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Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi!
The setup with the grid looked really good here with 2 bumps then the jump!
> Seems like it went well, including when I slowed down the video. Looks like low head and arched back. >
I agree! And good for you for slowing down the video to watch!
He totally cheated on the stay on the first rep but the jump form was really nice! He caught himself beginning to cheat later in the session (:50) but stopped himself – good boy!
For now, we are going to keep you out next to the toy and moving forward – there was one rep where you sent to the toy while you stayed by the jump, but that is a decel position so we don’t want him to extend past it. All of the rest had you out with the moving target toy, and those looked good!
It is possible that the distances were a few inches too wide, but that mght also be because you are indoors and mats have a different grip than grass. If you have decent weather, you can take this outside and see how he does at these distances.
Great job!
Tracy
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi! These are going really well! Only 1 sugestion for the mechanics that might make it feel even smoother:
Lean forward more and get your hand more to her nose level, and keep it there until she is just a couple of inches from it. Then you can step back and move it back to cue the turn.
That will build in a bit more decel for you both, plus it will keep you from being too early with the arm or step back. When you were a shade early with the foot and yur hand was high, she thought it was a throw back (like at :53 and 1:19)
The reps at 1:57 amd 2:22 were great examples of your hand being lower and the timing of the cue started just before she got to the hand – nice timing, nice turn!!!
You can also send her to the other wing from further away will mean you don’t have to back up as much ๐ That will also make it easier to get your hand low and feet together to prep for the turn away.
I think she is ready to see the tandem turns!
Great job here!
Tracy
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi!
He did really well with the out versus going straight! No problem discriminating between the two cues, on both sides and with some distance added too – well done to you for making them very different. Adding the blind went well! It worked best when you were moving more, like at the end of the video. When you were walking then accelerated into the blind, he was surprised and the acceleration sent him a bit wide. But when you were running more, he was able to set up a nice tight turn.Mission Transition:
There was an emphasis on the Go cues here especially in the first part, which is great because he can keep learning about the joys of leaving you far behind ๐๐คฃ
The decel and wrap verbal can start sooner: you were generally starting the decel when he was more than halfway to the jump, which is a little late but I can see why you did that: at :47, your timing was really good, he was maybe a stride past the start wing – but he didn’t commit. Hmmm! You adjusted on the others to be later to get commitment but we want you to also have earlier timing, so you can adjust the reward placement for the wraps. To help him commit when you decel without you having to let him get pretty close to the jump, you can throw the reward to the landing side of the wrap wing, nice and close to it, so he gets paid for committing in collection.He is turning really well, so it is not about the actual collection – it is more about teaching him to drive into it with you you having to get as close to the jump or wait as long to cue it.
The lap turns looked good! He definitely liked it better when you added the wing before hte lap turn ๐ He read them really well – just be sure to keep your leg relatively still until he is almost at your hand. Stepping back too early will result in him thinking it is a throw back. That is what happened at :53 and 1:41 – your leg was really early which makes the hand a little early too, which turns your shoulders to the throw back side of the wing so that is where he went. You told him he was incorrect but he was actually correct ๐ It was pretty funny at :55 where he kept going LOL!
For the lap turns, you can add more space between the wings to get more speed. And you can also add in the tandem turns!
The ladder grid is going well – the only real question he had was on the step in for jump 1: he pushed from the rear on rep 1, but on reps 2 and 3 he really pulled upwards and kind of lifted himself over the bar. It might just have been because he was a shade too close to the bar on those reps, so you can have his front feet about a hands-width away from the bar to see if that gives him enough room. The last rep looked better on the step in, but the first rep was definitely the best one.
He was a little pouncey over jump 5, but that was probably in anticipation of getting the reward ๐ You can lead out further and move faster, both to challenge him and to get him driving out more over the last jump.
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterGood morning!
>Weโre gonna put the serps on hold to give me time for latent learning.>
Sleep on it! And it might make more sense in a sequence and not in isolation.
Zigzags –
>I was a little caught off guard with her speed on the slice jumps and very happy with the session.>
Yes, she was all in and flying, so you needed a moment to lock in ๐
You can also start at the 3rd wing to get things rolling on 2 bars like yo did at 2:50 (instead of at the end of the 3rd bar). And you can use your feet too – you might be able to get her turning more if you are also stepping to each line rather than just using upper body. You did a bit of stepping on the last rep (3:08) and that helped!
The turn aways are also going well – one thing to be sure of is that you step straight back with your leg before turning her to the wing, rather than stepping towards the wing.
Stepping towards the wing made it harder for her to know where the turn line was like at 3:34. But when you stepped straight back like at 4:03 and on the last rep, her turn was quick and tight!
