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Good morning!
This is a great session to have on video because we will be able to compare what she was reading here to when she reads RCs correctly in sequence (she as being perfect here).>>Saved this for last because i hate rear crosses and completely overthink them.>>
Rear crosses often require us to slow down to set them up – and slowing down is NOT comfortable!!! Ick! However, keep this in mind: with current course trends requiring big distance and layering, the rear cross tool is actually a GREAT way to flip the dog away onto a line so you can then get waaaaay ahead again (which is comfortable and fun :)) and also to set up big layering lines. So you will be very happy with the tool because it will set you up to do the things you really like, such as running hard and getting ahead for blinds, etc.
>>I should just pretend I’m doing a wrap with her and she’ll read cross since those went so well too LOL!>>
HA!!! Love it! Do you remember what was causing the accidental rear crosses? It was too much pressure and motion in towards the center of the bar: that is the RC cue. So with that in mind:
>>I don’t know how to fix it when I’m doing it. >>
Rear crosses on jumps like this line, when you are a little ahead, require a set-drive-cross rhythm. So you set the RC up by decelerating on the previous line or jump, and turning to face the rear cross line. That rear cross line is to the center of the RC bar, until she passes you (and she will, she knows how to drive ahead) and then you complete the crossing behind her line.
The driving to the center of the bar is what was missing here when you were sequencing it. You set the beginning of the turn really well such as at :15 and :25 with decel and tucking into the line next to the previous jump but the you were doing a bit of pull-then-flip by turning to the FC wrap wing then trying to push in for the RC (:16, :34,:43, 1:06 and 1:15). So she correctly read it as a FC wrap.
You drove more towards the center of the bar at :26 but turned your feet too soon so she read it correctly as a backside.
So you will want to keep moving to the center of the bar until she is past you and locked onto the jump – then the rotation seals the deal. The rotation itself is not the cue, it is the driving to the center of the bar (as you saw when you did it when you wanted the FC wraps).
When you broke it down at the beginning and at :47 and also at :57 – note how your line was to the center of the bar, and she got the RCs 🙂
So definitely work the RC, just add in running to the center of the bar and don’t turn your feet til she is almost taking off and you see her turning the correct direction. You can put a line on the ground for yourself to be able to see the line to the center of the RC jump after you decel and set the line.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Last one today, I promise! >>
No worries! You are not posting too much at all!!!
This was also great – he was focusing forward to the jump the entire time. The only suggestion I have on this session is that when you go to the higher height (last rep) you will need to be more careful about the toy throw timing or he will tick the bar like he did here (or knock it). So you can throw it super early (like as soon as he exit the tunnel) or have it already placed way out ahead on the line.
Since he did so well here, you can add 3 things (not all at once, add them individually for a rep or two and if he is fine, you can start to put them all together):
– more running from you. He is really fast so we can see how added hander hustle affects his processing
– more distance laterally. How far away can he find that jump? Big loud jump or go verbal that you repeat will help.
– set him up to drive ahead of you by running right to the tunnel with him, then running up the line so as he exits, you are either parallel to him or even a little behind him.
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>>Poor Chippy. I need a lot more practice with this, but for his sake I’ll do it with no or super low bars .>>
I think having some height to the bar will actually give you better feedback from him than no bars or super low bars! He was happy with this session and gave you great info too!
On the first couple of FCs at :07 and :16, you were moving through the FCs at the same smooth pace… so even if the rotation was on time, he didn’t know it was coming so the turns were a little wide.
The tip-off that a tight rotation is coming comes from the decel. You added the decel at :23 and the turn was immediately tighter.
Then you had great decel and did it sooner at :31: SPOT ON!!! Nice! That was the right combo of deceleration, connection and timing so he was able to produce a gorgeous collection and turn.
