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Hi! These went really well!!!
First run looked awesome… if you wanted the backside of 5 (and you can start yelling GO GO GO before she enters the tunnel to get that last line).
Great job continuing as if she was totally correct (because she was :))Note the difference on the 2nd run: verbals, different connection, threadle arm, etc.
>> The first part of the video where she does 1b is actually supposed to be 1a, I left it in like that because we had a hard time getting that and was hoping for suggestions. I did break it down for her before we filmed and we did fine but when we put it together it got sketchy lol. >>
So to get the threadle at 5, she needed verbals to get her attention on you before she entered the tunnel then again when she exited it – then the big threadle arm and verbal like you did in run 2 there. If she was not getting it, my guess is your handling was not a clear, or you might not have rotated your feet: on the 2nd run here when she got it, you turned your feet a little and that helped her a lot.
3rd run – on this one, you handled 5 like you wanted it (added verbal and a little more upper body/arm cue) and it was great (and looked like the first run in terms of physical cues)! Yay!!
And on all of these, remember to give your verbals before she enters the tunnel, so she knows what to do when she exits.
Sequence 2: the opening looked good! Super! You can tell her out or go before the #3 tunnel, don’t wait til she exits – give her more info before she goes in so she can blast out straight and so you can head to 5.
You can FC sooner at 5 and also closer to the wing of 5 (1:07) – you did the FC as she was already over the bar at 5 so she landed wide. then you were moving backwards so she didn’t really read the line to 6.
So, as she lands from 4 (the jump after the tunnel) and looks at 5 (maybe when she is halfway between, decel and start the FC. Your connection was good, she just needed earlier cues and less running backwards to make a tighter turn.Nice job on the blind at the end! Great job with your connections to get her to the new side and after the spin too! I think you can leave even sooner from the 7 tunnel and run directly to the BC between 9 and 10. You can be connected back to her and telling her to jump, but don’t go any where near 8 or 9 – just head to the gap between 9 and 10 – when you see a blur approaching 9, do the blind (yes, it can be that early on a line like this) and that way you will have all the time in the world for the spin 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Emmie did really well here!
She had a good turn on the 3 tunnel there, so you can give the in in threadle cues sooner – they happened as she was over 4 here, but ideally it would be mor etimley to do them before takeoff for 5, so she could adust before takeoff (maybe start it just after she is halfway between the tunnel exit and 4)Threadle rear on the backside of 5 versus the push to the backside of 5 both looked good, and I timed them in isolation: virtually identical! So, it will depend on what is next on course. In this context, after the threadle/rear at :33 you ended up on the far wing of 6 so she jumped a big slice there. When you did the blind to get to the push, that put you in a better position for 6 so timing the entire section from the 5 jump through the 9 jump, the blind to the backside push was faster but a little.
Like with Kip, you can go to where the wing and bar meet on 6 and decelerate to tight up that line – she was jumping 6 as a slice based on your position across the bar too.
And you can totally use the 7-8-9-10 line as layering practice here too!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
Overall, this went really well! He had a little trouble turning on the exit of 3 (the tunnel) – I think there were 2 factors in play with that:– For him, I think having the toy out past the finish creates too much anticipation of driving near it. A toy in your pocket might get a better balance of driving towards you line on course and not towards the toy placed out at the edges especially when he sees you throw it – that really highlights a line you might not want. which is what happened on the 1st rep.
– A strong turn verbal when he is still 6 feet before entering the 3 tunnel will help (couldn’t hear if you had one or not) – might be a really loud name call instead of a directional. And letting him see the FC helped – the FC that you did before he went into the tunnel got a nice turn there.
Also, definitely call him until he is driving to the 4 jump and then switch to your threadle cues before he takes off – being closer to 4 and then moving forward helped a lot at :40 – the threadle cue was very obvious! You started it when he was in the air – doing it before he lifts off will help him be better prepared for the landing and threadle.
The backside at 5 was easy peasy for him! Yay!
One detail on the FC at the 6 backside – to tighten that line, go to where the wing and bar meet but don’t go past it, because the dogs set up their jumping to match the line we are on. You were more on the center of the bar at :44 and 1:02 so he matched that line and ended up a little wide.
He go ton the 7-8-9 line perfectly – even though you can get ahead there, it is a good place to practice layering the ending line 🙂
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
You are totally NOT too slow, there was plenty of burn here!!! The goal is not really about running faster, it is more about leaving sooner 🙂As he gets more and more experienced, you will be able to leave sooner and sooner to do the FCs and spins. Right now, he needs to be one step past your send leg and he commits perfectly, turns tight brilliantly, and powers out with a ton of speed 🙂
There was one rep early in the session where you wanted to start the FC as he was arriving at your leg, but that is too soon for now and he didn’t commit. I’m sure that it will be great timing later on with more experience.
