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Good morning!
>>I do worry a bit that we’re behind on working out in public more but I couldn’t find a good in person puppy class for her and then she hit adolescence and I figured it would be super frustrating to try one then.>It is funny because yesterday morning I was considering asking you about in-person puppy classes for her, then I decided against it because I was not sure it would be a great experience for her. And, after what we learned during covid lockdown – we don’t actually need our youngsters in a class environment and we can get them happy in trial environments without it. The vast majority of the Covid MaxPup crew had no trouble transitioning into the trial environment, even with zero access to class exposure (or trial exposure) during a theoretically “critical” time.
I have put my two young dogs in classes that start this week, but they are 13 months and 18 months old so they have had more history and exposure. And if there is anything in the class environment that I think is not great for them… I will either change it up or pull them from the class. One instructor is a friend of mine and the other is an acquaintance – plus I put the 13 month old in a lower level class just to get environmental exposure without over-facing skills. So I am sure eventually Lift will be in a class somewhere but you can shape the class to make it what you want 🙂
So, I don’t think you are behind at all, in that respect – I think you are using other environments as exposure opportunities and doing it within the framework of the experience you want her to have (and without frustration for either of you).
>>I need to do more where he’s the distraction lying in a bed nearby instead of being a barking distraction in another room.>>
Absolutely! But I don’t think it will be a problem for her 🙂>>she’s still not convinced especially if a tunnel or other bit of equipment is out there in front of her.>>
You did lineups during the countermotion game – they were fast, snappy, highly reinforced, and it looks like she was very happy to do them! If the game then starts with a collar hold, you can add it in at the end of the line up.
The countermotion exits game went great! And the 2nd barrel (hedgehog?) is so cute!
Since she did we all with everything including letting you go all the way around the jump to the takeoff side before releasing, you can be releasing a little later, as you are further ahead so there is even more countermotion. As you add that, you can throw the rewards back sooner so they land more on the landing side and not near you at all (on the takeoff side). That will get her looking at the bar and not at you as you add more countermotion (and eventually more speed too 🙂 ) The placement might cause her to jump a little wider over the bump for now, but that will no be an issue when it becomes a ‘real’ jump because the line of motion will be so powerful that she will still have a really tight turn.>>Now here’s something you don’t usually see -restrained recalls in MN outside in early February without a danger of slipping.>>
Yeah that is completely insane!
The restrained recalls looked great! She did best when you ran away about as soon as Dean had her, so there was high energy from the very first moment. She got to really open up and even brought the toy back! Bringing the toy back when she has the entire yard to run around in is a big win for sure! The reverse retrieve was good at the end, but the full retrieve was not as strong – she might have been toast by then. Even though it was not that long of a session, it was a lot of running/sprinting and she is not used to that!
If the weather holds up and you can train outside, you can add in blind crosses to the recalls. And you can add in distractions like different random things in the yard.
>>I was just thinking about doing the rocking horses with wings and/or barrels outside>>
Perfect!! Start with barrels and if those are easy, go to wings. And tell your work colleagues that lunch time is for puppy training LOL!!
Great job!!
TracyGood morning! It is so fun to see him figuring all of this out!!
Strike a pose is going well!
>>should have spent some more time refreshing the nose target, because he kept forgetting about it, but I suppose that’s part of the challenge, with a toy?>>
Yes and no – initially yes, we do want him to do the target then go to the toy. The touch doesn’t have to be direct though – he can do a bit of a drive by 🙂 as he develops the in and out behavior for serps and threadles. So if he goes towards the hand and side-swipes the target? Perfectly fine! And when we add the jump in for him to go over (a jump bump), we will move to him not needing to touch the hand target (because in serps and threadles, we want the in and out but not the hand touching, especially as you start moving).
