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Good morning!
Looking at the remote reinforcement:
The sessions with the toy went well! It is MUCH easier to have it up high! And trading for the treat was good too, because we often have toys and treats with us on the way to the start line at a trial.>>In the first video I caught myself chatting away again..saying yes, or good girl. I do believe you said NOT to mark behavior for this. It muddies the water and isn’t clear for her. Just say ‘Fun’ and run to reward. So I stopped myself and the session.>>
I think the “yes!”for the behaviors was fine – clear and crisp and not blending into the “fun” marker. So the “yes”gave good feedback! What you don’t want to do is something like this:
“YesthatwasreallygoodomgFUNlet’sgetyourtoywowwhatagoodgirl” because the marker will get lost LOL!>>A couple of questions. Do we eventually get the reward lower and lower so they really have to make a choice? Is that important? >>
Yes, eventually, and also on the ground at some point in the distant future. But not any time soon: time is on our side so we can make it easy and fun for her.
>>Having us move the reward up to the table made this game easily successful, thank you. But she can’t get to them to make a choice. >>
True, she can’t grab the treats or toys, but there was still choice there: she had the choice of staying at the table, or moving with you. So there was still a choice, just an easier choice. Failure in this scenario sets up frustration and confusion, so we want to start with easy choices.
>>Perhaps I’m over complicating this.
A lot of old fashioned self control games started with real hard choices for the puppies (like cookies RIGHT THERE in their face) so there was sooooo much failure. Seems rude, when I look back at it LOL!! So we are started with the balance tilted in favor of success and then when she understands the framework, we can gradually make it harder while maintaining the high rate of success.
>>You talked about ping, ponging. Would you ping pong from treats as the reward to a toy as the reward in the same session? Or keep it purely one or the other?>>
You can mix up the rewards in the session, as long as she will continue to take the reward. So if you have hot dogs and offer the toy, she might not be as interested in the toy and so it is not a reinforcement… If she doesn’t continue to take the reward then yes, keep them separate.
About ping ponging – that was not about the type of reward, it was more about how many behaviors you ask for before marking and going back to the reward station. You can ask for 1 behavior, then 3 then 2 then 5 then 1 then 2 then 6 then 2 and so on – it very gradually builds duration while keeping the success rate high.
>>I wanted you to see our Arousal and return to baseline. Does this look right? I found a swatch of real rabbit fur and using licky mat with peanut butter.>>
The arousal up, arousal down game with the lickimat went well too! Her arousal was definitely coming up, because the ‘give’ got a little slower at the end. I know there is not a lot that we can observe, behaviorally, but we trust that good things are happening ‘under the hood’. You can make this game even wilder in terms of the ‘arousal up’ element by throwing the toy so she is running too!
>>It seems like I should be touching her and her collar while she’s licking. Would that be ok?>>
Resist that temptation for now, because that is trying to merge 2 things that should be kept separate. The goal of this is to let her body learn to self-regulate her HPA axis back to baseline. The goal of petting her while she is licking is tolerance/desensitization training, and will likely stimulate her HPA axis so it doesn’t return to baseline. So keep the two games separate 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>>We have been doing short practices, but often without video to go with it. >>
This is totally relatable, and I am doing the same thing – it is kind of like pop up flash mob training, and the video ends up not getting set up or turned on. No worries though – I trust you as a trainer and I know things are going well!!! And plus we have live class this week so it will be good to see her in action 🙂
Strike a pose: My first thought on this is “look at her stay!” Very nice!!!!
She is going to want to release when your hand goes into position (dogs are great at anticipating 🙂 So you can put your hand in position then toss a stay reward to her 🙂
You had some lovely mechanics going with t he target-then-reward moment like at 1:01, where you didn’t move your upper body and just let her come across you to the reward. You had a ton of lovely reps like that, so keep reminding yourself to freeze the pups body because it is really getting the nice turn.
We will be building on this soon, so stay tuned for next steps 🙂
Rocking horse – on some of the reps, you were doing a great FC and that was when things were smoothest. One some reps, you were very focused on her (yay!) but did a post turn and not a FC – so without rotating the game didn’t make as much sense in terms of changing sides.
