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Hi! This went really well too! It will be easier outside with more room, so you won’t have to do things as quickly 🙂
The first 2 videos were the blinds to the tunnel – very nice!!! You had lovely timing and connection! When you have mre room, try to get him into the other end of the tunnel (closer to the first pinwheel jump). The pole was in your way here, otherwise it would have been easy peasy. You would be able to get i by keeping your shoulders open to him, and looking him in the eye while you gave the tunnel cue (rather than point forward to the tunnel).
Great job no the wraps in the 3rd and 4th videos!! The front cross wraps looked great – nice connection to the next line so he knew exactly where to go! On the 3rd video, you did a spin (FC to BC) and that was a little less clear to him (probably because it took him off the line to the tunnel and you had to rear cross the tunnel.
The 4th video had FCs then the BC to the tunnel – super!!!! Really nice!
When you take this outside, you can build up to the bigger distances by breaking it into smaller pieces like you did here. Great job!!
TracyHi!
He definitely likes his Cato plank! I think it was a good height at the beginning, then when you got it higher he was avoiding it a little (getting on the side or top rather than walking across it). So with the higher plank, you can put something under it for now so it is not as daunting for him to walk up and over. A big dog bed under the high end might do the trick!Great job!
TracyHi!
>>Next week our weather is supposed to be back to our usual- i.e., a little cooler. We will work on the blinds and rears then.>>
That will be a relief!!!
He is driving the lines really well, especially through the pinwheel and down the line to the tunnel! And I agree – he is fired up and putting in a lot of effort!! Good boy!
>.We had a couple of missed jumps after tunnel but it was me not giving him the info and connection. >>
Yes, remind yourself to look at him, point to hm (rather than look at the jump or look at the jump).
Also, since you have to be basically perfect to get commitment to the jump after the tunnel, you can re-visit the lazy game to specifically get him to look for the jump after the tunnel as you just walk past it. That will make things a lot easier!
On the wraps: from wherever you are when he is over the middle jump – start the decel. If you start it when he is a stride after that, you are late. At :33, for example, you can start the decel when you see his feet up over the middle bar – and then hold the decel til you see feet up on the wrap jump, then do the FC. That ‘feet up’ window on the wrap jump will get earlier as he gets more experienced, but the ‘decel as he is over the previous jump’ will probably remain the same 🙂
Rewarding teeter interaction is great!! You can also use a MM so that he figures out that slamming the teeter gets the MM to spit out cookies 🙂 It was cool to see him offering his hind end on it too, that will really help when we go to the more advanced teeter games!!!
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>.. I think that Caper responding the way she does to my handling even if the handling is a bit off will make me a better trainer and handler.>>
Yes, and then it will all get easier – as soon as she gets more experience and learns the game more, you won’t have to be as precise and she will be easy to handle!
>>A quick question regarding this week’s exercise – straight lines 4 ways. On the backside verbal is that the back side slice or wrap verbal? >>
Because most handlers will be closer to the entry wing of the backside (which predicts wrap),I think the backside wrap verbal will be better. The dogs will likely be entering and exiting on the same backside wing.
>>This will be such a good exercise for me to try and I predict Caper will LOVE it!
It really tells us if our cues are clear or not 🙂 Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>>. I’m starting him on a flyball box turn too, just on a flat surface, the on and off, which is is doing well with>>
Fun! There are some Farmdogs doing flyball in my region and they are so cool!!
Super nice session with the jumps and tunnel – I loved the high energy tugging to start followed by the high energy rewarding after he drove away to the tunnel – SO NICE!!! Seems like he has found a new gear of speed too 🙂 But the bigger ditance to the tunnel made it very easy to get the blind. You can totally now put this into the “fluffy” blind sequences where you add the blind between jumps – I believe he is ready!
Great job on the board game! You can add angles to the cookie toss rewards, so he has to figure out how to get on and balance even when the aproach is not perfectly straight. And if you have something to put under it to elevate it, like bricks – you can get it lifted off the ground a bit to add more challenge 🙂
The countermotion game is a good one to play – it is so useful! He did really well and WOW he can zip tight and fast around the wings!!
One thing that will help is letting him see you shift your connection from his eyes to wing behind you, as you step back to it. That will make it easier to get him to commit when you are doing 2 in a row (or 3 or 4 in a row :))
He did well with the race tracks too! Be sure to keep a BIG connection – because he is so little, you don’t actually need to have your arm up high -keep it low, pointing to his nose 🙂 so he can see your eyes more. At :59, you disconnected and had a high arm so he came inside the wing. So, more connection and a lower arm will totally keep him zipping around the race track on the outside.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>.Worked on Buddy’s sending out to layer and placed food to the send spot letting him see me do it and he layered the weaves beautifully from the pop up from the jumpers package. Buddy is a solid food dog. He will not send out for a toy.>>
Sounds great! You can send him to a food bowl or food toy or manners minder – a toy is not necessary 🙂
>> His reward was an Act2 jumpers course which they had on the show site and we nailed it. I wanted to see if he would run a course out doors and maintain his focus as he does indoors and he can.>>
Yay! Good boy, Alonso!!!!
