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Hi!
yes – there is a MaxPup 4 coming soon, stay tuned! I hope to have it posted in soon 🙂And yes – we have some neuroplasticity left! I am thankful for that because I am getting older and my dogs are getting faster 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
The forced fronts looked great here! I think the key is setting her up on the slice, that made it really obvious. Your timing on the 2nd rep and the reps after it was really good (first rep was little late) – you started the FC just before she got to the entry wing.
She took the front at 1:48 – yes, you moved too early and stepped back so she read it was motion to the front. You felt it in the moment 🙂Be sure you give her the big eye contact as you start the FC
You can see at 1:35, for example, she is a bit wide because the FC was all done with your arm so it was hard for her to see where you wanted her to be. Compare it to the last rep at 2:03 – lots of eye contact there as you did the FC and she was really tight! Nice! You can definitely move on to the throwbacks and threadles here.The jumping exercise is going well! It looks like the distance and angle were perfect. She definitely has the idea to bounce her way through it, and the placement of the reward is perfect: she is bouncing with her head down and really good form! Super! So you can revisit this one every couple of weeks, flattening out the angle each time.
I am so glad you enjoyed the class! It has been so fun watching you and Synnie! I will keep you posted on the next round of classes 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi!
Video 1 and 2: both of these looked good! you can see how well the connection gets him past the tunnel! So now… you can move faster and control his line less, but maintain the same connection 🙂 As you start adding more speed, keep your dog-side arm back and BIG eyeball-to-eyeball connection as you go past the tunnel, and I am sure he will nail it!
On the 3rd video, you had more of that great connection – I don’t think you need the opposite arm there, because that will slow down the running when you start to add more motion. So you can try it with your dog side arm pointing back to his nose and keep using the big connection you had here – it was terrific!!
Great job :)
TracyHi!
I am so glad you had an easy time with the tropical storm/earthquake combo! Crazy!!!!
>>And the weather has been unusually delightful ever since.>>
Yes, that is the post-hurricane effect. We get that here in the southeast because we get a lot of tropical storms LOL!
>>How about that, I did end up better on the blind on the left that the right! Must have been all the practice. It just goes to show, I need to work more with dog on left.>>
Yes! Interestingly, I just heard a podcast about all the science that tells us why we can achieve excellent when practicing like you did, and that can surpass the skills we have that we consider to be strong. It was a totally interesting geekfest about how purposeful practice leads to neuroplasticity leads to excellence. SO COOL and you were the example on the video!
>She’s a funny girl, I went back and looked, and she did have a “what? We’re stopping?” Look on her face.>>
It was hilarious! And it is the first time she stood still in front of the camera – she is such a pretty dog!!!
>> So I’ve lost track, are we at or over the time limit on videos?
The last day for videos is tomorrow. Then stay tuned for MaxPup 4!
Tracy
Hi!
>>so much easier to use my jump verbal that I couldn’t help but layer the tunnel :).>>
Yes! It is intended to ultimately turn into layering, in a context that we are seeing A LOT lately! Especially in UKI 🙂 MiG did a great job reading the cues!
>>And yep – arm high/broken connection meant she took the tunnel, haha
Yes, that was at :13 when you pointed ahead of her with a high arm.
Compare to the next reps:
:28 looked great! Your arm was all the way back behind you so the full connection was easy to see.
:50 and 1:06 looked great too, and also were good examples of how your arm doesn’t have to be that far back, as long as you are not pointing ahead of her. Your arm/hand on those reps followed her nose and that worked really well. Yay!
So think of sending her out as being a connection thing: eye contact gets the send rather than arm motion (totally counterintuitive, right? But works so well!!)
>>Oh hey! I was re-reading the email you sent back on 8/9 about the Week 9 games. The first game listed is ‘Concept Transfer: Deceleration’ but I don’t see a link to it? >>
Oops, that is because it never published. Sorry! It should be visible now. I guess that explains why no one tried it LOL!!!!
Nice work here :)
TracyHi!
>> I think that caused some confusion with the stopped DW. I can sure use a flat or almost flat AF.>>
Yes – if this is only for the running a-frame, then you will want an entirely different looking target for the dog walk (if it is a stopped DW).
And also yes, you can totally use a flat-ish frame.
