on 15 and then requires a big push to get 16, which puts you behind for the next line.
The ending line went well! The very last jump is a threadle as you found out at 2:40 🙂 You did a big in in when she exited the tunnel but I bet a name call before she enters and the in in as she is exiting without any foot rotation is probably all you need there. You said “GO!” so she ended up on the backside, good girl 🙂
After all that work on the course, you can take an extended break and revisit the course either hours later or the next day. She was hot/tired by the time you did the runs at 3:05 so she was slower and missed the weave entry. It is better to try her again on the full course when she is rest and at full speed 🙂
Course 2:
She had an interesting response to the “ok” release at 4:02! She turned to you and almost didn’t take the jump. That makes sense to me, because generally “ok” means to come towards the handler. When you said her jump cue, it made more sense to her. It was not as pronounced on the 2nd rep and after that but she had already seen the sequence 🙂Your lead out position was great though, and it made getting her to the backside on 4 much easier!
At 4:08 you were trying to move forward with excellent countermotion but she did not take the jump. This is a dog training question more than a handling question. You can help her with handling: As you go past the jump, you can look back (and point back) to the landing spot rather than look at her. And the solidify the dog training element: throw a reward to the landing spot, so she gets paid for taking the jump even as you run forward past it. We will definitely be working this countermotion skill more in coming weeks!
It looks like you were looking back more at 4:17 but the video cutoff so I don’t know if she took the jump or not: cliffhanger! LOL! I am guessing she did not based on you working it at 4:20. Sh took the jump when you were still on landing side, but your instinct to keep moving forward like you did at 4:08 is correct: now we just need to add the dog training so she fully understands the countermotion commitment needed there.
You had more countermotion at 4:30 and even better at 4:45 and a very obvious look back at the landing spot and she got it! You can throw the reward behind you to really solidify that so you can keep moving and don’t need to stop at all… and eventually you won’t need to look back at all.
The bar came down at 5:17 and 6:00 but that might have been because you were decelerating and staying on landing side for too long so she shortened her stride to figure out where to land, and/or fatigue. He got it when you kept moving through at 6:12. These are high yardage courses so stopping to repeat stuff puts more mileage on the dog, increasing fatigue and getting compensation either from them or from the handling.
This was a much easier weave entry, no problem at all on the first rep through there. She did a great job of letting you move to the next line to layer while staying in the weaves.
She had a questions about going to the 7-8-9 line at 4:53 because the Go cue was late there. She had exited and already taken a big stride towards you when you sent her back out to the line. Ideally, you start those cues before she exits the weaves 🙂 So she stays straight.
You started the physical cues of going straight before she exited the weaves at 5:25 – on that rep, you were flying down the next line while she was weaving so she had no questions (even though the verbal late). The physical cues were very clear to take 7! Then keep connected and saying the hup cues so she doesn’t look at you before 8.
You can layer the 11-12-13-14 line if you like, and that will make the 13-14 threadle even smoother because your position will turn her better.
She had a question on the 15 backside at 5:07 – the arm being a bit high and pointing ahead, plus too much decel turned your shoulders away from the backside line and blocked connection, so the physical cues overrode the verbals and she took the front of 15.
Compare to 5:38 where you had more connection and no pointing arm, which kept the motion parallel to the backside line and she got it really well. Nice!!!!
She pulled the bar at 5:40 on 15 and 6:35 – she was looking at you, which means the next info was late 🙂 You were looking ahead and hadn’t said any verbal yet at 5:40 and said “hup” at 6:35 as she was already jumping, so remember to keep connected to her and tell her what is next before she takes off for the jump.
The tunnel-tunnel section went well too! But definitely revisit this when she is fresh and running hard because that will challenge you to time your cues sooner. She was a little wide because the right cue was late (she was already halfway through the tunnel when ideally she hears it before she enters the tunnel). When she is fresh and spicy, you will definitely need it to be more timely or she might end up off course.
Because your position at 17 was really good (near the exit) the serp/blind as you were running across the tunnel exit was great! She just needed the little name call to get the front side of 19.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>1) For the focus forwards exercise with the tunnel, both Mookie and Alonso had nice focus forwards for all the positions. This was a nice test to see this.>
Yay! Good boys!
>2) For the Super Independent handling skills: Mookie was clean first round for Sequence 1 through 5. I needed to really be clear to take tunnel 9 as he bypassed it for his first run for sequence 6.>
You can look at how you cued the jump before the tunnel. If you cued it with turn cues (I used 2 hands and a turn verbal, as he was exiting the previous jump) he will land facing the tunnel.
>Alonso was clean first run Seq 1 thru 3 For Seq 4 He took a tunnel once after jump 3. I had to be clear with my out command and out arm. Seq 5 Alonso did on first try. And Alonso also needed a stronger “come Tunnel” cue to get 9 for seq 6. Second run was clean.>Great! So that added support on the layering helped him, and the turn to the tunnel was no trouble.
>I was able to do both Standard Courses this week.>
I saw it was set up at SOTC, hopefully you got in on that so you could play in the air conditioning 🙂
> I did throw in a Double Jump at 5 Course 1 and 13 Course 2 to practice a spread jump in the mix.>
Smart! You can add in a tire too, on a straight line.
>I started with Course 2 :For both dogs I learned I really had to give a strong out to get tunnel 9. I was able to send both dogs to the teeter from behind the dogwalk. I also layered the weaves. >Excellent! The layering is super useful. And the more he sees the whole tunnel under the dog walk thing, the less you will have to work on him finding it.
>Mookie does his backsides well both sending to a backsides or doing threadle wrap backsides. Alonso does better threadle wrap backsides than sending but we worked on it and he imnproved nicely. >
For the sending to the push wraps on backsides, if he is taking the front of the jump then you need to add more connection. If he is going to the back but not taking the jump as you move way, then you can add looking at and pointing to the landing spot behind you as you move away.
>They are night and day but I am learning what each needs. I do practice them back to back.>
It is harder when they are so different, but practicing them back to back will help! Be sure you give yourself a walk through for each dog 🙂
>Doing Course 1 after Course 2 was easy and we nailed it first try both dogs. Both dogs followed my cues for what I call circle backside wraps on Course 1. Buddy was not present for these sessions as I was able to do it indoors and I run Buddy outdoors but it was too hot out 🙂>
Yay! That is great that course 1 seemed eat and you nailed it!! Super!!!! And I am sure Buddy was happy to NOT run in the crazy heat!
Sounds like things are going great! Thank you for the update!
Tracy