>> We used remote reinforcement with his tug left on the table when we went in the ring and he was happy to get it when we got out of the ring tugging like mad. In all a great expereince for my little man. >>
Super! That is a great rehearsal for a teenage dog!!!
>>Breed not so much. I wanted to dabble and we will be done with that after this weekend. >>
He sounds like he prefers agility and flyball LOL!!!
Have fun!
TracyHi! Great job in the live session! He was looking awesome and you were nailing the timing!
The extras looked great here – you were super connected on all 3 reps and he did not even consider pulling off at the last minute. You turned him to the right and to the left, and that first one was to the right was a really hard angle. Nice!!
Did you feel like you could see the head turn AND that first step? It looked like you moved away to the next line with plenty of time to get miles ahead again 🙂When is your next UKI to test the skill?
Tracy
Good morning!
Wow, super nice run here!!!! Loved your aggressive handling!!Very nice tunnel send in the opening! You can probably lead out a little less and send away more, so it is easier to layer and you don’t have to back track at all to get around the weaves.
GREAT job with the “go go go” while layering, to get to the 6 tunnel easily then set up a lovely RC on 7. She found 8-9 really nicely, I bet you can add even more distance there so you don’t get behind the tunnel at all.
>. I was able to layer the weaves (although I forgot to in the video) >>
Great job carrying on even though it looked like you were halfway up the weave poles then realized you were supposed to be layering 🙂 You still got a great push to the 13 backside!!
15-8 looked good with you going behind the tunnel. Layering that line is hard, so you can break it down and start at 13: start by getting 14 then throw a reward, then 13-14-15 (even if you have to angle the jump a little to help), then 13-14-15-16. It is a hard skill so you can build it up bit by bit with lots of thrown rewards.
She only had one question, and that was from the exit of the 18 tunnel to the 19 jump (she looked at you a bit). You were saying go but that is a straight line cue, so she was going straight (good girl!). A ‘get out’ cue will be more effective here, because she has to shift away from you on the exit of 18 to find the front of 19.
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Fantastic job last night in the live class! I was particularly thrilled with the timing on your threadle wraps: GORGEOUS!!
Great job on the jumpers courses here!
Course 1:
1st video – I am not sure that he was sniffing because something smelled good 🙂 It was probably more like a bit of stress – new place, very hard skill that was a little unclear, you told him he was wrong… so he needed a sniff.
2nd video – he got it right and ran right past the sniffy spot… no sniffing.So even if he gets something not quite 100% right, keep going and fix it later. When you say “what happened” it is always paired with no reinforcement, which could stress him out if he doesn’t know what you wanted.
I think you had better connection on the 2nd rep and you were not as far ahead, so he had more support to find the jump. Yay! good job rewarding him for it!
3rd video – Very clear cue to 3! You had a much more intense connection and clear motion when he exited the tunnel. The 4-5 line looked good!
At :09 be careful of the high arm on the weave cue to 6, especially with the off course 16 jump right there. When you were saying weave but your arm was up high, it actually turned the line of your shoulders and feet to the jump so he looked at you, perhaps asking if you wanted the jump – and then you were feet were pointing to pole 6 so he couldn’t quite get the entry. He got it nicely on the next rep because he knew where they where 🙂 so to get it on the first rep, try to keep your fingers pointing to his nose so the arm is lower, make more eye contact, and run directly to pole 1, til you see him looking at the weave entry.
The rest of it looked lovely! A couple of little details to set up tighter line:
You can converge in towards the 9 tunnel earlier so he doesn’t look at you over 8 – send to 7 after the weaves and trust he will find 8 (because he will :)) so you can run directly towards 9.
SUPER SUPER nice FC at 10 (nice decel, connection, verbal, rotation) which set up a great line through the box 11-12-13-14. Yay! After he sees the line 13-14, you can hang back more for 15 so he doesn’t go as wide (you were running forward to much, so he looked at the other tunnel – you can decelerate when he looks at 14 and before he takes off).
Nice ending line, especially the serp over 17! You can call him sooner (before he takes off for 16) so he is tighter on that line to find 17.