The race tracks looked great too!
And yes, all it takes is one head turn and he ended up on the other side 🙂 it looks like a spin to the him, where you would be cuing the side change, so he was reading you correctly 🙂
You can keep working on the countermotion and backwards sending to the barrels, because that will all help you be able to do the FCs and spins sooner and sooner.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
The blind 2-3-4 on the first course went well, and so did the 11-12-13 line! NICE! And she was flying!
Course 2:
Nice opening 1-2-3
She turned left on 4 at :29 because you pushed in a little then watch your left leg closely: you stepped back to the left wing
Compare to :45 where your leg stepped to the poles – perfect!>>Course 2- I want to set up 5-8 up at home. I could not convince her or figure out a way to show her the correct tunnel entrance. Honestly, we probably should have stopped after that . We were both too hot. but…>>
I think the wrap on 6 shows the best line to the tunnel (slicing it opens up the wrong end of the tunnel even more). You can leave sooner on the wrap if you are doing a push to the wrap (don’t block the wing!). Then you will be in range at 7 to give a turn cue for 7 as she exits the 6 wrap, then the tunnel threadle. I suggest your ‘right’ verbal for 7, then your tunnel threadle verbal/arm cue.
The other option is to do a threadle wrap at 6 to be way ahead to handle 7-8, maybe even get a blind in there! You can either run laterally while she is weaving to do the blind to the threadle wrap, or you can layer the unnumbered jump there while she is weaving, to get up the line very easilyYou got the 9-10 threadle! Yay! It is wicked!
to set up the ending line, you can turn her to her right on 13 that will allow you to leave sooner and get a better line to the 14 tunel too!On the closing line: For her, I think BC on the landing side of 17 then rear cross 19 will work better then threadling 18 then pushing her back out to 19 – with her speed, it is hard to get enough past 18 to push her back out on time. RC on 19 will still get 20-21 really nicely
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>So for the wraps, I should not be turning with her toward the wing with my feet after she’s turned towards the jump?>>
Your feet should always be pointing to the next line, on any handling cue. So for threadle wraps, try to always point your feet on the wrap line to wherever you are going next – which almost always means no, no need to be turning your feet with her to the jump.
>> I am sure there is a video somewhere of you teaching wraps. I just need to find it and go back to the foundation on this one! I can’t remember if it was in a webinar on verbals or perhaps in the Max Pup self-study class that I never finished. 😝>>
There are elements of it in all of the above 🙂 They are marked as ‘turn aways’ and backwards sends in the MaxPup classes.
Nice work breaking down the course here! A couple of ideas for you:
For the handling of the big lines, like at 10-11-12-13 – you can connect hard to get her to 11 then close your shoulders and accelerate forward (being connected, but not a hard connection like on the tunnel exit – your were opening your shoulders so she was confused as to if it was a straight line or a threadle of some sort.Also note that 10-11 and 14-15 are not go lines (straight) they are both get out lines (lead change away). You were saying go or go jump a lot on these so there was a bit of confusion when she was going straight but needed to turn away – so anytime it is not straight, consider if it is a lead change away and use a ‘get out’ cue (physical and verbal) rather than a Go. It is easy to get into the go jump for all the things, so be sure you are using the turn verbals rather then Go, unless it is a legit straight line.
And on these big huge lines, placed rewards on all of these will help. You can place the rewards on the very first session rather than waiting to see where the trouble spots are, so she gets a lot of reinforcement for looking at the lines. And if she goes by a jump or has a question on a go line? I think it will ultimately be more effective if you keep running forward to the next obstacle and either keep going or reward for that obstacle, For example 10-11-12-13 was hard, she was not sure about 12 on several reps. But if you are saying go and accelerating, and she misses it and curls off the line towards you – then you toss the reward back towards you – it can be confusing to her about what the behavior actually is. So keep accelerating forward and always throw the reward ahead of you.
