Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi!
He was a superstar with the rear cross! No problem at all! I bet you can get on his tail even more, applying more pressure to the RC line so you don’t get left behind much at all 🙂
You were in his way on the blind at :23 (he let you know allllll about it LOL) He said it wa sa little better at :36 on the 2nd rep with the blind – but he thinks it can still be earlier and I agree:) To get the blind earlier, you can do a bg send to jump 3, rather than drive him to it with motion. That way, as he is jumping 3, you are nearer to 4 and beginning the blind so it is finished before he takes off for 4.
The rest of the sequence looked fast and smooth!
>We didn’t do a lead out on this one as he does not currently understand the lead out serp. I need to work more on that separately.
>I bet all he will need is a ‘strike a pose’ refresher – the serpy opening is just the real life application of strike a pose 🙂
He is great with his hand touch – for added excitement, you can have your hand even higher so he jumps up more to come up and bop it. You were doing a bit of this and it is a really fun way to get the dogs pumped up. You can have your palm facing downwards to make it easier for him to reach up and bop it 🙂
The spins and standing on you are also great! Leg weaves and bow are also fun and cute 🙂 The next step with the tricks would be to put them into the volume dial game, and see how he does as the arousal state changes – which tricks are easiest for him to respond to, and are most helpful for getting him engaged and pumped up?Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Thanks for the videos – I totally see what you mean about her ring stress!
The good news is, we can work her through the steps to happy trialing which will make a big difference.
For now, though – I suggest not doing any more trials ‘for real’. While we put the pieces together, there is just too much stress in the ring and we don’t want to add more struggle to overcome.
>She obviously went to say hi to ring crew and judge…. >
It was not really saying hello… it was more of a ‘fawn’ stress response.
>While she has really nice weaves outside of the trial environment, she seems to occasionally be so stressed at weaves that she will run by them or find weave entry but not complete the weaves.>
For now, let’s put the pieces in place before you ask for weaves again. That will make it much easier for her!
The steps to focus on in Games Package 1 are:
– the action tricks and the Volume Dial game
– The NFC Step 1: Just Like HomeWhat does she like as a reward? Is she mainly a foodie, or does she also like things like toys, balls, or frisbees? This will help direct us in how to make the ring experience more rewarding/less stressful for her.
>I added the 1-2-3 nose touch to our warm up routine prior to entering the ring. >
Perfect! Practice this more away from trials, so she loves loves loves doing it and also so she doesn’t need food present. We will also be working on fading food and rewards out of the ring starting next Monday, which I think will also be a big piece of the puzzle for her 🙂
Let me know how the games go!
Tracy
Hi!
Sorry for the delay, it has been a wild 24 hours of storms, tornados, power going on and off, and a 9 hour drive mixed in there. Fun times 😂 😆>That made me spread the course out a bit, as you’ll see. (>
Yes, that added am additional challenge because he was having to read US Open Finals-style distances, so he was not always sure he was supposed to go that far away (plus it made the challenges harder to handle for sure). Enzo probably also felt the difference – they were having to take 3 or even 4 strides when they generally have to take 1 or 2 strides on the distances they are used to seeing.
>Besides the multiple backsides, which are mostly a handling/positioning problem for me, >
There is definite improvement with the backsides! He is finding most of them here really well, where a couple of months ago he might have defaulted to front sides on all of them.
At the beginning, the backside on 3 was good! You can lead out further so your front cross 3-4 doesn’t block the line to 4 (:08). Or you can keep him on your left and do a threadle slice on 4.
For a slicing Rc on 4 at :10, be sure to turn your shoulders and feet to the center of the bar (like you did when you fixed it). The initial cue did indeed look like a wrap cue, based on shoulder and foot position.
He found the backside well at :47 too! It was too severe of a RC so it pulled him off the next line – you can push to it from further away and try to handle from the landing side, which keeps you ahead more and shows the line.
