[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

The send to the wings are looking great – his commitment seems very strong! Yay! Nice job with your verbals, and also with your connection (especially when he exited the tunnel and you were sending to the next wing). And he also had no trouble when you added the center wing and did the Front Cross – nice connection from you there too!!!

Since this went so well, you can add more distance between the wings and the tunnel, so there is more running from you 🙂 And with more running, remember to stay connected like you were here, it was great! Since things will be moving faster, you can do this with the toy in your pocket so you don’t end up switching it from hand to hand: he is really fast so you won’t have time for that.

Great job on these!!! New games being posted later today :)



Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

He caught on really quickly that if he keeps taking the jumps, you will keep throwing the treat LOL!! Good boy! You can keep moving after you toss the treat, so see if he can find the jump from behind you, especially when you toss for the middle jump.

The added distance was no problem at all for him, so keep adding more distance. And since he easily did a couple in a row, you can switch to a toy for this too. We build on this with the new games that will be posted today 🙂

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

He did really well with the plank here! Yes there was a tip but it was really minimal and I don’t think he cared at all. He was also really happy to turn around on it – not so easy now that he is fully grown! He did better with slow hand movement on that than when you did it really fast.

You can add more of your motion on this back and forth game now, walking fast and also tossing the cookies on a slight angle so he has to line himself up to get back on

Nice work!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>Stronger on one side than the other. was it my body position or her preference?>>

Yes! She definitely did well on one side over the other… but it was not a side preference for her or body position from you: it was motion (or lack thereof).

Looking at the reps:
Rep 1 and 4 – you were stationary near the visual obstruction when she exited the tunnel, so she came to you.

Rep 2 and 5 – you did it as a send so she had a question but went back out when you showed the motion of the send.

Rep 3 at :45 – you had motion the whole time, parallel to her line, and she nailed it. Yay!

Rep 6 – she saw motion the whole time and she was great on her line, until the end where you stopped moving in the same spot as reps 1 and 4, so she came off the line.

Great info from Roulez! Staying in motion is the key, using parallel line motion to get her on the layering line. That is great because when layering on course, you will want to stay in motion anyway (it is not a send, you will be hustling to the next part of the course).

So on the sequence, send her into the tunnel then be moving up the line to the 3 and 4 jumps while staying parallel to her (further and further away) and I bet she gets it perfectly :)

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
How did you feel about this session, in terms of motivation (his and yours too LOL!) I really liked it 🙂 The pool might be a happy-making factor here!

At the beginning:

Holy wow! I am super happy with his speed and propulsion out on the lines here – especially because there is not a lot of handler motion and he loves chasing you 🙂

You can have more handler motion on the lateral line, parallel to his path. You don’t need to send from the stationary position – that can support the line and also allow you to add more distance.

For example, on the 2nd sequence, you can go down closer to the tunnel so it is less of a send from ahead to the jump and more of a parallel line path for you (the motion will support his line here even at a big distance.

He gave us some great info here as well, about what helped him find the commitment and what did not help him:

“Go jump” is important to him, especially the GO part 🙂 “Jump” alone doesn’t do it, he needs the Go. He got the line every single time when you had the GO:
Even at 1:35 when you did it as a send without motion, the “go jump” verbal got it done nicely!!
And at 2:23 when you were late but said “go jump” he wen back out to get it – good boy!!!

At 3:00 you said jump – no jump from him. But on the next rep – you said “go” before the jump cue and he worked beautifully!

So for the magical GO word, start saying it *before* he enters the tunnel, and keep saying it til he locks onto the next line. It will sound more like “Tunnel Tunnel GO GO GO GO Jump” so he is hearing it the entire time and never needs to look at you 🙂

And to help solidify it, you can throw the toy more out on the line or maybe Carrie can be a frizzy thrower if you think that would be effective – she could do a roller as the reward if he will chase it.

On the wrap on the #4 jump to get back into the layered line:
Wrapping towards you then back into the layer was hard – you can try a get out cue there, or a GO jump cue. He seems to like the directional and the high energy and responds better to it than he does to the obstacle name.

>>
>>I realized for the flip away at 4 on the second wrap that I don’t really have a word for it. Because it’s more of a slice than a wrap, I wasn’t sure if my dig dig would be appropriate… but also this really isn’t a skill I’ve put work into.>>

Is dig dig your turn to the left? If so, then yes, it is appropriate. I use a switch verbal, which is specific to the context of turn away from me and then ignore my physical cues (but listen for verbals), because you are going to layer LOL! And the physical cue that goes with the ‘switch’ is basically a tandem turn from a distance.

