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Hi! The sequences are going well!
The timing on the blinds was good! I bet he doesn’t need you to be as close to 2 at :03 – you can be more lateral and send away to 3, which will show him. The line 3-4-5 earlier and get a tighter line.
You were a little disconnected and turning away as he exited the tunnel at :09 so he missed the jump. Much clearer there at :24 – be sure to show him big connection and keep moving forward as he exits a tunnel.
Sequence 4: Nice blind 4 to the tunnel there!
You can also try it on the takeoff side of 4 🙂A little disconnected at :51 so he went past the jump after the tunnel (same question as the previous sequence).
Sequence 5: Great connection to set the line before the tunnel as you got further and further away! You can get as far away from that line as possible, so you can do a front cross before he enters the tunnel which should tighten up the turn on the exit.
You are actually getting too much collection on 6 (jump after the tunnel and it is almost pulling him off the 7 jump. You can decel less and go directly to 7 to get a smoother line there.
The ending line looked great!
The volume dial tricks are going well. The more active tricks you did at the beginning with the toy are probably going to be the winners, in terms of getting him into ‘ready to work’ mode. The backing up and bows were more cerebral, so I think they are great for his warm up then you can switch to the more active easy tricks for the pre-run ritual.
>Also was able to switch between food and toy a bit, which he hasn’t been able to do recently. >
This is great! Being able to do this will help him be able to tackle any environment, even with big challenges.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi! Hope you had a good weekend!
He read the opening really well both ways you tried it. The faster line was in video 2, where you wrapped 3 (can also be done as a blind to a threadle wrap), slice 4 towards the teeter, slice 5 towards the poles – that was lovely and smooth!
Nice layering while he weaved! And good reminders ad rewards on the teeter 🙂 He found the 10 tunnel really well!
On the 10-13 line: It was fun to see him get it with you on the other side of the dog walk in video 2! The better line was set when you ran in, though.
Turning him right on 13 as a rear cross (2nd video), instead of wrapping him towards you (first video) went great! And it was faster than wrapping him towards you It is indeed a bit of a severe slice, but it set a fast line and got you ahead easily for 16. He almost got it with you on the other side of the dog walk – I think a little more convergence towards it will get it (then you won’t need to converge as much as he learns it).
He found the 17 weave entry beautifully! Wow! And excellent job staying in the poles while you turned and ran away towards the dog walk. Super!!
Great job here 🙂 Tracy
Hi! Hope you had a great weekend!
>fixing them up I discovered my camera turned itself off and I had nothing>
Oh no! I hate when that happens!
>Might just use my iPhone. Seems like that’s what everyone does now anyways.>
The iPhone cameras are impressive! They are turning out to be very reliable.
The walk through looked good – she moves a bit faster than the walk through pace, so you can try to move even faster but your connection was super clear and so were the handling choices.
The opening looked great! Like with the walk through, your connection was great 🙂 Lovely blind after the backside!
She pushed away from the backside at :20 and I think that was mainly her inexperience with backside jumps. You were pressuring towards it correctly, but because she is inexperienced with backsides, she read the pressure as a turn-away cue. Having to fix that made you a little late showing the line to the next jump, so she cut across and found the tunnel.
The 2nd run looked fabulous!!! Wow! Gorgeous connection throughout, your motion was super clear. Nice blind on the backside here too. And she pushed really well to the next backside, no questions which allowed you to easily get across the jump and show her the line to the next jump. Super! And the ending line looked great too!
Well done here!
Tracy
Hi! Hope you had a great weekend!
1-5 looked great! Fast and flowing!
>I think it would be wise to start heading towards the dog walk while they are weaving, but Rexx doesn’t really like me being too far away so I baby him a bit!>
I agree! The blind cross got the exit of the weaves to 6 nicely – ideally, you can be further ahead and start the cross before he exits the weaves so you are fully turned before he makes a decision on the next line. You can add little bits of distance and then throw a reward back to him at the weave exit to help build his love for weaving while you move away.
>Dropped 9 (late blind and poor connection?) >
The dropped bar at :31 was due to a late blind (it started as he was taking off). Much better timing at :45 and 1:01!
I think the tunnel-tunnel with the layering was more of a teaching moment for him, rather than a handling moment. He probably has not seen a lot of that challenge.
You can move in closer to the 10 tunnel entry so when he exits it, you are supporting the line to the 11 tunnel with continued motion, more like what you did at 1:05. I think having your arm lower and more connection to him will support the line with distance so you can get past the dog walk easily.
But mainly, teaching it to him by breaking it down and getting the reward to the tunnel entry really helped!!
