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Hi!
The mat was a good warm up! Adding the wobble board on top of it was a massive change, as you can see from her slightly sticky movement, facial expression, and slightly sideways ears LOL! That is exactly the same expression I see from her half sister Elektra when she has a “wait, what??” moment 🙂It did take her a bit to get comfortable with the idea of moving backwards on that setup, but she did get it going nicely – getting her front feet off then back on seems to be the key for now. She was definitely game to keep trying as you can see at 1:50 when she put herself into position while waiting for you to get more treats. The food rewards were top notch which really helped!
I think the last piece to this puzzle might be getting her more comfy to put weight into her hind end on the moving board. To really back up on the wobble board, she wold have to have more weight in her hind especially as the board moves under her. This is great for teeter training anyway! So two ideas for you:
– tugging while on the wobble board will get that going – she can be facing you (facing the end of the board that is touching the ground). Keep the tug low and only moving a little, so you can just let her pull back on it a little. That should get more weight and balance into her hind end on the moving board.
– another option is to do low hand touches so she has to bend her elbows, while she is standing on the board. This will also be useful if she is not fully comfy tugging on the wobble board.
Then when she is happy to balance with more weight in her rear while the board is moving, I bet the backing up onto the board clicks into place.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Happy Friday!!!
>>With my arm held out, I now realize I was fighting my own body to keep my connection on Karma with my shoulders rotated appropriately>>
I think it is much harder to run with the arm out, especially for taller people, because it raises your center of gravity and makes acceleration harder. I don’t have the tall person issue (I have short person issues LOL!) but I see it in the taller handlers when they are accelerating with the arms high. And, the dog needs to try to see past your arm to find the connection. And the arm up does make the shoulder movement more challenging, like you mentioned.
>>Easier to maintain my connection and turn my shoulders towards Karma’s line.>>
I am glad it felt easier because it sure looked great!!!! And you were effortlessly ahead of her the whole time.
I was smiling when watching the first video – you had awesome connection before the send to the cone, so she took off to it like a rocket. And then because you were pumping your arms and running but still maintaining excellent connection, she was FLYING up the line – love it! But you were able to easily stay ahead and connected. SUPER!!!
She also seemed to have no questions when she was on your left – driving up the line fast fast fast!
The only thing left to try is running like this from position 3, in line with the cone and not ahead at all: can you stay connected, pump your arms and run like mad while she is miles ahead of you (I think this will be fun and easy for you both!) This is incredibly useful at the end of courses, which often close with big long straight lines.
>>The only “blooper” is that with dog on left, my first run (where we start even with the jump), I walked out of the camera as we got situated, but you can still easily see as soon as I release her we come into view…….didn’t think it mattered enough to make her run again!>>
Totally not a blooper – it was easy to see that she could see the connection with no problem and the rest was great!!
Nice work here!!! You can start playing with the exit line connection too if you like!
Tracy
Hi!
Leaving in the bloopers is the best part! That way we can figure out why they are happening and what to do differently.>>I’m reminding myself this is a learning environment so the best way to learn is to show the “bad” things so we can learn how to prevent or correct those things from happening again!>>
Exactly!!! It is a supportive learning environment. I leave my bloopers in the demo videos too – it is a rare day when I film demos without bloopers LOL!!!
The dog-on-right reps looked really good here!!!
>>I ended up just showing Kashia the treat in the bowl before going back up to the start. That seemed to work best to get her to drive to the bowl that was beyond jump 2 without me fumbling with throwing a treat.>>
Yes – I think that will work GREAT for her. The more she practices driving to the cookie bowl with the cookie already in it, the more she will leave you in the dust 🙂
On the wraps at the start – she didn’t always leave you to start the wrap. You can keep the eye contact going very directly on that send so you don’t need as much physical cue and don’t need to be as close to it. At :13, for example, she had a question on the start send because you looked da bit forward which breaks connection – that causes your back to be a bit turned to her which can look like a blind cross cue (she almost went to your other side). Note the difference at :16 – you had clearer connection to her the whole time on the send, so she had no questions and zipped around the start wing 🙂
>>I saw a rep where I pulled away from looking at her and I didn’t have my “throw the treat” timing on point. I’m guessing that’s what drew her to me causing her to knock the bar?>>
Yes – I think that switching hands with the treat (and looking forward while you did that) and then throwing it drew her attention up to you so she didn’t quite clear the bar.
For the dog-on-left reps:
Thanks for leaving the bloopers in! This is her harder side for sure, and we can help her!>>Kashia had 3 perfect reps on the left when I saw my phone was not recording.>>
Ha! I hate when that happens!!! Darned phones!