Here are some visuals if you want to play around with it:

I also was really excited about how he was keen and PUSHY on the start lines, as you accurately quoted as “let’s go bitch”. I love that!

Great job here! Let me know how it felt in the moment!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>Enzo is back in the saddle; just a wound on this foot that needed to heal. Can’t imagine how he got it — stepped on a sharp rock or stick, maybe.>>

Whew! That is a relief. Thanks for letting me know, I was worried that it was a bigger injury. Very glad it is healed up!!

>>I wanted it to be a touch harder, so I used a wingless jump as the “out jump”.>>

Ah, clever twist on it for those who do a lot of AKC – that wingless will be placed in hard spots for sure!!! Love it!

Out of curiosity, how did the other dogs do? I am interested in hearing about any struggles they had or if it was too easy.

On Enzo’s video: One thing to add is to tell him how to exit the tunnel before he goes in so there are no questions. You were tending to give the next cue as he exited, which will work on a simpler line but will be late on a more challenging line. You can give him the exit cue (such as Go Jump) before he even enters the tunnel in a big layering moment.

Layering involves a lot of extension and a course trend is collection after the layering, so we need stronger cues to get the collection for dogs that love to extend:

For example, at :17 to get a better FC wrap without motion (because there is not a lot of handler motion there but there is a big tasty tunnel out ahead), you can drop in your hand cues in front of him and make a BIG eye contact before he passes you and rotate your feet as soon as he passes you. A ‘switch’ to the left worked nicely too and is a better line there.

He had no real issues driving back to the tunnel by layering in the other direction 🙂

2nd sequence: This went well too.
He should be seeing the out cues for the jump past the tunnel before liftoff for the previous jump – your timing was closer to the that at 1:07, which is definitely nice and early – you can experiment with how early you can give the out cues. A stride before takeoff? 2 strides before takeoff? That way he goes out to the layer and you can move to your next position sooner.

Compare the timing at 1:07 to the timing at 1:33 where the cues started as he was landing so he had questions (he was jumping looking at the tunnel because there was no other info. And for the outside arm, you can use it to point to the obstacle not just high up because it helps turn your shoulders to it as well. (And he really benefits from the big obvious upper body cue there!)

I liked your timing of the “go on” at 1:56, nice and early, so he read the layering really well. The line of motion supported the jump but a “go on” might be tricky with a tunnel right there 🙂

>>I do notice that I use “OUT”, “GET OUT”, “GO”, “GO JUMP” and “GO ON”. >>

My guess is he is reading the energy of the cue and not actually the verbal? And also the line of motion. But yes, try to pick what you want to use and be consistent so he doesn’t have questions (and so he doesn’t need to also rely on physical cues).

>>The last sequence had some bar-dropping issues.>>

That is usually a sign that the challenge is ever-so-slightly uncomfortable. Could be that your arm was getting higher and the verbals were less clear? It is hard for the dogs to process all the things happening here: verbals, line at a distance, visual blocker (I loved your creativity LOL!) and the extension required without as much handler motion. So he was processing the correct line which took a lot of bandwidth but the motor skills/jumping organization was not as well-processed. No worries, the jumping skills will come back when he gets more comfortable with the layering skills.

When the DW was in the sequence, you can see why we start without it LOL!!! It is so much harder with the DW there.

I think you were relying on verbal cues alone there, but he needs the physical cues to support them too, especially with in terms of motion changes and big upper body movement.

There was too much failure here because the visual of the dog walk without a lot of handler help takes up a lot of processing bandwidth even for the experienced dogs – and the frustration of failure takes of even more bandwidth so it become a bit of a cycle when it is too hard. He was slowing down to try to get it, but still had trouble. So, breaking it down and less failure will really help.

So with that in mind, 2 suggestions to make this easier:
– When the dog walk is in place, don’t layer: get in there and handle the lines. I think the wraps and switches need more upper body cues, especially the switches (I use both hands and my shoulders on that when I am working it, especially at a distance and with layering.

– And, you can break the skill down: rather than the full dog walk, take a low table and a plank (like a puppy training setup) and put that in the middle where the DW would be – and work the skill with that smaller setup there. That should take up less mental bandwidth and get a lot more success 🙂

You can also do these with Casper, especially with the visual barrier and the table-plank setup! It is a good time to begin teaching him to layer, if you haven’t done so already.

