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Hi!
>>Did I tell you yet that I hate Quail??>>
Haha yes, you might have mentioned that… 😄 🤣
She did well here too! When you send her around the barrel, try not to step to the side at all, we don’t want your leg or arm visible on the other side of the barrel (we don’t want her to think that is part of the cue). Just send her then stand still, feet together… then when she hits the line, you can turn and run like you did.
And, when you do the FC and run, especially with food – run pretty far so she really chases you a lot more, rather than prepare to stop. It is this chasing that helps the pups really set up amazing turns 🙂
You can try using a long crazy toy to combat the birds!
And yes, we often have sessions that don’t go so well… the neuroscientist behavior people tell us to not worry, and that the dog brain is still learning. So, stopping the session and trying again later or the next day can totally make massive improvements, like you saw here.
Great job on all of these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Rears are hard for puppies! To help her out, get started with a bunch of parallel path reps, so she gets warmed up driving ahead – then you can throw in a rear. If you can get behind her and on the other side early enough, she will read it nicely (like the last rep).
Then, since a rear will tend to put dogs into handler focus, after one rear you can go back to several parallel path reps to make sure she is driving ahead on the line again.Handing her the treat can work for the rear but not for the parallel path… so you can use a toy! You’ll have to get the toy back after each rep, but that’s fine because she’ll have a great time and be less likely to find bird poop 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, there are a ton of things to do with this little game, so many mechanics! It gets the handler to be super quick, which means eventually running courses will fill much easier!!!
You did a great job- she had fun, she read all the cues, she got lots of rewards 🙂 Your connection was super clear and that totally made everything clearer for her.I noticed that when she got to you, she sometimes jumped up a bit – that might be that the decel can come a little sooner so she shifts into collection sooner. So, try to decel when she is half way to you.
Or, it could have been that she thought it was toy time, so now the decel hand can be empty or have a cookie, and you can throw the toy from the other hand 🙂 She accelerated to the toy at the end beautifully!!!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
Another really strong session here! You got her the perfect distance from the foot target so the backing up and head position looked really great.>>I’m starting to see how my ‘yip’ causes her to look up at me>>
The yip is click-like in how stimulating it is, so like a click, she looks up. The quieter ‘good’ kept her head low. And, to start adding more distance, you’ll need to toss a treat to her so that is where you can use your “get it” or “catch” markers, which will also help her not look at you 🙂
So now you can oh-so-gradually add distance, literally an inch at a time, getting to her to come further off the foot target then back up to it. There is no big rush to add distance, though, because the correct mechanics she had here are far more important than longer distances.
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
This session looked great – very playful, and her retrieves were lovely! Not much to suggest here because it went so well… just remember to wait a heartbeat between the ‘out’ of the toy and throwing it, so she doesn’t miss the throw (that happened one time, the throw was too quick). The rest was pretty darned perfect!
TracyHi!
The jump grid looked really strong!!! She was balanced and striding beautifully! What was the height of the back on the 9 foot distances? Maybe raise it 2 more inches 🙂
But on the 12 foot distance, put the bar back down to a pretty low height – she is not having an issue, but she was trying to decide if she wanted to do 2 strides (which is what she did here) or one stride. I want to convince her to do an extended one stride (stride 2 here was short and a little uncomfortable at :33 so the low bar might help her feel comfy add the extension 🙂 She might still be a but young to get the big one-stride (her power and speed are still developing, which is exciting AND a little scary hahahaha) so no worries if she still does 2 strides, we will let it percolate 🙂Lateral lead outs:
>>Admittedly, although I reviewed my notes before we started, they weren’t as precise as usual, so I think I was doing this right for the Advanced level, but I might have missed something.>>
She is doing well! The more you turn and face the takeoff spot, the happier she is to drive to it. Yay! You can add more of a step to it as well, which will come in handy when there is even more distance.
At this stage, when she commits to 1, you can take off and run past 2 (which is what you were doin more of after 1:15 🙂 You were doing post turns but you can also try serving that jump (you might want to angle the serp jump to help her out.
And when you are on the landing side of jump 1 (takeoff of jump 2), do the FC and get her to take the #3 jump, like you did at the very end (and the tunnel was a fun addition!). And you can alternate between a a full rotation to the tunnel, and a throwback/countermotion to get collection and a wrap on 2 (no tunnel :))Great job!!