Also note ow you had some real hustle to get into the collection & decel! I think that aded motion will help with the bars he had down at :10, :11, and :19. On those reps, you were saying the left or right directional but not moving a lot and facing straight over the jump. That is a bit of a ‘conflicting indicator’ meaning body says on thing, verbal says a different thing – so he dropped the bar trying to figure it out.
When you had more motion like on the last sequence (and clear connection) – no questions on the bars 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning! This looked great!! He was looking forward to the line the whole time. Your connection was spot on, plus your verbals were timely. Yay!!! He was not distracted by the added motion at all. Super!!!! You rewarded enough here – the goal was to string more obstacles together and he also finds it rewarding to keep going 🙂
Onwards to the next games!Tracy
Good morning!
>>In the second clip I was slightly better, but not good.>>
Don’t be so hard on yourself! These went well!!! This is a particularly challenging type of FC because it is soooo much turning and the handler position is hard to get to.
On the first video: you can trust her understanding of the line at 3 (jump after the tunnel) so you don’t have to go near it at all You can send to the tunnel then basically go directly to the FC position, staying connected but not moving close to the #3 jump at all. That will put you closer to the FC line and then when she lands from 3 you can be up the line and starting the FC on the next stride on this distance.
That will allow you to finish it sooner and set up the decel into the wrap. She was wide on the wrap exit here because the FC was a little late and that didn’t give you enough time to decel into the wrap.2nd video – good reward on the first rep!!! On the 2nd rep, you had the FC happening sooner AND you got the decel/send started almost immediately (plus the wrap verbal). Lovely! This was my favorite one!
3rd video – the FC was not quite as timely as the previous video (she was almost taking off, compared to the previous rep which was a stride earlier) but the decel/send was still really clear and timely (she was seeing it as she landed from the FC) so the wrap collection was lovely!
I think the perfect combo on this sequence might end up being the blind cross followed by the decel, but practicing both will tell you what she reads better and what is easier to pull off at high speed 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning! This went GREAT!!! It is actually pretty challenging for young dogs but Lu was fantastic!
The first rep made her brain hurt for a moment – she ran past the jump as she was processing the info and the set up. But then she was great – she drove straight to that jump the you were close, far, ahead, parallel, behind, moving, not moving… it didn’t matter. YAY!!!!!Since she did so well with it, my only suggestion is about reward placement: she was ticking the bar sometimes and knocked it once, probably because of the timing of the toy throw happening as she was gathering for takeoff. Since she is so speedy, perfect timing of the toy throw is a little hard! So you can either throw the toy wicked early, like as soon as she exits the tunnel, or have it placed out on the line in advance. That way it is visible to her sooner as she works out the jumping mechanics for now. The bar ticking is just a reflection of her processing the new challenges and it will go away after a session or two 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Kashia is so similar to my young dog in that when she is first presented with a concept, she might not really ‘get it’. But then she sleeps on it and comes back a few days later and somehow knows it and knows the next steps too LOL!!!
Now that I have seen it in action, I am happy to let things roll like that but when it was first happening, I was frustrated too! So I can totally relate 🙂
>>Are other classmates able to finish all the games for each week in the same week they are posted?>>
I think on the weeks where there are a couple of little contact games and a couple of handling games, like week 1 and this week, people get all the handling in. In the at-home seminar weeks, I think folks get most of it in during the week, and some bleeds over into the next week. That’s why we have break weeks and extra weeks at the end, because life/weather/etc get in the way sometimes 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
This was a good session!!!!>>I think the only thing that did go better was that I completed my crosses more timely and was not making the L-shape to get her to turn (it is a different camera angle but it seems like I wasn’t on the video?) >>
100% yes!! Much better lines! She read that really well – on the last rep, she didn’t take the middle jump but you were a little too early – the FC was starting before she landed from the jump after the tunnel, so she was correct to come into you.
>>I honestly don’t know if she is actually listening to me,>>
She totally is, like you saw on the last rep. One indicator that she is listening is that she will turn to her ‘weaker’ side if that is what the handling is showing, rather than always just turning to the ‘easier’ side. She was being really good!