>>I am going to guess that as the mat gets smaller she will need to adjust her striding away from the trotting if she truly understands the behavior & it will will turn in to a pouncing thing. Ugghhh then u foresee the trotting coming back.>>
The mat getting smaller is the absolute last thing to worry about. The full size mat goes on the contact as the contact gets raised up, and as the striding gets developed (and it is find to use stride regulators on the contacts to help get the striding too!
Tracy
Hi!
Lots of good work here – the best part was when something was a little wonky, you were able to make the adjustment within a rep or two and then get success. That is HUGE! That ability to make the adjustment is actually more important than being perfect all the time 🙂 because it means you are watching her and learning how she moves and what she needs to see 🙂Looking at the forced fronts:
>>And for some reason, that didn’t go as well today, so we stayed with working those. Not sure what I was doing differently that made her go forward today>>
It was hard to see on this angle what was happening on all the reps that she went straight, but at :14, you were stepping backwards before she committed so she was following motion to the front of the jump. I think it was Linda Mecklenburg who said backwards motion is the same as forward motion LOL!!
And either that locked her onto the front side, or the other possibility was that at :37 and :59 – she was set up on a straight line to the front of 2 and couldn’t see enough of you around the wing (she was pretty convinced it was the front of the bar, and she had a straight line to it, which means she was probably sitting facing straight to it).
I went back to the previous video and she was slicing 1 to face the backside wing of 2, so no questions from her there.
After a couple of bloopers, a great adjustment: at 1:36 you set her on an angle between 1 and 2, facing the entry wing of 2, and she had no trouble reading it.
So you might need to make sure her sit stay setup at 1 is on a slice, so she is facing the backside wing and not the front side of the jump.
Looking at the Yes tunnel no tunnel game:
The Wing to tunnel was pretty perfect 🙂
At :22 – you had good connection all the way past the tunnel so she had no questions. Yay!
>>I’m not sure why she kept going behind me on the far side (when I was picking her up on the right hand). She didn’t go in the tunnel and ultimately did the right thing but went behind me a couple of times instead of in front of me with the hand.>>
On the other side – this might be a harder side for her plus looks like you were closing your shoulders forward too early so she is changing sides (because it looks like a blind).
The adjustment at 2:03 and 2:35 was great, really clear connection , eyeball to eyeball 🙂 no more questions 🙂One other really great adjustment you made here was on the Close tunnel threadle: at 2;54 you were moving sideways but sideways motion is forward motion 🙂 and with that plus your feet pointing there, she took the tunnel on her line.
Compare to 3:23 – you adjusted to turn to the tunnel entry you wanted and absolutely nailed it!! I am sending you a cyber high five!!!
Great job here! Let me know if setting her up on the slice at 1 to face the backside of 2 helps her find the backside.
Tracy
Hi!
Great job with the connection on the first part! It is really hard to show the connection all the way through to get her past the tunnel entry – one little blooper at :30 where your shoulders did turn forward so it did indeed look like you were doing a BC to cue her into the tunnel. On the next rep at :37, you had SUCH clear connection that she had zero questions about where to go.Great job isolating the tunnel entries from the backside – those are harder than they look!!
Putting it all together into a sequence went really well. Bear in mind that eventually you’ll have a jump on the other side of the tunnel instead of a wing, so you will be able to say “jump” which will be helpful 🙂
Looking at where she had questions –
Great connection at 1:18 to get her past the tunnel, but then your arm came up high and pointed to the wing, which turned the line of your shoulders so she correctly went to the other side of the tunnel. Fabulous adjustment at 1:24 where you maintained that super clear connection and she went directly the wing. Perfect!!!Something similar happened on the other side at 1:35, where she went to the other side of the tunnel instead of the wing. It was not a high arm, it was a forward arm 🙂 pointing to the wing. But high arm and forward arm do the same thing of pulling your shoulders and feet off the line, which is why she correctly read it as a cue to go to the tunnel.
Another great adjustment on the next rep – at 1:44 you got a strong connection, finger pointing to her nose – and held it until she committed to the wing behind the tunnel. Lovely!!! Your hand moved with her, but never got ahead of her or up high, so the line of your shoulders/feet was super clear.
You completely nailed the last 3 runs, where you got her into tunnel-crazy mode by doing the wing-tunnel reps, then getting her behind the tunnel for the discrimination. Perfect connection!!!! So if you want, you can replace the wing with a jump back there so you can use your jump verbal to help cue it.