The camera lost you on the line to the teeter 🙂
Nice backside after the teeter! Definite improvements on the backsides in flow!!Finding the weaves after the tunnel under the DW was a mind-blow for him: They were so far away they were not even visible on the video during the first rep there 🙂 Taking out the layering of the DW really helped but it is a good thing to isolate and practice because it is a really popular challenge lately. You can take out the distractions jumps to see if he can find the weaves in that scenario. And if he can, try it with one jump. Then add the 2nd jump.
He got the 16 backside really well! It was a bar mess after that – he was looking at you for more info at 16, then you were trying to get ahead for 17-18 but he still was not sure where to go plus 17-18 was a suddenly compressed distance.
The map supports the plan to push the other way on 18 for the slice, but the setup here supports the possibility of a threadle wrap (or blind to push wrap) on the wing closer to the tunnel. The setup might be why it was so hard to convince him to go out and find the backside there. One he got the backside, the last few jumps went nicely.
>Enzo got through it with only a couple bars down (and a really gross contact miss on the DW). Casper, who is supposed to have 2o2o on the DW was also missing his criterion.>
Yes, both dogs could probably use DW refreshers – use the Under Pressure framework to help them remember even when they are going fast and the distances are big.
The exciting distractions were fun to watch him work through! Definitely harder weaving away from it (on your left) than towards it (on your right) – I could see little questions/striding changes at first from him but the only big questions were when you had the toy on the ground. He worked through that really well, though!
You can totally do this with the dog walk. And, you can use a jump as a novel-exciting challenge with the weaves. Move it to different places to keep it novel and it will be a really good use for it!
>I started out being very meticulous about bringing him back to the house each time so he couldn’t watch me place the “thing” but towards the very end I just dropped it with him watching.>
Keep mixing up having the ‘surprise’ element of something out there that he didn’t know was there, with you letting him see you place it. The surprise element simulates the challenges at trials, so we do want to mix it in as well.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>I unfortunately can’t run fast because I have a mild Hamstring tear.>
Oh nooooooo! That sucks, I am sorry to hear it – at least it is mild.
He is a little handler focused right now…. But I will take it! This is the PoweR we want: focused on working with you and not biting you and ignoring the audience that was watching – all good! I wonder if a good training help at home would be to have your hubby watch from the porch with one of the other dogs out there, on a leash, as a bit of a distraction?
The first run went well – I am happy with how he is finding the lines, especially with the handler focus state right now. He checks in at the end of the first tunnel, so you can send to 1 from further away to be able to get ahead at the tunnel exit and smooth out the line to 3. He looks great in his stay and focus on 1! He read the middle line nicely, and then you can converge to the tunnel a little more to commit him to it, rather than turning along the line (at :27 & 1:05).
And you can approach the sequences as lazy game concepts, except now you are jogging: you jog along the sequence (protect that hamstring!) and toss giant treats like chunks of string cheese when he looks ahead at the line. And if he looks at you and doesn’t take a jump, you don’t reward but just keep going.
>After the first handling, I broke the second down to shorter piece.>
I think the camera didn’t catch that on film, but breaking it down is good and it looks like you were throwing the rewards too.
>We will be trying the social learning at class on Friday. Thats where he always leaves to go visit.>
Please keep me posted 🙂 Make it a grand time for whichever dog wants to work with you and I sure PoweR will want to join in too 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
I think it is ok to fix weaves as long as you reward it immediately – but bear in mind that it is a brand new behavior, so setting him up for success is critical. If you have to fix a lot, it is too hard and you will create unneeded stress.
T
Hi!
He is doing some really wonderful work in the class! Lots of understanding of big lines, getting his weaves (good boy!), long lead outs – very cool! Yay!Here is a challenge for you: make it a goal to get through an entire class without stopping to fix something, and without touching his collar. If something goes wrong, keep going on the line, reward. Then fix the blooper in flow. Stopping to send him back over something when there was a handling error is slowing him down here too. And grabbing his collar to send him back to something is also causing him to get super careful. So… no more stopping! Go go go!
