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Hello and welcome!
>>I live in MD and we are supposed to get some not so great weather this weekend so if you have suggestions on how to do the exercises in a basement that can only fit 1 jump, I’m all ears!>>
The terrible weather is currently at my house in central VA, so Internet was out most of the day. It is back (for now) so I am looking forward to seeing you and Knight! What type of mix is Knight and where is he from? Let me know all the details so I can gosee if & how he is related to my sport mixes LOL!!
This session looked terrific!!! Did you feel like you could totally see him at every step? I know he is wicked fast but you looked SUPER connected. And, he did not look at you at all until after he got the last jump (before the throw) because there is nothing else to look at, at that point LOL!
The reason I asked if you felt you could really see him is that being able to really see him will immediately improve your timing 🙂 And the exit line connection games do have an element of timing involved!
The only thing I would add is starting right up close to the wing so you don’t really send to it – that will give you practice on connecting from behind.
>>we are supposed to get some not so great weather this weekend so if you have suggestions on how to do the exercises in a basement that can only fit 1 jump, I’m all ears!>>
For only one jump – if you can use a wing then the jump, or a stay then the jump, you can still practice the regular connection from behind (starting parallel to him and not ahead at all). And you can definitely start the exit line connection stuff! That is perfect for one jump.
Stay warm! Great job here!!
TracyHi! I recognize the fear because I feel it in myself LOL!!!
For the exit line connection, I do rotate all the way. It might take some practice to get the mechanics- I practiced a lot without my dogs 🙂Tracy
Good morning!
The head turning is going really well! I think the marking was good – she is very quick in her movement so marking it is NOT easy but you did really welL!!
Sitting made it easier (hopefully) and your hand being lower helped a lot too! My 2 favorites reps were the ones at :45-:47 and 1:24-1:26. Both of these had low hand movement and you used the send hand to also turn her away, which produced the best head turns away. I think the head turn at :46 was the ideal one! This will really start to transfer nicely as she approaches the cone/wing so, remember to always reset her in a start position at your side (you did on many of these, but also did some where you didn’t reset her) so she can approach the cone leading with her head (in anticipation of the cue to turn her head again)The threadle versus serp position went well – the serps were easy for her. The threadles were more like threadle wraps (because she entered and exited on the same wing) which is fine but might use a different physical & verbal cue in the future (I use 2 hands for that one down low, as opposed to one high hand like a threadle slice and a different word, so many words LOL!)
So you can show her the serp versus the threadle slice by serping like you did, then when you move to the threadle slice (in in cue) you can be on the wing opposite the manners minder so she slices towards it.
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
>>Good thing you mentioned using the leash. I need practice with it and her tiny pieces of cheese.>>
I bug everyone about the leash now (oops, I mean strongly suggest using it haha) because it is a big part of the picture so we might as well add it in nice and early. That way it doesn’t become an issue later on.
The Volume Dial game went well! She was very engaged which is what we want 🙂 You can add even more excitement to it by having her chase you cookie hand instead of just rewarding her in position. You can either run a few steps then feed her, or you can have her follow your hand in a circle/spin then deliver the treat.
Nice transition to tugging – she needed a little sniff moment (decompression, maybe, because she was stimulated with t he volume dial game?) The beeping as also a little distracting in the background but she did really well! She was great about engaging and especially terrific about bringing it! And her leap to get it on the first rep still ranks as one of the cutest things EVER 🙂 YAY!
>>I need to do more collar/harness grab work outside of the context of her meal time (she’s super happy about them when raw food in a dish is nearby).>>
The reverse retrieve (and toy races) are good for that – you can do a SUPER quick grab-throw-release-run so the harness/collar hold is barely happening but also gets paired with exciting fun stuff like running for the toy (and for a cookie that is tossed!). I like to have the thrown item ready, then gently hold the collar and in the next heartbeat: throw the thing. Duration is easy to build on once they think collar holding is the pre-cursor to all.good.things like running/eating/toy chasing.
>>I suspect she’ll be wiped out from just existing at the trial and doing some easy stuff. >>
Yes, just being in the environment can burn a lot of brain juice for a pup! Super Bowls is a great plan, to rehearse it and get it really fluent.