Putting it all together:
Opening line – handling 2 as a threadle on the first run was good but yes, it was much easie rto get the blind to the 5 tunnel by handling 2 as a backside push 🙂 That went really well! You got the blind from the threadle at 2:11 but you were late so she had to go around you.For the big jumping courses – she has a lot of failure in the independent weave sections for now (she is somewhere around 50% success, which is lower than we want), and I know you are planning on doing more training – so for now, you need to set up success or you risk building in a lot of frustration with the failure. Try to go all the way to the end of the poles (like you did at the end of the session) with her rather than send her ahead and risk failure for now, or put a reward out at the end of the poles
>>The other spot that was difficult was getting 9-10. She took the off-course jump a couple of times (but I kept going, lol!), and it was hard for her to get the tunnel entry when she did not take that jump. I did a quick rep of it at the end of our session, and she got it nicely. I was past the tunnel entry that time. I’m not sure if my position is what got her through that correctly or if it was something I was cueing differently. Maybe I was blocking her view of the tunnel entry? I think that would have gotten me down the line faster to get #12 better had we kept going, too.>>
I think what was happening when she got on the line and took the extra jump was that you were running on a parallel line to herm and there was not specific turn cue on 9, so she stayed on the line – good girl! And yes, you kept going brilliantly because Nox was nailing it at a big distance! A turn verbal on 9 will help her get that line quite nicely. At the end you were further ahead and not moving as much which helped – but on the full course would require you to leave her in the weaves a lot sooner which she is not yet ready for.
On the closing line – nice job getting 13-14! You can use a ‘get out’ physical/verbal cue for 15. That is also a good spot for a placed reward! Once she has 15, it was just a matter of staying in motion til she looked at each line, then things went really well 🙂
Nice job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The pop outs went well, and yes – she was telling us that the cues were late 🙂 Try to handle everything aggressively (run fast, even in the smaller spaces) and time the cue so that she is seeing/hearing them at liftoff for the previous obstacle. You were tending to be more careful here and decelerated, and the cues were coming at or over the turn obstacle so she was having to adjust after landing.
Video 1 – this one has no sound for some reason? Not sure if it is just my computer acting up? The others have sound 🙂 so we will just assume the verbals were perfect here!
You can handle more aggressively in the opening – send to 1 and easily get the BC 3-4 🙂 Or accelerate to 3 and as she is landing from 2, you can decelerate to set up the RC. She didn’t get the turn cues to get ready for the RC until she landed from 3.
Then, as soon as she passes you to the circle wrap at 6 – get outta there 🙂 You waited a bit longer, til she was taking off, so you were on her line as she landed.
The ending line looked great! Even though it is a small space, you can drive her harder there and accelerate more, to simulate what being on a full course will be like.Video 2: This sequence will be smoother and easier with the cues coming at the jump before the turn – she was getting the info when she was either over the bar of the turn jump or landed from it (note how she started barking at you :))
For example, she didn’t know about the threadle at 4 til she was in the air over 3, so you can decelerate and as she is landing from 2, start turning her for 3 – then when she is in the air at 3, she is turned and you are already showing the threadle info. And then, rather than praise her – when she turns her head to commit to 4, cue her for the wrap exit and move to 5. That will help get hte turn and keep the bar up.The trick to the threadle wrap is to turn your feet and shoulders away from the jump and then use your hands/arms to send her back to the jump, rather than turning your feet to the jump because that opens up the slice line. That way your feet are facing the wrap exit he whole time. Your feet showed the the slice line, so she landed sliced then came back around the jump.
3rd video – she was definitely giving us some timing feedback here (bark bark bark LOL!!!) She barked when you were late with the cues for the threadle, then when you are late telling her about the turn from 4-5 (she was not sure if it was the tunnel or the 5 jump and barked at you).
You can also watch her head more and give the info on 7-8-9 sooner: as she exits 6 and looked at 7, you can be telling her the left verbal so she has time to set up the turn. Then, as she is landing from 7, you can be telling her about the switch at 8 so she can set it up before takeoff here too. Both of those turn cues happened as she was in the air of the turn jump, so she was landing hard and making the turn on landing.Your handling choices are all really good and so is your connection! So now I will bug you to move up the timing of your cues 🙂 The next courses/sequences all emphasize the walk through so when you are planning your attack, plan how early you can give all of the turn cues (at the previous jump, or exit of a tunnel or wrap).
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Thinking about the weaves:
>.We have done wraps on either side for frizzer with speed. It seems to be the putting into sequence that we struggle with.>>
It is possible he needs to see the open poles on a course, in a full sequence, and that the wing-weave-wing isn’t transferring because the collection from a wnig is different than a collection needed when landing from a 20 inch jump.
and, it is also possible that it is a processing question that we approach neurobiologically. We have had a LOT of success putting weaves into pattern games because it changes the internal regulation and helps the dogs “see” the weaves and be able to execute them. Let me know if you are interested in seeing some of that!
