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Good morning! I am getting an error message on these (an exclamation point in a triangle). Usually the iCloud shares work well, so I am not sure why they are misbehaving today LOL!!! If I can’t get them to work, can you load them on YouTube?
Thanks!
TracyGood morning! I am glad she is reading the soft brake easily – it is intended to be intuitive, so we don’t have to train more – we can just do it LOL!!
The combo games looked awesome!!!! She read everything really well, no questions about if it was the jump or the tunnel, and she ignored the neighbor dog. Wow!!!!
On the 2nd video, she was perfect about reading the change from the tunnel on go-rounds 1 and 2 to the wing on go-round 3. Yay!
Since that all went well and I believe you are in for hot weather… here is a game to practice keeping your hands low 🙂 Use a cold drink which feels good in the heat LOL! The smaller the dog, the lower the hands should be – and I bet you can get even more success with lower hands so she sees connection better, especially as we add more distance 🙂
I play this game all the time to keep me hands calm LOL!!
(And if you are anywhere near Ocala this weekend, come by the WEC, we will be there helping with the ESPN Flyball Invitational!!)
The chair-verbals game is definitely going better! The main thing is that she has figured out that it is about responding to verbals and moving away, even without you moving. Good girl!!! She had a LOT more success!! I think the hardest part was when you wanted her to go to the tunnel after a series of jump verbals, so you can mix in more alternating so the jump doesn’t get too much more value than the tunnel here. And on the way to the jump, she was stopping to look at your hands, so you can definitely throw the rewards. And if you want another level of challenge: put the MM out there past both obstacles, and you can use it as the reward for both!! It is a hard visual for the pups but I think she is ready 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>Well, this was hard! I don’t really have enough space, so the wing and jump are closer than ideal and at a very flat angle.>>
You made it work! You got it set up so that all of the challenges were maintained (it is supposed to be hard :)) and you and Sprite looked great!
Tunnel sends – looking great! You can add even more distance for bigger layering. That tunnel send distance is a HOT TOPIC right now in agility (I am sure Loretta presented some of that last weekend!) so the more distance, the merrier 🙂 And she was a super good girl because she never ended up in a tunnel unless cued to it (there was one accidental cue, see below LOL!)
Looking at the crosses:
The first FC was late (:08) but you recognized that and the next FC at :14 was PERFECT – nice adjustment!!!!Your blind cross timing was also great – she turned a lot better on the blinds than on the FCs. Was it because she already knew the sequence? Or because the blinds work better for her? Not sure, so the next session of this type of thing (even if it is a different setup) should start with the Bus so we can track what she reads better when she doesn’t know the sequence.
Fabulous job getting the threadle side versus the backside of the jump after the blinds and the fronts – great connection and verbals! I saw no questions from her on those.
The threadle wrap was a harder skill for sure, but that is fine because it is a lower priority for a 2 year old dog. The FCs and BCs are the higher priority skills and they looked great!
For the threadle wraps – you can. Fade some of the rotation you were doing at the first jump, it was putting you a little too far from the threadle jump. Instead, you can be moving towards the threadle jump wing and as she is coming over the first jump, then you can rotate, get her on your hands, and do that pull and circle move with the hands that cues the actual threadle.
By already being closer to the threadle jump, it will be less motion for you which helps her in 2 ways by setting up more of a collection cue, and also taking out any extra motion in a direction you don’t want. That extra motion is why she took the tunnel at 1:09 – you were definitely moving that way as she was taking off for the jump, so she was being a good girl. Compare that to your decel and foot rotation and she never looked at the tunnel after that.
Also, click/treat to you for seeing things in a rep and making an adjustment in the next rep (like timing on the FC, and decel/foot rotation on the threadle wraps) to get success. Yay!!!
>>Saw the wrong hand on threadle wrap on the video afterwards and we didn’t do one of the threadle slices… that’s what happens when you don’t check and are in a hurry!>>
Yes, I use a low 2-hand threadle cue for the wraps (as well as a turn cue on the jump before it, if needed – a name call would work here). But the hand cue is personal preference, lots of folks use one hand here like a flick. I have found the low 2 hand cue looks different than my other hand cues, which helps the dogs. And yes, when you get a moment, try the threadle-slide 🙂
The confident tunnel sends made the little combo sequence look great, you easily got your right verbal in on the tunnel exit and picked her up on the threadle side of the jump. Lovely!!!!
