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Good morning!
The turn aways are looking really strong!It was really super obvious when you wanted her to go to the outside of the jump versus when you want the turn away to the inside of the jump each time. Super!!
Plus your line of motion was spot on: on the turn aways, you were moving straight on a parallel line to what you wanted her to take without any pressure into the wing which might have pushed her to the other side. Perfect!
You can use her name as the verbal for now, that can help emphasize the connection shift too.
>>Hopefully we are ready to move on to the next lesson
You totally are ready to move to the next lesson! You can also spread the wings out so you have more running – that will make it more exciting for her and also more challenging for your timing 🙂
Great job here!!!
TracyGood morning!
>>Honestly, it is so hard to remember everything – LOL>>
TOTALLY relatable! It is HARD to run young dogs because we have to remember everything 🙂
One thing that will help on the shifting connection is if you let her see your hands during the regular connection moment before the turn away (holding your hands up higher back to her then letting her see your hands drop down as you shift connection to them – that can totally make a difference in her response to the cues.
You were using a shoulder rotation but that hid your hands and connection, which can actually cue her to stay on the line to the jump based on your motion. So showing her your hands up high in the air then shifting your connection to your hands should help her come in to the line (closer to what you did at :22, but you can exaggerate it even more).Extreme connection is going well! You were able to add more distance pretty easily! Your line on motion at :24 and after than was totally straight while you cued the ‘out’ which is what we want 🙂
Add balance reps a lot more frequently earlier in the session, so you don’t have to help her do the ‘easy’ lines after she does a bunch of ‘outs’ 🙂 The sequence at the end looked terrific!!
Great job here 🙂
TracyGood morning! Nice work here!!!
She is reading the turn aways/tandem turns really well so now we can go to the next step: Try to keep moving the whole time and moving on a straight line forward. That way you can get the turn away from further away, which can set up really useful distance moments. You were tending to stop moving to get her to come into your hands then crossing her line to help set up the turn away. So you can replace that with moving on a parallel line to her and letting her see you shift from looking at her eyes (showing her your hands) then looking down to your hands as you drop them down to set up the turns.
Balance reps are all looking good, she had no questions about staying on her line versus turning away. Super!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>Do you think wearing glasses vs not or a baseball cap or not affects the connection? >>
Wearing glasses affects my peripheral vision, but hats and glasses don’t seem to affect the dogs as long as we are connected. They don’t really look at our eyes – they look at our shoulders and motion o hats and glasses are generally fine. I practice in them all the time 🙂
>> I’ve taken a winter break from it to slow down and figure it out. I’ve just backed everything up and readdressing basic foundation and learning more.
That was smart to test the waters in the ring then take some time to train more of the skills you want!
I am so glad you are having fun with the class and I love your approach of figuring out how to be the best teammate to Clover 🙂
Have fun!
TracyWow, you two are looking awesome!!!! Super runs here!! You two are going to have a great career!
I think overall your connection to him is really strong on course, which relates to why so many sections of the courses looked awesome. Yay!! When you get onto the big lines with him (like the end of the Jumping run and the last half of speedstakes) you don’t even really need to use your arms out at the side or supporting the line – you can use your arms like a sprinter (pump and run) while you maintain your connection and deliver the verbals. That will keep him on the line and get you further up the line too 🙂
For example, compare :45 at the end of the jumping run to the end of the speedstakes run. At the end of the jumping run you got a little behind him on the last tunnel – when he exited, your arm was really high and pointing forward which blocked the connection and you were looking forward, so he curled off the line and in towards you. In that scenario you can keep your hands down as your run, and look at him even more, which will turn your shoulders to the line so he can carry forward to the jump.
On the end of speedstakes, your arm was not quite as high and your connection was much clearer, so he found that huge line really well!!! And with his speed, keeping your arm up slows you down a bit – trying to run the line with the same connection but pumping your arms instead of pointing can keep you way ahead 🙂Great job here!!!
TracyGood morning! The outs are looking great, this might be his favorite thing 🙂
Good job balancing the wraps because he was definitely thinking about the jump on video 1. Video 2 and video 3 were MUCH better, he was not drifting out to the jump as much 🙂
Video 4 he almost took the jump when you wanted the wing (he loves that jump!) You were calling him, so one thing you can do is play these games without verbals so he follows the body language and doesn’t look at the other obstacles until he sees the cue.
