Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Setting up closer will get more of the push from the rear, and better organization stepping into the grid.
THi!
>>. I’m not sure why I forgot I’m supposed to use it 🤷♀️! But I sure did forget. I was then Like oh yeah, I forgot all about that 🤣!!!>>
Ha! Some folks don’t like to use the outside arm, but it is really helpful here!
>>This was a fun sequence!!! She rocked it!!! Gosh it made me think 🤣😊!I think I suffered brain fatigue🤣. I really tried to be more timely with all my verbals! I think all the equipment behind made her go super wide for the wing turn. This was our second time through it, I forgot to hit record the first time! I was like 🤬! That’s the worst🤣🤣. She rocked the first time too!>>
She nailed it!!! YAY!!!! No worries about the wide turn to the wing in the middle – there was no line to lock onto so she was probably looking for a line 🙂 The rest looked great – the opposite arm definitely helped! And after the very last backside, you can do a spin to the last jump instead of a post turn to tighten it even more.
Next challenge: after you send to the wing in the middle, layer the jump on the tunnel send and do the switch away form the tunnel exit to the jump while you are on the other side of the purple jump! Eek!
have fun 🙂
TracyHi!
>>Thanks for the great advice on the tunnel/wing games. How often should we work on this game?
On the set point raising the bar, should I do that one more time this week with the 2nd bar raised 2″ or wait until next week since you said this is one to do only once a week.>>You can space things out so she plays an agility game every 2 or 3 days. The games are working the dogs harder now, physically and mentally, so you don’t really need to do them every day. So the wing-tunnel game can be spread out every 2 or 3 days, and the jumping stuff can be once a week (different day than the other stuff). So the next set point can be over the weekend, which will give her brain and body a nice break from it 🙂
The wing wrap pre-game with food and toys looked good, no trouble at all on either! She had to work a little harder when you were further away, but overall I think she did super well on both!!!
>.My plan for today is WIYH again and possibly the tunnel/wing discrimination, >>
Since she has already done almost 8 minutes of wing wrapping today, skip the wing-tunnel discrimination for two reasons – no need to add more wrapping to her body, plus she will be in wrap mode making it harder to get the tunnel. the WIYH game has some wraps, so don’t do too many reps of that either so we avoid too much repetition of the same movement.
Have fun!
TracyHi!
Awww Rudy!!!! He looks great! Just make sure he doesn’t get run over LOL!! Older dogs have no understanding of personal safety issues. Baxter was a good boy to not run into him.
The wing wraps at the beginning look great, and it was smart to warm up with those outdoors.
The wing-tunnel-wing-tunnel commitment and connection are looking fabulous!!! And so are the soft turns. You decelerated for too long on the soft turn at 3:44ish and that ended up pulling him off the line, so keep trusting him and running line you did on the previous soft turn and on the last rep with the soft turn too, those were great!
Now about those verbals…
>>It went pretty well I think until the very end where I’m aware that I used the wrong directional for Baxter. I’m finding using verbals very challenging – never did them with the older dogs other than GO and the contacts so wrapping my mind around which word goes with which direction is killing me. I looking at it as one of those mind games to keep your brain sharp as you grow older, but I’m really worried about screwing up poor Baxter>>
You won’t screw him up! And I totally understand how it is hard to add 10,000 new verbals after literally a decade or so of not using them. It is a brain-melter for sure!!! But again, you won’t screw him up 🙂 My best advice here is to take a longer moment before each rep and give yourself a mental walk through of the verbals. I do this while I am tugging: “Ok, this next rep will be right turns, so I need to say right right right”. That really helps me get it correct! My guess is that you were very engaged with him, and didn’t take that moment to plan the verbals. So, take that moment (and it gives you both a moment to breath :)) for the planning of each rep and then you will see the verbals get easier and easier.
Looking at the set point:
This looked good! Rudy was an excellent supervisor here LOL!
>>I’m wondering if I should raise the jump bar a little bit? It’s locked in at 4” here but outdoors it seems like it’s low enough that Baxter is more running over it than jumping. >>
He is definitely jumping. And the form looks good! I think you were seeing his quick feet happening here so it looked like running, but it was actually jumping. He is looking good!