>>Jumping 2: he ate this coarse and left no crumbs.>>
Yes! Looked great!!! Definitely the Clean Plate Club!!!!!!
I love his speed on the opening at the beginning, even on the off course line! He was reading things correctly and good for you for rewarding. I thought your physical cue of peeling away from 2-3 was good but you accelerated, so clearly the acceleration was meaningful to him The verbals were late (name as he was entering the tunnel, right verbal after he was in) on the first run but you made great adjustments on the re-start:
Your verbals and physical cues were much sooner on the 2nd run – verbals a LOT sooner (before he entered), you showed the turn with more of a tunnel break, and you didn’t accelerate away until you knew he saw 3. Excellent!
Good boy with his poles here! A bit of a collection cue when he lands from 3 will help tighten up that turn and prevent any spills.
For the line to the 8 tunnel:
When pushing to the backside wrap, you will be able to leave 6 for 7 sooner if you show him more of the wing – you were blocking the wing so had to wait for him to get around you fully before you could leave. Another option is to do a BC between the poles and 6, then a threadle wrap on 6 to 7!Leaving 6 sooner will allow you to either be up at 7 to cue a decel to get 8, or in the case of the blind to the threadle wrap – you can get a blind cross easily from 7-8.
Handling th straight line to the other side of 8 set up a great layering opportunity!
Do you mean the tunnel threadle? That is a hard American-style tunnel threadle 🙂 Or do you mean 9-10-11? That should definitely be a threadle slice on – a turn cue on 9 will make it smoother to bring the dog into the gap and past the 12 tunnel.
Great job with the ending line! Great job with the layering! I think turning him to his right on 13 (a little rear cross switch away moment would work well) will be a sweeter line and get you ahead for 15-16 sooner to show more RC line and decel 16-17. The ending looked great! He read it really well – you can use your go tunnel cue as early as landing from 18!
>>I also tried the activate mode on our swit+ before this session. I’m not sure if it helped or success or not but will have to try it again.>>
Definitely keep track of when you use it and how he does, and what the other conditions are (heat, distractions, etc) – it will be interesting to see in the long run how it helps him!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Gemma looks great! I think it is a great practice thing to run both girls, one then the other, so you can practice switching back and forth. The timing is different with her – she is a little slower than Sprite now and also Gemma doesn’t need as much help to commit as Sprite might (it is an experience thing which will even out soon enough).
Run 1 looked great! Gemma naturally turns more easily over 3 (again, it is just an age/experience thing) so the 3-4-5 line was great!
On the backsides at 6 and 8 – you have more convergence to the wing than Gemma needs, and it drives her a bit wide on both of those. Her line to the backside can have you running to the FC line for the exit of 6-7, and to the center of the bar for 8, and she will have a tighter line finding the backside.
The only place she needed more than Sprite was on the landing of 8 – you looked forward and said “go” and she curled into you (maybe looking at the tunnel, it was hard to see from the video) but definitely not sure about where 9 was. So very direct eye contact 8-9 will smooth out that line.
Seq 2 -On the first run, she didn’t turn as well over 3. On the 2nd run, you had decel nice and early (starting when she was approximately one stride out of the tunnel) and she definitely turned better!
At :29 and :45 for 4-5 you can open up your shoulders to her a lot sooner, showing her a serp cue, so she can take off for 4 already facing the 5 jump. Your shoulders were “closed” forward on these so she was jumping towards you then back out after landing of 4.
At :33 and :46, Gemma did not need a strong turn cue to find the tunnel (there is where Sprite needed a stronger turn cue).
You can give her more direct connection fro the exit of 7 to 8 – she didn’t look at the tunnel, but was wider there on the first run.
Great job getting the BC to the threadle wrap on the 2nd run!!! Nice timing there!>>then I lost my spatial orientation and almost tripped over the jump.>>
If you are doing a BC exit, you can do it as she is heading to the threadle wrap jump so you have a heartbeat to see the 8 jump 🙂 If you are not doing a BC, you can mark a spot on the threadle wrap jump to run away from as a line, so you will know where the last jump is without looking for it.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I want to get to another FIF ASAA but my schedule hasn’t matched up recently. But wow, look at your baby girl in the big ring! So cool! Very smart of you to run FEO and with low bars – the early stages of a dog’s career should be all about the fast and fun in the ring!
Her stays and engagement and responsiveness all looked great!!! What a great debut! She looks very much GAME ON and that is great!
