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Good morning!
The Manners Minder definitely helped here! He figured it out really nicely!
The threadles went really well, he did a great job coming to the threadle side on cue and the MM helped him go back out over the bar. SUPER!
What is your verbal threadle slice cue? As you mentioned, you can use it here as you release from the stay. He was holding the stay nicely but releasing on your hand movement – you’ll get a better stay overall if the release is a verbal only, so try to get to your position, put your hand in position (no release) then say the verbal threadle slice cue.
Since he was sitting facing the bar here but did threadles to the backside on most of the reps at the beginning, mixing in the front side was good too in the 2nd half of the session because most of what he will see will be serps over the bar from that angle. He did really well with that too and with the backsides at the very end.
As with the threadles, you will want to use a verbal cue to release the stay when doing the serpentines. This can be a regular release like “ok” or “break”, whichever you normally would use.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
She did really well here, even with the heat! Good girl!It was a fun session to watch: the object further from the camera was definitely more challenging than the toy closer to the camera… until you touched and moved the toy that was closer to the camera. Touching it and moving it added a level of enhancing it which made it harder for her brain to ignore it.
Both of the objets were pretty exciting 🙂 and maybe not neutral enough. You can use random neutral objects to make speedy progress with this stage (we add exciting stuff soon :)) Neutral can be things like a shoe or an old book or a chair that is not usually there.
The toy further from the camera was definitely a hard challenge: Note her little spin on that first run, right before going into the weaves on the very first rep! Then she was spinning a bit as she got her reward: she was PUMPED UP! She had a couple of misses during the session, but not that many and then was able to sort it out and weave really well.
If she has struggles, you can reduce the challenge by putting it up on a chair or low table. Or you can move it further away so it is present and she is aware of it, but has an easier time tuning it out.
Once she gets it right a couple of times, you can end the session or take a break after a couple of successes, then reset the environment with different challenges such as moving the exciting object somewhere else 🙂 Changing things frequently helps to generalize the behavior without even having to leave your own backyard 🙂
She was really good about not slowing down much in the weaves as she worked through this – she might have slowed down little when things were hard or it might have been the heat. But overall, she maintained her speed and rhythm really well!
Great job here! You can do different sessions with different neutral things, with the weaves or any behavior to help her brain process it.
Tracy
Hi!
> but I thought the course is over today 🙁>
It ends on July 6th, so we have more time 🙂
>Food- I have to go shopping to get some food variety. I’m not a big cook lol!>
I highly recommend string cheese (medium value for my dogs), cheddar cheese (HIGH value for my dogs), frozen meatballs from walmart (SUPER high value), rotisserie chicken (they would sell a kidney for this). Your mileage may vary, she might like other stuff like hot dogs or salmon. Elektra, the smaller demo dog in most of these videos, was trained for flyball using McDonalds Egg McMuffins which are the HIGHEST value thing on the planet for her (I like them too LOL). The flyball environment was hard, so I used the best possible food rewards.
>Not to sound like a dork, but how do I test the food if she’s not doing anything?>
Great question, not dorky at all! A couple of ideas for you:
– do some pattern games
– ask for a couple of simple tricks like hand touches and spinsAnd when you do these, she should be on leash (no heart attacks needed in she takes off for the unfenced section of the yard). And you can watch for 2 things: how quickly she responds to the cues or looks at you, and how easily she eats the treats. Does it take her a moment to eat or to respond? Or is she super quick with responses, doesn’t take her eyes off of you, and does she grab for them as if she is starving?
> She will check in with me because right now I am feeding her for every time she looks at me. >
This is good! And you can be observing how quickly she checks in:
for cheese maybe it takes a second or two.
for meatballs, maybe it is instant
for pizza crust, maybe she never takes her eyes off of you (you might need to have pizza for dinner to test this theory LOL)>This only happens when she’s close. >
Great! Keep her close for now, 4 or 6 foot leash. She is like a teenager who just got her drivers license but has been driving way too fast – license revoked! She has to hang out with mom for now!
>When she goes to the end of the line, I usually have to call her back, recall training, which she ignores me mostly. Some ‘reps’ she’s move attentive than others, but by no means is it a Rock Solid recall.>
Plus, when she goes to the end of the line, she would probably be taking off without the line on… so no need to use the long line. Short leash for the win! It will be easier to wrangle and you’ll be able to get her back on the road to success more easily.
>So same question for toy toy. Do I try to play with her with various toys?>
Yes- tie the toy to something long (a leash or another toy) and swing it around and away from her, for her to chase. Don’t move it towards her, as that might not be as much fun. You can also try a tennis ball or frisbee in class and see how she likes those! Tennis balls and frisbees are often incredibly valuable for dogs and can really help overcome distractions.
>I can get her engaged with toys indoor much easier than outdoor, probably because it’s all me not knowing how, >
The environment is much easier indoors, which really helps! So the toys will have to be better value outdoors and it is also possible that food is the winning reward outdoors and not toys.
