[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>The heat really is slowing him down. He worked probably less than 10 minutes yesterday and I put him in the pool..>>

I know it has been brutal there recently!!! Unless there were significant poopy moments that you edited out, I thought he ran well considering it was 90 degrees!!! The speed circle elements of jump-tunnel-speed line looked FAST and focused and happy, and when I think back to last summer: there are significant differences in a good way 🙂 YAY!! It is hard to see it when you see him every day, but I see BIG PROGRESS!!! And he didn’t seem to be obsessing about the pool either!

>> I figured this layer would be hard for us

Yes, it is a hard one because the tunnel is just so much more obvious and he needed to shift away from you to find the jump.

Sometimes he would get out past the tunnel but go around the jump, so you can angle it so that the front side of it is really obvious when he gets back there.

The shifting away from you to go past the tunnel is not in his comfort zone when he is sees the cue with the dog-side arm, in terms of being able to convince him to do it repeatedly. So you can try the outside arm! That will give you the BIG connection as your upper body rotates to him and the outside arm points to the jump – plus it is really forceful and will look totally different from the dog-side arm cue to the tunnel. The more forceful you were, the more he would go find the jump, so using the outside arm here might be the cherry on the sundae to get the layering going! I am pretty sure he has seen the outside arm cue as a ‘get out’ in other contexts, so it should be easy to show him.

You would have to have the toy in your dog-side arm or pocket, because it is probably easier to show him the outside arm with the hand empty.

So I know the heat has been miserable, but I think the sign of a good session is when we are talking about handling tweaks, not motivation or focus tweaks!

Nice work here!
Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! Lots of good work here!! And one bit of info that you might not want to hear:

Your “WHOA!” for the tunnel turn and “GO” for the straight line sound bascially the same, so she is confused and defaulting to the turn. So high priority: making them sound very different or changing one of them.

To make them sound different: make the whoa a lot quieter, a lot lower in pitch, and a lot longer – more like “ohhhhhhhhhhhhh”. And then the Go verbal can be more of an emphasis on the G – louder, shorter, repeated. Go!Go! Go! That will really help her differentiate so she doesn’t rely on motion (which is what was happening here, especially on the Go lines). And do lots of thrown rewards out straight to support the line too. Or change GO to RUN RUN RUN or something.

On the video –
Seq 1:

1-2-3 sends looked good!
BC 4-5 looked good!!

You might be overhelping on the threadle slice, so she read it as a threadle wrap – you had a big decel and atwo-handed pressure downwards. What do you normally do for threadles – dog side arm, or opposit earm? Either is good, and yu can be more upright with it. No need to use the hands to ask for more collection because a little decel will get it (and threadle slices tend to have collection anyway).

To set up a tighter FC after the backside, you can drive more to the wing then decel and then drive to 7. She was a little wide there when you sent and stepped backwards so she followed that line at :39 and :59. And, getting closer to 6 will also give you more acceleration on the 7-8-9-10 go go go line (or ‘run run run’ line 🙂 ) If you decelerate, you will end up getting a turn on the tunnel exit.

Sequence 1B – nice backside push! I don’t think you need that 2 handed collection cue there either, you can just push and leave. The extra collection would be good if you needed to get the front of the next jump. You had a too much decel at 1:02, so got too much turn.

Seq 3

>>I got stuck on getting the FC 5-6 on course 3. Maybe my course building was a little off?

Part of it was the FC, and yes I think the 6-7 line was a little different in the build so that didn’t make as much sense to her whn you ran it.

The 4-5-6 FC build was good though! So the FC was a matter of timing and position:
You were a little too far across the center of the bar and a little late at 1:21 so she had trouble with the bar there.
You had much better position but the FC was too early at 1:38, pulling her into the gap.

1:58 also had better position, btu you were late starting (she was lifting off) ideally you can send her to the jump and start the FC while she is halfway between 4 and 5. It is a hard commitment, so you can definitely reward 5.

When you got her into the 7 tunnel, the ending line looked great! Excellent commitment from her, and you really trusted her, got to position, and nailed the connection and the BC to the spin. YAY!!