One suggestion: If something goes wrong, resist the temptation to call her back and stop for handling errors 🙂 Young dogs can get confused by that because they responded correctly to our cues but stopping and coming back basically tells them they are incorrect. So on the 2 times where she went to the wrong spot and you stopped her – those were both handler errors (late BC on the first video, late turn cue on the 2nd video). The late cues are no big deal, because we humans have to figure out the timing with the young dogs. So any handling oopsie on course is a reflection of what they saw from the cues.
Confusion can become stress for the dogs, so we really don’t want to create any stress in the ring. So if you are late or she goes somewhere unexpected? You can assume it was a handling error (timing or connection or something) and just keep going. This is especially important in FEO where there are no Qs on the line, but also keep going when there is a Q on the line 🙂
Great job here! The future is very bright!!
TracyHi!
>>And is it me or my dogs? Working through a Fundamentals fitness course– trying to get either of them to move slowly is a CHALLENGE!!!
Standing still on 2 platforms?!?!?! Moving one limb at a time?!?!!? This has been our work for the day. Hope you had a great weekend!>>TOTALLY RELATABLE!!!! I use a stuffed kong for the dog to lick, in order to get the dog to stand still. That way I can change the dog’s head position, move them slowly, and neither the dog or I get frantic or annoyed haha!!
T
Good morning!
>>So Friday did not go well. I did not have the patience or energy to try to get her to work with me so we threw in the towel>>
Yes, that was good, she looked clearly concerned about something in this first clip. You can alway switch to a pattern game in that situation but not trying t sequence was smart.
The triple circle wraps are going well
Last one on the blue wing was best at :09 best about not crossing your armLooking at the double crosses:
The BC to BC was great – great timing on the first rep at :31 then get connection with your eyes
The FC to BC was also really good! The timing on the FC was a little later than the BC timing from the previous rep, so keep trusting her commitment and starting when she is about halfway between the wing and tunnel.On the other side, the BC at 1:04 was a little late (started as she was arriving at the wing) and not enough connection on the exit, so she didn’t pick up the side change.
You can see the connection question at 1:29 also – you are trying to connect with your hands but it needs to be with your eyes: you can keep your arms low and tight to your side, and reach back with your eyes like you did at 1:52 and 2:15 🙂 Those were good connections, the cross needed to start earlier to get the line tighter (so it is basically finished before she arrives at the wing).
I am loving all the speed she is giving on the lines and chasing you for the toy!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Terrific insightful post here! The inner critic is probably the HARDEST part of sports (and life!)>>This is a very difficult exercise for me. Even when I am able to complete the recognize and refute portions, the replacement is really, really tough.>>
One of the things remember is that our inner critic has decades of practice, and also our brains our wired for that negative perspective. With that in mind, our wise advocate will get stronger and stronger and stronger with practice!
I think your refute sections can be even more strongly worded! You can keep using the “I am” phrases, but nix the “even if” or “even though” – both of those are the inner critic trying to slip in with outcome goals (can’t control those!). When my inner critic tries to slip in, I literally say “Stop!” to myself to recenter my thoughts. It takes practice but really helps!
>>I am finding the smile challenge much easier. I>>
Yay! I love this challenge too! And saying nice things to people, also super fun. It is all rehearsal to be able to smile at ourselves and say nice words to ourselves 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, on the countermotion video – exactly right! You can keep working to move forward sooner and sooner, and definitely move to the advanced version 🙂
Looking at the simple decel:
You can totally throw random cookies at him for the stays! You can hit him with t he treat, then he will know where it is LOL!!
He is collecting and turning nicely on this!
For the decel position, try to be facing the jump more, a little more forward facing. And also try to connect to him a little more before the release – he was sometimes not sure of when the release was because you were not looking at him. And definitely add in a lot of go straight reps, because for the small dogs we want more “go big! Go straight!” than very tight turns 🙂 Plus it is a good challenge: go straight a few times, then can he read the decel with you just standing at the jump 🙂Great job here!
TracyHi!
Yes, on the countermotion video – exactly right! You can keep working to move forward sooner and sooner, and definitely move to the advanced version 🙂
Looking at the simple decel:
You can totally throw random cookies at him for the stays! You can hit him with t he treat, then he will know where it is LOL!!
He is collecting and turning nicely on this!
For the decel position, try to be facing the jump more, a little more forward facing. And also try to connect to him a little more before the release – he was sometimes not sure of when the release was because you were not looking at him. And definitely add in a lot of go straight reps, because for the small dogs we want more “go big! Go straight!” than very tight turns 🙂 Plus it is a good challenge: go straight a few times, then can he read the decel with you just standing at the jump 🙂Great job here!
Tracy