TracyHi!
Thank you for the Ronin update!!! It I a relief to get a firm diagnosis and it is not orthopedic. The gastroc is actually something I head about all the time in agility. Sounds like there is a good plan now. I am sad to miss you and Ronin in June, but SUPER glad he is on the road to recovery.
This was a good plankrobatics setup! Part of the fun is using all sorts of weird looking setups, so this was perfect. And the smaller board was pretty narrow so he really had to think bout his back feet – don’t move too fast yet when going back and forth because that is where he kind of feel off with this back feet 🙂 But definitely keep using that narrow plank, it is a good one for him!
Parallel path – he definitely love his prop!
I think at this point, you can fade the clicker (because it causes him to look at you a bit) and just use a “get it” and throw the reinforcement. As soon as you throw and he gets to it, turn and go the other direction immediately so when he finished eating, he can turn around and hit the prop again going the other way. You were restarting with him after most reps, but you can make it a little loop and just toss then turn the new direction.
>>After watching the video I see on this one that I ended up being a bit farther away laterally than I thought I was and thus it was harder than I intended,>>
Yes, being lateral was totally fine because he could more easily see you with his peripheral vision 🙂 The other thin you can add is to move a little faster – a fast walk then a little jog 🙂
Countermotion – he is doing well here! For the start, use the ready game: have him in front of and then send back – so that way he doesn’t rehearse sitting then moving without a release (or confusing him with you point but don’t release :)) He was offering sits so we don’t want to confuse the stay, so we just avoid the sit here entirely 🙂
I think you were a but too far from the prop at the beginning, so do a war up on each side of being pretty close to he prop, then you can increase the distance: rather than start where you left off on the last session, you can start 50% closer as a refresher and then gradually increase the distance after getting some success.
One other thing I noticed was that he was turning to his right on some of the reps when he should have been turning to his left (like 1:39, 1:47 for example). So on the right turn reps, step off to the side like a triangle line (instead of moving up and back on the same line to exaggerate the left turn line, to hep him make that left turn.
Right wraps are going really well! When you do the FC when he arrives at the line, you can take off and run run run to make the reward even more exciting 🙂
Since this is his strong side, you can probably progress more quickly by moving the line to a slightly harder position after every 2 reps and see how he does!
Left wraps are also going well! You delayed your FC a little extra which was good to solidify the left turns, but you can also try moving the line after every two reps, The difference can be that on the left wraps, you will move the line by an inch 🙂 and o the right wraps, you can move the line by 3 or 4 inches at a time since it is easier 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Lots of great work here! She is doing so well, especially with the distractions of the other dog watching and people around!Looking at the sideways and triangle videos:
I like more of the ‘all business, less touchy” approach on the sideways sending – she seemed happier with this crazy game 🙂
Start each session super close as a mental refresher, then add more distance. She would often go towards the prop but not really hit it, so there were a few too many failures. Start each session about 50% closer than where you left off in the last one s she can have her “oh yeah no I remember” moment 🙂 then you can build up the distance more pretty rapidly.>>Noticed she turned the wrong way a couple times. Brought her back out later and did front sends so they made a triangle shape and BAM! Perfection on turns.>>
The triangle approach totally helped her! Yay! Interestingly, I believe she turns away in both directions so it is not a side preference, may be something about the pressure on the line? Rear crosses will be easy to teach 🙂
You can also try to use toys on this – can she leave the toy toy to go hit. The prop? Start super close on those at the beginning, in case the toy is super simulating 🙂
Parallel path is looking good too – she had a bit of a lightbulb moment on the 3rd rep where, when she was chasing you to catch up, she went out of her way to go hit the prop – huzzah!! Then the rest went well too. You can revisit this one one more time just like this – and if she is all like “I remember this, no problem” then you can add more lateral distance away on both sides.
Decel with BC – she is reading all the handling here really nicely!!! Because you are using a stay, you might want to lead out further before you release, then start to run when you release – she failed a couple of times of the stay when you were going fast and we want to avoid that – so a long lead )because she I a speedy little devil LOL!) following by release then run should help her with the stay and also with a giant head start for you.
