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Good morning!
The zig zags went well! No problem with the wings and bars touching. He seemed fatigued on the last couple of reps where he missed the first jump, so now that there is more actual jumping involved fewer reps are good to keep him feeling powerful 🙂 You can add the last wing on to the end of the last bar, so it is all jumps & wings now (we are slowly building up to a really hard jump grid 🙂 )
On the tunnel threadles, he definitely reads your feet as a BIG part of the cue! On the very successful moments where he went to the threadle side of the tunnel (:54 and 1:16 for example), your feet were turned and facing the correct side before he exited the wing wrap before it. Super!!!! On the reps where he went straight rather than threadled (like at :47 and 1:01), your feet were facing the straight-ahead tunnel entry so that is where he committed to going. Good boy! So the earlier you turned your feet, the better his line was.
One other detail in this session: he did best on the lines to and around the wings when you kept your arms low and back, so he could see your face. When you were pointing forward, he would slow down and wait for more info (like at :35 and 1:07) or almost go behind you because it looked like the beginning of a blind cross (like at 1:13). Pointing forward ahead of him changes the line of your shoulders, which changes the cue. When you had lower arms, your shoulders faced the line better and he had no questions 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Thanks for stopping in and have a blast in Europe!!!!
I found a bunch of really good places that I think will be close? Hopefully I got the correct geographical area LOL!!! Here are some options. If any look interesting I can put you in touch directly. All are really good!
Canine New England in Walpole
Kate Biggar at High Fidelity (just outside Boston)
Agility Rush (Uxbridge) and John Nys
Andy Winther (not sure of which town exactly)Tracy
Hi!
The get out is going well! I think the clearer cue was when you used your outside arm at the beginning and at :38 – that was a really obvious get out cue compared to the dog side arm reps. That can help you take out the small step towards the jump.You can also turn the jump 90 degrees, so the bar is parallel to your running line. That will add challenge by asking him to slice the jump moving away from you.
Minny pinny is also looking good!
>>Not sure if extra step is collection or due to spacing?>>
I think it was because you were standing still 🙂 And that is fine because it is a collection game for the soft turns and he was bouncing on the first part of it. The spacing is good, s you can emphasize getting the verbals more independent. Have him start next to you and gently hold his collar. Then start saying the verbal 3 or 4 times, then let him go so he starts moving (and keep saying the verbal). That way he is hearing the verbal separately from handling cues and he will propel himself into it.
He seems to be listening to the verbals: It was interesting on how the one rep where you had the wrong verbals it was also the one rep where he touched the bars!
Nice work here :)
TracyHi!
The get out is going well! You were really good about running as straight as possible and letting your upper body do the out cues (and she was also really good about NOT doing an out when you didn’t want it 🙂 ). You can keep adding distance away from the out jump – you might find using the outside arm pointing to the jump is useful as more distance gets added, and that can also help you get the FC or BC on the jump because you have more time to start the turn when she looks at the jump.
Zig zags are looking good! She wants to bounce through them, which is a good thing, so we can help her do that by having the end of each jump bar touch the next wing. That will shorten up the distance and you will see her start to bounce rather than add strides.
Mission transition – more distance between the jump and the wing will make this a bit easier to time the transition to be sooner. Because they were relatively close together, your decel was happening with her closer to the jump. It was fine with the lower bar and she got good collections (:11, :26, :38, :45), but as the bar starts to get higher, the decel will be ore helpful for her if you start it just after she exits the start wing. And then keep moving forward/facing forward until she lifts her front feet for the jump – rotating too early will pull her off like at :18. As she gets more experienced, you can rotate sooner but for now you can wait til her feet are lifting to guarantee the commitment 🙂
The lap turns and tandems are going well!
>>I think my arms were a bit flaily (apparently that’s not a real word, lol), especially on the tandem turns. She still figured out what I wanted for the most part as long as I was not on her line>>
I think you arms were fine, not too flaily 🙂 What was happening was that you were too early (yes, too early!) on the lap turns when she went to the wrong side of the wing. Your arm and leg were stepping back to soon, so it looked like a cue to go to the other side.