So for example, at :07 you had a perfect front cross, and another lovely front cross at :14. Compare those to :33, when you did a post turn (kept her on your right side) then tried to pass her in front of you to the other side, and you both were like “hmmm this doesn’t feel right” 🙂 As as you do these, remind yourself to turn towards her and pick her up on your new side.>>I think that in this practice I was not doing what I was supposed to at connecting in the center.>>
It was not a connection question – your connection was lovely. I bet in the next clip that got deleted, you did perfect front crosses and it felt great!
Your sideways sending looked fabulous! This game is actually a lot harder than the rocking horses part 1 but you made it look easy. Super!!! Only one suggestion to add to it: as you rotate and do the sideways sending , the dog has to basically override your rotation and continue past it – this is HARD but useful on course! So when you are sending with your arm and foot, you can also make a big exaggerated connection shift by looking at the other side of the barrel. I like to think of it as letting my eyes follow my fingers to the ‘landing’ spot if this was a jump. If we look at the dog too much, they will tend to stop in front of us (and that is what she was doing here, like at :53). And to help pump up her understanding that it is OK to continue past you to the barrel when you are rotated, you can shift your reward placement to the other side of the barrel right from the start, to help her want to move away to it.
>>As I reread what you had said…that speed is not the most important thing on these practices, i am wondering if I need to spend more time getting the breakdown of the action more clean before asking for the additional flow.>>
Yes, speed is not that important right now: understanding is the key! Speed is the product of understanding and happy teamwork (which is why I obsess a bit on keeping the pups in a high rate of reinforcement). You have a high rate of reinforcement with her, and she is a happy partner 🙂 Yes, you can break things down if she has questions and then add more flow as she gets the understanding.
When training like this, you might feel like she is a little slower than dogs her age… but stay the course! What will happen is that her understanding will be greater and when she is more adult (physically and mentally), it all comes together into one speedy package 🙂 You will see that somewhere between 18 months and 2 years old, give or take a few months. I don’t think my demo pups in the videos are particularly fast, and in fact I think they were a bit pokey LOL!! But they are adult now and competing in 2 sports: and they have the right balance understanding, thoughtfulness, and SPEEEEED 🙂 They regularly clock 7 yps or more in agility and are also super fast in flyball. Patience pays off 🙂
>>JJ got a Best in Breed this weekend and a 3rd place in UKC nosework vehicle searching, earning her a Total Dog award. She then went to a rally and obedience match on Sunday and did okay for her first time trying this kind of practice for both Rally and Obedience.>>
Wow! Congrats!! That is awesome!! I love that you cross train and I especially love the nosework element (soooooo good for pups!!)
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
He is doing well with the serp transfer concept with the jump – “no problem, mom!”
On the first few reps, you tried to move into position ahead of him and you didn’t quite get there 🙂 The trick is to be in position, and then toss the start cookie away to start each rep. And as soon as you toss the treat, freeze in position so he sees it the instant he looks back at you. That way you won’t end up backing up into position or showing the cues late. Things did get smoother as the session went along, but you were still a bit late getting into position which then made the reward late. He was a happy camper to keep going and eating the cookies 🙂 And he drove in really well to t he target hand!!
As you deliver the reward, try to keep your upper body stationary – try not to let your target hand turn forward to the reward. On course, that shoulder position would remain in place until he locks onto the next jump, so we want to rehearse that here. The reward hand can more, but you don’t need to move the target hand 🙂
Remote reinforcement went really well! The ‘snacks’ marker cracks me up 🙂
>>I ended up moving more than I intended on this one, but his motion for some reason was making me feel compelled to.>>
I think the distance was fine – he didn’t have questions and was happy to do this!
Picture using it at the end of a run – you would be higher in pitch, probably, so you can add that to the word here in practice – higher pitch, more excitement, however you think you might say it in a trial setting, so he gets used to the verbal being delivered like that.
You can totally add some tricks or little behaviors to this now!
>>He has never seen that field and I figured we better just get acclimated with some treats and toy play in that large, enticing, smelly, totally new to him space before I ask him to do any work.>>
That was SMART!!!!!
