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Great question:
>>. Couple questions, we NQ d a jumpers novice run because he skipped the middle pole , I honestly didn’t notice but wouldn’t have fixed it anyway ( judge said she was surpised I didn’t, I also didn’t fix his weaves during an FEO run and he got the same set up and weaved correctly in the jumpers run I posted above. So your advise would be to not fix weaves in a trial at this point?>>
You can add weave challenges in FEO with the toy: if he misses, you can keep moving but circle back to the jump or two before the weaves… then reward him for correctly doing the weaves.
It is a trickier question about fixing weaves in a regular non-FEO run. If you can happily call him out and keep moving and circle back around, he should be fine with it, if it only happens sometimes. If it is a recurring issue (I don’t think it is for him) then that is a different story and more training/less trialing would be useful. And yes, you can support the weaves a lot in this stage with more connection – connection won’t create the weave performance, but breaking connection can distract him at this stage and cause an error.
T
What is the last day to post? I need this class to be longer….
Hi there!!
The Circle wrap session went well! He is strong with his commitment for the most part and your shifting connection really helped him. He is not as sure about it when you are doing a lot of countermotion – meaning, you are on the ‘takeoff’ side at the same time he is (like at 2:05 and 3:00) and he didn’t finish the wrap there. If he could see part of you on the landing side, he was good about finishing the commitment.
So 2 ideas for you:
– as he is passing you and heading to the wing, you can make he connection shift even more obvious, Using the good view from the camera when he started on your left side at 1:46, for example – as he passes you, you can shift your connection to the ‘landing’ spot and also point at it with your right hand fully extended. Both of those can make things more obvious for him– use a reward target like an empty food bowl or manners minder tucked in to where he would be exiting the wing wrap (yes, he would have to pass it on the entry of the wing wrap 🙂 ) that way he has a focal point to drive around to as you add more and more countermotion. Plus, it will make the reward easier to find because you can either click the MM or you can toss a treat near/into the bowl.
The serps are going well too – good job breaking it down to help him see the line over the bar! He did better when you used your dog-side arm (left arm here) for the serp cue (at :44 and 1:07 you had the other arm in play and it sent him around the jump).
One thing you can do to help him is when you release him, look very directly down to your serp hand/landing spot. That connection shift can help him come in over the jump more than looking at him will. And keep dropping the reward like you did, that was super effective!
The shifting connection for the turn aways was definitely harder!
How does he do on the flat with just the hand cues? For example, when you are walking forward, you can do the connection shift to your hands and turn him away on the flat without the jump being in the picture.
Then it will be easy to add the jump back in. What was happening here was he was trying to sort this out with the jump, and you were trying to help with your feet/motion – but that was pushing him off the jump a bit (your feet were facing the pole and not the jump so he was not sure if he should take the front of the jump or the back of the jump).When he is happy to turn away with just the hand signal as you walk forward, you can then transfer it to the jump where you walk forward to the center of the bar and flip him away (using just a wing is a good intermediate step too, because it is such a hard skill).
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! The video is looking good!!!
On the tandem turns (front side of jump here):
She is reading them well! You were also using RC motion a bit to set it up, which is fine but you can also now start to fade that out and do it only with hands and connection shift! That will add distance and also answers your question:>> I’m having trouble seeing how this drill for switches will translate to the dog being way in front. Most of the time if I’m doing a switch it is because my dog is too far in front of me to do another cross.>>
That is true for a true rear cross/side change. But, you can use the switches in situations where you are behind (the dog can still see and hear the info) as well as when you are laterally away and can’t show a FC/BC or a true RC either 🙂 It is almost like a RC on the flat in those moments.
The other places I use a turn away/switch would be if I want a really tight turn on the next jump (rather than run in for a FC or BC, I would hang back and do it as a switch). Or, when setting up layering: that is where you would NOT want to use RC motion because you want to be at a distance and switching the dog away so you can layer and go the new direction. It is a cool application!
Here is what that would look like:
>>I still don’t think I’m doing the threadles correctly,
For the threadle wraps: You are 100% on the right track – the hardest part is getting her to come to the correct side of the jump!!