The 12-18 section looked lovely 😊
>we need to work on distance skills to get 19 and 20.>
To teach him the idistance to find 19, you can move the 19 jump in closer to the natural line he would take when he exits the tunnel. Then you can reward it to build value. And then inch it back out on each rep to build up more distance as you continue to reward it.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! He did well in both videos. I think the difference you are seeing is all about the context and environmental challenges.
First video: He did really well with the tricks and tugging! You can give him a hand cue for the twist – sometimes in harder environments the verbal cue is not strong enough yet, so verbal plus hand cue can really help.
My only suggestion is to attach the toy to something longer (like another toy) so he can tug with head head lower, which will get stronger tugging 🙂
2nd video: He did well here too in a much, much harder context 🙂 The leash was on him plus conformation show nearby: cars, dogs, people running by, car alarm going off at one point. But he was able to respond to tricks and play with the toy.
In the higher arousal state, he was letting go o the toy when you touched him – that is good to know! Some dogs like to have their ribs tapped during play in certain situations but not when the arousal is really high.>Skizzle was distracted. I had to work hard for his attention and play. He wasn’t able to engage as much as I would need for a performance. LMK if you have tips beyond more practice.>
To get more engagement, you can try different toys and different play styles: longer furry toys, maybe? And whisking them away from him for him to chase, like a lure 🙂 You can make a really long crazy toy and have hi chase it and see if that helps. Smaller toys with you close might not be as exciting.
And, you can try insanely high value food – stuff he doesn’t normally get. It can be meatballs or chicken, anything he finds very exciting and very novel. My dogs love string cheese but they get it all the time, so I would use something different in this environment because novelty is very interesting!And if he struggles, you can start further away from the environment – at the outer edge of the parking lot, for example. Then over the course of multiple sessions, you can get him closer.
One more suggestion: you can start introducing the environment with pattern games. That can shift his brain into the focus mode and will make the volume dial game much easier.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
That’s a big week! What is the story with the sore hip? Usually youngsters are made of rubber so we definitely want to keep an eye on what is going on in life or training that might cause it (and hold off on the physical elements of training until there is zero soreness).
>decided food is good. Toys are dumb.>
That might just be context and state: if the toys are in a context that is not normally a toy-play situation, he might turn them down. And the food might be putting him into rest-and-digest mode which will also dampen toy play. It is pretty normal at this point for the balance to shift back and forth like this, so I will take the food drive at this point because we know the toy love is there 🙂
His patterns are looking good – The next steps will be to start doing them when he is not as tired, and ideally when he is still standing. If he did the after 30 minutes of one/etc, you can try it after 20 minutes, after 10 minutes, after 1 minute… then before it all. That is so you are working in the state and context when we need th pattern games rather than when he is already tired 🙂 To keep him standing, you can spread your feet out more and put the treat on the outside of each foot for him to get.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>An unusual bar down for him on the wrap back to the tunnel. Was I too dramatic for him?>
The bar at :07 was a bit of late info for the amount of turn. It is basically a wrap, but the timing and position made it look more like a soft right turn. So he collected but then tried to adjust more and pulled the bar doing so.
Handling it from the other side at :29 showed the position better! Trust his commitment and don’t move forward, though – that sent him wide there
Threadle to FC at :12 looked great!
>I’m not sure I had those top 2 jumps set right – that was a pretty hard call for the threadle slice.>
It was set as more of an American threadle LOL! But still good to work on! Turning left there was the faster line – you can tighten that line to the threadle by tightening the left turn wrap with sooner decel (as soon as he exits the previous jump) but and being a bit more lateral.
Turning to the right over 6 at :39 was a lot of extra yardage and didn’t make a lot of sense to him (he think he was supposed to take the next jump).
He really liked the layering at 1:26-1:28! Super speedy!
>Late cueing the 2nd tunnel so he went a bit wide,>
Yes, you can decel and FC sooner at 1:29 – as he lands from the first layering jump you can be decelerating as you cue the 2nd layering jump, to set up the turn to the tunnel.
>kinda felt like I’d given myself a chiro adjustment doing it but he liked it and it did make the threadle slice easier.>
Ha! Threadles and Chiro all at once LOL!
He didn’t hit the bar on 2 but he definitely thought it was a soft right instead of basically wrapping back to the tunnel, so you can hang back more at the tunnel entry and send him past you to 2.
The threadle slice to the BC at :17 looked even better than the threadle to FC! And I loved the double blinds as a threadle replacement! He loved it and it was fast!