Have fun!!! Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
It sounds like the Performance Puppy Obedience class is great! And it is great to ‘cross-train’ with other sports even if you have no plans to compete in them (or you might enjoy it and someday compete :)) If you want more distraction work, try a foundation flyball class, they are a hoot (and not noisy, I promise LOL!!!)
The lap turns are looking good! On your right hand side, you were more comfy using the arm and leg together to move back together as he was arriving at the hand (and you were bending towards him a bit with your magic cookie hand, and that totally helped too!)
On the left hand side, when you used the arm and leg together just as he was arriving at the hand… perfect (like on the first rep)! When you too early with your leg (like at :19) or you had you hand back too early (like at :35) he turned towards you because it looked more like a front cross cue. So, on that left side especially, hold still with your arm extended and feet together til he about 3 inches from your hand… then the hand and leg and start moving him through the turn.Strike a pose is going really well!! You can see he is already beginning to do the in-and-out behavior without needing help from you – yay! Your cookie tosses on the 2nd video were especially good! You can use a reward target like an empty food bowl (throw the treat to it as he is arriving at it) or manners minder now.
The next step would be to add wings to the bump so it looks more like a jump. That plus a reward target will take you to the next steps in both the serp version of this and the threadle version of this 🙂 Then we will be able to fade out the big target in your hand as well.
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
The video works now, thanks! Going back to your original question about why she was not committing… it is a connection question (not a toy question, because it happened even when the toy was not in the picture).
The trick is to use less arm and more eye to get the sending going. What was happening was she was behind you by a few steps and you were pointing forward – that blocks connection and makes either side a possibility. Instead, keep your dog-side arm back to her nose and eyes on her eyes as she is coming towards you. Then as she is picking up the correct side of you to be on, you can send with the dog side leg and a little support from the dog side arm.On the video: your send hand is ahead of her at 1:00 and she can’t see the connection so the only really visible thing is the toy.
You can see it more clearly at 1:03 where she stops moving (and the toy was not in the picture). She is behind you and both arms are forward so she cannot see connection (she would have to look way up over your arm). So in this moment, she doesn’t really know which side to be on and tells you (twice LOL!!). When that happens…. Give her the toy and watch the video in slow motion. She didn’t need a break (note the full on engagement including a play bow :)) she just needed more info.
After the cookie toss game, she saw a similar picture at 1:23 and 1:33 – she guessed correctly at 1;33 but it was a trial and error moment rather than clear connection.So it is more about delaying the timing of swinging your arm forward because that is not really the cue. Make sure she is on the correct side and catching up to you, then the send can begin. And if you hear yourself asking “what’s going on” – that is your cue to watch the video in slow motion (my 2024 training goal is to watch the video more mid-session and convince everyone else to do the same: the results are tremendous!)
The rental went really well! She was a super star!!!
She did super well with the get it for cookies and the tugging, and she seemed to really like the blind crosses too! Fun! She was great with the tunnel too! Nice transition into strike a pose which also looked good! She was fast driving into those and also super tight with her turns 🙂 Yay!!
>>Around 1:15 there was a sound outside that seemed to concern her just a little bit.>>
No worries, it was barely noticeable! The session was terrific and I agree, she was great about switching from food to toys.
On the 2nd session:
>>Around 0:40 she wandered away, I think because there was a piece of meatball on the turf. I don’t know if she coughed it up earlier at some point or if I dropped it or what, but she seemed to want to find it.>>
Ha! She definitely did not want any piece of meatball left behind LOL!
>>This surprised me a little haha because in the other couple of times, she has been more into the toys.>>
It is good, though – we know she has high motivation for food at home, so maybe it is a sign of getting really comfy at the training building because her food motivation is coming up there too?
>>After that she seemed a little distracted and not as engaged with the toy as she usually is. Maybe she was tired? Maybe there were other lost treats? Obviously not a huge deal >>
Totally not a huge deal at all, she still worked really well. You switched toys so that might have been part of it, plus you were putting lots of cookies down by the ground so that might have been it too? Also both sessions had a lot of running so that is physically and mentally expensive and she might have been depleted. So instead of longer sessions with multiple games, you can do one minute on the floor, one high energy game, then a break and Lazlo can have a turn. Then she gets another minute, different game – then a break. That could allow for more recovery and she will end up with the same amount of time, just split into smaller pieces.