Course 2:
First video:
1-5 looked great, nice low arm connection! Nice push to 6!>>These were filmed by my mom and she did a really great job being my tripod!>>
Your mom did an amazing job here!!! Thanks, mom, for taping – it is not easy to catch everything and she was just about perfect 🙂
That 7-8 tunnel threadle line was HARD!!!
>> I think he was just so set on that tunnel that when I gave him the cue, I didn’t have the connection I thought I did, so the cue meant nothing. He’s such a great boy!!>>
Yes – he was locked onto the line and at first, your tunnel threadle cues were moving forward on a parallel line, so they didn’t get his attention. Pulling away laterally and a turning cue between 6 and 7 for the 7 jump (like a name call) will help too!
Nice job breaking it down here – you added calling him sooner and moving away laterally on the next reps, which helped!
Got it on the rep after that – you were a little more in his face, a little lower like DUDE! And more upper body rotation helped too as you pulled away – that definitely got his attention and eyes off the straight line ahead.>>I think my IN IN command came late and that was pretty hard to get him to come in. I think I may need to start proofing while I’m ahead of him? What would you recommend to try to make that easier?>>
This was probably filmed before we started threadle-obsessing, oops I mean threadle timing discussions 🙂 You can get it tighter with a strong right verbal (or name call) as he is exiting 8 and approaching 9, so he is already turning towards you over 9. Then as he lifts off for 9, you start the threadle cue – that should make it a lot tighter! You were doing this brilliantly last night in the live class.
The rest looked fantastic! NICE wrap at 13, loved the blind on the exit of 14 to show 15-16. 17-18-19 was gorgeous! You gave him a lot of GO GO GO for 19-20 and so he went right past 21 🙂 Just needed a name call before going into 20 .
2nd video:
A little off kilter in the opening, he was quite looking at the tunnel and you took off a bit too soon. You can line him up on more of a slice 1-2 so he sees the line there, more like what you did on the 2nd run, and don’t take off to 3 til he looks at the tunnel – watch his cute head to make sure he is looking at it 🙂Great push to 6 and super nice job being like “DUDE IT IS A TUNNEL THREADLE” at 1:15. Very connected and clear! On the next rep you did the blind there – LOVED IT! It was very brave and you nailed it!
You can smooth out the threadle with a turn cue before it (see above) and then the rest looked great! 13 was lovely, and the 14-20 looked great! and you didn’t use as much GO at 20 and also called him so he totally found 21 🙂
>>Also, after re-reading the hints section, I should have wrapped G to the right instead of the left when entering the tunnel (13-14). It seemed like the right was so far away from the tunnel, I wrapped left and it worked well. Could it have been faster wrapping right? Maybe.
Based on how you set it up, I agree with your decision to wrap to the left. In real life here, the left wrap had a great line to 14 and less yardage. If you move the jump 5 or 6 feet over to the right side of the computer screen, then the right turn would be faster. It is always better to make the decision based on exactly how it is set up – looked great here!
3rd video – the blind before the 8 tunnel worked here too, but you were not quite as far ahead so as you were finishing the blind, your feet were still running towards the other end of it (so he considered it for a step or two then changed lines as soon as he saw the new connection, good boy!) Yu made a bigger, earlier connection on the next blind and he read it sooner for sure. The tunnel threadle you did on the 3rd rep was GREAT and I think it got you further up the line!!
The double push worked well!!! It will be fun to smooth out the threadle and then time them both, to compare (in a different context, so you don’t have to go back to Wisconsin haha!
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This is going really nicely!!!
I think staying in flow is building up some real resilience here – she doesn’t get overly frustrated is something is a little sideways and she bounces back a LOT faster if there is a little fix!You were smart to start at 3. The opening is complicated and needs a lead out, so need to bother with that for now. Before starting, you can increase her arousal with some tricks rather than cookie tosses – we need her to get used to working in the high arousal she will be in at trials.
Very nice turn 4-5!!
>.We broke our weaves! She has lost some confidence doing higher speed into weaves. I’m also going to have her checked over to make sure she’s not sore.>>
Not sure what is up with the poles, could be the speed like you mentioned or the visual of the tunnel out ahead, or all of the above. Nice job getting 7-8 after the poles!!
She didn’t jump 9 on the first run, but she went towards it and not in the tunnel, so I score it as a win 🙂
Great job showing her the 10 tunnel! 11 is more of a get out than a go, because she has to shift away fom you, so you can try that verbal and physical cue before she enters 10.12-13 YAY! SUPER nice confidence on the big line!!!!