>especially when she taps out, I tap out too.>
If she taps out, you might be moving the toy towards her (which will cause her to say ‘no thanks’). Or maybe the session went on for too long. Or maybe the toy is too short and she doesn’t want to tug near your hands or with you bending over. So think of it as short blasts of play where the super toy is moving away the whole time, for her to chase and grab. And end the play session before she ends it, so it might be 10 seconds long or less.
> Btw your toys sound much cooler than mine LOL!>
Ha! They are pretty cool toys but we can find Sunnie the toys she thinks are super cool too! (And my dogs do *not* get the super cool toys in the house – they are only for the really hard environments 🙂
>Do your dogs have high prey drive for birds too? or other animals in the environment?>
They aren’t very birdy but the terrier and the whippets/lurchers (whippet mixes) can be very prey-driven. Working whippets in general are murderers – bred to chase and kill things like bunnies, squirrels, etc. I think the best moment I have had as a dog trainer was when I was hanging out on my front lawn (no fences) with Ramen the whippet (from working lines) when he was about a year old and he was off leash along with a few of my other dogs. Suddenly, a bunny hops out in front of us. Then the bunny notices the dogs and takes off, running as fast as it could (stupid bunny). Ramen the whippet aka murderer saw the bunny take off and looked at me instead of chasing the bunny. I of course praised him and ran in the house to give him 57 meatballs.
One of my dogs DID chase the bunny…. not the terrier. Not the whippets or lurchers. It was Nacho the Papillon LOL!! He did not catch the bunny LOL
Let me know what you think and how it goes when you test drive the different rewards!
Tracy
Good morning!
Great job with course 1!!
The opening looked lovely – excellent blind cross 3-4!
> I would have liked him to not launch so far on the jump before the frame>
You can do a spin rotation (FC to BC) on jump 5 (:09) – it will tighten the turn AND it will get you facing the next line sooner. I don’t love to do a lot of spins but this is a perfect place for it because it cues more collection while getting you to the new line sooner than a post turn.
He did well with the threadle wrap at 7, that is totally the best option there! You can decelerate a bit more and lock your feet facing 8, so he can tighten the turn up even more!
He had a little question after the weaves and came towards you a bit. it was because you were lateral and relatively stationary. Being lateral was good! And you can start moving forward to support the line to 10 on a parallel path from your lateral position, before he exits the poles to elininate that little extra step (:21)
> I accidentally gave him the wrong cue on the jump before the dogwalk so he was a very good boy.>
Yes, a little more RC info was needed so it was good to stop and reward him then resend to get a nice dog walk entry.
>His dogwalk contacts have been less than stellar and I suspect would be non-existent right now on an angled exit which is why I had a reward dish for him.>
The reward bowl was smart! He did get a foot in (maybe 2 feet LOL) but helping him out and rewarding is definitely smart if the contact zone has been made of lava lately 🙂
Turning him to his right over 17 is great for setting up the next line. Doing it as a post turn widens the line a bit, even with deceleration. To tighten the turn and get you off his line sooner (and point your feet to the next line sooner too) this is another good place for a spin rotation: as he exits the 16 tunnel, you can be up by the wing of 17 – but your feet are pointed to 18. You can cue him to basically run across your feet (connecting to him then sending him to the jump past you by shiffting your connection to the landing spot will help)
It will look like what I did here on jump 2:
I led out to it, but you can easily get there while he is in the tunnel 🙂
And the layering at the end looked great! It looks easy and fast!!
Aelfraed did great with his pop outs!!
He went past jump 5 at :07 on the first run – the jump was on his line but you had turned a little and connection was not as clear, but it presents a small conundrum: we want to reward him, but we also want him to stay on his line and maybe save you if you are not perfect… so rather than reward him right there when he went past the jump at :07, you can continue for another jump or two then reward him for taking a jump. Going past the jump is a cue to you to connect more, but also we can build more value for staying on the line by getting one more jump properly then rewarding. And that way we don’t have a possibly grey area of rewarding him when he does not take a jump, even if it was caused by a handler blooper. This blooper was small and it would be lovely if he can save you and take the jump 🙂
You had perfect connection and got a little closer to that jump at :28 and :42, and he nailed it. YAY!
On the 2nd sequence:
He is jumping to his left (towards you) on 5 at :45 and 1:05 and 1:27, that is how the line is set so it makes sense that he is on his left lead there and needs to shift to a right lead to get to 6. You are parallel to him on that jump (or one step ahead) so he had a question about going out to 6 both times: big question at :46 with much cursing, and only some minor grunting/mumbling under his breath 🤣😂 at 1:06 where your position pushed in more. You got one more step ahead at 1:28 which helped, but another option to consider is using your outside arm there to push him away to 6 (especially if you are not ahead of him). So as he is approaching 5, the left arm here would be up pointing to 6 and your eyes would be on his eyes. That would turn your shoulders more strongly to 6 even when your position can’t support it that well. And it is a cue he already knows from his foundation “get out” training so this is a good place to use it.>We did also progress to pop out #3 but unfortunately the camera did not start so don’t have video of that one>
Darned camera!! I am glad he did well even if you don’t have the video. He is doing some really advanced work!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! I am glad you got this in before it got too hot! We are getting hundred degree temperatures this week, so any dog stuff outdoors is happening at sunrise. Pass the coffee!!!