I think he is ready for you to add in the picture of a jump between you and him for this game. My only suggestion is to clarify toy markers – I think you were saying “get it” for the toy in your hand and “chase it” for a thrown toy, which is great! Now you can take out the ‘yes’ before those, otherwise yes becomes the marker for all of it 🙂
For turn and burn – try not to have the toy as the lure to go around the barrel, because that draws his focus to the toy and not the barrel. And if the toy moves too early… he won’t go to the barrel (second rep here). On the 3rd and 4th reps, he went to the barrel really well because the barrel was the focal point (not the toy :))
So to get hm to really drive to the barrel, keep it as the focal point and also stand still facing it rather than be in the crouched and ready to run position (which also draw his focus off the barrel). Put a line on the ground as a cue for you as to when you can do the FC and move away – start the line right as he exits the barrel, then gradually moving the line further and further around the barrel so you are doing the FC sooner and sooner 🙂
The rocking horses went really well – barrels as focal point are definitely key for him! His questions here (when he didn’t smoothly go to the barrel were about the “yes” marker (because it often means the reward is coming immediately) and also connection.
At :12 and :16, for example, your connection as he exited the barrel and came to the new FC side was strong, so he had no trouble going to the next barrel. At :19 (and a little bit at :34), your connection was not as strong (you were looking forward/pointing forward instead of looking at him) so he offered a behavior that is probably cued/rewarded when he sees that position: the between-your-feet behavior LOL!!
>>He knocked our makeshift barrel over and then climbed on the peanut which was the cutest ever.>>
That was SO FUNNY and CUTE!!! He just went with it: “I know what we are doing now, mom, goat games!” So adorable!!!!!!
>>also worked on some rears to the prop, For the rears, getting him to turn left is… challenging.>>
Yes, the right turns were definitely easier and your timing was good on those (a little late on the first rep but good on the rest!)
For the left turns – do them first in the next session, so he doesn’t have right turns on his brain 🙂 and warm up with a couple of cookie lure turns to the left, on the flat. Then add in the left turns on the prop – and try the alternate way of doing it:The alternate game will help isolate the left-turn-only (just be sure you are up by his head/neck on the side change really early, that will get it done.
He did really well with the parallel path game! Yay! If you use bars instead of a bump, use a strip of duct tape to attach them to the floor so they don’t roll if he steps on them.
>>this was literally the first time he’s seen this mat and I thought he was great!>>
Wow, what a good boy! That went really well!!! Because he is young, he will be on the mat work level for a long time so break up the sessions with tugging after every 3 or 4 treats (keeps him feeling spicy about it :)). The other thing you can do is attach the mat to something a little taller, about an inch high, so he has to step up onto it and over it. That will allow you to shift the marker/reinforcement to back foot #4 – the slight elevation makes it easier to see the 1-2-3-4 pattern of feet at this stage, so we can mark back foot 4 (which means he has done the split rear feet criteria, because 3 should come before 4 LOL!)
Great job here!! He is really putting all the pieces together!!
Tracy
Good morning! Looking at all 3 videos posted here (1345 was posted twice):
>>I hadn’t realized how much my pushing in was a cue for him>>
Yes – at this point, he is relying on your really pushing in/rotating your feet to him to get the line, which is more than we want you to have to do.
If you are far enough ahead and able to do it, he finds the backside (but you can see he is still working out the mechanics and not 100% sure about it). But if you were not far enough ahead and/or you try to keep moving forward and not rotating your feet towards him (like at :33 and 2:07 and 2:21 in the first video, or when he took the front of the jump on videos 1348 and 1350), he would take the front side of the jump.
You will want to be moving forward not have this much foot rotation, because it is causing you to run a bit sideways. That will make other exits (like serp exits or German turns) really hard.
So, it is not about adding more handling 🙂 What will help is getting more understanding from him on the backsides, so try these (in this order, to really build understanding over the course of several sessions):
– put a line on the ground that you will move forward on, to approximately the center of the bar on the backside jump (or where the bar would be, see below 😁). Don’t let yourself go past the line, and don’t rotate your feet. Use verbal and upper body/connection, not motion pressure.
