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Hi!
The outs are going well in terms of the upper body, very clear cues! Your lower body can be further away to make it even more independent: You are moving towards the jump with your feet, so she is relying on your feet as the cue. Putting a line on t he ground from the outer edge of the start wing going parallel to the bar will help because you will have a visual to help keep your feet straight šThe transitions into decel are going great! At :45 and 1:06 you had earlier decels so she committed in collection and had great turns. You were later at :55 so she was wider – she was just about taking off when the decel started as compared to the other wrap reps where you were decelerating before she passed you (a little past halfway between the wing and jump).
She is doing really well with her zig zags! Nice job to you for the quickness of the cues!!! The next step is to start her right next to the wing, just outside the feet of the wing, so she takes off immediately (plyometrics!) for the bar rather than stride into it. That will increase challenge! And then when she is comfy with that, we can move the wings closer together š
āØGreat job here!
Tracy
Hi!
It is so fun to have a classmate come over to train!!! Would Mason take cookies from Di? If so, she can do the line up with him: cookie, collar, cookie. That way he will pull less when she is holding him.>>I donāt know if we were really better on the first side or just lucky.
It is possible that it was easier for him to go left then right, but I think a couple of things were different between the 2 sides: when he was going to his left-then-right, he as lined up on Diās left, putting him between her and the wing so the bar was easy to see. On the other side, when he had to go right-then-left, he was also on Diās left, putting him on the outside of the line. The bar was harder to see and get to, which contributed to running past it.
It will be interesting to see if he can find it when he is next to the wing (on her right) rather than on her left when going right-to-left.
I think having you closer to the wing of 2 really helps as well on that side, and staying close to the line helped too: if you were too far away, it was hard to show him the last bar.
>>On the last rep where we finally got going on the harder side I didnāt have the toy in my first hand and we thought that maybe that was the key, but now Iām not sure.>
I donāt think it was the toy – I think it was better position from you (closer to wings 2 and 3) and very clear handling help. The toy was in the picture on the other successful reps, so I think making things clearer here y being closer really made the difference š
Nice work!
TracyThe BCs are going well! Excellent job with the verbals! Super nice connection after the blind so he knew where to be. You only had one heartbeat of turning towards him on the first one, and then the rest were true BCs (or a post turn but I think that was what you wanted in that post.
You can add the tunnel back in, so you can do this with more flow and movement (it might feel easier that way too!)
He did well with the wraps and the decels! Yay! You can add more connection to his eyes as he comes around the start wing – that will let you be even earlier plus he will drive to the jump even more independently and know which side to be on: on most of the reps, he was looking at you a little when you were looking forward at the jump. At 2:09, you were looking forward a lot so he read it (correctly) as a blind cross and went to your left side. I think the left side has more value for him in general, so if it looks like a blind to your left side he is happy to go there š Big connection will smooth that out.
It was not a toy distraction issue, because the toy was in that same hand on the other reps (including the next rep) and when you had clearer connection, he went to the jump not the toy. With that in mind, though, you can totally add in a marker word for toy-in-hand being available (I use ābiteā) so he is completely clear on when it is available for grabbing or not.
Because this went so well, you can do a mash-up of GO, FC wrap, backsides, and rear crosses. All in the same session! That makes it harder for the human end of the team š
Great job here!
TracyHi!
The wraps looked great and so did the GO lines! You can throw the toy for the go as soon as he looks ahead after the wingā¦ then race him to it š That will get even more extension and less looking at you. Your timing on the wraps was great! He collected really well – only a little bit of trouble sorting out his feet on the first one and moved the bump, but I was super pleased to see his adjustment on the 2nd one: wrapping but not touching the bump. Yay! I think you can show him this with a bar too, to help him sort out his mechanics over a bar.
He also made great adjustments on the ladder grid – on the first couple of reps, he moved the first bump with his back feet. Then at :49 and the last rep, he sorted it out and jumped it cleanly. Super! The other jumps looked clean too and he was GREAT with the stay and the moving target! I think we should start introducing bars to this one too: bars on jumps 2 and 3 to get started and if he is feeling comfy with that (clean jumping efforts) then we can add a bar to jump 1. All bars should be super low to start, maybe 6 or 8ā.
The out session was great too!!! You stayed in motion on the straight line while cuing the out and he was such a good boy to change his line and move away to the jump (he did look at you like you were nuts, though hahahaha!) And nice job throwing the reward early. You can move to the advanced level now of adding the crosses on the jump – wait til he is just about at the jump then start the FC or BC.