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Yes, these are hard but I think the girls gave us excellent feedback! Great job staying in motion even when something went wrong. 3 main things I see on these:

– you need to use more verbals. Say them early, say them often 🙂 Things go wrong when you get too quiet or only say the verbal once.
– don’t say ‘tunnel’ til they are looking at the line you want
– drive through each line and don’t over-compensate if something went a little sideways on the previous run. Rather than over-compensate, watch the video to see what went wrong and then run it again 🙂

Here are specifics:
For Wish:
I agree, baby dog did a great job! Very nice run here! Just a couple of spots to smooth out:

You can be more stationary at 2, or hold your threadle cue longer if you do move. You moved too soon at 2, both in terms of moving forward and closing your shoulder. Even though you gave a threadle cue, you moved before she could respond so she ended up on the wrong side of 2 based on the motion. Be sure to hold your threadle cue and position until she is coming in to the correct side of 2.

The blind cross from 4-5 can totally work – she needed you to be one or two steps further around the weaves, s you can send to the #3 tunnel from further away to get there more easily.

The 6-7-8-9-10 section looks great! As she is heading to the entry of 10, you can get outta there so you are ahead and connected to show the line to 11. She sent nicely 12-13 – you can stretch the limits further by sending even more – that will get you further ahead to show 14 (and a “GO” or Jump” verbal before she enters the tunnel will help too! )

The ending line looked lovely!

Charm did really well too and had some great feedback for you!

On the first run:
Charm came in really nicely to the threadle – note how much longer you held the cue for her and you even rotated a little bit. That rotation contributed to why she ended up in the weaves: you ended up moving forward AND said go… so she totally thought you wanted the weaves. So try not to rotate to get the threadle (so your feet will never step towards the tunnel) and also don’t say ‘go’ 🙂

On the second run, you stepped away to the tunnel sooner but she still thought it was the weaves – from what I can see, “tunnel” is a forward cue to her so she drives to whatever is in front of her when you say ‘tunnel’ So to help her see the tunnel you want, try to call her name there to get her looking the correct direction, and then give her the tunnel cue.

3rd run (3rd video) – very nice line after 2 but you over-compensated and pulled her into the other side of the tunnel.

So this is a great spot to watch her head, be moving to the tunnel entry you want and calling her several times: when she turns her head to the correct line, then switch to the tunnel verbal.

for the tunnel threadle 4-5: On the first run, she was coming towards you when you turned your shoulder at :18 over 4, but you were quiet and then you opened up, accelerated and said tunnel… so she took the entry that was right in front of her. Do you have a tunnel threadle verbal? They are super useful! And more of a threale cue from the upper body (similar to a jump threadle cue) will help as well.

On the 2nd run, you got the blind in REALLY nicely – you were one or two steps further ahead than you were with Wish and Charm read it perfectly!

She got the bonus jump after the weaves on the first run – you had a small arm cue but no real verbal or you were right near the bonus jump. You were much clearer on the 2nd run!

7-8-9-10 looked really strong on the first run! On the 2nd run, 7-8 was good then you got quiet and looked away, so she came off he line. One theme is emerging: you need more verbals!! Say the early, and keep saying them, and feel free to be loud about it too 🙂

At :33 you hung out at the entry of 10 for too long so she almost didn’t see 11 – be sure to get past the exit so you can show her the line to 11. And getting closer to 11 will help set up the 12-13 send by giving you more room to accelerate and start loud, repeated verbals.

15-16 looked good, then you hung out too close to 15 after the blind, too much connection, so she took 15 again. You overcompensated at 1:19 by pulling away too much, so she had a question about where 17 was. You can do the blind and trust her, connect a little and keep moving 16-17 and she will nail it 🙂

The ending line looked strong!!

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

It could totally be that the teeter was facing a new direction. Those small details can be big details!

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! This game went really well!

Almost all of your send reps were spot-on perfect! You wee connected then showed her the big arm & leg motion to send to the wing. Yay! Your dog-on-left sends were stronger because you didn’t look forward to find the wing, then look back at her (you were looking forward a bit while she was in the tunnel when she was on your right, so try to look to the tunnel exit and not to the wing then back at her).

