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Good morning!
Nice work here – you were able to work out the timing and connections and that made a difference on the skills!
For the BCs –
Too early at :04, you were already disconnected to start the blind before she landed from 1Definitely better timing to start the blind at :12 but late with the ELC so she didn’t pick up the new side (partially due to her inexperience – a more experienced dog will know that the shoulder rotation predicts blind, so you wouldn’t need to be as perfect).
The rep at :23 was good and the rep at :28 was GREAT – that rep had timing, connections, and a great line of motion so she really read the line well.
FCs – the important part here was remembering your transition from acceleration to deceleration into the collection rotation, while maintaining collection. A few reps didn’t quite have the transitions in place:
At :33- you went fast then rotated as she took off for the 2nd jump so she (correctly) jumped long.
She ran around the jumps on the next rep, possibly a little frustration? So try not to react at all if something goes wrong.
Much better decel at :56! Yay!
The rep at 1:04 had toooo much decel (no acceleration to commit her) so she didn’t commit and came off the line when you hit the brakes to rotate.
The reps at 1:11 and 1:20 put it all together – really nice!
>>I will be interested in what you say about the spins at the end of the video. To me they felt easy and natural and I wasn’t even sure how I did them. My arms might have been doing some free style stuff that they hadn’t asked me about, but I really thought she found the line well.>>
I agree – they looked great and she did really well! You had working out the transitions and connections on the FC reps and applied it all to the spins – and nailed it. YAY! I think your arms were fine: they were low and out of the way and showing the exit line connection while moving naturally. She seemed to have no questions!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
He was definitely getting ahead of you when you started right near the wing! Nice connection!
>>Perhaps a placed reward would work better for him to get farther ahead??>>
Yes – placed reward will totally help and also you can throw a lot sooner (when he lands from 1 and is looking at 2, throw the reward). You can also use a longer jump bar – it is possible that in order to fit himself over the bar, he is slowing down a bit because it is a narrow space.
On the exit line connection video:
>>There were a few reps that I have no idea why I was doing such a big lead out and it created problems. Or rather, that lack of commitment created the problem but I didn’t need to lead out like that.>>
It wasn’t really a lack of commitment issue – I think leading out too much caused a reverse transition on some of the reps… yo were decelerated until you suddenly went fast into the rotation (like at :44). And when that happened, you were looking at the jump and not at him (broken connection!) so he came to you and didn’t take jump 2 (like at :57 and 2:26 – you were looking at the takeoff spot and rotating towards him, but he was still behind you, so he didn’t see the connection he needed).
1:08 had a good transition and connection! And he nailed it 🙂 Adding more connection directly to his eyes as you move up the line fast before decelerating will definitely help with commitment, and doing that will also help you not end up past jump 2 on the wrap FC and spins.
Nice job working out the mechanics of the spin! Good use of motion on those reps, and also really nice emphasis on exit line connection! When you balanced those with FCs, he did really well too.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>Knight is a Blue cedar, out of Ginger x Atom.>>
If my memory is correct, Knight has MeToo and MyMy in his background, so he is related to my Hot Sauce (she is in the week 2 demos) as a cousin. Small world!
>>The first is my attempt at being behind inside>>
This went well!!! Try not to look forward as you exit the wing wrap (you looked forward and back at him) – think of it as looking at him directly as he exits the wrap, to start the go jump cue. It is entirely possible, though, that you were reflexively looking forward to make sure you were not going to run into anything 🙂 Try it outdoors and see how it goes!The FC exit line connection was good in terms of your mechanics! Yay! Connection was very clear. On the first couple of reps, the timing was a little harder (smaller space and figuring out weird new mechanics so you were a little late :)) But when you switched sides, your timing got earlier and you maintained the strong exit line connection, and things looked great!
And the blinds looked AWESOME – when you started to really trust the exit line connection, you started the blinds sooner and check out the gorgeous turn he produced at 1:14! Wow!
The wider turn on the other side was simply because of your position relative to the jump – you were past it so he correctly jumped to the line you were on, which was a little wider. But your exit line connection looked lovely so he always knew where to be. YAY!!Great job here!! If the weather cooperates, try it outside so you can work the timing and connections with more speed 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! Thanks for the background – she is looking great!!!