>>(by the way, for some reason the “CAMP 2023 Package 2 Overview” video had the visual and aural output just ever so slightly out-of-sync. )>>

Ugh, sorry about that! I recorded it different because I was on the road at that time, and that appeared to have created the lag. I will re-do it when I get back to civilization next week 🙂

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! These went really well! A couple of subtle details for you, but overall the runs were lovely.

>>I definitely needed to run more aggressively in the opening as there were questions from Wish.>>

Yes! One thing I noticed was that you were reducing your speed to stay parallel to both of them on their first runs, but you can totally move faster with a bigger stride to get ahead. Staying parallel can work in certain spots but getting ahead will work REALLY nicely on courses in general 🙂

Looking at Wish’s videos:
On the opening lead out: You released from the landing side of 2, pretty close to the bar.

You can be closer to 3 there and not as close to 2 – that will get you further ahead for 4 and smooth out that question there she had on the first run. When you did it again on the 3rd video, you moved away from 2 sooner and faster, but she still caught up to you at liftoff for 3 (:12 of video 3) – being closer to 3 at the start will keep you further ahead all the way through there.

She has a little question on the 2 jumps after the dog walk on both runs – you went into the gap between the dog walk and the backside to cue the backside then turned forward (which is a little disconnected), so she looked at you and was not sure where to go next. Being further across the line to the backside (further away from the dog walk, laterally) will help you show that line from ahead and smooth out that little question.

You can use targets on the contacts in the course work to help remind her to hit and hold her straight position on end as you move past them.

Nice job getting the backside after the frame, and nice line to 11 on both runs!! You went a little too far across the bar at 12 on the FC on the first run and alllll the way across the bar to the exit wing on the 2nd run, so she jumped wide there (:09 on video 2 and :35 on video 3). When you were really far across it, she ha a question about where to go at :35 because your position didn’t show the tunnel after the FC.
I don’t think she needs you to be between the uprights to help her commit, she seems to have really nice independent commitment! You can send to the wing and stay where the wing and bar meet for the FC to set up a tighter line for her.

Great job getting the ending line! That is hard and you were very smooth there.
On the 2nd run, she was definitely looking at her friends and fans, which made it harder for sure! Great job rewarding her!!! You were late on the name call (she as all the way in the tunnel) and then you got quiet, so she did look at you when she exited but you were quiet and moving on a parallel line, so she took the jump in front of her (good girl, you were correct to continue on). Remember to call her before she goes in then keep calling her so she knows where to go at the exit.

Charm’s runs:
This is a great camera angle on the first video! You can see how close you are to jump 2 and she catches up to you in a heartbeat, then is ahead of you at 3 (:10) and looking at the tunnel. Getting ahead by being closer to 3 and using verbals there will totally smooth out that question.

You were one step further ahead on the 2nd rep (2nd video) and it was already smoother! Being closer to 3 will make it easy peasy (and use a jump verbal too, so she can hear the difference and not just rely on the physical cues).

Backside after the DW – move on a parallel line to her path, with you going towards where the wing and bar meet, so she can get motion support along with the connection and verbal.

She can also benefit from a target on the a-frame so she can stop and hold it while you move to the backside

>>I struggled with her from the A frame to the tunnel. I did a short clip of trying to clean that up at the end of the run. I’m thinking I was on her line?>>

I think it was mainly an experience thing, teaching her that YES, she can run past 2 tunnel entries that are right there and it is not a tunnel discrimination moment (pass one end and go in the other). It is a REALLY hard skill!

On the first run, you maybe moved in towards 11 at :51 a tiny bit, which read as pressure on the line to the tunnel, perhaps? It was very subtle. On the 2nd run, you pulled away more so she almost didn’t take 11.
On the last video, you were definitely not on her line and had good shoulder position, and she didn’t really look at the tunnel. So I think it is more of the experience thing: she needed to see that just because the tunnel is right there, doesn’t mean that she should go to it – so hard!!! 🤯🤯

On the FC at 12, stay closer to the entry wing and don’t come all the way across the bar (same as with Wish) at :56 to really set that turn to the tunnel.

Good ending line! I really liked the layering on the way to the teeter – that worked beautifully! Try to call her before she goes in to the last tunnel rather than saying tunnel as she went in – this is mainly to practice the timing for Wish, because it looks like Charm is more likely to turn towards you on the tunnel exit.

