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Good morning! Lots of good discrimination understanding from her here!
Video 1 –
>>Chair on Lev…she seems much more sensitive to have me touch her on her right side. We were both frustrated and I decided to stop trying to get her Lined Up and and accept her facing somewhat forward with just holding the leash.>>Totally agree that she does not need to be lined up. Because the goal is to hold her til after she hears the verbals a few times, she does not need to be in a perfect line up next to you and it was frustrating to her to be pulled or lured towards it. So when you have the line from the harness, she can be sideways. It gives her a better view of all the things she needs to see, like the obstacles and you 🙂 Even with cookies being delivered I don’t think she likes being moved around by the line so just make it really neutral by picking it up and then starting the game.
While holding the line: Let her hear the verbals 3 or 4 times… then let go of he line for her to move. You were tending to start the verbal and let go almost simultaneously, so letting g later will really solidify the verbals.
Video 2
>>I do think sitting on the chair has helped us/me isolate my non-movement. Although I can see moving my head to look at the path I want also gives her a clue, smart girl.>>
Yes! This went really well! You were not moving and your eyes following her were happening after she had made a decision already.
Very nice difference with the delivery of the verbals – they sounded totally different and she was terrific!>>It seems best for me to just take that leash and not touch her at all. >>
You can see her needing to be a little further away from you at the line up because she is looking at your connection. That’s another reason to not have her be right at your leg – she needs to see the big picture and being a little further helps expand her range of vision. And many, many sport dogs do not liked to be touched when they are in this optimal level of arousal and focus. So we do a lot of hands-off line ups and that really helps.
>>I’ll continue to work touching her, her harness while bending over her separately. Also teach lining up between my legs.>>
Yes to teaching line up between your feet – and no to working on touching her more. She doesn’t like it and we don’t want to make it a point of conflict. As long as she can be touched in real life skills, we don’t need to add in something she finds icky to sport. Does she know how to jump in your arms? That is also something good to teach the small dogs.
Video 3: at this point, you can take out the ‘ready’ before the first cue. The ‘ready’ is getting her excited and pulling, but we want the tunnel verbal (or wrap verbal) to do that.
Video 4 – Same thoughts as above about the ready verbal and same with the ‘listen’ verbal – you are tending to use ‘listen’ before a wrap, and ‘ready’ before a tunnel. So replace ‘listen’ and ‘ready’ with the tunnel verbal and the wrap verbal 🙂 By saying them 3 or 4 times before you let her start moving, you will get the same results without muddying the waters with extra verbals (because you won’t be saying ‘ready’ or ‘listen’ on course).
>So I’m guessing our next step with this is to take it back outside with a real tunnel?>>
Yes, but in short tiny bursts so it doesn’t get repetitive or feel like drilling. As the games pile up, you can do the proofing game once maybe twice a week, no need for it every day. Remember that we are training concepts and not aiming for perfection.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
She looks great here too!! So much fun to watch and probably even more fun to run! She is showing a lovely balance of being SUPER FAST and turning beautifully. And, lovely commitment too. Yay!!!
Thank you for the verbals list! Great job getting them all in there. The sequences you made up were fun too 🙂
>>Not sure if I’ll use soft turn verbals during jumping or not but I would like to have them for the dogwalk for sure.>>
I strongly believe that you will be using them on jumps too – the evolution of course design is making the soft turn verbals incredibly useful because of the handler path obstructions that are so popular now (like the dog walk sitting in the middle of the ring :)). I have won a lot of classes lately because of the soft turn verbals show the dogs the line I want and get great turns. And I agree, you will definitely want soft turn cues off the RDW.
Since the smiley face games went so well, I have a couple of smaller details that will make things easier in the handling games coming up and as she grows up to do course work.
First, 2 reinforcement detail: it sounds like you were using a “get it” marker for the toy in your hand here and also for a thrown/placed toy out ahead (like in the Wind In Your Hair video). At this stage, I think separate markers will help as things get more elaborate – get it can mean something out ahead, and a different marker for the toy in your hand. This will clearly tell her where to looking, which builds the behaviors more quickly.
And in handling, try not to move the toy back and forth between hands – it changes her focal point and delays your cus. So you can leave it in one hand or put it in a pocket if you are changing hands without realizing it 🙂
Second – add more connection now so there is more direct connection to her eyes as you move. That will smooth out some of her lines and also get your timing started closer.
Be sure to connect to her as she exits the tunnels rather than look forward to the wing (like at :29 you were looking forward and :34 – you can see she widens the line to the wing or slows down when connection is not strong). Or at 1:24 (you did a spin on the tunnel entry which is a strong turn cue) and didn’t have connection on the exit, so she took a couple of strides towards you before going back out. Since she can see you before exiting the tunnel, you will want to be showing her the connection before she exits so you can have very smooth tight lines.