>>She was excited by the frisbee toy however by the 5th I believe we took a break and switched to food when she was reluctant to give up the toy which I read as not ready to continue. After a break we used food. She will work for food but much slower less motivated.>>
She DEFINITELY loves the frisbee! I think she was really excited and aroused when she ha trouble giving the frisbee back. She was probably game to continue, but needs a little help balancing the arousal. Question: will she trade the frisbee for a treat, then go back to the frisbee as a reward? That way you can keep her happily driving for the frisbee, without getting too aroused but also keeping the toy in the game. That way you don’t have to switch to food where she is less motivated for it.
>>I kept Clover in motion as to keep motivation.>>
That worked well when you were able to get her on your side and make connection before the send, but if you didn’t get connected or looked forward on the send to the cone, she took the jump because that was the direction you turned (:08 and 1:07 for example). So you can line her up at your side, gently take her collar, give her a little ‘ready set go’ and then send to the cone! That can be very motivating and also help you show her the connection sooner.
Your connection on the line on all of the reps on your right side looked great!! Super!!
When you switched to your left side, you were looking ahead of her a little more (like at 1:00 and 1:15) so the connection was not as clear and she was not quite as fast on the line. That might also be where you switched to food? So adding more connection and keeping the frisbee in the game can really help increase her speed and independence 🙂Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>Her harness is a Freedom Harness. It is not supposed to impede the dog’s motion.>>
It looks like there is a strap that sits just across the top of her chest & shoulders – so even if it is intended to not impede movement, it is just enough “there” that her brain has to spend gas processing it. We would like her brain to not have to devote any energy to that 🙂 The same thing happens when I train my dogs in flyball, which has really challenging and fast neck movement: I take their neck collars off. Even though theoretically the collar doesn’t impede movement in regular life, it certainly is something they have to process around in sport so it is easier for them to remove it.
>>As you can see in one of the clips, she takes a mmoment. This is new and has something to do with not being able to run the fence!!! >>
She was great! You can see her really processing the environment there! And great job to your for rewarding her LOTS when she re-engaged.First rep – she was still processing the environment, so more connection was needed at :29 to get her to commit to 2 before rotating. When the dogs are processing the environment, adding a LOT of big connection can really help them because it becomes easier to process when we exaggerate it 🙂 You were terrific to keep going and reward when she took the next jump.
The blinds at :44 and :51 looked really strong! Nice motion and connection to get commitment to 2, and great exit line connection!
And the spin at the end looked really strong too – you had more connection than the first rep, and she also did not need to devote as much energy to handling the environment – so you both looked great! Well done on all of the exit line connections here!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>My threadle wrap physical cue is my arm across my waist. I would like to keep that cue as pure as possible–on Uki/USDAA courses,I have found it very useful. Is there another way to perform the ELC and achieve the same desired result?>>
You can do it without the opposite arm if you can get the dog-side arm all the way back and make great eye contact… but that is not something most people do when moving fast. To make the arm across look different than the threadle wrap cue, just place the open palm of the opposite arm on your dog-side hip (for me it is on my belly because I am not that flexible LOL!). So you are giving yourself a bit of a hug – it naturally opens up the connection and trains your body to do it. And, it looks nothing like the threadle wrap cue (I also use the opposite arm with my threadle wrap and the dog s have no trouble seeing the difference).
>>and the King Cake is a killer. I decided to go back to keto as I was most successful there and felt the best. but ,man, King cake>>
For real! I feel better and look better when I am doing low carbs and high protein… so why do I love high carbs so much? LOL!! I mean, I know the answer about the addictive qualities of sugar, but datum KING CAKE loL!!
Hi!
Just like you would be patient with him, be patient with yourself when learning new mechanics 🙂 When I was learning spins, I would walk up and down the hallway in my house, doing spins LOL!! My dogs thought I was weird, but they think that anyway 🙂Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>>I am currently showing at a facility in Minneapolis that has 19 poles so the poles have become part of the obstacles–so weird but it really affects my handling and that of my colleagues.>>
Are you at TCOTC? They have a LOT of poles there and a low ceiling. I have found that it is a processing challenge for us humans to be connected, do the handling, AND not worry about running into a pole!
>>In terms of Mira–she is definitely not a bar dropper. I think I was late with my cue and she was looking for her treat. >>
Good! If bar dropping is rare, then we just note it, see if there was a cause, but otherwise let it go.
>>She is the kind of dog that has left me on course to find a treat and then rejoined me in mid-chew of that treat. I am not making this stuff up:)>>
Ha!!! Poor starving girlie! LOL!!!
Keep me posted 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>>The leash game has worked remarkably well at the end of our run or practice but I worry at the start line because she consistently looks elsewhere before I release her and I’m righteously untrusting of her taking the line.