Nice work here! let me know what you think!
TracyHi –
Oh no, shingles, OUCH!! I hope you get relief ASAP!!!
Both videos look super – and she is so pumped up to play! Nice!!!
Nice job with the forced fronts! As you rotate, continue to make big eye contact and that will help tighten up her turn around the wing to the bar. She was a bit wide on the first reps because you looked forward to the jump, which can look like a blind cross to the pup. The reps at :36 and :54 were tighter because there was more eye contact as she got to the backside 🙂 Nice! And her stay looked great. You can definitely move on to the throwback exit and the threadle version of this too.
>>I also see that, just like regular start line stays, I’m waiting too long to move once I see her commitment to the backside >>
Yes, you can start to move maybe one step sooner – she has to get to about a foot away from the backside wing, then you can start. Too much sooner than that will cue her to take the front side.
>>(guess I just love watching her too much!! 🙂 ).>>
Well, she is 1000% adorable so I can totally understand! She is so fun to watch!
The Yes Tunnel-No Tunnel went really well too!
One thing suggestion is to run with the toy in your pocket. You were switching it from hand to hand, so that was delaying the info or causing her to watch your hands – so the easiest thing to do is to put it in a pocket LOL!!
The wrap-tunnel reps looked great on both sides!
The wrap – NO tunnel reps also looked really strong. She knew it was not the tunnel based on your connection, you just needed to add one or two more steps past the tunnel to get her to see the wing on the other side. So you can run past the tunnel rather than try to send, so she knows to continue driving past the tunnel on those reps.
That will be useful for the advanced level , when you have her go to the wing behind the tunnel and all the way around it to the other end of the tunnel 🙂
When you do cue that other end of the tunnel you can give her a strong front cross cue to help her bend into it – it is a hard turn for baby dogs which is why she missed it the first time 🙂
>>I can definitely see when I don’t make connection for the tunnel (I left a blooper in the video). >>
Yes, but it was only that one blooper – all the other reps here were very nicely connected 🙂
Great job here!!
TracyHi! These are definitely hard!!
What was happening here was that when there was motion coming out of the tunnel, your upper body was rotating towards her but you feet were generally pointing to the other side of the wing, so she would sometimes read the tandem and sometimes not (depends on where your feet were pointing). It was not an issue at all when things were moving slowly, but then as soon as there was speed, she had questions.
I think the thing that will help the most on these is if you pull your shoulder and feet away from the wing you want (almost turn towards the other wing and then use the upper body to turn her away to the wing you want). That should help make the tandem look distinctly different from the send to the wing, so she will be able to read it more consistently. Let me know if that makes sense and give it a whirl!
Tracy
Hi!
>>Hoke has a cruciate injury so we are out for the foreseeable future. >>
Ugh, that is a bummer. I hope he recovers quickly and is back in action soon! Poor Hoke, poor you, it is hard on you both.
The mat session is looking good – s you said she is pretty consistent with her footwork and that is great! When you use food, she is looking at you less – definitely not looking at you when going to the MM and looking a little going the other direction. With the toy, she is looking at a you a LOT so don’t go to a toy yet 🙂
>>What are our next steps? Do I start making the mat smaller? Get more excitement using food?>>
The mat should stay that size for a long time – the next step is to add more of your motion (you moving faster back and forth, and also the banana line game. Two things you can add are:
– a wing after the mat on the side without the MM ,so she has a visual target (you would toss the reward past the wing after marking her footwork on the mat)
– calling her back to you to restart each rep, so she can practice leaving you and so you can change the angles (the banana line).You’ll start to see more and more speed, but speed is not was the want right now – we want consistent footwork 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Ah, the famous squeaker mat! Love it!!! And it is cool that if she hits it with all 4 paws, you can actually hear 4 squeaks 🙂 Perfect! And definitely more less annoying than the doorbell mat!!!
The first session here looked really good and you should be totally pleased! You have added a lot of motion and she is nailing it quite nicely 🙂
The second session was definitely more challenging and her footwork was a little different, but she still did really well! I think the best hits were the ones when we can hear at least 3 squeaks 🙂 On the less-than3-squeaks reps, her back feet were striding over the mat (only one no-squeak rep :)) So you can help her isolate the rear by elevating the mat a bit – attach it to something under it so it doesn’t slide around, but she has to step up a little (and inch or two) to get across it and cannot stride over it as easily. I found the slight elevation in the early stages made it MUCH easier for the dogs to get the hind end hits and also for me to see all the hits 🙂
You can add a wing wrap before and after, to help get even more speed & independence, as well as lock her onto a line after the mat.