At :37, you did a great job of connecting to her eyes, showing your hands, and then shifting connection to your hands as you dropped them down to get the threadle cue going. That got the threadle every time you did it like at :45, :55, 1:07. When you didn’t do that (either disconnected by just looking at your hands, or looked at her the whole time), she took the front of the jump (first 2 reps and at 1:07).
The next steps to really get this smooth are to:
-add a wrap verbal on the wing before the threadle, so she knows exactly how tight to turn to set it up
-add a threadle wrap verbal as you shift connction to you hands
-instead of turning your feet torwards her at all, you can keep your feet forward both as you cue the threadle wrap and as you turn her away, so you are staying on the line of motoin past the jump and not turning with her (she will do a full circle wrap on the jump).>> I was thinking of signing up for a working spot, but Synnie is getting spayed on 3/11. Will the working skills be okay for a dog on the mend or should I just audit this one?>>
Is it a regular spay or a lap spay? The recovery from the regular spay will take longer and there is too much movement in the working spot stuff, so might be better to audit.
>>We were at Bon-Clyde. I’m not sure if you have been there, but when you exit after you run, you directly leave the building. I put the tug outside that door, and once we were about 10 feet away, Syn would tug to the point that I could “walk” her back to the car with her tug. Usually she hasn’t been that committed.>>
That is great! Bon-Clyde has a different layout than most agility places, so it sounds like she did really well!!!! Yay!
>> She also would tug in the building but only after working the practice jump. I also think I got to the point that I went too far with her warmup and we started down the slope.>>
Ah yes, it is always a balancing act with young dogs so your idea of adding pattern games after the warm up jump is smart! Keep me posted!
Great job here!
TracyFor the threadle verbals: I was cuing a turn on the wing before the jump. Then the threadle verbal is “close close” for the threadle slice verbal.
T
Hi! The last video submission day is Feb 21. The approximate calendar math is one week after the last games are posted (which is tomorrow) then 2 more weeks after that (which brings us to the 21st, I believe :)) The weather has been a little too crazy lately for tight timelines! So you should have plenty of time to finish the games 🙂
T
Hi!
>The Max Pup track is just the basic basic basic foundation of the backside in motion. I also can’t imagine getting that skilled.>>
You totally can! It is a matter of what you prioritize, based on where you think you will focus your competition in the future. If you are going to do AKC regular classes like Standard, JWW, and Premier, then the super independent backsides are not a high priority. If you are planning on AKC ISC class or UKI, then. The independent backsides are a higher priority. I like to train things in a priority-order so I don’t get overwhelmed with the 10 zillion things that need to be trained LOL!
>>I think I know the answer to this question but I’m going to ask anyway just to talk it out. So the “get out” command wouldn’t work here because it doesn’t tell the dog to jump after going around the wing, right? >>
GREAT question!!!!! There are a couple of subtle differences between the get out and the backside slice:
– backside slice is specifically meaning ‘go to the other side of the jump away from me and jump the bar’
– The exit of the backside slice involves coming towards the handler (for the most part) based on the handling of the exit line
– Backside slice may not involve a lead change (it might, or not, depends on the course design)
– get out is specifically a front side cue (never a backside cue)
– Get out always involved a lead change away from the handler to go find the front side of a jump that is not on the line
– And the exit of the get out cue involves staying on the line parallel to the handler and not necessarily coming right back to the handler (but also depends on the Course design
It might add more differences after I have more coffee 🤣😁>>In these videos, I was using boiled turkey! I got a whole bunch of turkey and chicken to cook and freeze. I was rotating between those chunks of meat, string cheese, and deli turkey meat. When should I use lower value like freeze dried liver and when should I use higher value like cheese or meat?>>
Yum! LOL! You can mi in the freeze dried stuff like a trail mix, so it picks up the flavor of the juicy meat stuff. And then in ‘regular’ comfortable training environments, you can start using the lower value stuff as long as it is still motivating. And the super high value stuff can be reserved for new environments, or really hard skills.
>>The hard part for me is, my older dog I started agility with just 1 year ago as a new 5 year old. I did other things with her as a young dog but those things are so far removed that I don’t remember the teenage brain phase.>>
Ah yes – if she started at 5 years old, you didn’t have any teenage brain moments to work through.