>>When I clipped on the leash at the end, she really wanted to go sniff around the ring. I let her do this. I did reinforce with food when she checked in with me. Do you think that was ok?>>
She was probably asking for a decompression (olfaction is a GREAT decompression) so it is fine to have done it and you can plan for it before she even asks for it. Now that we have learned more about decompression, it is really amazing to see the dogs ask for it. She asked in a really good way (at the end of the session) rather than leaving mid-section. When you are in decompression mode, you don’t have to reward her for checking in as that will keep her arousal levels higher and we want to bring them down with decompression.
Great job here!
TracyPS – all of the MYOB games for Lazlo can and should also be taught/worked on with Vesper 🙂 That way they will be incredibly fluent and make it much easier to transition into the trial environments.
Hi!
The mat was a good warm up! Adding the wobble board on top of it was a massive change, as you can see from her slightly sticky movement, facial expression, and slightly sideways ears LOL! That is exactly the same expression I see from her half sister Elektra when she has a “wait, what??” moment 🙂It did take her a bit to get comfortable with the idea of moving backwards on that setup, but she did get it going nicely – getting her front feet off then back on seems to be the key for now. She was definitely game to keep trying as you can see at 1:50 when she put herself into position while waiting for you to get more treats. The food rewards were top notch which really helped!
I think the last piece to this puzzle might be getting her more comfy to put weight into her hind end on the moving board. To really back up on the wobble board, she wold have to have more weight in her hind especially as the board moves under her. This is great for teeter training anyway! So two ideas for you:
– tugging while on the wobble board will get that going – she can be facing you (facing the end of the board that is touching the ground). Keep the tug low and only moving a little, so you can just let her pull back on it a little. That should get more weight and balance into her hind end on the moving board.
– another option is to do low hand touches so she has to bend her elbows, while she is standing on the board. This will also be useful if she is not fully comfy tugging on the wobble board.
Then when she is happy to balance with more weight in her rear while the board is moving, I bet the backing up onto the board clicks into place.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Happy Friday!!!
>>With my arm held out, I now realize I was fighting my own body to keep my connection on Karma with my shoulders rotated appropriately>>
I think it is much harder to run with the arm out, especially for taller people, because it raises your center of gravity and makes acceleration harder. I don’t have the tall person issue (I have short person issues LOL!) but I see it in the taller handlers when they are accelerating with the arms high. And, the dog needs to try to see past your arm to find the connection. And the arm up does make the shoulder movement more challenging, like you mentioned.
>>Easier to maintain my connection and turn my shoulders towards Karma’s line.>>
I am glad it felt easier because it sure looked great!!!! And you were effortlessly ahead of her the whole time.
I was smiling when watching the first video – you had awesome connection before the send to the cone, so she took off to it like a rocket. And then because you were pumping your arms and running but still maintaining excellent connection, she was FLYING up the line – love it! But you were able to easily stay ahead and connected. SUPER!!!
She also seemed to have no questions when she was on your left – driving up the line fast fast fast!
The only thing left to try is running like this from position 3, in line with the cone and not ahead at all: can you stay connected, pump your arms and run like mad while she is miles ahead of you (I think this will be fun and easy for you both!) This is incredibly useful at the end of courses, which often close with big long straight lines.
>>The only “blooper” is that with dog on left, my first run (where we start even with the jump), I walked out of the camera as we got situated, but you can still easily see as soon as I release her we come into view…….didn’t think it mattered enough to make her run again!>>
Totally not a blooper – it was easy to see that she could see the connection with no problem and the rest was great!!
Nice work here!!! You can start playing with the exit line connection too if you like!
Tracy
Hi!