Course 1 is definitely more complex than course 2, but there are lots of lovely parts here!!!
Some ideas for you:
At the beginning, you were facing him as he is heading to 2 – rather than open up and face forward to 2 when he commits and do a post turn (which sends him wider and makes him wait for info, note him looking at you and drifting a little at :02), just complete the turn with a spin/blind so you are facing the new line at all times. Keeps that turn nice and tight!
The rear cross switch on 5 works great – when you trust it more, add stronger turning cues (decel, take out the ‘go’ verbal before the switch verbal). You will see a common theme here: using deceleration to help set turns and lines but not when you want him to extend on the line.
> Another case of “things I thought he knew but he doesn’t”. That would be the flick (threadle wrap) which I wanted to use from the teeter to the next jump. >
Yes, threadle wraps, they are totally on the summer agenda 🙂 I agree that it is absolutely the best option here. Part of the cue is deceleration – all threadle wraps are handled with decel to varying degrees (depends on the context and how well the dog understands the cue). So for harder scenarios like 7 and dogs still learning it: lots of decel even standing still is needed! You can stand still and be using the arm cues until he gives you permission to move forward again. That permission will look like him to turning towards the jump AND setting up the turn the correct direction (so he doesn’t slice it as you move away). He won’t always need that much decel and patience, but for now he does. When you used the cue on course, you ‘let go’ of the cue too soon at :10 (moved forward and stopped giving the arm cues) so he went back out towards the weaves. it is a good one to isolate to work on (and we have more of that coming in Games Package 4).
>He also struggled with the whiskey RC.>
>That was more about him not seeing you move through the line to thecenter of the bar – it looked like a left turn cue on jump 8 (:14).
>Casper and I had a lot of trouble with the section from the weaves to the DW.>
This is where I recommend flipping the rhythm of the motion cues: when he exits the weaves, accelerate up the line 10-11 then decel into the turn cues 11-12. You were decelerated then accelerated, so he had questions about the turn.
When you were working a RC 11-12, the first one at :23 was happening as she was already taking off, so he hit the wing trying to adjust. Your timing was much earlier at :36 (yay!) so he got the turn away from 11-12 but then there was an off course tunnel. The motion was decel then accelerate – but there needs to be a turning cue on 12. What bit you there (and got the off course tunnel) was reverse motion from what he needed: he needs to see the motion go from acceleration (10-11) to decel to set up the turn on 12. At :38 he saw you go from decel to acceleration, so even though he was prepared to turn left and get on the DW, the sudden acceleration cued the line to the tunnel. And if you are already in deceleration, then you have to stay decelerated in order to set the turn (and accelerate again after you have the turn). Let me know if that all makes sense.
A BC on the landing of 11 is a great option too!! When you tried it at :28, the BC was super late (he was taking off and you were still connected to him dog-on-left)s so when he landed at :29 the blind was not done yet. He thought he needed to go to your left side so when you did make connection on the new side, he was already past you. To get that blind to work, you don’t need to serp him in to 11 as much – accelerate up the line so when he landing from 10, you can begin the blind as you are passing the landing spot at 11.
Another spot to reverse the acceleration and deceleration is the exit of the DW and the RC on 14. When you accelerated into the RC flip away on the first rep (:46) he accelerated too which led to a wider turn.
Can he flip away into the RC at 14 without you needing to accelerate across the line, just using hand cues and a tiny bit of motion? Decel and just flipping him away will get a great turn there while setting you up for better position after the next line. The turns were already better at 1:06 and 1:15 when you had more decel!
He is doing really well with all the layering he is seeing! The layering to the tunnel under the DW worked great and the layering at the end worked great too!
>I also wanted to get #17 on the slice by using a big send to 15, 16 to meet him on the far wing of 17. >
I like that plan and I think it is actually quite doable! It requires more sending away to 15 and 16, which means using less movement towards 15 when cueing the turn on 14.
> on the second time I wasn’t able to show the jump.>
That was more of a dog training question than a handling question – he didn’t understand to take the jump with all the countermotion.
You did get to a great spot at 1:19 but because countermotion was very hard for him, we have a good training opportunity: as you are moving forward past the exit wing, your connection can shift to the landing spot (and you can point to it) to support commitment. You can isolate that to be able to reward him for commitment (throwing the reward on the landing side as you move forward) to build value so it becomes more of a default behavior to take the jump rather than run past it. That way you can use your sending skills and get to good positions, and trust him to take that jump without needing a lot of help from you.
>At the very end, I slid in a quick shot of Enzo doing it – he went second so I wasn’t even trying the slice from the far side – I did a whiskey type RC and it worked fine.>
Yes, that is a good option too! Which one you choose will depend mainly on what you want to do next: getting ahead and using the countermotion would be very effective if you did *not* want to layer the 19-20 line and needed to stay ahead. Doing the whiskey-ish RC is great if you want to layer, because it keeps you at more of a distance for 18-19-20 which in turn allows you to set up the layering line more without hitting the brakes which can pull the dogs off the line.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi! Thank you for the update – I figured you were busy with Lexie, which makes total sense of course. The video you posted on FB of Lexie and Sunnie playing was adorable!