After :21, though, you were great about letting her get almost to your hand and then stepping back into the lap turn. Nice! When you add more motion from a wing before it, you can send to the wing from further away so you don’t have to run backwards 🙂
On the tandems, your arms were good! She went a little wide because you had a lot of forward motion, so be sure to decelerate into it to tighten up the turn. You had decel on the last rep at 2:18 and that was lovely!
Great job here :)
TracyHi!
>>I think it’s more likely pressure than something sore. I’m not finding anything on her or seeing any change in her gait. If anything she is boing-ing around more lately. >>
Yes, quite possibly it is pressure and not soreness. I am glad she is getting a bit of a massage next week to confirm. The pressure could be a stack up of all the details her brain is being bombarded with and has to process. So in this session, it was handler motion, verbal cues, arm movement, toy/food, her own mechanics, running, ignoring the sights/smells/sounds of the outdoors etc etc. There is a LOT for her brain to process, and the adolescence brain is not that good at that. Plus if she has been doing a lot lately AND if she might be coming into season… yes, it adds up 🙂
Have you done any decompression stuff with her, like a snuffle mat? That might be something to add in between each rep in training!
I also think she doesn’t have a lot of frustration tolerance right now, so if something is not perfect and she doesn’t know exactly what to do, she copes with the frustration by leaping up (more on that below).
>Anyways we’e been playing with toys in the house and doing some tricks. >>
Yay! Tricks are great! And shaping in general – you can shape lots of different behaviors. Shaping is a great way to improve resilience to any uncertainty and to improve frustration tolerance too.
>>Had some mixed results with the smiley faces. Sometimes she likes the race track and other time she boings up at me partway through and I’m not seeing a pattern for why this happens. >>
I watched it in slow motion to look for a pattern. It might take a few sessions to see a pattern, but here is what I see so far:
Jumping up (looked like frustration) at :47 and 1:31 – your left arm went up then down, slight disconnection lots of verbal. Toy in use at :47 and food at 1:31. Right turns. (toy) right turns
Compare to the smoothness of 1:52 and 2:30 – she is on your right side, steady arm (no up and down), clearer connection.
It is SUPER subtle but when she is in your left side, the up/down of the arm and slight disconnection might be enough to trigger the frustration. It didn’t seem to be toy related because she did it with food too.
Is keeping your arm steady and showing a TON a connection, more exaggerated, the answer? I don’t know, but it sure won’t hurt 🙂
>>There are lots of things I wanted to circle back to in MaxPup 2 but maybe I should just give her a break for a week or two and only do really easy things like toss a treat and have her chase me for a toy/treat.>>
Yes – a break from handling stuff so you can do really easy things and also do some shaping – like back foot targeting, or behaviors with a box, etc. The behaviors themselves are not important but the resilience/frustration tolerance from shaping will be really helpful. And when you do the shaping, be sure to get her more stimulated before starting – you can do this with tugging or tricks for treats!
And build in decompression and see how it goes!
>>I think I successfully submitted for the last 3 live classes for Kaladin in summer camp, but now I’m not seeing a confirmation email or a charge so just want to make sure I actually remembered to hit submit on that form.>>
You did submit it! I will go through it on Tuesday when I get home and send confirmations.
Nice work 🙂 Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
His tunnel threadling is going well! He is able to read the cues best when you turn on the wing nice and early, so you are fully facing the correct end of the tunnel bu the time he exits the wing wrap. The one blooper he had when he ended up in the wrong tunnel entry was when you’re not quite turned as early as the other reps.
The arm cue was very clear! And it sounds like you have a noice for the threadle verbal, which is also very distinct. Super!
Since this went so well, you can add more motion: spread the wings out a bit more so there is more distance, and see if you can run into the turn more and still get the great responses 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
His stay looks great and he has great commitment to the line. Super!!!When you release to send to the jump, keep your dog-side arm lower and you can use it to point to the takeoff spot (along with step to it with your leg). That will help you get the big end and lots of connection, and also it will help you be able to push off to run to your next position 🙂 He read all the cues really well, so now you can play with stepping to the takeoff of 2 as soon as he lands from 1, and then starting the FC before he arrives at 2 (starting it no later than halfway between 1 and 2)
He had one question at 1:48 – on the serp lead out/lead out push, maintain connection and arm back all the way through the line until he takes off for jump 3. It is the connection and serp shoulders staying open that cue him to turn away to the next jump.
