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Hi! This went really well!
One suggestion to get even more commitment as you move past the backside wrap: shift your connection from her cute face to the landing spot. You can be connected to her lime you were all the way through until she is rounding the backside and turning her head to takeoff… At that point, you can be looking at and pointing at the landing spot (as you move past the jump). And if you are getting past the jump wing before she gets there, you can look at the landing spot a little sooner.
This will be especially useful when she is working on her more challenging side. At :16, she did’t take the jump (you were looking at her) but compare to :48 where you looked at the landing and she took it beautifully. Yay! That exaggerated shift in connection won’t always be needed but it is really helpful in the learning process.Great job! You can put this into the game that shows her the difference between the rear crosses and the backside wraps and the Go lines 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
He has really good line commitment, which both helped you and hindered you here LOL! The line you were setting as he came around the wing was directly to the backside, so he was correct to run to the backside line unless otherwise turned.To help set up the line you want, a small tweak to the opening:
Do a Front cross on the wing to start this, so he exits the wing looking straight at the bar and to get a good line to the jump: in this setup – start with him on your rift send to the inside of the wing (the edge between the jump and the wing) then FC to your left sos set up the straight line to the wing. (And the mirror image on the opposite side).Doing a post turn made it harder for him to find the jump in the straight line and on the rear crosses – the parallel line took him to the backside (correctly) so he needed to be pulled in then turned, which made the turn cues late.
He was reading the lines and the RCs, and the reward placement definitely helped! So I think the change in the starting line will really help.
The middle video is marked as unavailable, so it is probably listed as private.
On the second Wind In Your Hair Video, the wing was closer and moved over to a clearer line to the bar, but you can see how he still has to come in to find it on most reps rather than just go straight to it. So the FC start on the wing will work nicely here too!
He did well with the thrown reward here! Ve sure to have it already in your hand – he gets distracted when you reach for the pocket as he is looking for the jump (he looks at you because his loves his cookies LOL!)
Nice work here!!!
Tracy
Hi!
The first five of these are probably listed as private – I am getting a 404 error on those. The last one looked good! On the serp, remember to open u your upper body to “face” the jump and keep moving, so he learns to come in over the bar even as you are still in motion.let me know when the others are reset to unlisted.
Nice work!
TracyGood morning! This went well!!
Connection and verbals all looked really good and yes, going in to the tunnel more so you can accelerate more helped her really drive around that racetrack. She is starting to really get some good distance, too!
She was definitely faster on the first couple of reps of the tight turning at the beginning and the first rep on the other side when you changed sides. Yay! I think she only likes one or two reps of the tight turning stuff in a row, so to keep the speed up you will want to mix in a race track or two before doing more of the tight stuff.One more suggestion: more tunnel bags needed 🙂 She is moving fast through the tunnel and the tunnel is moving a lot under her, so you will want to use more bags to stabilize it so she doesn’t slip.
Great job!
TracyYes – she had the repair done at Skylos is December of 2020 and they had to go back in early February to remove the wire. They felt she had enough luxation that it needed to be fixed and I am glad I did it.
Hi!
Find the jump is looking great! She was really driving for the jump!
>>I pulled off just too early on the two of the tunnels. >>
Try to just keep moving and re-send her, rather than stop or use and uh-oh marker. She was following the body cues and you were a bit too early trying to leave the tunnel, so we don’t want to confuse her by telling her she is wrong. Staying in motion will keep her going and you can add another step or two towards the tunnel.
Throwing the toy on the line was perfect to help get even more focusing forward to the jump! The timing of the throw started early then got a bit later at the end, and was great!
She had a lot of speed on the smiley face game as well 🙂 I think it was cooler too, you are wearing long sleeves and pants, that cooler weather totally helps!
She definitely likes your marker sounds: “Yay!” And “get it!” Both of those really pump her up 🙂 And staying in motion while you rewarded – perfect 🙂 The handing of the wraps looked really good and the connection was particularly good. It was very high energy and she loved it… which is why you were both out of breath by the end LOL!