Leaving in the bloopers is the best part! That way we can figure out why they are happening and what to do differently.>>I’m reminding myself this is a learning environment so the best way to learn is to show the “bad” things so we can learn how to prevent or correct those things from happening again!>>
Exactly!!! It is a supportive learning environment. I leave my bloopers in the demo videos too – it is a rare day when I film demos without bloopers LOL!!!
The dog-on-right reps looked really good here!!!
>>I ended up just showing Kashia the treat in the bowl before going back up to the start. That seemed to work best to get her to drive to the bowl that was beyond jump 2 without me fumbling with throwing a treat.>>
Yes – I think that will work GREAT for her. The more she practices driving to the cookie bowl with the cookie already in it, the more she will leave you in the dust 🙂
On the wraps at the start – she didn’t always leave you to start the wrap. You can keep the eye contact going very directly on that send so you don’t need as much physical cue and don’t need to be as close to it. At :13, for example, she had a question on the start send because you looked da bit forward which breaks connection – that causes your back to be a bit turned to her which can look like a blind cross cue (she almost went to your other side). Note the difference at :16 – you had clearer connection to her the whole time on the send, so she had no questions and zipped around the start wing 🙂
>>I saw a rep where I pulled away from looking at her and I didn’t have my “throw the treat” timing on point. I’m guessing that’s what drew her to me causing her to knock the bar?>>
Yes – I think that switching hands with the treat (and looking forward while you did that) and then throwing it drew her attention up to you so she didn’t quite clear the bar.
For the dog-on-left reps:
Thanks for leaving the bloopers in! This is her harder side for sure, and we can help her!>>Kashia had 3 perfect reps on the left when I saw my phone was not recording.>>
Ha! I hate when that happens!!! Darned phones!
Also, darned cats!!!!! They have a talent for showing up at the wrong time LOL!
>>I don’t want to blame a barn cat walking by on being what totally changed her focus from jumping the second jump like that though.>>
Yes – trying to ignore the cat can totally have drawn her brain power away from finding the line on her harder side.
>>Do you see what I may have done wrong to cause that behavior again?
I think you can help her by exaggerating the handling a bit. Try having your left shoulder further back and you can even point your left hand down to her nose. That will let her see even more of your shoulders pointing to the line.
That, plus you can lower the bar and put the cookie bowl much closer, so it is easily visible. You can even take the bar out and out the cookie bowl between the uprights for a couple of reps and see how she does.
Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>Plus it gives me things to work on with my other dog too without having to come up with my own lessons.
Yay! You can totally play these games with the other dogs to add skills and keep existing skills sharp 🙂

<<>>>
Is this just because she is still learning and gaining confidence in how to drive forward ahead of me? >>>Yes, that is probably part of it and also part of it her natural tendency to want to be near you. Your others might have more of a natural tendency to drive the lines (which makes getting turns a little more challenging).
>>> I remember my other dog being that way too in the beginning.
You probably did a great job of training lines and now you don’t remember having to do it LOL!

>> When I watched your video, you were not up at the second jump with your dog when you started right at the wing. I had to be at each jump to keep Kashia going so I wasn’t sure if I was getting quite the same result.>>Part of it is that you are a faster runner than I am 🙂 And with my experienced dog (the blue merle dog), he understands how to drive the line and leave me in the dust 🙂
>> I recongize Kashia had less speed and drive than your demo dog though…as well as some of the others in class! >>
I don’t think it is a speed or drive issue: she has PLENTY of both! The difference is that my demo dog has an extensive history of reinforcement for driving ahead and looking ahead (in agility and flyball) so he makes it look easy. That is a trained skill, so we will train it with Kashia too! I think a reward target will make a big difference with her as you work on it. If she realizes that she can leave you in the dust and get the reward, I think that you will see her driving lines way ahead.>>I like running with them. Distance is coming with my older dog so I know Kashia will get it eventually too.>>
Absolutely! She is only 17 months old. The demo dog in the competition track is 4 years old 🙂 The demo dog in the puppy track is 17 months old and you can see I haven’t even put bars into these games for him yet LOL!