And, by looking at her, you can start your wrap (or soft turn) cues as soon as she is out of the tunnel. If you want much longer, you will end up being late when we replace the wing with a jump. When we look ahead, we tend to be late because we don’t start the cues til we see the dog in our peripheral vision, which is when they are closer to us and closer to the wing… therefore late LOL!
On the wing lines, at 1:10 for example – you could see her better peripherally after she exited the wing, so the dig dig wrap started before she passed you (verbal, decel, send) so you were rotated before she got to the wing: nice!! It can be even sooner, as she is exited the wing. I do suggest more connection even on the easy stuff, to get us humans into the habit of the big connection and earlier timing.
Compare that to the rep at 1:15 – not a lot of connection as she exited the tunnel, so the wrap cues into the spin were late (which rushes the rotation of the spin) so she hit the wing.
Speaking of connection: The countermotion of the circle wrap gets easier with the shift of connection to the landing spot. The circle wrap at 1:43 needed more cues for her to get the commitment 🙂 As soon as she got past you, you took off at high speed and looking forward and started to throw the toy. So she turned and came with you. The reps at 1:50 and 2:05 had more decel, you moved forward a little later (and without as much speed) and also started the toy throw later, so she got it. On this circle wrap cue, you can also add in looking at the landing spot (other side of the wing) as you begin moving forward) because that really supports commitment and will allow you to add more motion.
Great job here! It is really cool that her speed and commitment and turns look so good that we can dig into the timing!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
Wind in your hair game is looking good, she is really powering to the jump. Love it!!!!! She has no trouble driving ahead of you 🙂 and is showing great focus forward on the line and desire to drive to the jump.
The progression to the bigger distance and to adding your motion looked great! The placed toy totally helped with the increased distance. You can go to throwing a toy now with the bigger distances, but be sure that the timing of the toy throw is sooner. You were tending to throw it after she arrived at the uprights, but that can cause dogs to look back at us especially when we are behind them (because there is nothing else to look at LOL!!)
So make the timing of the toy throw be as soon as she looks forward to the jump after exiting the wing (which she is doing pretty immediately right now :)) That way the toy is out ahead ing before she gets to the jump, so she doesn’t look back.
You can add in starting super close to the wing and staying there as she exits, so as she exits you start moving forward and she leaves you behind by miles 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning! Hope you had a great weekend!
>>Yes, he loves the milker with a glove on the other end of it. Ha! And I have a hollee roller toy but he’s not a big fan. >>
Have you tried a glove inside the hollee roller? A small one so the glove is sticking out of it? We can do some arts and crafts to create the perfect toy LOL! 😂🤣
I think the set point session went well! The MM definitely gets his head down and it was in a good position relative to jump 2. When using the MM, lead out all the way to it so you can be stationary and point down low to it. When you were doing that (like at :44 and the last rep), he had the best form (low head, nice balanced approached, rounded jumping style). When you were moving into it more, he was not quite as balanced and a little bit on his front (your motion is a distraction).
You can try the milker toy and moving target now: you can lead out to where the MM is now, put the milker down, and re-create the moving target session you did – start dragging it slowly forward after the release, then if that goes well, you can move to dragging it before the release.
I don’t think he has seen the moving target game on a jump yet, so either start it with just one jump, or start it with him sitting between the 2 jumps of the set point (so he is only doing one jump). That will get him ready to do the set point with the moving target 🙂
>>Let me know what you think of his form and the placement. I am thinking maybe just a little farther apart???>>
Form and placement are looking good! I think we leave the distance where it was here for now, then after the moving target comes in, we can decide if we spread it out or not. What was the distance here?
Great job!!!
TracyHi –
>>It seems like she doesn’t look at the jump right when she comes around the wing and then when I’m sure she does the motion of taking my arm back to Pitch the toy makes me late.>>
For the throws, try using your opposite arm (non-dog-side) to toss it. That way you can have the throw arm ready (she will look at the toy less when it is not right next to her) so you can be earlier. And you’ll get really good at throwing with both hands 🙂
>>Once we advance to the MM, I should beep when she looks at the jump, or on that line? Or just say Go…. And the beep timing is immaterial?>>
The timing of the MM trigger is important – because it is such an obvious target, you can start with the beep as soon as she looks a the line but then you can change the timing to be later and later, provided she still looks forward and not at you.
I think a placed toy reward is a better option than the MM, because the toy will produce more speed (the MM tends to cause dogs to decelerate as they approach it). So definitely try the placed toy.