>we had a major distraction trying to get into the gate with a newbie person and his turvuren thinking his dog could say hi to mine. Dog lunged at Brioche (not aggressively) and Brioche lost interest in me at that moment.>
Poor Brioche, that was a big dog! He was still having some stress response to the dog at the beginning of the 2nd video (sniffing, struggling to engage). While it is good to expose him to other dogs around in agility, it stinks that the guy was clueless. You can help Brioche bounce back with tricks-for-treats (or tugging) and one of the pattern games. He did well once he got going and he was further from the other dog distraction.
>Sometimes I feel like his jumping isn’t quite gauged right – rear a little high? These jumps are still at 10″. Should I be concerned about that and change something?>
This falls into the “No More Stopping To Fix” category. When he gets unsure because there has been stopping & fixing or you showing frustration, he slows down and gets careful. So what you are seeing is him being careful over the jumps, thinking more about figuring out what you want and not thinking about speed or his jumping mechanics. But if he trusts that you will keep going and won’t get frustrated or stop, he will thinking about his jumping.
For example – the wall jump is hard and new, so he went past it. No worries! Finish the sequence, reward, then break it down to show him the wall. By stopping and taking his cllar to scoot him back around to it, it gets him over the wall jump but also makes him a little hesitant as you are seeing in the jumping. So…. no more stopping to fix 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi! Brioche is doing well with the sequences! He has really good commitment so all of your cues can come sooner 🙂
Sequence 4:
At :07 – he turned the other way due to late RC info like I bugged you about with Benni on the trial runs. As he is jumping 4, you should be moving to the center of the bar with some pressure on his line to cue the RC. You were earlier and :26 and he got it.And if something goes wrong: stop fixing things – keep going!
For the blind – as he is landing from 2, send to 3 with big connection. That will be earlier at :26, which will tighten up that turn and get the blind done sooner, which in turn will show him the next jump sooner.
> then he knocked the bar on the turn to the tunnel. With the sun glare, I’m not sure if you can tell why?>
It looks like the bar down at :48 was because the blind was late, so you were blocking the line when he landed from the jump before it. Then when he had a view of the jump and you did the turn cue, it was right at takeoff so he hit the bar trying to adjust.
For the next blind, you can tighten it up by adding exit line connection – looking back for him, original arm across to your hip, so the dog-side arm is back & out of the way and he can see the connection. The dog side shoulder was closed and blocking the connection at 1:05 so he was wide on the BC exit
>Sequence 5 – something is weird about this opening for both my dogs.
It is a serp opening, so to serp over 1 you should be standing next ot he line to 2 and should have your arm back more, center of chest pointing to center of the bar – it is the real life application of the strike a pose game. On the video, you didn’t really have serp position on the release, then ran forward kind of past 2 so Brioche was just looking at you for more info.Ideally, you would be in the serp position and maintain that arm back and connection until after he lands and looks at jump 2 – he was looking at you because he didn’t know where to be (you were lookng forward. This was more obvious at :33 when he didn’t know where to be – you were looking ahead and converged, so when you sent him back to 2 it looked like a RC cue. You handled it more clearly on the next rep and he got it
If something goes wrong: Keep going! Don’t show him any frustration or disappointment! It is very deflating and he slows down.
>Benni was insistent on taking the backside of 2 even when I used a serp arm or tried using in-in.>
>Usually that happens when the handler pushes back in too much, so the dog reads it as a backside cue.
It was fun to see him get the layering! You can set it up with more momentum by getting closer to 2 then accelerating to 3 – that way he won’t see you decelerate or get stuck by the layering jump, which is what happened at :14 – you decelerated and got stuck at the jump, so the cue to continue was late and your body was fully turned back to 1.
But with this too: Keep going then reward him – stopping to fix is frustrating for him because he is following your cues clearly. Stopping indicates that he is incorrect which is confusing, so he gets slow which we don’t want.
That is your main goal: cue early and keep blasting around the sequence, even if it goes wrong. No stopping! Let’s keep his speed and confidence up like it is when everything goes smoothly 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi! You can break down the dog walk exits to work on finding the right lines in a sea of other obstacles – that is a rally popular course trend. And in practice, you can leave the bowl out past the dog walk as a visual aid, even if you don’t always reward (keep it randomized but the bowl with help produce the behavior without leaping :))
Tracy
Hi!