Also, darned cats!!!!! They have a talent for showing up at the wrong time LOL!
>>I don’t want to blame a barn cat walking by on being what totally changed her focus from jumping the second jump like that though.>>
Yes – trying to ignore the cat can totally have drawn her brain power away from finding the line on her harder side.
>>Do you see what I may have done wrong to cause that behavior again?
I think you can help her by exaggerating the handling a bit. Try having your left shoulder further back and you can even point your left hand down to her nose. That will let her see even more of your shoulders pointing to the line.
That, plus you can lower the bar and put the cookie bowl much closer, so it is easily visible. You can even take the bar out and out the cookie bowl between the uprights for a couple of reps and see how she does.
Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>Plus it gives me things to work on with my other dog too without having to come up with my own lessons.
Yay! You can totally play these games with the other dogs to add skills and keep existing skills sharp 🙂

<<>>>
Is this just because she is still learning and gaining confidence in how to drive forward ahead of me? >>>Yes, that is probably part of it and also part of it her natural tendency to want to be near you. Your others might have more of a natural tendency to drive the lines (which makes getting turns a little more challenging).
>>> I remember my other dog being that way too in the beginning.
You probably did a great job of training lines and now you don’t remember having to do it LOL!

>> When I watched your video, you were not up at the second jump with your dog when you started right at the wing. I had to be at each jump to keep Kashia going so I wasn’t sure if I was getting quite the same result.>>Part of it is that you are a faster runner than I am 🙂 And with my experienced dog (the blue merle dog), he understands how to drive the line and leave me in the dust 🙂
>> I recongize Kashia had less speed and drive than your demo dog though…as well as some of the others in class! >>
I don’t think it is a speed or drive issue: she has PLENTY of both! The difference is that my demo dog has an extensive history of reinforcement for driving ahead and looking ahead (in agility and flyball) so he makes it look easy. That is a trained skill, so we will train it with Kashia too! I think a reward target will make a big difference with her as you work on it. If she realizes that she can leave you in the dust and get the reward, I think that you will see her driving lines way ahead.>>I like running with them. Distance is coming with my older dog so I know Kashia will get it eventually too.>>
Absolutely! She is only 17 months old. The demo dog in the competition track is 4 years old 🙂 The demo dog in the puppy track is 17 months old and you can see I haven’t even put bars into these games for him yet LOL!
>>The only toy she is obsessed with, day or night, is a soccer ball. So much so that it would be an extreme distraction while I’m training. I will have to learn how to use that soccer ball drive to my advantage when training. >>
Ooooooh, you can totally try it as the target! She might love it!!! I think she will like the lotus ball toy too – show it to her with great treats in it, and she will be game to work for it 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>>Okay must remember to reward for every effort. >>
Yes – errors are handler errors. And if you don’t know what happened, stop the session and look at the video.
>>But will eep it in mind- she believes anything less than many minutes is too short. She is obcessed with toys. I might try securing a toy but she is not as good on a dead toy. >>
You can try dough what I did with the whippet: holding her (she might be a bit squirmy at first) then throw the toy so she sees it landing, then start the rep. That way the toy is less “dead”. The whippet had trouble seeing the dead toy so would run past it, looking for it, but by letting him see me throw it, he did a lot better seeing it.
>>I do wonder about a target. She is not food orientated.>>
We can build that! Ask her to eat a piece of cheese or something yummy, then give her a good toy. She is half Border Collie, right? And BCs don’t always like to eat food when working, but we can build it up by pairing it with toys.
>>Treats all need to be soft, tiny and very tasty. Crumb size treats are hard to throw or toss or even feed. >>
You can use a lotus ball or treat hugger to deliver the tiny soft treats without losing them in the grass.
>>I do wonder whether I should try a clicker>>
You can try a clicker but you might need 3 hands for that, plus clickers often get the pups looking at us more and we want less looking at us.
>>as it most feels as though she sees the treat as a signal she was right rather than for the intriscienct value of the reat>>
I agree – it is possible that eating the treat is just a behavior for her (and not actually a reinforcement). But if you create a bit of a loop of behavior-treat-toy, the treat will become part of the reinforcement process and take on the value of the toy, and then will become more motivating for her. This has held true of many BCs and BC-mixes over the years 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyYour connection looked great here! On the first part where she was on your right: terrific job from you and excellent line-finding from her in all 3 positions. YAY!!!!
>>Going to the right she had trouble finding the line.