> I think I did have him go around 1 jump wing a couple of times, otherwise it was just play with toy throws and then letting him go sniff around, then re-engaging for play/treats, then more sniffing if he wanted, etc. >>>
Perfect! Easy and fun, nothing too complicated.
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That is great! It is definitely perfect timing to start taking things outside. All of the games start to move more and plus the weather is really nice this time of yes (mostly LOL!!)
Great job here :) Tracy
Hi! Welcome to you and the little guy 🙂
He looked great here! I like how you got him pumped up at the beginning 🙂
Only small suggestions for you:Start closer to 1 so you have room to move more – that will get even more speed.
Your positional cue and right verbal at :18 were so powerful the turn was actually too tight on the tunnel exit and you had to push him back out to 4! Wow! I guess because he is a big dude, the has to scrunch in the tunnel so is less likely to end up driving 10 feet out of it when you have given a turn cue. So just a little name call and a jump verbal is all he needs there.
You were a tiny bit late on the FC at 5-6, probably because you had to push him back to 4 – but his turn was still nice there! Your FC timing and position on the backside push to the FC at 7 was really good. Smart to use the lower bar there! I think his wide turn there was him saying WHAT THE WHAT (or maybe a different 4 letter word haha) with the tunnel sitting right there, so he made the turn but was not quite as tight. But, I am really excited that he made the turn!!!! Yay!!!!! In the future, that turn will tighten itself up as he gets used to seeing tunnel distractions right in his face.
Great job!!!!
TracyHi!
>>Hoke is getting frustrated easier lately so I let some of handler induced errors go. I think the puppy bugs him & he doesn’t like sharing me with him.>>
When I read this, I thought yes, getting a puppy can be stressful so maybe he is feeling that. But after watching the videos – I think the rate of reinforcement is too low, so that is the root of the frustration. There were a lot of places here where you stopped due to handler error, and he didn’t get any reward. Remember that the 2 options are to either keep going as if a handler error didn’t happen, or if you must stop – reward immediately. And all of these are handler errors for all of us, even the bars 🙂
Seq 1 – The opening line looks good! I think you had the 5 jump on the wrong side – it should be the easy line from 4, not the threadle, so that caused some confusion. And if something goes wrong, keep going. If you do stop, you must reward before starting again. There was an error and he didn’t get rewarded.
Trying to threadle is what pulled he bar on the 2nd rep on 4, and then remember to turn you shoulders sooner 6-7 (late shoulder turn caused him to adjust in the air, so the bar came down).Video 2 –
>>My videos got confused so I don’t have a lot of that to see. Even so, I see myself running this wide circle path to get him there. I need to break this down – exact challenge for us – send to the back side, support, move away all at the same time.>>
The trick to the backside is running a parallel path to it, without blocking the wing. So after sending to 1, you can cue the backside by running a parallel line to his line, with huge connection and verbals – and not trying to step around to shape his line. You can put a line on the ground to where the wing and bar meet, to give yourself a visual ‘fence’ to stay behind “ 🙂 and when that goes well, you can move the line over bit by bit, to the exit wing.
>> Interesting difference in your videos of Voodoo & the more support you give Contraband>>
Voodoo is 10 years old with extensive backside training, so he is much more independent. Contraband is 3 🙂 so he needs me to run that connected parallel path a bit closer to the entry wing – and Voodoo can get it from a long ways away 🙂
O the first rep, you had some bars down – just a bit too disconnected there, looking forward. When you hear the bars coming down, intensify connection and keep going, then reward, so he doesn’t get frustrated.
2nd rep was definitely better! Your wrap cue and be sooner for 6 to tighten up the turn, and you made that adjustment for the 3rd rep – that was really lovely!!!!Video 3 – You started with a right turn on 4, when a left turn is a better line. There were a couple of spots here where he should have been rewarded, or you can just keep going:
At :22, he ended up in the tunnel – I think you wanted to pull him in then sent him back out so he was reading you correctly (but didn’t get rewarded).
At :31 you had the wrong side and resent him – that can also be frustrating, so try to just keep going and not even fixit – dogs get frustrated and confused when they read us correctly and we stop and fix it.