>>had already done some other disciplines, and caught on pretty quickly.>>
The experience of having already done training in different environments was probably very helpful too!
>>It was just different struggles because she was mature during her initial agility foundation.>>
Totally different! And the dogs we start as puppies require a lot more patience from us and also a LOT of clarity because they are total blanks slates in every way 🙂
>>I see two more of your classes posted! Knowing what you’ve seen for Kashia’s skill level, what class would you say is best suited for her?>>
If you want feedback, I suggest MaxPup 3! There will be plenty of stuff that is new for her, and I am adding a whole new track to the class for this session for the dogs in the 15 month to 24 month age range 🙂
Tracy
This session was all about adding even more disconnection:
Lots of good reps here!!!Throwing the toy sooner and closer to the entry wing will help get him looking for the bar sooner (and at you less as you run forward). Try not to swith the toy from hand to hand – just toss it with whichever hand is holding it 🙂 and that will get it to him sooner.
Looking at the successful reps versus the reps where he had questions:
He ended up on the front of the bar at :49 and 1:27. On those reps, there was not enough extreme, direct connection to his eyes and there was a little too much pointing forward to the jump. That turns your shoulders to the front of the bar then you turned away to the exit wing before he was committed (so he read it as a cue to take the front).
Compare those to the reps at 1:08 and 1:43 and 2:05 where you were much clearer with connection and he went to the backside very independently. YAY! That allowed you to get ahead on the line and disconnect a bit too. Super nice!!Great job here!
TracyHi!
This is the backside disconnection practice – it went really well! The lower bar definitely helped him come over the bar and grab his toy.Try to keep moving both on send to the backside, and after you drop the toy. The line of motion should be towards the center of the bar and then when he is more comfy going to the backside, you can be more near the exit wing. You were closer to the exit wing when he was on your left (yay!) and also on the last rep where he was on your right. Super! Being closer to the exit wing and staying in motion makes it a lot easier for you to stay ahead of him on the exit – those looked great!
T
Hi!
He did well here, it looks like there was more distance too! These were mostly forward sends to the jump here, because you stopped your motion and faced the jump as you sent him to it. When he had questions on the forward send, it was because you had a break in connection and you were pointing forward. When he went smoothly to the jump, you had more connection to his eyes and not as much arm pointing.
To make it more of a ‘get out’ behavior:
The goal of the ‘get out’ behavior is that you can push him away to the jump while you keep moving – a forward send causes us handlers to stop moving which definitely has its uses (but is not the same as an ‘out’ cue – the forward send will cue more collection and the out is more of a slice/extension cue).To get it to be more of the ‘out’: Keep moving 🙂 A line on the ground for you to move along can help!
The lower body should be doing virtually the same thing that you were doing when you were doing figure 8s on the wings – moving to the next wing. The difference should be what the upper body is doing: while your feet face straight to the next wing and you stay in motion (not the jump) your upper body will add the extreme connection to him (and outside arm can help) to cue the out.
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
Good start here with the backside disconnections! remember keep moving forward on the line while cuing the backside rather than stop and send – the send is when you are staying on the landing side, but if you are moving to the takeoff side you will want to keep moving so he doesn’t get ahead of you 🙂
Good toy placement here! At the end you lowered the bar so he can hop over it to get the toy – that was what I was going to suggest so click/treat to you for doing it already. Yay!T
Note the difference in this run – much smoother opening and lead out 🙂 And even with a little blooper, you kept moving and he didn’t get concerned and was totally focused. Good boy! Nice run!!!!
Thanks for the video!!! I don’t think this was a puppy brain moment 🙂 I think a couple of things happened here:
Holding him by the collar like that before the tunnel send was really arousing and might have been too much… it might be better to take your hand off his collar and ask for a sit, even on a tunnel start.