>Sunnie was so tiny LOL! 10 weeks old>
SO CUTE too! And she is still so cute 🙂
> I also watched our last exercise above. This was the start of our demise 🙁 The birds, her prey drive kicked in even higher than before.>
I also went back and looked at it, after reading this post! I have ideas for you!
> Now she’ll chase & run & not come back! My yard is only 3/4 fneced and she’s running toward the no fenced part & won’t stop. I have a heart attack every time she does this.>
OMG, that is really scary, I can see why you would not want to take her leash off! And OUCH about your poor hands!
> I am trying really hard to help her. Been researching, but I can’t do it alone.>
We can come up with ways you can do it alone, on a 6 foot leash that won’t destroy your hands 🙂
> I think I need to pair the trigger (birds) with a marker to reorient to me & then give her (reward her) with an outlet she wants- chase- run but it has to be with me. The birds are everywhere in my yard, so that’s a challenge too. I can’t train the behavior I want somewhere else and then build up to it. >
The first step is to establish what type of reinforcement is the most valuable in that environment – we gotta fight fire with fire! In the previous video, she was not into the toy enough for it to fully overcome the bird distractions. So my suggestion is to take her outside, on a short leash, with a variety of different food rewards: cheese, meatballs, rotisserie chicken, salmon, etc. You don’t need to ask for any training (and don’t let her run around) – let’s just test drive the treats and see if there are any that she freaks out in joy about 🙂 When I was teaching my Whippet, Ramen, to handle exciting environments and overcome prey drive, I used meat from rotisserie chicken and london broil. YUM! And now that he is past that stage of distraction, I can use lower value food.
And you can also do a similar session on leash outside with several different toys and see if you have any that are mind-blowingly fantastic. Because I also play flyball and I do it with dogs bred to be want to chase motion, I do this a lot too in early adolescence to let the dog pick a toy reward that blows their mind with joy (and helps eliminate other distractions in the environment). Every dog loves something different: Contraband loves frisbees, Hot Sauce loves tennis balls, one of my previous dogs LOVED plastic water bottles. Ramen loves a squirrel skin that a tiny plastic water bottle sewn into it. And Plot Twist (Whippet/Malinois mix) is an absolute freak for raccoon pelts on bungees (they are actually full raccoon pelts, complete with head and whiskers, that I use as a tug toy).
I think that is a good (and easy) first step: what is the highest value reward we can use to begin overcoming the drive for birds?
And when we have a reward or two that will work, we can go back to training her to ignore the birds. It can all be done by yourself because your beautiful yard is a hard environment for her, for now 🙂 But I am here for ya and happy to help!
>Add in adolescence to the picture too 😀>
Oh yes, we all need an adolescence support group – not for the dogs, but for US hahahaha
>I was excited to join Max Pup 2, but now I don’t know 🙁 I’ve got to get this under control before I can even think about training agility 🙁>
You totally can join it and we can take a two-pronged approach: train the agility skills indoors or in other places where she can be off leash and can’t run off for birds. And, sort out how to get her working outdoors so you can go back to using your backyard. I feel the pain of having a fantastic young dog but also having the natural prey drive sometimes overtake the other things we want to train.
>The temps up here in NY are going to be brutal this week. Hope you are getting relief in VA!>
There is zero relief here – we are having our ‘coldest’ day of the week today (high of 86) and then into the high 90s tomorrow with temperatures at 100 degrees of highe for the rest of the week. UGH!! But I head up to near Ithaca for a weekend of teaching so it will only be in the low 80s LOL but the facility has turf and air conditioning 🙂 How far are you from Groton NY?
Keep me posted!!
Tracy
Hi!
He did really well here – the game is a real brain-bender! He was sorting it out really nicely.
>He seemed confused on my go release and maybe I was placing toy in wrong spot>
Yes, this is where he had some questions where you were almost next to him then sending him back to the jump: he really had to think about that which is why he didn’t always release immediately. It will help if, after you release him, you let him see you look backwards at the jump behind you. At 1:38 you were looking at him, for example, so he stuck with you. Compare to 3:37 & 6:29 for example where you looked back at the landing spot and he was able to go to the jump. Yay!
On the more extreme reps where you were already past his starting spot before he arrived at the jump, he was able to head to the jump but then had a small cheat going around the wing to get the toy instead of going over the bump then to the toy 🙂 You can place the reward so it is more visible past the bum to help him go over it. You also added in a bit of throwing the reward instead of having it already there – that worked really well! He was able to get more countermotion than most adult dogs can do, so I am very excitde by his progress 🙂
>Oh and I signed up for max puppy 2 🤗>
Yay! It will be so fun!!!
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>And i didn’t think i could reliably speed up and decel without ending up on my ass!>
I have had this happen to me. Do not recommend. Zero stars LOL
One thing very noteworthy here is that even though you were focused on working on t he game (which went really well) – he had the opportunity to work in a busy, distracting environment! And he worked really well with people, cars, wind, noise, and no leash or fence to prevent him from running off… GOOD BOY!!!