She only had one question, at :49. I watched it a bunch of times and it looks like you were actually too early on the send. As she exited the tunnel, you were looking ahead at bit too soon and she didn’t see the big arm and leg movement that you did on the other reps (the rep at 1:22 was from a perfect angle to see how you connected *then* sent. Nailed it there!). So even though she is going 1000 mph, you can be slower and very deliberate on those sends like you did on the other reps.

When adding the middle wing, like at 1:23 and 1:33 – keep moving there. It is not as much of a send to the wing after the tunnel because if you send, she assumes wrap and also you ended up standing still (and she is VERY quick about coming into the gap towards you if that is what she thinks is correct :))
If something goes awry, you can totally reward her or just keep going there – based on what you were saying, you realized in the moment it was handler error so we want to let the dog know it was not her error 🙂 She started to sound MAD at 1:33 – you can do the FC to the tunnel and keep going even if she doesn’t take the middle wing, to let her know tat she was correct in responding to your cues (and if you don’t know why in the moment, the video always tells us LOL!)

You stayed in motion on the last rep at 1:44 (instead of sending to the wing and stopping your motion) and it was lovely! She read it perfectly and that allowed you to get up the line for the next wrap send really well.

Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
>> I had thought about having her wrap something but figured she would come forward to hot and fast. I will try this.>>

I agree – she would have been BLASTING! We can add that later, in a couple of sessions, where she is coming in hot and fast and you are walking. It is a great prep for hind end use for a weave entry or tight turn or contact position!

The handling is going SUPER! The Go lines at the beginning and end look good- you can throw the toy sooner or ask Brad to throw it, so she doesn’t lift her head at all.

She is wrapping really well, one tweak is to go fast then slow down. You had it reverse: going slow then being quick: you were walking then made a fast movement into the wrap cue so even though your steps were small, she read the slow-to-wuick movement as a question: collect or extend? So she ticked the bar and went a little wide. Adding the tunnel will make it easier because you will already be running and can show the decel easily.

The backside looked AWESOME 🙂

Let’s talk about the rear crosses:

>>We really struggled with the rear crosses. I don’t think I am getting the line right and she is just so fast that she is past me before I can react.>>

It was a little struggle, you worked it out nicely! I agree with your assessment – you were a little off the line in the first couple of reps and then you got on the line nicely!

>> I am a bit discouraged about that since rear crosses were a problem for me and Jackson too. >>

I see nothing discouraging here, don’t let any history with Jackson creep in here 🙂 More below on the specifics but basically – the RC line was late a couple of times, you rewarded here, then you got on the RC line correctly a bunch of times, and you rewarded her. VERY encouraging session because you were able to clearly communicate to her!

<>

Actually, it is a normal RC where you do cut in behind (just needs decel at the end of it, but that is NOT important right now). I figure the visuals here are more important than words, so I grabbed screenshots of each rep so you can see what she was reading

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1licAlKto4QsdQmySslMRe9dQyz8XPeTiRIRpI-oMsD8/edit?usp=sharing

At :22, :29, :43 – you were running to the wrap wing and didn’t show any RC pressure until after she was already deciding to wrap to her left.

On the other reps, you were showing the RC line and cutting behind her much more clearly (and sooner :)) You can see that you were running to the center of the bar a LOT sooner, so she was reading the RCs rally nicely!

So the trick on the RCs is that as she is over the jump after the tunnel, you are running towards the center of the bar on the RC jump. Don’t let her get past you then try to push to the line, that will make the info late. She does really well driving past you with the RC pressure!

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

I think the added jump-to-tunnel at the beginning brought the extra hustle 🙂 YAY!! She liked it a LOT 🙂
The Go Go Go looked good!
The wrap looked a stride late, so you can watch her land from jump 3 (the jump after the tnnel) then start to decel as her front feet touch down. You did a great job of decelerating AND moving forward. Very nice!

On the first RC rep at :30, you were a little late getting on the RC diagonal so she was surprised and dropped the bar trying to make the turn. At :42, you got on the diagonal sooner (right after she landed from the previous jump) and she was great with that RC!! Super!