>>If we advance to the toy, just say GO……? Or do I need to add a Get It to give her permission to Get It?>>
Good question! Most dogs figure out that the “GO” is inherent permission to get the toy on the line (and we did some of that in MaxPup 1) but if she acts confused or too polite about it, you can add the get it to help her out. My guess is she will grab the toy on the GO verbal 🙂
Keep me posted!
TracyHi –
A harness and short leash can work nicely, as long as she doesn’t mind when you let go of the leash and it drags a little. The other option is to get a really light short line, loop it through the harness and you hold both ends of the line. When you want her to start moving, you can let go of one end of the line so it slides through – that way she is moving without anything attached to the harness.
>> Lining her up between my feet didn’t work very well, but I could line her up beside me.
Because she is not a fan of being touched during a line up, you can separately teach her to line up between your feet – this is a good skill to have in the toolbox. I use a cookie lure to get the dog to get into position between my feet.
>>I can reward from the chair?
Yes.
>> If I want her to come out of the Tunnel and take the Wing do I get up and move the chair out of her way so she can see the wing? Or I don’t do the combination reps while in the chair?>>
I think the combination reps will be wonky from the chair, so just do the single reps from the chair.
>>It would be nice to have things on verbals alone.
Agility is evolving to really require some independent verbals, so it is a good skill to have!
T
Oops, I answered this in my head when I read it but clearly I never typed in the answer LOL! Sorry!
>How often should we be doing this Set Point exercise ? Couple times/week?>>
Maybe twice a week? With puppies, we don’t want to do jump work (even this easy stuff) more than twice a week. And when we add more games to the jumping skills, you can do the set point maybe once a week and the other game once a week (although the set point becomes a foundation for the other games, so you might not need to use it a all when we get to those).
T
Good morning, hope you are having a good weekend! Both pre-games are looking really good 🙂
The wrap verbal game went really well; his only little questions where when you got a little too far away. No worries, we will expand the distance soon enough 🙂 He is fast and happy doing the wraps plus your verbals are I place, so you can definitely move to the next games (the wing/tunnel discrimination and the smiley face game :))
The moving target game looked great!
Yes, he left the stay early on the first rep (maybe forgot he was in a stay when you turned on the light LOL!) but he did well on the other reps and was driving nicely to the toy!!
The milker toy here seems to definitely be something he really likes! When adding the moving target to the jump, the milker toy might lower his head too much (especially in grass) so you might want to switch to a hollee roller if you have one?
This game is ready for the next step too (on a jump) and you can also start the set point. We add the moving target to the set point after he has seen the set point a little bit.
Great job!
TracyHi!
The dumbbell was a great throwing toy and I am glad to hear she is not grabbing your hand!>>so only once out of several reps , I’m giving myself an A+ for that.

Yes! Your throws were great!Only one suggestion for you here:
Throw sooner:) As soon as she exits the wing and looks towards the jump, throw the toy. You were throwing when she was between the uprights so you were getting a little bit slowing down and head checking at the beginning when you were not moving as fast, and looking at you as she exited the wing later in the session when you waned her to drive ahead. So try to look at her more on the exit of the wing and throw as soon as she turns her eyes to the jump, so she leaves you in the dust without looking back.She did great with more distance between the wing and jump, so you can keep adding more distance: just be sure to keep accelerating even as you are throwing the toy, so she doesn’t see any deceleration associated with driving ahead (because that will make it harder to get turns).
>>I’m a bit leery about setting a toy out there for this exercise. I know she can do it with a MM, but I’m not sure she can leave a toy for that distance. What do you think?>>
It is worth a try! We did a version of this in MaxPup 1, where we had a toy on the ground and she had to go around a barrel and then run to the toy. If memory serves, she was GREAT so definitely try it here too. And you can use food rewards to keep her with you as you bring her to the wing, so she ignores the toy til cued.Great job here!
TracyGood morning! She did really well working outside, no questions about focus!!!
>>And sometimes I don’t think she’s listening, sassing me and all, but she is with focus and some drive.>>
She was totally listening 🙂
She is doing well with the proofing to the right for both the wing and the tunnel.
The left turns are a little harder o get the tunnel, so you will probably need to move to the tunnel more – when she was turning right, you started by turning the the tunnel more with your feet. On the left turn reps, your feet were stationary so she was guessing more.Speaking of motion:
>>I didn’t try holding her with collar or harness as that hasn’t gone well in the past, as you know.>>
Without holding her to start the verbal without motion, your motion (even when it is super subtle) is the cue she is reading here. So when you step to the wing while lining her up, she is actually correct to go to the wing. Calling her back and not rewarding can be super confusing because she correctly read a cue to move to the wing (even if there was no verbal). And also you can use your motion to support the verbal, especially on the left turns to the tunnel.