>>Iām back to keeping things super short and fun for him (5 min timer for the whole session, or 4/5 reps of something). It keeps both of us wanting more next time>>
Super! All these sessions looked short, fast, and fun! We have been talking to our Brain Camp neuroscientist vet about how we can use the āleave them wanting moreā concept to work on dopamine releases to get the optimal ācraveā for agility and therefore build up a lot of intrinsic motivation for the game (which should theoretically make it easier to fade out food and toys when getting ready to trial).
>>Iām noticing he doesnāt like to shift his weight onto his hind legs and Iām policing his sloppy sits. We have a fitness appointment for him in a week to start working more on these, and a sports vet (in June! ā wow they book out). So hard to tell with these youngsters if this is a puppy thing, or something else (and ofc we always worry about the āsomething elseā).>>
Totally relatable about worrying! He is young, large, and male š so it is probably just puppy stuff. He can totally learn a tight sit on a platform: that is one of the first things sports vets want us to do anyway! Get a low platform that is only big enough for him to sit with really straight tight sits, and work a few minutes of that every few days. That will really help him!
Also, he made excellent hind end adjustments in the wrap video and the ladder video, so I think he just needs to sort out his mechanics and is totally on the right track.Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
I think the distance on the ladder grid was the sweet spot! He did really well: it was challenging but he was powerful! The best reps where when the toy was a little further away from jump 3 before releasing him (so he could power her jump 3 without slowing down). That will continue to get easier to do as his stay gets better and better with the moving target.
The next step is to change out the smaller jumps to wing jumps and 4 or 5 foot bars. That will change the visual entirely and the dogs need to adjust. When he is happy with that, you can move to the advanced level where the bars are angled – that is also a hard visual change for him too (you might have to move things closer when the angles change because the distances get a bit bigger when we angle the jumps).Because it is a jumping challenge and he is a youngster, this can go into the rotation for once a week, so we donāt over-jump him with all the other things he is learning too š
The Rear Cross wind in your hair game looked AWESOME!! The rear crosses were all super (maybe even a little early on the first couple). He was looking at the pressure for the first couple of steps on the first couple of reps, but then he sorted out the line and drove ahead really well. AND turned the right way in both directions. Yay!!!!
Great job with the balance reps with the GO lines – he is getting really strong with looking forward to his line, youāve done a lovely job with consistent toy throws š
āāWas I too far in the middle of the jump for the straight line?>>
On some of them, yes, a little too close to the bar. Your motion still said āgo straightā but you can line yourself up more for the outer edge of the wing to run past like at 1:09 and 1:37 and the last rep.
Great job here!!!! I think he is totally ready for you to add the advanced level (backside wraps) to this game, which will also lead us nicely into the mission transition game posted last Wednesday.
Tracy
Good morning!
She did super well on the 1st and 3rd rep here!
>>On the first clip (the forced front cross in review), the second run, I am not sure why JJ read this wrong. >>
I think that yes, walking past the takeoff side was part of it and also she as lined up facing straight to the front of the and jump. She got it on the 3rd rep, but on all 3 reps you can have her start position more angled so she is on a slice over 1 and looking directly at the backside of 2 (rather than straight over 1 and seeing the front of 2).
The threadles on the 2nd video looked great (and sounds like the verbals were in place too – super!) You can tuck in behind the wing a bit more, so half of your body is behind it – you can line ip your belly button with the wing š That way you will still get he threadle but also be one step ahead when she gets to the backside. And since she is so speedy, any extra step is a useful advantage š
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>>I am struggling getting those verbals out!>>
It is perfectly fine to do these without verbals for now as you hash out the physical cues!
Looking at the mission transition video:
The 2 lovely transitions were at 1:06 and 2:10! You had a very clear fast forward, slow forward, rotate transition and he of course produced gorgeous turns. Click/treat to you both!!!
You can decelerate sooner at :02 and :57 and 1:52. On those reps, your decel started more at takeoff so he was wider (he had already made a takeoff decision so could not adjust until after he landed.
The reps at 1:17, 1:32 and 2:01 didnāt have decel – you went from fast forward to slam-on-the-brakes-rotate which actually cued him to NOT commit. If that happens (he stops short in front of the jump) – you can assume it was the slam-on-the-brakes, reward (human error, sorry dude!) and then start again. Fixing it in the moment is confusing to the dog (you got another error at 1:19 and then he slowed down and got sticky) and also it doesnāt teach us humans to properly decelerate.
The Go lines were looking good- I think you were really emphasizing getting the toys thrown early so even if they were not all great throws LOL you definitely got him looking ahead!!!