And the backside on the last rep looked really nice – she REALLY liked chasing you there as you drive way ahead to cue the backside 🙂

I think the hardest part for her was finding the jump straight ahead after the tunnel at the end of each sequence. It was pretty far away and you are not ahead at that point. At :19, she ran past it – you probably needed to converge into it more and add more connection, and even throw the toy sooner to help her look at the line and not at you 🙂
You converged more at :35 and she found it, and :50 was even better with you driving towards it.
The last rep didn’t have as much convergence to the last jump so she looked at you more, so definitely keep converging to it and also throw the toy as soon as she exits the tunnel.

I believe these are at 12″? You can play with this sequence again at 14″, just doing a couple of reps, to keep all the speed and excitement as we inch up to 20″ 🙂

Great job!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! I am glad you are testing negative and feeling better!! And yes, you are scheduled more Thursday morning. More info coming soon!

And I love how keen he is to play agility with you! What a good boy!!!

Lazy game: He was definitely getting the idea here! He seemed a little stronger on your left side than on your right – he was tending to freeze more on your right but kept moving better on your left.
Try to have several cookies in your hands so you can toss quickly without reaching into the cookie bag each time – that was drawing his focus to your hands and away from the jumps. When you put the cookie bag down at about 4:00, he started looking for the line a lot better! Yay! When you aded the toy, he was looking at you a little more – so this is all good info! For now, work the jump commitment with some cookies in your hand and no bag or toy, so he can fully focus on the jumps and not split his attention between the jumps and the cookies/toy.

First board video – You can elevate this board now, so ht has a clearer boundary of getting on it and staying on it. Because it is low and narrow, I don’t think he was clear that you wanted him to stay on it. A couple of bricks under it to raise it a couple of inches should make a big difference!!

One step sends/exit line connection:
Very nice!!!

When you send to the wing, your upper body, connection, and verbals are good, just remember to use your leg to take a big step towards the wing too. If you were not as obvious with the step, he would ask questions or not fully commit.

His only other question was at :44 where you needed more connection (he missed the tunnel) – you fixed it and added more connection beautifully on the next reps 🙂

2nd board video – you can also add standing still (you, not him haha) so he runs back and forth and you toss the treat – that will get him looking ahead more and not as you as much.
Yes, that is the harder turn direction but I think that when you elevate the board, he will have a lightbulb moment about turning around and staying on it.

Concept transfer – wraps:
Nice job with your verbals! He is committing really nicely!! As these sequences get bigger, try to keep moving rather than sending to each obstacle. If you are connected and moving, he won’t need an arm send – for each one, which will allow you to get to better position.
For example, when you added the FC wrap on the 2nd rep, you sent to jump 3 (arm and leg) then sent to jump 4 (arm and leg) which made the FC cues late. So you can be moving towards 5 the whole time, using verbals, connection and motion to get 3 and 4 without having to decel or do a send to each one.

Concept transfer video 2: You were moving more (sending less) on this video and it worked really well! You don’t even need as much arm to point to the obstacles – he has good commitment to the jump!! You can try these with just running along, no arms, and I bet he gets it nicely 🙂

His only question was at :42 on the tunnel cue. You said “tunnel” but turned away, lifted and arm, stopped connection: so he stopped and asked: which tunnel, mom? Good boy! So to get that smoothly, as he is landing from the last jump – stay connected and give the tunnel cue directly to him, and keep saying it & moving towards the tunnel until you see him lock onto it and start to get into the tunnel.

Concept transfer video 3:
Be sure to reward him for letting you move him all around at the beginning – he was holding his stay perfectly and you kept moving him – he might get confused if there are no rewards coming (he doesn’t know you simply put him in the wrong spot LOL!)

The first sequence looked good – the spacing is a little tight so you might need to lower the bars for no until you get into a bigger space (so he doesn’t hit bars). The 2nd sequence looked strong too – you are not needing to do much more than connect, run and say verbals to get commitment.

