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Hi! Yes, this is a really informative session and definitely good to have worked on!
>> I flipped the course so maybe it all seemed new going from the other direction. >>
Yes, I would say that made a big difference for her! Plus I think the 2nd jump was on a slightly different line, which made the backside more obvious and the front side harder to find.
>. it was just one of those sessions where we did not have anything that we had in the last session.
I think what was happening here was that you were emphasizing the verbals a lot and dialing back the handling… which is what made it harder for her to read the lines. I think at the end of the previous session, you were able to start to fade some of the handling to add more distance and emphasis on verbals. But the reverse happened here – on the first rep of each challenge (like :06 to turn away to the jump, at finding the tunnel entry at :41, and switching away from the tunnel entry at the end) you were using mainly verbals and not as much motion or handling… so she struggled.
This is good to know! At the start of the next session, continue to use the verbals but also emphasize the handling that supports the verbals to help set the lines, and I bet she gets it.
And when you are working the switch away on the tunnel exit, converge your line of motion towards the exit and drop your hands down to your knee-level or below so she can see the hand motion. You were hanging back a bit and your hands ended up above your shoulders, so she didn’t see the turn away cue.
The verbals will eventually take on a lot more power and independence, so pairing them with the handling that supports them will build them up even more.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I am glad your weather is more normal and the internet is back! Yay!
>> I think Fritzi is also trying to figure out what I want.
Yes, for sure! But that is good, we want her to think about new stuff rather than fling herself at things LOL!
>.I need to pay attention to the direction my feet are going.
Yes, but I thought you were really good here with your feet pointing 🙂 There was only two spots where your feet pointed the wrong way:
at :28, I htink you wanted her to turn left but your feet showed her that a bit too late. You were much earlier on the next rep and also used the verbal so she read it really well.
at 1:32 she was going to the last jump then you stepped in behind her which changed her line to the tunnel, so she ended up in the tunnel.
You kept moving forward straight on the last rep and she was great!
Looking at the earlier moments in the video:
On the Switch from jump to jump – you can add an arm cue so you don’t have to work as hard to gt her turned away and can hang back even more. Without the arm cue, you had to move in past the switch jump and ue motion/footwork. The arm cue and verbal can be what does the work of turning her away, which opens up more freedom for you to NOT have to run forward as much (more distance and more layering!)You can do the same on the switch jump to tunnel – you moved back from the switch jump then forward to get her to turn away, but the arm cue can get it done without you needing to movee as much. Think of it as pulling with the arm as she is approaching the jump, then flicking her away with the arm before she takes off.
You had a bit more of the arm cue happening on the last rep – try to do it sooner (as she is approaching the jump) and you can hang out near the center of the bar, giving her just enough room to land (and use the verbal of course!)
The sequences looked really good!! She is reading the tight work like the threadle and the distance work wit the siwtches really nicely, so now it is a matter of just adding that switch arm and trying to see how early you can give the cues 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi! I am glad you got a dry day!! Hopefully the rain goes away again – it is crazy that your internet and cable was out!!
This session is looking good! There were a couple of bloopers here and there, but I think part of it had to do with several reps in a row, so she might have been expecting something different or trying to anticipate something different,
On the Switch from jump to jump at the beginning – try to use more upper body and less motion to turn her away – that arm cue is what does the heavy lifting so you don’t have to run as much 🙂 You added the verbal in the next section which is great!
To get the rear cross on the jump before the tunnel more consistently, your line of motion can push to center of the bar with your feet, that was when she was able to read the rear. You can also use a left verbal to help her understand that it is both the jump and a turn to the left.
One thing I noticed was that she hit more bars than usually – it looked to be like a processing thing because she was trying to read all of the turning away AND jump. So keep the bars on the turn away jump lower for now til she has more experience on the skill – then the bars can go back up because she will be able to focus on them more.
