[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

> Will get this going at home first>

Wherever you do it, start with one foot then throw a frisbee and let her forget about her new socks 🙂 and start on a back foot, I think those are more important than fronts for now.

She did really well finding the jump! She kinda looked at you on the first rep, but then after that was pretty locked onto the jump. She did have one blooper towards the end – possibly due to a combination of more distance and not enough connection? You added more connection on the next rep and moved a little closer, and she got it really nicely.

You can throw the reward sooner: rather than wait til she gets to the jump (which will cause her to look back at you if the toy is not there because there is nothing else to look at :)) you can mark with the get it and throw the toy when she looks at the jump after exiting the tunnel. That will keep her looking straight the whole way.
And then be sure to have a party of praise, and play with her when she brings the toy back. Make the reward last longer than the rep! She was bringing it back and you were taking it away and walking away to start the next rep… more play and engagement please, she says 🙂

Nice work here!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
He was a rockstar on these hard courses! Wow!
The standard course design had some odd lines – it almost seemed like he looked at you a couple of time as if asking “seriously?” haha!! But he stuck with it! Good boy! The cross on the teeter was probably a little too early, pushing him off the side by accident. It was a good spot for a fix and go.
The weave-aframe discrimination is pretty popular nowadays – he probably needed a brake arm to ge more collection on the jump before it, because without it the line did look ike it went to the weaves.

You both looked great in Jumping, wow! He was so close to the Q! I think maybe the weave entry had too much accelerating from you heading into them? It did look and sound like you timed the cue really well, but also they kind of blended into the wall in the back there so it was hard to see. It is possible that he had a hard time seeing them too? But he did seem overall very comfy with the facility there!

Great job here! Keep me posted on the rest of the weekend!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Looking at the set point:
She is definitely doing better with her stay – big improvement! That really helps us find the sweet spot for this setup. I think the distance is a tiny bit too big – maybe reduce it by 6” so she can bounce more comfortably? That will lead you into the jump grid we posted this week!

Since she likes the food here as the reward, you can use a food-based moving target. It can be something like a food holder toy (like a lotus ball or similar thing) tied to a leash for you to drag, or even attaching a bowl to a line with duct tape and dragging it 🙂 That should work to get her focused on the line!

She did really well with the Minny Pinny! She turned nicely in both directions, no problem. Does she like balls or frisbees? You can throw those to help her drive through this even more. She likes food but it a little too ‘chill for this, so we can make things more exciting 🙂

The next step is to line her up and say the word then release her…. But don’t move 🙂 Let her do it all on a verbal cue! That can create even more independence, which will be useful with all the distance work you see in NADAC!

>I am thinking and was working on adding a new cue to her vocabulary. I am going to attempt using “back” when she is turn away from me to her left and “turn” when turning away to me to her right.>

Awesome! I did hear you using the new words. So let me know if this is correct:

Around – ‘soft’ turn towards you

Turn – turn away to the right
Back – turn away to the left

I think you also said ‘out’ – what do you want that one to mean?

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Lots of good things in this session. It is a hard game!

>I think Ringo was bothered by his loud mouth sister who wouldn’t shut up. >

I agree with your assessment – you can even see him look over at her a few times as if saying “shaddup, I am trying to listen here” LOL!!

I should re-name these Processing exercises rather than proofing, because the processing demands are very high: the arousal of the tunnel being visible, having to listen to the verbals, moving away from the toy, not getting a lot of help from motion, the possibility of working through failures, etc. So his sister yelling in his ear could definitely draw bandwidth away from his processing.

>so I will leave her inside.>

I think adult dogs definitely get voted off the island (stay in the house LOL) when doing stuff with youngsters, unless they can be very quiet and relatively far. Otherwise it adds layers of pressure and processing that makes things harder when teaching hard stuff.

The other suggestion I have here is to line him up with a cookie at your side and hold his collar – and keep holding it while you say the verbal 4 or 5 times. Don’t let him move until after you have said the verbal, as this increases the chance of processing the verbal independently of other factors. If he is not held, or you let him go at the same time you say the verbal, there is a chance that he is guessing and/or relying on motion.