>I was so pleased with his threadle wrap I didn’t support the jump after it >
He was great with the threadle wraps here!
The earlier name call on the tunnel entry before the threadle wrap at :57 really helped! You were a little late at 1:20 so he was locked onto the straight line exit at 1:20, which made it harder to get the threadle wrap.
The rest of pop out 6 looked great!Lift ran pop out 4 really well! Being less experienced, she was wider over 2 based on you pushing forward rather than hanging back at the #3 tunnel.
To be able to layer it, remember to keep your arm low and show her the connection. She did a threadle wrap at :42 because of the high arm and connection looking forward to 2 which pulled her off the line and to the threadle side. You had a bit less layering at 1:01 and 1:37 but also less forward motion so she turned nicely there.
4-5-6 looked good! On the first run! Turning to her right on 6 took the threadle slice out of the picture, so by the time she saw the cue it was a bit too late to get it at :21.
On the 2nd run, she had a question about going to 4 because you were pointing forward to the jump instead of connecting to her (with you arm pointing back to her) at 1:04 when she exited the tunnel. The threadle slice to FC looked great there! You got closer to it at 1:40 but I think you can use distance with her as long as you stay connected.
Pop out 5: She was really flying here! The opening looked good – she was a good girl to stay on the parallel line to the backside on the first run! Getting her on your left after 2 on the 2nd run then turning her to the right worked, but I think turning her left on 3 will be a faster line.
Handling from the landing side of 6 didn’t get you far enough across the line so she had a bark when you were in her way at :14 & :45 & 1:09. I think getting the threadle slice to the cross on takeoff side is the best bet for her there.
>Less happy with how I was incapable of connecting with her out of the tunnel at the end twice!>
Yes! Make it a habit to connect back to her on all tunnel exits 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I decided to add the walk out challenge to this week. >
It is great to add the walk throughs to every week 🙂
Watson and Levy run pretty differently and at a difference pace, so you will want to do different walk throughs for them. One general walk through won’t necessarily rehearse the needs for each individual dog.
The planning stages of the walk through looked good – the plan was clear! Super!
You can add more to the connection for sure, throughout the walk through – there was not a lot of connection. You were generally looking ahead of where the dog would be (and towards the next obstacle) which is where bloopers can happen.
And handling more with the dog’s pace will help a lot too: The walk through was walked, but you will want to do at least one full walk through where you run, to try to match your rehearsal speed to what the speed of the run will be. That will test the connection and also it will help tell you if your plan will work at high speed (like on 6, where you walked moving into a FC but ran it differently).
With Watson: He ran this really well! A couple of ideas for you:
Sending him to tunnel 5 more will get you to the takeoff side of 6 sooner
Nice RC on 7!Call him before he goes into the 8 tunnel and you don’t have to get all the way to the wing of 9 – accelerating that much sent him long to of 8 (same on the second run at 6 and 8, you don’t need to block the wig of the backside)
You can get the backside of the last jump (:21) with more connection and not trying to out run him to get there – you were looking forward and pointing forward which pointed your shoulders to the front of the jump. This is definitely a spot in the walk through where practicing the connection will help in the run.
You got there sooner on the 2nd run by moving faster at :45 but you will still want to ramp up the connection for when you can’t always get to a spot and need to support it from a distance.
Levy’s run: He did well too!
Starting next to him and sending to 2 without moving put you behind on the first run but you got it! Yay! It was smoother at :42 where you kept moving the whole time.
You can decel into the RC on 7 to set the line and let him see your hands to help turn him away.
Like with Watson, for the exit of 8 to get a tighter line you can call him before he enters the tunnel, and aim for the a position on the center of the bar so you do’t push him wide past the wing of 9.
He had a buckjump here where you pushed into the line a bit so he read it as a rear cross, then lost connection on send to the tunnel at :36 – this is where the big connection will help a ton rather than trying to race him to the last jump 🙂
Th 2nd full run went well too! You were starting to get disconnected and pointing more towards the end of the first time through which was causing you to have to delay running to the line to the last jump (backside). He responds really well to connection, so make that your tip top priority – you don’t need arms much at all to show the lines, but the connection is very important.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi! This went really well also!
>I noticed I combined step two and three. Oops!>
When things are feeling very comfy with the walk through, you will see that you will combine steps and in harder sequences, do a step or two a few times 🙂
>I feel my arms were lower though!>
Yes! The lower arms kept the connected very visible, and you also had really clear connection in the walk through on the exit of the crosses. That all carried through into the run really well.