When you are using both wings, you can send more so you donโt end up running backwards ๐ I think yout body was rejecting the idea of running backwards ๐ So you can send to the other wing from as close to the turn wing as possible, so you donโt have to back up much at all.
Great job here!
Tracy
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterGood morning!
Sick for 4 weeks – oh no!!! I hope you are on the road to feeling better! And hopefully the snow is melting and better weather is ahead.
This session looked lovely ๐ He is responding brilliantly to the โpassโ threadle cues, turning pretty immediately on the wing and looking towards the next direction (and not at the straight line to the tunnel).
When he was on your right, there were a couple of questions: at 1:21 and 2:10 for example, he responded perfectly to the beginning of the cue but then you were blocking the line to to the correct end of the tunnel (and were moving a bit straight towards the center of the tunnel, so he had questions about how to find the correct tunnel entry.
To smooth that out, you can be further away laterally from the before the tunnel, and be turned & moving to the end of the tunnel you want so you donโt block the line to it.
You can see the good line of motion you used at 2:59, 3:25, 3:52 by turning and moving towards the correct end of the tunnel. That was spot on in terms of making sure he could see the line you wanted – he had no questions ๐
Two smaller details that will get more important as these sequences get expanded for more distance and speed: your connection was really great! When you really get running, I donโt think you will need an arm up to support the line (like from the tunnel t the wing). I bet you can keep your arm down (pointed more to his nose) and just run with connection & verbals. That will keep you moving faster and still showing clear connection.
He was great about ignoring the toy in your hand, but you can also put the toy in your pocket so you donโt have to switch it to the other hand during the threadle. This suggestion is only because it will make your hands quicker, not because he was distracted or anything.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterGood morning!
Your mechanics on the strike a pose position and reinforcement were great, so he nailed it. Super!!!
Only one suggestion is to be clearer on the releases from the waits: sometimes you used the release word, sometimes he released on hand movement. So to maintain his lovely waits, you can get into strike a pose position, slowly put your target hand in position, then release him. That way he will continue to release on the verbal only and not on movement.
He looks ready for the next steps, where we begin to get the reward to the floor. I think what would work best for him at the start is an empty food bowl that you can drop the treat into.
>He seemed to do well here but tired quickly. I think I need to keep my time on any one task short to maximize Rustyโs interest and attention to task.>
How many reps did you do before he seemed to get tired? This session was nice and short and highly successful, so if his attention wandered it was too repetitive? You can break up the session with something exciting, like sending him through the tunnel ๐
If there were a lot more reps, then yes – maybe do 3 or 4 reps then take a break. If those 3 or 4 were great, you can either do the advanced level or more to a different game to keep things interesting ๐ If you want to do more reps of the same game, the little break will help keep him fresh to come back and do more.
Great job here!
Tracy
February 25, 2026 at 7:24 am in reply to: ๐พ๐Cindi and Kool Vibe – “Vibe” (11 week old Australian Koolie) ๐๐พ #90855Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterGood morning!
>I try to suck up to him just enough so that when AI takes over the world and has to decide whether or not to exterminate all humans he hopefully has qualms about taking me out.>
OMG ME TOO!! I always say please and thank you, and I give positive feedback because, well, AI is SMART and will eventually take over everything. I mean, I’ve seen the Terminator movies. Skynet is coming ๐ ๐
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi!
>So the 1 jump wraps with brake arm was working so well for us because the brake arm was forcing me to stay connect to her (even if I feel like my rib cage might need an adjustment to run that way!)>
You were really well-connected! The rib pain was worth it!
>And following the logic โ Disconnection is causing the boing. >
I think it was disconnection plus deceleration. Motion not fully supporting the line and connection getting fuzzy, so she had BIG questions ๐
>Rotating too early also raises red flags in her brain (the 2:40 example in the 2/21 video). >
Timing of the rotation would probably not be a question if your connection was clearer and there was no decel.
>Iโm not sure if I have a good answer on the decel part of it. I was thinking she was protesting decel too early/too much, but maybe it was disconnection?>
Decel + connection = fabulous!
Decel + disconnection = Big Madz.Committing is hard enough in decel (organizing collection) but if the other part of the cue wanes (connection) then she doesn’t have clear info. So her brain doesn’t have the bandwidth to tune out the disconnect and decel in order to organize. Lizard (dinosaur?) brain takes over and she gets a BOING emotion.
> I guess I need to see if I can decel a bit for the transition, while verbal cuing and brake arm cueing to keep the connection, all while not rotating too early.>
She will cue you about when to rotate: if you are connected, you will see her fully lock on and begin to crunch into collection. That is your cue to rotate.
>And by early I think we mean in relation to when she is making the decision to take off and not necessarily me being close to the jump โ because I definitely need to be able to (eventually) send her out for wraps without escorting her all the way to the jump.>
Correct! If you can get to the wings, cool! If not, the timing is the same and the connection becomes really important.
