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Good morning!
Yay for snow going away!!!
Set point – she’s got the framework of the game, so now we can find the sweet spot for her. For the first jump: lower the bar to the lowest setting and set her back maybe one or two more inches from it. It was a little tall and she was the tiniest bit too close for the plyometric approach, so she was hoisting herself more than she was pushing from her rear. I think her position at :16 was good!
And split the difference with the distance: put the distance at 4.5 feet. Leave the 2nd bar low for one more session so we can see how she adjusts. Don’t change anything in the session, just do maybe 5 passes through it. The changed distance and taller bar required more reading than she could pull off, while maintaining form and you got a tick of the bar and a dropped bar on that #1 jump. We will do more reading grids later on.
The outside circles on the pill bug were fun! The timing of your releases were all good except for :16 where you were too late, and she was not sure which side of the tunnel to run around (so she chose OVER the tunnel LOL!!). She started to tighten up the turns as well – she was wide on the first couple but then got tighter and tighter to you on the outside turns (yay!!)
The blind cross and inside turns looked AWESOME – those inside turns are hard and she nailed it!!! Onwards to the 2 Tunnel game 🙂
Tunnel turns:
The left turns at the beginning looked really good – as you start running courses, I bet the ‘tunnel’ and ‘left’ verbals will start sounding more different, they were a little similar here. You can be bigger/louder with the tunnel verbals, and softer/lower energy with the left/right verbals (I try to ask them as a question because it prevents me from yelling them LOL!!)The GO on the tunnel exit was harder for her in the first part here – and I am going to really get everyone to emphasize the GO GO GO on the tunnel exits because they are getting very popular. We saw a few of those at the UKI trial this weekend where the dogs needed to go straight from a straight tunnel and find a jump with the handler NOT being ahead of the dog. That challenge ate everyone alive (unless they could outrun the dog), except for my Contraband and Hot Sauce who both learned this GO on the tunnel with a lot of emphasis 🙂
So in a nutshell… don’t worry as much about the turn on the wing after the tunnel, let’s get her to go to the wing without you being ahead of her (it was easy when you were ahead of her :)) Throw the rewards a LOT and you will see the value shift to the big lines, and also repeat the GO verbals a lot more. You were tending to say them one then switch to the turn verbal, which produced more turn and less Go line on the tunnel exit. The turn on the wing or a jump will be really easy no matter where you are, once the GO is solid.
For example: You had one GO at :25 and switched to a turn cue too soon… so she turned. Reward that! She was correct, because she heard a lot of turn cue before she exited the tunnel – assume all things that aren’t exactly as planned to be handler errors and reward her 🙂
She went straighter at :30 but more Go is needed 🙂 You can do lots of GO GO GO GO with long toy throws 🙂
When you were ahead at :39 you got the wing beautifully! You can sue the GO verbal here too, because the handling really supports the line too and she won’t look at you (like she did at :45)
Switching to the right turns: You were a little late at :53 and :58 (we can hear your right verbal relative to the noise of her getting into the tunnel :)) and then you were perfect at 1:05!
You did a lot of long toy throws when she was driving through the tunnel towards the camera in this section, and she looked great!
You can be using your GO GO GO in those moments to help name the straight drive out of the tunnel followed by the toy marker. You can see how quickly she got on board with the straight line exits 🙂She was a little wide on the right turns on the tunnel exits towards the end of the session: Your timing of the right verbal at 1:57 and 2:02 was really good! What caused the wide exit was that it was a high energy verbal and the handling was all explosive forward so it looked and sounded more like the go lines she had just done.
So keep that same timing, and add in letting her see you move away from the tunnel towards the wing (instead of driving straight) and also try to reduce the energy of the verbal (easier said than done while running).
You broke it down at 2:20 and after that – she was great because there was no explosive forward motion.
Then at the very end (2:36) you did have motion moving away to the wing which she saw before entering the tunnel and had a great exit! Yay!The trick is to be able to show that motion and deliver the verbal with that same timing, without decel because you will not likely have time to decelerate on a line like this 🙂 So the verbal and line of movement will override lack of decel.
Try playing with delivering the verbal so it sounds different while you are also running – using it as a question works well of me, but everyone gets to play with different ways to produce the sound 🙂 And yes, I do run around outside without the dogs to try out the verbals and also yes, my neighbors thing I am insane hahaha You are a musician so I have total confidence that you will sort it out!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Both of the videos are marked private, can you change to unlisted?
>> I am not sure we will be able to work the live due to space and snow but I will if you can break it down for us so we can participate.
I took a peek at the live topics and they can all be done in a small space – indoors, or on the deck if it is warm enough! Fingers crossed for a fast snow melt!
TracyGood morning!
This looks great! I think you had the verbal going for the wing wraps on the first video (hard to hear because a certain pup was barking haha) and the GO verbal was very clear. Nice!!! The wrap verbal on the 2nd video was very clear on the first rep too.And she seemed to have zero questions about the wing or finding the jump. SUPER!!
So now you can amp it all up, in a few different ways:
– more distance between the wing and jump so she gets even more independence going.
– you can do a front cross on the wing instead of a post turn – start her on the other arm, send her around the inside, then FC to the side you want her to be on for the straight line.
– you can change your position by either starting soooo close to the wing, do a front cross and don’t run til she is just about finished with the wrap… then run tp the jump so that she drives way ahead of you to the jump (you can have the toy already placed out there). Or, you can start near the jump, do a big send to the wing, and get miles ahead of her 🙂
Great job! Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>> was moving the toy when on the set point, although verrrrrrry slowly and probably too slow to see when I released her!