Going to her right (she was on your left) starting at :27 – I am convinced it was the visual of the blue jump sitting out there. That is what she was looking at when she did not take the jump you wanted – it was an easier visual for her. When you switched to a wrap verbal PLUS her name…. Then she had no trouble getting it. I am curious to see how she would do without the extra jump out there if you want to experiment and see. Moving the wing did help too but she was also processing the visual distraction of the other jump.
Note how she never looked at the blue jump on your first reps when she was on your right side: that is because your connection was very clear and she knew exactly where to be. When she was on your left, your connection was still clear but the off course possibility was close to her line, so she had a valid question about it.
>>I really need to work on my throwing the toy. On the last rep I preplaced the toy but in the dead grass it is hard for her to see it.>>
The toy throwing was pretty good! Do you have a higher-profile toy like a hollee roller or something that is easier to see? Or you can enlist Brad to be your toy thrower 🙂 Thanks Brad!
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning! Great job on this session!!!
Dog on right:
The first rep was really good! Try not to move to the start wing at all – do a one-step send 🙂 like you did on the other reps 🙂 That will also help strengthen the sending: on the2nd rep he got close to the wing but didn’t go all the way. Avoid marking it as wrong because the timing of the marker was when he did a correct behavior (found jump 1). Just keep going and reward the line, or call him to you, reward, reset. He also had a question about the send at 1:12, and you did the reset here really nicely 🙂
Separately from the big line running, you can work the send to the wing with more and more distance and just one step (and big connection :)) And you can throw the reward to the exit side of the wing.
Super nice driving ahead on the line on the reps on our right: great verbals, great connection (placed reward really helpful too)!
Dog on left – 1st rep connection was good but maybe a little ahead of him. But then the next reps were perfect, the connection was more direct. He had no questions either way.
So on the straight lines, you can start to add more of your motion. I don’t think he will be distracted if you run more, but let’s ask him 🙂
At the end the video you did a FC at 1:33 and 1:35 -trying to outrun him on this setup gets you in the way on the line here, so for the exit line connection, either do a wrap on the outside wing of the jump or a BC to create more an L shape to the line.
He definitely looks ready to do all the exit line connection games too! Great job here!!!
Tracy
This went really well – she is looking all grown up!!!
>>Doesn’t help that there is a dog barking in the background. I will try to improve conditions next time.>>
No worries! It all looked and sounded good 🙂
I think this went GREAT! You were really connected as she drove up the line in each position. The only time she looked back at you or curled towards you was over the 2nd jump when the toy had no been thrown yet. So, you can throw the toy sooner or have a placed reward so she keeps looking ahead.
>>then I moved the toy to my other hand on the last rep>>
I don’t think this was a problem for her at all – I watched that moment a few times and you were still connected plus she didn’t look at you, so it was not a problem. It is in the exit line connection that it becomes more important that the toy to remain in the correct hand and not switch around.
The only suggestion to add is on the send to the start wing, use more of your dog-side leg to support the send when you are in position 1 (near the jump) or close to position 1). When you sent the your leg already a bit forward, she had no questions. When your leg was not forward enough (:43) she thought you wanted the jump next to you. So you can have the leg already pointing forward, a step ahead of the other leg, before you send. Or, you can step forward with it as you start the send. Both will work nicely and will get your leg involved when we add moving sends next week.
Great job here!!!
TracyGood morning!
>>My videographer, Sandie, had a knee replacement on Tuesday.>>
Please send my best wishes to Sandie for a speedy recovery! She is an important part of Team JJ and I hope she has a fast and easy recovery then enjoys her new knee 🙂
>>PS: I am having fun with this pup!!!>>
Yay! She is a super fun pup with a bright future is so many different sports!!!!
>>I do not do well taking clips out of videos and linking them so is it better to do a 3 min video clip, or to do 4 miniclips, beginning -middle -end??>>
It is easier to do the session and then just post it up without editing. Set your timer for 2 or 3 minutes and train til the timer beeps. In the in-between-rep moments, I can drink more coffee 😁 or scroll forward or type ideas, so there is no need to edit it. Editing takes too much time 🙂 Plus her toy happy dances are really cute 🙂
>>. I never threw well left handed, but since my accident I do not throw well right handed now either. >>
Your right hand/arm is probably still recovering and I am sure the throwing ability will come back! In the meantime, if you are training on your own, feel free to use a placed reward or target on the big long lines. That way you can handle without having to think about managing the throws. If you have other people around to throw, great! But if not, the placed reward/target will make things easier.
On the videos:
On the first video:
>>Struggled at first getting the send around the wing.>>
That was the hardest connection spot for you here, the rest was awesome! On the the wing sends, you were tending to look ahead of her at the wing which is a broken connection. So when you were in position 1, the looking ahead was turning your shoulders to the first jump, which is why she wanted to go to it. When you were closer to the start wing, your position/motion overrode the connection so she got it with no problem.