On the tunnel exit switches – she was reading them well! Now you can move the timing up to start showing her the physical cues (arm motion and convergence towards the line you want) as well as starting the verbal cue all before she enters the tunnel (and keep repeating it). She was a little wide but that was mainly because she was getting the info at the tunnel exit, so if you start before she enters, she will be able to exit already turning to the new line.
On the second part – the switch from jump to tunnel looked really good with the arm and motion! You were able to move away earlier and earlier throughout this section. Nice!!!
>> Once she backed out of the tunnel>>
On that one, she saw you run back towards to the jump before she entered the tunnel and you got quiet so she likely second-guessed herself and followed your motion. Repeating the verbal more and more will really help as you move away to support the tunnel when she is working independently (and some toy throws to the tunnel exit to maintain the value too)
>> she then kept taking the jump rather than the tunnel. I’m sure she was tired.>>
Possibly tired, or seeing too many of the same things so she was going to where the last reinforcement was (like at 2:31 and 2:39). You can mix things up more frequently and add in balance reps more (like going straight instead of the switch) to help her continue to read the cues.
The combo sequences looked good!! You worked the switch on the tunnel exit separately here to tighten the line on the switch exit, but also try to see if she will read it if you cue it before she goes in (and you keep repeating the verbal, remember not to call her name 🙂 ). The arm cue can come up before she enters which is what you were doing here, but you can also start the verbal and you can play with the arm cue starting before she exits. When you are working it from a distance, you can add in converging towards the exit with the eventual goal that you can get her to do the switch away on the tunnel exit while you are layering the jump 🙂
The rest looked really good, she was reading the close tight work like the threadle and the backsides and balancing it nicely with the distance work and turning away. Yay!!
Great job here!
TracyHi! These are looking good!
>> Baxter will hopefully jump 8”, fingers crossed.>>
We can start doing some measuring prep, someone else has already asked about it 🙂
Adding the wing wrap before this tunnel really made it smooth for you both! Clever!!!!
You had lovely connection here and he was perfect about staying on your line on the outside turns,The blind to the inside turn was great too – after the blind, keep moving around the tunnel but now he is on the inside and turning away from you.
>> I get that I was supposed to go around the wing setup with him – no wonder he pulled off.
Yes, he thought you wanted him to wrap that one wing LOL! No worries, try it next time 🙂
His only questions had to do with starting here (and also on the tunnel exit session). Two things that will help:
– You can step to the wing to get started when you let him go rather than be stationary.
– He really kinda hates being moved by the collar into the line up, so he is avoiding it. You can use the line up with a cookie like you did for the set point, or that ‘ready dance’ we did in maxpup 1 where we were engaging with the pup before the send but not always holding them. I think his toy play is strong enough that he will get on the toy when you present it in motion like you did here even after a line up cookie.
Tunnel exits:
He loves the sequences, hates the line up here too LOL!! So, you can totally step tothe wing here to get started, and use the line up cookie or ready dace to replace moving him by the collar. You can see some full-on avoidance moments of the collar moving like at 1:40. You did use a line up cookie at 1:13, for example, and it was smooth abnd he was happier for sure!
Fabulous job with the GO reps at the beginning! He was driving out straight and your toy throws were spot on! Yay!
He can be tighter on the exit turns, but that is a handling tweak:
To get tighter turns on the left and right exits, have your motion match the verbal (and at the same time): when you start saying left or right, you can also let him see you beginning to move towards the wing rather than continuing straight along the tunnel. On these reps, your voice said to turn and your motion said to go straight, so he was not sure of which it was, exactly.For example: You had good timing of the left cue at 1:18 but the motion showed a straight exit, so he exited looking straight but not at full blast.
You can see it more clearly a 1:59, 2:25 and 3:01 too – the right verbal could be a stride sooner, but the body motion was totally straight so he exited straight. He should still commit to the tunnel if you cue it then when he is about 5 feet from it start saying left or right and changing your running line, and you should see him exiting already turned and looking the correct direction.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyThat is awesome!!! Bringing the toy back to the hand is actually one of the hardest behaviors to get! At least the rain had the positive outcome of being able to train that. Fingers crossed that this new round of rain is SHORT and you are back to clear blue skies soon 🙂
TracyGood morning!
