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Hi! You can break down the dog walk exits to work on finding the right lines in a sea of other obstacles – that is a rally popular course trend. And in practice, you can leave the bowl out past the dog walk as a visual aid, even if you don’t always reward (keep it randomized but the bowl with help produce the behavior without leaping :))
Tracy
Hi!
He did great with the back and forth game! And it is lovely there. There is a lot of available stimuli in the environment and he really tuned it all out in favor of the engagement with you. SUPER!! This can continue to go on the road to new places.For the tricks:
>. I’ve never thought about them like you suggested – trying to see which ones help the dog increase arousal – or decrease it – prior to a run.>
Think of it more as finding ones that optimize arousal (getting him in a mental place where he can really focus, engage, and respond) versus ones that are over-arousing (he can no longer focus/engage/respond).
On the first video, he liked the hand touches! You can reward from your hand up high to keep the engagement going. For the spin and twist you can totally use hand cues to help him respond – sometimes they can’t do it on the word alone, so a hand cue totally helps.
On the 2nd video, he liked the middle and leg weaves! These are fun and useful tricks.
>He frequently “dances” himself to see or smell things up in the air more easily. I haven’t tried dancing before, but he was less excited to dance than I thought he’d be.>
He might not (yet) see the dance is a trick – it might be something he does to access the environment. But, I am confident that he will quickly see it as a trick if you keep rewarding like you did here 🙂
So since he has a nice toolbox of tricks developing, you can add in the ones you think he likes best to the volume dial game – then let him give you feedback about how it optimizes his arousal but doing a sequence or something after it. Does he nail it with complete focus? Or does he get slow/sniffy or zoomie/wild – both of those are overarousal behaviors. And then we can really hone in on the tricks and rituals that work best.
You can keep mulling over the barking… I don’t want to lie and say that he won’t bark unless you cue it LOL so it depends on how much noise you want in your world 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Oh hey, is that our giant raccoon friend?
>I struggle being less careful cuz I feel like there’s no where to go.>
You can spread out the distances 🙂 And also more verbals and more urgent verbals can help give her more permission to go fast – you are very quiet 🙂 so she is quiet in her motion. You can also run closer to the jumps as that adds more motion. These lines don’t need lateral distance so being a little closer will get you both hustling and you’ll still get the crosses in.
The first run looked great! The BC at :37 went well – you can drive up there and start it sooner, no later than when she lands from 2. Lovely connection!
The RC there on the 2nd run at 1:24 worked, but the BC was faster for you both! You can get the RC even smoother if you get to 3 faster so you are on the landing side of it before she takes off. That way you can set the RC so when she lands, she already sees you facing the line. But overall, I definitely like the blind here better!
Nice work here 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>if we get to a place on a course where I get a chance to “catch up mentally” like weaves, seesaw then we can smooth things back out. >
That is why we are doing Double Whammys this summer… to get the handlers off balance (sorry not sorry hahaha). There might not be a place to catch up on a course, so we can practice the fine art of thinking on our feet and catching up in the moment 🙂 And when that gets easy, it becomes Triple Whammys!
>But it really all depends on whether or not I had the course and the handling in my head or not. I used to say that if I had a course really in my head, I could frequently run it without walking it, but I could walk a thousand times but if I didn’t have it in my head, it was 50/50 at best of running it well. >
This is sooooo true! And walk through practice helps get us there too – obsessively practicing walk throughs in training help us lock into courses much more easily at trials, when there is less time and less space for a full walk through. Walk through obsessing is in games package 3 🙂
>.I really need to be 100% focused on Sly, the course, my plan etc. these days……can’t chitchat ahead of time and go out and get it done anymore>
This is entirely relatable! Because you are an instructor and also as a very nice person, I am sure you have a lot of people in your ear. It is somewhat inevitable. At trials, you can try putting in your earbuds or something during the time you need to focus on Sly and the run, so people are less likely to want to chat.
During training, you can teach your brain to tune things out by turning on loud annoying music. Heavy metal LOL! Or inviting friends over to train and have them talk to you during the walk through and while you warm up Sly 🙂 It is SO ANNOYING but very useful for trials. You will very quickly master the fine art of smiling like you are listening but completely tuning them out too 😂🤣
And drawing boundaries is perfectly fine too! For example, I am fine to chat before a run in agility or flyball with my adult experienced dog. But if I have my young dog at the end of the leash? I have asked people (nicely asked, of course) to NOT chat when I have him out on leash – he is a high octane youngster that requires 100% of my attention (especially in flyball, lordy!!) And people generally respect that. Sometimes they forget and I just ask them to check in after the younger dog runs because I need to give him all of my attention.