I am really happy with how he did with the different cues – he saw a nice variety of decel into the FC, GO lines, and rear crosses. He read them all really well. He is reading your decel as a commit-then-wrap cue very nicely. The earlier you decel, the better he turns of course 🙂 At 1:26 you were a little late, for example – he was past you and getting ready to takeoff, so he was wide on the turn. Compare to the turn at 1:36 where he was super tight: you started your decel before he even passed you there, so he had plenty of time to set up his wrap and it looked great!
The RCs were very strong too – those have more extension so he was correctly giong a little wider. There was only one blooper where I think you wanted a wrap to his left but got a rear cross to his right (1:54). That was because as you decelerated, you also move in towards the jump and turned your feet, so it looked like a RC cue. Compare to the other left turn wraps (like at :49) where you faced forward longer as you decelerated, keeping the decel separate from the rotation, and he did the wrap beautifully. Yay!
Great job!!
Tracy
Hi! These runs went really well! She is doing well with being patient and her commitment is looking very strong!!!!
Video 1: She is finding her lines really well! Wow! This includes the layering: she was very confident with that! My only suggestion the jump lines is when you bring her to the threadle side of the jump, you can turn her away sooner (1:22) and be closer to the jump so she sees it right away.
Her poles are coming along nicely but I don’t think she is ready to have the weaves in this setup (she had weave errors on every rep). So you can practice the weaves separately but replace them with a straight tunnel here for the handling.
Sequence 2:
This also showed excellent commitment! The hardest part was getting from one end of the sequence to the other because she is so fast. One idea for you:
When she begins the layering, see if you can run up the line without your arm up – mainly so you get up the line faster. When you had your arm way up in the air, she layered well but you did not get as far up the line. When you put your arm down and just ran at 1:14-1:16, she still layered perfect but also you got the furthest up the line! And to get her to the backside (:07, :41, 1:18) – your verbal timing was good but you can add an outside arm to keep her out on the line top get the backside – you added it at :10 but you can plan for it and use it sooner even when you are ahead of her.You can also use that concept to get the the jump at the top of the line at :26 & :54 – no high arm needed, just run 🙂 and use your opposite arm if you think she might curl in towards you and away from the jump. the ‘out’ and ‘go’ verbals helped a lot – they seemed more effective for her than a jump verbal.
The hardest part for her was when there was the FC wrap right next to the weaves, and we didn’t want the weave – she was off course into the weaves a couple of times and knocked the bar on the run where she didn’t go into the weaves. So you can isolate that and reward her for jumping the tight wrap on the jump without going to the weaves. it is hard to ignore an obstacle that is so close!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Now, I know we are not in perfect accord about jump heights but I went to 22 because it seems to me that a backside jump at 12 or 16 is not at all the same as one at 20 or 22. So while you want a lower height, I intentionally went to a bit above his jump height.>
The goal at the lower heights is to teach the correct mechanics that we can then apply to the higher heights. If he can’t do it at 16, he can’t do it at 22 which is even more complex than usual for him 🙂
> So naturally, I have a mental picture of a perfect wrap and a perfect backside. Casper’s backsides are not very close to my perfect picture (backside wrap is too slicey) but I think they are “adequate”.>
Great mechanics are the gateway to that perfect picture. Same with humans: to get the handling looking the way we want it, we work on mechanics step by step before adding complexity. So he is slicing the backside wraps mainly because he doesn’t have the mechanics of pushing from his rear and bending over the bar. And at 22″, without the mechanics in place, he is a bit inconsistent in what he does which makes it even harder to pull of a nice turn.
>My analysis is that he is taking off too soon on the wrap which creates a slice. A lower jump height would allow him to take off even sooner on the backside, hence the higher height. A lower jump height also means he can fling over from his front instead of powering from the rear.>
He is already pulling from his front instead of powering from the rear – a lower height can give him more time and an easier picture to get the organization on the hind end before adding the complexity of height. Same as Olympic high jumpers: they need to get mechanics on a lower bar before they can aim for the world record 🙂
Because it is hard to see in real time sometimes – I grabbed photos! Depending on the camera angle, you can see his hind end going really high and being hoisted over the bar, rather than being used to push off. From the other angle, you can see him trying to push off with his front leg (right or left leg, he tries both) before the hind end plants with weight in it for takeoff.
here are the photos:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16O65IZJvxG8nro5J7lKySHaVqUbIkIwSpgO45BiYDCI/edit?usp=sharing>I can go back to the Kato board work to square him up if you think that is really important. I have been working on the premise that there are lots and lots of other things to teach before I care about polishing his backsides. Of course, I am happy to hear what you have to say, consider it and discuss it further.>
I do think that backside wraps are not super high on the list of priorities, but it is a good conditioning skill and mechanics skill to work them with the Cato plank to help organize himself. And that will help all footwork including front side wraps too. So it is something to add in here and there, as well as break down parts of the course that have it and work that skill in isolation.