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>Which probably makes it not as challenging. :p Should I put a jump out there instead of a tunnel and layer that?>>

I think it was *just enough* challenging for him – he had a high rate of success but you also had to work your timing and connection. For example, at :31 you were late telling him to go to the jump and you were turning your shoulders towards the tunnel, so he did not take the jump.

Compare that to the previous rep at :20 and the next rep – you told hmi a lot sooner about the jump and he was great!!

So while his tail is still healing, you can totally keep the tunnel ends curled down – and add challenge by moving the jump on the other side of it further away. You can also do the first set of sequences using a jump instead of a tunnel, with a barrier down the middle to help you build up to the dog walk being there.

Great job!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Oh no! That really stinks! Poor guy. Poor you! We can totally skip tunnels for now!!!! And we don’t need the weaves either. We can change the sequences to make it all work.

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

The pop out went really well!!!

>>I hadn’t planned the patience needed after the front cross between 2 and 3 – fixed it in the next rep.>>

I thought the first rep was really good and the 2dnd rep was great! One thing to tell yourself in walk throughs can be is to get right on his line. I felt the difference was not all about patience in terms of staying there longer, but you were on a better line and a little more connected, starting closer to the #2 jump, so he had a tighter turn.

>>Got in too far at jump 4 so the blind to the tunnel was close and wasn’t clear so Sly glances at the tunnel (felt it as it was happening so was able to hustle and still get it done – yeah! – practicing good self talk >>

Yeah! You stayed in the moment, saw what was happening, and got it done nicely! I think the big difference between the first rep there and the 2nd rep was that on the first rep, you did the blind, connected, glanced forward (which he might read as another blind) then peripherally saw his question and reconnected strongly. On the 2nd rep, you stay connected all the way through. Yay! That connection has to be clear because your lower body motion could indeed support the off course tunnel which is right there 🙂

>>Really working on process goals – plan each sequence and execute well as opposed to performance goals – gotta get them all done. For us “task oriented” folks – this is hard!!!!>>

Soooooo true!!!!!! We humans are wired to “do the thing” in terms of outcome goals and also wired for a negative bias… so positively viewing process goals takes active effort in the early stages it gets easier with practice.

>>Lots of mental stuff this past week….I’ll post in the other forum.

I will be heading there later this morning 🙂

>>Jim and the dogs and I are going on a REAL vacation!!! Headed to PEI and Nova Scotia in the motorhome on Thursday, going to be gone 10 or 12 days – a vacation with no specific plans >>

WHOA! That sounds wonderful, I am excited for you!!!!!! Enjoy every moment!!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Summer colds are the WORST! Hope you are feeling better!!!

On the Wingin’ it video: Every time you put up a video, he has gotten faster. WOW!!
Your connection on the sends from the tunnel was fantastic! His commitment was fantastic! Turns looked great, and you had the verbals going too! Just a big thumbs up for everything here. We will be building on this today!

On thing you can do is have the toy in your pocket so your hands are free (you were switching the toy from hand to hand) – that will make it even easier to connect and run at his speed.

His only question was about lining up to start – he was a bit frozen and then was very happy when you sent to the tunnel on one rep. You can try having him line up between your feet near a wing, and also work on behind the back starts so he gets the running start he wants, and you get the line up you want 🙂

Plank foundations – the set up was good with the slightly elevated plank! I don’t mind that he was getting on the side – we have a game of that coming later in the class to help them find the straight approach. I really liked his confidence! You can start to jog back and forth for even more excitement, or use a toy as the reward. The toy will add more excitement which will challenge his balance and coordination even more, but I think he was ready for that.

>>He also told me in no uncertain terms that he was done with this exercise at the end of the video. In hindsight I should have broken off after three or four reps to play with a toy since he much prefers toys to food>>

Yes, it was actually pretty funny LOL! But you listened to him and didn’t force the issue- yay! So next time, add more of your motion, use the toy more, and do maybe one minute total then be done.

The lazy game is going well and you’ve accomplished what we needed: will he find the jumps without needing you to help him every inch of the way 🙂 Yes! He did really well. The food finding was the hardest part! So now that he can do a couple in a row, you can use a toy. We will be building on this today so you don’t need to do more of this for food – it gets a lot more exciting, which he will like :)



Great job on these! See you later!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Sounds like the plank game and the lazy game are going really well!! We have new games coming tonight that add on to the lazy game 🙂

>>I did keep a bit of video of the help I had when I set the teeter up.>>

Your video needed a warning because I was drinking coffee and almost spit it out of my nose!!! HAHAHA!!! The cat has a lovely end position on the teeter but seems to think the game is too casual LOL!!!

