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Good morning!
Ms. Mitre looked fabulous here!!
One thing I have seen with sport mixes in the past is that they can get frustrated or chase the momma or jump up at the momma… she was PERFECT here and found the jump EASILY. YES! We totally want her to lock onto the line like this. That includes when you had the toy dangling in your dog-side hand, super visible: she had to choose the jump or grab for the toy, and she chose the jump beautifully. YAY!
So…. Now you get to add more speed. You can jog, then build to running. And you can change your position, like we did a little bit of in the live class: start close to the wing so she drives ahead (you can totally place the toy out ahead on the line so you don’t have to throw it) or you can start near the jump, so she is behind you and finds the jump. She looks great here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Think my dog needs a better handler………
Not true! He loves da momma! Figuring out handling for young dogs is HARD and we make tons of mistakes. No worries – you two will come together as a team and it will be GREAT!
T
Welcome back! Hope you had a great time!!!!!
On the first video:
Getting the backside that close to the tunnel was hard at first!! This was a really good work session for her – nice coaching from Jamie too!
A little more connection on the push will get it – pointing to takeoff without looking at her actually closes your shoulders forward so she was pulling to the threadle side.
And the arm send sent her to the tunnel.So split the difference: don’t use your arm much at all for the backside, but look at her eyes more. And your path can be towards the edge of the wing to keep your shoulders open and show the backside without any accidental tunnels (don’t pull away from the line by turning your shoulder). You had a little more connection and no arm pointing at 1:51 and that totally helped! A soft connection is likely all that is needed – an intense connection will probably send her to the tunnel (like at 2:40, which is good because you were cuing the tunnel).
Towards the end she had figured out the puzzle 🙂 so you moving the start jump to the 2nd position showed us that she does need more of that softer connection for the backside. It is a totally Goldilocks moment:
– too much connection, very intense? Tunnel!
– not enough connection, shoulder turning? Threadle side.
– just right connection, soft connection and a soft arm? Backside!And of course she will get better and better as she gets exposed to more of these puzzles. They are wicked hard and she is doing great!!!!!

The 2 backside circle wraps on the bonus looked great – you were really pushing to see how early you could leave, and she was super excellent about maintaining commitment to the circle wrap without grabbing the tasty tunnel right there 🙂 Nice layering to the tunnel even when you were behind the jump! SUPER!!!!Great job!!
TracyGood morning!
>>When I watched the Smiley Face enlarged on YT I noticed that I’m using a pointy arm and finger throughout the exercise. Looks like I to get rid of that? >>
You don’t need to worry about arms or finger position as long as you are connected. You will develop a handling style with her as you do more of these. Did I ever show you the Magnet Finger video? It will help explain the hand/arm/finger 🙂 I will go find it.
>It’s been so long since I’ve done anything agility related it’s all new to me again and felt uncomfortable to do a numbered exercise. >
That is normal! It will come roaring back. And personally, it feels uncomfortable to me every time I get a new puppy started on these LOL!

>>I had to walk the course about 3 or 4 times and try to remember the verbal cues to use, LOL! This is probably also a good brain exercise for me.>>Good for you! I try to convince people to walk through it to get the verbals going – these walk throughs really help!!
Mission accomplished: these looked great and connected. She was fast and seemed to have no questions about where to go. One thing you do earlier are the spins: if you start the FC sooner (as she is passing you and then trust her and go to the blind cross element immediately you will be re-connected before she exits the wing so she will see the line sooner. I think your best spin was at 1:18! You started nice and early and by the time she was passing you, you were rotating and by the time she exited the wing, you were done and on the new side. Yay! The only thing to add there is to reach your hand back to her nose and look at her eyes, rather than have your hand at your side (which makes it harder for her to see the new side).