– take the bar out of the backside jump, so there is less draw to the front side of a jump, which has a lot of value.
– using the line on the ground, lead out at least 2 or 3 steps after the landing of jump 1. Then either do a psh to the outside of the backside wing (staying on your line) or have him go straight between the uprights as a balance rep.If this goes well, you will be able to add the bar back within a session or two but when you do that, angle the jump almost 90 degrees so the backside entry is very easy to see and the front side is harder to see.
If he struggles on the wings – use only one wing (where the backside entry wing would be) so he gets used to pushing away from you.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>we stayed up late watching the Super Bowl >>
No worries! I was up late watching it too – fun game!!!! Way past my bedtime though LOL!
The get out games are going well. Working out the line of motion on videos 1 and 2 was really helpful, so you could keep moving up the line (like in video 2) and still cue the get out behavior). The first video had a little too much moving towards the get out jump, but you fixed that on video 2 with the lines on the ground, so the get outs had a lot of good independence!
She had a question on the last get out at :38 (video 2) was a little late and also didn’t have the extreme connection (as you noted in the video). But the other reps all looked great!
Video 3 is the same as the 2nd video, let e know if it was supposed to be a different one
Looking at the combos:
On video 4, the get out elements looked really good! She was definitely responding to the cues (and not just going to the jump without being cued). Super!
You can use more exit line connection on FC exit after the backside. For example at :06 – :07 you were looking ahead so she was not sure where to be and she looked at you rather than go to the jump. Adding more exit line connection would also let you see if she is committed to the jump or not before you turned away from it.The exit line connection was better at :21 but it can be even clearer, with your dog-side arm back and eyes on her. Your dig-side arm was a little forward so she looks up at your hand as she passes you (it is blocking connection and turning your shoulder forward). And exit line connection will let her know if it is a ‘stay on the line’ moment or a ‘get out’ moment or a ‘blind cross to the other side’ moment 🙂
Video 5 combo is also looking good! Remember to cue the backside after the get out jump (you rotated a little too soon, so it looked like you wanted her to come through the gap there).
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>I have a lot going against me, I hope the courses aren’t also hard!>>
The beginning courses *should* be relatively straightforward. But since there are so many new elements for you and Kashia, it is better to run FEO/NFC so you can focus on all of the other elements and not the Q. Make it fun for you both!
>>1. When do you start trialing your dogs? Do you have a minimum age you wait until or does it depend on their skill level?>>
I have both a minimum age AND a minimum skill level. If the dog and I have a strong history of teamwork/engagement in similar environments to trials (like classes or outside the ring at a trial), and the dog is a little closer to 2 years old… then I will enter a trial at a lower jump height and run NFC/FEO. I only ask for simple behaviors and make it really fun for the dog, with no attempts to actually Q. I just do jumps and tunnels at first – no stays, no contacts, no weaves because those are highly likely to go wrong and I don’t want the dog to be wrong in the early trial experiences. All of that gets added back in over the course of NFC runs – I usually spend the first few months of the dog’s career doing NFC to build confidence and happiness in the environment.
>>2. I’m nervous about the lotus ball because Kashia only likes it if there is food in it. I’m afraid the first time she goes to get it and there’s no food, she’ll just be disappointed and disengage with me.>>
In UKI, you are allowed to throw rewards in NFC runs so you can try a ball or toy she might like?
>>She sure loses interest quickly. The beginning reps she had bouncy excited sends and by the last couple she was quite slow. >>
Might be too many reps of the same thing, so if you get two or three correct reps, change it up to do something different.