He did great with the back and forth game! And it is lovely there. There is a lot of available stimuli in the environment and he really tuned it all out in favor of the engagement with you. SUPER!! This can continue to go on the road to new places.For the tricks:
>. I’ve never thought about them like you suggested – trying to see which ones help the dog increase arousal – or decrease it – prior to a run.>
Think of it more as finding ones that optimize arousal (getting him in a mental place where he can really focus, engage, and respond) versus ones that are over-arousing (he can no longer focus/engage/respond).
On the first video, he liked the hand touches! You can reward from your hand up high to keep the engagement going. For the spin and twist you can totally use hand cues to help him respond – sometimes they can’t do it on the word alone, so a hand cue totally helps.
On the 2nd video, he liked the middle and leg weaves! These are fun and useful tricks.
>He frequently “dances” himself to see or smell things up in the air more easily. I haven’t tried dancing before, but he was less excited to dance than I thought he’d be.>
He might not (yet) see the dance is a trick – it might be something he does to access the environment. But, I am confident that he will quickly see it as a trick if you keep rewarding like you did here 🙂
So since he has a nice toolbox of tricks developing, you can add in the ones you think he likes best to the volume dial game – then let him give you feedback about how it optimizes his arousal but doing a sequence or something after it. Does he nail it with complete focus? Or does he get slow/sniffy or zoomie/wild – both of those are overarousal behaviors. And then we can really hone in on the tricks and rituals that work best.
You can keep mulling over the barking… I don’t want to lie and say that he won’t bark unless you cue it LOL so it depends on how much noise you want in your world 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Oh hey, is that our giant raccoon friend?
>I struggle being less careful cuz I feel like there’s no where to go.>
You can spread out the distances 🙂 And also more verbals and more urgent verbals can help give her more permission to go fast – you are very quiet 🙂 so she is quiet in her motion. You can also run closer to the jumps as that adds more motion. These lines don’t need lateral distance so being a little closer will get you both hustling and you’ll still get the crosses in.
The first run looked great! The BC at :37 went well – you can drive up there and start it sooner, no later than when she lands from 2. Lovely connection!
The RC there on the 2nd run at 1:24 worked, but the BC was faster for you both! You can get the RC even smoother if you get to 3 faster so you are on the landing side of it before she takes off. That way you can set the RC so when she lands, she already sees you facing the line. But overall, I definitely like the blind here better!
Nice work here 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>if we get to a place on a course where I get a chance to “catch up mentally” like weaves, seesaw then we can smooth things back out. >
That is why we are doing Double Whammys this summer… to get the handlers off balance (sorry not sorry hahaha). There might not be a place to catch up on a course, so we can practice the fine art of thinking on our feet and catching up in the moment 🙂 And when that gets easy, it becomes Triple Whammys!
>But it really all depends on whether or not I had the course and the handling in my head or not. I used to say that if I had a course really in my head, I could frequently run it without walking it, but I could walk a thousand times but if I didn’t have it in my head, it was 50/50 at best of running it well. >
This is sooooo true! And walk through practice helps get us there too – obsessively practicing walk throughs in training help us lock into courses much more easily at trials, when there is less time and less space for a full walk through. Walk through obsessing is in games package 3 🙂
>.I really need to be 100% focused on Sly, the course, my plan etc. these days……can’t chitchat ahead of time and go out and get it done anymore>
This is entirely relatable! Because you are an instructor and also as a very nice person, I am sure you have a lot of people in your ear. It is somewhat inevitable. At trials, you can try putting in your earbuds or something during the time you need to focus on Sly and the run, so people are less likely to want to chat.
