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Hi!
>Ugh! YouTube do better. 😜 Yeah, it was in an endless processing loop. >
Ha! YouTube is a cat – does what it wants, when it wants, doesn’t care what the rest of us think.
>. I am doing a LOT of reinforcing of the stay. I know I’m going to need it with him, so I really want him having good thoughts about it.
He did a great job with his stay! And the current balance of rewards leans more towards the stay rewards, which is great – the running agility part of things is going to be BIG FUN so developing all of these happy thoughts for staying is great.
You can add in lining him up at your side into the sit, which then simulates the line up and lead out. You did have the between-the-feet lineup towards the end of the session which went really well! I also like to add the leash in during these early stages of stay – moving in on leash then taking it off is actually a Big Thing to young dogs, so I don’t want them to be surprised when we bring them into trial environments.
And then you can also start to fade the platform quickly because those props get hard to fade when they are in for too long. It can be faded easily by replacing it with smaller and smaller things to sit on (like a dish towel moving to a hand towel moving to post-it note LOL). Adding in the process of line up next to you or between your feet then you lead out will actually assist in the fading process because the platform is not what creates the sit, it is the context and cues of it happening when you arrive at the position in front of the jump together. And the process is familiar and valuable, even when the platform is gone. Moving into the sit with you facing him a few feet away is a context you won’t need a whole lot of for agility and he drove into the sit faster when he was with you moving to it.
The serp countermotion went great! He was very happy to commit and drive around the barrel – great job with the reward placement too! He only had one question at 5:47, but that was probably because everything happened so fast he was not quite ready. You adjusted it for the last rep and he did great!
You can add in moving the arm up and connection shifting to the barrel, then take another step or two, then release him. That way he is not thinking the arm and the release are linked – you were being super clear about the arms moving not being the release as you moved around the jump, so you can do the same thing with arm movement which might look like a cue (but is not a release cue).>We’re heading to New Mexico this weekend for Game On! agility camp next week>
Fun! I hear it is a great camp!
> We’ll be driving the brand new RV – I’ll have to remember to share an MTV Cribs video of it with you. It’s full-on dog/remote work pimped out.>
Yes please!! Congrats on your new rig! My RV is all about dogs and remote work, but definitely not something that belongs on MTV Cribs – possibly looking more appropriate for Hoarders lately hahahaha
Great job here! Have fun!
TracyNoted, no cold or filled pasta for him LOL!!!
But what about bagel with butter?
And I am glad he likes pizza crust – I like pizza and my dogs often get pizza crust rewards 🙂 I find it very toy-like to throw LOL!!
T
Thanks for the video! Excellent work!!!
Fennel is adorable and spicy and fast and I love him!!!! You two are looking great, I blows my mind that he is your first dog!
Sorting out the distance & layering cues will be helpful because he seems like he is really fast and has no interest in slowing down. That is great!
About the verbals: Because he is relatively small, we don’t need tight turns at all on this type of line. So at :13 is sounded like you called his name or quietly said left? And at :32 maybe said left? Those might be too much turning cue for him (especially at :13 when you also turned away). He did SUPER well at 1:03 and 1:23 when you had GO as part of your verbals. His line was great, so you can play with lots more GO GO GO no the big layering lines.
> then rewarded because it was a hard jump for him.>
Throwing the reward there was excellent! You will easily be able to handle the next part if he gets out on the layering line, so making it valuable with lots of rewards was totally the right thing to do.
The other thing that will help him stay on the lines will be to sort out connection: you had your arm up high at :32 and the other 2 reps, which is fine as long as he can still see your connection (your face and eyes). You might find it easier to keep your arm down pointing at him, or even using an outside arm pointing ahead to the next jump (with your eyes on his cute face) to help him get out to the layering lines. It is all about where your shoulders are pointing, and where you look definitely influences that. Looking pretty directly at him almost always points your shoulders to where you want him to go.