Then at :12 you were late turning (facing forward). Then you line of motion pushed him past a jump at :18. That caused a lot of stop-and-go which is confusing for him –
Then you were standing still and he definitely knew things had gone wrong and got a little stressed so was sniffing. As soon as you started moving again, he did great!So if something goes wrong in the ring… don’t fix – just keep moving, keep moving, keep moving. There is a 99.999% chance it was handler error and we don’t want him to get stressed when things come to a stop in the ring. It is possible that also happened in the standard run. And, if the judge was a new distraction on the a-frame, definitely ask friends or classmates to act as judges in training so he can get used to that 🙂
Tracy
Wowza, great connection here! She had no questions 🙂 And gorgeous lines!
Yes, cuing the backside with the outside arm is definitely NOT an American thing LOL!!! It is something I picked up about 10 years ago from a European as a way to really emphasize the cue without my slow self having to step to the backside or run to the backside… what a difference it can make!
And if anyone asks why I am using the outside arm, I just say “yes, it is European” hahahahaha
You can try moving into to more and see if it is still super effective for you while keeping your feet running forward (I bet it will be). And you can play with exactly how high your arm needs to be: I tend to use the arm at or above my shoulder here as it points to the entry wing and I connect with the dog. Your arm was a little higher here, but maybe that is perfect for her!
Great job here! Keep me posted!
TracyHi!
>>For the engagement between bowls during Power Bowls, how much do you care about actual eye contact? >>
I don’t prioritize eye contact, especially in more challenging environments. It is not that important.
>>Today while practicing with a couple fellow MaxPuppers, my friends said I was late in responding to Mason’s engagement. Mason likes to look at my hands and my pockets, so I was waiting for him to look directly at my eyes, not my chest or even my chin. We weren’t sure if the criteria for engagement should be that strict.>>
Hands/pockets are fine 🙂 It does not need to be eye contact – and eye contact might be too hard in more difficult environments (internally and externally).
>>Mason can make eye contact during Power Bowls, but he would rather stare at the bowls and offer the least amount of engagement that it takes to get the cookie.>>
He might be able to make easy eye contact in easy environments, but I will take *any* engagement at all as the environments get harder.
>> I’d say I have to wait a full second for him to switch his gaze from my chin to my eyes. What do you think? Give him the cookie or wait for the eye contact?>>
Cookie for chin! Eye contact in that scenario might not be comfortable for him, and looking at your chin is great (considering all of the other things he can be looking at :)) I reward for any engagement in my general direction. So staring at the environment? Nope. Looking at the bowls? Nope. Looking at any part of me? Yes 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
Great job with the tunnel rocking horse session, it was really fun to see him open up!! Yay!
>>All that speed from the straight tunnel certainly widened his turns! >>
The speed is good! It also required the handling to have to start earlier, so on the first rep you were late decelerating and turning for the wrap, but not the difference on the 2nd rep at :16 where you decelerated sooner and he totally collected for a great turn!
It is also important not to slam on the brakes on your sports car here 🙂 That is what happened at :35 – you were running then stopped with your dog-side leg back and partially rotated… so he stopped and looked at you. You had better decel at :49 but turned away a heartbeat too soon.
To get him committing more consistently (especially when you are not ahead of him), think of it as a 3 part process:
– accelerate, run like mad 🙂
– decelerate, when he has exited the tunnel, but keep moving forward as you decelerate
– rotate as he arrives at the wing.The timing will get earlier as he gets more experienced but emphasizing the decel right now will really help with commitment.
And of course be connected on all of it 🙂
He did well with the lateral lead outs game!
>>I see that I am not maintaining a very good connection with him. Need to work on that!>>
Yes, you can be more connected as you lead out but it is fine to sometime not be fully connected as long as you reconnect, get settled into position, praise…. Then release. You can peripherally watch him rather than be fully disconnected.
If you release when you reconnect or release as soon as you get near the barrel, he will think that is the release cue (a little bit of that happened here). So being sure the release is not associated with connection or with you being near the barrel will make it less important for you to lead out watching him fully.For the sends to the barrel – you can change the placement of reinforcement and throw it to the other side of the barrel (as if it was the landing spot of the jump) so that he drives away from you and to the barrel more. He did really well committing on your right side! On your left, I think he was a little distracted by *something* out in the distance. A toy was definitely more engaging on that last rep and helped him work through whatever the distraction was.
Great job here!!
Tracy