>> I feel like there is so much pressure to use the fancy name brand stuff or the competition style stuff.>>
Agree! There is heavy marketing out there, especially for fitness stuff and foundation stuff for the dogs… sooooo expensive in a sport that is already expensive. I prefer to save my $$ for the important stuff, is I have invested in some really nicely jumps (along with my crapy homemade ones haha) but I use a lot of homemade stuff for foundation work, or anything I can get at Walmart or a dollar store (like those barrels of wing wrapping are 99 cent laundry baskets :))
For example, I pulled out my foundation plank yesterday – it was built in 2003 by a friend and still usable! I think I bought it for $25 from him to cover materials, and it has been used by at least 7 of my dogs since then. Quite the bargain!!!Tracy
Good morning!
>>will work thru max 2 and see you for the ext round of max 3>>
We do have a MaxPup 2 coming up in March!
The training session went well! You are getting really strong with keeping your arms down and letting her see the connection. That created a ton of smooth reps, like on the first rep, :20-:24, :38-:39. There was only one disconnection (:13) and she jumped up at you (she didn’t know where to be so she was frustrated) but that was the only time.
So definitely keep going with the low arms and great connection!!
At the end you did some backside/serp work – the sending to the backside looked really good! Rather than use a physical cue to bring her back between the uprights, keep moving but drop the reward in on the landing side. The timing of the reward is as soon as she is at the entry wing and before there is any decision needed about coming back over where the bar would be. Dropping the reward as soon as she gets to the entry wing will help develop the default for coming back over the bar without needing any help from you 🙂
Great job!!
Tracy
Good morning!
I agree that your assessment of the extra room with the tunnels adds to the fun of running through the tunnel (toy or no toy). She is really accelerating to the tunnel now and that is also bubbling over to toy play being really fun in this moment too. She is not loving the line up to get to where you want her to be for the next rep (“I’ll be over here, just send me to the tunnel thanks!” – Lift, probably) which makes some of the starts to the reps a bit of a question for her, so a few ideas for you:
– you can tug her back into position next to you and very close, then gently hold her collar (if she doesn’t find it icky)
– you can line up with a cookie – lowest value pocket-lint level cookie when using a toy in a new environment LOL or high value food if that is the reinforcement in the session. If can be something like: line up for a cookie, stick with me (stay close) for another cookie, then send to the tunnel (or gently hold her collar before the send).
– you can work line up stuff at your side or between your feet so that is a comfortable position for starting reps, even when a yummy tunnel is right there.Backsides – these are going really well!! One suggestion:
as you get further and further across the bar, toss the reward back behind you to where the wing and bump meet (try to get it to land on the landing spot as if it was a backside wrap :)) . This is an exaggerated placement to help her come around the wing and look at the bump and not at you – the rewards were near you and a little ahead, so throwing them back away from you to the landing spot near the wing will help her get independence. And even though the reward is where the backside wrap landing spot will be, we won’t accidentally create too much turn there because when we fade that, she will be reading the position/motion and the verbal.>>she took one forwards even with 1 wing.>>
That was a good moment for her to see the difference between the cues. No worries! I think that you might have been moving slowly so she slipped in front of you – you can add more motion so she gets more of an extension cue coming up the line. It seemed a lot easier to start from a sit because it allows you to set the line sooner – she was super confident on those and really driving to the backside! Yay!
Sounds like there were some distractions in the environment during the rocking horses game and she did really well – great exposure to things she will encounter while playing a fast and fun game.
She was REALLY opening up into extension here and I love it! And still turning really well on the wings too. On the first rep or two you can see her processing things (trot for a step or two then run). Putting the wing wrap into a sequence after the tunnel surprised her on the first rep and then doing the wing to the tunnel surprised her. But after seeing the each the first time, she was all about the running and was terrific! Very fun 🙂 You can start adding even more distance between the tunnel and wings, even if it is only once every couple of weeks (depending on when you can get into Fusion and how the weather is to train outside).Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>He didn’t have to pee, wasn’t too full or too hungry AND I didn’t touch his collar.>>
These are all pretty important! I mean, I am not so good at training if I have to pee, or I am stuffed or hangry, or someone is holding my neck LOL!!!