> bar came down on jump 2. Not sure why, but still really pleased!>
That was a lttle disconnection moment (1:22) where as he was approaching 2, you were looking forward to and pointing forward to 3. He was trying to sort that out and ended up pulling the bar. Connection is more about what he sees – I am pretty sure you could see him there, but but with your arm up high and you looking forward, he couldn’t see the connection and your shoulders turned. So in that part of the sequence, a low arm and direct eye contact as you move will keep it fast and smooth 🙂 It will feel weird at first, possibly, but works GREAT!
One other thing for the smaller dogs to consider – even though he is just as fast as a big dog, he still has to take more strides between some of the obstacles. So to be able to set the lines into layering more easily, a small dog hack 🙂 is to run closer to the obstacles before the layering (jump 1 and 2), practically skimming the wing of the jumps. That will give him even more acceleration cues, to propel him past the tunnel and to jumps 3 and 4.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
First, let me acknowledge the hilarity of using the word “croissant” in this sentence:
“actually worked perfectly for him to grab his croissant out of it.”
So funny! But also, very effective. We really do want him to self-croissant LOL!!
And also really funny when Shaelyn had to run for her life to not get hit by him at :30 – he was not going to stop LOL!
You can also throw it sooner in the sequence more often – he was looking at you a bit on jump 3 (:09) so he did get a reward for that at :20. You can mix it up so the rewards appear out on the big lines more unexpectedly. A happy surprise is very motivating!
If you watch the section from :39 to :42 in slow motion, you will see that he is reading your cues very closely! You closed your right shoulder forward and looked ahead which accidentally cued a blind cross. Good boy! Here are isolations of what he saw:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1E-ww0Fgp-k0Ju6cJ8fvDC7bXN2tZAVquu_onqiYHbNY/edit?usp=sharing
Your conversation with him was so funny and you are correct about his response LOL!
So keeping your arm back to him (fully extended, elbow a locked, pointing to his nose) and your head turned to him so he can see your face will help him not think you are cueing a blind 🙂
>He seems to have the one direction figured out in this game but was unsure of the other direction>
His mechanics were good in terms of how he was moving, so his question might have been more about how the line was set. On the first couple of reps, the set was good and the reward throw was early, so it was a little harder to see what he was reading in terms of the cues.
On the rep where he had a question: The foot plant & pivot of your motion (which created a decel and sharp turn) at 1:05 pulled him off the line and also closed your shoulders before he was set onto the new line past the tunnel – he thought about it and was not sure so did not take it.
You threw the reward earlier on the next rep but I think you also set it better. One way to set it more is to get closer jumps 1 and 2, so as you turn at 2 you can move along the parallel line to 3 more and won’t get stuck at the tunnel (which is what created the decel/pivot at 1:05). So you can play with that and the reward timing can be when you see him locked onto the layering jump.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
These went great!
I especially loved your blind crosses here! On the first sequence, you had a super nice BC at :34 to get the front of the jump and a super nice BC at :46 to get the backside. EXCELLENT mouse line and re-connection on both of these because he had no questions about where to go.On the second sequence, really nice blinds at 1:10 and 1:28 too! Your timing and connections are spot on!!!
He is reading the layering really well so you can propel him into it sooner so you can get to wherever you want to be next 🙂 On the first sequence, you can lead out less and start the verbal to jump when he is at jump 2 (like you did at :44). That will help you set the line and keep moving ti make it even easier to get miles ahead 🙂
On the 2nd sequence you had more motion driving into the layering at :51 and then you added a nice early verbal at :59 – no questions from Sly! Yay!
Since he is layering so well… you can totally trust him and keep moving to the next line. At :54 and 1:02 and 1:19 you slowed down a bit, but that decel cue can create collection which we don’t want here and delays you from easily getting up the line – for example at 1:28, you had a little bit of decel while he was layering so you had to work harder than needed to get the blind.
If you keep your verbal going (jump or ‘go’) you can probably keep moving at high speed there and I bet he stays on the line. It is a good question to ask him!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Lift & line-up between legs
1) it wasn’t strong enough for her to want to come in that close when she was too aroused>I think building it up separately from agility can help bring it into agility – and it is great for arousal regulation and keeping her close!