You can carry this energy over to the Diamond and the other games coming this week!About the doing handling with the toy in your hand – 3 suggestions the came to mind as I was thinking about her today:
1 – have a 2nd toy like you had later in the video and call her back to it after throwing the first one (she came right back when you were holding the second one!
2 – >>It’s very, very hard for her to ignore the toy and ignoring the mama if she is going another direction>>
For the handling games – we don’t really need precision rewards, so you can tuck the toy into a pocket so it is not distracting to her especially as she learns new things. Then you can pull it out to reward the rep when she finishes- that can help her look for the wings more.
3 – When it is hot, or very distracting outside for whatever reason, you can do entire sessions with just high value food. That can give you lots of tick reps, without the toy distraction and without running around with the toy getting her all hot and tired. She has plenty of toy drive, so we don’t have to worry about losing it if we sometimes just use food instead 🙂
Great job! See you in class tomorrow!!
TracyThat is a relief! I am glad she is feeling better. But keep her in bubble wrap for another day or two!
No worries! At first I thought it was different reps and I as amazing at how identical they were LOL!
Hi!
>> If I toss a toy towards the barrel, should I aim for the start of the turn in the beginning?
Yes, you can toss a turn to the beginning of the turn so it lands near the barrel. You can also plant the Manners Minder out on the other side of the barrel for her to drive to.
>>I’ll go back to those exercises from the last session, appreciate you sending those links. Looks like I missed some important stuff. I blame Christmas. 🙂>>
Things got busy in December!!
>>If I leave her on a sit stay, and she downs, should I just accept the fact that she’d rather have a start line down and work with that instead?>>
I like to have a start line stay where the dog is comfy and I am not worried about if they move or vulture. So… I often let my dogs choose their position. For 2 of them, I literally say ‘stay’ and walk away LOL!!! As long as they don’t move their feet, I am happy! And it sounds like she is more comfortable in a down, which is normal for BCs 🙂 and also great because if she is comfy, she will be less aroused and less likely to break the stay.
>> I’ve been re-setting her in a sit, but then she does that vulture thing, and she seems happier in a down…. >>
As a good Border Collie, the down is pretty automatic for her. And she might not even realize that she is in a down or that she is doing the vulture thing, it is all almost a reflex for her. So rather than spend time resetting or trying to get her head up, you can ask her to do the down 🙂 Just start her a little further away so she has room to stand up when you release her.
>>I would just like her to look a little happer.
She is a Border Collie with a strong drive to work work work… my guess is that she is going to look like world peace depends on the release from the start line LOL!!!! As long as you are not fighting with her and she is not stressed, she can have a really intense look and it is all good. BCs are, um, different LOL!!!!!
>> 🙂 I’m used to looking back at the start line at my beautiful Terv….connecting and releasing. Georgie’s beautiful, too, of course, but not so much when she’s crouchy. But sure, sure, it’s not all about looks>>
Tervs are naturally more upright and less stalky. So you can go with Georgie’s natural BorderCollie-ness and it will all be great!
T
With my Hot Sauce, the psoas issue turned out to be compensatory. And o course her core is not that strong, she is only a year old! Definitely see if you can get an exam with her on her side.
2 important things the PT vet had me do were
posture, for core and back strength:
and mountain climbers, specifically for her quads because quads can be a bit “puny” in terriers:
The mountain climbers are the slow, deliberate back foot step.
T
Hi! Nice session here!!!
Yes, adding the placed toy to help her see jump 2 really helped! She still had a little question when she was on your right. She was smoother to it when she was on your left! You can also move the 2 jumps closer (while the bars are still low) so that the second jump is more visible. Plus, you can leave the wing wrap sooner so you are a little further ahead to show the Go line. Start that with the placed toy, and then you can fade it by having it in your hand but throwing it as she is landing from jump 1.