Look at the last rep, though, at 2:28-2:29: You were in position 1 there (closer to jump 1) but you made GREAT connection to her eyes on the send to the wing… so she zipped to the wing with no questions. PERFECT!!!
The connection looked great as you moved up the line! Throwing the toy was the hardest part there 🙂 but her commitment to the jumps and your connection looked super strong. It was especially good on the position 3 reps where she had to drive ahead! She did NOT look back at you (she was looking ahead) and that is terrific especially with a young dog!!!
On the 2nd video:
You nailed the connection on the send to the wing right off the bat and she got it (you can see the subtle turn of your head towards her there even though we can’t see your eyes from this angle, plus she had it figured out by then).Her question here was finding jump 1! She just couldn’t find it! That is actually incredibly normal with young dogs – they go fast… right past the jump LOL! If you want to take a peek at the threads of Chaia & Lu and Bev & Chip you will see dogs in the same age range working through the same question 🙂 I fully expect my baby whippet to do the same thing when I put bars in for him 🙂
So, it is more of a training approach than a connection approach to help her out 🙂 You seemed to be super connected! So to help her out, do everything the same as you did here, but let’s break down finding that first jump:
– lower the bar a bit so it is easier to organize to jump
– place the toy (or a target) on the ground between the 2 jumps
– send her around the wing and walk up the line. That way you are in motion the whole time, but not going soooo fast that she matches that speed without finding the jump, and without trying to decelerate to get her to do it. Slow and steady motion to start 🙂If that helps her find the jump, we will start to add more motion, then more height, then move the reward to past jump 2 (in that order). It probably won’t happen in one session but probably will happen within 2 sessions! And if she struggles with that and still misses the jump, we can break it down more but my guess is that she won’t struggle with it 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! I love this session!!!!
>>The distances are backwards
I thought the distances looked good! Distances on all of the games are flexible, because distances on courses can vary a lot.
Dog on right looked fantastic! Your connection was perfect on the 1t 2 reps (position 1 and position 2). When you got to position 3 (starting at the wing), you kind of went into “run for your life” mode because she is so fast and she got so far ahead 🙂 The connection was not quite as strong as she went around the start wing there, so you can keep the hustle and add a little more connection to her as she is wrapping the start wing.
Dog on left was basically perfection 🙂 This is EXACTLY what we are going for – the camera angle gave us a great view of your connection. You nailed it on each rep! Yay! And she seemed to have NO questions at all no matter which position you were in
>>The distances are backwards: she never had to look up at you for more info, and she had consistent striding (big fast confident strides). And I think she liked the fling-and-go start with the wing wrap LOL!!!
Terrific job here! Keep practicing this so that you don’t even have to think about it – she seems to thrive on getting the connection. Onwards to the exit line connection!
Tracy
Good morning!
First rep – oops, I think you said tunnel LOL! He was good though, good job rewarding him 🙂The FCs here are wrap on the jumps not between the jumps, so you don’t have to worry about getting into the gap between the 2 jumps without getting run over 🙂 So you can send around the wing and accelerate – then decelerate do a wrap FC on the 2nd jump, then accelerate again (with the exit line connection after the FC).
The straight line rep at the end on your left looked great! You can add on your Go Go Go verbal because the connection looks lovely 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>>I need to work on a broad jump. Do you think it’s reasonable to use that as the first jump or second jump?>>
Oh, that is CLEVER!! Yes, great idea. You can start it as the first jump because that is more likely to be the context (I have never ever seen it as the last jump :))
>> Also, is your spacing 20 ft?>>
A little closer to 23 feet, but spacing can be flexible (and bar heights reduced if the spacing is tight).
>>I’m assuming you do NOT want 4 tries in each position. That would definitely be too many especially with both sides.>>
Correct! Move through it quickly if it is easy. And if she sails through the 3 positions with no questions, you can exaggerate them: start halfway better the jumps to send to the wing to get WAAAAAAY ahead. Or, start close to the wing and stay there til she exits the wrap to try to get way behind 🙂
>> I think this will be easy for Sprite so I think it’ll be one and done in each position unless the broad jump throws her. If so, I’d remove it.>>
If it throws her, don’t remove it – let’s train on it! If it was a connection error, you can fix the connection on the next rep. If she walks on it, and you are very connected and see it clearly, then you have 2 options to break it down:
– make the handling easier by keeping your motion fast by not being as far ahead or behind her
– reduce the # of boards. Maybe just do 2 boards to start with then build it up.Keep me posted!
Tracy