> 2) as she started scanning for movement more, >
It probably moved into the agility arena before the behavior was ready. So it is a fun trick to play with at home – and then they get obsessed with doing it (which can be annoying LOL) but that makes it easier to transfer to harder environments.
And it creates a fun default when the leash comes off: leash off, line up (rather than scope for motion).
On the video:
She really liked the layering and the high energy cues for it! and yay for nailing the weaves!! She is giving really good feedback about info – thanks Lift! Here is what I think she was saying:> Then decided to try to add 6 & 7 in and got some variations including her jumping over the edge of the bottom step of our deck>
In that section, it was a connection question. She was exiting the previous line and you then turned forward to talk to the jump/handle the line, instead of handling the dog who was still behind you.
She had a small question at :18 about front side or backside, you can see her make a little zig zag there. She had a big question there at :56 – There is converging motion towards the backside wing but not a lot of connection which is why she went towards the steps. Motion was the only cue she had (verbal is based on motion and position) so she was trying to sort it out.
Then at :59 – you turned your back on her (broke connection) so she only saw your back and got small mad (spin then froze) when you said ‘sorry’. I saw small mad because it did not look like The Big MADZ we sometimes see LOL!
At a similar handling the obstacle/line not the dog caused a bar down at 1:56 – when sending her into the layering, you were looking forward to the jump/pointing to it which actually turned your body to the weaves. She had questions: thought it was the weaves then realized it was not and tried to go back out, but the approach angle was too hard and she dropped the bar.
I grabbed a few screenshots of that sequence, so you can see how talking to the obstacles changes what she sees as cues:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Q2U9G4VwCZVsRK5CFJ-2xORaxL67geMryqRdQrh5mPg/edit?usp=sharing
Basically, looking forward and delivering the verbal cues ahead to the obstacles (I call this talking to the obstacles 🤣😂) changes the info about the line, bringing her to the obstacle or the side of the jump closer to you based on what she sees.
So here is a fun challenge to get you talking to the dog and not the obstacles:
Using this pop out or any pop out… run it without any verbals. Just run it with connection! Old school LOL! Your arm can be pointing back to her, but not to the obstacles. You can mentally say the verbals, but say them to her in your head and not out loud. She will give you feedback on the physical cues, which is really helpful because they are really the most important cues.And when you can run it without verbals, you can add them back saying them to her and not to the obstacles. I think it will make a massive difference for her (and Kaladin too, even though he understands lines and verbals more thanks to all of his experience).
Nice work here! Let me know how the silent handling goes 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
An outdoor trial! It took me a minute to understand what was going on LOL -I was like “wow, Barb’s field looks AMAZING” haha! Outdoor trials are no longer happening in so many places, but I really love them.
Looking at the course: the first thing I notice is that most of the distances are tiny for him: really collected one-stride distances that he handled REALLY well, good boy! And the weave independence was amazing.
>(although he goes much longer than Enzo did before turning into the weaves).>
You did give him multiple big GO ON cues until after he landed from the last jump on the line, then cued the turn to the weaves. My guess is the extra support was because you don’t quite trust the layering yet – but it explains the extension you got there. You asked for it, you got it 🙂
>I didn’t trust him on the layer, so sent him VERY long and wasted a ton of time>
Ha! I read this after I wrote the above.
>he dropped a bar that I don’t understand.>
That bar was at :17 – that section had multiple tiny distances in a row. He managed the striding brilliantly and then you stood still and said good boy… the standing still and praise turned off the delivery of info so you can see him start to look at you. As he gathered for takeoff, you started to move again so he tried to adjust over the bar (bar down).
>Maybe the bar came down because I wasn’t moving soon enough to show him the line (??).>
Yes – especially in the specific context where he has no room to adjust.
Those are definitely a bar-down triggers for Casper: praise (because there is no line info for him) and you standing still then moving as he jumps towards you.