To tighten up the wrap, you can start the cues sooner: as he is over the middle jump (#4), you can start decelerating and start your wrap cue. That will show him the collection cues sooner, so he adds the turn stride before the jump and not after landing, Then you can do the FC when you see him collect and lift his feet to jump 5.

Great job here! Let me know what you think!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>oh my the death look I got when I yelled “yes” and messed up sequence
. Sorry Annalise!>>>>

Bwhaahahaha that was hilarious!

The session went really well – excellent connection and motion really helped Prytania find the lines!!

The Go was easier when Annalise was further ahead but Prytania was driving ahead really well even after adding the tunnel! Great reward placement, Annalise!!

First wrap at :30 – you were running into the center of the bar a tiny bit and then as you decelerated, your feet turned to the right so she read rear cross. The same thing happened at 1:20 and 1:48 when you added the tunnel – movement towards the jump looked like rear cross pressure to her.

Compare to :40 (and 1:32 with the tunnel before it) when you were facing forward the whole time 0 that was perfect! So was 1:03!! The only little blooper at :54 was because you stopped moving a little too early so she was not sure if she should keep going.

Well done with the rear crosses! It is hard to get the rear crosses without a lot of motion on the 2 jumps, but you nailed it!! Super!!!

You still nailed it when you added the motion of the tunnel (it might have been easier with the motion?) and the last rep was especially excellent. YAY!!!

Looking at the rear crosses versus the wraps where she accidentally rear crosses, you can see that if you push into towards the rear cross line, she reads that cue early. So on the wraps, you can support the line by going straight towards the wrap wing, no need to push in towards the jump. That will help her see the difference between the wrap towards you and the rear crosses.

Great job here!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! I agree, it is SO FUN to see these glimpses into the future!

>>At the show this weekend, I took Audubon to the practice jump. Off leash and he didn’t leave the area. It was a small area>>

Super!!!! What a good boy!!

>>Today, he was hesitant to climb the mountain. After a few reps where he went a little over halfway up, I decided to stop and revisit it another day.>>

That was smart to stop and do something else. Had anything changed about the setup, or was the teeter in a new location? It is possible he was just tired from the weekend if you were away all weekend.

Looks like you have some winter weather there of only 95 degrees LOL!! I am glad you were able to get out and get some great training in!

The teeter game started off really well for the first 30 seconds, then he might have been saying “that is all I have for this game today”. Sitting near the board was a smart way of saying “I am still engaged but please no more teeter thanks”. Then he barked at you because we humans are a little slow.
Looks like there was a little break and then he did a few more, but the session was very informational – this game might b harder than it looks for him, so you will want to get maybe 2 or 3 great reps (I love that he was offering his hind end on the board!) then take a break, then come back later.

The sequences are going really well1

Great job breaking down the blind cross sequence into the smaller pieces – he nailed dthm all and he is doing a great job of finding the jump after the tunnel!

When you cue the 1st jump, be sure to stay connected and facing the jump til his feet lift into the air – you pulled away early when starting the full sequence. When you help position there longer, he got it nicely!
And the full sequence went well too – he is finding the line brilliantly! I think you can start the BC sooner too – when he lands from the middle jump and looks at the BC jump, start it and see how his commitment is 🙂 You started it just before takeoff. The grown-up Audie will need you to be finished by then, so you can use these baby dog sequences to start doing the earlier timing. Your connection after the blind was fabulous!!

And then stay calm at the end when you cue the go go go – stay connected as you say go go go 🙂 You were accelerating and disconnected, which will draw him past the jump (it won’t be an issue with practice when he is an adult).

Motion override is off to a great start! It takes an extra heartbeat for the cue to travel from his ears to his brain to his hind end but you were GREAT about being patient and NOT repeating it or stopping. So keep working this game moving slowly until he is responding basically immediately – then you can add more motion by moving a little faster 🙂

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

This went really well! You were able to add a good amount of motion and she was still able to respond pretty quickly! When you were moving faster, she had an extra heartbeat to process it (as compared to the relatively immediate sit when you were moving really slowly). But that is normal and good, and she didn’t take too long at all!

