Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Good morning! These are looking really good!
Big lines video:
On the 2nd and 3rd rep – you were on your left side waiting for her and connected when she exited the tunnel: perfect! The first rep was not as early so she definitely reads the difference.At :34 – you wanted a rear cross, but she said it was a wrap (looked like a wrap to me too :)) because the position and motion went to the wrap wing. Compare to the next reps when you moved across the line to the center of the bar at :49 – totally helped her read the RC! Nice! But then you don’t have time to praise her 🙂 It made your verbal and position late at :51 so she correctly read it as a layering cue.
The left verbal before the tunnel on the next rep set up the line nicely and you were more connected (open shoulder, eye contact) at 1:02 so she took 3 with no questions. Yay! So, the next cue is the praise because telling her she is good delays the next info she needs 🙂
The RC on 4 worked better at 1:13 and on the last rep when you stayed a little closer to 3 so you could show her the RC line. So that pressure to the center of the bar is an important cue for her, and that means not getting too far ahead because then you will end up on the other side of the jump.
The forced fronts looked good! The main thing to remember is to get into position, put your hand in position, wait for a second or two, then release her. That way she can process the cue and not end up on the front of the jump like on the 2nd rep, and also so she doesn’t think the hand cue is the release (she was starting to release when your hand moved, because it was coming simultaneously with the verbal release).
On the other side, the bigger step back helped her get to the correct side, when it was small she did a lap turn.You can definitely replace the ‘normal’ forced fronts with the threadle openings now (you’ll see that more nowadays) and also the throwback is something we see on course.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
She did well with the zig zag grid! You can start to flatten out the jumps a little, an inch or two every time you do this so she gets more and more of the zig zag feel. The only other suggestion is to have the MM further away – with it being in that spot, she is really excited and tends to get pouncy over the 2nd jump LOL! One of my dogs used to do that too 🙂 So, by moving it so it is 20 feet away, she will jump that 2nd jump same as she jumps the first jump, then she can run to the MM and ounce on it 🙂
The lap turns are also looking good – nice timing of drawing her back around the wing with your arm and leg! You lean towards her more so your hand is more at her nose level, as if offering her a cookie: that will draw her right into the hand every time.
The lap turns are also looking really good! Because she has such a strong tunnel send, you were ending up a little past the wing so the tandem turns were a little wider. You can go to the tunnel a little more with her so you are maybe halfway between the tunnel and the wing when she exits – that will let you decelerate into the tandem more, which will be a little tighter and also it is a great prep for the threadle-wraps that she will see on course a lot!
>>Question: Should I be leaving a bit earlier after I release her? They both worked but I felt like we were just a tad off.>>
Yes, I agree with your assessment that you should leave sooner, and you can do a lead out push closer to the obstacle, and basically serp the #2 in jumps and the tire start in gamblers. That way your lower body is already indicating the next line. They might have felt a little off because she was jumping straight to your stationary position and had to turn on the ground after getting to you. But if you are facing the next obstacle and leave sooner, she will turn before takeoff.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>That scenario tends to get me a bar at 1 or 2. How can I help her with that?>>
I think lining her up on a slice at 1 will help. You had her facing straight so she had to organize the takeoff without a lot of info of what was next, so you will see bars when she has to do all of the organizing at the last minute.
On the first rep, the BC 2-3 was actually early – you sent her straight to 1 then started the blind as she was taking off, it almost looked like you want it after 1 so she dropped the bar trying to sort out the line. A slice position at 1 plus a lead out will help you show her the line sooner.
The rest looked really great on the first run!
On the 2nd run, she had figured out the opening 🙂 so the bars were not an issue. That first run is the real info 🙂 and you did not drive the tunnel threadle as well as you did previously, so your motion presented the off course jump
The spin worked GREAT on the 2nd sequence! Yay! She had no questions!
She needed one more step from you to commit to the pinwheel at 1:37 – you were saying go but turning and decelerating – even with that, you had plenty of time for the blind 🙂 And the ending looked good, just remember to keep moving til she lands then present the reward.Great job!!