The last run was the best in terms of keep going and staying connected! You can add more of his directionals and not just his name or jump or here. The directions will really help him sort out where to go too! I think you wanted the left wrap but said jump and pointed to the center of the bar, so he rear crossed. But, keep going and stay connected – worked really well!
Seq 4 –
The opening looked really good, especially on the first rep. Nice!!! For the backside at 7 – connect and drive to it, watching his head. And keep driving to it and saying the cue while watching his head until you see his head lock onto it… then you can move into the front cross. You were looking at the backside ahead of him and not at him, so the timing was too early.
He read your cues there correctly but didn’t get rewarded until 10 seconds later. Last run had better handling to the backside but then you lost connection a bit.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Yes, the BIG MAD is one of the many things I love about Gemma. If we are not correct, she is going to list ALL the reasons why we were not correct. Ha!
>>Do you think the live exercises would be best or the pop outs?
Do the live exercises! They will keep working the same concepts but will be different to keep things very spicy and fun 🙂
Looking forward to seeing it!
TracyHi!
>>I recognize that the other learning here was all about performance goals and achievement goals…. We clearly threw out all the performance goals in order to reach the achievement of getting all 3 sequences done.>>
Totally relatable, such is the life of an agility instructor – squeezing in the training or for me, trying to get all the demos on video in the 35 seconds I can squeeze it all into 🙂 At least I have 5 different dogs who can help me out LOL!!
But yes – a self-talk thing you can remind yourself is that it is great to do one or two, and you don’t need to do it all.
The other thing you can tell yourself is that in the interest of time, if the run falls into the “that was pretty darned good” category, you don’t need to do it again! For example, you did sequence 1 twice. The first run was gorgeous! So you can say “nailed it!” And move on to sequence 2 🙂
Seq 2: Doesn’t matter that it was not quite the sequence on the map, it is still good training! When he lands from 3 at :36, look at his head for the backside cue and keep saying it until you you see him looking at the backside. You turned too early on that rep. Same on :48 – you were looking forward not at him. Be sure to reward him in the moment you stop ! Ideally you would keep going as if it was perfect (he read you correctly) but if you stop, you must reward him 🙂
The next rep with the 3 bars was all handler errors – tentative sending to 4, then talking over the bars (and not cues, just talking, so he was starting to ask questions, especially since you are normally pretty quiet).
Seq 3 – the opening looked good, The bar on the backside was probably just a WHOA TUNNEL DISTRACTION moment because he was fine on the 2nd run 🙂 Nice!
Seq 2 redux 🙂 Your ran it beautifully but that 4 jump is supposed to the the front, not the back 🙂 I had to double check it because you ran it with such conviction LOL!!! It was really lovely connected, and well-timed 🙂
>>Good things…Sly never really looked at any of the off course obstacles and it was a really good mental learning session. Rushed is my biggest mental challenge!!!>>
Yes! He never moved towards the off courses – I think the looked at the tunnel on sequence 3 when the bar dropped (it is a massive distraction!), but then it was not an issue for the next rep. And yes, getting back to that centered state of focus even when you were rushed or mad at yourself 🙂 was great! And it is actually great practice for trials, where we humans are basically resetting ourselves all day 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
>>Think I was thinking I would be so far behind that I would need to default to threadle wrap as I did the first day I worked this exercise.>>
One thing to remember is that you can still be proactive and aggressive, even when behind 🙂 Trust your send! It is a strong skill for both you and Roulez! Getting behind and doing harder handling makes it harder for you both.>>As to in in– my flappy tappy means to come in to me. My threadle slice cue is a hand back, shoulders open. >>
I think the flappy tappy muddies the waters for her, because it doesn’t give any line info – it is basically a “hey you!” cue, which is reactive handling. You can see it happen in your standard video here too – not that useful as compared to showing the line.
>>Running that sequence I “felt” her drifting to the right and used the floppy to come in to me and take the front side of the jump. >>
I think that is reactive handing 🙂 Try to proactively cue early and leave, and don’t be reactive and try to adjust – just keep cuing the proper line and see what happens. Otherwise, you will get into reactive mode as a habit, which ends up putting you further behind.
Looking at the big whooper standard course – really nice! It is a hard one!!!