Ha! That makes sense. You can add more speed, because also adds the ‘distraction’ of handler speed and motion 🙂
>>I was going to throw that toy but it was so big and dangly that I decided to walk back and give her a treat instead. Should I carry an extra toy or bigger treats to toss back at her?
Yes, another toy or treat would be great and then the giant dangly toy can be saved for the dragging 🙂
>>I love the way you’re teaching this with the dogs powering forward, head low to the moving toy.>>
It is an idea adapted from flyball LOL!! It is designed to get the speed and power of flyball dogs but with the finesse required for agility 🙂
>>I meant to tell you I don’t think I’ve ever seen a “magic finger” video you mentioned.
Here it is:
>>How often do you mix in the WIYH and the tunnel/wing discrimination? I know Hola definitely needs lots more work on the discrimination exercise.>>
Maybe once a week, for each. We build on both of them, so no worries if they aren’t perfect yet.
>>The heat has definitely hit Florida this weekend. I’m going to have to try getting out early in the morning to work the exercises but not possible this week as I have something I need to do Monday thru Thursday already.>>
Early mornings and dusk 🙂 Just be careful that the tunnel is not wet in the mornings so she doesn’t slip.
Have fun, stay cool!
TracyGood morning!
I am happy with how this looks!!! He was consistently organized and producing really good form!!! The toy was a little close to jump 2 on the release on the first rep, but that was probably just a warm up – the position on the other reps was really good. He was a little higher over the 2nd bar on the first few reps but then got more efficient when you changed sides, and maintained good form throughout. Yay!
I am especially happy that even though he is young and tall and leggy, we didn’t see any crazy-legs action or flinging himself. He was really good!!!!!
Remind me how old he is? We can start to plan 🙂 I think the next session can be same setup as this one except now you can move faster on the toy dragging (adding more handler motion :)) and if that goes well, the session after than can be reducing the handler motion back to what is was here, and raising bar 2 a little bit. This can be once a week, no rush, there are lots of other things to do 🙂
Great job!
TracyKeep me posted!
I think in May we will be running the mental management course, in a new fun format 🙂 I have had some requests for it and it is long overdue! Then stay tuned for CAMP in June!!!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
I think the set point is looking really good! She is really powering nicely and being organized too! As you build up this game, you can throw more rewards back to her rather than walk back to her with a cookie. Throwing the reward back to her will help keep her a little more upright and help prevent anticipation on the release when you are leading out.
I think the only thing I would add here is that the oy can be slowly moving before you release her now.
And next session (maybe Monday or Tuesday): put the 2nd bar at 10″ 🙂
WIYH looks great too – I love how she is driving WAY ahead on these, with a lot of confidence. Super!!! We build on this game more later this week. One small detail: remember to start with a FC on the wing – some were post turns which were a little wider and delayed both of you from getting up the line super fast 🙂
Great job! Enjoy nosework today 🙂
Hi –
He is doing a great job of finding his line here! Remember to start with a front cross wrap on the wing so he is on the line to the front of the jump. (like a the beginning of the session, at :12 for example). When you started with a post turn on the wing, like at :56 – he was no longer on the line to the front of the jump (especially because it was a wingless – he was on the parallel path to he backside). He figured it out after a couple of reps and brought himself in, but we don’t want to lose the parallel path for when you need to teach the backside of the jump. The front cross on the wing will help set him up for the front of the jump.
Nice work here! We will build on it even more later this week.
TracyAlso, be careful about total training time, even split into shorter sessions. The tunnel exit games totalled to be about 10 minutes of training which is a lot or reps for a young dog. So try to keep the session totals to be 5 minutes or less: you will get sharper, crisper behavior (from both of you :)) because there are fewer repetitions and you will both be faster and fresher.
This was the right turn exits –
Try to get the right verbal and physical cue started while he is still 4 or 4 feet away from the tunnel entry, so he sees and hears it before he enters.
The right verbal on the first and second rep was a little late so he didn’t quite know where to go (you can see him looking around at the exit) By the 3rd rep, he knew the sequence 🙂The Go lines looked really strong!!
At the end, you were really late (said the right verbal after he exited, and it was a left turn) – so he was wide. You marked it as an oops. He did eventually get the reward, but this was a good example of when you can be assuming it is handler error and just reward him.
This was the soft turn tunnel exits, just the left and some go exits (maybe one of the earlier sessions?) Nice job moving away from the tunnel exit as you said left, those turns looked good! You can start the Go cue sooner (verbal and acceleration) and also throw the toy sooner, to keep building up the straight line drive out of the tunnel.
Tunnel exits:
This was a good camera angle to see the connection on the go lines heading to the camera – you can make more connection and eye contact at the tunnel exits to get him to go to the correct side of the wing. For example at :48 and 1:51, you were looking forward so he didn’t really know which line to be on. Moving the wings in closer to the tunnel will really help get you a little further away to connection and show the line and point forward less (pointing ahead of him blocks connection).You can see your line of motion moving away to the wing on the left and right turns from the tunnel, and that really helped him get the nice left & right tunnel exits! Yay!
More shadow handling here: I really liked the timing on the 2nd rep (:17), you were not too far ahead and so he got on the line nicely. Tat was lovely!
You were too far ahead on the last rep (:46), though, so he was correct to come to the other side because that is where he saw you and you were calling him. You marked it as being wrong and didn’t reward, but in fact he was correct. So remember that in handling, all errors are human errors so you should reward him even if you think he was wrong. then watch the video back before the next rep and you will be able to see what caused the error.Nice start here for this game – This is the baby level shadow handling. He was very good about finding the line and not jumping up! After the cookie toss, you can wait one more heartbeat before taking off so he can see you more and so you don’t have to slow down for him to catch up – you were on the other side of the tunnel on most of these so he was slowing down to figure out where to be.