>>But I obviously was not deceling correctly.>>
The reps at :11 and :35 (and the last rep where she didn’t take the middle jump) all had it correct: you did the cross and decelerated and kept moving for a couple more steps, so you showed the line but did not block the line (which shows a different line, see below 😁) That is the key: decel and move forward a little bit more, until she is passing you on the send. That is what you did on the reps at :11 and :35 in particular.
On the reps where she turned away, you did the cross and came to a pretty full stop, rather than continue to move through the decel (:20 and :48 and 1:12 for example).
That caused you to be blocking her line to the correct wrap and that position on the line also happens to be a rear cross cue. So, on those reps, she did a rear cross 🙂 You can see at :49 that as she was beginning to pass you, you were stepping backwards which puts motion across the rear cross line. That is also what happened at 1:01 where you were moving backwards a bit towards the RC line so she did the RC there too.
So as you decel, keep moving forward. I tell myself: fast forward then slow forward when I am using decel to set up a send or turn. That way you can show the correct line all the way through, like you did at :11 and :35!
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
The warm ups here to get her to find the middle jump independently went really well! One thing to add is to set it up as a send: rather than round the line with her working at a distance, you can decelerate as she is taking the jump after the tunnel to set up the one step send to the middle jump – then as she is moving past you to that jump, you can turn and move to the BC position. The send will make it easier for you to pivot to the new direction because you will already be weight-shifted and ready to turn).She is turning to the outside of the jump on the start jump really well (that is hard for young dogs because it is weird to turn away from the course, but it has become a really popular opening on courses).
Isolating the blinds: really nice connection on these!!!
The first BC looked lovely. On the 2nd one – she was line up on a path parallel to the backside wing so she was not really facing the font side of the bar… and your path at :43-:44 was a parallel path as you came around the wing so she read it was a parallel path moment (which is GREAT because that “stay on your parallel line and layer things” is such a hugely popular trend right now). Much better lineup at :48 and she had no questions.Putting it all together: your timing and connection were fantastic! That is what really showed her the line you wanted. When working the blinds, put yourself on the line heading to the correct obstacle (in this case the correct tunnel entry) as early as possible. You were rounding the line with her before the blind, which puts you on the line to the exit of the tunnel at 1:01 and even more so at 1:13 (you were in the ‘blind cross death zone’ on that one by moving into her landing spot to do the blind as she was jumping). The send-and-go on the middle jump will help get a better position & line: if you send to the middle jump without really going past the plane of it (and not going anywhere near the BC jump) you will set up earlier info for her, and a better line for you! It will feel like yo are running down the line to the center of the tunnel, rather than going close to the BC jump then pushing her back to the tunnel entry.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! These sessions went really well!!!! I don’t think she had any questions on any part of it (plus it looked like she thought it was really fun to chase the ball!)
Looking at the Baby level videos:
She found the line super well on these with the start wing in all the different positions! Yay! The only thing to add is your motion, so you are moving up the line parallel to her on all of these (rather than being stationary to send). The motion is a bit of a distraction which she is ready to see, plus it will cue the extension because the send should cue a collection).
Since this went so well, you can also add verbals like a jump cue or a go verbal, so it is even easier to add your motion. If the exit of the tunnel is pointed directly at the jump (like when she is on your left) then you can start your go verbals before she gets into the tunnel! If she has to turn on the tunnel exit to find the jump (like when she is in your right) then you will want to wait to start the verbal cues til she has turned to look for the correct line).
Advanced level: She is also blasting out of the tunnel really well here! Super! No trouble finding the jump even as it moved further away, and even as you moved the start wing further away. Yay!
You can be moving and add verbals on this level of the game too – that way she has to find the jump even as you are running 15 or 20 feet away laterally.
You can also add in running close to the tunnel after the start wing, so you are not more than a step or two ahead of her when she exits, and she has to drive ahead of you to get to the jump – you can throw the ball as soon as she looks ahead of you.