So do your best to not praise and keep moving. Easier said than done! But also, that is something we can break out and show him more of: it is almost like a Mecklenburg recall to heel, where he has to jump in towards you on a challenging angle and tolerate your sudden change of motion as he approaches takeoff. I would start with a low bar to get success and then over the course of a few sessions add two things:
– more drama and suddenness to your change of motion
– Higher barWhich brings us back to this:
>I handled the “same” way with both Casper and Enzo.>
At this stage of Casper’s career, you might not be able to handle them the same way. You might need to handle Casper from behind more – instead of the FC in the opening, do a RC on the line. That gives him more room to adjust in the smaller spaces. Enzo doesn’t need that, thanks to experience and moving differently.
One thing I notice about Casper (and a lot of agility dogs) is that they are not super flexible and they don’t articulate (is that the right word?) their head/neck/front end as they turn. It becomes more obvious on the soft turns – and wider turns are the result. Many folks have conditioning programs, but very few focus on flexibility. So something that will really help: more flexibility! What types of things do you do with him to promote getting him to flex and bend like a noodle?
Plus, structure will influence this so every dog will move differently. As long as they know where they are going and are flexible/strong, we let them sort out how to make it happen. More on that below.
On the video:
>– As much connection as I thought I could>
Connection was great! No notes on that 🙂 Lovely!
>– Two hands on the first turn >
Getting a little more turn on jump 2 was hard here. There are a couple of reasons for that:
– the 2 hand cue needs to start before he makes a takeoff decision, so he can adjust his stride for a better takeoff. It was happening here after the halfway point between the jumps, so the takeoff decision was already made.
– the motion should be decelerated through it. Think of it as steady motion, not too fast, not too slow. You were stationary on the release then accelerated forward, then decelerated then accelerated again. Casper reads motion a lot so that seemed to be overriding the other cues. You can try leading out a lot less, releasing, moving forward and showing the 2 hands on the wheel as he lifts off for jump 1!
But also – these layering skills are relatively new to his toolbox, so he is still sorting it out. He was already a bit tighter on the lines than he was in the previous session, so I am inclined to just work on good timing and not over-running lines, to let him keep sorting it out.
>– He doesn’t know the backside verbal as much as I thought>
Totally agree! He is relying on the physical cue, and that physical cues needs to happen several strides ahead of him for now. When you could be ahead by 2 or 3 steps before he landed from the jump before the backside, he got it well! If you were parallel to a little behind him: it was a no go and he read front side based on motion (verbal and upper body did not override that).
>I feel like the secret to this is a nice sharp turn at 4 but I’m busy layering and can’t make it happen.>
Since motion and position is currently his main cue, the secret is to not go as far down the line to 3! That is what you did with Enzo so you had an easier time getting back up the line without needing to out run the dog.
>Lastly, I included Enzo doing the drill which he did easily both ways. And it was easy to see that his turns are much closer to 90 degrees.>
Yes – you are seeing the difference between an Agility Grand Champion and a dog that is newly arrived in Masters 🙂 Plus, Enzo is smaller I think? And moves differently, so those turns are a little easier. And older, so in training Casper is running faster.
Casper did a good job with the bars here, though! The bar & wing on the jump before the backside came down a few times, but that was mainly happening because he just didn’t understand the cue.
I will venture to say that the backsides are a low priority for now 🙂 so adding more distance skills to get you there sooner and also more experience for him will help.
He had a bar on 3 at 2:12 – you started to stay on the other side of the tunnel then switched and put the tunnel on your right, converging into the 3 jump. He saw that and was not sure what to do with that sudden change of motion, so took the bar.
Don’t stop for that bar for 2 reasons: it was totally handler induced by the tunnel dance 🙂 AND by the time he saw you stop, he had cleared two more bars really well (so it is confusing as to what you are giving feedback on)
>Maybe I should devote my summer to trying to get Casper to collect and turn nicely 90 degrees and do the LYD with Enzo. What do you think? If I continue with Casper, I don’t think I’ll get much benefit from this course, since we’ll wind up doing baby things, like trying to get a decent 90 degree turn.>
Excellent question. I think Casper needs to work in CAMP this summer, with our main goal being solidifying the teamwork. This includes:
– sorting out how to handle him so you feel completely certain about how to get him through a course. I think you are completely certain with Enzo. But not certain with Casper yet – and it might be a different picture than what you’d choose with Enzo.