It is fine to do this with motion, because motion is a cue that we need to proof! And, to get her to separate the verbal and not need the motion, we can figure out ways to start the verbal before you move at all. If you are sitting in a chair, can you lure her between your feet? That way we can take motion out entirely and just use verbals. Let me know what you think.
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
The set point is going really well! The intro reps when he started between the 2 jumps looked good – the goal was to get him to focus on his toy and drive to it: mission accomplished!
And the 2 jump reps looked good too – watching in slow motion, he was adjusting to add more power and looked great!
>>Jumps too close together? I went a little less than 6 feet.>>
I think this is good for now! WE might adjust to as we add more to the game and as he gets more powerful. So a couple of things to add, gradually:
First thing to add is the moving target reward instead of the stationary reward (I think the toy was stationary on these reps). So lead out to where the toy was placed on these reps, start slowly dragging it, then release him. It might take a rep or two or 3 for him to sort out the balance and footwork with the added excitement of the toy and you moving, but that is exactly the goal 🙂
When he is happy and balanced with the moving target, we can move the 2nd bar up a little. At 13 months old, we can give him a little more to jump. It looks like both bars were 4” here? If so, leave bar 1 at 4 and put bar 2 at 8 and see how it goes. When bar 2 goes to 8 inches, do a couple of reps with the stationary toy to eb sure he organizes for that 8” bar. And if he looks good and balanced and isn’t touching it – go to the moving target 🙂
You don’t really need to do this game more than twice a week, so there is no rush 🙂
>>Also, we’ve tried Wind in Your Hair, but Chip is running around the jump. How should I help him? Remove the wing wrap and just release him as he’s facing the jump until he starts focusing on it?>>
Lots of ideas on how to help him out!
Based on what he is doing:Is he going around the outside of it, putting the jump between you and him? That sounds like what he is doing. A couple of things to try:
– less handler motion, just walking.
– have the toy placed on the landing side of the jump so he can focus on it and go over the bar to get it.You can do a couple of warm up reps without the wing wrap to start: hold him and when he looks at the toy on the landing spot past the jump, let him go and start to walk forward.
Then try adding the wing wrap!
And be sure to connect to his eyes as you move forward (rather than look ahead). Not enough connection can cause a young BC to go around jumps.
Or is he going past it on the inside, putting himself between you and the jump? That is usually either a connection issue (more connection needed) or a motion issue (less motion needed :)) But you can also have the placed reward past the jump to jumpstart the behavior too.
Feel free to post a video of him running past it so we can get a look at what he is seeing.
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
She cracked me up – doing the grid without you at the beginning while you were describing it: “I GOT THIS, MOM!” LOL!!
Nice job introducing her to the setup with the MM and starting between the 2 jumps. It is good to be very methodical with the jumping games. We don’t really look at form when she is starting between the 2 jumps like she did here at the beginning, we are just looking for her to be happy to go over the jump 🙂 She was totally on board with this game. Yay!
2 jumps: this is where we do start looking at form! She was a little too far from the 1st jump so she was ‘reaching’ in a bit (meaning she was having to overextend her front legs a little).
2nd rep was closer to jump 1 and so her form was better 🙂 A cookie lure like you did here will help her get into position nice and close to the first jump.
After getting the toy involved:
I think the 2nd to last rep was my favorite (you released her at about 3:35) because she seemed to be in the sweet spot in terms of distance from jump 1 and she was lovely in her form!So definitely add the moving target now, she is ready for it!
>>Then I figured out how to get her really close to the first bar, but maybe too close? Watching it back it looked to me that she did better with a few more inches from the first bar.>>
Yes, the last rep look to be a tiny bit too close and the first rep a tiny bit too far, so maybe line her up about 3 or 4 inches from jump 1? The 2nd to last rep seemed to be about there.
>>Next week she’ll be 9 months. She’s around 11 inches tall under that hair >
So little! How much does she weigh?

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>>So the jumps are 3 ft apart and the MM/toy is at 9ft, 6Ft beyond 2nd jump. Yes, that’s a measuring tape…that’s kinda how I roll. >>I love the measuring tape!! And I think 3 feet apart is good for now – my guess is when she is over a year, we will end up extending it but it is a good distance for now.

>>Bars are hooked into the 4 inch jump cup. Should I use pool noodles on the ground instead?>>I think the set up you used here with t the hooked-in bars worked beautifully. No need for the noodles.