Then I laughed even harder when the cat started sliding down the other direction. Cats are hilarious!!

Caper was more serious about the same here than the cat was LOL! I think she liked it better when you gave her treats for each step than when you held her collar – she is still not 10000% thrilled yet but she is wagging her tail, has a good posture, and is happy to keep trying! And yes, there is a bit of tentative body language at the very end of the board but she will sort it out. She will soon learn the joys of spray cheese 🙂

The teeter games are slow to percolate , so keep playing this and letting her go at whatever pace she wants to go. She will pick up speed on her own (just be ready for it so you are not left in the dust).

To give you a visual of the progression, here is a video I did for the Teach It people (the device that holds up the teeter). You can see that all 3 of the dogs were careful and not fast at the very beginning (:23 and after) but then over time they got confident and ended up with great teeters. I also use a lot of other games too, not just mountain climbers, but this is a good visual about letting the dogs build confidence.

Great job!!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

20 months old – what a perfect age for this! She is going to be able to put the pieces together really quickly.

The lazy game looked great – easy peasy! I think the hardest past was finding the treats LOL! But she TOTALLY had the idea of “just keep doing the jumps as mom moves around the line”. Yay! This including going out to find the middle jump AND setting up a collection to make a nice turn without you needing to do any fancy dance moves to get her to turn.

Since she is able to do all 3 jumps in a row, you can stepped them out a little bit more and use a toy as a reward. The toy is probably more stimulating, so that stimulation might make it more challenging (or might not make it challenging and she will continue to think it is easy LOL!!)

The games we add later today will also be the next step for this game.

Looking at the Wingin’ It video: I don’t have a ton of feedback or suggestions for this one because you and MiG completely nailed it! Clear connection? YES! Verbals for the wraps and soft turns and tunnel? YES! Sending clearly without having to run to the obstacles? YES! Great timing on the FCs? YES! Great exit line connection as you went from the FC to the tunnel? YES! Was MiG easily finding her commitments and turning when asked? YES!!! I didn’t see any questions from her other than one time at :58 when you started at a slightly different angle and she had t think a little harder for a moment to find the wing 🙂

So your feedback on this one is “FABULOUS” and a giant high 5 🙂

The next step on this is to add more speed: Spread out the wings so you are running more. You can send to the first wing then you are going to have hustle to the tunnel and the next wing to get the next send. Speed is what will make it harder: on the human side of things, can you still get all the connections and verbals and timing? On the dog side of things, can she still process your cues and commit and turn, even when things are going a lot faster? That will bring more arousal too, so we can see how she responds in higher arousal and help her (if she needs our help with that – so far she has not seemed to need our help with arousal questions).

Great job!!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning and welcome back!!!

Oh wow, he was super confident here! You will have to be sure you block the teeter off when you aren’t using it so he does not go party on it without you LOL! After another couple of sessions, we will add a tiny bit of tip but for now, you can add in recalling him up the board (if he won’t stay because the teeter is too exciting, maybe do it as a restrained recall).

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

The lazy game videos are both looking great! It looks like she thought it was really easy!!! We will be adding more handling starting later today, but this is a good game to keep revisiting, getting the jumps further and further apart – and you can continue to the advanced levels where you are doing lazy sends to the middle jump, and also doing 2 or 3 in a row before you toss the treat. Also, if she likes toys – you can do 2 or 3 in a row then toss a toy!

Winging’ It:
The one step sends looked great on the single wing, on both sides.

Adding the wing-tunnel-wing seemed easy for her too, especially because she seems to like tunnel a whole lot.

She had one question, at 1:23 – she didn’t go to the wing but curled towards you instead. That was because your arm got high and it was blocking your connection, so she was not sure where to be. Compare to the next rep at 1:33 where your arm was definitely lower and she could see your connection and eye contact better, so she went to the wing. This was the rep where the pivot lost her a tiny bit, but you can still see your arm position as she passes you. You can see the low arm and eye contact on the next rep at 1:48 very clearly too (and all of the successful reps).

So definitely keep the arm low and pointed back to her as she exits the tunnel and make a bit of eye contact – and she will continue to find the wing brilliantly 🙂 You can start adding more distance between the wing and tunnel, and add the advanced sequences!

Question: what are you wrap verbals? You can add in your wrap verbals to the wing when you send to it, and also add in the tunnel verbal. Verbals also help the connection because the goal is to say them to her as you are both moving, so you need to be connected to do that 🙂

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

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