I think your double whammy on sequence 3 went great!
> I don’t particularly like my handling choices here…..seems like layering the middle jump put me in a hard spot for the threadle wrap….but we did stay with it and get it done!>
I generally liked your choices, including the layering. If you did not layer, I think you would risk putting him off course to the wrong side of 5.
The one suggestion I have that would make the threadle wrap easier (especially on the double whammy runs would be to turn left on 3 rather than turn right.
Turning left on 3 will probably help him have a faster line to the 4 tunnel and definitely get you to 5 sooner too, because you don’t have to stick around at 3 to push him back to the tunnel then take off for the TW. If you turn him left (can be a rear cross on 3), verbals and parallel line motion will gt the tunnel entry and you can head directly to the line at 5.
In getting to the threadle wrap, you ended up with too much pull towards 6 at :20 & 1:10 & 2:04, so he thought you wanted the backside of 6. Decel into the threadle wrap will help too, which is why getting there sooner is useful (to give you time to decelerate.
On the first double whammy run, the right turn then helping send back to the tunnelg at 3/12 and being too close to 6/15 is what got the off course at 1:30.
You got it at 2:24 by pushing back to the threadle wrap more urgently. Yay!!And I think the rest of it was super nice! clear connection, name calls only when needed (at the tunnel entry) and he had no questions. Lovely!!!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I think maybe I don’t even know what you mean by a “serp arm”. >At 1:43-1:44, I drop my trailing shoulder back which is my “serp cue”. Is that what you mean by a serp arm?>
Yes – the trailing arm and shoulder rotation towards the dog that it brings is what I mean by serp cue. That presents shoulders that are parallel to the bar (one shoulder pointing to each wing, basically). It is a compound cue, meaning come-in-go-out. Without the serp arm, the shoulders end up perpendicular to the bar (this is what I call a ‘closed’ shoulder) which is only a ‘come in’ cue (like a post turn).
And part of if it the timing: if the serp is 2-3-4, then the serp jump is 3 (that is the in-then-out jump). So the serp arm needs to be up as he exits 2 so he can adjust for the challenging slice that is needed for the serp. If the serp cues begin after a takeoff spot for 3 is chosen, that is when we see the dogs land from 3 facing up then turn to 4. Ideally, with earlier serp arm/cues and keeping it up til after he lands from 3, he will be jumping 3 already looking at 4, and land facing 4.
>Interesting to me that you assign blame for the wideness at #5 to the backing up FC>
Dogs will follow our line of motion as the primary cue, so even with a nice collection on 4 with either the FC or BC, if we move backwards towards the tunnel they will follow that line and head towards us rather than towards 5.
On the FCs there (2:07, 2:27, 2:42) you can see him staying out on the line and mirroring your motion on a parallel path until you finish the FC rotation and face 5 – then he comes in towards 5. So getting rotated to face 5 as immediately as possible will tighten that line for sure.
>, I thought a sharper turn at 4 was the solution. >
More collection on 4 certainly won’t hurt 🙂 Coming out of the earlier serp cues, you can decelerate into the FC – that will add more collection to 4 and all decel helps up humans rotate our feet through a FC a lot more quickly. Moving fast through FCs usually makes it harder to finish the FC and be heading only in the correct new direction.
>When I do a BC I get a much wider turn than a FC.>
The FC here might definitely be a better option for some dogs – the decel will make a big difference in terms of showing the next line sooner. But trying a BC in this scenario might be surprisingly tight too -because it allows the handler to finish the cross sooner and be facing the new line without backing up sooner.
>the tunnel exit pointed directly at the front side of that jump, therefore I needed to be in position to send to the backside slice. It put me behind but that slice is WAY faster than a 360 wrap. >
Yes – with the tunnel facing the front of the jump, the slice is definitely the better option (the tunnel faced the wrap side on my setup, but variations in setup are perfectly fine of course).
You can play with sending to the backside from further away – you were putting yourself very close to his line here, and I don’t think he needs you to do that anymore when you give those strong, connected upper body cues.