Now that it is getting hotter out, shorten up his sessions til he can build some heat tolerance. You can see in the last part (1:45 ish and on) that he was hot, not really lining up and trotting at a distance to the start wing -you lose some of the crispness of the behavior when they are hot so short short sessions when it is hot out will help him build up tolerance.
Zig zag are going well – loved the crazy arm movement dance on the lead outs LOL!! Keeps us from accidentally releasing with arm motion. He was even happy for you to jog to position!
Good job starting back on 2 wings – He is getting very speedy on these so you will probably want to stick to 2 wings for now. The ones he missed were because you were late or he couldnāt really see the cues, and so there ended up being too many errors. Since it is a mechanics game, it is fine to stick to 2 ing for now as he learns his mechanics at speed. Leading out to the entry wing of 3 was where he was most successful, so a session of that will help and then you can take a step back a little further, then a little further, to gradually build it up to all 3 bars with you past the 3rd one.Nice work here!
TracyHi! This went great!!!
>>I tried the treat/collar-grab/treat setup routine you suggested and it worked great! The first rep shows this.>>
Yay! I thought it was really smooth: he was happy to line up and you had super clean transitions into grabbing his collar then letting go pretty quickly. Super nice!!!!!
>> I was late on all of my toy tosses though. I tried to look for the head turn on the get outs, but it went so fast that I really couldnāt see it.>>
Yeah, he was really fast so you got your throws in a quickly as you could LOL!!! You can move the wing further from the jump so he has to ‘get out’ more to find the jump – that will make the head turn more obvious and also buy you time for the toy throw or the cross.
One thing to add in the next session is a line on the ground from the edge of the wing going parallel to the bar. And keep your feet pointing along the line and not to the jump at all. That way the upper body cues and the verbal do all of the ‘work’ of the get out cue, and your are moving forward on the same exact line as the non-get-out reps (without stepping to the get out jump at all). That will give you even more independence on the cue (more distance!) and also it will make the crosses a lot easier. When you were taking one step to the jump, you then had to quickly change direction to get the cross. If you are moving forward the whole time, the blind cross in particular will feel a lot easier because all you need to do is turn your head š
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>>so now if you want a low height you need to use the very heavy and cumbersome baby dog walk which is usually set at about 2 feet high when it is out.>
Bummer about not being able to use the big DW for this, but I think she can practice her safe exits on the baby dog walk too! It is a good skill for all dogs to have š It is not so much of a turning around game as it is a stop in the middle and hop off on cue game.
Looking at the videos:
The FFCs on video 1 look great – you can add a little more connection to her eyes before you release her, which should help her when you get into the bigger sequences and she is coming up the line with more speed. And when she gets to your hand for the FFC, you can use that hand to indicate the landing spot behind you without turning all the way to the jump.
2nd video: The first two reps looked like threadles here with you facing her: SUPER timing on the threadles! She read them really well. You donāt even need to move to the jump after she get to the backside; you can stay in position and she will turn herself away. The last rep was a forced front, so you can try it with less rotation (throwing her behind you while your feet face forward). The forced threadle is a little bit of a harder move but it is definitely more popular nowadays and she read it great!
>>. I definitely noticed that if i was impatient that JJ did not read this correctly.>>
Yes, if we move too early then the dog might pick up the wrong side of the jump. You had great timing on these though, she had no questions.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Working this on the DW up ramp with the MM worked well (they also need to find the entry on dog walks!) You can do it on the teeter when you have a chance but it is a similar concept for both (but the teeter moves, of course LOL!)
This went really well! I hope she never sees those angles of approach on course, but sadly you might see the pink jump to the dog walk that she was doing here. So it is good she is prepared!
Since you have access to a dog walk, you can lower it to maybe 2 feet off the ground and have her turn around and hop off from the top plank – that is a great body awareness game to help the dogs out if they ever lose their balance and jump off.
Nice work here! Fingers crossed for good weather!
Tracy
Good morning!
I love the photo of him having a big sleep at the end! Learning if consolidated into the brain when they sleep, so he was learning there š
A main theme you will see on these games is that connection is key for him: when you are connected, he finds his lines brilliantly! When you are looking ahead of him and he canāt see the connection, he looks at you seeking more info about the lines.
On the serp versus tunnel, you can see the connection plays a bit role: when you were not connected and looking forward on the release when you wanted the tunnel, he knew it was not the jump but came to look at you for more info. When you were further ahead and nearer/past to the tunnel entry he found it but more connection will help build more independence so he wonāt need you to be as close to the obstacle.