The set point is going really well. And it as interesting to see how arousal changed the jumping form. The first rep with the stationary toy was fine, and the 2nd rep was more aroused – and was ass-over-teakettle where her hind end was disorganized (even though I think the toy was basically in the same place). So if you use a stationary toy, have it at least 15 feet from jump 2 so she can organize her landing.
The moving target went well on all reps except the 2nd to last rep (more arousal!) – she was set up closer, she was leaning forward, she moved before the release… and was not as well-organized as the other reps. It was still pretty good, but mot as good as the 3rd rep and the last rep where she was set up perfectly and not leaning. You might already be doing this, but definitely add in throwing rewards back to help keep her upright in the stay (but if she leans, don’t fight with her because she probably doesn’t even know she is leaning and it will not be a problem when she is on a real course :))
So she is about 13.5 months with 2nd bar at 8…. Do one more session like this at some point this week (no rush, she looks good, it is not a high priority) and then we can move the bar to 10 in the next week or two. Time is on your side here – the goal is to have full height jumping by maybe 18 months old or later than that, and I recommend starting agility trials at a lower height so there is less to process in that environment.
The tunnel exit games looked fun!! She is a speedy beast! Love it!
>>HOW DO YOU MAKE IT GO STRAIGHT?!? Was it the fence?>>
Ha! Good job with all of the GO rewards – that is the first step to getting the straight line exits. First part of the concept is to convince her to run as fast as she can STRAIGHT after a tunnel, and there was a lot of progress here with that!! Then we finesse it to picking up obstacles after the tunnel exit.
I don’t think it was the fence that was pulling her off the wing. You can try it in a new location but I don’t think that was the question he was having.
Being ahead worked great when you could send her to the wing and get ahead of her at the tunnel exit. Remember to connect a lot – that is when she did great. When you were a little softer in the connection, she curled into you.And to get her to drive to the wing without you being ahead: she just doesn’t know she is supposed to look for something that far ahead of you 🙂 and she doesn’t even really see the wing.
The first step to getting her to see the wing is to move it MILES closer (or KMs closer haha). Put it 2 meters away from the tunnel exit, with the side you want on a SUPER obvious line. And I don’t care if she wraps it, just have her go past it on the correct side and throw the reward.
If that goes well? Move it to 3 meters away. Then over the course of several sessions… 4 meters. And when you are at 4 or 5 meters away, you can add back the wrap verbals to get the turn on the wing (that will be easy for her).
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>Bloopers abound for you on this one.
Bloopers are the best part! But there were really not that many bloopers, it went really well! And you had great connection and a lot of reinforcement , with is critical.
>>First, he wants to move the instant I say a verbal. I tried to keep holding him and lowered the intensity of my verbals, but am not sure if this is working or if I should try something different. I don’t want to turn it into any tension between us, but he’s pumped to go.>>
Part of what was happening was that the first reps were verbal and release simultaneously, so he was expecting that. But then a 1:01 and 1:10 and most of the reps after that, you repeated the verbal before the release and he seemed pumped up but happy! Note the wagging tail 🙂 and he was not flailing. So I don’t see any tension and I didn’t see him fail, so it is all good 🙂
>>The next consistent thing I felt was that sometimes his wraps feel really smooth and sometimes I feel like I’m running up on him, and previously I felt like I was stopping short. LOL So I’m not sure how to find the sweet spot or perhaps there’s another aspect???
It is the magic sweet spot of decel that is missing a little 🙂 On the wraps, you were sometimes slamming the brakes which was leaving your dog-side leg behind you and you were slightly rotated… which pulled him off the win like at 1:14, 1:50 and 2;32 on the wraps, and also At 1:42 and 2:04 on the soft turns.