>I should’ve had connection coming out of tunnel 8, but failed to do it in the walk-throughs and on the run!>
This was the only spot where the connection needed to be a little clearer and on the run, he slowed down a little there. And when you ran the middle section again, you were not as connected on the exit of the tunnel so he looked at you at 2:18 to see what you wanted. I try to connect on the exit of every tunnel as a general rule 🙂
>9-10 was sloppy, so I ran that part again with better results. >
A little decel would have set that up better on the first run (decel into threadle wraps is an important element of the cue). You did the decel on the 2nd run and it was lovely!
>I probably could have also been closer to 12 as he was going over 11.>
I thought he had a smooth, fast line with no questions both times there, no improvements needed 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! I agree, he had a fantastic happy attitude here 🙂
>This resonates with me. I feel like I need to be a bit curious and explore his arousal response more than I tend to.>
I love the way you phrased this: be curious and explore. Exactly!!!!!
The first run went great! Lovely connection through the blind so he knew exactly where to be. Yay! After 5, as you move back to the tunnel, resist temptation to look ahead as that could accidentally draw him off the line 🙂
On the 2nd video:
I loved the slick behind-the-back toy reward for the stay at the beginning!!He read the 1-2-3 line nicely – he ha a little question on the first run at :25 because you were converging forward and hadn’t put the serp arm up yet. You can lead out a little further to be between the uprights of jump 2, so he sees the position and serp arm at 2 as he lands from 1. This is move of what you did at 1:04 and it was smooth and fast!
Moving into the FC on run 2 worked well! You can be a little further over to 3 so he can follow your line to 3 even sooner.
The line 3-4-tunnel was hard! This is similar to the spot on the first course where you wanted to be more connected after 5. There was a little disconnect at :28 so he thought you wanted a blind cross. You can really good connection at :48 but then you got a little caught behind the jump which pulled him off. You had the connection as he exited 3 at 1:07 but then looked forward & reached for the toy, so I think the combination of those pulled him off the jump. He is very sensitive to little disconnections so you can work on staying connected but also playing a bit of lazy game there: as he comes around 3, be kinda connected and walk towards 4 and throw a reward when he finds the jump 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
This was a hard one with the layering! I think she will be able to get it without the toy placed with a little strategic line setting 🙂 Getting closer to 3 followed by accelerating on a parallel line until she takes 4, then turning to the tunnel.That parallel line was what you did when the toy was out there, like at 2:40. On the reps where the toy was not out there, the parallel line was also not as clear and you were turning to the tunnel a bit sooner (like at 2:23). So exaggerating that parallel path and even converging towards it will help.
She had a couple of stay questions, and I think that was about whether the arm was part of the release or not. On some reps, you were every clear that the ar was not part of the release. But on others, you released while also bringing your arm up. So be super careful to bring your arm up, praise, then release.
Here only other question was 1-2, here she picked up the backside a few times. You can set her facing 1 more (and on less of a slice) so she lands wider and doesn’t see the line to the backside there. And keeping your dog side arm back in a threadle position totally helped (it is basically a threadle from her perspective).
The end of the run on the 2nd video looked really good! You can get a tighter turn on the tunnel exit by calling sooner and letting her see you rotate into the FC. Her head was just about I the tunnel when you did it on the video, so I don’t think she really saw it. You can do the verbal and rotation when she is still 2 meters away from entering the tunnel, so she sees and hears everything well before she goes in.
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
>Redid the Jpg #1 with the spin for the closing and it did tighten up the line. I don’t usually think about spins for him but it did make it clear not to drift to the back of 9.>
Yes, the spin works really well for him on the first run! I don’t use a lot of spins either, but the best place to use them is if the rotation turns out feet to the next line sooner than a post turn would (like this situation).
He also liked the scrambling blind cross on the start of pop out 2. It is a little extra work for the human 🙂 but it builds up speed. Starting him with wrap to the left was faster than starting him with the wrap to the right on jump 1.
>Tried the spin for her too at the end of popout 1 and that worked nicely to tighten up her line (after she considered going up the deck steps and then decided not to)>
The deck question was not so much about the deck, and more about the pressure into the line – a bit of over-helping by running to it too much, which resulted in blocking the backside wing. Then as you tried to rotate, your motion was pushing into her (watching your left then right leg step towards the deck at :09)
There was almost too much pressure to the backside at 1:29 as well, but you didn’t step into her so she continued to the backside. On the last rep there at the backside, you were definitely letting her see the wing and she had no questions about veering off towards the deck.