You can be running towards the center of the bar and cueing the backside slice as he exits the tunnel. That will get you a couple of steps further up the line and that can make a huge difference.
>To say nothing of the fact that a backside slice is a well-known skill, a 360 threadle-wrap is a work in progress.
> More practice opportunities for that are coming next week 🙂
>The neutral objects were both winter clothes (the black one was a shawl type thing and the other was a hooded scarf thing).>
Perfect! He had a bit of challenge with that on the jump but worked through it really well.
>We had some thinking to do on the teeter. I started with 4-on but have allowed it to morph to 2o2o, so that is what I asked for/reinforced. >
I think the 2o2o is a clearer criteria for dogs in general, so that can make it easier to get the behavior consistently.
>When you say more interesting, are we still talking neutral or should it be a less-than-favorite toy?>
You can move to novel-exciting (explained here: https://agility-u.com/lesson/under-pressure-challenges-3/)
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi! This went really well!!!
>I have a connection and timing issue on that jump before the tunnel.>
It was just connection, not timing. But that is good to know and easy to put on the list of things to remember when running her. Here are more details:
Most of the walk through was spot on and lovely – I knew what the sequence was, and your handling plan, verbals, & your connection were clear for the most part.
Two spots where you started to look forward ahead of your invisible dog in the walk through:
– On the push to the backside (:14 and :39). Remember that backside sends involve a lot of connection.
– At the end on the last 3 jumps, so remember to stay connected all the way through.
Run 1 with Grace:
She was moving FAST! That is good to know, so you can add more speed to the walk throughs.The disconnection (looking ahead) on the backside send in the walk through is what bit you in the run at 1:01 and 1:28 and 1:56 –
You looked ahead while she was still behind you. She read it as the beginning of a blind cross cue, so she changed sides behind you and took the wrong side of the jump.Compare to 1:33 when you added connection very directly to her, and she got it really well!
So the big thing to remember here is to show her BIG connection on a send to the backside. I think you were looking down at where you wanted her to be, but she was behind you so that ended up looking disconnected and like the beginning of a blind cross.
You were looking a little ahead on the closing line when you ran her, but your motion supported the line really well and she had no questions. This is also good to know: connection is not as important as long as your motion is super clear.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I need to be clearer and have faster cues. >
With young fast dogs, yes we need to be as clear as possible but not necessarily faster – maybe earlier, but not faster because faster makes it harder to process the cues. If you are a little slower with your pace but super connected, then she will be able to process all the info better!
>It’s definitely been a huge adjustment from running with my first dog Kida who has short little legs and is square shaped (lol) to Sól who is extremely fast and bendy!>
Yes, a little different LOL!! Plus Kida has a lot more understanding as an experienced adult, so the handling will feel different for now. But you are doing GREAT!!!!
The sequences went well – I felt that you were more connected without rushing, and that really helped her keep up the bars and find the lines with no questions. YAY!!
My only suggestion is to place your blind closer to 3 and not on the straight line past 2. You can use your line of motion and position to give earlier turn cues:
Lead out almost to 2, or past 2 – but on a lateral line. You will be several steps away from 2, heading more over to 3. As you move, release and start to run so she sees you heading to 3. That will tell her before the blind that you are going to 3 and not running straight.Leading out to the landing side of 2 presents a straight line over 2 rather than a turn to 3, which makes it harder to get the turn info on time. You were definitely starting your blind earlier here which was great! You can see her thinking it is a straight line then adjusting at the last minute, so being closer to 3 will help.
A grabbed a couple of screenshots to give a visual of what I mean:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1VGWORLy6Efpbolkdxb53t7mSX2_tB3s6ny8VmZ33CEg/edit?usp=sharingGreat job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
The tunnel is 15′ in the demo videos. For a fast dog, 15 feet would be the minimum distance between jumps as long as the jumps are low (8 or 12″) which will be an excellent challenge for your timing because Saucy will be moving FAST! You can hav e higher bars at 18 or 21 feet.Tracy
Good morning!
It is good that you can make up your own course in premier FEO! That provides a lot of good training opportunities.
>I have been contemplating whether this “around” verbal many people use might be worth training for 180s and I guess they also use it for 270s perhaps? Otherwise, I use 2 directionals like “right, right” or “left, left”.