The course work went well! Many, many excellent pieces and also places where you can use more of his independent skills to smooth things out 🙂
Looking at the opening:
Very nice send to 1 to set up the blind 3-4! Your timing was good at :11 but I loved the timing on the BC at :24! He was producing a great turn but saw acceleration without connection (bar down) You can try to send to 1 from further away to get down there earlier so less acceleration is needed. And also connection is more important than position, so you can connect more and be concerned about being up at 4 less. The RC on 5 works brilliantly and is the best option there. The timing at 1:17 was good, similar to run 1, but not as good as at :24 🙂
>Eliminate the wrap at 11 and just FC to send down the line 12, 13, 14>
We can get a better turn there with more of a deceleration into it: use your independent dog walk and as he exits after the release, show a big decel and a brake arm on the takeoff side. Running into it without a change of rhythm (decel) was cueing him to go a bit wide.
You can get a tighter turn on the jump before the teeter with either a decel & using 2 hands, or using a spin (FC/BC). This is a good place for a spin because it turns you to the next line sooner while also geetting a good turn.
Speaking of the brake hand – you can also send to 8 with 2 hands to cue commitment and the turn. Using a forward send did not give him the soft turn info (1:23 – bar down) but the brake arms will.
The FC after the teeter worked well, the RC after the teeter worked well… what if you did a RC at a distance to flip him away then send him up the next line while you layer the teeter (don’t run into it) which puts you up at 18-19 even sooner. That will allow you to add a bit of decel on the flip away to 19 to tighten the turn. Then while he is weaving, you can stay on the landing side of 21 to be even further ahead on the ending line.
>. I’m not sure I can get the cross between 17 and 18 so I’ll plan a whiskey rear on 18 and handle dog-on-left for 19 and 20. (I didn’t see 21 until I was building the course)>
I don’t think you need to get there! Layering to meet him on the landing of 18 then turning him away to 19-weaves will set up the ending line really well!
> Also popped out of the weaves which I didn’t realize until I was inside doing the video!! I am so used to my dogs doing perfect weaves; I guess I wasn’t even noticing.>
That was unusual for him! Yes, he came out when you did the FC, but he didn’t do it on the next pass through the weaves so no worries, just a rare event 🙂
Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hello and welcome to CAMP! It is great to see you here! Rexx is a terrific and I can already see that you two are a wonderful team 🙂 Excellent session here!!!
He did really well on the first set of sequences, turning to his left to do the layering. He did so well with it that I think you can trust him more and more to your next line sooner. What I mean by that is:
When he gets to the jump passing the tunnel and heading into the layering, keep looking in his direction and using your verbals, but you can take off up the next line more (no need for your arm to be as high, as you can probably get up the line more quickly with lower arms). Trust he will take the jumps so you can go to your next position even sooner, which will get you to the BC at :37 and 1:02 even sooner and stay even further ahead (you ran really nice lines on both of those to produce excellent turns) as well as getting even further ahead for the push to the backside at :48. He is speedy, so the more we can use his independence to get you way ahead, the easier it will be to handle big courses.
He had a little more trouble on your left side (turning to his right) on the 2nd layering game – it could be the angle of finding the jump on the other side of the tunnel was a little different, or turning right is harder for him (most dogs are lefty or righty, maybe he is a lefty? 🙂 ) You did a great job helping him sort it out and throwing the reward, it really helped! You can also lead out less – starting maybe just one step ahead – so he sees more acceleration cues moving up the lines and will propel into the layering more (without you getting stuck but the tunnel). At 2:05 you had almost no lead out and he blasted away into the layering – SUPER!!
And when he is even more sure of the layering to his right, you can trust his independence to head to your next position even sooner. That way, as he is exiting the layering (jump 4) you will be almost at jump 6 for the blind or the serp to the backside.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think! I am looking forward to his next video!
Tracy
Good morning! Welcome back to CAMP! And it is FANTASTIC to see Katniss back in action and running brilliantly on hard stuff!!!!!
>You’d think I’d know how to correctly video things by now, but I messed up different things multiple times, lol>
Ha! I believe you that they did well 🙂 I know if there were issues, you would run it again to post.
Nice work on this course! Overall, you had super strong connection and really nice verbal timing!! There were a couple of tricky spots, but mostly the course ran really well!
The opening ran really well!
The timing of the right verbal and turning away was earlier at :08 than 1:17, so the turn on 3 was better at :08. The wider turn at 1:17 meant you had to push her back out at 1:20. Using an opposite arm can help with that, like a ‘get out’ cue. The 2-3 rep at 2:45 was fantastic timing – as she was landing from 2, you were giving the right verbal as you sent than turned away to the next line so she had a lovely turn on 3. Super!!
The FC 5-6 a tiny bit late at :11. I liked the tinming better at 2:48! Finishing the rotation on the FC is hard with her speed, so it would be interesting to try doing it with that timing but as a blind, so you can finish to rotation sooner 🙂
> I was actually surprised that she had such a hard time with pretty much all of the backsides. I know my handling was not spot on for at least a couple of them, but she typically does well with that skill on a verbal even when I’m not perfect.>
I think there were 2 things happening with the backsides:
For the backside on jump 9, she got to the backside really well but then ran past the jump. We can build up a default behavior of taking the bar by getting her to go to the back of the jump then throwing a reward on the landing side – don’t wait for her to take it or not, just think of it as rewarding her for going to the backside by placing the reward on the landing side. That can remind her to look for the bar. You can do it on a lower bar at first so she doesn’t accidentally splat herself by going for the reward. We can add handling to help get it, of course – but more ideally is she goes to the bar as part of her understanding of backside lines.