There is a lot of pressure on the start line in general, and if you add more pressure by trying to get her to look at the jump… she is more likely to look away and move away. So you can release that pressure by lining up and moving away quickly – then release to the first jump and use a TON of rewards for going towards the first jump and not away from it 🙂
>>If I ask her to do a trick to get her engaged before we get set again she’s just as liable to leave me there.>>
Some dogs are “all business” so adding the trick might also be too much pressure. Try getting into the start and off the start a quickly as possible to relieve the pressure, and see how she does.
Keep me posted!
TracyGood morning! This looked pretty darned perfect!
The easiest way to tell if you are breaking connection and looking ahead is to watch your pony tail 🙂 You were connected on all of the wing wrap sends – then if you moved your head to look forward, you can see your pony tail move back and forth. That happened a grand total of once 🙂 And it was on the very first rep – then you were perfect. So she read the line brilliantly!
>>I used the Manners Minder as the target & she was so excited & really drove to it each time.
I back-chained the jumps before we started, so that she knew there was a bar in place and I think she did great with them.>>Brilliant training! It really helped!
>> She did knock the 2nd bar on the last rep. I couldn’t figure out why when I watched the video. What do you think? Was it “just a bar”?>>
I watched that moment a bunch of times to see what was different – she just took off differently (sooner) and didn’t quite clear the bar. Nothing in particular caused it – you were connected, the verbals were the same, the timing of the MM beep was the same. It is possible that she was just a little fatigued and she might not be used to being ahead of you (she was a little ahead on that rep) – it is a lot of jumping, especially if there was back chaining on the jumps before this session. No worries! You can give her longer breaks between reps so her power muscles have a bit more recovery time 🙂 And more practice with her being ahead of you (with you starting right by the wing wrap) will also help her out.
Great job here! You can show her the exit line connection now too!
Have fun!
TracyHi!
>> I hate to be behind!!! >>
Totally relatable! Because Mother Nature can’t be controlled 🙂 We do have the break week in the middle (and a couple of extra weeks at the end) in case anyone gets tied up with bad weather
>>when you’ve done agility for SO many years and someone (you) presents an concept that has been shown and talked about along the way, but not to the extent and with the explanation you give, it’s HUGE!!! Love the lightbulb moments when they happen!!!!>>
That is good to know! I think we have all been talking about connection for literally decades without ever really defining it as a handling cue and exactly what it was – in a way that is simple for us humans. I get a lot of feedback from the humans and dogs that helps ‘tweak’ the definition and descriptions so it is easier to connect and hard to disconnect 🙂
>> Footing is always just a little different on indoor turf than grass (Karma and I both love the grass best)!!!>>
I’m with you – grass I my favorite! Turf sure is nice when the weather is bad but the dogs don’t run nearly as well on it (although it makes me feel like a track star LOL!!!)
>>Hope the storm moves out of your area………….where do you live??????
I am in central Virginia, a little south of Charlottesville. Today is GORGEOUS weather (sunny and 50s) after tomorrow’s grossness. My baby whippet took one look at the weather yesterday and sprinted back to his cave bed where he spent the rest of the day LOL!
Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>> So I don’t want to lose her drive for toys, but would it be easier to use a treat n train?
Maybe we’ll try both (treats and toys) and you can tell us!>>I think both is the way to go – you can have the TnT as the reward target, and the toy in your hand to play in between reps and reset the line up. You can test if the reward strategy will work by trying it without jumps (in the comfort of your living room LOL!). Do a little tugging with the toy. Click the TnT, let her get a cookie. Then ask her to tug again. Repeat this a few times. If she thinks this is awesome? Onwards to adding the jumps 🙂 If she thinks it is STUPID lol then we can try it with 2 toys or all food.
>>Might be irrational fears but afraid if we go back to reinforcing with food/ she’s go back to running off and disengagement. She does enjoy the treat n train. Or are these type of exercises that food would be beneficial to make us both slow down and think?>>
I don’t think food will slow her down 🙂 She is fast no matter what we do (and that is great!!) I think food-only *might* not be motivating enough unless it is ridiculously high value food (one of my dogs was trained fully in flyball using Egg McMuffins, she is VERY focused now LOL!). But, toys and food would be ideal so we can play with it and see what she says 🙂
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>most of the action wasn’t in the camera view. (whoops!)>>
I am glad she is doing so well in he trial environment! Yay! Video is not as important as having a great time 🙂
On the video here:
Great job starting with a bit of volume dial game for engagement & arousal at the beginning! You can build more action into the cookie delivery by running a few steps or tossing it, to really bring her into a higher state. A calm cookie delivery is not as stimulating 🙂Using the leash and harness is great! You can take the harness off too – those can be restrictive in terms of shoulder movement so let her run naked on these 🙂
She definitely was liking the tunnel here, starting without you LOL!!!