Great job here!!!! Fingers crossed for more good weather ahead in your area!
TracyGood morning!
>>Left in a blooper where he slammed onto and rolled my ankle, then showed very little regard for my injury. >>
I thought you meant he hit you during the handling! But hitting you during the tugging looked really painful, OUCH!! It was very helpful of him to bark at you while you were trying to soothe your ankle LOL!!! I am glad your ankle is OK!
The session looked good! He responded really well to everything and it looked like you had plenty of hustle and excitement happening too! Even in those moments where you were trying for the ‘rushed’ feel, he was still really good about reading the lines. Yay!
The only time I thought he might have had a tiny question was when he was wrapping to his right and you were picking him up on your right for the jump: he was a tiny bit wider on those turns than on the wraps to the tunnel or the left wraps to the jump. An example would be at 1:18, but he had similar lines in that context throughout. Was it because he was looking at the tunnel? Was it because he was following your running line? Or both 🙂 ? Not sure! Either way, he still took the jump and we will look for any wideness questions in the upcoming sequences.
The other thing to do with these setup is to move the jump closer to the tunnel (5 feet apart) but the week 2 games have that, so feel free to move to those (they also have more variety in handling challenge, which he is totally ready for :))
Great job!!!
TracyHi! This session went really well!!!
Nice job building up the distance on the layering to the tunnel – she was getting a lot of distance there by the end of the session!
Very nice connection on the blinds, she never looked at the tunnel 🙂 Getting the front side was easy after the blind. Nice! The backside push went well, nice job helping her come in over the jump on the serpy line there.
For threadle slice – you can cue the jump sooner t help her take it after pulling her into you, but also work separately so you don’t have to cue it and she automatically goes out to it.
The threadle slice and the serps are both from the strike a pose games in max pup, so you can revisit those!
Great job here – keep adding some distance on the tunnel send, and you can move to the next game as well!
Tracy
Hi! This looked really super!!!!
I am very impressed with how she is not looking at the wrong place at all. Yay!
The big layered sends to the tunnels? Easy peasy! Yay!
The blinds to the inside of the jump? Super! On the first one, you were a little wide from the jump so she was wide too. On the 2nd one, you ran a nice tight line so she was pretty perfect.
When you did the blind to the backside, you ran the same line as the blind to the threadle so she wa sa little wide (nice job staying connected to use her to the backside!). For the backside there, you can run a line more to the wing of the backside of the jump and that way she will see the correct side when she lands and won’t need an extra step.
The threadle slices went great too! You can give her a turn cue (name call, in this setup) on t he jump before the threadle just to tighten up her line over the jump there.
The threadle wraps are going well too – nice job slowing them down to show them to her, she doesn’t have a lot of experience with them.
She did really well! When the weather gets decent again, you can do more of the threadle wraps and definitely move to the next game which adds more challenge too 🙂 Fingers crossed for nice weather ahead!!
Great job!
TracyHi! She did well here! Putting the tunnel into these adds a whole new level of speed 🙂
Adding more connection will definitely help: one the first couple of reps, you didn’t have a ton of connection on the tunnel exit so she had some questions Your connection at :12 was great! Because she is learning that the tunnel goes into a sequence, you can slow down as you cue her to go back into the tunnel, you can set the line to show it to her. Then you can add back more speed when you see her have the “a-ha!” moment to realize the tunnel is a part of it 🙂
>>I moved the barrel further away from the tunnel and that seemed to give us more time to connect before we interacted with the barrel.>>
Yes! That totally helped – you were much better with connection after the collision moment (she was only a little mad about it LOL!) and that really helped her! So for now, keep over-emphasizing the eye contact to set the lines, then it will get easier and easier as you practice it and she experiences it more.
Great job!
TracyHi!
I think you got plenty done on this course and you will be in excellent position to start MaxPup 2!! There is a ton of content in these classes, but they all build on each other so it is fine if you don’t get everything done right away 🙂
>>out was I came in on a discussion of Field Guides. Oh, I definitely need that. >>
Yes – the field guides will be sent with the verbals webinar. We are using them in a couple of other classes and people say they are very helpful!