When things went well, you had a big party verbally and a big reward, that was great 🙂 When things went wrong, remember with this particular dog Mr. Ringo, it is super important not to mark the error, even if it is “nice try” or “try again” – those tend to immediately get jumping up at you. So, say you wanted the wrap and got the tunnel: just say cookie, line him up at your side, deliver the cookie as you take the collar… then do the next rep. That can help him work through any failures pretty smoothly (because part of this game is definitely about coping with failures). Plus, it gives you a moment to assess if you were potentially letting him go before he really heard the verbal a few times, or if you were blocking the wing when you did tunnel to wing (this is what happened at 2:41, and he had a much clearer visual at 3:05).

Nice work here!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

The zig zag went really well, he had a pretty easy time shifting himself back and forth! Yay!! You can add another wing, or you can move these wings closer together (6 feet apart, then 5 feet apart) to challenge him to do the lead shifting faster and challenge you to cue it faster 🙂

>The frisbee is a bit awkward for the rewarding, but it’s what he really wants and it keeps him engaged. I had been using it for something else and I did not go back to the house to change toys.>

Yes, the frisbee is a reward he loves but it does bring challenges: it lifts his head up in some cases where we want a more natural head position. Does he like rollers? Can you do a roller instead of a throw as a reward?

>The I re-did the Minny Pinny – trying to get the spacing better for him. Not sure if I succeeded on that front.>

In the Minny Pinny, I think the spacing was good and the frisbee on the ground worked well – for his length of body, having it centered on the setup was causing him to drop his back feet on the last bar, so you can move it over on the line so he finishes the turn fully and then gets the frisbee.

He turned away really well! On the last few reps, you were throwing the frisbee and that lifted his head (and all thought of footwork goes away LOL!). Rollers would work well here too and plus that keeps your hands low, encouraging a lower head.

One other thing to consider in general and especially with the frisbee: as the temperatures heat up, he is going to take some time acclimate and will probably get hot easily (he was definitely hot in the Minny Pinny, look at his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth at :51 LOL!). And thrown frisbee rewards will heat him up faster due to the frisbee. So you can limit the # of reps in general as he acclimates, limit the # of frisbee throws, and also mix in colder food rewards. I use cold string cheese in the heat.

>I keep forgetting to video his line up – he pivots into side or heel for the set up. He loves to pivot, so we don’t struggle there. I’ll try to remember to video it.>

Fun! Loving the line up is wonderful!!!

Great job :)



Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

You made terrific progress here with the RCs! They are definitely a hard skill – the rear cross itself is not natural to dogs, plus we humans have to time the info correctly : )

The thing that helped her most was when you were getting on the RC line to the center of the bar right as she exits the wing. That was when you were able to show her the RC info the sooner, resulting in the best RCs. Super!

For example, at :07, you were able to get on the RC line pretty early, resulting in her taking off for the jump, going the correct direction.

Compare to :39 which was a little late: you did a couple of steps straight as she exited the wing, so she was turning to her left (towards you) and caught the RC info over the bar

I made some comparison screenshots here:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-O_9qybYErEIuyZ7_yPpfvkYHOoc3XezNctNUJ9IWUo/edit?usp=sharing

So ideally you would do more like what you did at :07! And you can even be sooner: don’t be as far from the start wing, be right next to it with only enough room for her to come around, so you can immediately get on the line.

>and slowed down to walking. My plan was to slow everything down and see if that made it easier for both of us. >

Walking here was good but I think it delayed the info – she is speedy so you will need to really hustle up the RC line in order to get the info and side change to her, before she reaches the jump. When you were running, it is possible that you were running straight for a couple of steps (like at :39) so she did not read the side change because the info happened after takeoff. So you can try moving faster while also staying on the tight RC line.

Backside wraps:

>Usually she will take the front side of the jump, sometimes cutting in front of me and other times running behind me after the wrap.>

These responses are usually either connection questions (especially when the dog ends up behind us) or we aren’t moving fast enough and they get ahead and then don’t know what to do. Young dogs will default to the front of the jump when they are ahead and are not sure.