You can do the same on the 13 backside (reward for going to the backside by throwing the reward to the landing side). Her question about getting to the backside was mainly caused by the extra jump after the weaves causing the line to be a little bit sideways. More decel on the flip to 11 which will set the line to 13 backside better (and take out t the off course too) As she builds even more independent weave understanding, you won’t have to run to the end of the weaves and then can be ahead for the backside at 13. At 3:16 you got there sooner and already had an easier time showing the backside 🙂
> I’m still very much learning how to handle a dog who actually has forward drive and takes obstacles in front of her because they are on her line, lol. It’s an amazing problem to have!!>
Totally a champagne problem!! Yay!
>I don’t even know what was happening at the weaves.>
The weaves were sandwiched in with a bunch of jumps very close to them, so serping to the weave entry past the jump is a super hard skill. You can also handle the 9-10 more like a serp, running forward to the weaves with your dog-side back in serp position and bigger connection. Running with the dog-side arm in a normal position or pointing forward turns your shoulders more to the jump, and serping with your arm back and eyes more on her should turn your shoulders more to the weave entry.
Super nice blind 18-19 when you tackled the ending line!!
Getting the 20 tunnel with running forward to it (at a distance) really helped at the end! You had turned away a little too soon on the previous run through that section. Then when she exits the tunnel, I think she just needs a name call to get her to see the front of the jump – she ran past 21 at the end because the tunnel exit is on a parallel line to the backside, so she might have been waiting for more info if it was a front side or not and stayed on her line to the backside.
Great job here! Fingers crossed for some cooler weather ahead!!
Tracy
Hi!
I hear about the crazy weather you are having on the news here! Wild!!
>The opening couple of seconds of the video explains why there are a couple of reps missing from the start of the video. >
Eek! At least you caught it early and still got a good session on video!
To help him sort out the line to the backside, setting the line with motion more rather than send him with your arm or a step will smooth it out! To do that, your line can start closer to the start wing and move up a line towards where the jump cups and bump meet, moving up a parallel path to his line. This is closer to what you were doing at 1:02 & 1:25 & 1:41.
One thing that might actually help is if you move the start wing further for the jump! And by being a little closer to the start wing, that will give you more room to show motion along the line to help him commit to the backside.
>(there’s also a photo at the end of the video that explains why the tunnel was not too much of an off course risk. haha.)
>Tunnel or pool? LOL!!! He could have a lovely swim haha!
Nice work here!
Fingers crossed that the weather behaves itself so you can get more good rinsing in 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>What I expected to see was a takeoff position located closer to the jump. >
It might be – but the wide variety of structure in agility dogs doesn’t make this an absolute. But what we can look for is the deceleration and collection stride(s) before takeoff (and migrating over to the turn side of the bar rather than being on the center of the bar).
>However, if you compare #7 (weight shifted) with #1 (straight), the #7 takeoff is actually further from the jump. >
That is him sorting out where to put the collection – no worries! He will sort it out as he learns it.
>The trick to the RDW is watching the contact area, not the dog. I will try to apply that principle to the takeoff area in front of the jump and see if that helps train my eye.>
This is similar – watch the area in front of the bar but also you do have to see where (if) the dog shifts his weight into the rear.
On the video:
>I realize it isn’t obvious but EVERY time I restart there is a thought in my mind about how this run will be different from the previous run. It isn’t always obvious. >
A plan is good! But be sure he gets immediate feedback that he was good and gets a reward.
>I immediately notice that using 2 hands to create the turn at #3 is getting him out to #4 then #5 every time, so that is a good improvement. And, he doesn’t need the “GO ON!” cue!!>
Agree, and agree 🙂 The brake arms help a lot!
>he is still changing leads too often. Instead of one lead change at 3 and staying on the right lead at #4, we have lead change at 3, then 4 then correct away to get #5 then lead change again to come back toward jump 6. It would be much easier (I think) if I could eliminate the extra 2 changes.>
No worries about that right now, because we are teaching him the lines and he will sort out the leads when he doesn’t have to think about the lines as much. He did well finding 3-4-5!
>I am struggling with the right turn at #5. It isn’t a true wrap, so I don’t want to use my wrap verbal but it is sharper than a 90 degree right turn. >
It is closer to the 90 degree right turn than a wrap, so the right soft turn verbal is appropriate here (I agree that the wrap is not correct here).
>My coming to a stop should, in my theory, bring him back to me sharply but that isn’t working. >
You were decelerating as he was already committed to the off course and facing the off course – so at :08, :16, :47 he was applying the decel and the here cue to the exit of the off course. The turn cues need to come as he is taking 4, so he can set up the turn on 5.