Great job!!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
I think the NextLevel Pup games are a good next step for her! It is a pretty challenging skill so the parts where you were not too far away went really well – but adding the biggest distance was too hard for her, for now (more below). She probably needs the piece broken down into several sessions and then the skill will lock in nicely!
>>Compared to my older dog who did it without ever looking at me until she landed.>>
Adult experienced dog compared to young inexperienced dog… My adults would have blown through this game in 5 seconds LOL!! My 2 youngsters? Yeah, that’s a lot harder because they are learning a lot of new things while the older dog has a whole lot of experience and training to rely on. Try not to compare her to the adult dog 🙂
The only thing to add is that you can tell her to jump sooner (before she goes into the tunnel you can be saying go and then before she exits you can be saying jump).
>>I just don’t know how to increase my motion without getting too far ahead of Kashia >>
Run in closer to the tunnel and if needed, stop for a count of 2 then move forward again 🙂
>>I was frustrated trying to figure out that timing since Kashia still needs so much babysitting.>>
This is more of a dog training skill, so throwing the reward really early is useful (I was throwing SUPER early on the demos).
>>I was so frustrated and annoying at the outcome of this drill that I decided to do the lazy game again to clear our minds of the last drill. It just didn’t feel good to me and I didn’t like Kashia’s performance. >>
Remember that many sessions with young dogs will not look or feel great the first time through. Some will be great, some will be “meh”, some will outright suck! But it is fine to keep rewarding then let the skill percolate for a few days – latent learning is magic!
I think also she is too new to agility to do agility jumping sequences several days in a row or multiple times in a week. She has done a lot towards the end of the this week – so now give her a couple of days off from the jumping. It will refresh her mind and also it is entirely possible she gets a little sort from the agility jumping. Even the fittest dogs who can run for days can end up sore/tired from the muscles used in agility (different muscles for sure!)
>>So what’s weird to me is how well Kashia does the lazy game but didn’t do the next level pup game. >>
Well, I think it is how she figures out and learns the skills. Scrolling back to Kashia’s first lazy game session, you wrote:
“The Lazy Game did not go so well. Kashia’s behavior was confusing to me.”It took her a couple of sessions to lock it in, and now it is really strong! So you can keep that in mind as you introduce new games and new skills – you might not see it lock in during that first session. And that s fine!
She is similar to my whippet youngster: the first session is kind of “meh” on a new skill but I keep it short and reward a lot (expecting the “meh” so I don’t get frustrated – he is just thinking and learning). Then I put it away for a couple of days, and come back to it and things are so much better. I have chilled out a lot in my old age here, thanks to the whippet LOL!!!! Kashia seems very similar!
>> It’s just confusing how opposite they are on each of the games and how similar the concepts of the games are.>>
The concepts are similar but in the lazy game, she is turning towards you the whole time. In the next level game, she is being asked to drive straight parallel to you or drive ahead of you at increasing distances… so from a dog’s perspective, I can see how it would feel really different!
So overall – the session went well! Give her a couple of days off from jumping stuff then revisit the next level games and see how she does (no need to add the big distance yet, that might take multiple sessions).
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
These blinds are tricky because they involve motion and connection – if the line or timing are incorrect, something goes wrong 🙂 But they are great the n the motion and connection work together!!>>I can’t figure out what hand to have the reward in and when switching it I am not moving smoothly.>>
The exit of the blind should have exit line connection (arm across the body). This will help things a LOT because she will see the connection change better and you won’t have to change your line or slow down/stand still after the blind. For exit line connection, the toy is in the dog side hand at the start and it stays in that hand as you exit the blind (and you show it across your body to open up the connection).
You were using rotating back to her to get the connection, which was opening up the line behind you (backwards motion is still motion 😁 ) so the exit line connection will show the connection and allow you to keep moving forward.