Since she did so well here, the next step can be to add more arousal. This will be a GREAT prep for trials where she will be more aroused and we will sit want her to respond quickly and use her hind end:
– first, play tug before you start to get her more stimulated. Then start off slowly (because the arousal might make things harder) and reward with food, just like you did here. And tug again to keep the arousal high after every two or three food rewards.
– second, if adding tugging goes well… do the whole session with a toy as a reward. Fun!! But also harder, so start things slowly and let her success rate tell you if you can go faster (or keep it slow if it is really hard).

>>We were also playing around with it a couple days before that when a big firecracker (or maybe a rifle shot?) went BOOM>>

Wow that was incredibly loud and close! Total startle moment!!! You both did a great job of shaking it off. And yes, the pattern games can really help with the resilience after a scary moment like that. I think you both handled it well and went about finishing your game 🙂 Fingers crossed that our dogs don’t hear too many booms today!!!

Nice work here :)

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Yes! That is the spin: FC towards her, then blind. Lovely! And she was happy to do it. The whole sequence of FC – Spin – Turn and burn looked great! You were a little early on 2 of the rotations as you noted, so remember to stay connected until you see her arriving at the barrel. Nice job working it out – the next step is to add the race tracks.

>>Also, I think it may be hard for her when I have the toy waving in her face. I know she needs to learn to work with it in my hand. Putting it in my pants is awkward for me and would take More time in the transition. What do you think?>>

Yes – when connection is not clear and the toy is in front of her, she can get confused about what to look at. So putting it in your pocket is the best option here if you can’t scrunch it up into your palm – it is fine if the reward takes a little longer because it is not a precision reward. And the transition can take a little longer – rather than hand her a treat, drop a couple on the ground for her to find as you put the toy away. And try not to say “ready ready” while doing that, because it increases arousal before you are actually ready.

>> Maybe that’s why she was barking at me so much?>>

The frustration of not knowing if it is the toy or the barrel might be a part of the barking, but there were a number of things happening. Dogs bark for a variety of reasons and there seemed to be several reasons here:

>>Before we even started, as I was setting things up, she barked at me non-stop, like she does before we swim or play ball.>>

If this drives you nuts, don’t have her in the room while you are setting up. She can be in a different room 🙂

And if she is barking before swimming or ball playing, bear in mind that you will also get more barking when she is excited in other walks of life. And if she is barking during swimming or ball playing because she is excited, and then you throw the ball or let her swim, then you are likely to get more barking when she is excited and wants to do something with you, especially when there are environmental cues that something exciting is about to happen (like walking out with toys and treats to stand between the barrels.

Is excitement barking bad? Nope! I like it! And when she barks in excitement, she is continuing to work or engage with you. But you need to realize what it is and not confuse her by sometimes getting mad about it and sometimes being fine with it.

Looking at the 2nd video, I think she was barking either out of excitement at the beginning, or there is frustration being built into the training session (more on that below). She was continuing to work while barking – not a problem at all.

She had some barking during the transition from the toy play to the first rep, so you make a cleaner transition: drop 3 or 4 small treats on the ground and while she is eating those, put the toy away. Then line her up, connect, and start. The treat scatter also helps her sniff/breathe a bit which balances arousal nicely.

When you got her going again: you were early on a rotation so she didn’t commit fully (:33), but she kept going (silently) and wrapped a barrel (silently) at :34 and you walked away from her (punishment when she was not barking) so then you got frustration barking (:36) after you walked away.
Then got more frustration barking when you were turning off the camera.

>>I think you said before this is a form of punishment and I don’t want to punish her or stifle her enthusiasm.>>

Yes – it is negative punishment which is withdrawal of opportunity for positive reinforcement. And in this case, it happened when she was *not* barking. Timing of punishment can be tricky and needs to be incredibly consistent, plus we can’t always be sure that the dog understands what we were punishing. Did you walk away from her while she was wrapping a barrel? Or because of the barking? She might not even realize she is barking, which makes it all very confusing and frustrating… and she barks when she is frustrated.