I don’t think you need ‘around’ if you have a soft turn left/right verbal. And for 270s – that would be your backside slice verbal.
>I feel like I use the directionals too much with Benni.>
It is a possibility! That reminds me, did you get my email about the lessons?
> Once I get him turning on a pinwheel, for instance, do I need to keep saying my directional for all the jumps in the pinwheel? >
You only need to keep saying them if the turn cue applies for every jump in the pinwheel. Otherwise, you can ay it to apply for the jump that needs the turn cue.
> Also, do I need to cue turns with my outside arm as well as using the verbal directional? >
This will depend entirely on the sequence you are handling, as well as if your dog needs it or not.
>I want to keep it as clear and simple for Brioche and clean up any unnecessary of bad habits that I have.>
I agree! And I would rather a young dog go really fast and maybe a little bit wide, instead of doing too many turn cues.
>I guess I don’t gauge where I should position myself for lead out pivots correctly.>
All handling should be going to the next obstacle, so the position should be somewhere along the line to get as close to the next obstacle as possible. So in the lead out pivots you can be right at 3 🙂 And running into the blind, you can be running towards 3 and not towards 2.
Tracy
Hi!
The opening all the way through the weaves looked strong both times here! You had less acceleration to 3 and a bit of a shoulder turn, so his line to 3 was tighter on the first run than it was when you ran it again.
Leaving him in the weaves then doing a FC to the DW worked nicely. You don’t need to go as deep on the DW – it put you too close to 8, so you ran parallel to the bar at 8 which made the FC line 7-8 a bit wide. You can hang back a bit to handle from the landing side of 9 which will produce a really nice line!
Or, you can keep him on your left for the dog walk: leave him in the weaves to get close to the bottom and flip him away. See if you can layer the dog walk for the 7-8-9- 10 line, which puts you in a great spot for 12 without having to rear cross it.The ultimate decision on what to do there really depends on what the best option for the RDW hit would be. He definitely was not hitting criteria on the 2nd one 🙂
> First time through I didn’t cue the second tunnel in time.>
It was not a timing thing – it was rotation on the tunnel entry, He saw the rotation as you moved away on the entry of the 10 tunnel so that cued a tight turn on the exit. A post turn there gets it done, or not letting him see the rotation (doing it after he is in the tunnel like you did at 1:12) helped too! He ran it really well the 2nd time through there.
You can add deceleration and turn verbals at :28 to tighten up the RC on 12 – you were moving fast and calling his name a lot, so he went wide. Decel plus a switch or right verbal will help tighten it up.
You were probably thinking the 13-14-15-16 line was weird LOL but that is because you flipped the backside: 14 should be the backside and 15 is a front – you had 14 as a front and 15 as a back. which made it harder, You got it done really well but I am sure you were thinking it was an icky line LOL! And the ending after the final tunnel was strong, lots of independent commitment.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
I think cancelling the trial was the right choice – even a ‘yellow’ code on the air quality is not a good agility scenario.
Kaladin’s video;
First run – the switch after the poles worked great and got you MILES ahead for the next line!
Based on how this was set, I think exiting the backside as a spin (:17) to get him on your left side will set a shorter faster line than exiting as a FC with him on your right and pushing to the last 2 jumps.You can apply a similar strategy to see if you can get even more speed on the opening of popout 2: send him to 1 on your left then keep him on your left for 2 as you blast up the line to get a BC 2-3 🙂 It will be challenging but I think it will be faster than pushing him away from your right (plus he loves it when you barely make it to blinds LOL)
The rest went great! Yay!
Pop out 3 –
he kind of saved you on the threadle slice at 1:02 when you stepped towards it really early and almost pushed him back to the other side of the jump. Much smoother at 1:20. And the rest went great – he really liked it when you got urgent with the OUT JUMP for the layering and driving him harder after that – a whole new gear of speed!>alternate plan for #5 too.>
I timed the difference between the threadle slice and the push to the backside – the push to the backside was 3/10s faster just on that section. It required more scramble and urgency from you. which always gets him pumped up 🙂
>These weaves were a bit above her pay grade – I think I’d done a flip away (switch) maybe once or twice with her months ago>
I thought she was brilliant finding the entry with the discrimination jump out there, and a gold star for flipping away even if she didn’t fully find the jump! Yay! You gave bigger cues at :29 and she found the jump: SUPER!