>>The only toy she is obsessed with, day or night, is a soccer ball. So much so that it would be an extreme distraction while I’m training. I will have to learn how to use that soccer ball drive to my advantage when training. >>
Ooooooh, you can totally try it as the target! She might love it!!! I think she will like the lotus ball toy too – show it to her with great treats in it, and she will be game to work for it 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>>Okay must remember to reward for every effort. >>
Yes – errors are handler errors. And if you don’t know what happened, stop the session and look at the video.
>>But will eep it in mind- she believes anything less than many minutes is too short. She is obcessed with toys. I might try securing a toy but she is not as good on a dead toy. >>
You can try dough what I did with the whippet: holding her (she might be a bit squirmy at first) then throw the toy so she sees it landing, then start the rep. That way the toy is less “dead”. The whippet had trouble seeing the dead toy so would run past it, looking for it, but by letting him see me throw it, he did a lot better seeing it.
>>I do wonder about a target. She is not food orientated.>>
We can build that! Ask her to eat a piece of cheese or something yummy, then give her a good toy. She is half Border Collie, right? And BCs don’t always like to eat food when working, but we can build it up by pairing it with toys.
>>Treats all need to be soft, tiny and very tasty. Crumb size treats are hard to throw or toss or even feed. >>
You can use a lotus ball or treat hugger to deliver the tiny soft treats without losing them in the grass.
>>I do wonder whether I should try a clicker>>
You can try a clicker but you might need 3 hands for that, plus clickers often get the pups looking at us more and we want less looking at us.
>>as it most feels as though she sees the treat as a signal she was right rather than for the intriscienct value of the reat>>
I agree – it is possible that eating the treat is just a behavior for her (and not actually a reinforcement). But if you create a bit of a loop of behavior-treat-toy, the treat will become part of the reinforcement process and take on the value of the toy, and then will become more motivating for her. This has held true of many BCs and BC-mixes over the years 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyYour connection looked great here! On the first part where she was on your right: terrific job from you and excellent line-finding from her in all 3 positions. YAY!!!!
>>Going to the right she had trouble finding the line.
Going to her right (she was on your left) starting at :27 – I am convinced it was the visual of the blue jump sitting out there. That is what she was looking at when she did not take the jump you wanted – it was an easier visual for her. When you switched to a wrap verbal PLUS her name…. Then she had no trouble getting it. I am curious to see how she would do without the extra jump out there if you want to experiment and see. Moving the wing did help too but she was also processing the visual distraction of the other jump.
Note how she never looked at the blue jump on your first reps when she was on your right side: that is because your connection was very clear and she knew exactly where to be. When she was on your left, your connection was still clear but the off course possibility was close to her line, so she had a valid question about it.
>>I really need to work on my throwing the toy. On the last rep I preplaced the toy but in the dead grass it is hard for her to see it.>>
The toy throwing was pretty good! Do you have a higher-profile toy like a hollee roller or something that is easier to see? Or you can enlist Brad to be your toy thrower 🙂 Thanks Brad!
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning! Great job on this session!!!
Dog on right:
The first rep was really good! Try not to move to the start wing at all – do a one-step send 🙂 like you did on the other reps 🙂 That will also help strengthen the sending: on the2nd rep he got close to the wing but didn’t go all the way. Avoid marking it as wrong because the timing of the marker was when he did a correct behavior (found jump 1). Just keep going and reward the line, or call him to you, reward, reset. He also had a question about the send at 1:12, and you did the reset here really nicely 🙂
Separately from the big line running, you can work the send to the wing with more and more distance and just one step (and big connection :)) And you can throw the reward to the exit side of the wing.
Super nice driving ahead on the line on the reps on our right: great verbals, great connection (placed reward really helpful too)!
Dog on left – 1st rep connection was good but maybe a little ahead of him. But then the next reps were perfect, the connection was more direct. He had no questions either way.
So on the straight lines, you can start to add more of your motion. I don’t think he will be distracted if you run more, but let’s ask him 🙂
At the end the video you did a FC at 1:33 and 1:35 -trying to outrun him on this setup gets you in the way on the line here, so for the exit line connection, either do a wrap on the outside wing of the jump or a BC to create more an L shape to the line.
He definitely looks ready to do all the exit line connection games too! Great job here!!!
Tracy