Basically, not using the collar grabs when the toy is involved greatly reduces the pressure and really helped here!
The tunnel-wing rocking horse looked really strong! He was fast through the tunnel and to the wing, and line focused. Super!!! You can add the 2nd wing to the game now (which also means adding more running :))
The decel game went great – he was really strong about finding the jump on the acceleration line. And for the turn, he was great about turning when you were decelerated. Being sideways to the jump was too much turn cue for him and he slowed way down (based on his size, it is likely that you won’t need to use super rotated turn cues because we won’t need a ton of collection from him).
Great job!!
TracyGood morning! It was such a nice weather weekend!
Good spin on the first rep! Then some toy retrieve issues – one thing to work on in a small indoor room at first (then ring it outside) is doing a wrap on a wing, letting go of the toy, then getting him to come back to another toy (or a low value cookie). He doesn’t have to bring the toy 🙂 he gets rewarded for coming back to you rather than long toy victory laps where you have to go get him. The laps with the toy are fine if you cue it, and ideally he comes back pretty quickly (especially if you have; t cued a ‘go for a run’ with the toy).
As you add more speed to the spins, remember to use your eyes more (connection) and arms less 🙂 When you are looking ahead/pointing ahead, he is not as sure of where to go and e ends up looking at the you and the toy (like at 1:43). And when you are more connected and looking at him more? Very smooth and fast!!
Serps – he is getting the idea for sure! Good job to you for keeping your shoulders facing the jump on there serp!
Try not to release him from his stay until you are at the exit wing (which is more like serp position and less like threadle position). What was happening here was he was doing the serp when you released him at the entry wing, because he could come in front of you. When you were closer to the exit wing later in the session, he went around the jump because jumping towards you is much harder – but it is a main element of a serp. So, move very slowly but don’t release until you are at the exit wing so he can learn to serp directly toward you.On the threadle video:
He did well coming to the correct side of the jump (good job mixing in stay rewards here and on the serp video too)>>He comes to the threadle side but goes around the entire jump.>>
It looks like motion is overriding the understanding of finding the bar (then he got a little locked onto the MM), so you can take out the motion for a session or two: stand perfectly still in threadle position so as soon as he gets. To the threadle side, you click the MM. Then when he figures that out, you can stay in threadle position but delay the click ever so slightly until he looks at the bar.
When he is zipping in for the threadle and back out to the bar with no questions (and no additional handling help) then you can start to add back very slow moving through the threadle.
The turn and burn went really well! His value for wings is really blossoming!
When sending, be sure you are connected. So even on the easier turns for him, he would sometimes hesitate if you pointed ahead or didn’t connect fully.A general puppy training thing is if you send to a wing and they look at you instead… you need to connect more and lower your hands (like you did 1:10 – 1:15, which was gorgeous!!!)
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning! Good job with these games!! What was happening here was you were mainly doing lap turn cues so when you were showing the info for a lap turn, she got it really well!
The lap turn is a threadley move where we face the dog and use an extended hand (usually one hand, the one closer to the jump) to draw the dog to us (and a connection shift to the hand too :)) but a main part of the lap turn cue is the footwork: as the dog is almost arriving at the hand, the leg next to the jump steps back as the hand draws the dog through – then hand and leg turn the dog away to the jump to get the commitment.
It looks like this (slightly different angle but same arm/footwork):
When you were facing her but backing up on the first video, it was hard to get her past the front side of the jump (motion there made it unclear as to fit she should take the front or come to the back).
On the 2nd video (breaking it down) you were stationary and using the hand more (more shifting connection for sure! Yay!) but your feet stayed together so she didn’t always have the cue or room to get past you to the backside of the jump. (This video was posted twice).