Everything else looked lovely, and I particularly loved how different all of your verbals sounded!!!! That really helps her! If you wanted to revisit this, you can spread the wings out even more for more running 🙂
>>Also tried tunnel/wing discrimination a couple of times but it didn’t go all that well. I guess that one just needs a ton of reps before she gets it.>>
Feel free to help her with physical cues on those if she is having a lot of questions. The discrimination is not just about the verbals 🙂
>>Wish I didn’t have to lug the tunnel out every time to practice, though. I miss my training partner (Cathy) back up in VA.>>
We miss you up here too!!!! And yes, it is a pain to lug out the tunnel. Have you seen those tunnel movers?
>>I plan to do the set point tomorrow with jump 2″ higher and the WIYH with me starting super close to the wing. None of those will take many reps, we had lots of exercise today.
Perfect!
>>Then probably early next week the new tunnel exit exercise from Week 2 and maybe more tunnel/wing discrimination practice.
Sounds good!
>>Should I keep practicing Left and Right with Minny Pinny or the jump standard? I still need to go thru MaxPup 1 and see what I missed and should to catch up on if/when we have time. >>
You can hold off on the Minny Pinny for now, it comes back in MaxPup 2 soon and then you can refresh it 🙂
Great job! Have a good weekend!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Well, except now when I get Dreamer out and Cas knows he’s missing some fun, he’ll bark and yap. >[
Can you give him a stuffed kong or something when you take them out? It will make it more happy-making for him 🙂
>>
So I definitely like recommendations about how to make picking him up more comfortable. >>At Home, you can sit on floor and have him jump into you lap and arms, then get a cookie, then put him down and throw a cookie. You can work up to him jumping into you lap or arms as you sit on the couch or stand (eventually).
And also, when you are on the ground, gentle reaching towards him, then cookie. And do it in slow movements, he doesn’t love fast movements towards him.>>On to training! I thought I’d see what he’d do over a couple of jumps like in the live, and he is just silly! I don’t have jump bumps so I just used bars on the ground>>
He is doing just fine 🙂 can you get some pool noodles for him to go over?
Also, a few things will help:
Have the MM a lot further away, at least 15 feet away, with you crouching by it. The MM being close with you standing (especially when you were facing him at the end) was what was producing the leapy form. Having it further, with you lower, will help him stride instead of leap.And, it was great that your hubby held him! Yay! Just ask him to keep the front feets 2 or 3 inches from the first bar – as he got further away, it was harder for Cas to find the form.
The barrel wraps look good and it is nice to see him transferring the concept to the great outdoors!!! Start him a little closer for now, just about an arm’s length away so it is really obvious for now.
And keep your feet together so he doesn’t try to line up between your feet LOL!
I think one or 2 more little sessions outdoors will be great then you can move into the other games as well.Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>Sometimes I can keep his tunnel commitment true to the tunnel, while giving him additional verbals, but I feel like if I start actively changing positions when he’s that far away, that I may pull him off. I’ll have to try it and of course, we’ll have to work to building up to that. Do you have any tips or easy ways to help train this skill?>>
I bet he is better at it than you realize! You don’t want to be too early… so place a leash or a light line on the ground 6 feet in front of the tunnel entry. Cue the tunnel very strongly from the previous obstacle, with a lot of connection. When his front feet hit that leash, switch to the exit verbal and start moving away. And, throw the reward to the exit line at the end of the tunnel. See how he does and keep me posted! When we are too early or disconnected, we see the dogs pulling off so I have found the leash on the ground to help me to be on time but not too early 🙂
Let me know how he does!
TracyHi!
>>Yes, that’s our huge challenge now, timing of cues. It’s a balance between commitment to the first thing before I can cue the 2nd thing, 3rd thing, etc.
Yes, he is in that transitional phase where you can start to push the timing and see what he will do 🙂 As you try to time things sooner and go to your next position sooner, add in more looking at the landing spots behind you for countermotion stuff – I have found the really helps the youngsters. And also early throws of the toy to help solidify the response to cues as you do them sooner and sooner.
This is a particularly hard sequence for timing and also for processing – lots of trained skills that have to override your physical position…. I freakin’ loved it! Yay!! Great first run. And the other two runs were super strong too!!!