>>Clearly need to work more on picking her up better for the next rep when I don’t want her to to back and forth through the tunnel>>.
The cookie to reset her was totally helping 🙂 You can try to almost turn it into a loop: send her into the tunnel, she gets the PT cookie, then you all her to a cookie in your hand to start the next rep. For the threadles, you can call her to the threadle side so she is between you and the tunnel which will definitely increase the challenge! But will also help solidify the threadle because she will get lots of rewards for passing the ‘wrong’ end of the tunnel to come to you, then get more rewards for going into the threadle tunnel entry.
Great job! Enjoy the rest of the trial!!
TracyGood morning!
>>my phone can’t handle the long thread so I hope it is ok to start a second one. It keeps giving me an error message when I try to scroll to the bottom.>>
Sounds good! Is it an iPhone? Sometimes iPhones and iPads struggle with these sites (which are powered by google) because google and iPhones/iPads don’t always like to get along LOL!
>>My question is on the backside wrap. When do we introduce that verbal. For the threadle slice we added it really early. You will be happy to know I have verbals cues for backside slice, wrap and threadle wrap and slice>>
Hooray for all the words! You will want to introduce the verbal as soon as you can reliable predict she will do the behavior. Based on the video below, you can add it – is Twist the slice verbal? If so, carry on! If it is the wrap verbal, you will want to stay by the entry wing to reward and not move across the bar.
>>I grabbed the Cato Board and thought I would try a sit.>>
She was really good with the Cato board! She probably needs a session or two with just the board to isolate it as yes, a place to do a sit stay 🙂 before adding it to a lead out. She was a little confused especially on your right side, and had a lot of breaks (and some really good offering of a stay *next* to it LOL!)
On the backsides at the beginning and the end – she was finding the correct side of the jump really well! YAY!! Positionally, you will want to let her see the whole wing as you move up the line so she can find it independently and you can start moving further and further away (laterally). At :01 and :08, for example, and on reps on the other side, you were moving up to the outer edge of the wing which meant you were blocking it. The ideal line is to where the wing and bar meet o she can see entire wing. And then you can move over bit by bit so you are further across the bar for the slice reps.
The Serps and threadles are also going really well! For the serps, remember to be close enough to the jump to be able to causally reach out and touch it with a bit elbow. On the first reps, you are too far from the jump so she was turning after she got over the bar. At 1:38, it looked like you were nice and close, and that got the best turn 🙂
For both the serps and threadles, the next step is to have the reward (toy or MM or food bowl) placed on the exit line so she doesn’t roll the bar getting it when you toss it. You can also use a jump bump instead of a bar.
Plus having the reward placed will help build the default in and out behavior on the serps & threadles – right now on the serps she is going straight til you throw the toy and we want the turn as she is approaching the bar without you having to move.Tunnel threadles – these are going really well too! Yay! For the next step: you can fade out moving towards the entry that you want and keep moving straigh-ish as you are doing the cue until she turns herself away into it. That can also help build even more independence into the skill and verbal.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
The threadle versus serp looked really strong! Your showed very different positions and also had really good clarity with the threadle verbal.
One tiny detail is to keep your shoulders frozen on the threadle until she reaches the reward – you were moving the m forward a bit and we don’t want to build them into the cue to take the jump by accidental. You were very good about not moving your shoulders with the serp!!
>>Was it ok to use the RT machine for this? Or should i just toss a treat?>>
It is better to use the RT because that helps create the in-and-out default behavior better (less upper body movement than treat tossing would have).
>>On her one error, I started to say something but then caught myself and shut up lol. I don’t think it’s a no reward marker so much as I’m responding conversationally to her, >>
Yes, it was good to not really say anything and to just go to the next rep.
Because dogs are brilliant at figuring out context, we don’t even have to use the same words for it to be a no reward marker – conversation and even happy things like “oops!” and “nice try!” all take on the value of no reward aka negative punishment. So, they know the rep was incorrect even if we just toss a reset cookie to start it over. And the reset cookie is faster, rewards effort, as well as immediately gives the dog the chance to try it again.Great job here!
Tracy