On the 4th video where you were breaking it down too – it was hard for her on the first couple of reps. Then your leg started to step back (:22) and that allowed her to get it. Yay!! On every rep after than on this video and the next 2, she got it if your inside leg stepped back. But if the leg didn’t move or didn’t let her get past you to the backside, she (correctly) ended up on the front side or flipping away
On the 5th video, you had the connection and footwork starting to come together: at the beginning, your turn hand is hidden by being close to you (it should be fully extended towards her, practically locking your elbow straight) and you were looking at her.
But then at :20 you had a clear connection shift, more visible hand, more leg step back – she got it. Yay! The mechanics were good too at :47 but you stepped forward with the other leg before she could pass you, which pushed her to the front of the jump
Last video: good shift at the start and your position gave her more room so she was able to get it on both reps – yay! So that is going to be your most successful way of doing the lap turns. You don’t need to be as far from the jump, as long as you do the exaggerated arm & leg movement.
You might find the threadle wraps where you are moving forward are actually easier and, depending on the sequnece on course, will keep you further ahead. This is where your feet are moving forward on the line the whole time, not facing her at all, so there is no real footwork needed. It is more similar to a tandem turn than to a lap turn, and it looks like this:
You still have the connection shift to your hands but your line of motion is forward the whole time.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
I am glad he is doing well with the rocking horses!
>>When you say spin do you mean what some call a reverse spin?>>
Yes – the FC-then-BC combo. You turn towards him to start the spin, and away from him to start the blind.
He was really good about coming in. For the serps! And his confusion about threadles was a positional cue question. Think of it as entry wing versus exit ing (the one closer to the MM here). The positional cue for the serp is being nearer to the exit wing. And the positional cue for the threadle is before you get to the entry wing.
For serps, you would want to be visible across between the bars & closer to the wing before you release him. You were releasing when you were in threadle position and he was getting the serp reward, which is why you had to stand still on the threadles.
Ideally for the serp, you would walk 2 more steps or so, so you don’t release him for the serp until you are closer to the exit wing.
You were really good about having the serp position visible as you started moving, then releasing, so the arm movement or foot movement was not at the same time as the release! Yay! He needs some more rewards tossed back to him so he doesn’t anticipate the serp and break the stay.
Then for the threadles – release from threadle position and move very slowly so he still sees you in threadle position at this stage (it will get easier as he gets more experienced with moving threadles).
You can do one session like that and if he is mostly correct, you can add the threadle slice verbal. That will help too!
He had a little struggle going over the bar for the threadle – you can move the MM so it is very visible of the bar and click it as soon as he gets to the correct side of the jump (the side between you and the jump :)) That will get him into the habit of looking for the bar after coming to the threadle side.
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
This session went well! She is doing a good job with those backsides and finding the bar even when you running forward without connection (as you are supposed to do LOL!!) She might need a ‘get it’ marker for when you throw the toy back even when you are running ahead, so she knows she has permission to ignore your running line 🙂When you are timing the backside cues, you can start them sooner with her. She has a big stride so you can tell her about the backside no later than takeoff of the first jump after the wing wrap. So as you see her feet getting ready to lift up for jump 1, you should already be connected and starting the a-la-la cue. That way she has already processed it when she lands and can go directly to the backside.
She was seeing the cue start just as she was landing at :03 (first video) and :04 (2nd video) so she had a little bit of a zig zag to go back out to the backside.>>I also took my eyes off Mira when I was going to do the regular line and she just went around the jump.
That was at :33 o the first video – yes, there was not a lot of regular connection but also she was probably just in ‘backside mode’ and anticipating that it would be a backside. Oopsie! That is definitely something I have seen dogs do 🙂 I didn’t see anything in the handling you did to push her to the backside by accident and then she was perfect after that, so it was one of those rare moments where the dog actually had the blooper, probably because you had been working on backsides so she was expecting it 🙂 Of all the videos and games she has done in this class, I don’t think she has made a single error til this one, so no worries 🙂 I will watch the video again later to make sure I still don’t see anything that accidentally cued the backside LOL!