One detail: Make sure you don’t decelerate until after she gets to the toy, otherwise she will learn to ignore your decel 🙂 This will make more sense when you see this week’s games 🙂
Great job!
Tracy(and now all of the vets who examined her and ruled out the luxating patella have changed their procedures and examine the dogs on their sides, not standing)
Ah! I am glad you mentioned the luxating patella – I can share what I learned about it from my MixyMix who is similar to Snap 🙂
I had her examined a whole bunch of times by vets including by a Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon. The normal OFA exam for patellas has the dog standing up. But these powerful terriers have big muscles so the patella won’t luxate when they are standing. But my girlie had some weird soreness and was even diagnosed with a psoas injury at one point (which was shocking because she was really young and hadn’t really done much). So my vet re-did the exam with Hot Sauce laying on her side, not standing: Boom! Luxating patella. We fixed it and all is great!
Now, I hope it is nothing but if it is a patella thing – ask them to get her to lie on her side, head down so her big terrier muscles don’t hold the patella. Then you will get a true picture of what is happening. And if it *is* a patella, I have a wealth of info to help (lots of specific conditioning stuff for it and other stuff) and I am happy to share.
T
Hi!
I read your post before watching the video, so I thought I was going to be seeing a lot of errors… Nope! It was a really good session on a hard skill!!!! I think the video had some of the reps repeated in the 2nd part of it (:14 – :46 were the same as 1:09 – end) so let me know if anything was missing from the video.
>>I’m still getting some jumping up at the beginning, but am trying the connection/eye contact, and less arm, though it doesn’t always help.
It is definitely improved!!!! I see a big difference. To help her want to move away to the barrel or start wing, you can mix in throwing a treat or toy to the barrel as she goes to it, to help refresh the value of going to the barrel especially now that she knows the action is going to be at the jump 🙂
>>I’m fairly sure that I was often using too much arm, trying to support her for the send, and you’re right, I don’t think it really works that way.
I think for most of the reps, you were really good – low arm, lots of connection, and your hand was following her nose rather than pointing ahead of her. There was only one connection blooper (:49) where you turned your shoulders to the jump too soon and broke connection – but then you adjusted perfectly on the next reps.
>>I’m also trying to bring down my verbal cues a bit. Again, easy to get louder and louder, and saying the cue louder is definitely not helpful.>>
Yes – louder generally pushes the dogs away and makes them go faster (think about GO TUNNEL GO TUNNEL and how fast the dogs will take off on a line LOL!) so quieter verbals definitely help bring the dogs in to us. You were good here!
>>I also think I was rotating my shoulders too soon, that is shockingly difficult to fix, but I’m trying to stay facing the wall.>>
I agree that this is a hard skill – but you were good! Don’t obsess on it too much, because you have it and she was able to respond beautifully 🙂
>>I did decide to shift to a barrel, and that seemed to help some. I’m going to continue working on sends separately, with a toy as reward and see if we can smooth things out.>>
Perfect! Do the send to the barrel or a wing as if you are going to move away to the serp… but don’t have the jump out there as a visual distraction for now. She did really really well coming in over the jump AND making the turns – super!!!!
>>But time to move on. This was a frustrating exercise, I should have moved on sooner.>>
I think you persevered nicely and this session turned out well!!! And yes, you can move on to something else too 🙂
Question, I must have missed the exercise on introducing backsides, and can’t seem to find it, maybe it was in the first session?
Yes, they were in MaxPup 1:
Slices:
Wraps:
Tight Turns: Leading With The Head and 360s (Backside Wraps)
>>Would move on to tunnels, but clean run is completely out of tunnel bags, it appears there is a tunnel bag shortage. I’d prefer not to continue without more tunnel bags, I’ll keep looking.>>
You can use some homemade tunnel bags – I have gotten some bags of sand from Lowes, put them in giant black garbage bags (like the leaf collection bags), and use those as tunnel bags by using a strap across the top of the tunnel to tie them together so they in place. I have also done this with water jugs and bags of small stones from garden stores 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