Looking at the 3rd video – 1st rep was really good
You didn’t quite have enough connection and the toy was dangling in her face, so she was not sure what to do – she got frustrated and communicated that to you. You walked away (punishment) – look at her expression change as you were walking away at :50 🙁

So that is why I think there might be frustration being built into the game, which gets more barking: if sometimes the barking is fine in this context or others, and sometimes you disengage and walk away (and dogs can TOTALLY tell when we are mad or frustrated) – the game becomes wildly unpredictable in a way that can produce anxiety or frustration.

Bearing in mind that barking is communication and we don’t want to punish communication or be inconsistent about it:

>>Before we filmed anything, when she was nonstop barking I had to leave the room until she stop>>

If this drives you crazy, then bring her into the room after everything is set up and you are ready. My guess is the barking you are seeing here is similar to barking when swimming or playing ball, so she doesn’t know the difference.

>>I’m very sensitive to noise and when she does this it hurts my ears so much that I can’t think.>>

In order to make it so that neither of you are frustrated – if you must train indoors, you can leave her in a different room until you are ready. And you can play music or wear ear buds or something that reduces the sharpness of the sound.

Or, train outdoors for a minute or two at the earliest part of the day, or after sunset. It appears that the barking is not as hard to hear when you are outdoors?

>>In the sessions I don’t know what else to do other than stop the session, regroup, then try again with a fresh attitude.

Try coming in with an entirely different attitude on barking: it is communication and communication is important. So rather than stop the session or walk away from her, you can note her frustration and make the next rep a lot easier, then reward. And if she doesn’t fully commit to a barrel, for example, don’t re-send her to it: just finish your front cross and send more clearly to the next one.

If something is going wrong, give her the toy, stop the session and watch the video to figure out what her questions are.

Reducing frustration is the quickest way to reduce barking! And if it is excitement barking at the beginning, it probably matches the barking from ball play or swimming, so you need to change up how you begin the session so she doesn’t do that inside.

Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>.I’m doing some processing on all the things that came up that led to the delay. Some were weather related (can not control) and some were that I think I just had a burnout & needed to close a chapter on the way I was approaching competing this year. I’m trying to process it & will post it in the Mental Camp thread since I think it is important for me to make some conscious decisions about what next year will look like. As ugly as the last week or so was, I think I’m on the other side.>>

I am glad you took some time to process! Burn out is REAL (and we talk about it this week, actually, as well as goal setting and boundaries!) You have had an intense year – time off to refresh and process is GREAT!

>>I had to give up on the jumping course for week 1. It got demolished by branches falling in a windstorm & then flooded with days of FL rain. It took a whole afternoon to clean everything up & mow>>

OMG! That is crazy!!!

>> I couldn’t bring myself to build it again.

Totally relatable! The storm clean up sounds exhausting!!!!

>.Rep 1 – Frankie did the exact same thing as Hot Sauce & dropped the bar. I’m glad I was ready to reward her since your video prepared me & explained why it happened.>>

She was a little bit like “wait, what??” like my Hot Sauce plus you were turning your shoulders away.

>>Rep 2 – Frankie did the exact same thing as Contraband! 🙂>

I am glad I included my bloopers LOL!!! On this rep, I think you turned your shoulders away too early – stay parallel and shoulders facing forward (not turning to jump 4) til you see her lock onto jump 3 (smaller dogs have to take a lot more strides to layer).

>>Rep 3 she got it! She wanted to curl in but made a great decision & moved back out to the jump!
Rep 4 – She slid coming out of the tunnel 🙁 she curled in a bit but still got it>>

You were more parallel to her line on these, turning away less. That looked great! You can try it with a lower arm and see if being able to see more connection helps her.

>>Rep 5 – got it nicely!

YAY! This one had a low arm and you stayed parallel to her line, and she did really well!!!