On the serp reps, you were more connected plus you were more visible between the uprights so he had no questions. YAY!
So if you get 2 failures or more (like missing the tunnel) you can stop the session for a moment and watch the video to see what he is seeing. When I look at the video, I look first for connection and if I am looking at the dog clearly enough.
>>On the RC I wasnāt completely sure what you meant by putting a wing out.>>āØ
Oops, sorry for the lack of clarity! I meant for the wind-in-your-hair version of it, with the wing wrap followed by moving up the line to the jump. He did really well with the tunnel here! The rear crosses all looked really strong: you had connection and you were moving along a very obvious rear cross line, so he got it nicely!He had questions about the go line and it was a connection question š At 2:31, you were looking forward and pointing forward, so he didnāt see connection. That caused him to come off the line to look for more info. When you were closer to the jump he got it but to build more independence, add more connection.
>>On the ladder game, I didnāt realize he jumped over the last 2 jumps on the last couple of reps. Oops>>
The moving target adds more power for sure! What were the distances here? Since he had an easy tie sailing over the 2 jumps, you can add a foot to each distance and see how he does. If it is too big we can shorten it up and find the sweet spot š
Tunnel exit game: He gave great feedback about the connections too! For example, when you were not connected and looking forward instead, he was looking at you for more info and didnāt take the obstacles (like at 4:20). Compare to 4:33 where your connection was much clearer and he got it. Yay!
And you can compare the wing wrap cues at 4:47 (where you were pointing ahead and your arm was high, so he couldnāt see your connection) and he didnāt commit to the cues at 4:53 where you had. Lower arm ad a lot more visible connection, and he was perfect!So adding more eye contact as you move is a big help to him. And, especially since he is so small, try to keep your arm really low (pointing to his nose :)) so he can see the upper body connection and I bet you will see more consistent commitment and more independence on these lines.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I felt like her energy level was lacking and she was not engaged or thrilled about practicing.>>
It might have been the difference in the style of sequence: these sequences has a lot of very tight turns. She started off fast and engaged, definitely running and happy! But then I think she slowed down at the end (came off the line slower at :58, slipped on landing of the wrap at 1:46 and then was slower on the last rep). It is possible that the wraps were a little more fatiguing (different muscles than all the other running) so you can mix the sessions up more: jut 2 or 3 reps of wraps total, and more of the fast fun lines.
Your connection was good here and she read the Iines well. On the spins on jump 2 where she was turning left: you can decelerate into the spin so she sees the info before takeoff, and so you donāt have to turn as fast. As you are decelerating, the FC will start before she takes off, and then you can do. The blind while she is in the air.
>>that I realized I should have ran closer into the tunnel so I had more room for the rear cross. However, you also said to get right behind her on the tunnel exercise of rear crosses so I was kind of doing that a little bit but I also felt like I was crowding her a bit too much.>>āØ
For rear crosses, you can set the line on the previous obstacle, depending on the sequence. So if the RC is on the jump after a tunnel, you will want to set it nearer to the tunnel exit. On this sequence, you can set it on by getting closer to the jump before the RC jump – you did that successfully and she rad it really well!>>The few times we wrapped the last jump I tried to decel better than the first lead out videos but Kashia still went wide so I must not have done that very well.>>
It was a tiny bit late on this distance. I think the timing of your decel will be perfect on the bigger distances like 20 feet. If the distance is more like 15 feet, you can start the deceleration as she is over the previous bar so she sees it when she lands and can collect sooner. It will feel earlier but will work well, as long as you donāt slam on the brakes š
I am glad to hear Kashia had a great time in the ring! Yay! No worries about not getting the send, it sounds like it was hard for everyone.
>> The competition teeter still has her hesitant. She doesnāt fly on it like she does my little one. Thatās definitely something we need to keep building on.
I am glad she did the teeter! Sounds like she just needs more experience on the big teeter – do you have access to full size contacts? I think I remember you saying you have people you sometimes train with, so hopefully you can get her on a teeter there!
Great job here š
āØTracyGood morning!
>>Watching her pounce on the toy at the end of the leash is making me wonder if I just need to experiment with some longer toys so that she doesnāt have to tug so close to me. Sheās always liked that long āoctopus tugā I have.>>
Yes, good one to try! She did great with the moving target game at the end of the 2nd video – really diving to the toy even after getting food rewards for the stay!