>>Maybe one day I will learn how to decel properly. >>
Actually… I thought you did really well! You were early and that helped, plus she was beginning to predict what was happening as you started to decel, so you had less popping up as you decelerated especially towards the end of the session. Now, with a bigger head start, you can totally start it sooner (when she is halfway to you – you were tending to start it when she was more like 2/3rd to you) and that should get even more tight turning. She did a great job driving ahead to the toy after the decel! Try to win that toy race – don’t lay off at all and see what happens if you really accelerate (she will probably still smoke you haha!) end!!
Barrel wraps are also going well – patience is a virtue and all haha! When you were patient: absolutely perfect! When you were early and perhaps not patience – like just as she was driving at the barrel at the beginning – she didn’t finish the wrap to the right.
And as you turn and have her drive to the toy, take off and run more so she really digs in and chases you around the barrel.
I think the left wraps were a little stickier, a little harder? Maybe she is a righty which is 100% NOT what she told us on Wednesday LOL! We will figure it out. Maybe it was because the left wraps were in the 2nd part of the session, so next time try them first?
In future sessions, keep advancing the timing when yo uFC and run, bit by bit, to be able to leave earlier and earlier. Great job adding the verbals!!
>>I’m so happy with how she lined up next to me with these sessions. I continue to work on the neck/collar grabs and desensitization. I threw a little bit in during this training session but not much. She let me know when she wasn’t happy and I listened>>
YES!!! I loved it! It looked like a stress free thing with the lineups in this video and the others too. Yay! You did slide in a little collar touch or petting her but not too much, and you were great about not pushing her with it. She will keep getting happier and happier with it 🙂
Great job!!
TracyHi!
Awwww she’s a great swimmer!!! That will be great for keeping her cool.
And she will grow up to be wicked fast- step 1 is confidence, step 2 is understanding, then the speed takes care of itself 🙂
You might note that my demo pups in the videos are not speedy, because I was aiming for understanding. They are adult now, and confident, fast competitors in 2 sports. We let it percolate as we build it all up, and it turns out really well 🙂
TracyYay! I’m glad the lower position helps, and I’ve found the rear foot targeting can be very clarifying for the pups too.
>>In other news, she hopped onto a low Dogwalk and ran it…Yikes! (cones going on DW when we are out there)>>
I think the pups have all hit a confidence stage, half the people in class have reported the same thing about the pups getting on contacts LOL!! Contact lockdown time LOL!!!
Tracy
Hi!
This session went well too!!! I am glad she actually went to the cheese before racing to the toy – great countermotion foundation!!!
And she got faster and faster each time. Be sure to throw in some easy reps where you start side by side with her (no cookie toss) so she can win by a mile 🙂 That will give her the feeling of driving way far ahead of you with full confidence.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! I somehow missed this post! So sorry!!!
She did really well here! At first your hand was a little high when rewarding so she had to look up to get the treat, which threw her balance off.
Then you get your hand lower when you starting getting her to turn around, and that helped a lot – much better balance!!! Balance is hard to baby dogs 🙂The next thing to try with her is to duplicate what you did here, except adding in tugging before and during the session: this challenges her to work her balance and coordination in a higher state of arousal, like she will be when she is eventually running courses 🙂
So tug before the session, then do a couple of treats, then ask her to hope off the board to tug more , then back on the board 🙂 it can significantly change the game!Great job here
TracyHi!
She looked great here – she was really powering on the lines and made you RUN RUN RUN. Yay!! The lefts/rights/tunnel sends/ wraps all looked good – the turn aways ad the wraps needed you to be far enough ahead at the end of the tunnel, which was not always easy with the speed she turned on here! And you made it harder with a 20 foot tunnel LOL!
Nice job with the turn aways in both directions, then adding the tunnel, then building up to the full sequences. She was fast and accurate, and ignoring a ton of chicken noises LOL!
At the beginning you had an empty hand for the turning away which was easier than when you had the toy in your hand when you changed sides. Good job working through it so she could ignore the toy and read the cue!!
Your connection looked super and all of your verbals were in place – yay! On the big runs to beat her to the end of the tunnel, keep your arms in on the send and make a big connection – sometimes your arms would come up high so she would track your hand more than look at the wing.
You added more distance to the wing when you were trying to outrun her through the long tunnel and that really helped you get there for most of the reps 🙂 Just as I was thinking she was hot and tired, you ended the session (you were hot and tired too :)) and Susan put the temperature up to the camera LOL!!! HOT!!
Great job here!! You can add more sequences like sending her to the wing on the other side of the tunnel to ad even more distance.
Tracy