Outdoor part of the session – your arm was able to move more freely without holding the toy so connection was automatically better 🙂 Yay!
Moving up the line on the parallel path was easy peasy, and maintaining connection through the threadles looked great and really helped him find the line. He did great!!!
Nice work on these!!!
Tracy
Hi! He did really well with the backsides too! And the tunnel was not a distraction for him at all. Yay!
The main suggestion here is to have your dog side arm supporting his line more as you connect, rather than pointing ahead.
When you point ahead he looked at you more especially at :44 (he took the front of the jump there). Pointing ahead and looking ahead turns all of the physical cues to the front side of the bar, and that overrides the verbal especially with young dogs.
Compare to :57, for example, where you had a lower arm that was following his nose and not pointing ahead and a lot more connection to him – note how he looked at you lot less and just zipped directly to the backside. Lovely!
When you were on the other side, we have a better visual of how the high arm changes the body language and turns you away from the parallel path so he looks at you a bit more (like at 1:51). He did go to the backside here because of the learning history of “this is a backside game” 🙂 but in a novel setup he might end up on the futon side. At 1:58 you were much more connected and on a better parallel path, so he didn’t have glance up at you. So allow your hand to follow his nose as you move up the parallel line and make connection, to help him find the backsides without any glances towards you 🙂
The FCs on the landing side and the circle wraps looked good! It sounds like you were using the same verbal for the slices and the circle wraps. Something to consider is one verbal for the slices and a different one for the wraps (I use “back” and “dig dig”). That helps the dogs differentiate the collection required, especially for when we are not ahead of them to help them with physical cues.
The countermotion exits looked strong! You can add more motion coming up the line so you can get ahed of him more for the countermotion – that will challenge him to maintain commitment even as you pass the wing before he. Takes off.
Great job!
TracyNice work here, he found the correct tunnel entry on every rep! Yay! The straight entries to the tunnel all looked great 🙂
The threadles are going well – his line is much smoother when you look at him as he comes around the wing and as you cue the threadle (for example at :14, :35, and 1:30 – great connection, very smooth lines!) When you looked at the tunnel more than at him, he looked up at you to double check the info, then he would turn back to the tunnel (:07, :31, and 1:20 for example). So keep up with the strong connection and it will be very smooth and fast.As you add more speed to this (like the race tracks before the tunnel threadle) – have the toy tucked away so you can use your arms freely 🙂 I know, I am a pain LOL!!!! But you will feel the difference in how much easier it is to run and connect 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
He did really well with the collections here, and the GO lines looked great too!
You can time your deceleration to begin sooner. Remember that the decel can start as he is passing the first cone (regardless of where you are) – it looks like you were starting it when you were arriving at the 2nd cone, more than based on his position.Looking at the timing: At :17 and :41, you were at the 2nd cone and he was approx halfway between the 2 cones, so he got a nice collection there! Compare those to the reps at :23 and :47 – you decelerated when you reached the 2nd cone but he was also at/passsing the 2nd cone, so his turn was wider. It was a low height bar so he was still able to turn, but it was more after landing. So you can start the decel when he passes cone 1 and ee if he can both commit and turn before takeoff.
Like with the diamond game, this is a game where the toy will be easier in your hand – having it in your armpit is restricting your dog side shoulder and inhibits connection, because you can’t look back to him without dropping the toy. And seeing him better will help you be able to decelerate sooner!
Nice work!
TracyHi!
Get out is looking good! He is responding super nicely to the use of the outside arm! You can amplify the connection as you start the outside arm cue to get an earlier response – as soon as he exits the start wing, you can look at him *very* directly while you do the rest of the cue (the arm and motion like you did here). And he was SUPER about *not* taking the jump when you ran past it. YAY!!! You can definitely move to the advanced level now, where you add the cross after the get out cue 🙂
Nice work!