– Tweaking distances to work him almost exclusively at the collected one-stride distances he will see at trials, like the Selthofer course. That will also affect handling choices and I think for now it will mean a lot of handling from behind then using distance, and adding FCs or BCs in places where it won’t interrupt the flow of his striding.
>since we’ll wind up doing baby things, like trying to get a decent 90 degree turn.>
Let’s not worry about getting his 90 degree turn to look like Enzo’s 90 degree turn (it won’t, they move very differently). What he needs is to work a lot of the lines at the correct distances, so he can continue to sort out his striding (he has made massive improvements), so you can sort out timing and handling choices.
Then what will happen is both of you will attack the courses with confidence – and then he will automatically tighten up the lines and turns.
Tightening up those lines and turns will happen naturally when he doesn’t have questions. He tends to drift wider when he is not sure – but that is fine for now. If we can lock in the flow and teamwork, getting rid of questions, things will get nice and tight! No questions in his brain will open up bandwidth for the mechanics of turning better, and he will sort out how to turn better AND go really fast 🙂
So I vote for NOT going back to baby things (I am giving myself a vote LOL). But we do need to work him at proper AKC distances based on the judges coming to your area, and we don’t need to worry about getting backsides at a distance for now. That will come easily when the other things lock into place.
One last thought about getting tighter 90 degree turns:
If you spend the beautiful Michigan summer working on just that turn, you’ll both stick needles in your eyes 🙂 So yes, work the recall-to-heel with the change in motion described above, and work on adding more flexibility to his body. But the rest of it will come with flow on course! And often when we time dogs like Casper running courses with us giving timely info but otherwise staying out of the way – the visual looks like wide NASCAR lines but the timer says it is the fastest way to do things 🙂So I vote for Summer Of Casper.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHello and welcome!!! It is great to see you here and I am excited to see Fennel! Yay!!
The video is marked as private so YouTube won’t let me see it. Can you reset it to unlisted? You should be able to do it by clicking on Edit Video then Visibility, or directly on Visibility depending on the device. YouTube loves to change settings on us and hide videos 😂
Thanks!! I am looking forward to seeing it!
Tracy
Hi!
>As far as after training, he’s really the same with or without the arousal modulation practice at the end of the session, but he isn’t getting super aroused in these sessions at home. So, we’re mostly just building the muscle of that game for when we do need it out in the world.>
Perfect! It is basically building those neural pathways so they are actually available when he needs them. Science for the win!
> Have I mentioned that he is truly feral and may have much more dingo than most Koolies? 🤣>
So are you saying he is a new sport mix: Dingo x Koolie x cat? Count me in! 😜😂🤣
>Early this AM we did more startline stays in the context of serp countermotion. I was kind of thrilled with how he did on both parts. I am doing a LOT of reinforcing of the stay. I know I’m going to need it with him, so I really want him having good thoughts about it.>
YouTube is still showing this video as processing, so it is probably caught in some endless youtube loop or needs a privacy box checked or something. I will try it again a bit later!
Tracy
Hi!
>He has two friends in that class so it might be hard to do but I think we can try. I will ask them.>
You can do it with dog that is a really nice dog, but is on leash and not moving yet – maybe just sitting there eating boring treats LOL
He did great here with the countermotion! Excellent job to you for being connected to the landing spot and getting the toy dropped in behind you. He really liked that toy! You were also able to start moving forward before he got past you and he continued to commit brilliantly. The hardest parts for him were remembering to swallow the treat and not cough it up haha. You had a couple of toy throws that were too early so he just skipped directly to the toy – I don’t think you moved too much on those 2 reps, it was more that the throw was early so he went directly to the toy. Neither of those are a big issue because all of the other reps were lovely.
