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Good morning!
Yes, she could be a bit pent up with all the rain, plus she’s an adolescent and they do spicy things 🙂 I think the Advanced level with the placed toy and also being closer to the wing can help.
Looking forward to the set point video!
TracyI took a lot of coat off her shoulders. She looks weird but got a 14.75 measure!!!! And it was under the supervision of 2 of the most experienced judges in NAFA so I will take it. One more to go! Then I will let her hair grow back haha
Good morning!
I love that you and Helen are having get togethers to train! Yay! And it is great for both dogs indeed!!
Yes, this game is HARD! The combo of switching away and passing an obstacle through a box with you behind him was a brain melter at first!!! Placing a toy definitely helped. Yay! The switch away was the easy part. You can also close off the tunnel by having the ends of it facing down so he sees a tunnel but can’t get in it 🙂
I think he made big progress in this session, though – basically it was an introduction to the concept of NOT taking the first thing he sees, especially when he is on the lead towards it, but to process the verbal and find the line past the obstacle. He was doing great by the end 🙂 So for the next session, you can mix in switch away from the jump to the tunnel, and switch away from the jump to pass the tunnel and find the next jump like you did here.Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!
>>We tried this for Handling Challenge 5! SO MUCH HARD! LOL I had to make it easier so she would be successful. We only tried the easiest position of the jump because it was so challenging for her.>>
It is really hard – I think you were trying to do a lot of it without motion along the line at first and she needed a couple of reps to figure that out. You can move along the line, rather than stand still at it 🙂 As you move along the line and cue the tunnel, you can keep your shoulders open to the tunnel. If you turned your shoulders towards the jump, she was not sure if she should carry on to the tunnel. So that handling and motion along the line should totally help 🙂
Then after a lot of tunnels in a row, it was hard to go back to the backside but she got it on the 2nd rep and also had a pretty high success rate as you were moving on the last part of the session! Nice!!!!
>>What is the difference between “push away” vs “stay on parallel path”? Would push away be just a sharper angle for the dog that is not a parallel path? Here are links to drawings that describe what I’m thinking. Am I getting it? Also is the exit path I’m showing for the backside wraps correct?>
You are totally getting it! The push away and the parallel path are just different angles of approach that are NOT threadles 🙂 Your drawings are perfect! And yes, the wrap versus slice is correct too – but bear in mind that there are lots of variations on the slices and wraps, so the wrap exit can be any variation of exiting towards or around the same wing they entered on, and the slice is any variation of exiting towards or arounf the wing opposite of where they entered. We allow for the variations to use handling, otherwise we would probably need 8 more verbal cues LOL!!!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! I am so happy to see you here 🙂
>I got some work in before the rain started…AGAIN.>
The weather has been INSANE!!!!!! Fingers crossed for dry weather ahead.
The wind in your hair game here is off to a good start! I think the hardest part for her is ignoring the toy – which is what you also from yesterday’s sessions too, I think. We want her to work in arousal and learn to handle herself, so we can keep working the mechanics with the toy to help her out.
You can position yourself closer to the wing to help her commit to it and move a little more slowly (no rush to do the FC), even with the super awesome toy in your other hand. You were moving through the FC a little too quickly at the beginning when she was coming towards you and not going to the wing.When you moved a little less fast at 1:02, she committed beautifully! Then it was clear sailing after that and especially gorgeous on the last 2 reps!! Wow! She must have really thought your cues & connection were clear, because she didn’t make any noise 🙂
>>I don’t have video but she was a bit wild, I had to put away the toy and use the manners minder instead to get any consistent performance.>>
Was it similar to the beginning of this session where she was coming towards you? Or was it in the Advanced level where you had the toy on the ground? Let me know more about the session and we can game plan 🙂
Great job!
TracyWe have games coming up which emphasize the transitions into and out of collection. Stay tuned!
tracy
Good morning!
>>Won’t the moving target change their jumping mechanics?>>
yes – but in a good way 🙂 We are getting so much more power and better head position, as well as better organization because we are adding motion in so much sooner (but in a productive way). The game with the moving target is posted now, I will make the intro in the forum & email as soon as I look at everyone’s videos here 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>>(We retried the distance wind in you hair and it went well)
Awesome!!!