Opening:
The lead out push is looking good – you don’t have to lead out as much on those first few reps and then you can send to the tunnel and layer on the way to the backside after the DW.You hustled to get the backside on rep 2 at :48, but leading out less and then doing the big layering will get you there sooner 🙂 At 3:27, trying to get to the other side of the tunnel pushed her around 4, and especially since you only said tunnel – ideally you keep going when that happens, or if you stop (not ideal) you must reward or she is going to build frustration into the training. She was correct there – your motion pushed her past the jump and you were already yelling “tunnel tunnel tunnel” so……. 🙂
You did the layer at the end of the session and it worked GREAT! YES!!!
Looking at the 10-11-12 line:
>>I will be interested in your take on why from 10》11 she chose the tunnel. I felt like my motion and body position were indicating #11.>>
I think she had valid points on her decisions there 🙂 Any time you that happens (she ends up in a spot that is unexpected and you think the handling was clear) – watch the video in slow motion before the next rep and you’ll see what happened and how to fix it.
On the first rep at :54, you had too much pressure towards 11 and she thought it was a rear cross (turned left then adjusted n the ground) because it did indeed look like a rear cross line!
At 1:08 – you closed your shoulder away and opened back up… looked like a pull-flip to the other side of the tunnel, so that is what she did.
After that, you added the flappy tappy – it got her head turned to you, but it stops you from handling the line and she dropped the bar. Then at 1:50 she was really unsure (she was trying to read the handling but being told it was wrong, so was not trusting things) and you broke connection and she took the tunnel slowly.
Remember to reward in there – off courses are handling errors so reward her, even if you think you were right. 99% of the time, the dog is correct. And if it was the 1% where she actually made a mistake? No worries, one extra reward won’t build a behavior. But withholding a reward can build the frustration pretty quickly.
At 2:22 you turned your shoulders a lot better and stayed connected so she did it well. You used an outside arm but I don’t think you needed it, just the shoulder turn like you did in that spot at 2:55.There were a couple of small bloopers in there (I think she had the wrong side of 12 early on, and at 3:55 – you turned too early at the frame and pulled her off the backside but you corrected those quickly by connecting and running a better line there.
(Good job staying in motion and carrying on after the blooper!!!)The layering 13-14 also worked really well!! She needs more verbals, starting before she even gets into the 13 tunnel – the more you told her, the better she read it so definitely plan to use lots of words when you are layering. Fight for it on the way to 14, you can layer there too
I think her running wide on the switch then past the teeter when you got the switch were frustration behaviors – not enough reinforcement so far in the session, lots of starts and stops with no rewards ,so she was not really trusting the info. You got her back on track and the ending line looked good after that!
On the repeat of the ending line, you got the off course jump straight ahead both times – she had a better line to the teeter there than she dd earlier in the session, and you were not as far ahead to show the turn – all of which shows the straight line to the off course jump. She needs a directional for the exit to get the turn, and she needs to hear it and see you turn while she is still about 6 feet before the tunnel entry – once she is in the tunnel, she has already decided the exit because she can no longer see or hear you.
Nice work hashing out the difficult pieces here to get the big success! The 2 suggestions to add in for next time are to keep going if there is an error (or reward if you stop), and to watch the video before trying to repeat something unless you are 1000% sure you know what went wrong 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Wow, Gemma ran this course beautifully!!!!
On the full run, she got Big Mad 3-4 because you were connecting with your hand not your eyes (this is where Sprite would have likely gone off course)
The middle section of 4-5-6-7-8-9 looked amazing!
On the 10 jump in the beginning and at :45 – I think you are getting too much into the takeoff spot and then ending up on her line to 11, she is drifting to let you clear the line before going to 11. She knows where 11 was, but you were in the way so she had a to curve around behind you.
>>I didn’t think about a reverse spin on 12. But, I did feel like 11-15 required a lot of patience and I was waiting with no place to go. >>
Gemma read the decel and right verbal REALLY well on the very first rep at :08 – and you were pretty far from 12 when you sent her to it, so the blind cross had lovely timing! The 2nd time through there at :48, you got closer to 12 and the post turn there made you late for the blind. I think with the spin, you will be timely for the blind even if you end up closer to 12, because you won’t need to decel and your feet will be facing the 13-14 line sooner. And then that gives you even more time to decel and set up the turn cues for 14, especially with Sprite who needs more time to process them (baby dog!)