T
February 24, 2026 at 6:58 pm in reply to: ๐พ๐Cindi and Kool Vibe – “Vibe” (11 week old Australian Koolie) ๐๐พ #90850Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi!
I don’t hate AI, I actually discuss things with it and use it for science research stuff. It has some really good applications. I am also aware that it feeds to my biases and it is also wrong a LOT ๐ so I like it but I don’t entirely trust it for everything.This is wrong:
>deliver it before apex commitment
Not at the apex.
Not on the down plank.
On the approach stride that precedes the climb.>That is too late, he will need it before he gets on the board.
>Youโre cueing organization, not correcting flight.>
This is funny, though LOL
>Tap-tap is already a really strong candidate.>
It is certainly the easiest to say while running, but you can run around outside and test them all. Hit will be HARD to say repeatedly while running fast.
>And yes โ your instructor is right โ this is musical.
Youโre composing stride patterns now. ๐ต๐>HAHA! Thanks, Chat! LOL!
But testing it out while running will help you decide. Then training it in high arousal will bring it to the ring. How did you originally train the frame?
T
February 24, 2026 at 6:53 pm in reply to: ๐พ๐Cindi and Kool Vibe – “Vibe” (11 week old Australian Koolie) ๐๐พ #90849Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi!
>His natural stride is a 1 hit that hits just above yellow and itโs been a HUGE struggle to try to get a 2 hit in trials when his stride lengthens out and heโs aroused. Gonna think about that.>
As you work on his a-frame striding to get the relative collection, you can look at how you train it in terms of arousal level. To be able to access the proper striding behavior in the arousal of a trial, you will want to train at the same arousal level (or past it!). That is where I use something like the 10 tunnel game or other dogs to get the arousal level super high to train the behavior so I can also get it in a trial environment.
On the video:
He seemed to love the strike a pose game – the strength of his hand target skills played into that for sure. Lovely! Onwards to the advanced level, no notes here other than maybe try the baby level with a toy in your other hand ๐>heโs less sure why he should drive into me for the lap turns if Iโm just going to flip him away so he started to flank a bit. >
I was all ready to whip out the โideas for getting herding dogs to drive inโ but actuallyโฆ it is a little tweak in mechanics and I think he will drive in perfectly! He was driving in nicely when you were just rewarding for driving in.
What was happening in the mechanics was that your leg was stepping back too soon, and your arm was not moving with it. By โtoo soonโ, your leg was stepping back before he got to your hand, which meant there was no place for it to go when the hand did move to cue the turn. So keep your feets together until he gets to about 2 inches away from your outstretched magic cookie hand. Then the hand moves along with the foot stepping back. The hand will draw him all the way back then turn him away. Your hand was trying to turn him in place at your side, but the movement is more of a draw him back then turn him away thing, along with the leg. Let me know if that makes sense!
Nice job here!
Tracy
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi! The lap and tandem turns are going well! The reps with food at the beginning looked great.
>Noticed that if I carried too far forward it caused her to have a wide turn as opposed to those turns where I wasnโt as near to the wing.>
Correct! The turns will automatically tighten up when you decelerate when you are drawing her to your hands. You can see this with the cookie reps at the end – the decel was there and so the turns were really nice! Being a little closer to the wing helps too, so you can send to the previous wing more to make it easier to get to the turn away wing.
When you were using the ball as the reward, she had a lot of FIRE so you had to move faster & decelerate sooner – no worries about the turns being a little wide. At 1:33 she didnโt see the cues for the tandem because you were going fast and not really showing the hands so she didnโt know it was coming.
On most of the reps, you were good about letting her get almost to your hands before starting the turn away cues. There were only two spots where you were a toy bit early (:54 and 1:09) so she turned towards you and not away from you. The rest were really good!
>Used two balls โ took some time to get her interested in the ball I had. Need a better idea of the mechanics for this. >
She really seemed to be having a great time! When she is partying with the ball you threw, give her about 10 seconds then call her and let her see you bouncing the ball, tossing it in the air, etc as you head back to the start spot. That can help her understand that the party continues! You can sit on the ground if you want to but when she brings the ball back (or comes back without it) go directly to the next rep with the ball you are holding without asking for the first one back. You can pick that one up when she is partying with ball 2 ๐
Will it be less efficient? Yes LOL. But will it be a lot more fun? Oh definitely less ๐
>I edited out the ball victory laps and other throws as we would have a 10 minute video if they were included.>
Only 10 minutes?? That is a good start! And a nice workout for her, hopefully she was tired ๐
Great job!
TracyTracy Sklenar
KeymasterHello and welcome!!!!