Video 5 & 6 & 7 looked great – he liked this one because he could get out both times to the jump 🙂 So you can balance this rep with reps where he doesn’t get cued to the jump at all, so he doesn’t anticipate it and start moving to it.
On the dang threadle thingy videos 😁 you can reward him for coming into your hands more, to make it more automatic that he comes in to your hands as soon as he sees the cue.
He came did the threadles much better on the next 3 clips – part of it was that you were more patient letting him come in, and also you are a little further from the wing letting him come in more. You can turn and face a parallel line as you bring him in and turn him – that way he doesn’t see any motion towards the wing which might conflict with the threadle cue.
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
>>I usually teach them as a specific behavior with a cue.>>
Same here! And in the teaching phase plus on course I support with connection, to help eliminate errors (from me and from the dog LOL!) especially as these turns get more complicated and with off course obstacles nearby.
On the video, there were a couple of things going on that caused him to not get the line, and then a couple of things that helped him get the line every time.
One thing to decide on is what you want the hand/arm cue to look like. There were reps were you had a dog side arm only, and some reps with both arms – it got a little inconsistent about what the cue looked like so he was not always sure what do it.
He seemed to have more success when you used both hands – but that might be more about how you used that hands instead of it being about using 2 hands:
When you lifted the hands a little as you were looking at him then dropping the hands as you looked at the hands – that was very successful! You can do that little lift up-connect then drop down-shift connection with the single dog-side arm too, which will make the dog-side arm more obvious to him.
The other thing happening here that made the difference between success on the turn away and error on the front side of the jump was your line of motion: on any rep where you pushed him off the jump (like at :20) or when he did not turn away or go to the threadle side (:52, 2:13, 2:25, 5;42, 6:37 for example) – you were either facing the jump the whole time, or turned back towards the jump as you were trying to turn him away.
Compare to reps like :57 and 1:08 and 1:38 where you turned and faced a line parallel to the line you wanted him to take (like the line to the back of the jump) – that really helped him set up the line you wanted! At 2:34 and 5:16 you over-pulled a bit, so that can get faded out so there is not as much of a zig zag line there.
One other thing that I have found helps the dog get the line consistently on these: rather than just shift connection to our hands, if we look up at the dog and show the hand(s) we are going to use and then shift connection – that can really get their attention for the turn away (especially threadle wraps). This is especially helpful with young dogs who have so much value on the front of the jump and turning towards us.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The session went really well here! I just re-read your post – was this Nuptse?
On the tandem turns, you were getting him focused on your hands really well (you can exaggerate the connection shift to you hands a bit more). You were using RC motion to help turn her away (and it totally helped!) so the next step would be to fade some of the RC motion, so you can run straight more and turn him away at a distance!The threadle wraps are going well too. On the first one, you stayed pretty close to the jump and also kept moving forward, that worked really well! You don’t need to turn your shoulders away quite as much on the threadle wrap at the end, that created a little too much of a zig zag line for him.
>>Well, now Changtse is not even making a mistake.
Would she start then stop playing? Or just not start at all? What type of food rewards were you using? It is possible that she needs something more motivating. But even with the ball, which is plenty motivating, she still left the session. You can try switching motivators more frequently, and also using super high value food like cooked chicken. And definitely keep looking for an underlying medical issue like pain or thyroid or tick stuff…. Over the years, when the dogs want to play less and less even with relatively “light” work and great motivators, there is something else going on. Any good soft tissue canine PT people in your area that can give her a super thorough exam?
Nice work here! Keep me posted about Changtse!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Either I am not cuing the same or shifting out on a right lead is harder for Sprite.>>
It looks like you are cuing slightly differently, but there definitely could be more challenge for her to move away to her right .
The slight difference in the cues was making a difference for her. On the shifts to the right where she was having more trouble, you were keeping your feet moving forward on a straight line (or as straight as possible with the upper body rotation) while the upper body did the cue (arm and connection). On the first few reps on the left turn side, you were moving a little less and rotating your lower body to the jump more, so it was a little more of a send.
I think she was a little surprised about the first get out cue to the right then got progressively better and better without needing your to turn your feet to the jump – yay! We want the line you were running on the right turn side, so you can cue the behavior while you keep moving.