Which brings up something to consider with the timing: since it is basically impossible to be perfect in timing all the things, you can prioritize the timing of the important, need-to-know cues and don’t worry as much about the less important cues where your physical location and/or motion will make them obvious.
For example:
The super important cues set up the layering and the turning away:
Push to 2 (:14, :51, 1:45)
Flip to tunnel 2-3 (:15, :52, 1:46)
Flip on tunnel exit (:23, 1:00, 1:54)I thought these were all well-timed here! Nice and early, and he responded really well!! No questions!
Lowest priorities: the left on the tunnel exit at 3, and the in in on 4 (both super obvious from your position) and also the backside at the end (I think you were using the same verbal for the backside push and the backside slice, but maybe I misheard? I think you have 2 different verbals?) The verbals wee a little late on these but he totally knew where to go, thanks to strong position and motion.
Medium priorities that require some verbal timing and attention to motion: the check check on 4 (:20) which is the wrap exit after the threadle, you can add in a little decel on the threadle in this context and switch to the wrap verbal sooner, so he gets a little tighter turn). The other medium priority spot was the left on jump 7 – it is hard to spit out the verbal on time in a tight space, but he was ready it really well! One earlier step into the line to cue the left turn as you are doing the switch will make it perfect.
Great job! Let me know if prioritizing makes sense, so hopefully you don’t feel that you are being too crazy. I thought you were very effective here on this rapid-fire sequence!!!
TracyHi!
>> I need to delay my tendency to get out of Dodge too quickly
It is hard to be patient 🙂 keep reminding yourself that he gets to go fast, all you need to do is navigate so you don’t need to rush 🙂
Tracy
This is Wind In Your Hair with the placed toy – the placed toy definitely has him driving ahead more with better head position and form over the jump. He might need to see you place it (like you did at 1:30 and after that) because that was when he was best able to find it on the line.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think.
TracyThis is moving target on one jump – he did a great job with the stay and keeping his head down to run to the toy – perfect! Try to face forward and walk forward – you were facing him and backing up.
You can definitely add the moving target to the set point now: lead out past jump 2 by about 10 feet, put the toy on the ground, start dragging it and release (walking forward). He is ready for this!
T
This is more set point rep – he is definitely sorting out the striding, very nice! I think he can be a tiny bit closer to the first jump here so he doesn’t have to reach as much to get into the jumps (reaching is pulling from the front, and ideally he will just liftoff from his rear). It looks like he was about a foot away, which is a little far – the sweet spot might be about 6 inches away from the first bump And remember to face forward as if heading to another obstacle, instead of facing him.
T
Hi –
This is the set point, with him set up nice and close to jump 1. He was more organized on these, really pushing in off his hind end! Yay! He definitely liked the toy better than the treat, you got more power for sure. Just be sure to not face him as you release him – be connected and looking at him, but face forward more: facing him is a collection cue and we don’t want him to slow down on these. You can try adding the moving target now, to get even more power.T
Hi –
This is the wing-tunnel smiley faces – looking great! He has lovely commitment to the wing and tunnel! And your connection and verbals were really strong here too. You had a little more distance so he could open up and run, which I think he really liked 🙂 And since I mentioned the length of session above – this was 2.5 minutes and perfect! Short sequences and a short session length, so you had his total focus and he didn’t get mentally tired.T
This is the wing-tunnel discrimination game. He is definitely figuring this one out, it is a hard challenge!
He does MUCH better with the verbals on the reps where you hold his collar, say the verbal, then let go – he is very accurate on those (like at :40 and 2:35)! When you say the verbal and let go all at the same time, he tends to have errors especially if it his the first time when you are switching to the other verbal. So, definitely hold the collar , say the verbal 3 or 4 times, then let go.
Also, set a timer for these sessions – it is hard for it to feel like a long session for us humans because we are not running, but there were almost 35 reps here – and his brain fried after about 2.5 minutes. You will see in the last couple of minutes that his failure rate actually went way up, and that was due to the repetition and mental fatigue. So, do a 1 or 2 minute session, take a break, and then either do something else or another short session of this.
T