Tracy
Hi! I am glad he rests well, all the science supports real sleep and Non-Sleep Deep Rest as being critical to support the brain and learning and memory and recovery 🙂 YAY!!
And I love your setup LOL!!! As he gets more experienced, you will have an even better grasp of what he needs outside the ring – the stay behavior change as the day goes on might mean midday decompressions get scheduled, or even something simple like a midday meal to fuel the brain (my dogs all eat a lot on competition weekend – breakfast, lunch, and dinner LOL!!)
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Is there a good guideline for what to do with your arms, lol?>>
In general, during regular connection, it is fingers to the dog’s nose:
This is particularly critical when she is behind you or parallel to you.
And your arms can be pointing to the landing spot on any countermotion things (like backsides) or you can be using to them to run when she is ahead of you.
This can vary by dog, of course, but she has a lot more struggles when you are pointing ahead and a lot more success when your arm is pointing to her nose 🙂
>>you were kinda mad and you looked at her like “TAKE THE FREAKIN’ JUMP” (TTFJ) which is actually perfect connection…>>
That’s exactly what I was feeling, haha!!>>I always remind people that it is OK to use connection like you are mad! That is a more intense connection and really helps the dog.
On the video –
One overall note is that she has a lot more trouble on the mats in terms of being able to move, you will have to handle closer to the lines on mats than you would on grass.>> so she gets more aroused than at home. There was a lot of barking in places that I don’t think>>
I think a lot of that came from the footing being frustrating to her – she had to work a lot harder to keep her feet under her, especially on the bigger distance sends and the tighter turns.Seq 1a:
You can name the line from the exit of 4 so as soon as she exits the wing wrap there, she knows where to go. You can cue the entire line as she exits the 4 jump with a GO TUNNEL (which mean straight over 5 – the jump cue doesn’t necessarily indicate going straight). That made the tunnel cue late (:08 and :27 as she was taking off) and you are decelerating so she turned on both reps – came off the tunnel entirely on the first rep because verbal and motion were conflicting.At :47 – you sent her with an out jump verbal but then pulled away laterally so she came with you.
Staying closer to the wing of 4 and then accelerating with a GO TUNNEL cue as she comes around it can really help!
1B – It was easy to get her to turn here! Yay! The spin can be sooner – you were doing it as she was lifting offer the turn jump. So as she exits the 4 wing, you can start decelerating and as she passes you, the rotation should be underway.
The Switch went well as a tandem turn! Nice!Seq 2:
The threadle at 3 worked better when you were closer to it – being too far and looking forward made her unsure about what the line was. ally far from 3 Good job with the BC 4-5!!! You can then decelerate into the spin, so it is just about finished before she takes off (it was happening over the bar here).
Looking at 2:45 – this is where the arm would be back to her, more like 3:08, so she can see the connection to the line. That is what you did at 3:08 and she did well!
Seq 3 also looked really good – nice layering! Great connection! And you stayed closer to the lines. The send on 5 and backside on 6 can both have earlier decel and rotation on the backside (this is where you would look at the landing spot as you rotate – you were trying to rotate earlier at 4:04 but looked at her and not the landing spot at 6)).
The spin on 5 worked well to get the tighter turn!I am sure it will feel entirely different to run these on grass and you can probably be further from the lines, but on mats the dogs need extra support so it means you want to be closer to the lines.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Poor Sprite! I hope her blister heals quickly!!
The last day is the 19th. Fingers crossed for good weather and happy feet!Tracy
Good morning! She is a clever and FAST baby!!
This is a really exciting video, because we don’t need to look at it in terms of ‘baby dog training’, we can look at it in terms of subtle handling details, more like what we do in the CAMP class. Yay!
Yes, when she is more experienced some of it will be easier but right now she is giving fabulous feedback on what she sees in the handling. Much of it was gorgeous, so if I don’t mention it, you can just assume it looked great 🙂
Let’s look at her questions:
She had some questions when you were on the landing side of 3. You were doing it as a serp at the beginning.