Looking at he wrap proofing – it overall went really well!!! I think the hardest part of the session here was figuring out the toy part of it LOL!!! At first she wasn’t into the toy, then she was really into the toy LOL! I laughed out loud when she was doing the agility with the toy in her mouth 🙂
She was definitely figuring out the discrimination here – it is SUPER hard!! One suggestion: hold her collar and say the verbal cue of what you wan a few times (wrap or tunnel) and then let her go (and you can move when you let her go). By letting her hear the verbal 3 or 4 times before you let go, she will be able to process it better when you both start to move. If you move AND start the verbal all at once, she is going to rely on handling and we want to pump up the power of the verbals.
And if you feel like you would need a third hand to do this (hold her, hold the toy, etc) then you can totally stick the toy in your pocket or under your shirt and whip it out when she is correct. This game doesn’t require precision rewards, so you can mark the correct response then dig out the toy 🙂
Great job here! Are you caught in that crazy atmospheric river?!?!?! I hope you get some dry weather ahead!
TracyGood morning!
Smiley face going well – was this his first session? He is doing a great job of putting the pieces together! YAY!!! Sure, he is still asking a question here or there but overall you are super connected, running clear lines, and using good verbals. Happy dance! He will get more and more comfy as you keep practicing this 🙂Only one suggestion from this video (and probably for everything too LOL!):
When you are rewarding him, replace “yes” with “get it” and don’t say “yes” anywhere else on course 🙂 The “yes” word accidentally becomes a reward marker (we all do it by accident) but on course, if we say ‘yes’, the dogs stop working and look at us, because they (correctly) think a reward is coming. So…. don’t say yes if posible, and remind yourself to use your other markers like “get it”.
Tunnel-wrap discriminations are off to a great start! On that first rep, you pulled away from the tunnel and he needed you to hold position more like you did on the 2nd and 3rd reps.
Nice job helping him with a little bit of handling on the wraps!
His questions were baby-dog questions, and he will get more and more comfy each time you play this.
One suggestion: Do more with his collar so he gets used to wearing it and to you holding it – let him wear it more during everyday life, and also use it to line him up in this game: take a gentle hold of it, give him a cookie, then send him into the game. That way will be happy to let you hold it and less itchy about it 🙂
Wind In Your Hair is also going well. He was looking at you a bit as he exited the wing wrap, especially when he was on your left. You can totally let him see that there is nothing in your hands LOL!
I see what you mean by him going faster when you throw the toy versus when it is placed. I think it is a combo of him wanting to look at you hands (and watch the toy get thrown) plus the ‘dead’ toy is not as exciting as the moving toy. Since we don’t want him to watch your hands and we do want the excitement of the moving toy…. do you have anyone who can throw it for you? That person can stand off to the side and throw it past the jump as soon as Huck looks forward. That can be the best of both worlds: moving toy, and not looking at you as you throw it.
Great job on these!!!
Tracy
She might end up being at 6 feet as she continues to power up, but for now we will stay at 5 feet and see what she says 🙂
TracyYour ‘catch’ mechanics look great. And it is something I do when I start trialing dogs – I do NFC runs and throw a toy reward back to them on the start line (in UKI and USDAA where we are allowed to throw toys :))
Keep up the great work!
TracyGood job working the stays in front of the MM here! That was the hardest part for him: sit and stay in front of the MM 🙂 Great job with all of the rewards!!!
As you built it up to use both jumps, we could really begin to see some true jumping form! He is looking good! The MM makes his sit to line up a little ‘sticky’ but he will get faster and faster with practice. But since this is going so well. you can move to the next step which involves the moving target. I am posting that up in a few minutes. It involves the toy from the pre-game 🙂 and the set point.
Nice work 🙂
TracyHi! He was looking happy and fast here too!!!
Now that he is flying and driving to the jump, you don’t need to rush – be sure to make a big connection on your new side after the FC so he ends up on the correct side of you. At :24 in the Baby Level and at the beginning of the Advanced level towards the end of the video, you were going really fast but didn’t quite get connection so he ended up on the other side of you. Compare that to 3:15 and the last rep where you make a very clear eye contact connection and he was perfect!!!
He did really well in the advanced level game, ignoring the toy on the ground to do the wing wrap but then driving to it when you cued it. Yay!
He only had one other small question – he didn’t commit to the wrap at 1:30. You were pretty far from the wing – that is good to add distance, but be sure to use your dog-side leg on the send along with the arm and verbal. You didn’t move your dog-side leg forward, so he was not sure if he should go that far away.
Great job!
Tracy