You got a mixture of both of the responses here:

At :03 – you were walking and she got ahead, so defaulted to the front of the jump.
:08 and :38 – she did a blind cross when you shifted your connection forward to look towards the jump. When the dog is behind us and sees us look forward, it does indeed look like a blind cross cue.

:13, :17, :24, :31 – these were from the stay and were really good, back chaining her to be closer and closer to the wing. The common denominator on these reps were that yes, you were connected but more importantly… you were significantly ahead of her on all of these. That really set the line. So when you start her from the wing wrap, send her to it from further away (at least 6 feet away, maybe more) so you can be ahead for now just like you were when starting from the stay. When she is more experienced with this cue, being ahead is not as important but for now it will really help set the line to the backside.

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! She is SO FUN to watch – smart and joyful! And I love her tug drive: her balance of food and tug as reinforcement is fantastic and what we strive for in any breed of dog, and definitely the best of any Berner I’ve seen. Yay!!

>Took a while to work this out. >

Yes, and you worked it out beautifully! She was great about finding the jump, so the session was mainly about figuring out what the best reward was.

>decided to switch to food in bowl and that got what I think we are working on in this game? Next time we play I think I should just start with the food in the preplaced bowl? >

Ye, in this case, you ended up with a loaded food bowl and absolutely got the drive ahead with good mechanics from her. I think throwing a toy underhand (so she tracks it low) might also work, provided the throw starts as soon as she exits the wing wrap and looks at the jump.

> Next time we play I think I should just start with the food in the preplaced bowl?>

Yes, that will be perfect to start the next session. Plus it asks her to use impulse control to wrap the wing and ignore the cookie til cued. She was SO GOOD with that, that I was not sure there was a cookie in the bowl on the first rep.

The other possibility is using one of those crunchy cheese balls things – easy to throw, easy to see when it lands… but hard for dogs to track upwards so they keep looking down. That might come in handy when we add in the rear crosses mixed in with the GO lines.

>really hard to time that throw and it was making her do some really wacky stuff jump wise.>

Yes, that was when the toy was going up in an arc so she tracked it by also going up LOL!! It was exactly what dogs do in dock diving… except we don’t have a pool here LOL!! It was smart to move away from that – she doesn’t have a jumping issue so using different reinforcement was good to help smooth out her form.

>Our last rep was definitely the best…..my best as far as connection and seeing when she looked at the jump so I could cue GO. Before that it’s kinda all over the place :0>

Yes! You were able to handle without having to think about the darned toy throw, so it probably felt the best. I think you had a ton of good connection on the other reps too.

>7 1/2 feet apart, 2nd jump at 10″, keep the first jump at 6?>

Yes, let’s keep it at 6 for now. Let me know how she does! Great job here!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

He did well with the ladder grid! He was consistent and balanced, which is exactly what we are looking for. Since this went well, you can add more challenge:

With the jump straight like this, add the moving target (dragging the toy). With the stationary toy, he is moving nicely in relative collection, but the moving target will simulate what his body needs to do on course work. This adds a nice challenge for him to remain balanced when he is going faster and has more power.

Then you can angle the jumps – his line will still be straight, but the visual of the angled jumps definitely adds challenge! Start the angled jumps with the stationary reward so he can process it, then you can go to the moving target reward on this one too 🙂

>I’m only using my turn towards me verbal at the moment and also helped him out a little with my body and at the end a toy. >

He did well here! The only thing to tweak is to add the verbal (I think you were saying “turn”) sooner. Start it so he can hear it a few times while you are still holding him… then let him go and keep saying it. That can build more understanding into the verbal (turn predicting turning towards you) and then the same will hold for when you add the turning away. Letting him hear it before he moves will strengthen the verbal and help him process it.


>He hasn’t quite got the idea of jumping through the bend grid yet but he’s getting there. Would you change the spacing to try and encourage a jump or it doesn’t matter at this stage?>

He was definitely working out his striding here and didn’t have it really consistent yet – sometimes bouncing, sometimes adding a collection on the 2nd gap on the left turns. On the right turns, it looks like he trotted the first one but then bounced the next rep. Since he is sorting it out, no need to change anything. He will probably get more comfy bouncing it in another session or two. I do like that he understands he is turning and he is not trying to jump straight!