At :17 – as she exits the tunnel you are fully past the wing and looking at her, so it doesn’t really indicate the jump behind you. Being past the wing is fine, but you would have to look back to the landing spot to cue it so she knows to take it (kind of like a throwback with the countermotion there).
That is a spot that I would reward the dog anyway and then go watch the video to see what I did to pull her past it (because the video always tells me LOL!)
You were in a better position at :26 & :43(more clearly between the uprights when she exited the tunnel) so she saw the jump better. Either way, remind yourself to look at the landing spot as you move through for now. She might not always need that but it certainly will help.
When adding the full sequence – the #3 jump is actually not a serp jump, because it is a relatively straight line to 4. Doing the serp to get 3 should cause a more severe right turn on 3 and makes you late for the blind, which can have a domino effect on the other cues as well. So, as soon as she is about to enter the #2 tunnel, you can do a FC or BC (whichever is more comfy) so she already sees your left side connection as she exits the tunnel.
That domino effect is what happened at 1:08 – she exited the tunnel looking at your right side blind to your left happened as she was landing from 3 – which made the RC cue at 1:09 late so she wrapped to her right. Good girl, good reward! The next rep was a little earlier but still late – you can see her flex over the 5 bar to pick up the RC (and you had to do some serious hustle to get the RC :))
Handling on the takeoff side of 3 looked great each time!!
Getting the next line to the wrap had a little bit of a Goldilocks feel 🙂 You can stay in motion a little more – at 1:22 you stopped, accelerated, then decelerated as she was jumping 4 so she was surprised and dropped the bar. You can totally decelerate while she is over the bar (and should decelerate in this instance) but it was the quick start after 3 then sudden brakes that surprised her.
You were a little late at 1:32 – the decel was after she had taken a stride to 5, so her takeoff decision was made and she turned on landing. The next rep was just right in terms of timing so the collection looked great!
On this type of line, it is beneficial for you to be closer to the wing of 5 (which means leaving 3 earlier) so you can really push her into the gap at 6. Yo were closer to 6, so she exits the wrap towards you which is slightly wide than if you were closer to the wing of 5. Subtle handling detail 🙂 You can see on the last rep at 1:55 you were a little closer to 5 and the turn was already tighter.
The full sequence is looking good too! You might consider the early FC on the landing side of 3 to get up the line to show the RC – at 1:47 you did it on takeoff side and held position, so showing the RC was late. You were earlier on the RC on the last rep, but being further ahead will allow you to set the RC line with more better so she doesn’t mix it up with backside pushes at all.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
I am excited to hear that she did so well in her Speedstakes runs! Those are fun courses to start baby dogs on!Looking at the videos –
Her collection looks great on jump 2 on the big lines 3 opening! You can leave for the tunnel sooner on these: if you are sending, as she lands from 1 you can take a step and sent to 2. Then when she is looking at it, move away to the tunnel before she takes off. If you are doing the send, you can send and as she is passing you to the jump you can rotate through the spin. Doing both of these before she takes off will show the next line info before she lands. You were tending to wait for her to takeoff then show the next part of the cue, so she had a little hesitation on landing.
When you did the FC to the right turn wrap, you definitely rotated sooner and that got the tight turn and a better exit line! When she land from the wing in either direction, you can be very connected and already calling the next obstacle. She wants the info that early 🙂 And when you are quiet, she is looking at you. It is very subtle but that is good to know – so as she is lifting off, you can be calling her to complete the turn then cuing the tunnel as her front feet hit the ground (as long as she is looking the correct direction when she lands :))The full sequence looked great! Yay!!!
The forced fronts are also looking really good!! I think the hardest part for her was remaining stationary while you put you hand into position. You were SUPER about not releasing at the same time as the hand ,moving into position, and that really helps her hold the stay.