On the wraps, if you drive in a little more and decelerate and let him get past you… then rotate and leave… you will see more commitment in those moments. Don’t worry about how tight it is, and don’t worry about getting to the next spot 🙂 because that is causing a bit of rushing. Part of this game is getting some distance on the dogs too!
On those soft turns, your dog side shoulder was way back, which was causing rotation and pulling him off (and pulling you away from the line. You were using a lot of extreme connection there and that is what was causing the shoulder to be too far back. You can watch his eyes rather than stare at his eyes, and allow your dog-side arm to follow his nose – that should be the right amount of connection for him. You had this at the every end and he looked great!
>>Third, turns were sometimes wide out of the tunnel. So in addition to fixing late verbals ;), let me know if my lines or amount of motion are off.>>

What I saw on those moments was that you were running the lines with him, rather than cuing and leaving. That was making you late for the wraps on the straight line exits (which is why you ended up slamming on the brakes) and was also showing him a physical cue that didn’t match the verbal.For example, at :44 with the left verbal – the timing was good but the physical cue screamed GO GO GO as you accelerated to kind of meet him at the exit. The same happened at :55 and 2:01 – the right verbal was a little late, but the physical cue was all go go go (you were accelerating forward) so he went wide on the exit.
So, say the left or right verbal but also let him see the matching physical cue of you peeling away to the wing instead of running straight. Otherwise, he will have to choose one (verbal or motion) and motion will win :). You might end up decelerating at the wing after the tunnel, but that is great and help build up the patience of decel without rushing.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Ugh, more snow!!! The music was actually hilarious in your video with the sad dog noises LOL!
>>For the live class this week, are the setups small enough that I could do them down in the basement like I did the first week?>>
Yes – I will have small space games ready because several folks are still wrestling with winter, like you are.
T
Hi!
I totally understand the part about getting dizzy LOL!!!He did well with the tunnel game here… so now let’s get you running! Heeling for cookies was good and he was not looking away from you to the tunnel at all. So… now put the tunnel entries on the ground so that he can’t get into the tunnel, and add in you jogging so that he gets used to more motion without going into the tunnel 🙂
Great job on all of these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
He was finding the uprights/barrel really well after the tunnel here! He is really getting so good with his commitment!
You used the tunnel and wrap verbals, so now you can add the directionals – after you cue the tunnel and before he goes in, tell him if you want him to go or if you want a left or right turn. He should see and hear it before he enters, so he is turned when he exits. You did use his name on the second video, which will get him to orient to you on a wider line (he was perfect with that) so now you can emphasize the GO and also the higher left/right turns.Nice work!
TracyGood morning! His commitment is looking good on the smiley face videos here!
Looking at the videos:
Because this is a great training ground for the verbals and his commitment is really strong, you can shorten up the sequences so you can focus on the verbals – I think the wrap verbals got a little interchanged, and you threw in some Go verbals instead of the soft turn around verbals. So, doing 4 or 5 obstacles in a row will help you maintain the verbals, then you can walk the next sequence and get those verbals et before you run him.When I was getting the verbals on my young dogs, I found that I screwed up a lot when the sequences got longer or if I didn’t walk them a few times before trying them with the dog 🙂
He did have one blooper moment where he took the tunnel instead of wrapping the wing (1:03). You might have been a tiny bit late on the FC, but also he saw the tunnel clearly and got sucked in LOL! So more of the wing-tunnel discrimination game will help that.
You really emphasized the connection on the next rep there and that totally helped him 🙂 NICE!
On the repeated tunnels at the end of the first video, it is basically the same as the double whammy tunnel game where you can say tunnel for when he has the direct line into the tunnel, then it becomes a threadle tunnel entry when you pick him up on the exit and he turns away from you to get back in it.
The other thing you can do at this stage is tuck the toy in your pocket so yo d on’t have to switch hands. Things are happening really fast with him so you can save time by having empty hands 🙂
There were a couple of things he didn’t know yet (like finding you on the other side of the tunnel when you started on the entry side of the tunnel or turning away from you on the wing), but no worries, we will be adding those soon.