The stay is definitely looking better! YAY!!!! And you had the target moving here too on at least some of the reps (but you were out of the frame a lot so it was hard to tell which ones) and he looked great – no rushing or anything. He was frozen in the stay on the last one – maybe because the target was not moving? I don’t think he was tired, but ya never know with these teenagers LOL!! It is possible he needed a runabout 🙂
Since this session went so well here is a plan for the next 2 sessions:
– next session, maybe on Thursday or Friday of this week, repeat this session but use the moving target on all reps.
– if that goes well and he is largely successful, the session after that (maybe next Sunday or Monday) – repeat the same thing except raise bar #2 to 6″ 🙂 Do you know how tall he is? I am 99% sure his full jump height will be 8 inches, yes?
Great job here!
TracyHi!
This is the wing-tunnel proofing game. Good job being nice and close to the wing/tunnel to start, that really helped him! And I loved your big rewards when he got it right 🙂
One suggestion: Try to be more systematic on the start of each rep: hold his collar, start the verbal, then let go. That will allow him to process the verbal before you both start moving, and that will set up a lot more success. Plus it gives you a moment to clarify the verbal for yourself so you don’t add in extra “go” cues or say digdig before the tunnel cue 🙂Nice work on all of these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This is definitely the smiley face game – looking good! Nice connection and verbals here! One question – do you have separate verbals for the wraps (to come bck around the wing to the tunnel) and the soft turns (to go from wing to wing, in this case) – it sounded like you were using the wrap verbals for both, so you will definitely want to use your left and right verbals for the soft turns.The next step is to spread things out, so you can both move more without losing the connection. I think you can get the wings to be 15 feet or more from the tunnel 🙂 And add some more tunnel bags too – he will be moving a lot faster with the added distance, and we don’t want him to slip if the tunnel moves.
Tracy
Hi!
I think this might be the smiley face game morphed with the wing-tunnel discrimination? The wing was very close to the tunnel, but you were doing some of the smiley face handlingso he and I were both a little confused LOL!Try to make the lines and context clearer to him, he had some questions: if you are starting with the tunnel and sending to the wing, the wing should be about 12-15 feet away for now, and you can be running to it to handle the line. To do the wrap-tunnel discrimination, position yourself and him right by the wing & tunnel (which can be about as close as they were here) so he knows which one want when you cue them.
Tracy
Hi!
This is the advanced level of the Wind In Your Hair with the toy on the ground. The very first rep was hard because he considered going directly to the toy, but the other reps looked good!!You were ahead of him on these, so the next step here would be to start so close to the wing that you can touch it (instead of sending him to it) and stay at the wing until he just about finishes the wrap – then you can do the FC and run, which will allow him to learn to drive way ahead of you 🙂
Nice job!
TracyHi –
this is one rep of the wind in your hair game – he did well, but as with the others clips, the distance is too tight here to get the speed up. I think maybe this was before the video above, where the was more distance for him.T
Hi!
You were able to widen the spacing here a bit which helps, but he was jumping towards a wall so you were not getting the same extension as you would it you turn the setup so he is running the length of the building rather than the width of the building.You can also change your position: you can start very close to the wing rather than send him to it, so he drives ahead of you to the jump! That will set you up nicely for the advanced level, where the toy is placed out on the ground well past the 2nd jump for him to drive ahead to. And keep using the toy, no worries if he is having a happy little romp after he gets it 🙂 It will be a more effective reinforcement for driving ahead 🙂
TracyGood morning!
The first video is the set point: His stay looks great! That will make these jump games so much easer 🙂
He is doing well here – only one adjustment to make. Set him up a lot closer to jump 1, so his front feet are about 6 inches from the jump. That way he has to push off from his rear and his front feet will land between 1 and 2. He was set up too far from jump 1 so he had trouble with his striding – lead changes on reps 1 and 3 and 5, and a bit of reaching (pulling from the front) on reps 2 and 4. He was more balanced on rep 6, but not really pushing from the rear. Setting up closer to jump 1 will promote pushing off the rear more.
The second video here is the wind in your hair, just a short clip of it – his commitment looks good, so you can now turn this setup lengthwise in the building, so he gets to run run run 🙂 The spacing here was close so he didn’t get to stride out a lot or drive ahead of you.
Nice work!
TracyWell, I won’t discourage you if you want to get another one, Muso is really amazing…
I have gotten puppies in “pairs” twice now (CB and Elektra, Ramen and JB) and so far it all good and not that insane. The only thing that gets rough are entry fees, now that CB and Elektra (and the others) are trialing, but I just limit how many classes they do.