During training, you can teach your brain to tune things out by turning on loud annoying music. Heavy metal LOL! Or inviting friends over to train and have them talk to you during the walk through and while you warm up Sly 🙂 It is SO ANNOYING but very useful for trials. You will very quickly master the fine art of smiling like you are listening but completely tuning them out too 😂🤣
And drawing boundaries is perfectly fine too! For example, I am fine to chat before a run in agility or flyball with my adult experienced dog. But if I have my young dog at the end of the leash? I have asked people (nicely asked, of course) to NOT chat when I have him out on leash – he is a high octane youngster that requires 100% of my attention (especially in flyball, lordy!!) And people generally respect that. Sometimes they forget and I just ask them to check in after the younger dog runs because I need to give him all of my attention.
I think your double whammy on sequence 3 went great!
> I don’t particularly like my handling choices here…..seems like layering the middle jump put me in a hard spot for the threadle wrap….but we did stay with it and get it done!>
I generally liked your choices, including the layering. If you did not layer, I think you would risk putting him off course to the wrong side of 5.
The one suggestion I have that would make the threadle wrap easier (especially on the double whammy runs would be to turn left on 3 rather than turn right.
Turning left on 3 will probably help him have a faster line to the 4 tunnel and definitely get you to 5 sooner too, because you don’t have to stick around at 3 to push him back to the tunnel then take off for the TW. If you turn him left (can be a rear cross on 3), verbals and parallel line motion will gt the tunnel entry and you can head directly to the line at 5.
In getting to the threadle wrap, you ended up with too much pull towards 6 at :20 & 1:10 & 2:04, so he thought you wanted the backside of 6. Decel into the threadle wrap will help too, which is why getting there sooner is useful (to give you time to decelerate.
On the first double whammy run, the right turn then helping send back to the tunnelg at 3/12 and being too close to 6/15 is what got the off course at 1:30.
You got it at 2:24 by pushing back to the threadle wrap more urgently. Yay!!And I think the rest of it was super nice! clear connection, name calls only when needed (at the tunnel entry) and he had no questions. Lovely!!!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I think maybe I don’t even know what you mean by a “serp arm”. >At 1:43-1:44, I drop my trailing shoulder back which is my “serp cue”. Is that what you mean by a serp arm?>
Yes – the trailing arm and shoulder rotation towards the dog that it brings is what I mean by serp cue. That presents shoulders that are parallel to the bar (one shoulder pointing to each wing, basically). It is a compound cue, meaning come-in-go-out. Without the serp arm, the shoulders end up perpendicular to the bar (this is what I call a ‘closed’ shoulder) which is only a ‘come in’ cue (like a post turn).
And part of if it the timing: if the serp is 2-3-4, then the serp jump is 3 (that is the in-then-out jump). So the serp arm needs to be up as he exits 2 so he can adjust for the challenging slice that is needed for the serp. If the serp cues begin after a takeoff spot for 3 is chosen, that is when we see the dogs land from 3 facing up then turn to 4. Ideally, with earlier serp arm/cues and keeping it up til after he lands from 3, he will be jumping 3 already looking at 4, and land facing 4.
>Interesting to me that you assign blame for the wideness at #5 to the backing up FC>
Dogs will follow our line of motion as the primary cue, so even with a nice collection on 4 with either the FC or BC, if we move backwards towards the tunnel they will follow that line and head towards us rather than towards 5.
On the FCs there (2:07, 2:27, 2:42) you can see him staying out on the line and mirroring your motion on a parallel path until you finish the FC rotation and face 5 – then he comes in towards 5. So getting rotated to face 5 as immediately as possible will tighten that line for sure.
>, I thought a sharper turn at 4 was the solution. >
More collection on 4 certainly won’t hurt 🙂 Coming out of the earlier serp cues, you can decelerate into the FC – that will add more collection to 4 and all decel helps up humans rotate our feet through a FC a lot more quickly. Moving fast through FCs usually makes it harder to finish the FC and be heading only in the correct new direction.
>When I do a BC I get a much wider turn than a FC.>
The FC here might definitely be a better option for some dogs – the decel will make a big difference in terms of showing the next line sooner. But trying a BC in this scenario might be surprisingly tight too -because it allows the handler to finish the cross sooner and be facing the new line without backing up sooner.