TracyThis is also going well! He figured out how to stay on the other sided of the tunnel really well 🙂 Adding extra jumps tended to get too much extension to find the turn to the tunnel easily, so keeping it to one jump behind the tunnel will help challenge him to both find the jump and also make it easier to time the turn cues to the tunnel (before he takes off for the jump – probably when he is about 10 feet away from it). He did have a little question about the threadles at the end, probably because they were out of context. It will be easier for him to read those when he is coming on from the front side of the tunnel 🙂
Nice work!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The Diamond games are looking really strong, the work you’ve put in really shows!
The best part of it was that you had really great connection on all the sessions here – great connection on the simpler lines as well as on the exit of the crosses. It was clear and he had no questions, especially on those tight blinds! Great job keeping your arms low and back to really let him see the connection.
His commitment is looking really strong – you can start the blinds sooner 🙂 The best timing here was at :31, when he was maybe halfway between 2 wings and you started the blind. Perfect!!! The others had you starting when he was closer to the wing (like at 1:46), which delays the exit info a little and he looks up at you, waiting for more info.
During the 2nd session (indoors): Yes, you had different barrel #2 but you were still getting it done! I am sure it felt weird but nice clear connection still got him knowing which barrel you were moving towards.
One suggestion is to carry the toy in your pocket or hand so it is easier to run with both arms. Having it in your arm pit is restricting your running because that side of your body has to hold pretty tight to hold the toy.
The race tracks at the end looked great! The toy was in your hand, he had no trouble with it. Super!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Good job having the arms and connection in place before the release, they were distinctly separate here and that helps the stay behavior a whole lot! Yay!He did well with this, especially on the reps where you were not moving as much.
>>We weren’t very successful with the serp line if he couldn’t see me through the uprights.>>
The serp position between the uprights is important, so it makes sense that he needed to see you there. I think he as having trouble with the lower body motion overriding the upper body arm cues for the serps/threadles. The lower body is a lot more visible because he is small 🙂
Your timing of the upper body cues got earlier and clearer as the session went along – you were a little late at :16 and :44, for example, with opening your arm back for the serp. But then at 1:03, 1:19 and beyond you got earlier and earlier which helped!Things went better when you were not moving as much, so something that helps small dogs see the serp and threadle cue better as you add motion is if you dip your shoulder down towards him – that movement plus the serp or threadle arm makes the cues more visible, which should help the upper body override the motion of the lower body.
That is probably all he needs – the added dip of the shoulder – for you to add more and more motion 🙂
Keep me posted on the tunnel threadle! If he was having trouble reading it, the question might be similar to what he was asking here – upper body not as visible as lower body. So you can try dipping your shoulder down to him and see if that helps.
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
>>He flew through the tunnel, then when I tried jump and tunnel he was blind to the jump 😅 More tugging it is!>>
Ha! Yes – the joys of that tunnel-vision in arousal. Sometimes it works in our favor, sometimes not so much LOL!!! But it is easy to rehearse and he will figure it out for sure.
>>One thing about our class is that it’s in a small training facility. He will never be able to jump full height there for one. And we rarely sees distances of more than 6ft between obstacles. >>
The tiny distances can be used as jump grid opportunities, like the little pinwheel he did – the close jumps and low heights make it more of a jumping exercise than a handling exercise and that is still very valuable! For handling, say you have 3 jumps in a row at 6 feet apart… maybe ask the instructor to pull out the middle jump, so you only have 2 jumps but t it will be more like 12 feet.
>>Plenty of distractions working around other dogs though, so that’s where I see a lot of value (video from tonight)>>
I agree – this is incredibly valuable and he looked great in the video! And the tunnel games are great too, because tall dogs don’t always love ducking down into tunnels.
>>Also, he did fill in these past few weeks! I like to think fitness is also contributing to the changes.>>
Yes! It is impressive how quickly the dogs can get fitter and it makes such a big difference 🙂
>>While I figure out where I can train with him at a bigger venue (and when it makes sense to start that, and who the right people to do that with are).>>
I will poke around in your area and see who is close enough to train with, that will also be a good fit with your style of training 🙂 Stay tuned for more info!