>>The whiskey worked well for her. The German in the full course created a wide turn although she was on course.
I agree, the whiskey turn was GORGEOUS! The entry to the German was indeed wider, and I think the difference was because for the whiskey, you set the turn to the backside really well. With the German, you sent and accelerated, so she was wider. Both of those turns have great exits on the wrap to the last jump.
Great job! It is so fun to see Gemma, she looks AMAZING!!!! Tracy
Good morning!
Yes, the remote reinforcement is a game we start at this stage, so the skill is in place long before we actually need it.
Only one suggestion for both the food and toy sessions: put the food or toy on something higher, so it is not so close to nose-level. Being that close and accessible made the first reps harder, so she struggled a bit and either you had to clap and call her (food session) or she took the toy (toy session :)). And those were fine choices, because she didn’t know what the behavior you were looking for was 🙂 So a simple twist is to just put them on something that is higher, like a table, so they are present but not as accessible. That will make it easier for her to offer moving away with you, without you needing to help her as much.
>>I wasn’t sure what to do in the moment when she took the toy, I don’t think your demo videos showed that??>>
You made the right decision to call her back and try again, she was being a good girl!
My demo didn’t have it because I put the toys just out of reach enough that the pup couldn’t quite get it – visible yes! But within easy grabbing reach? Not as much 🙂
>>It’s my opinion that this is a moderate value toy for her, it’s the one she voluntarily left for cheese in our barrel work. But maybe I need a lesser value one?>>
I think the value here was a really good choice, and putting it on something higher will help a lot.
>>We don’t have a lot of tricks yet, but we can do other things, so we did.>>
You can also do little things like a hand touch or having her follow your hand of a spin! The sit worked really well here too.
>>My word is “FUN”. ‘Free’, for releasing the toy, seems too close to ‘FUN’. So I’m going to change my release word to ‘Give’. Which will be interesting because I’ve used Free for all my dogs for years. But ‘Fun’ makes me giggle so I think that’s more important.>>
Fun is a great word! It definitely brings on the giggles and smiles 🙂
>>No treat exchange for giving the toy, right? She didn’t want to give it up at times.>>
You can totally use the cookie exchange here for the toy. We want her to be happy to give it up, especially because this game is pretty challenging, so cookie exchanges are still fine 🙂
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
The get out is going really well too. He LOVES his prop so the hardest part was getting start for each rep!
Easy tweak for that: have a cookie in each hand. Throw cookie 1 behind you and send him to it, so you are ahead and can be moving up the line past the prop. After he eats it, you can be moving up the line and cue the get out – then throw cookie #2 as the reward.
Then reload the cookies and start over. 🙂Strike a pose also looks great! The hardest part for him was finding the treat you tossed LOL!
For the next session, a couple of things to add:
You can be closer to the jump (close enough that you can touch it with a slightly bent elbow) so he starts to turn before takeoff. And, you can also be closer to the exit wing and not as much center of the bar – both of these will help teach him an even tighter turn.And, for each rep, have 2 cookies ready – one to toss on the different angles to start the rep, and one to reward so he doesn’t look at you – you can reward immediately.
Great job!!!
TracySuper nice start to the rocking horses! It gave us some insight into his right turn preference 🙂 and also probably that he needs more connection on the 2nd barrel wrap (when you do 2 in a row) and on all the left turn wraps.
In the beginning, the left turns looked really good as the first element when you did 2 in a row, and the 2nd wrap to the right was harder. I couldn’t see your head, but I’m guessing more direct eye contact will help.
After the cookie reload break, he really had trouble going to his left and kept offering to the right. Part of that is his right side preference and partially because he needed more eye contact.
So to help him out, 2 ideas for you:
For the next session or 2, start him on your right, so that left turn is first (making it easier to connect and send). Then you can connect and 2nd to the right on the 2nd barrel .And give him massive, exaggerated eye contact after the FC to send to the barrel.