One thing to keep in mind: even if the handling does not go as you planned, her responses should still be rewarded. She was correct every time, according to what she saw 🙂 On some of the reps, where she ended up in the tunnel exit instead of doing the blind, she had a conflicting indicator. This means that upper body was showing one cue, and lower body (motion) was showing another, so she had to choose something. Dogs will choose the stronger cue, generally – and in this case it was your line of motion. So she is still correct!
You can see that at :25 on the first video and :34 on the second video: you were running to between the uprights of the BC jump then your line of motion was pretty much towards the tunnel exit…. So that is where she went.
Compare that to the reps like at :53 on video 3, where you did not get in between the uprights and you had connection and motion to the correct tunnel entry – really nice!!
So definitely be careful of your line on the BCs – don’t let yourself go past the wing of the jump or towards the bar at all, because it puts you on her landing spot – that can open up the wrong line or even be a collision risk (ouch!). On the first video you were stopping in that position a bit, but you moved through it a lot better on the next videos. Yay!
As you work the line on the BCs, on some of the reps you were too early (like at :02 on video 2, and :30 on video 4). What happened there was that as she was lifting off for the pinwheel jump, you were already disconnected which reads as starting the blind. That is the timing that is used in fancier blinds like for backsides so she read it correctly to NOT take the next jump). At :31 on video 4, when you reconnect, you are definitely looking like you are cuing a forced backside (like a forced front cross) so that is what she did.
The timing of the blinds that worked great for her was when you were connected til she landed from the pinwheel jump, then you keep moving down the line as you started the blind. Yo can use lateral distance for that so that you don’t end up between the uprights of the BC jump.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The FC might actually work a little better on this sequence because you had to face the correct line to finish the cross and you don’t have time to add extra pressure. She got the correct direction of exit here each time! The timing was not quite as good as the BC timing (the FCs should start at the same time as the BCs, no later than landing from the jump after the tunnel).
One thing to add in here too is the decel. You were accelerating out of the crosses to get to the wing and crunch down into the collection cue… but you don’t need to do that 🙂 You can finish the cross and decel, which is a powerful collection cue.
For example, at :08 – you don’t lean down on the line at takeoff, use a decel instead – the leaning down almost looks like the start of a rotation and adds convergence and also delays you from moving up the next line which made the turn to 7 late at ;11 so she went around it
>>I kept accidentally adding a spin.
Spins are fine here and some dogs get better turns with the spins. Both the spin and the post turn require deceleration, so be sure to add that element.
With the FCs, you can run the direct line from the wing next to you on the FC jump to the wrap exit wing on the next jump, You were running an L shaped line, where you were moving between the uprights of the FC jump then turning to the next jump. We have a good view of it at :53 – you are facing the bar and she is jumping straight so she turns after landing. Trust her commitment there and move to the next jump 🙂
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
This was a really good session to have on video, because it shows really useful info for the wraps!!!
Your BC timing was consistently great! YAY!!!!!
Moving into a wrap like on this sequence, you probably don’t need to be quite that far ahead – you can be closer to the line you want her to run, so that you can set the line to the exit wrap.
The line should be from the inside wing of the BC jump to the wrap exit (outside) wing of the #5 jump, so you are setting the line you want her to run.
My favorite exit line was at 1:09, you were more direct there in going to the wrap wing after it.At 1:42, you had a bit too much of an L-shaped line on the blind, where you ran kind of straight past the BC jump then changed direction when you went to the wrap jump (bar down there).
The hardest part of this sequence was getting the correct turn on the wrap. Watching the runs here, she was responding to the handling perfectly each time 🙂 So reward all of those, even if the outcome was not as you intended. Just assume it was a handling error and either reward or keep going – stopping and fixing is confusing for the dog who read the info correctly (and sets up another potential handler error like getting the backside on the re-send because you were on her line)
So what was going on to cause her to (correctly) either turn away like a RC or go to the backside? It was a motion question. What was happening was you were running hard to the wrap wing then getting low and pressuring into her line before she was past you. So, depending on where exactly you were on the line, you either got the RC or the backside (both were correct in those moments).