Skipping ahead to when you revisited it on the last video, you definitely let her see the wing more and didn’t pressure into the backside – she had no questions about the backside. Yay! She missed a jump on the way to it but that was more about the starting position setting a wider line and you were disconnected, thinking about the backside.
Gong back to the first video: She had a question at :17 about which way to turn – if you add a little decel, you will have be able to sow the line sooner which will get the left turn. I think lack of decel causes you to step back into her line there accidentally and got the right turn
She s finding the switch after the weaves really well! Yay! All of her weave work is looking really good here, nice jump breaking it down so she can learn all of these challenges.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning! This walk through & run went really well too – it is a much more complex sequence and you handled it really well!
>Critical connection at 3-4-5, exit of tunnel 6, 9-10-11 and 14 tunnel exit.>
Totally agree! Along with landing of 8 to get him to 9, and then the ending line which looks easy but is only easy if we stay connected.
The walk through process looked good here – remember that on the more complex sequences, you can do the fast walk through more than once. When I repeat the fast walk through, I ask myself: Where is my invisible dog? Did I see my invisible dog there? That way I catch myself from making any accidental disconnection.
I think your fast walk through matched the run really well, and overall the run went really well too 🙂 There is only one spot that stood out in the walk through as a place to connect more: on the exit of the FC at 10. You did the FC then looked ahead to 11, without connected to the invisible dog.
That is what happened in the run at 3:04 – you only connected for a heartbeat and when he exit the wrap at 10, he only saw your back so he drifted wide to figure out what the next line was. Holding the connection back to him will help him see the new line pretty immediately, which will tighten it right up.
>Did this same day as sequence 1 and my walk through arms were again higher than the run. It seems to be part of my thought process and the run seems to turn out ok. Right or wrong? If I were to answer this myself, I would say wrong because my final run through should mirror my run!>
Excellent observations, and I agree with you – rehearsing low arms will keep them from floating up 🙂 Rehearsing with higher arms means you will get higher arms during the run too 🙂 so definitely try to keep your arms down in the walk throughs. One way to do that is to do the walk through with an open bottle of water in your hands 🙂 That way if you are lifting your arms up and down, the water will splash and you will get a nice cool reminder to keep your arms down 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>And I want you to know he never leaves me at home training, not even when his buddies behind him are barking and trying to get him to fence chase. Also even when Glenn has StrykR on leash waiting. Its only at class that he goes to visit.>
This is great! The difference between home and class is likely related to the environment being a lot harder/more stressful, and the novelty of the other dogs. The goal is to make doing agility in the class setting as reinforcing as it is at home so he can tune out the challenges and stressors.
The sequences ran well, overall!
He had a little trouble getting jump 1 at :31 & 1:01 & 1:48 when you stepped to it then turned away a little too early based on his current level of experience. Compare to 2:39, where you faced it until he was gathering for liftoff and he got it easily. So for now, remain facing jump 1 until you see him almost taking off for it, then move away to the next line.
For the RC info like at :40, you can be moving up the line to the center of the bar the whole time to cue the left turn to the tunnel. You were straightening up on the line which is what cued the right turn (no need to straighten up on the line at all for a RC).
For walking agility as you protect your hamstring and reward him for finding lines, you can break things down to get ahead of the tunnel exit: for example, reward the RC then lead out again, send him over 5, then you are further up the line for the tunnel exit without working harder to smooth out the line to the jump. Giving him his run jump verbals before he enters the tunnel will help too.
You can do the same approach of breaking things down with the FC 3-4 (and BC there too) – give yourself a lead out so you can be finished with it before he takes off for 3, to show the line to 4.
He is paying really close attention to the handling cues – yay! For example, you got a little deep at 2:44 and past the 4 jump which pulled him into a backside on 5 – your line accidentally set the threadle line and he read it really well. Good boy!
Great job working the send to 3 then going for the blind at 3:30! He went around 4 there due to your line of motion going parallel to the bar and the connection not visible yet. Keep working on sending from further and further away so you can be back by jump 2 for the send, then head directly to 5 to show the line for the blind cross. That will require some distance skills but I think he will be happy to do it 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
The pattern games went well outside the ring! It was a challenging environment especially when the other dog was running nearby but he was able to stay engaged! I think having him stay in motion for the back and forth patten game was more helpful in that moment then the up and down was. And he did great with his tricks at the end!
So the next question is: if you played the pattern games and volume dial before the run, how did the run go? That really helps us see which games are useful (or not useful).You can post the workshop stuff if you like (editing out the instruction) but it sounds like he did great so you don’t need to post it unless there is an unanswered question or something.
Great job!
Tracy