You can take this outside if it stops raining. If you want to do another indoor session, a way to add challenge is to start walking slowly forward, then release him and point back/look back to the landing spot. That will be harder because he will really have to go past the countermotion! But I think he is ready for it.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hello! Welcome back! Congrats on your success at Regionals! And hooray for Aelfraed’s first CAMP – he can certainly play with a lot of things here!
He did really well with the layering game – I love how easily he stays on his line especially considering he is a baby dog. The early throws helped a lot! He did have one question (at :21) where you might have turned your shoulders 3 cm too early hahaha! Or maybe it was because you didn’t throw early. But also I think you won’t have to be as perfect if the thrown reward is something that he can just shove his face in and grab a hunk of bread. Do you have a treat hugger that can carry a nicely buttered croissant or something? If he doesn’t need your help to get the reward at all, he will also need very little help to go blasting away to the bread line. Ideally, once you set the line, you can keep yelling verbals but you won’t need to worry at all about connection, arms, etc.
Since he is a carb-fan, I wonder if you’ve every tried pasta? I’ve used ravioli and tortellini with dogs that also like bread. And the stuffed pasta is easy throw and highly visible, so it is another thing to investigate 🙂
Great job here! Have fun!
Tracy
Hi!
> I knew I’d get a great history recap with that question!>
Ha! I think agility history is HILARIOUS with all of the things we were convinced were right but turned out to be wildly wrong LOL!
> I have an occasional “rent-a-Beardie” that goes surprisingly well considering his handler is into OMD….probably because I can set his line with motion and stay mostly with/ahead of him.>
That makes sense. OMD started coming in and got really popular when Voodoo was young (2015-ish?). He was sooooo fast and had little patience for bad handling. Their answer to me was a combination of “run faster” and “do more rear crosses” and “do more spins”. Yeah…….. nope. Just got him MORE angry. The smoother more streamlined and connected European-style of keep moving, use verbals, look at the dog made everything so much better!
>Startline mechanics with Lift are definitely still a WIP. She doesn’t always keep her orientation as the leash comes off (Depends on if she is in a spin or shake mood post-leash). Sometimes I’ve used the spin as a way to change her line up direction a bit and to let her blow off steam.>
The spin-and-bark are great ways for her to shift her arousal & focus, and blow off some steam. Remind me why we never ended up with a between-the-feet lineup? She might love that so much – wrapping around your legs while moving into position might be a great way to let her keep moving and blow off steam, while also allowing you to line her up really accurately. I *think* we chatted about it a while back but that is all I remember LOL!
T
I agree that things are different now, post-Covid! Never quite the same.
>I’m going to stand hard and say no to judging appointments in 2027. (She says with 2 appointments already bahahaha).>
Ha! I can relate. I took myself off the judging list because I wanted to spend more time with my dogs. And also because UKI wanted us to pay a couple hundred dollars to remain being a judge (and take MORE tests). Judges are already wildly underpaid, so it didn’t make any financial sense to me to have to pay MORE money to do it LOL
Hi –
>I know!!
I tried to dial it back but it’s so hard. And then when i finally pull it together, Jenny celebrates too hard hahaha. That was pretty funny though – everything went brilliantly on your end and a party erupts at that exact moment LOL
>I saw your FB post about people blaming their dogs, I see it a lot as a judge – It’s very disheartening sometimes – watching these dogs try their little hearts out and get blamed. One handler was blaming her dog in my ring, as she went out, I said “your dog tried very hard”. But she didn’t believe me – she made a point of coming over while I was still judging and talking to someone within my ear shot about how her dog was this and that. I was so close to turning around and telling her to look at the video, her dog went exactly where she pointed. (But i’m supposed to be professional and focus on my judging haha)>
For real!!!! Judges see and hear everything. But you are correct, you really cannot engage them when you are in an official capacity. I am in my “Too Old To Give A F*ck Anymore” Era so I *totally* engage them outside the ring, especially if they are being mean to the dog.
T