Great job!
TracyGood morning! I am glad he is feeling better, poor little guy!!!
Looking at the video:
>>We’ve been working a bit off and on on the set point jumps. >>
Off and on is the perfect way to work this skill – he doesn’t need a lot of work on this, he is doing really well!
>>Over the past few sessions (before his upset) he became “stuck” and wouldn’t release over the jump.
We will definitely keep an eye on that – we saw it once in the previous video on the last rep. There are a lot of reasons why they don’t release such as they are stressed about something, or they think it is a proofing trick and expect cookies at the stay, or they are tired, or something hurts, or he is confused, or maybe it was just the beginning of his GI upset. There is no way to know so adding the MM to it as smart, and making the release reinforcing was great!
And I didn’t see any of that tay question in this video. His stay is looking so good!!! Good job with the set up cookie!! You were getting the toy down to the ground just as you released, so it was there as he was moving (and he was expecting it to be there) – that is a good compromise to support the stay but still get the targeted jumping form we want. It is possible that dropping the toy on the ground before the release is too hard, so I like what you did here.
It was hard to see all the movement in the jumping form from this angle but I think he looked good! – speedy, powerful, and consistent (he wasn’t trying to find a way to get comfy, he was already comfy :))
Remind me what the distance/height was here so we can plan for the future 🙂
The pill bug game is definitely awkward at first LOL! Yo can wait a tiny but longer after he gets the treat before you start moving – when you moved too early, it was hard to keep connection. When you moved a little later (like at 1:50 and 2:42ish), it looked easier to connect and less awkward feeling . And if you left way too early, he ended up finding you on the other side of the tunnel LOL!!
So toss the treat, let him get it and finish chewing, then start to run 🙂
Also, because there is a lot of running and the weather is heating up: do only 2 or 3 reps, then give him a break – he got real hot at the end (these pups have not really been alive long enough to experience the heat of spring and summer :))
I think you can add in the blind cross an inside turns on one tunnel, and add the 2nd tunnel if you have one!
Great job!
TracyHi!
This is going well too! The stay is looking really good – she was distracted on the 2nd rep but still pulled off a good jumping effort!
>>We ended up with 8″ to 10″ with 6′ spread.>>
The 6 foot spread looked good! And I think 10″ on the 2nd bar is good too. But 8″ on the first bar was too high. Because she has to power in off her rear, the 8″ was a titch too tall and she strugled a little – you can see it at :22 for example,if you play the video in slow motion: she lifts her front feet over the bar btu then has to rock back and use her spine when ideally she would push from the rear. So leave jump 1 at 4″ for now and let’s see how she does. That first jump never needs to go up in height, it is all about the 2nd jump 🙂
>.PS Forgot on the last 3 to start with the toy 10″ away.>>
Having the toy start further away definitely helped her, so definitely keep starting it 10 feet away or more especially since her stay looked so strong!
Nice work!
TracyHi!
>>Since you mentioned balancing out some GO!s with the Wraps, I set up your “GO!” Exercise. That was illuminating.
This is from the discrimination class…. Changtse said it was tooooo hard for now with driving ahead of you! She could do it when you were ahead and throwing the ball early, but to really get the GO polished up so she drives ahead – try it without the tunnel distraction and with you starting really close to the wrap wing – throwing the toy past jump 1 at the moment you see her starting to look ahead. Then you will be able to build it up to more jumps eventually – and at some point the tunnel can get added back in.
Nice job!
TracyHi!
This is going really well! Your timing was realy good – nice job waiting for her to turn her head. It looks like you were looking downard to her, which is great – it allows you to connect and opens up your peripheral vision so you don’t run into things! Changste was great!>>Perhaps,I should just run a straight line 1st while maintaining connection with Changtse and Toy in outside hand.>>
The pill bug game with one tunnel is really awkward 🙂 But now that you have it going so well, you can move to the 2 tunnel advanced version (and also add the blind cross to the one tunnel version) – I think both of those will feel less awkward 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