>My mental plan became: run north toward #5 and go the other way as soon as he commits to #5. Eventually we got over #5 and to #6 and I called it victory, even though the bar went down.>
This was basically a spin (at :56 & 1:08 & 1:18) which caught his attention – the first few ended to be sooner so he sees it before takeoff of 5 – and then more connection on the exit and line of motion to 7 will prevent the off course or running past 6. Your timing of starting it was better at 1:28 but lateral motion still kept him on the wider line.
It think the answer to it is the one thing you didn’t try: as he is jumping 4, cue 5 with both hands and turn your shoulders away from him and towards 6-7. That should cue the turn on time and keep you from facing forward on the line.
>On the right wraps (dig), the bar is at 12” and the helper jump is about 4 feet past the jump. I had a failure of recording but I think you can guess what happened: he was “getting” it, at least a bit.>
He was totally getting it! I liked the first rep better – there was a clearer cue with the motion then decel/rotation. The next rep was not as good (he didn’t collect as much and his back leg fish tailed out) but on that one yo were stationary then running, so he saw acceleration as part of the cue instead of decel.
>Then I did a few backsides with the bar at 22”. This is clearly pure learning that I thought he had but he clearly doesn’t. I expect to get a much better verbal response in a week or so (except I’m on vacation 7/3 to 7/17 so there will be a bit of lag. It will be interesting to see what sticks due to latent learning and what disappears due to forgetting.
>Doing it at 22” was a bit more challenging than he needs at this point – he was really hoisting his hind end over the bar and landing hard on his front. Asking him to process a hard and newer skill while doing it at a higher than normal height is why there was some errors. So keep the bar lower so he can have good mechanics while learning this. And the next step would be starting from something before the backside, like wrapping another jump or a tunnel. Be sure to set yourself up t be a little ahead to show the cue in the early stages then you can get yourself further and further behind 🙂
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Good morning! Both dogs did indeed have really strong sessions here!
Kaladin pop out 1: This went well! Excellent use of tree!
The RC worked 6-7-8 (:17, :46, 1:13) but he was watching you and not blasting as much as he can. I wonder if you can get the BC there by sticking closer to the backside at 4, sending away 5-6 and blind 7-8? I bet you can and I bet it will be faster. A bit wider on the exit of the blind but that works in your favor when heading into the layer.The layering went great and he found the weaves easily too. Super!
The layered threadle wrap was hard but he did it! That is a trend we will be seeing soon if you haven’t already seen it. If you don’t get quite as far ahead while he is weaving, you can stay accelerated longer and get even more speed into it. In a ‘real’ trial, he would have 12 poles so you will definitely not want to get too far ahead.
The TW allowed for the BC but then you were not able to get far enough across the bar for the backside -the threadle slice you did earlier was a better choice to set the lines at the end.
>I proved that Kaladin’s threadle slice cue (Come) is stronger than me thinking I was cueing the threadle wrap. >
He was a good boy there!!
Pop Out 2: This was a good one for getting the layering without a ton of momentum into it!
The send at :07 where you liked ahead and pointed forward turned your shoulders and feet to the weaves so he had a legit question there. The connected send at :19 was great! The rep at :42 was kind of in the middle – connected at the start of the send but then you threw your arm up and peeled away so he questioned it (he was coming off the jump before you said poles, so it was not the verbal cue that did it). This is a spot where you can get closer to jump 2, let him catch up, then explode forward to use acceleration to help propel him out on the line.And he found the weave really well on the last rep, that is a hard angle!
Lift’s turn:
She had a rear cross question at :24-:27 and 1:06-1:09, and it was mainly about your line of motion: Your connection was a little too far forward (causing her to look up at you) and she didn’t get past you before you converged towards the jump (which is why she went to the backside, good girl).
A much clearer line of motion at 1:30 because you ran more directly to the center of the bar until she got past you, so she was able to set up the rear. Yay! I think it would be fun to try sending her away t o the tunnel to see if you can get the blind cross there instead of the rear 🙂
Great job continuing on that first rep and she got the layering beautifully!
She possibly needs one more step forward to get the weave entry at this level of experience, passing the jump as hard! (when coming in from the wrap to her left). When you did the blind to set up the wrap to her right, she was gorgeous on the blind, the turn, and the weave entry!!She thought the threadle wrap with the layering was a little weird but she was game to try it, no kangaroo moments! Super!
Threadle slice at the end – you were a little far from the jump so when you showed the outside arm, there was some motion towards the tunnel. But this will get much easier when the TWs are more fluent at a distance, so you will be able to cue them and leave sooner.
>Looks like your forecast for next week is a bit worse than ours. I>
Yes, it is absolutely horrendous! 105 degrees! I was supposed to meet someone to help train their dogs for flyball in a place without climate control on Wednesday. Even though it would be in the morning… NOPE!!! Just too hot. And all agility will be at 5am as soon as the sun is up – we are in a drought, so at least the grass will be dry? Sigh.
But I head up to central New York (near Ithaca) to teach next weekend and might leave a day early just to escape the heat. It will “only” be in the 80s, might have to put coats on the whippets 😂 😝. And air conditioned trial is the weekend after that 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