She has been most engaged with toys when chasing them in some way, and the moments where she has big feelings about them are often when you stop moving the toy and turn towards her. So a longer toy dragging or being chased, then thrown forward, might be the most engaging for her!
>>For the set point/ladder grid with a jump bar, do I secure it over the jump cup or rest it on top at 4in? >>
I think for the first sessions, secure it over the cup. Then if that goes well and she is happy with the height, you can set it in the cup for real š
>>And Iām laughing at your suggestion to have her sit in front of me. When I got her, all she wanted to do was sit in front of me. >>
Thatās right! I remember you saying that a while back. She has a ton of value at your side so you might be able to bring back sitting in front of you without losing value for being at your side.
Speaking of being at your side:
She has been consistently offering opinions about sends to wings if your transition is too quick and not connected enough, on this video and on previous one.
On this video from :15-:19, she was facing the other way as you started the send and you looked forward on the sending, so she jumped up. At :44, she was coming back to you and you tried to send and she jumped up: ānot ready, human!āCompare to slower, clearer transitions at :35 and :55 and 1:10, for example – you had a cleaner line up and more connected transition into the send, so she went to the wing easily. Yay! Definitely keep the clean line up before each send with big connection and then the jumping up opinions will go away :)āØ
The layering went well! You can move the jump closer, so it is maybe at the halfway point of the tunnel instead of past it to make it easier for her to see. She got it at the end, but you can add more lateral distance with the jump closer to the wing and then gradually push the jump further away.Good job with the mission transition game! She did best when you were connected more as you decelerated. And she did best when you were a little ahead of her on the decels! And that also means you can work on getting her to commit past you in decel – when you were decelerating but she was getting ahead, she was more likely to come off the jump. I donāt think that you slammed on the brakes there too soon, I think it was just that she was trying to figure out how if she was supposed to take the jump with you behind and decelerating.
So you can decelerate like you did but donāt rotate: just face forward as you decelerate and then when she lifts off for the jump, you can toss a reward to the landing side of the wing. I bet she has a lightbulb moment on that and then it will be very easy to add the FC rotation into it as well (and you can throw her cookies to the landing side sometimes too, to keep the jump value high because chasing you is already high value :))
Separately, you can also work on her driving past you on the go with you further behind – so you can tay close to the wrap wing and accelerate, throwing the reward when she goes past you to the jump to pump up the value of leaving you in the dust š That will also help with decels from behind
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Oh my gosh Cricket did an RC without a verbalāØCommand. You told me to lay off the rv with Taq but I couldnāt let is go so I practiced with mom!>>
Yay Cricket!!! And we want latent learning to kick in with Taq so a few days off will work wonders!
Looking at the video:
She is doing well with the get out game! And no errors of grabbing the jump when you didnāt want it. Super!!!!
You can turn your feet to the jump even less on the get out – you can move up the line like you did on the non-get-out reps and exaggerate your upper body more: BIG eye contact and lower opposite arm so she can see the whole arm pointing at the far wing of the jump.
That will help the timing of the BCs because you will only need to switch connections and turn and run the new way – when you were stepping to the get out jump a little, it made it harder for the BCs (and the FC) to be on time. They were a little late on the first few reps but you had a straighter line for your feet at 1:04 and look at how tight the turn was already! YAY!
You were a shade too early at 1:09 (she hadnāt really had a chance to look at the jump) so you pulled her off, but all you need there is to let her take one more step to the jump and then it will be perfect š
On the mission transition game: Your transitions were clear in terms of the acceleration and deceleration looking really different! You can do the decelerations sooner:
At 1:17, the decel was late (she was getting ready to take off) so she stumbled after landing – and then when the decel was late at 1:27 and 1:38, she went wide after landing, possibly to avoid stumbling.
At 1:47, you rotated sooner but didnāt decel, so she didnāt know to collect before takeoff.
Even though she is small, her decel cues can still happen at big dog timing! That means when she has exited the start wing, you can start your decel. So send her to the wing and run run runā¦ then when she exits the wing, decel but keep moving forward. When she gets close to the jump: rotate (you can wait for her feet to be in the air in these early stages).
I found a small dog video (my 11ā tall Papillon) working this skill with markers on the ground. It uses 2 jumps but the concept is the same: the red cone placed just past landing of jump 1 is the same idea as being just past the exit of the wing wrap. So I decel pretty early (when he gets to the red cone) and keep moving forward til he is close to the jump (blue cone) then I rotate. You can see that the timing of my decel at the red cone is the same, no matter if I am ahead, parallel, or behind him because he makes his takeoff decision at that spot, not too different from the big dogs : )
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