On the tunnel threadles – yes, calling her name is fine on the exit. Try not to rotate towards her – instead, you can facing forward (and moving forward, when you meet her more at the middle of the tunnel or at the exit of the first tunnel cue.
The verbals were all really good! Question – were you using the dog-side arm as part of the threadle or the opposite arm? Either is fine, but you will want to use more of an exaggerated movement of the arm – the opposite arm can be across your chest at shoulder height, or you can swing the dog side arm back to open up the threadle cue.
She is ready for you to be moving on these now: when she exits the first tunnel, you can be at the center of the tunnel and walking forward giving the threadle cues. And if that is easy, you can meet her at the exit of the first tunnel and show her the threadle cues so she drives ahead to it.
The reverse retrieves are looking good! On the first rep, I don’t think she realized what the game was… but then she was super excited to drive back to you! Super!!!
The next level of this game is to leave her in a stay, and you lead out facing her: you dangle the toy, release her to get it and you drop the toy as you run forward. That is a lot of hard countermotion but I think she is ready.
>>Couldn’t remember if I was supposed to use her name or not, so the last 2 reps I did without calling her name.>>
You can use her name, or you can use a ‘bring it’ cue, both will work nicely here! She also read your physical cues when you were silent at the end.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Glad you liked the video!
We do handling classes sprinkled throughout the year, with the big one starting in June called CAMP!
THi!
>>In this, I attempted to follow your advice from last night – wait to reward verbally til he is committed to the obstacle, throw the ball (don’t reward from hand), and use body and low arms to support what Forrest is being asked to do.>>
This went really well!!! Nice job making the adjustments!!
He was good boy, finding the difference between the jump and the tunnel! As the wing and your position get further away from the line, it is fine to take the extra step to help him see the jump past the tunnel. That really helped him! And if he ends up at the wrong obstacle, you don’t need to throw the ball – you can reset with a cookie then try again.
On the 2nd video,:
>>He was ok with the wing “in line” with the other two obstacles,>>
Yes, he did well there! You can take an extra step to the tunnel like you did :33 to help him see it, then fade it out as we add more and more layering skills.
>>but once I moved it back, we had trouble getting him OVER the backside of the jump. Did I remember my directional (BACK) – Nope.>>
Yes, the backside verbal would be better there and you can also change the position of the wing so it is far but not fully a backside. At 1:04 and 1:53 he was correct because you said “over” and that is the front side cue, which is where he went. He did well when you stepped to the backside though, that really helped!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
It sounds like the seminar went really well – so many new variables and she was great! Yay!
The first wing position was hard because there was no place for you to go, making it harder to find the jump. But the others all looked great! I think she is ready for more motion – you can be cuing the obstacle and moving up the line, so you end up layering the jump when she is taking the tunnel.
On the other side:
Going past the tunnel could potentially be really hard, so you set her up for success by using just enough handling to show what you wanted (one or two steps past the tunnel) – then you artfully faded it as the session went on. VERY NICE! And that set up great work on the last couple of reps, where she went to the jump with minimal handling help. And of course there was no problem getting the tunnel 🙂She only had one question, at 1:34. I think you were saying “go” and that could apply to either obstacle, so she did a little zig zag and ended up on the backside of the jump. Good girl, nice reward for the effort too! The rest was very clear with the verbals.
>>I noticed in exercise 2 that you said to use your threadle command on the rep where it’s wing, jump, jump. Isn’t that really just a discrimination though? Do you use a threadle cue for both a true threadle and a typical discrimination? When I took Jordon Biggs threadle class she made a big point about what is and is not a threadle. But, I still get confused sometimes.>>
Do you mean on the blind cross between 2 and 3? It is indeed a discrimination because of the tight handler line – when the dog lands from the first jump, it is entirely possible she sees the front and back so has a choice especially in those moments when the handle is not perfect LOL!