For example, at :25, as she was approaching you, you moved towards her which cued the left turn (you were rotating for a spin, I think, but it was the physical cues of a RC). At :36 you were working it as a post turn but as you shaped the line a bit, you converged towards her so yes – rear cross cue 🙂
On the other side, you were working the post turn more but ended up moving backwards… which caused RCs like at 1:29 (or backsides like at 1:18 if you were a bit center of the bar).
When you faced the post turn wing for longer without pressure into her… she got the correct wrap exit.
I think what was happening was that you were getting up there and getting low and moving into the line to help the collection… but it ended up cuing the other direction 🙂 So the easiest thing to do to show the cue is to let her handle the collection part of it 🙂 and all you need to do is show decel as she is landing from the BC jump (middle jump). Then after you decelerate while moving a forward a few steps and she is passing you and heading the correct direction, you can complete the turn (for a post turn). Or, if you want to do a spin, you can be decelerating towards the wrap wing and as she is catching up to you, start the rotation but don’t pressure in towards her (she doesn’t need the extra cues and it create the wrong line).
>>I think she started to avoid that side of the jump after that a couple of times. >>
I don’t think it was the treee… if you watch it in slow motion, you will see the motion and pressure on the line was cuing it 🙂 Backwards motion is still motion! You were moving backwards into her line before she passed you so she changed directions.
Think of it as a 3 part process: fast forward (running into the blind), slow forward (decel as you move forward) then rotate. You can see that at 1:42 and she got it nicely!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>> I can’t for the life of me figure out how to send my dog without putting my arm up and pointing. It’s my natural habit apparently! I swear to goodness I try every single time and it just doesn’t happen. As soon as I slow or stop motion, my dogs question what I’m doing and what they should be doing. I also just can’t seem to grasp the mechanics! I understand it closes my shoulder off to the dogs but I can’t seem to find the sweet spot of using your arm as guidance and not as a barrier.>>
The trick to the arm is that it is a support tool, not an indicator. What I mean by that is you can use your arm, hand pointing to her nose, as part of the send – make connection, send with motion and a big step, and let your hand go with her nose to the jump you are sending to. So yes, you are using your arm – but what you will want to avoid is using it to indicate the jump ahead of her by pointing forward, which does turn your back on her a bit and break connection. Think of it as having an invisible string from your hand to her nose 🙂
These drills went really well! Ithink the full sequence was actually easier than the warm up for you, but we got great info!
Bonus –
The sends looked great! To get even more speed, you can run in closer to the tunnel so when she exits, she sees you accelerating up the line (rather than being ahead and decelerating, which might be why she was slowing down).Looking at the BCs to the tunnel: this was all about line of motion 🙂 If your like of motion was towards the correct end of the tunnel, she got it every time like at :35 and :49 and 1:26. When your line of motion was towards the wrong end of the tunnel (even if your feet were rotated), she took the wrong end (:42, :57 1:06, 1:14). On those reps, even though your feet were turned, you were running a bit sideways towards the wrong end as compared to running directly forward to the correct end. Motion is powerful, even if it is sideways or backwards motion 🙂
On the full sequence, it was easier for you to run directly towards the correct tunnel entry and she got it every time. Yay! Nice!!!!! this is a good place to move in towards the tunnel #2 so you don’t decelerate too much at 3 – you will send from further away, but she will have more acceleration too so it should work out well. Any time you took off to run to the blind, she really accelerated!
Her only real question here was at 1:42 where you were trying to be more laterally away from the blind cross jump and she came off the line. For now she needs you to be a little closer to that line like you were on the other reps, but your instinct to start moving away is good! You can do it in small increments and also lazy-style, throwing the reward to the landing spot as you get further and further away from the jump 🙂 Then you can do the blind from closer to he correct tunnel entry, which makes it even easier for her to read.
Great job here!!
Tracy