For example, you can see the difference at :52 (rotated) versus 1:02 (moving forward). The rotation helped her get the jump, but the moving forward kept you more ahead on the line – and she did get the jump. The delay is probably her jut processing the motion line versus the ‘get out’ cue. I think with seeing this game a few more times will help her be super smooth to the right while you keep moving – that would be the most ideal 🙂
Great job!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The games are going well here!
On the first video:
>>I think I still need better regular connection on the sends.>>
Yes – you can exaggerate it more so she propels away from you. On the reps where she didn’t quite go to the wing, you would get a bit of connection when she exited the wing wrap but then switched to pointing/looking at the wing you were sending too. If you were close enough to it, she went to it. But if your were further away, she had questions.
Compare to :33 where you had much stronger connection and also at 1:05 where you were really clear so she had no questions 🙂 Yay!
On the serp video – On the first couple of reps she came in nicely! You were not fully in serp position (closer to the exit wing of the jump) so when you were in serp position (:28 and 1:18 for example), she just needed you to open up your shoulders towards her more (feet facing forward, shoulders facing the bar) as you shift connected so that she could come in.
The threadle reps at the end on the other side were clearer and she did well!! As you connect with her try not to move backwards or rotate your feet as that can make it harder to get the next jump.
On the turn away video – wow this was super nice! Both directions ! You can add decel to tighten up the turn by slowing down just before you start the cue. Otherwise it was perfect!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
The tunnel rocking horses are going really well!
>>This one would be a lot easier if I could toss a toy>>
I agree! It would be easier to build value of the tunnel and for driving to the wing for sure! You can use a treat hugger so that it is easier to see than a treat being thrown? Does she like tennis balls? We can get a Lift-sized ball 🙂 That would help her find the line to the tunnel even with you running hard (that was challenging for her!) and it will help her drive ahead to the wing. You got it done with a lot of hustle here 🙂 but you can use a treat hugger or something similar to throw as the reward.
Adding more speed to the RDW work was fun! She was doing a good job hitting her mat – she had some questions when you were staying lateral or moving fast. The questions were mainly due to the angle of entry to the mat because the exit of the wing wrap had an offset entry to the mat. That caused you to have to shape her entry to the mat, so she slowed down a bit before hitting the mat. You can change the angle of entry to the mat from the wing exit, so it is a straight line and that way she can power through to the mat regardless where you were running to 🙂
The wing wraps went well, she was on fire! Fun! You can totally do these rocking-horse- style to add more and more distance and speed on the wrapping.
Great job here!
TracyHi! I am so glad you are enjoying the games – it has been so fun watching you!!
>>Given how much I love your materials which independent study courses would you recommend I follow MaxPup with? And do you have other online classes like this one that are continuations and I should keep an eye on?>>
The next class will be MaxPup 2 – I will be posting the dates for it this week! It will begin in March 🙂
The lateral send game looks great! His stay is terrific 🙂 I am glad you are having fun with the stays because we want them to be fun for you both! He seemed to have no questions about the stay or the send to the barrel – lovely work!
Because it went so well, you can add more distance and get even further away from him, and from the barrel.
His baby dog sequence looked AMAZING!!!!! You can totally lose your brain with excitement over that – it was GREAT!! He was fast, focused, and turned tight on the jump too. SO FUN!! The future is very exciting 🙂 And I am glad the resilience games are helping too!!
Great job here and thank you for the updates!
Tracy
Hi!
This went well!
For the front crosses on the jump, you can add a little more distance, That will allow you to decelerate/rotate sooner, so you can use more of the shifting connection to the landing spot as you move the opposite direction.Good job placing the reward for her to drive to! She will get more and more comfortable driving to the reward in new places with some more practice.
For the circle wrap – she had a few questions as you moved forward while she was going around the wing. You were tending to step to the side then ru forward looking at her so she didn’t finish the wrap. Instead, you will want to go around the same side of the wing she goes around, running right behind her tail (no need to step to the side, you can move directly forward behind her) – similar what you did at 1:22 and 1:31. And, to help her commit as you run forward, do the connection shift to the landing spot that you did at 1:47 – that worked really well!!
Nice work here!
Tracy