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>However once she went in, my cue for a left turn was too soft and too late so she flew out of the tunnel and over the off course jump.>

I love a big off course in a small dog! I also love a small dog that drives hard out of a tunnel. So that was a great moment! Yes, more info before she entered the tunnel helps – you gave her a name call and that is what ultimately got her attention there (the directional worked great when you revisited it later). It is tricky because the tunnel commitment there is tricky and we don’t want to call her off it, so I will take the off course LOL!!!

On that opening: you can add in more reward for taking jump 1 without you and with you behind her. She was SUPER fast chasing you up the next line, but not as fast heading to jump 1. So you can send and someone else throw a reward for her. With a big enough distance on that lead out, I bet you get the blind cross before the tunnel so you don’t have to rear cross 🙂

>I got a backside 2nd jump from the end instead of a wrap to the left but I think I had my shoulders opened up to past that wing. (of course these things always happen at the other end of the ring where it’s hard to see in the video>

Yes, looks like the accidental backside at 1:05 due to you being a bit on her line then leaning in with arm/shoulders, which she read as a backside cue. Good girl!

The BC at 1:38 was a good option too – as you are doing the BC, be sure to open up to the threadle slice and run a parallel line to the wing. The arm cue was a bit hidden and you pushed back towards the jump, so she took the backside, good girl! You got a little disconnected trying to send to the next jump at 1:42 (possibly from laughing LOL!) so she had some questions there but she didn’t get mad 🙂

That was a hard line and definitely a good one to set up again!

On the 2nd sequence:

Be careful to not drop your arm back (looks a little like a threadle cue) then push the backside at :30. You can stay connected and run the parallel line to the backside. Dropping the arm back pulled her in a bit and we don’t want her to think backside pushes are next after the arm drops back. That will also make it easy to get the cross on the landing side

Double blind looks great!

>It’s been a while since I’ve done much with threadle slices so clearly that needs to go back on the list.>

Threadles are HARD for sure!

Part of it is the early timing, part of it is line of motion paired with the upper body cues being very visible. On these reps and on the previous video, the
cross arm threadle cue was more obvious when you were not running. But on this sequence and the previous sequence, the cross arm was not as visible when you were in motion so she was reading motion. You can try swinging the dog-side arm back more too, to show more upper body movement on the threadle? It will look a little like the arm swinging back before the backside cue at the beginning of this sequence – we don’t want the arm movement there but it should work like a charm on the threadles!

At :57 she took the line to the side of the jump she saw instead of the threadle – reward that 🙂 You walked away to restart which reads as an indication she was wrong (even though your praised her, it was not the praise of “you rocked it!”)
And she gave you an earful there LOL! She was correct: you didn’t start giving turn info til as she was exiting the tunnel and it was mostly her name (which could mean stay-on-your-line-and-be-ready-to-turn). The threadle arm and verbal came when she was passing the halfway point between the tunnel exit and the jump… too late, decision made 🙂

At 1:15 she was coming into the threadle side until you stepped towards the jump, which pushed her back out to the backside.

Nice job breaking it down! You can see when she got it at 1:40, your dog-side shoulder was very open – that is something she will want to se as you are running too, so swinging the dog-side arm back can help a lot.

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

My dogs agree: frizzers are MAGICAL!!! I just finished attaching a frisbee to a bungee, so a friend can run one of my dogs this weekend LOL!!! Yes, try a frizz! And in USDAA and UKI, you can actually throw it too!
T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Awesome! Keep me posted on how it goes!!

>Step by step!>

Totally true!!

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Yes! I do 🙂 I made this for people who train at UDog turf:

If it is easier, you can cut the power flex strips before starting the wrapping – probably an 8″ length. It might make it quicker. You can wrap starting from just above her stopper pad and go down to cover the big pad on her foot (stopping before reaching her knuckles). It should be pretty tight so it doesn’t slip around. For most dogs, I un-wrap after each session and don’t leave them unattended with wrap on (in case they want to eat it)

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Yay for the great session!