Great job here!
TracyHi! You have had a stretch of bad weather and now it is crazy to see outdoors on grass in February! But it is good to be able to practice outdoors 🙂
Looking at the turn aways: I think it will feel easier if your feet are moving forward to the jump the whole time, which would mean not sending to the start wing from as far away because then you were at the turn jump with no place to move to. That meant your feet were facing her so it made the turn away a little harder for timing. And if you turned your feet too early (like at :13 on video 1) you end up pushing her off the jump because it looks like a backside cue.
The ideal line of motion would look like the line of motion you did on th e3rd video, when you started with a straight line to the jump and the little speed circle around the wings – then you were able to move forward more into the connection shift/turn away and it went well!
On the last video on the other side, you also had more motion and that made it easier 🙂
Good job shifting your connection (and catching yourself when you were looking at her the whole time LOL!) You can now start to do the connection shift sooner, which means the turn away can be sooner:
The last video gives us a great view of the line and the timing. You can start the connection shift as soon as she exits the wing before the turn jump, and then you can start the turn away cues before she arrives at the halfway point between the wing and the jump. You were doing the connection shift when she was maybe a stride from the jump, so she did get the turn but it was happening mostly on landing rather than on takeoff.Another reason to start the cues sooner is that on a bigger course it will be easier for you to cue the turn away and run the new direction, keeping you ahead of her more (which is a good thing with a speedy dog!!)
Great job here! I am looking forward to the other videos!
Tracy
Hi!
She did really well with the Minny Pinny!>>Holding her collar seemed to confuse her, but she clearly seemed to get the concept after sleeping on it.>>
I have found whippets to be the BEST at sleeping on things then coming back totally knowing them 🙂 For the next session, you can add the verbal before any cue to start moving:
line her up on your right side, so she is facing the Minny Pinny directly. Gently hold her collar and start saying your left verbal 3 or 4 times (she will be turning to her left when starting on your right side) Then let go of the collar and you can cue her to start moving (if she doesn’t already start moving when you let go). Then after the reward, repeat the process on the other side by lining her up on your left side facing the MP, holding her collar, saying your right verbal, etc.
The goal is that she hears the verbal before moving to strengthen it as a cue, and that she is facing the MP rather than turning away to start it.>> I hate that this flooring seems more slippery than I had anticipated.
It is a little slippery when she tries to go fast! I bought cheap turf rolls on Amazon that cover the floor, and that gives good grip! That is something to consider so she has a little more grip as she moves through the games.
Great job here 🙂
Tracy>> I feel like go on is a pretty strong skill. I’m thinking the collected turn exercise should be the first one to try. >>
Yes, that is a good one to start with and the “go” lines can (and should) be mixed in as balance reps.
>> I’m still unsure how the line you run for the backside with the off arm differs from the line you run to get the out with the off arm. You had us running a straight line up from the wing for both the way I understand it.
Yes, the line of motion is not all that different – it is the other cues that make it different (timing, physical cue, verbal cue). So the timing would be slightly different:
For the get out, you can start it before the dog exits the wing wrap (ideally exiting the wing wrap heading to the get out jump)
For the backside, I would start it after the dog has completed the wing wrap and is now parallel to get out bar.The physical cue with the outside arm is slightly different, to indicate the different lines because it would rotate the upper body slightly differently:
For the get out, my outside arm points to the exit wing of the get out jump. For the backside, my outside arm points to the entry wing of the backside jump.And the verbals are different too of course 🙂
>>If you have video highlighting the differences that would be great.>>
I will grab some when our weather clears – it has been a wet few days.
>>Also, on the collected turns….do you still shift your connection to the landing side after you stare them down on the incoming freight train to the jump?>>
It will depend on the dog. But the dogs that need the extreme connection for collection often do not also need the connection shift to the landing spot.
Tracy