>the tunnel exit pointed directly at the front side of that jump, therefore I needed to be in position to send to the backside slice. It put me behind but that slice is WAY faster than a 360 wrap. >
Yes – with the tunnel facing the front of the jump, the slice is definitely the better option (the tunnel faced the wrap side on my setup, but variations in setup are perfectly fine of course).
You can play with sending to the backside from further away – you were putting yourself very close to his line here, and I don’t think he needs you to do that anymore when you give those strong, connected upper body cues.
You can be running towards the center of the bar and cueing the backside slice as he exits the tunnel. That will get you a couple of steps further up the line and that can make a huge difference.
>To say nothing of the fact that a backside slice is a well-known skill, a 360 threadle-wrap is a work in progress.
> More practice opportunities for that are coming next week 🙂
>The neutral objects were both winter clothes (the black one was a shawl type thing and the other was a hooded scarf thing).>
Perfect! He had a bit of challenge with that on the jump but worked through it really well.
>We had some thinking to do on the teeter. I started with 4-on but have allowed it to morph to 2o2o, so that is what I asked for/reinforced. >
I think the 2o2o is a clearer criteria for dogs in general, so that can make it easier to get the behavior consistently.
>When you say more interesting, are we still talking neutral or should it be a less-than-favorite toy?>
You can move to novel-exciting (explained here: https://agility-u.com/lesson/under-pressure-challenges-3/)
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi! This went really well!!!
>I have a connection and timing issue on that jump before the tunnel.>
It was just connection, not timing. But that is good to know and easy to put on the list of things to remember when running her. Here are more details:
Most of the walk through was spot on and lovely – I knew what the sequence was, and your handling plan, verbals, & your connection were clear for the most part.
Two spots where you started to look forward ahead of your invisible dog in the walk through:
– On the push to the backside (:14 and :39). Remember that backside sends involve a lot of connection.
– At the end on the last 3 jumps, so remember to stay connected all the way through.
Run 1 with Grace:
She was moving FAST! That is good to know, so you can add more speed to the walk throughs.The disconnection (looking ahead) on the backside send in the walk through is what bit you in the run at 1:01 and 1:28 and 1:56 –
You looked ahead while she was still behind you. She read it as the beginning of a blind cross cue, so she changed sides behind you and took the wrong side of the jump.Compare to 1:33 when you added connection very directly to her, and she got it really well!
So the big thing to remember here is to show her BIG connection on a send to the backside. I think you were looking down at where you wanted her to be, but she was behind you so that ended up looking disconnected and like the beginning of a blind cross.
You were looking a little ahead on the closing line when you ran her, but your motion supported the line really well and she had no questions. This is also good to know: connection is not as important as long as your motion is super clear.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I need to be clearer and have faster cues. >
With young fast dogs, yes we need to be as clear as possible but not necessarily faster – maybe earlier, but not faster because faster makes it harder to process the cues. If you are a little slower with your pace but super connected, then she will be able to process all the info better!
>It’s definitely been a huge adjustment from running with my first dog Kida who has short little legs and is square shaped (lol) to Sól who is extremely fast and bendy!>
Yes, a little different LOL!! Plus Kida has a lot more understanding as an experienced adult, so the handling will feel different for now. But you are doing GREAT!!!!
The sequences went well – I felt that you were more connected without rushing, and that really helped her keep up the bars and find the lines with no questions. YAY!!
My only suggestion is to place your blind closer to 3 and not on the straight line past 2. You can use your line of motion and position to give earlier turn cues:
Lead out almost to 2, or past 2 – but on a lateral line. You will be several steps away from 2, heading more over to 3. As you move, release and start to run so she sees you heading to 3. That will tell her before the blind that you are going to 3 and not running straight.Leading out to the landing side of 2 presents a straight line over 2 rather than a turn to 3, which makes it harder to get the turn info on time. You were definitely starting your blind earlier here which was great! You can see her thinking it is a straight line then adjusting at the last minute, so being closer to 3 will help.
A grabbed a couple of screenshots to give a visual of what I mean:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1VGWORLy6Efpbolkdxb53t7mSX2_tB3s6ny8VmZ33CEg/edit?usp=sharingGreat job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