Then, after that is smooth, reverse it and start him on the right turn, do the FC, then do the left turn wrap. When the left turn is 2nd, get a little closer to the barrel and use that same huge connection, then reward 🙂
Nice work here!
TracySounds like the day was lovely! And yes, we REALLY appreciate the work you do with the spreadsheets – so helpful!!!!
Hopefully you’re having a great weekend! And we can totally apply all this to flyball to, to prepare for The Nut!
Tracy
Good morning!
What a difference a year makes – these courses are harder than last years courses (in terms of design challenges) and yet they are so much easier because you and Promise have gown so much as a team. I love this!! There were SO MANY great moments out there, just a technical spot or two that needed smoothing out. The vast majority of this session was lovely ❤️
Loved the opening plan of the aggressive blind cross. You needed more connection to show her 3 on the first run, good job continuing there 🙂
2nd run was so much better with connection and I liked the the connection the 3rd time you did that section even better at 2:42. The bar came down both times she took 3… more on that below (because I am sure you want to hear more LOL!)At first look, I thought you were a little late turning your shoulders at :25 for backside after frame on jump 10 (bar down there).
After watching the whole video, though, the ONLY bars she had trouble were the 3/10 jump… so I think it is entirely possible she was having a big OMG moment finding the backside with the tunnel right there. The tunnel is a ginormous distraction. She only had one other bar down, and that was at jump 4 on the very last run – no big deal. All of the other jumping was really really strong! So the bar on the 3/10 jump will resolve itself with continued clear handling and more experience seeing a tunnel right there 🙂
>>The rear cross extreme wrap is is most likely a new thing for her.
That slicing rear: nice job breaking it down! On the very first run, you did everything almost perfectly – you just need to take one more step to the center of the bar, right on her tail, to get the RC. You stopped short and then turned your upper body to the left turn wing on that first run (And later on at 3:04). At 1:27 and 1:41, you nailed it. Perfect! Nice job sliding through the RC line with her there, moving to the enter of the bar. At 3:28 you stepped across the line one heartbeat too soon and pushed her off.
>>That teeter coming out of the tunnel locks her focus on that too!
She only ended up over there once, at
1:15 – I thought it was the pressure of closing your shoulder pushed her away? Her name and the open shoulder you used at 1:25-1:27 and on the next rep and at 3:03 before the right verbal worked well to help her find the jump in the sea of off courses.Ending line – nice job committing her to the tunnel on the first rep of that section! Then you cheated a little on the next time through there and didn’t fully commit her before you pulled away at 1:48, At 1:59, you almost had it but needed the one more step you gave her on the next rep 🙂 It is hard to commit to a big layering moment when the dog is coming from a stop (teeter), so you can keep moving in there: try to get closer to the rear cross jump and teeter so you are moving all the way through the release. That extra momentum will really help commit her to the tunnel – you had more momentum on the last rep and she committed really well!!
>>The rear cross on 14 to the ending was the devil for us lol!! The pink jump is just right there!!! >>
Yep – big course trend nowadays is getting turns on tunnel exits (or cuing the straight line) because there are tasty off courses everywhere LOL!!! You were good about cuing the turn except for the very ending of the video, called really late so she was already locked onto the off course. She needs the name or directional before entering the tunnel. She keeps us honest LOL!
>>Then we had trouble with the go on once I got her focused on me.>>
The ending line with dog on left is a come in then a get out for the last jump. At 2:11-2:12 you got her to come in nicely but the go and high arm for the last jump sent her past it – a get out and maybe even outside arm would help with it. Lower arm at 2:36 totally helped!
And the very last run was gorgeous there!It is an easier line to run dog on right, but you would after the rear cross, you would have to leave her on the teeter and run ahead of her to get a blind on the tunnel exit. We don’t want to leave her on the teeter for too long (eats up time and frustrates the dogs to stay there), so it might not make a lot of sense to do that when dog on left works really well.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Wow, that is AWESOME that your instructor set up the course for you!!!!! That certainly makes things easier!