The handler needs to help with cues, so the “jump” verbal is too vague and could apply to either side. Because the dog has a choice of front or back in this context, a threadle verbal after the blind helps a whole lot. I think Jordan would use a blind-to-threadle in this context too, she leans towards the Shape Up method of handling and I am 99% sure they would use a blind-to-threadle here too.The other option is a forced blind which delays the blind til the dog has reached the backside plane… but in this context, that will put the dog right into the tunnel because it is a pretty late cue 🙂
Great job here! Fingers crossed for no rain!!
TracyThe upcoming backside versus tunnel games are hard, so it should make this premier course look easier LOL!
The brake arm is an opposite arm turn cue:
Have fun!
TracyThese little drills will help us all clean up the verbals, because a lot happens in a short amount of time 🙂
Hi!
>>I think I need to play a little more when resetting for the exercise when he’s wrong.Or use a cookie to line him up again immediately, which can also reset for the next rep.
Looking at the verbal game:
Finding the jump with the tunnel right there is hard and also tells us about where the value is! So you can tweak the game to be more about the jump by having your position be closer to the jump to start (but still have some tunnel cues too) rather than centered between the two obstacles.
Also be careful about the subtle help of where you are looking – when you look down at him, he is not as sure. When you look at the obstacle, he tends to get it right more but that might be a product of the physical cue, not the verbal cue.>>After re-watching, I think I should have ended the training session at 2min>>
I was thinking the same thing – 2 minutes might be a good maximum time because he might get mentally tired after that.
Handling 1:
I think the verbals sounded pretty different, but you can be louder for the tunnel word, and repeat the jump word less quickly so it is drawn out a bit more.The handling elements looked good – you can add more motion to all of these to challenge him to find the correct obstacles as you connect any run, especially when you are way ahead or when you start super close to the wing so he has to drive ahead.
Disconnection was the hardest one (as it should be LOL) – you can reward approximations like at 1:28 here he ran next to the jump when you were kind of disconnected rather than over the bar – it is close enough for a hard challenge 🙂 You can start with weak connection where he sees part of your face but not real connection, then you can work up to full disconnection.
Handling combo 1 – the handling and connection all looked good, he is finding them easy to follow even with the other obstacle right there. Yay!
>>OMG chirpy tunnel command!! What is coming out of my mouth!?!>>
Ha! I think maybe because it is in a small space that you are not using the verbals the same way you would on a big course? Do you have a video of running a big course at a trial, to hear what your tunnel verbal sounds like there?
>> So I thought I would leave the toy on the ground and try the exercise and release him to it.>>
That adds a really challenging variable, so the other challenges should be dialed back to be easier. On the first rep, he followed the handling well (broke his stay because you were not connected) but then the toy you left there was right on his line (no turn cue on the jump so he read the motion which said to jump in extension), so I can see his argument for getting it when he was driving towards it – then he got a verbal correction for it (twice, almost 3 times) but then drove to it on his line at the tunnel (the get it verbal was there but hidden in among a whole lot of other verbals) so that can be confusing.
To help him learn to do courses without the toy in your hand, create a reward station (a chair, for example) where you leave the toy. So it is visible and obvious… but not on his line as a possible reinforcement because we do leave toys on the line all the time as reinforcement we want him to target to. That way you can put a specific marker on it but it won’t be something he has to run over – which creates a higher rate of success. And, you can bring your reward station to trials so he can understand it there too!
Then, break the sequences down to small pieces to reward moving away from the toy a lot – on the last rep, he was avoiding the jump a little (1:45) because he was unsure. So breaking things down and rewarding after every couple of obstacles will help as you build it up to being able to do full courses.
On the last video –
>>Not sure why he thought that was a backside. >>I think he was probably a little tired, if all of these sessions were done on the same day or in a short time span – lots of repetition on the same visuals, so he loses his processing a bit, might have been distracted by something. And possibly your shoulder was closed so he didn’t see the connection, and was going wide to see the connection. So it is a good one to revisit at the start of the next session, when he is fresh 🙂
>>Which then got me thinking about my push command for the backside—which is “Push, Push, Push” emphasis on the P and a little staccato like the Jump command! >>
You can alter your push or jump verbals to be longer – puuush puuuush rather than PshPshPsh and that can help them sound different. I think the only truly staccato verbals should be wrap verbals, everything else can be stretched to varying degrees.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