The ending line went really well too – you easily got the backside and the push away to the last jump. As with Kaladin, I bet a spin on the backside to get her on your left will be even faster.> And the entry off the layered jump was also new.>
That was hard too – nice job breaking it down a bit. You can show it to her with you standing in threadle position, same as if it was on a jump.
She had a small mad at 1:33 when you sent to the backside but then started running backwards (total lack of caffeine moment LOL) She recovered well, though 🙂
Pushing to the backside at 1:47 worked well even with a moment of forgetting where to go – you were very quick to push to it then get past the ending wing, and she drove really well on the last line even if you were making stuff up because the caffeine drought was making things hard 🙂Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
This went really well – Fusion is finding her lines really well and with a ton of speed, and you are connected and staying in motion really well!
Nice blind in the opening (2-3),- I bet you can start it even sooner, as soon as she exits 1 and looks at 2)
To get a tighter turn 4-5, call her before she enters the tunnel (2 meters before) and let her see you rotate before she enters the tunnel.
Nice job driving the line 5-6-7-8-9! You were blocking the wing at 10 which pushed her away to 1 (:17).
The ending line was tricky, especially because you had 16 set up as a backside and it should be the obvious front side after 15. The first run had a late cue on 14 at :36 – trying to get into position after she landed almostt got jump 16 insteadof 15 but having to stay there that long got the back jump.
You were earlier with the cues at 1:25 and she was much tighter there – you don’t need to rotate your feet as much to bring her in, it would be fun to try it as a serpentine: you feet keep going to the line towards 16 while the upper body cues her to come in and take 15.
Getting to the takeoff side there got it tighter for sure – sending away to 12 then getting 13 while staying in motion will get you there even sooner 🙂Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>I’m trying to leave it in the pocket more…but that habit is taking some time to learn. I probably should also try to carry it in my hand – to proof against it.>
Both! That way you are both comfy with all sorts of new different approaches to reinforcement.
He did well with the back and forth pattern game here! You can see him assessing the environment then returning his engagement to you faster and faster. Super! You can add walking back and forth as well here, he seems ready for it.
The up and down game on the 2nd video was even faster, in terms of him re-engaging! There was a distracting noise in the background (a fan or something?) but he was able to tune it out. Yay!
You can move to a different spot, as well as add little distractions in the environment. I like to add the leash in these early stages, so when you take it all on the road the leash doesn’t become a huge distraction or challenge in terms of needing 3 hands 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
Donna’s shirt cracked me up here!The sequences well really well 🙂
Sequence 1: You can line her up and even use more of a stay & lead out at 1. If she is facing you and then you surprise her with a send, you might get he wrong side like on rep 1 🙂
You had really good position by 4 for the FC! You can start the FC sooner: when she has exited the tunnel and is looking at 3, you can begin the FC rather than waiting for her to get closer to 3. You can also play with running into the blind cross here too. The ending line looked lovely!
Sequence 2:
Great lead out position on 2 – did you drop a cookie or did she think you dropped one on the first rep? Maybe it was because you stood there for a bit too long?
You moved sooner at 1:55 which helped her find the line – but then you disconnected and pointed forward, which sent her past 3 to the threadle wrap 🙂 Fancy! At 2:52 you disconnected to point forward to 3, but also pointed your feet to the center of the bar, so she read it as a rear cross 🙂I love how Donna asked if that was what you wanted, because that is what it looked like: great job continuing so that Bella didn’t get worried about it! The ending looked great.
Think of the 2-3 line as a serpentine: keep your arm back and your eyes on her eyes as you move to the exit wing of 3, and she will find the line really well. Don’t release the arm cue or the eye contact til you are very sure she has the correct line at 3.
Sequence 3:
I loved your blind here 3-4 at 3:34! Perfect! Yay for the RC too at 4:16 – that is harder and you executed it clearly so she could find the line well.
Overall, you can be less careful on these sequences 🙂 You were connected for 99% of it and she is committing really well, so you can drive her harder and run faster 🙂 You were being careful so she was being careful. Get wild! That might create some bloopers but no worries, she will get to feeling the wind in her hair. If she is being careful because there is all this handling and the bars are taller, you can run her at 12″ for a bit as you two add the newer skills.
Great job here!
Tracy