Great job here!!!!
Tracy
Hi! Hope you are not getting ht too hard with the crazy weather!!!
Looking at the video – one thing to note is that your connection was SUPER strong throughout, and that really helped her!
Also – she can turn impressively tight on those blind crosses! NICE!
The handling on your right side looked really strong at the beginning! She has really good commitment so you can start that blind cross sooner: you can start it no later than when she is halfway between the tunnel exit and the wing. Your forward motion to the wing should support her commitment, so you can be finished with the blind sooner which will make the send to the wrap wing after it easier.
For example, the BC at :12 was late, so you didn’t have time t get your leg stepping to the wrap wing at :13. You were generally starting the blinds after she arrived at the wing, which made it harder to get the connection then send to the middle wing. Your strong connection got it done but it will be even easier with an earlier blind.
The exits of the wrap (the FC and the spin exits) all looked really great! There was only one question from here where you did a FC instead of a spin and had to rear cross the tunnel entry, but all of the rest had great connection and she had no questions.
Now when you switched to starting on your left at :46, 1:27, 1:42 – that was much better timing of starting the blind cross, starting before she arrived at the wing so she could see the connection as she exited the wing. You can see she had a very smooth path to the new side, as opposed to when you are later with the blind and she had to adjust her path after the exit of the blind cross.
The look on her face at 1;22 when you said “that’s it” was so funny! She didn’t want to be finished but always better to finish before she gets too tired.
Great job here getting the more challenging side sorted out! If you hadn’t mentioned it, I would not have known which side was giving you trouble 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>>You want spins, I’ve got spins!
Ha! Yes! Now is a good time to figure out when he needs spins and when he doesn’t.
>>I think I might have gotten a little spin crazy.>>
>>Full disclosure, I rarely do spins on course – in training or in trials. They often don’t occur to me or feel counterintuitive, so this is good practice for me to see places I might consider them and how he responds to them.>>It was worth it to try them and see how it went. I have 2 rules for spins, when choosing to use them or not:
– is the turn pretty severe? If so, a spin is a possibility
– does the spin turn my feet to face the next jump? If so, the spin is a possibility.Both of these questions must be answered as a ‘yes’ in order to use a spin. If there is a ‘no’ answer, I will use a send or decel or brake arm, depending on the context.
>>This spacing just felt so tight. I adjusted the jumps as much as I could for this particular sequence >>
For the tight spacing and angles, to work the timing and get the speed of a bigger course, I run the big dogs on small bars 🙂 So my 20” jumping dogs run at 16” or even 12”. Makes me work harder LOL!!
Looking at the video:
Even in the smaller spacing, you can show the transition 4-5 by getting in closer to the threadle jump, then either accelerating to the tunnel or deceling/changing info for the left turn. The bar at 5 dropped the first couple of times mainly because the motion and verbals didn’t quite match. This was especially true on the left turns, when you were backing up towards 4 while cuing the left.
Sequence 2 –
The spin at :48 and 1:49 on jump 5 looked great! This is an appropriate place for a spin because it accomplishes 2 things: shows the turn you want and turns you feet to the next direction very early.As soon as he exits 5, start the turn cues on the threadle 6-7. At :51 you started the check check as he was in the air and stepped backwards towards 4 so he was not sure of what you wanted. The check check should start as he exits 5 like you did at :57.
Thisnext part is section (6-7) that doesn’t need a spin, because the spin turns your feet away from the next line (1:49 and 2:47, for example). So verbals and a brake arm would get it done.
He was was a little wide at 8 at 1:01 because you said go 🙂 When you added the spin to it at 1:57 and 2:59, the turn was better but the verbals did’t match (go, check check) Also, you can add a transition to decelerate into it, which both cues a tighter turn and gets you facing the new line sooner 🙂
I also thought changing the angles would help him but he dropped 4 a bunch of times – possibly the blind-to-threadle was happening over the bar in a smaller space, so he didn’t have time to organize. The last adjustment of angles helped and he was able to get everything really nicely!
And the spins made it so that he never looked at the off course tunnel – YAY!!!
Great job!
Tracy