>>The spacing is tight and that jump is very close to the tunnel entrance at 4.>>
Yep – there is plenty of yardage and room on the dog’s lines… but all sorts of other obstacles nearby on your lines 🙂
>>I struggled with timing of the blinds as I’m not trusting that she won’t grab something else along the way. So, most are late>>
One of the goals of the working this particular course trend of stuff nearby is that you have to pretend the off course obstacles are not even there, and do proper handling… which makes the off course obstacles disappear.
The opening is a great example! Yes, the jump is very close to tunnel #4 🙂 You didn’t quite trust her commitment to 3 which made the blind a little too late – the connection element was the late part – so she did pick up the off course because motion and the last connection she saw presented it on her line.
You trusted the FC a lot more, so she was great – the off course jump didn’t exist. So ideally the blind would be at the same timing as the FC and with the same super clear connection, and it will work just as well (or even better to get you up the next line).
You trusted more and exaggerated the connection at 1:45 and she got the blind really well! SUPER!!!!
The weaves looked fabulous, and then the serpy line to the tunnel look good! You can call the 9 Tunnel sooner on the first run, more trust 🙂 but then you called sooner on the 2nd full run and she had an even better line.
>>Also, I tried to turn into Sprite more for the FC at 10 and I think it really helped her. But, what’s the timing of me leaving?
Yes – I think the style change made a big difference – immediate collection (she was a little surprised too LOL!). The timing of you leaving? Well that is harder to pinpoint exactly right now because we are working the skill – so for now, think of it like this:
– when she exits the tunnel, slow down and turn into her like you did on the first run (you don’t need to be at the wing of the jump, trying to get there made you a little late at 1:59)
– look directly at her eyes: when you see her shift into collection, that is your cue to then shift your connection to the landing spot. This basically rewards the collection with permission to take the jump, because shifting connection to the landing spot is the cue to take it (for now). When you shift connection, it is your eyes and your hand closer to the jump (left hand in this case) but not your feet – your feet continue pointing forward.For now, you might have to shift connection and hold position as she passes you, then you can move forward again. Pretty soon, you will be able to shift connection and move forward to the next line, and she will commit (think back to the countermotion games from MaxPup :))
>>I do remember a drill where we stood still on a jump and Sprite just took off in extension still. No motion doesn’t seem to help her add a stride. >>
Baby dog is maturing and sorting it out! She was doing a wonderful job with her turns here!
I love that you did the blind at 13-14!!! A spin on 12 will get you there faster/sooner. By doing the post turn, you got the off course on the first rep (you were facing the off course). Decel on the post turn gets the turn to 13, but makes the blind harder to get to. So you can send to 12 on your left and when she is looking at it, you can basically turn your back on her and run to the blind, trusting her to find 13 (you may or may not have time to connect over your right shoulder before doing the blind – you might end up sending on your left side, then running to the blind and reconnecting on your left side, trusting your motion to show her the line).
Great job with the verbals there – between the blind and the verbals and you moving away in a timely fashion at 14, she never looked at the off course tunnel!
At the end – the Whisky startsed well, you just needed to take one more step across to center of the bar to set it as a rear cross. However, the backside Serp looked awesome, great connection and line of motion: WOWZA!!!! Definitely a better option than the whisky turn.
Wow that 2nd run was stunning!!!
>>I’m not sure about the new video rules when you are breaking stuff down. Hopefully, this complies. >>
Totally complies! The framework of doing 4 total runs is to discourage people from doing the course 10 times (over 200 jumps – EEK!). So you can do the opening, then do a middle section a few times, then another section a few times, then put it all back together. That is pretty much what you did here and I thought it went really well!
>>But, I was good and only did the full course with Sprite once.
Yes! That was great – end on the run you want her to sleep on if possible – but also it is not always possible and then it is fine to just be finished. The brain has probably learned and you will see it in the next session (latent learning!) It is important that we handlers don’t get greedy hahaha! The dogs will get fatigued or sore, and then nothing good happens on course.
>>She did great even with my late blinds.
Yes! You trusted more on that last run – trust is turning out to be more important than timing!
>> I wanted to show one clip of Gemma, but I wasn’t sure if I could. She nailed it twice!>>
Yes, totally show it! The video guidelines are suggestions to prevent overtraining, and you definitely didn’t over train 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