>>It seemed like the toy kept her head down better.>>
Yes – keep moving the toy as the moving target for now. And, have it in the dog-side arm as you drag it so you don’t end up twisting back to her at all.
>>I’m trying to look for what you described but I don’t think I’m very good at it.>>
In terms of form? Play the video in slow motion on YouTube or frame by frame on your camera. You will be able to see her front and rear feet hitting between the jumps and a nice rounded form, with a low head. You are doing great!!
>>I Totally forgot to toss a reward back to her. >>
Yes, add that back in – maybe every 2 reps, toss a reward back to her for the stay.
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
She was feeling very spicy in this video! Love it! She was pumped up to play with you but was also able to hold her stay until you released her. This includes when the toy was moving before the release. Perfect! Her forward focus looks lovely. And she was able to release the toy for a treat and then go back to the toy. This is all great – I think the hardest part was chewing the treat 🙂
<
Yes! She loves her Hollee Roller and yes, I am glad you moved on to the set point. She is ready!
Great job!
TracyHi!
I imagine that is it really frustrating (and painful) to deal with the broken arm! But JJ is doing great and I am sure you will have an AMAZING trip to Greece!!
And Sandie is doing a great job as JJ’s interim handler 🙂
Set point – this is looking good! We are in the stage where we want the pup to make adjustments and sort it out, so her responses might look a little different on each rep (kind of like they did here). You can lead out further and start moving with the release on all reps now, as she seems to understand the set up so we can add the moving target for all reps.
>>I think it’s the third attempt where JJ did not jump towards the Center.
Yes, it was the 3rd rep that was not quite center – my guess is she was surprised by the moving toy 🙂 It was still a good jumping effort, but the goal is to see if she makes an adjustment: and she totally made the adjustment to more balanced jumping on the next reps. YAY!!
I think my favorite was the 2nd to last rep – the toy was moving and a bit further from the 2nd jump than on the last rep, so she was more powerful in and out of the set point. Really nice!
This is the kind of thing to train maybe twice a week at this point (and we will be adding more grids each week, so you can rotate through them so it won’t get boring :))
She had a little start line confusion – when the toy is stationary for a couple of seconds and then moves, she is anticipating the release. When Sandie reminds her to wait then moves the toy? Perfect! So keep the reminders coming!
Wind in your hair – looking good! JJ is very happy to drive ahead to the jump and get the toy 🙂 Add the Go verbal now – as soon as she exits the wrap, you can be saying GO GO GO (and throw the toy as soon as she looks ahead like you were doing here :))
After the GO verbal is added, you have two options with motion:
– you can accelerate ahead at high speed, to challenge her to find the line and not look at the fast handler motion
– you can be stationary like you were on the last video, so she drives ahead with the verbal only but definitely use the verbal (no motion and no verbal means don’t go anywhere to the dog :))>>It was funny to hear my commentary as they were working. I sound really flat. I think it’s because I was trying to analyze what was going on as JJ and Sandie were working through the activities.>>
I didn’t think it sounded flat – it sounded like you were in full-on dog trainer mode. Perfect!>>I realize that if I post directly from my phone, I can speak into the phone to type my responses. >>
That must be so much easier than typing! Yay!!!
Great job on these! Let me know what you think! When do you leave for Greece?Tracy
Hi!
You are totally not being difficult! I appreciate the background on the things that are harder for her.
>>With the rep where I used the toy to get her, she’d have bolted if I’d have reached for her. She also loves to play “you can’t catch me, chase me” so we are working on a whole package of things related to this. It’s a good thing puppies are cute.>>
Ha! Yes, I am thankful for their cuteness LOL!!!!
One of the things that can help is a rhythm of lining up at your side with a cookie lure (you can be super obvious with it) then gently touch or reach towards her without touching, then start the game without actually holding her. A cookie lure to line up is a magical thing! And it is easy enough to fade the lure after the value has been built up. How does she feel about a body harness?
And, you can also teach her fun games like doing a behind-your-back start (I have video of how o do this if you are interested) as well as a between-your-feet line up (she might be a little too tall for this though LOL!)
>>We have started stay on a Cato board, but it will end up a battle at this point.>>
We definitely don’t want a battle, so keep working the Cato board separately with super high rates of reinforcement. No need to add it to other games yet.
>> If she will send to the manners minder and go ahead of me, can we go that route or should we skip this exercise.
Definitely send her to the MM on the set point! Start her nice and close to jump 1, put the MM about 12 feet or more past jump 2, trigger it, then send her to it.
>> there will be many opportunities for us to practice other drills if need be.
The handling games can be done without a stay and without a collar grab to start, so you will be plenty busy 🙂
Have fun!
Tracy