Then, don’t get quiet when she is about to enter 13 – not time to breathe there LOL! You got quiet in your race to get to 14 so she came right to you.Great job staying in flow there – she was frustrated about 14 but you just re-established connection, got back on track, and had a great ending line!! And she was happy 🙂 That is HUGE! Love it!
On the 2nd run, she got 9 brilliantly! And that set up 10-11-12-13 to be even better. She was VERY close to getting 14, she even looked at it! That is something you can break down and teach without the weaves there (or use 6 poles, or run through the poles at first :)) and place a reward out past 14 or throw it as soon as she looks at it.
The ending was really strong here too, she just needed one more step to get commitment to 17 – be sure to watch her head so she is looking at it!
You said something like “that’s exhausting” – yeah these courses have a lot of yardage and they are relentless, no time to coast LOL! But you are doing a great job of keeping her in flow, staying connected, and working the new skills. SUPER!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
The RC at 7 worked nicely here aand you sent brilliant to the 9 tunnel. VERY nice! with more practice, you can get him to llayer even more
GREAT JOB layerin the weaves on the big juicy tunnel send!!!
>. After videoing I figured out how to get the 180 after the 2nd backside>>
Do you mean at 13? The way this was set, the around wrap at 13 was the best option and it set up a GREAT line to 14 and the 15 backside that was so far away. Great job cuing it, Jeri, and great job finding it, Moose!!!! Very proud of him!!!
>> I had a little party. >>
The party was perfect – he was nailing really hard lines!!!
15-16-17-18 looked great! When he exited the tunnel youtold him to go, which is a straight line cue – so he went straight and found the other side of 19. Good boy! I think a ‘get out’ tp push him away to get 19 will be easier for him there.
Lovely work!!!!
TracyGood morning! I agree – his distance work is looking amazeballs!!!
Nice drive to the tunnel on the opening 1-2-3 line the WOW distance to 4-5!!! Tell him the out even sooner (before he goes into the tunnel), then keep talking 🙂 You got really quiet and that was when he came off the line. So don’t get quiet LOL! Stay connected back to him and look him in the eye (like you did on the 2nd run there) and yell the verbal, like jump or go or go tunnel (the 2nd run was a still a little quiet).
The line after the tunnel would work a little better as a rear cross on the flat to get the left turn over the 7 jump. That will help you not go in past the tunnel entry to show him 8 – getting stuck back there was part of what caused him to jump over the tunnel when you pulled away to get to the other side.
Also, that is a tricky section with a trained skill needed there – I think he doesn’t know how to find the backside tunnel entry that well in that context, so break it down and work 7-8-9 to get him to find the tunnel entry (rather than go over it LOL!) first with you sending from behind the tunnel, then adding in the layering. Be sure to support with a much motion as needed to get the tunnel entry so he can find it more easily. And if he jumps the tunnel to get to you, just turn him around and send him over 7 and try again. He was not wrong or naughty 🙂 he just didn’t understand – then when you told him to stop, he got stressed and started sniffing. So turning him around to send him again (stay in flow) then support a little more will show the line and will also teach the skill.
Great job!!
TracyHi!
Nice job breaking down the opening and rewarding – try to always be on the move on a parallel line as you support her path on the layering elements. I bet you can layer those weaves! Weave layering is a big theme on this course LOL!
>.Getting her to drive straight out of tunnel when I’m not there to find a jump is a HUGE big step for her.>>
Yes! I loved all the big lines you were encouraging here and how well she was moving on her lines!!! Super!!!! You can start adding in the weave layering at 9-10-11 too to get you to the 12-13-14 side sooner. 13 is a backside, so needs more handling. It looked like she found the 15 backside really nicely!!!!
Also – remember to use your other verbals, so not everything is a go LOL! Go is specific to going relatively straight, so you can use your obstacle names (like using “tunnel” at :37 – you were saying Go go go and she was like “go where? Which one?”)
And you can use your ‘get out’, like on 15-16 as well as from the 18 tunnel to 19 (:52) because that will cue the lead change away from you, which is what is needed there.
Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I made this video for an agility competitor who was having the same issue. You can wrap more of the foot to get it fully protected. I use Powerflex and bandage scissors for Amazon.
>>only wrapped down to the dewclaw and others covered the back pad (that;s the stopper pad right?)
The stopper pad is the one up on the wrist near the dewclaw. When Voodoo was running wrapped, I wrapped his dewclaw/stopper pad all the way down to his toes, to cover all pads.
>>And yes – would love to join another live class but can’t do during the work day or Tuesday nights…>>
The other two are Tuesdays but due to weather and illness, some folks would probably be happy if I scheduled a makeup. Stay tuned!!!
Keep me posted on how the Gamble stuff goes!
Tracy