>>I noticed she was not driving straight into the tunnel if I tried to send with too much distance.>>

You mean like at :37 and :52? She had a little zig zig there between 1 and the #2 tunnel. It looked like you got a little caught behind the wing of jump 1, so voice was saying tunnel but body was saying turn 🙂

The other reps of the opening looked good! She had a bar down at :50 but that was when you were stopping and getting the cookie out of your pocket 🙂

>>I have never heard of a “Throwback” before but it looks like it is based on the moves from MaxPup where we send them around the barrel with us facing backwards. I watched your video a bunch & tried to copy the move & break it down for Frankie.>>

Good memory – it is TOTALLY a backwards send from MaxPup 🙂 You were doing it nicely here, except sending to the inside wing rather than the outside wing. So as you do the backwards send, shift your connection from her cute little face to the landing spot of the left turn wing, and I bet she gets it nicely.

>>Turn Away – this is new for us too! Frankie really read this well after a few tries. Do you use a directional wrap verbal with it or is it just a physical cue?>>

The turn away is a cue that emphasizes your hands – you can also see turn aways in MaxPup 🙂 on the prop and on the barrels too! You did really well here which is why Frankie did well! She needed your feet to also show the RC line a bit but as you play with this more, you will be able to add more and more distance.

When using this to set up layering, I use a “switch” cue which basically tells the dog to turn away and get on a big line, listening to me more than watching me 🙂

>>Part 3
We tried to run the whole course. I didn’t remember to stay on the other side of the “fake DW”. We did do a wrap and a Turnaway!>>

This went really well!!! And you were able to get all the crazy handling moves going too! The turn aways will get easier as she gets more used to seeing them on course, so you can keep adding distance and tossing a reward.

Wrapping towards you went really well – you can stay closer to the wing of 4 (a little closer to the takeoff side, not as much on landing side) and then do a big one-step send to get her to take 5 (and throw a reward. When she locks onto the 5 jump, I bet it will be easy to get her to take the tunnel after it.

Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Yes, definitely go back to basics and do single rep, super high value sessions on the wobble board and cato plank: make the movement as minimal as possible, so she can interact with it a tiny bit… then give her an entire meal 🙂 Then be done, don’t try again! Doing multiple reps in a row is never helpful when the dog is concerned about something – just one easy rep then a big party always works better 🙂

The independent study teeter course does address this (both of my girl dogs were worried about the teeter).

Keep me posted!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>Hot weather is a bummer for agility training LOL.>>

So true!!!!! I am out there at sunrise to get a little training in or if I need to video anything.

The handling video looked great!

You can place the toy out ahead on the go line – on the first rep, you were looking ahead and hustling, so he pulled off the line. The 2nd rep had more connection and you were closer to the line so he got it : ) Nice GO rep at the end too!

Nice wrap at 1:08 – great timing and he turned his head before takeoff then drove back around the jump. SUPER!!!! Lots of speed and a tight turn too.

The RCs were a Goldilocks moment:
First RC – too late – yes it was the right turn verbal and you were a little late getting into the RC line, he was a good boy!
2nd time – too early – you held back too much by the tunnel, then had to hustle which ended pushing him off the jump when you were too early.

3rd time – just right! You accelerated onto the RC line and let him get past you (because he drives ahead really well) so he saw the motion AND the pressure on the line, so he got it. LOVELY!!!

On the backsides – You can accelerate into these more too – it will definitely help you to not wait for him at the tunnel so you can be passing the center of the bar of 2 before he takes off for it – that can help him set the line more smoothly. I am not sure he needs the outside arm when you are relatively close to the entry wing, but it sure didn’t hurt to use it!

Wow, he is looking good on his mountain climbers! He was super happy to drive up the board to the cookies 🙂

You can start to add tip, a centimeter at a time, but ever-so-slightly changing the position of the upright that is holding up the end of the board. Make the addition of tip soooo minute that he barely notices. Place an insanely high value reward at the end of the board (same place you had it here, but the best possible reward) and lead out and face him like you started here… then do one single rep. Make the entire session that one rep so he can get a huge reward and doesn’t have time to think about that the teeter moved a centimeter 🙂

The wobble board is also going well! Yes, you can move it to the patio stones (at sunrise or after sunset LOL!) so you can try putting something under it like an empty water bottle that might crunch a little. And so a super short session of that (adding noise) because we don’t want him to start thinking about any of it 🙂

Great job here! Let me know what you think!

Tracy

[Author]

Posts