Make sure you don’t change your motion – steady motion is part of the serp cue, so don’t slow down to bring her in. Video all the things!

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Let’s de-bain the serps LOL!!

The #1 thing here is to live by the 2 failure rule. If you get 2 failures on the skill? Change something significantly enough that you then get multitudes of success before making it harder again.
The reason behind that is to keep the rate of success very high, close to 90% or so. We don’t want perfection, but we do want a high rate of success. The rate of success for the skill here was about 54%, definitely too low – and the successful reps had you stopping your motion (ideally we want you to be in steady motion with no decel or stopping).

So for the serps, if you get the 2 failures: keep the start barrel the same, and your line of motion the same, and the reward target the same: but angle the jump so the bar is very visible to her as she exits the start barrel (pushing the wing of the jump next to the reward target away from your line). Angle as much as needed til she can take the jump very consistently and then after a session or two of high success, you can start angling it back to the ‘flat’ position you had here. And as you add more motion to build up to running, keep the jump angled so it is easier for her to come in on the line.

As you are building that up, we will want to keep your serp shoulders open to the line. So if the reward is not already placed on the target, you can keep your serp shoulder open by dropping the reward in with the non-dog-side hand (left hand in this case) so you don’t close your shoulders. Dropping with the serp arm was causing you to stop your motion and also closed shoulders will change the rest of the serp line.

Nice work here! Let me know how the de-baining goes 🙂 



Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

> I’m still trying to figure out the best tunnel stakes to use for my new bags. The ones I used in this video keep pulling part way out of the ground. I also have at least a couple more bags I can add.>

I have found that fully stretching the tunnel out helps a lot, and also heavy sandbags are the answer. They are a PAIN but totally worth it 🙂

Looking at the video:

1) Serp – looked good! You can reward more on the serp line by holding your position more instead of turning to the tunnel, so she turns to her right (towards the tunnel entry she was facing)

2) Tunnel – layering is hard, the motion helped! She did well finding the tunnel!

3) Serp – also good, you can reward on the serp line here too.

4) Tunnel – Really good! She is getting the idea!

5) Threadle – This was our best threadle. I think I didn’t ever teach her the “In In” cue though.

This a clear moment between moving to position and showing her the cross arm cue – then the release. She had tie to see and process the cue. You had motion towards the jump to get her to take it. You also had good position near the entry wing.

6) Wanted a threadle, but got the tunnel. Not sure why.

On this rep, there was not enough time between stopping your motion and the release – it was very quick /almost simultaneous, and so she went based on what the motion said and didn’t really process the arm or verbal.


7) One arm threadle. Tried something different. Ellie came in, but didn’t take the jump/tunnel. I’m not sure how to cue the lead change to take the jump.

There was more time between stopping your motion/showing the arm cue, and the release. She came in nicely! The way to get the lead change is to be closer to the jump (close enough to reach for it and touch it without fully extending your arm) and then maintain a frozen upper body. The frozen upper body (strike a pose!) and proximity to the jump cue her to go back out to it.

When you close your shoulders to point forward, you cue her to go past the jump like she did at :51.

8) Threadle. Started with a cookie toss to see if motion would help with the jump, but she still didn’t take it.

She got it when you stopped moving, but she had some questions there.

9) Threadle. Finally got the jump/tunnel, but it was awkward and she had to make a big turn to go over the jump.

She did go over it last minute at 1:08 when you pointed at it, but keeping the threadle shoulders open until she turns to take the jump (not turning or pointing to the jump) will cue her to take it sooner and more independently.

>It’s possible the jump surprised her the first time and she may not have wanted to deal with it again. Sometimes she will avoid jumps if she isn’t confident about her footwork.>

I don’t think it was a confidence question from her – I think the shoulder position cued her to go past it so she did 🙂 Holding the upper body in threadle position will point your shoulders to the jump, so she should take it 🙂

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!

Tracy

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