> In a tiny (22โ) camper van with the puppy right as he enters adolescence. What could possible go wrong. ๐คฃ>
OMG that sounds FUN!!!! Nothing will go wrong – Vibe is in Adolescence PreHab and will be perfect. I just did 8 weeks in the RV with 9 dogs, 2 of which were under age 2. We all survived, I think ๐คฃ๐๐ฆ
>This morning (pouring rain out) we did a mini version of opposite arm to cue collected turn on a single jump.>
This went great! He was super responsive to the brake arm, and not offended by it ๐ His collections looked good.
> A couple of NASCAR turns but a pretty fair choice in this space.>
think that was mainly because he collected well enough to be able to accelerate after landing- but there was no place to accelerate to because you were right there. So the kinetic energy spread out a little ๐ But if you take off and run away, he will drive around the wing with no problem.
>Weโll try to do the sequences if the weather cooperates.
When you do the sequences, you will have more speed so your timing will need to be sooner. Most of these reps will show up as late on a sequence – you showed the brake arm after he would have had to make a takeoff decision on a sequence (especially with taller bars). He is making his takeoff decisions at the exit of the previous obstacle so he can sort the next stride – which means you can start showing the turn info/brake info when he exits the tunnel on the sequence, kind of like what you did here at :39 when he exited the barrel. If he gets to the halfway point between the tunnel and jump on the sequences, his takeoff decision has been made and info that arrives at or after that point will be too late to get a good collection before takeoff.
>For the verbal characteristics discussion we are having in MaxPup I wonder if Zoom, Zoom for a-frame is not helping Rip have collection vibes -which he needs to not do a 1 hit. Long vowel sound. Thoughts? Ideas?>
When you say Zoom zoom, how do you say it? ZOOOOOM ZOOOOOM or more like ‘ZZuhmZZuhmZZuhm’? The z sound can be exaggerated so it is less forward, and the word can actually be almost whispered.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterWelcome back to you and your girls! So fun!!!! I am glad you can come play in the winter ๐
> Both girls compete at the Master level in AKC JWW and STD,>
Wait – I think the last I knew was Kashia was just beginning to compete and now she is in Masters? Woohoo! Congrats!
I look forward to seeing the videos!
Tracy
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHi!
Great job on these! He is so fun to watch: so keen and eager to play these games!!
Things are going really well, so as you work the sequences we can look at the timing of the cues. Because of his speed and stride length, watch him more as he exits the start wing (don’t worry about if you are close to the next jump or not). The turn cues should begin as he exits the previous obstacle: the wing, in this setup, or the tunnel when you do the sequences.
If you start the cues before he has to make a takeoff decision, his turns are terrific: fast and tight! The rep at :55 wa sa lovely example of you watching back to him, starting the turn cues/brake arm as he exited the wing and nailing the timing for a lovely turn.
Compare to the rep at 1:34 – he was more than halfway to the jump when you showed the brake arm and cues, so his takeoff decision was already made – he turned after landing. Still a good turn, but the earliy info got a better turn ๐
You might find that you are not close to the wrap wing when he needs you to begin the cues: no problem! He has excellent commitment so you can decelerate and show the brake arms from anywhere, just as long as you don’t turn your feet too soon.
Nice threadle wraps here!!! You can also do a push wrap on the backsides – instead of having him on your left here on the last 2 reps, you can put him on your right side so you are pushing him to the backside with you on the landing side of the jump. Then you can play with a break arm to see how that changes his collection for the push wraps.
Lovely session! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Tracy Sklenar
KeymasterHello!
> Like this from class last week where she drove out almost 40ft to the jump on her line because I told her to Go when I should have been cueing a left turn.>
Ok, that was IMPRESSIVE!! Wow!!!
Thank you for the boing videos. Easy answer – it is a disconnection thing. You disconnect on the send? Info turns off, she gets frustrated, BOING.
It is a little hard to see on the videos because they were a little far, but when you go from connected to disconnected to point ahead of her: that is the moment that induces the BOING RAGE. Putting a toy on the line helps of course, but when you are connected she does not boing. The connection is what actually supports the line so it is the most important piece of info for her.
Visuals:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1FlvBHI4h_VfSrgNufD4AFJOpfQBMMsaOOE7CLEvA5jc/edit?usp=sharing> then my transition is not what she is expecting/wants and the boing comes out. >
Yes- she wants you to stay connected LOL and expects you too because she is judgey like that ๐
>Theresโs a bit of it at 2:40 on her brake arm sequences video from 2/21 where she starts to come off the jump and towards me as I am cueing the wrap.>
That was the only spot you were disconnecting and rotating too early, but you were so good with all of the other info that she was feeling generous and did not boing ๐
So in classes or playing these games, direct your brake arms to her eyes and let you eyes follow your fingers to her eyes. Over-exaggerate the connection and see if we can de-boing her! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
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