The full front crosses and the throwbacks all looked great, and so did the threadle openings (these are incredibly popular nowadays!). She did really well when you worked it up to 2 jumps in the opening, and had no questions when you mixed it up and did different ones throughout the session, and changed sides. Super!!!!! The threadle opening and the throwback are the two you will use the most – but the plain ol’ forced front cross is a great way to get her started on this.
She had no questions when you switched to the front of the jump – you can be clpser to the jump on those, to serp her on a tight line and also to challenge her: your proximity to the jump is identical to the other lead outs, can she read the difference in verbal and upper body (and subtle foot position). I bet she can!
At 4:01 and the rep after it, you were relatively far away from 2 so she was not really sure how to set up her striding – that is where being closer will help a lot! And the challenge there is that the lead out push position (between the uprights) is similar to the lead out threadle position (arm outside the uprights) so she really has to look at the finer details of it all 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi! Sorry I missed this!
Thanks for the kind words about the webinars – we are having a blast seeing the massive improvements with the dogs who are playing the games! And I love that your pattern game with Sly has such a relaxing impact. Patterns can be made from anything and we totally encourage making up your own pattern 🙂
T
Holy wow! What a great run!!!! That is a beast of a course and you both nailed it!!! The bar towards the end might’ve been fatigue, I think the course was 5 miles long LOL!
I think the biggest victory though, was being able to focus on your plan and execute so well with all of the distractions in the environment. A big trial like that feels like a nationals and I totally bet it was a hard mental weekend! But when you do your visualization of big successes under pressure, this run goes into that file YAY!!!
About the start line – the more I learn about the neurobiology (8 hour drive today spent listening to deep dives on dopamine LOL!!) the more we can develop plans to help the dogs recharge between runs. Does he sleep or rest deeply between runs?
Tracy
I am on the road (hello from Indiana!) and I was TOTALLY thinking today: I really hope nothing messes up Barb’s trip and I want to meet Casper!!!
T
Hi!
These actually went really well, there is only one issue that was biting you (and it bit you several times :))>>I definitely want to improve our rear crosses. She often barks and spins when I do one, but I know it would be very useful to be able to do them!>>
That is a connection issue, because basically rear crosses are moving sends – see below 🙂
Basically, the only errors here were your connection was too soft in the places where you need BIG EYEBALL connection. Those are: exit of crosses, sends (including rears), landing of countermotion, and exits of tunnels.
Pretty much everywhere else can be normal connection which is more casual, and that is where things went really really well!
On the first walk through, everything looked good except you never looked at her at the exit of the tunnels, you were always looking ahead. And that is where things went wrong because she had to look at you at the exit of the tunnel then figure out where to go, so there was a delay and she would get The Big Mads.
At :38 you said you couldn’t get the backside because the threadle wrap isn’t independent… it was because you were looking ahead at the tunnel exit and pointing ahead, which indicates the front and causes her to look at you.
Same thing happened at 1:07 and 1:50
You got further ahead at 1:34 which helped but still not enough connection so she was mad – she had to look up at you and away from the line, which makes processing harder.And also at :47 (and also at 1:13) after the tunnel as you mentioned – no connection, all she saw was your back.
Look at 1:18 when she exited the tunnel – you were kinda mad and you looked at her like “TAKE THE FREAKIN’ JUMP” (TTFJ) which is actually perfect connection… so she took the jump. Yay!
At 1:58 you went back to not really looking at her so she didn’t go to the jump. But then at 2:12 you had the TTFJ connection and she easily took the jump 🙂
Seq 2 walk through – the switch is a rear crossy send and it was at a tunnel exit, so it needed you to look at her at the tunnel exit.
That was why it was hard to get her to do it at 2:52 – she had to look at you first to see where the connection was.
When working the layering, rather than you go to the other side of the tunnel, you can move the jump in closer so she sees it better. She figured it out nicely!
Nice connection to get her to the backside at 3:59! That was definite TTFJ connection! But then you have to shift your connection to the landing side to get her to take the jump at 4:00 because it is countermotion (don’t look at her, even though she is cute). You did that connection shift really well at 4:25!
She had a question on the send at 4:07 – you are pointing sideways and ahead and that is not enough connection. Compare to 4:28 where you looked at her while saying the verbal, no pointing ahead of her, she got it nicely! The theme is: MORE TTFJ connection 🙂
And the exit of the blind to the tunnel at 4:33 also needed more TTFJ connection, except it would be TTFT: take the freakin’ tunnel!
Sequence 3 walk through – it all looks really good, except you are not looking at the tunnel exits so I can guess where she would have questions 🙂 The switch on the jump was the big questions but when you looked at her, she got it!
Same with 6:33 – big connections and she got the line really well!So truly most of this went really well – you just need to add in connection in those spots (exit of tunnel, exit of crosses, sends, countermotion) and then it is all perfect!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Sorry to hear about the footing and his paw 🙁 Poor guy!!!! And it stinks to have to replace it.
The timing sequences from the last live can easily be done with the smaller tunnel! And yes, feel free to post trial runs!
Tracy
Hi!
>>I’m looking at the pop outs and I’m not sure what to do 2-3. Would you lead out and call to the threadle, then spin to get the turn and instantly threadle then FC?>>
Part of the challenge of the 2-3-4 line is choosing which way to turn her over 2 and over 3! I would want to turn her to her right over 3, so she has an almost straight line 3-4-5. So which way at 2? It depends…. LOL!
You can turn her to her left: lead out to a threadle then do a FC to 3. Or, lead out and do a throw back.Or turn her to her left on 2 (it will be like a reverse wrap, you can lead out to the landing side and handle 2 like a backside wrap) – the wrap is more collected but sets up a better line 3-4-5.
Try it both ways and we can see which is faster 🙂
Tracy
Hi! This went really well!

Seq 1:
Very nice! Great connection and verbals!
You can leave the threadle wrap at 5 (:12 and :32) on a blind cross not a post turn, to get you further up the line and to get an even tighter turn. What I mean by that is: as he turned to the jump, you turned with him (to your right) and faced the jump. That sent him one extra stride wide (less so on the 2nd rep where you were more decelerated). Instead, as he turns to the jump, you can turn to your left (towards the frame).Yes, turn your back on him and get outta there LOL! It will tighten his turn more and you get further ahead by a step or two – that is not critical here but will be on those ginormous UKI courses 🙂
Seq 2: Oh wow the judgement at :44 was impressive LOL! Your timing of the verbal was really good but he couldn’t see you at all, so he got BIG MAD when he didn’t know where to be LOL! He definitely had his hands on his hips and was giving you ‘the look’ LOL!
You were more visible at :51 and 1:03 for sure! You can give him more visible hand cues too – your arms were up high so he was relying on your feet. If you get your hands lower than the top of the tunnel, he will have verbal, feet, and hands to cue off of which will make it even smoother.
The rest looks great! Nice backside send and commitment, and great commitment to the wrap after that too.
Seq 3: the jump/switch cues were late at 1:28/1:29 – better at 1:48, nice adjustment! You can probably use a GO before he enters the tunnel in this context so he rockets straight out of it, then add the switch as he is exiting.
Layering looked GREAT! Yay! Since he is so confident, you can start the FC sooner at 1:33 and 1:51 (a stride before he takes off for the layer jump).
Strategically, try not to go past the landing of the jump after the tunnel so you can send him away to the next jump and get way ahead again. You can start the send as soon as he lands. To make that happen, you can pick him up closer to the tunnel exit, so yo urn accelerate then send: that will get you miles ahead again so you can get the front of the jump and not the back (which is on the natural line).
At 2:08 you were at the spin jump with him so you got some questions from him at the exit of the tunnel – that send to the spin jump can be from miles away, to get you ahead of the tunnel exit to smooth out the questions. He definitely liked the switch-and-run… there was a whole new gear of speed as he chased you up the line! Yay!
Great job 🙂 Let me know what you think!
Tracy
